ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 presents and discusses the results of four experiments that investigated OEs on speech production. The chapter addresses the first two research questions listed in the previous chapter, including three sub-questions, and answers the overarching question: Does orthography affect speech production? For each research question, one or more experiments are described, results are reported, and the question is answered on the basis of the results. Findings overall show that consonant spelling (one letter or double letters) leads Italians to produce English consonants as singletons or geminates (short or long, respectively). It appears that the orthographic form of English sounds and words leads Italians to establish a consonant length contrast in their English phonological systems that does not exist in the phonological systems of English native speakers. This is the first ever experimental evidence that orthography leads L2 speakers to establish a phonological contrast that is not attested in the target language.
Chapters 4 and 5 report the project’s main findings, arranged by aspect of L+ phonology (first production, then perception, awareness, and finally learning), and within these by research questions (as listed in Table 3.1). Each section opens with a research question and a summary of the findings before providing more details. For each experiment, a table presents the design, and a second one presents predictions and results.
The project started by looking at gemination in L+ speech production because consonant duration in speech is noticeable to listeners and easy to measure. Chapter 4 presents four experiments that addressed three research questions, including three sub-questions, related to production.
