Connecting perception and production in early Catalan-Spanish bilingual children: language dominance and quality of input effects.

Marta Ramon-Casas,Conxita Lleó,Laura Bosch,Susana Cortés,Ariadna Benet

doi:10.1017/s0305000921000787

Abstract

This study investigates perception and production of the Catalan mid-vowel /e/-/ɛ/ contrast by two groups of 4.5-year-old Catalan-Spanish bilingual children, differing in language dominance. Perception was assessed with an XAB discrimination task involving familiar words and non-words. Production accuracy was measured using a familiar-word elicitation task. Overall, Catalan-dominant bilingual children outperformed Spanish-dominant bilinguals, the latter showing high variability in production accuracy, while being slightly above chance level in perception. No correlation between perception and production performance could be established in this group. The effect of language dominance alone could not explain the Spanish-dominant participants' performance, but quality of Catalan input (native vs. accented speech) was identified as an important factor behind familiar-word production and the inaccurate representation of the target contrast in the lexicon of the bilinguals' less-dominant language. More fine-grained measurements of experience-related factors are needed for a full understanding of the acquisition of challenging contrasts in bilingual contexts.

Highlights

One of the challenges in bilingual first language acquisition is the building of contrastive categories corresponding to each of the bilingual’s input languages
For the familiar words containing the target contrast, the percentage of correct responses in the Catalan-dominant group was significantly different from chance (M = 84.44%, SD = 11.70; t(17) = 12.48; p
The present study examined the perception and production of the Catalan front midvowel /e/-/ɛ/ contrast by 4- to 5-year-old early bilinguals who differed in language dominance (L1 Catalan or Spanish)

Summary

Introduction

One of the challenges in bilingual first language acquisition is the building of contrastive categories corresponding to each of the bilingual’s input languages. The current study addresses both the perception and production of the front mid-vowel Catalan contrast in bilingual children, in an effort to gain a better understanding of its encoding in the lexicon when differences in initial linguistic experience are present and regular exposure to one of the ambient languages, Catalan in this case, is not taking place immediately after birth (as in simultaneous bilinguals), or its presence in home environments is substantially reduced. In some of the studies, this connection appears to be weak, either as a result of methodological aspects, or as an effect of experience-dependent factors that are likely to modulate the otherwise expected connection between perception and production skills By exploring this connection in a sample of young bilingual children, differing in Catalan input quantity, and quality in their early years of language exposure, we expect to gain a better understanding of how these input factors might alter the perception-production link

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