Abstract
Learning to perceive non-native speech sounds is difficult for adults. One method to improve perception of non-native contrasts is through a distributional learning paradigm. Three groups of native-English listeners completed a perceptual assimilation task in which they mapped French vowels onto English vowel categories: Two groups (bimodal, unimodal distribution) completed a perceptual learning task for the French /œ/-/o/ contrast and a third completed no training. Both trained groups differed from the untrained group, but participants in the bimodal group showed a different perceptual mapping for the targeted /œ/ vowel, suggesting that the bimodal condition may maximize perception of non-native contrasts.
Highlights
Attaining native-like proficiency in a second language is difficult for most adults
The organization patterns following this learning paradigm were assessed through a perceptual assimilation task (Best, 1995) in which listeners mapped speech sounds of a non-native language onto labels in their first language
Performance on the perceptual assimilation task was analyzed in R with the “rcompanion” package (Mangiafico, 2016)
Summary
Attaining native-like proficiency in a second language is difficult for most adults. Decades of research indicate that young age is a critical factor in second language learning (Baker et al, 2002; Bever, 1981; Flege et al.1999). Once the phonetic categories of one’s native language are solidified, the ability to perceptually distinguish non-native sounds decreases (Flege, 1995; Iverson et al, 2003; Kuhl, 2000; Michaels, 1974). The perception of non-native speech sounds is influenced by similarities between the speech sounds in the first and second languages and by the degree and type of exposure to and familiarity with the second language (Levy, 2009a; Levy and Strange, 2008). We examined listeners’ perceptual organization of non-native vowels following a brief perceptual learning paradigm (distributional learning). The organization patterns following this learning paradigm were assessed through a perceptual assimilation task (Best, 1995) in which listeners mapped speech sounds of a non-native language onto labels in their first language
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