Bilingualism, interference.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 792.

Bilingualism is the practice of alternate use of 2 languages. It can be acquired naturally and artificially (as a result of foreign language learning). Language interference is a process and a result of the interaction and mutual influence of the language systems being in contact. Interference takes place on all the levels of the language: phonetic, grammatical and lexical. On the phonetic level – 2 types of interference: phonetic and prosodic (deviations from the prosodic norm of a language which is the result from the influence of the other language).

Interference characterizing melody of speech (deviations): higher initial and final pitch levels; wider pitch interval of the rising tone; lower final pitch level of the falling tone; lower initial of the utterance (in Russian and Belarusian the pitch movement is more monotonous. There is no sharp pitch contrast in the prehead and head, and other parts of the utterance); the use of the pitch patterns which are not a characteristic of English, e g the use of the Rise instead of Fall. Interference in stress and rhythm: Russian and Belarusian speakers tend to stress more words in an utterance than Englishmen which results in distortion (искажение) of the rhythmic patterns of English; The shifting of the nucleus stress to the left (towards the beginning of the utterance); Exaggerated prominence of the nuclear syllable; Variability of the duration of the rhythmic units in English utterances spoken by Russians is greater than in the same utterances pronounced by Englishmen. Distortions in rhythm are also due to the slowed down pronunciation of different sounds and sound combinations.

Interference concerning tempo: The tempo of English utterances pronounced by Russians is slower; Unstressed syllables are not reduced to the same degree as in the English norm; Stressed syllables are longer than they should be.