Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T12:43:44.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

No L1 privilege in talker adaptation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2019

Laurence Bruggeman Open the ORCID record for Laurence Bruggeman [Opens in a new window]  and
Anne Cutler
Laurence Bruggeman*
Affiliation:
The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
Anne Cutler
Affiliation:
The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
*
Author for correspondence: Laurence Bruggeman, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As a rule, listening is easier in first (L1) than second languages (L2); difficult L2 listening can challenge even highly proficient users. We here examine one particular listening function, adaptation to novel talkers, in such a high-proficiency population: Dutch emigrants to Australia, predominantly using English outside the family, but all also retaining L1 proficiency. Using lexically-guided perceptual learning (Norris, McQueen & Cutler, 2003), we investigated these listeners’ adaptation to an ambiguous speech sound, in parallel experiments in both their L1 and their L2. A control study established that perceptual learning outcomes were unaffected by the procedural measures required for this double comparison. The emigrants showed equivalent proficiency in tests in both languages, robust perceptual adaptation in their L2, English, but no adaptation in L1. We propose that adaptation to novel talkers is a language-specific skill requiring regular novel practice; a limited set of known (family) interlocutors cannot meet this requirement.

Keywords

perceptual learningnative languagesecond languageimmersionemigrants
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , May 2020 , pp. 681 - 693
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baayen, RH, Piepenbrock, R and Gulikers, L (1995) The Celex lexical database (CD-rom).Google Scholar
Barr, DJ, Levy, R, Scheepers, C and Tily, HJ (2013) Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal. Journal of Memory and Language 68, 255–278. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2012.11.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, D, Maechler, M, Bolker, B and Walker, S (2015) Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software 67, 1–48. doi:10.18637/jss.v067.i01CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boersma, P and Weenink, D (2013) Praat: doing phonetics by computer (Version 5.3.42) [Computer software]. Retrieved from http://www.praat.orgGoogle Scholar
Borrie, SA, McAuliffe, MJ, Liss, JM, Kirk, C, O'Beirne, GA and Anderson, T (2012) Familiarisation conditions and the mechanisms that underlie improved recognition of dysarthric speech. Language and Cognitive Processes 27, 1039–1055. doi:10.1080/01690965.2011.610596CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradlow, AR and Bent, T (2008) Perceptual adaptation to non-native speech. Cognition 106, 707–729.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Broersma, M and Cutler, A (2011) Competition dynamics of second-language listening. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 64, 74–95. doi:10.1080/17470218.2010.499174CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burchfield, LA, Luk, SK, Antoniou, M and Cutler, A (2017) Lexically guided perceptual learning in Mandarin Chinese. Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech 2017), pp. 576–580. Stockholm, Sweden.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, CM and Garrett, MF (2004) Rapid adaptation to foreign-accented English. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 116, 3647–3658. doi:10.1121/1.1815131CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clyne, M and Pauwels, A (1997) Use, maintenance, structures, and future of Dutch in Australia. In Klatter-Folmer, J & Kroon, S (eds.), Dutch Overseas: Studies in maintenance and loss of Dutch as an immigrant language. Tilburg, the Netherlands: Tilburg University Press, pp. 34–49.Google Scholar
Collins, B and Mees, IM (2003) The phonetics of English and Dutch. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill.Google Scholar
Cutler, A, Burchfield, LA and Antoniou, M (2018) Factors affecting talker adaptation in a second language. In Epps, J, Wolfe, J, Smith, J, & Jones, C (eds.), Proceedings of the 17th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, pp. 33–36. Sydney, Australia.Google Scholar
Dahan, D, Drucker, SJ and Scarborough, RA (2008) Talker adaptation in speech perception: Adjusting the signal or the representations? Cognition 108, 710–718. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.06.003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drozdova, P, Van Hout, R and Scharenborg, O (2016) Lexically-guided perceptual learning in non-native listening. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 19, 914–920. doi:10.1017/S136672891600002XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisner, F and McQueen, JM (2006) Perceptual learning in speech: Stability over time. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 119, 1950–1953. doi:10.1121/1.2178721CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, BG and Iverson, P (2004) Vowel normalization for accent: An investigation of best exemplar locations in northern and southern British English sentences. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 115, 352–361. doi:10.1121/1.1635413CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forster, KI and Forster, JC (2003) DMDX: A Windows display program with millisecond accuracy. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 35, 116–124. doi:10.3758/BF03195503CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garcia Lecumberri, ML, Cooke, M and Cutler, A (2010) Non-native speech perception in adverse conditions: A review. Speech Communication 52, 864–886. doi:10.1016/j.specom.2010.08.014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraljic, T and Samuel, AG (2005) Perceptual learning for speech: Is there a return to normal? Cognitive Psychology 51, 141–178. doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2005.05.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraljic, T and Samuel, AG (2007) Perceptual adjustments to multiple speakers. Journal of Memory and Language 56, 1–15. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2006.07.010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemhöfer, K and Broersma, M (2012) Introducing LexTALE: A quick and valid Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of English. Behavior Research Methods 44, 325–343. doi:10.3758/s13428-011-0146-0CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MATLAB (Version R2013b). [Computer software]. Natick, MA, United States: The MathWorks, Inc.Google Scholar
Maye, J, Aslin, RN and Tanenhaus, MK (2008) The weckud wetch of the wast: Lexical adaptation to a novel accent. Cognitive Science 32, 543–562. doi:10.1080/03640210802035357CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McQueen, JM, Cutler, A and Norris, D (2006) Phonological abstraction in the mental lexicon. Cognitive Science 30, 1113–1126. doi:10.1207/s15516709cog0000_79CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McQueen, JM, Tyler, MD and Cutler, A (2012) Lexical retuning of children's speech perception: Evidence for knowledge about words' component sounds. Language Learning and Development 8, 317–339. doi:10.1080/15475441.2011.641887CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitterer, H, Chen, Y and Zhou, X (2011) Phonological abstraction in processing lexical-tone variation: Evidence from a learning paradigm. Cognitive Science 35, 184–197. doi:10.1111/j.1551-6709.2010.01140.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mitterer, H and McQueen, JM (2009) Foreign subtitles help but native-language subtitles harm foreign speech perception. PLoS ONE 4, e7785. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007785CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mitterer, H and Reinisch, E (2013) No delays in application of perceptual learning in speech recognition: Evidence from eye tracking. Journal of Memory and Language 69, 527–545. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2013.07.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, D, McQueen, JM and Cutler, A (2003) Perceptual learning in speech. Cognitive Psychology 47, 204–238. doi:10.1016/S0010-0285(03)00006-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ockey, GJ and French, R (2016) From one to multiple accents on a test of L2 listening comprehension. Applied Linguistics 37, 693–715. doi:10.1093/applin/amu060CrossRefGoogle Scholar
R Core Team. (2018) R: A language and environment for statistical computing (Version 3.5.1.) [Computer Software]. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved from https://www.R-project.org/Google Scholar
Ramscar, M, Hendrix, P, Shaoul, C, Milin, P and Baayen, H (2014) The myth of cognitive decline: Non-linear dynamics of lifelong learning. Topics in Cognitive Science 6, 5–42. doi:10.1111/tops.12078CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reinisch, E, Weber, A and Mitterer, H (2013) Listeners retune phoneme categories across languages. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 39, 75–86. doi:10.1037/a0027979Google ScholarPubMed
Remez, RE, Rubin, PE, Pisoni, DB and Carrell, TD (1981) Speech perception without traditional speech cues. Science 212, 947–950.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Repp, BH (1981) Perceptual equivalence of two kinds of ambiguous speech stimuli. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 18, 12–14. doi:10.3758/bf03333556CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scharenborg, O and Janse, E (2013) Comparing lexically guided perceptual learning in younger and older listeners. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 1–12. doi:10.3758/s13414-013-0422-4Google ScholarPubMed
Scharenborg, O, Weber, A and Janse, E (2015) The role of attentional abilities in lexically guided perceptual learning by older listeners. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 77, 493–507. doi:10.3758/s13414-014-0792-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schuhmann, KS (2014) Perceptual learning in second language learners. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stony Brook University.Google Scholar
Sebastián-Gallés, N, Echeverría, S and Bosch, L (2005) The influence of initial exposure on lexical representation: Comparing early and simultaneous bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language 52, 240–255. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2004.11.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shannon, RV, Zeng, F.-G., Kamath, V, Wygonski, J and Ekelid, M (1995) Speech recognition with primarily temporal cues. Science 270, 303–304. doi:10.1126/science.270.5234.303CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trude, AM, Tremblay, A and Brown-Schmidt, S (2013) Limitations on adaptation to foreign accents. Journal of Memory and Language 69, 349–367. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2013.05.002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Warren, RM (1970) Perceptual restoration of missing speech sounds. Science 167, 392–393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weber, A and Cutler, A (2004) Lexical competition in non-native spoken-word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language 50, 1–25. doi:10.1016/S0749-596X(03)00105-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Witteman, MJ, Weber, A and McQueen, JM (2013) Foreign accent strength and listener familiarity with an accent codetermine speed of perceptual adaptation. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 1–20. doi:10.3758/s13414-012-0404-yGoogle ScholarPubMed