Bilingual Phonological Study

The United States is one of the most diverse countries in both linguistic and cultural aspects. Increasing rates of Asian populations have been observed in the past decades. Many Asians live in Spanish-Cantonese speaking environments and learn English as a second language. To date, there is no study on the phonological process in Cantonese-Spanish bilinguals learning English as an L2. De Houwer (1995, as cited in Law and So, 2006) and Romaine (2001, as cited in Law and So, 2006) indicated that numerous studies on bilingual development in different language combinations have found, that bilingual and monolingual language development differ qualitatively and quantitatively.
Bilinguals are classified as simultaneous bilinguals or sequential
Single-word picture-based phonological assessment with 28 words in Spanish and 26 words in English were used in the study. The results demonstrated equal percent consonant correct (PCC) and accuracy rates in all places of articulation except for interdental sounds in English. Goldstein and Washington suggests that the development of bilingual phonological patterns differ from that of
So and Wang (1996) examined the acoustic analysis of all Cantonese vowels. In addition, he showed acoustic differences in short and long term vowels. Cantonese vowels include four short vowels and seven long vowels. The four short vowels are [ɪ], [ɐ], [ʊ], and [ɵ] and the seven long vowels are [i], [y], [ɛ], [œ], [a], [ɔ], and [u]. Two participants were instructed to read 1863 words in Cantonese which was completed in three sessions to avoid fatigue. The findings showed that short vowels tend to be more centralized in all positions within the vowel space. Figure 1 demonstrates the first and second formants of the Cantonese vowels. Limitations included small number of