Individual differences in VOT realizations of English plosives by Palestinian pupils

Palestinian Arabic (PA) learners of English meet with two types of challenges when learning English plosives in initial position. The first challenge is that English initial /p, t, k/ are aspirated while PA /t, k/ are not, and that English /b, d, g/ have short-lag VOT while PA /b, d/ are fully voiced. The second challenge is that PA lacks /p/ and (to some extent) /g/. This paper focuses on individual differences between learners in how they cope with the two types of challenges. As could be expected, some learners have fully voiced /b, d, g/ in their English, and/or unaspirated /p, t, k/. As could also be expected, some learners pronounce /p/ and /b/ in the same way. We found no evidence of an implicational hierarchy between these challenges, e.g. whether learners who conflate /p/ and /b/ also have fully voiced /b, d, g/ in their English.