Incongruence in second language vowel perception and production

Nearey’s work on double-weak theory has brought to the fore the conceptualization of native-language (L1) speech perception and production as autonomous subsystems. In second-language (L2) phonetics research, the perception-production relationship is also a central concern, although the facilitating and hampering effects of a previously learned phonological inventory must be taken into account (Flege, 2003). Some current views of L2 phonetic learning assume that a reorganization of perceptual knowledge normally comes first, and that production eventually falls into line with perceptual representations (Huensch, 2013; Thomson, 2011, 2013). However, the available data point to a number of complexities in the relationship that have yet to be accounted for. In the present report, we synthesize new data on vowel perception and production by English learners from a variety of L1 backgrounds. Among the key findings are that (1) perceptual training on vowels in particular phonetic contexts leads to very limited t...