April L. Jacobs
April L. Jacobs
PhD, Penn State University
Assistant Professor of Spanish and 1001 Coordinator
2. My primary area of research focuses upon psycholinguistics, bilingual lexical processing and the acquisition of second language (L2) phonology; specifically, in adult native English speakers learning Spanish as a second language. By using cognates, words that are similar in terms of meaning, spelling and roughly on pronunciation, as the critical tool for the investigation, I examine whether cross-language similarity actually act as a hindering factor in the ultimate acquisition of native like pronunciation in the second language. At the beginning stages of acquisition, cognates are seen as vocabulary items that greatly aid the second language learner to acquire the lexical system of the target language due to their apparent orthographic and semantic transparency. However, my research is focused upon exploring the idea that this same similarity, which seems to aid second language learners at beginning stages of second language acquisition, turns to an impeding factor at more advanced stages of acquisition in terms of attaining native-like pronunciation in the target language. Since there are added level of similarity in cognate items with respect to non-cognate items, this factor may cause the learner to experience a greater level of interference from the first language (L1) phonological system and therefore produce a qualitatively inferior Spanish pronunciation of a cognate compared to the same speaker's production of a non-cognate Spanish word.
Most Recent Publications
Poteau, C. E., & Jacobs, A. L. (2007). The Dynamics of Interaction in the L2 Classroom: A qualitative and quantitative investigation. PTE Voices, 26 (1), 4-6.
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