Spanish accented English: Pronunciation accuracy and factors affecting L2 acquisition

This study examines the English pronunciation of 20 native speakers of Spanish of the Americas who have been living in the United States for a period ranging from 1 to 37 years. The 20 participants were divided into three groups according to their age of arrival and length of residence in the United States. The subjects recorded 22 sentences which contained notorious interference features such as the lax vowels /I, U, ∧, ae/, the distinctions between /c-s/, /s-z/, /theta-t/ and between /b d g/ versus Spanish [beta th gamma]. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors of age of learning, length of residence, amount of L2 use, amount of English instruction, and gender and their significance for the pronunciation accuracy in English.