L1 (English) to L2 (French) Transfer: The Question of Nasalization

The purpose of this investigation was to answer the following questions: (1) Do transfer and developmental errors decrease or increase during informal and formal tasks? (2) What nasal vowels present greater markedness for L2 French learners? and (3) Using recall as the dependent variable, will French nasals continue to be produced over a time series? This study found that L2 French students evidenced less accuracy in oral production of nasals, yet increasing accuracy in reading or formal tasks in French; L2 French students experienced problems in distinguishing nasal /a/ vs. nasal /o/ in informal tasks (oral) and nasal /e/ presented problems in reading tasks. It was found that longer treatments appeared to improve significantly recall of nasals in formal tasks of reading. L2 French students maintained significant L1 behaviors in oral tasks, yet improved in reading tasks. The formal task of reading with orthographic clues to pronunciation improved scores; whereas, the lack of orthographic clues impeded progress to accurate pronunciation. The orthographic variants of nasal /e/ presented markedness: ain, aim, ien, een, un and um.