Discrimination of native and non-native vowel contrasts in Turkish-German and German children: Insight from Mismatch Negativity

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Discrimination of native and non-native vowel contrasts in Turkish-German and German children: Insight from Mismatch Negativity Tanja Rinker1, 2, 3*, P. Alku4, S. Brosch3 and M. Kiefer2 1 Transfercenter for Neuroscience and Learning, University of Ulm, Germany 2 Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulm, Germany 3 Section of Phoniatrics and Pedaudiology, Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic, Germany 4 Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland The development of native-like memory traces for foreign phonemes can be measured by using the Mismatch Negativity (MMN), a component of the auditory event-related potential. Previous studies have shown that the MMN is sensitive to changes in neural organization depending on language experience. Here we measured the MMN-response in five to six year-old monolingual German children and in bilingual Turkish-German children growing up in Germany. Using MMN the discrimination of a German and a Turkish vowel contrast was investigated. The results show that compared to a German control group, the MMN-response to the German vowel contrast is less prominent in the Turkish-German children. The response to the Turkish-Turkish contrast is more prominent in the Turkish-German children in a later time window, but delayed with regard to its onset. Overall, the results suggest that the Turkish-German children have not yet fully acquired the German phonetic inventory despite living in Germany since birth and being immersed in a German-speaking environment. Furthermore, their native Turkish vowel discrimination is also delayed which may presumably reflect the cost of second language acquisition. Conference: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications, Budapest, Hungary, 4 Apr - 7 Apr, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Presentations Citation: Rinker T, Alku P, Brosch S and Kiefer M (2009). Discrimination of native and non-native vowel contrasts in Turkish-German and German children: Insight from Mismatch Negativity. Conference Abstract: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.05.099 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 26 Mar 2009; Published Online: 26 Mar 2009. * Correspondence: Tanja Rinker, Transfercenter for Neuroscience and Learning, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany, tanja.rinker@uni-ulm.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Tanja Rinker P. Alku S. Brosch M. Kiefer Google Tanja Rinker P. Alku S. Brosch M. Kiefer Google Scholar Tanja Rinker P. Alku S. Brosch M. Kiefer PubMed Tanja Rinker P. Alku S. Brosch M. Kiefer Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.