Phonological awareness in the L1 and the L2

Individuals vary in their ability to notice (Schmidt, 2010), and foreign language learners vary in the amount and depth of their non-verbalizable knowledge about L2 pronunciation. L2 phonological awareness based on proceduralized knowledge is a new field of study and as such, we know little about its relation to individual differences in linguistic and non-linguistic abilities. Several individual variables could have an effect on the development of L2 phonological awareness. Among others explicit phonetics instruction, language aptitude, attention control, working memory, phonological short-term memory and motivation should be examined. Another variable that might be related to L2 phonological awareness is implicit L1 phonological awareness, i.e., sensitivity to L1 speech patterns.

Awareness about L2 phonology needs to obligatorily develop through contact with the L2. However, previous research has not found a strong relation between L2 experience or use and L2 phonological awareness (Kennedy, 2012; Kivistö-de Souza, 2015; Venkatagiri & Levis, 2007). This suggests that L2 experience alone might not be enough for the noticing of L2 phonology to take place. It might be that awareness about pronunciation cannot be picked up from contact with the L2: aspects of L2 pronunciation are not easily noticed (see more here), and specific training or the use of consciousness-raising activities or input enhancement might be necessary for most language learners for the noticing of phonology to occur. However, it is also possible that part of the variation in L2 phonological awareness could be explained with differences in L1 phonological awareness.

Whereas explicit phonological awareness in the L1 develops through instruction and contact with the written script, implicit L1 phonological awareness develops naturally through language contact. Individuals differ in their amount of L1 phonological awareness: some are more sensitive to appropriate and inappropriate pronunciations than others, and can pick up a foreign or a regional accent from small bits of speech with ease.

We do not know yet whether L2 phonological awareness is entirely language-specific or whether it shares some common ground with L1 phonological awareness. It could be that there are some cognitive skills that lead to individuals who have greater sensitivity to L1 phonology to also present greater sensitivity to L2 phonology. Should this be the case, instruction about L1 phonology could be employed as an aid in L2 pronunciation teaching. For its theoretical and practical implications, the relation between L1 and L2 phonological awareness requires further research.

Adapted from Kivistö-de Souza (2015)