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Caribbean Journal of Education

Testing Equivalence Classification: St Lucian French Creole versus St Lucian English Creole

Pages: 
202-232
Publication Date: 
September 2010
Issue: 
Abstract: 

This study tested the equivalence classification hypothesis, which claims that in learning a second/foreign language ‘new’ sounds are more easily mastered than ‘similar’ ones. Participants included 49 speakers of St Lucian French Creole (SLFC) and St Lucian English Creole (SLEC), all secondary school students studying French as a foreign language, and a control group of 11 Martiniquan French speakers. We compared the two Creole language groups on their mastery of French [u], [y] and [ã], via a reading task that was scored by native Martinican French speaker judges and analysed acoustically. The results of both analyses disconfirm the equivalence classification hypothesis and reveal that SLFC speakers pronounce the target sounds in a more native-like way than SLEC speakers. This empirically confirms the popular belief that speakers of French Creole have an advantage when it comes to learning French.

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