Transfer effects in perception of a familiar and unfamiliar language

Abstract

Second-language (L2) speech perception is typically worse than first-language (L1) perception, a disparity often attributed to negative transfer (interference) from the L1 of L2 listeners. The current study investigated the hypothesis that L1 transfer is not always negative, but variable depending on the nature of L1 perceptual biases. In Experiment 1, four groups of L2 English speakers whose L1s (Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, and Russian) differ in the relative informativeness of vowel-to-consonant transition cues were tested on their perception of English segments that rely crucially on these cues: final unreleased voiceless stops. In comparison to L1 English listeners, L1 Japanese, Russian, and Mandarin listeners performed significantly worse, whereas L1 Korean listeners performed significantly better. In Experiment 2, when the same groups were tested on similar Korean stimuli, L1 Russian listeners outperformed all other groups except the Korean group. These results provide evidence that L1 transfer effects are diverse and suggest that they are diverse for two reasons: variability in the information value of relevant phonetic cues in the L1, as well as variability in the degree to which linguistic expectations associated with a target L2 (or the lack thereof) predispose the listener to make effective use of these cues.