RESEARCH Victoria Fernandez Ramirez

Second semester LIDILE

RECORD
Linguistic fact: Phonological confusion with cognates and false cognates in
third language acquisition by second semester LIDILE students
Area of study: Language use (language acquisition), multilingualism,
translation
Description: LIDILE students that have decided to learn a third language
(French) show phonological confusion when doing oral practice
of the third language, particularly when it is a cognate or a
false cognate.
Type of research: Qualitative
Topic of research: Phonetics and phonology
Purpose of research: It can be truly imperative for language teachers to know if
there is a way to help students overcome this problem.
Hypothesis or Research HYPOTHESIS:
Question: Considering the phonological differences that are usually found
between languages, in this case Spanish, English and French,
pronunciation issues may have to do more with spelling than
actual production of sounds.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
1. Which language has a wider influence when
practicing the third language: L1 or L2?
2. Are the phonological differences a liability or aid to
distinguish the different cognates?
3. Is there a way to prevent this?
Subjects: 6 second semester LIDILE students who study French as a
foreign language.
Context: University of Guadalajara- CUCSH (Centro Universitario de
Ciensas Sociales y Humanidades) Class 96-M, 7:00 hrs.
Data Gathering:  Video recording
 Tape recording
 Observation guide
 Checklist
 Tally chart
Data analysis process: 1. Students will be given a list with cognates and false
cognates.
2. They will be asked to pronounce them in the different
languages.
3. Then, they will be asked to pronounce them again but
in sentences in each of the languages.
4. The researcher will take note of the times they
mispronounce a word to see if it follows a pattern.
5. The recollected data will lead to a satisfying
conclusion. It will be possible to see if the students
confuse the pronunciation due to their first two
languages’ interference or simply due to the
phonological nature of the language(s).