Phonetic mastery of French as a foreign language in non-native teachers: Gap between theoretical knowledge and actual pronunciation

This acoustic-perceptual study discusses the possibility of pronouncing French as a foreign language in a native-like manner when its learning starts late. Ten Czech women, studying French at university in order to become teachers, produce six French mid vowels /(empty set), ae, o, c, e, epsilon/ in isolation. A formant analysis shows that despite deep knowledge of the French phonology that all speakers hold, there are large inter-individual differences in the realization of the contrasts e/epsilon, (empty set)/ae and o/c. The identification of the vowels by native French listeners shows that no speaker masters all the six vowel qualitites in a native-like manner. The role of L2-teachers, traditionally supposed to be perfect models, is therefore called into question.