Categorias fonéticas na aprendizagem de língua estrangeira

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is, through a brief revision of crosslanguageresearch on the phonetic perception and production ofnative and foreign/second languages, to propose an extension, intwo directions, to Flege’s (1995) Speech Learning Model (SLM) andto discuss the implications for Best’s (1995) Perceptual AssimilationModel (PAM) of a broader view of phonetic category. The two directionsfor an extension of the SLM are (a) to include, among the phoneticcategories to be learned/acquired, units larger than the segment,such as the syllable, onset, or coda; and (b) to incorporate the ideathat many of the segments are acquired as part of a natural classrather than in isolation. The discussion of the PAM deals with theeffect that the consideration of larger phonetic categories and naturalclasses would have on Best’s proposed patterns of assimilation.