Jones Chloe, Collin Elizabeth, Kepinska Olga, Hancock Roeland, Caballero Jocelyn, Zekelman Leo, Vandermosten Maaike, Hoeft Fumiko
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States.
Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States.
Front Psychol. 2021 Oct 18;12:687651. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.687651. eCollection 2021.
Perception of low-level auditory cues such as frequency modulation (FM) and rise time (RT) is crucial for development of phonemic representations, segmentation of word boundaries, and attunement to prosodic patterns in language. While learning an additional language, children may develop an increased sensitivity to these cues to extract relevant information from multiple types of linguistic input. Performance on these auditory processing tasks such as FM and RT by children learning another language is, however, unknown. Here we examine 92 English-speaking 7-8-year-olds in the U.S. and their performance in FM and RT perceptual tasks at the end of their second year in Cantonese or Spanish dual-language immersion compared to children in general English education programs. Results demonstrate that children in immersion programs have greater sensitivity to FM, but not RT, controlling for various factors. The immersion program students were also observed to have better phonological awareness performance. However, individual differences in FM sensitivity were not associated with phonological awareness, a pattern typically observed in monolinguals. These preliminary findings suggest a possible impact of formal language immersion on low-level auditory processing. Additional research is warranted to understand causal relationships and ultimate impact on language skills in multilinguals.
对诸如调频（FM）和上升时间（RT）等低层次听觉线索的感知，对于音素表征的发展、单词边界的划分以及对语言韵律模式的适应至关重要。在学习一门额外语言时，儿童可能会对这些线索产生更高的敏感度，以便从多种类型的语言输入中提取相关信息。然而，学习另一种语言的儿童在这些听觉处理任务（如FM和RT）上的表现尚不清楚。在此，我们对美国92名7至8岁说英语的儿童进行了研究，考察他们在粤语或西班牙语双语沉浸式学习两年结束时，在FM和RT感知任务中的表现，并与接受普通英语教育项目的儿童进行比较。结果表明，在控制了各种因素后，沉浸式学习项目中的儿童对FM更敏感，但对RT不敏感。研究还发现，沉浸式学习项目的学生在语音意识方面表现更好。然而，FM敏感度的个体差异与语音意识无关，这是单语者中常见的一种模式。这些初步研究结果表明，正规的语言沉浸式学习可能会对低层次听觉处理产生影响。有必要进行更多研究，以了解多语言者中因果关系以及对语言技能的最终影响。
