Second Dialect Acquisition: The Effect of Dialect Status and Prior Exposure in American and Australian English

When people move to a new location, the way they speak often changes to become more similar to the variety spoken in the area. Rates of second dialect acquisition (SDA) have been shown to be affected by a number of factors, including exposure and the relative prestige of the varieties involved. The current study investigates SDA in speakers of American and Australian English who have moved to Australia and the USA respectively. The participants completed picture-naming, lexical decision, and wordlist reading tasks. We found similar rates of SDA in picture-naming, no SDA in wordlist reading, and some differences in terms of when the SDA features are acquired in lexical decision between the two groups. The results suggest that SDA can manifest in non-mobile participants and be triggered through exposure.