Stress Perception: Effects of Training and a Study Abrad Program for L1 English Late Learners of Spanish

Abstract

This study aims to assess the claim that English late learners of Spanish do notperceive stress like native Spanish speakers, and that training has positive effects on stress perception. Fifteen English speakers were exposed to 90 hours of Spanish lessons during a study abroad course. The trained group (N=8) received 15 minutes of perceptual training on vowel and stress contrasts three days a week, while the English control group (N=7) received communicative training on consonants, and the native Spanish group (N=7) received no training. Participants´ perception was assessed at pretest and posttest with identification tasks with nonce words. Results indicated that all English speakers experienced difficulties in perceiving Spanish stress when compared to native Spanish speakers in the pretest. At posttest, however, the trained group performed comparably to the native Spanish group and differed significantly from the control group, indicating an effect of training on L2 stress perception.