Análise dinâmica da aquisição das oclusivas do inglês por alunos brasileiros em diferentes idades

Abstract

The main goal of this paper was to investigate the influence that age of onset might have on the acquisition of English aspirated plosives in the beginning of stressed syllables (measured by Voice Onset Time – VOT) by Brazilian learners. Acoustic measurements of VOT duration of 30 learners who had started studying English at different ages as well as of 10 native speakers of English were used in statistical and individual analyses. The results show a tendency of negative correlation between age of onset and accuracy in VOT duration. The individual analysis highlights that it is just a tendency, for the interaction of the various elements that characterize the learners and their interlanguages into dynamic complex systems creates the emergence of idiosyncratic VOT patterns. Therefore, it was possible to find learners of each onset age group with VOT values near and far from those of the native speakers.