Reinvestment and speech proficiency under stress : evidence from Cantonese learners of English as a second language

Abstract

The term "reinvestment" refers to the propensity of consciousness exerted during the control of skilled movement (Masters & Maxwell, 2008; Masters, Polman, & Hammond, 1993). The aims of the study were to compare (a) the degree of reinvestment between first (L1) and second (L2) language speech production, and (b) how the level of reinvestment in L2 impacts the disruption of speech proficiency under stress. Sixty Cantonese speakers whose L2 was English have filled in the Speech Reinvestment Scale (SRS) (Wong, in preparation) in reference to both their spoken Cantonese and spoken English. They delivered a speech in English in a low stress condition and a high stress condition under a validated modified Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) (Tse, Wong, Whitehill, Ma, & Masters, in press). The results showed a higher degree of reinvestment in L2 speech production than in L1. Very high reinvestors tended to decline more in L2 speech proficiency than very low reinvestors under stress but the differences were not statistically significant. These findings supported the hypothesis that L2 speech production required more conscious control than L1. Theory of reinvestment which state that high reinvestors are more likely to fail under pressure was partially supported.