Phonological Processes in Second Language Acquisition: Another Look at Interlanguage Syllable Structure

This study investigates syllable structure in the interlanguages of two Vietnamese learners of English. An analysis of conversational data sampled at three points over a ten‐month period shows first language transfer in three areas: (1) a preference for the closed syllable in the modification of English syllable‐final consonant clusters, (2) greater difficulty in the production of syllable‐final than syllable‐initial clusters, and (3) negligible use of vowel epenthesis as a syllable modification strategy. These results are interpreted as disconfirmation of the hypothesized universal preference for the open syllable and of the hypothesized prevalence of epenthesis as a syllable modification strategy in interlanguage speech.