Department of Child and Family Studies, California State University, Los Angeles.
Linguistics and English Language, The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2024 Oct 8;67(10):3643-3659. doi: 10.1044/2024_JSLHR-24-00044. Epub 2024 Sep 18.
This study examines English vowel perception in Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers, comparing bilinguals' perception patterns to those of monolinguals and examining how child internal (age) and external variables (input quantity and input diversity) predict perceptual performance.
Sixty children between 3;6 and 5;6 (years;months) of age participated in the study, 28 of whom were Spanish-English bilinguals and 32 English monolinguals. Perception was assessed through a forced-choice minimal-pair identification task in which children heard synthesized audio stimuli (i.e., "sheep" and "ship") that varied systematically along the /i-ɪ/ continuum and were asked to match them with one of two pictures. The data were analyzed with Bayesian mixed-effects logistic regression analyses, modeling responses as a function of continuum step, language background (monolingual or bilingual), age, English exposure (i.e., input quantity), and number of English input providers (i.e., input diversity).
The results indicate that, despite displaying nonnative English stop voicing perception in a previous study, the same bilingual children showed English /i-ɪ/ perception patterns that did not differ from those of monolinguals. While age did not predict vowel perception, input quantity and diversity jointly interacted to moderate how well children perceived the /i-ɪ/ contrast. Specifically, diverse input promoted perceptual performance in children who received high levels of English exposure-and who presumably had more advanced English language skills, whereas it limited perceptual performance in children with more limited English exposure and skills.
This study shows that bilingual children can show monolingual-like perception patterns for some sounds while displaying nontarget perception for others. This is the first study to demonstrate that language exposure mediates the role of input diversity on speech sound development, suggesting that varied input can be more or less beneficial for speech sound development based on the learner's language learning stage.
本研究考察了西班牙语-英语双语学龄前儿童的英语元音感知，比较了双语者的感知模式与单语者的感知模式，并研究了儿童内部（年龄）和外部变量（输入量和输入多样性）如何预测感知表现。
60 名 3 岁 6 个月至 5 岁 6 个月（年-月）的儿童参加了这项研究，其中 28 名是西班牙语-英语双语者，32 名是英语单语者。通过强制选择最小对识别任务来评估感知，儿童听到沿/i-ɪ/连续体系统变化的合成音频刺激（即“sheep”和“ship”），并被要求将它们与两张图片中的一张匹配。数据使用贝叶斯混合效应逻辑回归分析进行分析，将反应建模为连续体步骤、语言背景（单语或双语）、年龄、英语暴露（即输入量）和英语输入提供者数量（即输入多样性）的函数。
结果表明，尽管在之前的研究中显示出非母语英语停止发声感知，但相同的双语儿童表现出的英语/i-ɪ/感知模式与单语者没有差异。虽然年龄不能预测元音感知，但输入量和多样性共同相互作用，调节儿童感知/i-ɪ/对比的能力。具体来说，多样化的输入促进了在接受高水平英语暴露的儿童中（并且他们可能具有更先进的英语语言技能）的感知表现，而在英语暴露和技能有限的儿童中则限制了感知表现。
本研究表明，双语儿童可以对某些声音表现出类似单语的感知模式，而对其他声音则表现出非目标感知。这是第一项表明语言暴露调节输入多样性对语音发展作用的研究，表明根据学习者的语言学习阶段，多样化的输入可能对语音发展更有利或更不利。
