Compares phonetic implementation of the stop-voicing contrast produced in Arabic by Saudi Arabians and by both Americans and Saudis in English. Saudis used temporal aspects of voicing in Arabic while speaking English. This caused few communication problems, with the exception of the phoneme (p), which has no Arabic counterpart. (Author/PJM)

This study evaluated whether age effects on second language (L2) speech learning derive from changes in how the native language (L1) and L2 sound systems interact. According to the "interaction hypothesis" (IH), the older the L2 learner, the less likely the learner is able to establish new vowel categories needed for accurate L2 vowel production…