The Effect of Language Dominance on the Selective Attention of Segments and Tones in Urdu-Cantonese Speakers

Yi Liu,Jinghong Ning

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.710713

Abstract

To perceive a second language (L2), non-native speakers not only have to focus on phonological, lexical, and grammatical knowledge, but also need to develop a good mastery of L2 strategic knowledge, including selective attention and language planning. Previous research has found that non-tonal speakers are overtly attentive to segments, while tonal language speakers give more attention to tones. However, it is unclear how different dominant language speakers distribute their attention while processing segments or tones and segments and tones stimuli in non-native speeches. The present study also aims to examine the roles of language dominance play in the designed perceptual tasks. In the current study 20 Cantonese native speakers, 18 Cantonese-dominants, and 18 Urdu-dominants participated in an attention distribution experiment in Cantonese. The results show that the Urdu-dominants retain their L1 attentional strategy in the processing of Cantonese stimuli, classifying the stimuli along segments, while the Cantonese native speakers are more attentive to tones. Moreover, the Cantonese-dominants show a perceptual flexibility as highly proficient and experienced listeners. The results reveal that language dominance plays a vital role in listeners' attention distribution. The research also supports PAM-L2 theory on bilingual. The findings of the current study can be applied to Chinese language learning and teaching and language acquisition studies.

Highlights

IntroductionLanguage perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information
From a psycholinguistic perspective, language perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information
The current study focuses on tones and selective attention to attest whether PAM-L2 theory and Antoniou et al.’s observations on bilinguals can predict how the Urdu-dominant and Cantonese-dominant Urdu/Cantonese bilinguals distribute their selective attention to segments and tones when processing L2 speech

Summary

Introduction

Language perception is the process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information. There has been an increasing interest in the way tonal and non-tonal speakers distribute their selective attention toward segment and tone (Braun and Johnson, 2011; Zou et al, 2017). When processing a non-native tonal language, non-tonal speakers may find it hard to give attention to tone due to the absence of a sensitivity toward tone (Braun and Johnson, 2011; Zou et al, 2017). The current study adopts the framework of selective attention and PAM-L2 to unveil the attention distribution of different dominant language speakers on perceiving Cantonese segments and tones

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion