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How Bilingual Experience Shapes Accents in German-Italian Primary School Children

Kupisch, Tanja LU ; Canzi, Massimiliano ; Ferin, Maria ; Geiss, Miriam ; Reiber, Marie and Speck, Paulina (2024) In Heritage Language Journal 21(1). p.1-30
Abstract
This study investigates the accents of German-Italian school children (6–10 years old)
in their two languages. We ask whether accents in the bilingual children’s two lan-
guages are related and how foreign accentedness is associated with proficiency in other areas of language (speech rate, vocabulary size) and extralinguistic factors (formal and informal exposure and AoO in the majority language). Data from 87 early bilingual German-Italian children is judged by adult raters in Italy and Germany. Bilinguals are perceived as being more accented than monolinguals, mostly in Italian, the HL of the bilingual children. Moreover, children with a more monolingual-like accent in Italian tend to sound foreign in German, and vice versa, but... (More)
This study investigates the accents of German-Italian school children (6–10 years old)
in their two languages. We ask whether accents in the bilingual children’s two lan-
guages are related and how foreign accentedness is associated with proficiency in other areas of language (speech rate, vocabulary size) and extralinguistic factors (formal and informal exposure and AoO in the majority language). Data from 87 early bilingual German-Italian children is judged by adult raters in Italy and Germany. Bilinguals are perceived as being more accented than monolinguals, mostly in Italian, the HL of the bilingual children. Moreover, children with a more monolingual-like accent in Italian tend to sound foreign in German, and vice versa, but some children have no perceivable accent in any language. Accentedness is especially affected by amount of language use, which underlines the importance of exposure to the minority language at this age, regardless of the setting, formal or informal. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Heritage Language Journal
volume
21
issue
1
pages
30 pages
publisher
Language Resource Center of UCLA and the UC Consortium for Language Learning and Teaching
ISSN
1550-7076
DOI
10.1163/15507076-bja10030
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
749b7180-10c2-43c4-af60-94f528131ff5
date added to LUP
2024-10-25 14:26:16
date last changed
2025-04-04 14:06:42
@article{749b7180-10c2-43c4-af60-94f528131ff5,
  abstract     = {{This study investigates the accents of German-Italian school children (6–10 years old)<br/>in their two languages. We ask whether accents in the bilingual children’s two lan-<br/>guages are related and how foreign accentedness is associated with proficiency in other areas of language (speech rate, vocabulary size) and extralinguistic factors (formal and informal exposure and AoO in the majority language). Data from 87 early bilingual German-Italian children is judged by adult raters in Italy and Germany. Bilinguals are perceived as being more accented than monolinguals, mostly in Italian, the HL of the bilingual children. Moreover, children with a more monolingual-like accent in Italian tend to sound foreign in German, and vice versa, but some children have no perceivable accent in any language. Accentedness is especially affected by amount of language use, which underlines the importance of exposure to the minority language at this age, regardless of the setting, formal or informal.}},
  author       = {{Kupisch, Tanja and Canzi, Massimiliano and Ferin, Maria and Geiss, Miriam and Reiber, Marie and Speck, Paulina}},
  issn         = {{1550-7076}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{1--30}},
  publisher    = {{Language Resource Center of UCLA and the UC Consortium for Language Learning and Teaching}},
  series       = {{Heritage Language Journal}},
  title        = {{How Bilingual Experience Shapes Accents in German-Italian Primary School Children}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15507076-bja10030}},
  doi          = {{10.1163/15507076-bja10030}},
  volume       = {{21}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}