The acquisition of L2 voiced stops by English learners of Spanish and Spanish learners of English

Previous studies investigating the acquisition of L2 stops have found a positive effect experience, but few focused on voiced stops, particularly prevoicing. This study investigates /b/ and /g/ by two populations, English learners Spanish English. Three groups varying in amount experience (mainly length residence, also use instruction) were investigated for each L1 population. Participants completed carrier sentence reading task their L2. Results showed that had stop production, as least experienced outperformed ones. No clear was observed L1, did not differ from monolingual controls, some differences between learner emerged. Moreover, overall, able to produce differently, which indicates categories merged. Still, L1-English L2-Spanish speakers produced more accurately than L1-Spanish L2-English groups, suggesting learning rely an existing cue may be easier associated with different category.