Two ways to listen: Do L2-dominant bilinguals perceive stop voicing according to language mode (original) (raw)
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Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 2021
Bilinguals' observed perceptual shift across language contexts for shared acoustic properties between their languages supports the idea that bilinguals, but not monolinguals, develop two phonemic representations for the same acoustic property. This phenomenon is known as the double phonemic boundary. This investigation replicated previous findings of bilinguals' double phonemic boundary across a series of go/no-go tasks while controlling for known confounding effects in speech perception (i.e., contrast effects) and differences in resource allocation between bilinguals and monolinguals (i.e., left-hand or right-hand response). Using a range-base language cueing approach, we designed 2 experiments. The first experiment tested whether a voice onset time (VOT) range representative of either Spanish or English phonetic categories can cue bilinguals, but not monolinguals, to use language-specific perceptual routines. The second experiment tested a VOT range with a mixture of Spanish and English phonetic categories to determine whether directing attention to a specific phonetic category can disambiguate the competition of the nonattended category. The results for Experiment 1 showed that bilinguals can rely on the distributional patterns of their native phonetic categories to activate specific language modes. Experiment 2 showed that attention can change the weight given to a native phonetic distinction. However, this process is restricted by the internal phonetic composition of the native language(s).
Perception of L1-L2 similar sounds as a function of language dominance in late bilingualism
8th Meeting on Language Teaching (MeLT) Conference Proceedings, UQAM, Montréal, Québec, 2019
Ability to discriminate between first language (L1) and second language (L2) sounds with a smaller perceived phonetic distance influences ultimate attainment for both perception and production skills. This study examines the perception of Spanish approximants [β, δ, ɣ] in comparison with their voiced stop counterparts [b, d, g] by adult English-Spanish bilinguals. Specifically, it investigates how language dominance, as measured by the Bilingual Language Profile questionnaire, variably influences late bilinguals' ability to discriminate similar sounds in Spanish. Perception of target phones was assessed in adult English-Spanish bilinguals (n = 33) via VCV nonwords featuring both Spanish approximates [β, δ, ɣ] and voiced stops [b, d, g] in intervocalic position in an AX discrimination task. Both Spanish learners and native Spanish speakers were tested and participants were then grouped by language dominance score: English-dominant, Spanish-dominant, and near-balanced bilinguals. Results indicate a positive correlation between perceptual accuracy and a language dominance score and further indicate a hierarchy of increasing perceptual difficulty: β < δ < ɣ. The present study collapses the combined effect of language history, use, proficiency and attitudes into one concise score (language dominance) thereby contributing a more nuanced examination of L2 perception that goes beyond proficiency and experience alone.
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2013
This study examines monolingual and multilingual individuals' discrimination of stop consonants in a language to which they had never been exposed: Korean. If bilingualism leads to increased flexibility in phonological categorization, we may see a broad-based bilingual advantage for phoneme discrimination. Using a Korean phoneme discrimination task, we compared 56 adults in four groups: monolingual English, bilingual Spanish, bilingual Armenian, and trilingual. Findings indicate that Spanish-English bilingual individuals scored no better than English monolinguals, and lower than Armenian-English bilingual individuals. In this case, the advantage from early childhood non-English exposure or current bilingualism was found to be specific only to languages with similar phonemic categories. This supports a narrow first/second language to third language transfer view of phoneme discrimination skills.
Dominance, mode, and individual variation in bilingual speech production and perception
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 2019
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...
Perception and Production of a Voicing Contrast by French-English Bilinguals
Language and Speech, 1993
The use of spectral information at vowel onset, which constitutes a stronger cue to the voicing contrast in English than in French, was investigated in French-English bilinguals in order to determine whether the primary language in terms of early experience determines acoustic cue weighting. The /pen/-/ben/ minimal pair, meaningful in both languages, was used as a base for identification tests, which were presented with either an English or a French precursor word before each token. Two stimulus continua, formed of digitally- edited natural speech tokens, had an identical VOT range but varied in their [en] stem. In their production of the contrast, bilinguals showed clear evidence of code-switching but did not always produce monolingual-like VOTs in their weaker language. In perception, the code-switching effect was significant but small. The bilingual group with English as primary early language showed a greater effect of vowel onset characteristics, in conflicting- cue conditions, than the bilingual group with French as their primary early language, and, on average, cue-weighting was not affected by the language of the precursor. An effect of language dominance on cue-weighting was therefore found.
Languages, 2020
The ability to discriminate phonetically similar first language (L1) and second language (L2) sounds has significant consequences for achieving target-like proficiency in second-language learners. This study examines the L2 perception of Spanish approximants [β, δ, Abstract: The ability to discriminate phonetically similar first language (L1) and second language (L2) sounds has significant consequences for achieving target-like proficiency in second-language learners. This study examines the L2 perception of Spanish approximants [β, δ, ɣ] in comparison with their voiced stop counterparts [b, d, g] by adult English-Spanish bilinguals. Of interest is how perceptual effects are modulated by factors related to language dominance, including proficiency, language history, attitudes, and L1/L2 use, as measured by the Bilingual Language Profile questionnaire. Perception of target phones was assessed in adult native Spanish speakers (n = 10) and Spanish learners (n = 23) of varying proficiency levels, via (vowel-consonant-vowel) VCV sequences featuring both Spanish approximants and voiced stops during an AX discrimination task. Results indicate a significant positive correlation between perceptual accuracy and a language dominance score. Findings further demonstrate a significant hierarchy of increasing perceptual difficulty: β < δ < ɣ. Through an examination of bilingual language dominance, composed of the combined effects of language history, use, proficiency, and attitudes, the present study contributes a more nuanced and complete examination of individual variables that affect L2 perception, reaching beyond proficiency and experience alone.
Journal of The Acoustical Society of America, 1973
consonants into phonemic categories. The present study used VOT as a linguistic cue in examining the perception and production of stop consonants in three groups of subjects: unilingual Canadian French, unilingual Canadian English, and bilingual French-English speakers. Perception was studied by having subjects label synthetically produced stop-vowel syllables while production was as•ssed through spectrographic measure-menCs of VOT in word-initial stops. Six stop consonants, common to both languages, were used for these tasks.