Productions in bilinguism, early foreign language learning and monolinguism
Résumé
The degree of L2 foreign accent is likely to vary, according to the age of the acquisition, the length of contact with L2 and the possible interaction between L1 and L2. This study examined how children who master French and English at different levels pronounce disyllabic words in both languages. Acoustic analysis (F0, duration and amplitude) of syllables in disyllabic words were compared between 8 bilingual children (French-English, aged between 3;6 and 6;1 years) and 16 monolingual children (8 French children and 8 English children of the same age) and confronted to the analysis of 20 (7 years aged) early French Learners of English (FLE) children. Results showed that the bilingual children acquired prosodic patterns in both languages. However, the accent of their disyllabic words differed from those of the monolingual children. French 7 years old-aged learners of English, after only two years of acquisition, produced the native-like accent. Our findings modulate the "critical age" hypothesis and bring some new elements in favour of the L1 and L2 obligatory interaction hypothesis.