Illusory vowels in Spanish–English sequential bilinguals: Evidence that accurate L2 perception is neither necessary nor sufficient for accurate L2 production (original) (raw)
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Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2016
Research on American-English (AE) vowel perception by Spanish–English bilinguals has focused on the vowels /i/-/ɪ/ (e.g., in sheep/ship). Other AE vowel contrasts may present perceptual challenges for this population, especially those requiring both spectral and durational discrimination. We used Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), MMN (Mismatch Negativity) and P300, to index discrimination of AE vowels /ɑ/-/ʌ/ by sequential adult Spanish–English bilingual listeners compared to AE monolinguals. Listening tasks were non-attended and attended, and vowels were presented with natural and neutralized durations. Regardless of vowel duration, bilingual listeners showed no MMN to unattended sounds, and P300 responses were elicited to /ɑ/ but not /ʌ/ in the attended condition. Monolingual listeners showed pre-attentive discrimination (MMN) for /ɑ/ only; while both vowels elicited P300 responses when attended. Findings suggest that Spanish–English bilinguals recruit attentional and cognitive res...
Reduced vowel production in American English among Spanish-English bilinguals
Prominent views in second language acquisition suggest that the age of L2 learning is inversely correlated with native-like pronunciation (Scovel, 1988; Birdsong, 1999). The relationship has been defined in terms of the Critical Period Hypothesis, whereby various aspects of neural cognition simultaneously occur near the onset of puberty, thus inhibiting L2 phonological acquisition. The current study tests this claim of a chronological decline in pronunciation aptitude through the examination of a key trait of American English-reduced vowels, or "schwas." Groups of monolingual, early bilingual, and late bilingual participants were directly compared across a variety of environments phonologically conditioned for vowel reduction. Results indicate that late bilinguals have greater degrees of difficulty in producing schwas, as expected. Results further suggest that the degree of differentiation between schwa is larger than previously identified and that these subtle differences may likely be a contributive factor to the perception of a foreign accent in bilingual speakers. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE CHAPTER 1. Introduction and Background .
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Now you hear it, now you don't: Malleable illusory vowel effects in Spanish-English bilinguals
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Spanish speakers tend to perceive an illusory [e] preceding word-initial [s]-consonant sequences, e.g. perceiving [stið] as [estið] , but this illusion is weaker for Spanish speakers who know English, which lacks the illusion (Carlson, . The present study aimed to shed light on why this occurs by assessing how a brief interval spent using English impacts performance in Spanish auditory discrimination and lexical decision. Late Spanish-English bilinguals' pattern of responses largely matched that of monolinguals, but their response times revealed significant differences between monolinguals and bilinguals, and between bilinguals who had just completed tasks in English vs. Spanish. These results suggest that late bilinguals do not simply learn to perceive initial [s]consonant sequences veridically, but that elements of both their phonotactic systems interact dynamically during speech perception, as listeners work to identify what it was they just heard.
Perception of American-English Vowels by Early and Late Spanish-English Bilinguals
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Increasing numbers of Hispanic immigrants are entering the US and learning American-English (AE) as a second language (L2). Previous studies investigating the relationship between AE and Spanish vowels have revealed an advantage for early L2 learners for their accuracy of L2 vowel perception. Replicating and extending such previous research, this study examined the patterns with which early and late Spanish-English bilingual adults assimilated naturally-produced AE vowels to their native vowel inventory and the accuracy with which they discriminated the vowels. Twelve early Spanish-English bilingual, 12 late Spanish-English bilingual, and 10 monolingual listeners performed perceptual-assimilation and categorical-discrimination tasks involving AE /i,ɪ,ɛ,ʌ,æ,ɑ,o/. Early bilinguals demonstrated similar assimilation patterns to late bilinguals. Late bilinguals' discrimination was less accurate than early bilinguals' and AE monolinguals'. Certain contrasts, such as /æ-ɑ/, /ʌ-...
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Early Spanish-English bilinguals and English controls were tested on the production and perception of negative, short-lag, and long-lag Voice Onset Time (VOT), VOT types spanning the Spanish and English phonetic categories: phonologically, negative and short-lag VOT stops are distinct phonemes in Spanish, but realizations of voiced stops in English. Dominance was critical: more English-dominant bilinguals produced more short-lag VOT stops in response to negative VOT stimuli, and were also less accurate than more balanced bilinguals at discriminating negative from short-lag VOT. Bilinguals performed similarly to monolinguals overall, but they produced more negative VOT tokens and shorter short-lag VOT in response to negative VOT. Their productions were also less well correlated with perception and showed more variation between individuals. These results highlight the variable nature of bilingual production and perception, and demonstrate the need to consider language dominance, indiv...
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This study explored the developmental trends and phonetic category formation in bilingual children and adults. Participants included 30 fluent Spanish-English bilingual children, aged 8-11, and bilingual adults, aged 18-40. All completed gating tasks that incorporated code-mixed Spanish-English stimuli. There were significant differences in performance according to phonotactic construction of the stimuli, with fastest word recognition on words with voiceless initial consonants. Analysis of developmental trends revealed significant differences in children's performance by grade level and fastest recognition on English voiceless initial consonants than Spanish voiceless initial consonants. Differences in voice onset time between English and Spanish may have contributed to quicker recognition of English voiceless consonants than Spanish voiceless consonants. It is also possible that increased exposure to both spoken and written English may account for faster recognition of English voiceless words than Spanish voiceless words. In conclusion, multiple factors may influence perception of a second language.
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Acoustic cues, vowel inventory size and bilingual perception strategies
This study compares the L1 and L2 perception strategies of 6 Spanish-English and 6 English-Spanish bilinguals. Phonetic properties of the "same" vowels in particular languages are different (Bradlow 1994), so speakers of these languages must use different acoustic cues to perceive these vowels. It follows that language learners must adjust their perception strategies, using different cues that perhaps were not relevant in perception of vowels in the L1. This adjustment would then be a function of L2 competence. Highly competent bilinguals, then, would plausibly be the most perceptually attuned to the relevant L2 acoustic cues. The systematic discrepancies within the same vowel categories across different languages are perhaps reflective of the varying acoustic relevance of f0 and F3 found by different researchers (see Halberstam & Raphael 2004); that is, f0 and F3 might play different perception roles in particular languages due to differences in a language’s vowel space. Taking this into account, two ideal candidates for comparison are Spanish and English, languages that have very different vowel spaces in terms of overall size as well as distribution. The specific research questions of this study are 1) is there a correspondence between the size and distribution of a language’s vowel space and the acoustic cues used in its perception?, and 2) do bilinguals of languages with contrasting vowel spaces adjust their perception strategies in L2 to mimic those of native speakers?