Crosslinguistic Influence in the Discrimination of Korean Stop Contrast by Heritage Speakers and Second Language Learners

The present study examines the extent of crosslinguistic influence from English as a dominant language in the perception of the Korean lenis–aspirated contrast among Korean heritage speakers in the United States (N = 20) and English-speaking learners of Korean as a second language (N = 20), as compared to native speakers of Korean immersed in the first language environment (N = 20), by using an AX discrimination task. In addition, we sought to determine whether significant dependencies could be observed between participants’ linguistic background and experiences and their perceptual accuracy in the discrimination task. Results of a mixed-effects logistic regression model demonstrated that heritage speakers outperformed second language learners with 85% vs. 63% accurate discrimination, while no significant difference was detected between heritage speakers and first language-immersed native speakers (85% vs. 88% correct). Furthermore, higher verbal fluency was significantly predictive of greater perceptual accuracy for the heritage speakers. The results are compatible with the interpretation that the influence of English on the discrimination of the Korean laryngeal contrast was stronger for second language learners of Korean than for heritage speakers, while heritage speakers were not apparently affected by dominance in English in their discrimination of Korean lenis and aspirated stops.

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Heritage Spanish Speakers’ Syllabification of -ear and -iar Verbs

Heritage Language Journal ◽

10.46538/hlj.17.1.2 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 38-69

Author(s):

Mary Beaton

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Home Country ◽

First Language ◽

The United States ◽

Syllable Structure ◽

Spanish Speakers ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Heritage Spanish Speakers

Previous studies demonstrate that some aspects of the phonological grammar of heritage Spanish speakers in the United States are monolingual-like while other aspects show influence from English (Ronquest & Rao, 2018). The syllabification of vowel sequences is an interesting trait to study in the Spanish of U.S. heritage speakers due to the tendency in English phonology to separate vowels into separate syllables and the contrasting preference for diphthongs in Spanish. Studies across several language pairs have shown that second-language learners use the syllable structure of their first language in their second language, creating non-native-like patterns. We have little understanding, however, about whether heritage speakers syllabify like monolingual Spanish speakers or if they rely on the structure of the dominant language in their environment. The present study compares the syllabification judgments of 54 heritage speakers to those of 40 monolingual speakers. The results show that heritage speakers have monolingual-like syllabification intuitions for verbs ending in -ear and -iar overall, but heritage speakers who have spent less than two years in their parents’ home country syllabify differently in reading versus listening tasks. Lexical frequency did not affect the results, indicating that syllabification intuitions are robust even in unfamiliar words.

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Selective vulnerability and dominant language transfer in the acquisition of the Chinese cleft construction by heritage speakers

Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism ◽

10.1075/lab.16040.mai ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 202-227

Author(s):

Ziyin Mai ◽

Xiangjun Deng

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Word Order ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Selective Vulnerability ◽

Language Transfer ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Dominant Language ◽

Different Types

Abstract This study investigates effects of selective vulnerability and dominant language transfer in heritage grammar. Mandarin Chinese has a shì…de cleft construction, which, despite its superficial similarities with the it-cleft in English, is subject to additional conditions. Four experimental tasks elicited eighteen adult heritage speakers’ implicit knowledge of the word order and the temporal, telicity and discourse conditions associated with the Chinese cleft. The heritage speakers demonstrated target-like representation of the conditions. Meanwhile, their sensitivity to the telicity and discourse conditions is weaker than that of native speakers in Beijing, suggesting selective vulnerability in the heritage grammar. By comparing the heritage speakers with adult second language learners of Chinese, we concluded that the vulnerability of the heritage grammar in the discourse domain did not result from cross-linguistic influence from English. In different types of Chinese-English bilinguals, the dominant language affects the weaker language in different ways.

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The acquisition of some Dutch morphological rules

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s030500090000283x ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 539-553 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Catherine E. Snow ◽

Norval S. H. Smith ◽

Marian Hoefnagel-Höhle

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

First Language ◽

Age Groups ◽

Correct Performance ◽

Rule Systems

ABSTRACTThe acquisition of the morphological rules for plural, agentive, and diminutive suffixes in Dutch was studied. Subjects included 7- and 12-year-old native speakers, and second-language learners in three age groups (5–10 years, 12–18 years, and adult). The first- and second-language learners showed very similar orders of acquisition for the rule systems governing plural and diminutive, but the second-language learners showed a subtle form of interference from their first language in acquiring the agentive. The findings suggest that morphological acquisition proceeds piecemeal, with the learning of specific word ending + allomorph sequences, and that generalizations at the level of morphological rules may not be made even after several years of correct performance with the allomorph in question.

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THE ROLE OF ACOUSTIC CUES AND LISTENER PROFICIENCY IN THE PERCEPTION OF ACCENT IN NONNATIVE SOUNDS

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263117000377 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (1) ◽

pp. 179-200 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Nikola Anna Eger ◽

Eva Reinisch

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

First Language ◽

Production Quality ◽

Acoustic Cues ◽

Accented Speech ◽

Minimal Pairs

AbstractThe speech of second language learners is often influenced by phonetic patterns of their first language. This can make them difficult to understand, but sometimes for listeners of the same first language to a lesser extent than for native listeners. The present study investigates listeners’ awareness of the accent by asking whether accented speech is not only more intelligible but also more acceptable to nonnative than native listeners. English native speakers and German learners rated the goodness of words spoken by other German learners. Production quality was determined by measuring acoustic differences between minimal pairs with “easy” versus “difficult” sounds. Higher proficient learners were more sensitive to differences in production quality and between easy and difficult sounds, patterning with native listeners. Lower proficient learners did not perceive such differences. Perceiving accented productions as good instances of L2 words may hinder development because the need for improvement may not be obvious.

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Silence is difficult: On missing elements in bilingual grammars

Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft ◽

10.1515/zfs-2017-0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Oksana Laleko ◽

Maria Polinsky

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Experience Difficulty

AbstractNear-native speakers (heritage speakers and adult second language learners alike) experience difficulty in interpreting and producing linguistic constructions that contain morphologically null elements. We dub this phenomenon the

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Language transfer and positional bias in English stress

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658319882457 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 36 (4) ◽

pp. 445-474

Author(s):

Guilherme D Garcia

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

First Language ◽

Response Patterns ◽

L1 Transfer ◽

Positional Bias ◽

Two Factors ◽

Generalize Weight

This article shows that first language (L1) transfer may not be effectively maintained in the interlanguage due to confounding factors in the second language (L2). When two factors, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], are correlated in the L2, second language learners may only acquire [Formula: see text], even if [Formula: see text] is present in the L1. Transfer may not be effective because [Formula: see text], being more robust in the input, conceals [Formula: see text]. Native speakers, on the other hand, generalize [Formula: see text] in spite of [Formula: see text]. The variables in question are weight-sensitivity ([Formula: see text]) and positional bias ([Formula: see text]) in English, both of which can predict the location of stress in the language. I show that two seemingly target-like groups of second language learners of English (speakers of Mandarin and speakers Portuguese) fail to accurately generalize weight-sensitivity in the language, and instead display response patterns which are predictable given the existing positional bias in English stress.

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How do second language learners build syntactic structure?

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716406060085 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 59-64

Author(s):

Eva M. Fernández

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Adult Learners ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Syntactic Structure ◽

First Language ◽

Target Language ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

Shallow Structure Hypothesis

Understanding the mechanisms learners use to process target language input is crucial to developing a complete model of both first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition. If adult L2 learners are found to process the target language with mechanisms that differ from those used by child L1 learners and adult native speakers, what implications might this have for the developing grammar? Clahsen and Felser review evidence that appears to point to such differences, generalizing their findings under a shallow structure hypothesis about how adult learners process input in L2.

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Perception of speech-in-noise for second language learners and heritage speakers in both first language and second language

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.4755111 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 132 (3) ◽

pp. 1935-1935 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michael Blasingame ◽

Ann R. Bradlow

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

First Language ◽

Heritage Speakers ◽

Speech In Noise

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Foreign Accent in Adult Simultaneous Bilinguals

Heritage Language Journal ◽

10.46538/hlj.11.2.2 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 123-150 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tanja Kupisch ◽

Dagmar Barton ◽

Katja Hailer ◽

Ewgenia Klaschik ◽

Ilse Stangen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Heritage Language ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

First Language ◽

Current Understanding ◽

Foreign Accent ◽

Heritage Speaker ◽

L1 And L2

The study reported in this paper examines foreign accent (FA) in adult simultaneous bilinguals (2L1ers). Specifically, we investigate how accent is affected if a first language is acquired as a minority (heritage) language as compared to a majority (dominant) language. We compare the perceived FA in both languages of 38 adult 2L1ers (German-French and German-Italian) to that of monolingual native speakers (L1ers) and late second language learners (L2ers). Naturalistic speech samples are judged by 84 native speakers of the respective languages. Results indicate that the majority language is always spoken without an FA, while results for the heritage language fall between those of L1 and L2 speakers. For the heritage language, we further show that a native accent correlates with length of residence in the heritage country during childhood but not during adulthood. Furthermore, raters have comparatively more difficulties when judging the accent of a heritage speaker. The results of this study add to our current understanding of what factors shape the phonology of a heritage language system in adulthood.

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The neural timecourse of American English vowel discrimination by Japanese, Russian and Spanish second-language learners of English

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728921000201 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Valerie L. Shafer ◽

Sarah Kresh ◽

Kikuyo Ito ◽

Miwako Hisagi ◽

Nancy Vidal ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Adult Learners ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

American English ◽

First Language ◽

Perceptual Task ◽

Temporal Contrast ◽

Asymmetrical Pattern ◽

Significant Difference

Abstract This study investigated the influence of first language (L1) phoneme features and phonetic salience on discrimination of second language (L2) American English (AE) vowels. On a perceptual task, L2 adult learners of English with Spanish, Japanese or Russian as an L1 showed poorer discrimination of the spectral-only difference between /æ:/ as the oddball (deviant) among frequent /ɑ:/ stimuli compared to AE controls. The Spanish listeners showed a significant difference from the controls for the spectral-temporal contrast between /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/ for both perception and the neural Mismatch Negativity (MMN), but only for deviant /ɑ:/ versus /ʌ/ (duration decrement). For deviant /ʌ/ versus /ɑ:/, and for deviant /æ:/ versus /ʌ/ or /ɑ:/, all participants showed equivalent MMN amplitude. The asymmetrical pattern for /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/ suggested that L2 phonetic detail was maintained only for the deviant. These findings indicated that discrimination was more strongly influenced by L1 phonology than phonetic salience.

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