Abstract

This study examines the relationship between German second language (L2) learners’ awareness of the German lexical stress assignment system and their ability to accurately assign stress to cognate words with predictable lexical stress. Participants were 31 adult L2 German learners from three groups: native English speakers with a range of German proficiency levels (N = 10), native French speakers with intermediate German proficiency (N = 10), and native French speakers with advanced German proficiency (N = 11). They produced target items in a carrier phrase and then indicated both which syllable they stressed and where stress is supposed to fall. Finally, they provided a rule for assigning stress to each word. Stress production accuracy was similar across the groups, regardless of L1 or L2 proficiency. Participants’ ability to verbalize where they had placed stress was a significant predictor of stress assignment accuracy. They produced relatively few rules overall, and the rules they produced were mostly inaccurate. The results point to the greater importance of self-assessment over the ability to produce discrete rules in accurate lexical stress assignment.

摘要

这项研究考察了德国第二语言（L2）学习者对德国词汇重音分配系统的意识与他们对具有可预测词汇重音的同源词准确分配重音的能力之间的关系。参加者来自三组31成人L2德语学习者：英语为母语与（范围德国熟练程度的Ñ  = 10），原生法语扬声器中间德语水平（Ñ  = 10），和本机法国扬声器先进德语水平（Ñ = 11）。他们用承运人的短语产生了目标项目，然后指出了他们重读哪个音节以及应该减轻重音的位置。最后，他们提供了为每个单词分配重音的规则。不论L1或L2熟练程度如何，各组的应激产生准确性均相似。参与者说出他们所承受的压力的能力是压力分配准确性的重要预测指标。他们总体上制定了相对较少的规则，并且所制定的规则大多不准确。结果表明，自我评估比在准确的词汇应力分配中产生离散规则的能力更为重要。