The L2 phonetic developmental trajectory of native English learners of Spanish across a semester-long study abroad program

Abstract The present study compares the Second Language (L2) acquisition of Spanish Voice Onset Time (VOT) by 14 U S. semester-long study-abroad (SA) students in Madrid (Spain) and 9 at-home (AH) peers using an oral production task. To identify the trajectory of phonetic development across the fourteen-week program, Spanish and English /t/s were recorded at three different time points (pre-/mid-/post-semester). Based on an acoustic analysis and a three-pronged statistical approach – random forests, mixed-effects linear regression models, and conditional inference trees – we found that both groups of L2 Spanish speakers produced language-specific VOT values in each of their languages. Even though the comparison between each time point did not show significant differences in the VOT values for either group, an analysis of the individual variation in the data reveals a clear trend of VOT reduction from pre-to post-semester for most SA students. More specifically, SA students overall produced shorter (more target-like) Spanish VOTs during mid-semester and post-semester in comparison to pre-semester. Results also support findings that learner motivation and oral proficiency play prominent roles in the acquisition of L2 phonology abroad, while they question the role (or operationalization) of intensity of contact with the target language.