L2 speakers are more flexible than L1 speakers in second dialect acquisition

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: Second dialect acquisition is the process of acquiring features of a new dialect. This study directly compares the rates of second dialect acquisition in first (L1) and second (L2) language speakers in speech production and speech perception, and at different linguistic levels to establish the relative flexibility of the two groups. Design/Methodology/Approach: The participants completed a picture-naming, lexical decision, and wordlist reading tasks, which aimed at estimating their preference for American English or Australian English variants in vocabulary and pronunciation. Data and Analysis: The data come from 55 participants forming 4 different groups: 13 L1 American English speakers in the United States, 14 L1 American English speakers in Australia, 15 L1 Russian speakers of English in the United States, and 13 L1 Russian speakers of English who have lived in the United States and are residing in Australia. Findings/Conclusions: Both L1 and L2 groups show some second dialect acquisition, but L2 speakers exhibit a comparatively higher increase in second dialect feature use. While the difference in the picture-naming task did not reach significance, L2 speakers showed a greater increase in second dialect feature use in the other two tasks. These higher rates of second dialect acquisition in L2 speakers are likely due to their comparatively lower entrenchment and psycho-social investment in the language. Originality: This is the first study to directly compare the rates of second dialect acquisition in first and second language speakers of English, which can help elucidate some long-standing questions as to the factors affecting dialect and language acquisition. It also considers different linguistic levels and examines both speech production and speech perception. Significance/Implications: The finding that L2 speakers are more flexible than L1 speakers portrays L2 speakers as successful language learners and highlights their bilingual advantage.