Abstract
Abstract
The present study examined the perception of two regional variants of Spanish (theta /Ɵ/ and
zheísmo/sheísmo [ʒ, ʃ]) by nonnative speakers of Spanish with and without study abroad experience. The
study’s goals were to determine whether learners who study abroad accept regional variants more frequently than at-home learners,
and whether this effect is limited to cues participants are exposed to while abroad. Participants were L1 English speakers asked
to determine whether they considered real and nonce word pairs with matching and mismatching regional variants to be instances of
the same word. The findings reveal higher acceptance rates of mismatching variants by L2 learners who had studied abroad than of
classroom learners but results for specific location of study abroad that suggest learners likely build perceptual resilience
while abroad that goes beyond the specific cues they are exposed to.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Subject
Linguistics and Language,Education,Language and Linguistics