Transferring cue-weighting from second language into first language: Group trends and individual differences

Abstract

Second language learning has been shown to affect first language production (Flege, 1987; Major, 1992; Sancier & Fowler, 1997, inter alia). Less is known about whether and how experience with another language may affect first language perception. The present study examines the use of preceding vowel duration vs. voicing during closure as cues to word-final and word-medial stop voicing by three groups of listeners: native speakers of American English (34), native speakers of Russian (34), and Russian expatriates in the United States (24). The results suggest that bilingual listeners are transferring a greater reliance on vowel duration, characteristic of English perceptual mode, into native speech categorization. The transfer occurred in word-final condition where vowel duration as a correlate of voicing is of very different importance in the two languages. Individual trends revealed that bilinguals’ reliance on vowel duration may even be exaggerated in native, compared to non-native, speech perception. Th...