TY  - BOOK
AU  - Alexander Kautzsch
PY  - 2017
CY  - Berlin, Germany
PB  - Peter Lang Verlag
SN  - 1868-386X
SN  - 9783631721001
TI  - The Attainment of an English Accent
T2  - British and American Features in Advanced German Learners
DO  - 10.3726/b11017
UR  - https://www.peterlang.com/document/1054596
N2  - This book investigates inconsistencies in the accent adopted by advanced German learners of English with respect to differences between standard American and British English (rhoticity, t-voicing, the vowels in the lexical sets «bath», «lot» and «thought»). From a theoretical point of view, the volume contributes to understanding the status of L1 transfer in language learners at «ultimate attainment», a stabilized, late stage in language acquisition. Unlike in many studies in second language acquisition, the approach taken here is variationist, taking into account extra- and intra-linguistic factors as potential explanations for variability. The findings suggest that in addition to the target accent the strongest external factor is time spent abroad, while L1 accent and proficiency level seem to have minor impact only.
KW  - British Accent, American Accent, L1 Transfer, Ultimate Attainment, Variationist Approach
LA  - English
ER  -