Perceptual flexibility: Maintenance or recovery of the ability to discriminate non-native speech sounds

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Psychology 1984-12, Vol.38 (4), p.579-590
• Main Authors: Tees, Richard C, Werker, Janet F
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Auditory Discrimination; Bilingualism. Multilingualism; Biological and medical sciences; Female; Foreign Language Education; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Language; Male; Practice (Psychology); Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Speech Acoustics; Speech Discrimination Tests; Speech Perception; Voice
• ISSN: 0008-4255; 1196-1961; 1878-7290
• DOI: 10.1037/h0080868

Examined the influence of prior training and linguistic experience on the perception of nonnative speech in 2 experiments. Exp I assessed the effect of laboratory training on the ability of 30 English-speaking adults (aged 18-35 yrs) to discriminate 2 speech contrasts that are used to contrast meaning in Hindi but not in English. Short-term training resulted in an amelioration of the initial poor performance of Ss in discriminating a nonnative voicing contrast, but training had no such effect in the case of a Hindi contrast involving a place of articulation distinction. In Exp II, the performance of 3 groups of English-speaking adults (aged 20-38 yrs)--Ss who had studied Hindi for 5 yrs or more, Ss who were studying Hindi as a 2nd language with early experience of Hindi, and Ss studying Hindi as a 2nd language with no early experience of Hindi--was examined to investigate the effect of studying Hindi as a 2nd language for different periods. Ss who had studied Hindi for at least 5 yrs discriminated both Hindi speech contrasts. While 1 yr of 2nd language experience also improved performance of Ss with no early Hindi experience on the voicing contrast, it had little influence on their ability to discriminate the Hindi place contrast. Ss who had early experience hearing the contrasts being used, but no further exposure, could discriminate both the voicing and place distinctions prior to language study. Findings are discussed in terms of the recovery and maintenance of linguistic perceptual ability. (French abstract) (26 ref)