[ Second language psycholinguistics ]

A number of studies report no notable differences between native speakers and learners who receive input in a second language early in life, while older learners are usually less proficient in their second language (L2). The mutual influence of L1 and L2 phonological systems can considerably interfere with accurate L2 segmental perception and production [Baker & Trofimovitch, 2005; Tsukada et al., 2005], and specific patterns of categorical assimilation are predictable once similarities and dissimilarities of both languages are taken into consideration [Best, 1995]. The strong influence of L1 categories on L2 perception and production has been verified for late L2 learners, but when exposure to L2 starts early (before age 6), cross-language influence is said to be substantially reduced or at least more variable [Flege et al., 1999, Pallier et al., 1997, Baker & Trofimovitch 2005; Höjen & Flege 2006]. The L1 influence on L2 sound perception is reduced in early learners possibly because children's L1 categories are still in formation [Flege, 1992] at the time exposure starts; more fully developed L1 categories in older learners might exert a stronger attraction on L2 sounds, rendering the acquisition of a new category more difficult for adults than for children. As well, the nature of the interaction between L1 and L2 categories during perception might be different in adult EL vs. children EL [Baker et al. 2008].

For early learners (EL), it is still unclear when exactly L1 influence will start to be strong enough to interfere with native-like categorization in L2: in particular, two studies [Højen and Flege, 2006, Pallier et al., 1997] reported differences between EL and native speakers in vowel perception. However, both have tested EL adults. Additionally, in Højen and Flege's study, the range of the EL's age of learning (AoL) is too broad (2-10) to allow conclusions about when exactly L1 influence will jeopardize L2 perception. In Pallier's study, all participants were exposed to L2 at age 4, but the clarity of the Catalan input to which they were exposed is debated.

We look at the phonological acquisition of L2-German in children defined as very early learners, focusing on possible influences from their still developing native-language categories, here Turkish. A perception task (exp.1) provides evidence that Turkish children learning German as an L2 since Kindergarten categorized German contrasts in the same way as adult learners did, and differently from age-matched native speakers. Their vowel productions (exp. 2) despite some variation were mostly target-like.

Click here for the submitted manuscript. Please, do not quote, as the paper is under review.

Click here to see the poster presented at LabPhon 12

When a sound contrast is not present in a language, it has been shown to be very difficult to learn this contrast during second language acquisition, both in perception and in production.

According to dominant models of second language speech perception like the Speech Learning Model (Flege 1995) or the Perceptual Assimilation Model (Best 1995), if a learner does not reliably distinguish (discriminate) the non-native contrast because of the configuration of his first language, acquisition of a novel category is predicted to be difficult. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that factors other than just "presence or absence of a feature in the first language system" might differently affect non-native sound discrimination, and hence, success in acquisition of a novel category and its encoding in faithful lexical representations. Their respective role in predicting a learning outcome, however, has not yet been systematically investigated.

In this project, we look at the acquisition by native speakers of Spanish of a similar contrast in two target languages: French and English. We want to investigate several factors in a series of experiments, and their respective contribution to learning outcomes as compared to the L1 sound system.

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