The interlanguage phonology of Vietnamese English

Recent researchers in the area of second language acquisition have pointed to the need to investigate the structure of interlanguage (IL) phonologies. Tarone (1980), for example, has called on researchers to gather a large, cross-linguistic base on phonological data which could provide empirical evidence to test theoretical claims about IL phonology and the processes (e.g., first language interference) and constraints (e.g., age) which may shape it.; This project describes performance data in the IL phonologies (ILVE) of 40 native speakers of Vietnamese who were in the process of acquiring English. Data was gathered in a natural communication setting, and is interpreted through a quantitative, variation approach. Independent variables include age of arrival in the target language environment (4 levels), length of residence (2 levels), phonetic environments, and phonetic features of target items. Description includes an impressionistic overview of the ILVE phonology followed by eight quantitative investigations of selected ILVE coda structures. Discussion focuses on common ILVE patterns and forms, and the relationships between those forms and the independent variables named above.; Six levels of aposteriori contrastive analyses are applied to selected native language and target language forms. A contrastive analysis of open and closed syllable structures is found to have little potential to account for ILVE forms. Other contrastive analyses based on selected suprasegmental forms, phonetic features, natural classes, and distribution and sequence constraints are found to have great potential to account for adult ILVE forms.; Widespread sociolinguistic variation is documented. Certain types of IL forms for target clusters do not appear before age 12. Vowel insertion appears at age 12 and increases with age after age 12. The ILVE phonetic repertoire is observed to involve a growing proportion of target forms to non-target forms over time. Target forms, but not non-target forms, are found to be related to phonetic context. In general, the evidence supports a constructive, systematic and approximative theory of IL.