Contrastive analysis and prediction of error in American English pronunciation : by speakers of different dialects of American Spanish

This thesis predicts the phonological errors which were likely to occur in the American English pronunciation of speakers of different dialects of American Spanish and ascertains whether the predicted errors actually occur. In the process of error prediction it was expected that not only should the sound system of Spanish in general make a difference as to which errors would be committed, but that dialectal differences should also. Both aspects of interference prediction were based on a contrastive analysis between the individual native phonological manifestations and American English. Sounds found to be universal in the native language were taken under the rubric of homogeneous L1 sounds and were to cruse negative interference for all informants. Sounds which differed from native informant to native informant were taken to be non-homogeneous sounds and expected to cause interference for those individuals who manifested sounds different from English sounds.