Global foreign accent in native German speech

Abstract

The results of this study suggest that German monolingual listeners were more likely to perceive a global foreign accent in the native German speech of consecutive bilinguals in Anglophone Canada and the Dutch Netherlands than in the speech of a control group of monolingual Germans in Germany. The results furthermore suggest that contact with the native German language may have a more significant effect on predicting global foreign accent in native speech than age of arrival or length of residence. More specifically, for both English and Dutch second language groups, a global foreign accent was more likely to be perceived in immigrants who had less contact with their native German language than in those who had more contact, although this effect was more evident in consecutive bilinguals who immigrated after 22 years of age.