A perceptual interference account of acquisition difficulties for non-native phonemes.

Full Abstract

This article presents an account of how early language experience can impede the acquisition of non-native phonemes during adulthood. The hypothesis is that early language experience alters relatively low-level perceptual processing, and that these changes interfere with the formation and adaptability of higher-level linguistic representations. Supporting data are presented from an experiment that tested the perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese, German, and American adults. The underlying perceptual spaces for these phonemes were mapped using multidimensional scaling and compared to native-language categorization judgments. The results demonstrate that Japanese adults are most sensitive to an acoustic cue, F2, that is irrelevant to the English /r/-/l/ categorization. German adults, in contrast, have relatively high sensitivity to more critical acoustic cues. The results show how language-specific perceptual processing can alter the relative salience of within- and between-category acoustic variation, and thereby interfere with second language acquisition.Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science B.V.

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Author information

Author/s: Iverson, Paul (P); Kuhl, Patricia K (PK); Akahane-Yamada, Reiko (R); Diesch, Eugen (E); Tohkura, Yoh'ich (Y); Kettermann, Andreas (A); Siebert, Claudia (C);

Affiliation: Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, UK. paul(-atsign-)phon.ucl.ac.uk

Grants: HD35465 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS) ; HD37954 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Cognition (Cognition), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Feb; vol 87 (issue 1) : pp B47-57

Dates: Created 2002/12/24; Completed 2003/03/03; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 12499111, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Humans
Language
Phonetics

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