Academic Paper |
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| Title: | Age of Acquisition and Proficiency in a Second Language Independently Influence the Perception of Non-Native Speech |
| Author: | Pilar Archila-Suerte |
| Institution: | University of Houston |
| Author: | Jason Zevin |
| Institution: | Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology–Weill Medical College of Cornell University |
| Author: | Ferenc Bunta |
| Email: | click here to access email |
| Institution: | University of Houston |
| Author: | Arturo E. Hernandez |
| Institution: | University of Houston |
| Linguistic Field: | Language Acquisition; Phonetics |
| Abstract: | Sensorimotor processing in children and higher-cognitive processing in adults could determine how non-native phonemes are acquired. This study investigates how age-of-acquisition (AOA) and proficiency-level (PL) predict native-like perception of statistically dissociated L2 categories, i.e., within-category and between-category. In a similarity task, participants rated the level of similarity between pairs of English syllables from 1 (similar) to 4 (dissimilar). Early L2 acquisition predicts accurate within-categorization and high proficiency in late L2 acquisition predicts improved between-categorization. Our results suggest that the manner in which bilinguals learn to categorize non-native sounds depends on the cognitive processes available at the age of L2 exposure. |
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This article appears in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition Vol. 15, Issue 1, which you can read on Cambridge's site or on LINGUIST . |
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