Variability in cross-language and cross-dialect perception. How Irish and Chinese migrants process Australian English...

Area of Science:

• Phonetics and Phonology
• Second Language Acquisition
• Sociolinguistics

Background:

• Listener experience significantly impacts the perception of second language (L2) and second dialect (D2) speech sounds.
• Understanding how non-native listeners categorize vowels is crucial for L2 speech intelligibility and learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how native English (L1/D1) listeners, experienced L2 English listeners, and experienced D2 listeners categorize Australian English (AusE) lax front vowels.
• To examine the influence of phonetic context (coarticulation) and extralinguistic factors on vowel categorization by different listener groups.

Main Methods:

• A forced-choice categorization task using synthesized vowel continua.
• Stimuli included lax front vowels /ɪ e æ/ in /hVt/, /hVl/, and /mVl/ contexts.
• Participants included native Australian English speakers, Irish D2 listeners, and Chinese L2 listeners.

Main Results:

• Native AusE listeners showed predictable categorizations influenced by coarticulation (nasal onset raising, lateral lowering).
• Irish (D2) and Chinese (L2) listeners' categorizations differed from native speakers, reflecting L1/D1 influence.
• While coarticulation affected D2/L2 groups similarly, Chinese listeners showed more difficulty and less agreement.
• English proficiency did not correlate with more Australian-like categorization for Chinese listeners; reduced social network size of co-ethnics correlated with more Australian-like categorization for some stimuli.

Conclusions:

• Vowel categorization in L2/D2 contexts is primarily driven by native phonetic categories.
• Increased exposure can improve perceptual mapping but does not fundamentally restructure underlying phonetic categories.
• Extralinguistic factors, like social network composition, may play a role in L2/D2 perception, suggesting a complex interplay of linguistic and social influences.