Phoneme identification in bilingual children in Singapore – a preregistered investigation using the CROWN game

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

ABSTRACT Phoneme identification is critically involved in alphabetic reading, and weak skills in phoneme perception are known to correspond to the development of reading skills in children around the age of reading instruction. However, current models of phoneme perception have been established in monolingual populations, and these relationships may not hold for bilingual children. We developed a phoneme identification task, the CROWN Game, as part of a comprehensive assessment package for identifying potential reading difficulties. In the task, children perform a phoneme identification task, using familiar words with onset consonants spanning a voice-onset time continuum from/b/to/p/(−60 ms to 90 ms). 138 English-Chinese bilinguals in Singapore kindergartens were tested on phoneme perception for English words “beach” and “peach.” We fitted individual responses to a psychometric function and measured individual VOT threshold and the slope of the transition between categories. The task showed a wide spread of scores and good split-half reliability, suggesting that the CROWN game is suitable for identifying stable individual differences between children. In a preregistered subgroup analysis, we examined whether a child’s language background (input ratios and age of acquisition) influenced phoneme perception. GLMMs showed no influence of language exposure on phoneme perception in this task. This suggests that the CROWN Game, as part of a broader assessment package, is valid for use with bilingual children with different rates of exposure to their languages in evaluating phoneme perception skills relevant to reading development.