Department of Linguistics and School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Canada; Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
Lang Speech. 2024 Sep;67(3):617-638. doi: 10.1177/00238309231176760. Epub 2023 Jul 4.
Listeners adjust their perception to match that of presented speech through shifting and relaxation of categorical boundaries. This allows for processing of speech variation, but may be detrimental to processing efficiency. Bilingual children are exposed to many types of speech in their linguistic environment, including native and non-native speech. This study examined how first language (L1) Spanish/second language (L2) English bilingual children shifted and relaxed phoneme categorization along the cue of voice onset time (VOT) during English speech processing after three types of language exposure: native English exposure, native Spanish exposure, and Spanish-accented English exposure. After exposure to Spanish-accented English speech, bilingual children shifted categorical boundaries in the direction of native English speech boundaries. After exposure to native Spanish speech, children shifted to a smaller extent in the same direction and relaxed boundaries leading to weaker differentiation between categories. These results suggest that prior exposure can affect processing of a second language in bilingual children, but different mechanisms are used when adapting to different types of speech variation.
听者通过调整和放松类别边界来调整感知以匹配呈现的语音。这允许处理语音变化，但可能不利于处理效率。双语儿童在其语言环境中接触到多种类型的语音，包括母语和非母语语音。本研究考察了三种语言接触后，第一语言（L1）西班牙语/第二语言（L2）英语双语儿童如何沿着语音起始时间（VOT）的线索在英语语音处理中调整和放松音素分类：母语英语接触、母语西班牙语接触和带有西班牙语口音的英语接触。在接触带有西班牙语口音的英语后，双语儿童的类别边界朝着母语英语语音的边界移动。在接触母语西班牙语后，儿童在同一方向上的移动程度较小，边界放宽导致类别之间的区别减弱。这些结果表明，先前的接触可以影响双语儿童对第二语言的处理，但在适应不同类型的语音变化时使用不同的机制。
