Phonetic Interference as the Problem of Interaction Between Two Target Languages under Study: Spanish after English

Abstract

The article discusses the problem of phonetic interference and examines it as an interesting linguistic phenomenon faced by the students studying Spanish as the second foreign language with regard of the acquired knowledge in English. The author presents an overview or the main scientific approaches to the definition and the description of the concept «linguistic interference» existing in modern linguistics. The types and levels of the process have been highlighted. The most detailed consideration has been given to the level of phonetic interference, being usually manifested as segmental and non-segmental. In the practical part of the research presented in this article we mainly discuss the problems of teaching Spanish phonetics taking into account the competencies acquired within the first practical phonetics course in English. In view of which the process of the secondary interference appearing as a result of the overlay of one articulatory system onto another has been presented and described in details. We analyze a number of natural phonetic mistakes made by the students speaking Spanish at the initial stage of the Practical Spanish course in terms of comparison of English and Spanish phonetic systems. Along with this we compare a group of alphabetically equal English and Spanish phonemes and single out their articulatory peculiarities which can help to explain the essence and the background of the process of English-Spanish interference in the context of the learning situation. As a result a number of methodological recommendations aimed to prevent and minimize this type of interferential mistakes have been developed.

Keywords

• spanish teaching
• linguistic interference
• phonetic interference
• second foreign language teaching
• english phonetics
• spanish phonetics
• phonetic mistake
• phonological mistake