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. 2012 Jan;15(1):190-201.
doi: 10.1017/S1366728911000125. Epub 2011 Sep 7.

Age of acquisition and proficiency in a second language independently influence the perception of non-native speech

Pilar Archila-Suerte  1 , Jason Zevin  2 , Ferenc Bunta  1 , Arturo E Hernandez  1
Affiliations

Age of acquisition and proficiency in a second language independently influence the perception of non-native speech

Pilar Archila-Suerte et al. Biling (Camb Engl). 2012 Jan.

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.

Keywords: age-of-acquisition; bilingualism; proficiency; sensorimotor; speech.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Multidimensional scaling plots – graphic representations of the perceptual acoustic distances of within- and between-categories subdivided by group type and proficiency level. Each symbol represents a phonemic category: black squares for “saf”, black diamonds for “suf”, white circles for “sef”, and white triangles for “sof”.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Multiple regression on within-category. AOA is a significant predictor.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Multiple regression on between-category. No significant predictors are found.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Multiple regression on sof–suf pairing. Proficiency in the first (Spanish) and second (English) languages are significant predictors; the effect is primarily driven by late bilinguals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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