Language aptitudes and VOT development of L3 Spanish stops in Chinese-English bilinguals

Voicing contrast is a difficult feature for Chinese-English emergent bilingual learners of L3 Spanish. Adopting a time-series approach, this study investigates developmental trajectories of L3 Spanish voiced and voiceless VOT integrating the dynamic roles of language aptitude components.To trace their developmental paths, thirty classroom learners of L3Spanish in China produced VOT samples in a wordlist reading task five times during a five-month period. Language aptitude indicators were integrated in mixed effect models. Results showed improvement on voiced stop VOT accuracy as proficiency increases, with significant individual differences in developmental paths. Statistical analysis revealed a facilitative effect of phonetic coding ability on pronunciation accuracy and an effect of sequence recognition ability in more advanced stages of learning.This study contributes to a dynamic view of voicing contrast development in multilinguals, highlighting the differential role of explicit and implicit language aptitude in distinct stages of segment pronunciation development.