Acquisition of the voiceless plosive obstruent consonant /p/ in implosive position by Chinese-speaking ELE students

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to determine the degree of realization of the voiceless occlusive obstruent of Spanish in implosive position by the Chinese-speaking students of ELE and, at the same time, to identify the possible difficulties of these students when pronouncing this sound. To achieve this goal, after investigating the background of the issue and the acoustic and articulatory characteristics of the consonant /p/, especially in syllabic coda, we used an experimental method based on acoustic analysis and quantitative data recording techniques, from auditory samples of both native (experimental group) and non-native (control group) informants. The results obtained suggest that most of these students manage to pronounce the implosive /p/ according to the varieties considered as normative, although some of them, of all levels, produce anomalous realizations that would be necessary to correct through specific practice in the classroom.