Implicit Learning Of English Compound Stress

Implicit learning is one of the hot issues in the field of second language acquisition.In recent years,researches on implicit learning in vocabulary and syntax have been fruitful,but implicit learning in phonetics has been rarely studied.The purpose of this study goes to investigate whether L2 learners can acquire English compound stress rules implicitly and whether language proficiency and stress rules affect implicit learning effects.Seventy-eight undergraduates whose mother tongue is Chinese and second language is English were divided into higher-level and lower-level groups according to their College English Entrance Examination Scores.The target stress rules are as follows: 1)stress of compound verbs in the form of noun / adjective + verb(e.g.lipread)usually falls on the first word;2)compound adjectives(such as far-fetched)in the form of adjective / noun + verb +-ed usually stressed on the second word.The results of the pretest and priming test were used to compare the number of correctly stressed compounds produced by the subjects under the unconscious conditions,and to explore whether the subjects could acquire the English compound stress rules implicitly.The effects of language proficiency and stress rules on implicit learning were further investigated.The results show that: 1)subjects can master English compound stress rules through implicit learning;2)language proficiency affects the implicit learning effect of English compound stress rules,and the higher-level subjects have better implicit learning effects;3)the implicit learning effect of the compound adjective stress rule is better than that of compound verb stress rule.This study has enlightenment to teaching of English compound stress: compound stress can be acquired by implicit means.Therefore,teachers should promote implicit learning of compound stress in addition to explaining the pronunciation rules of compound stress.For example,theyshould provide students with adequate and sound input of compounds with correct stress pronunciation,and help students to internalize the rules of compound stress and produce correct compound stress.