Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Broselow, Ellen | Huffman, Marie K | Samuel, Arthur | Hayes-Harb, Rachel.
Date
2015-08-01
Keywords
Perceptual Learning, Perceptual Retuning, Psycholinguistics, Second Language Learners, Second Language Listening, Speech Perception | Linguistics
Department
Department of Linguistics.
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77746
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
This dissertation studied the flexibility of linguistic representations in monolingual and bilingual speakers of English. We conducted four perceptual learning studies to determine how monolingual English and English-German bilingual listeners mentally represent fricative phonemes. Listeners first completed an auditory lexical decision task in English in which critical stimuli contained either an /f/ or /s/ that had been replaced with a mixture in between [f] and [s]. Subsequently, listeners completed forced-choice phoneme categorization tasks to test for perceptual learning on the trained English /f-s/ contrast and possible generalization to other within-language contrasts, and possible cross-language generalization. We hypothesized (a) that perceptual learning in monolinguals would generalize across phonological features if the relevant phoneme contrast is signaled by similar acoustic-phonetic cues, and (b) that perceptual learning would generalize from English to German because the phonetic properties important to fricative contrasts in the two languages are similar. We found evidence of perceptual learning, and some generalization across phonemes and/or languages, in a complex pattern that suggests an important influence of type of bilingual experience. The monolingual English listeners showed perceptual learning on English /f-s/ and generalized the effect to the /v-z/ contrast, as predicted. Novice L1 English - L2 German speakers in the US (study 2 & 3) also showed perceptual learning on the trained English /f-s/ contrast. In addition, listeners in study 2 showed no perceptual learning in German, while participants in study 3, who were in a somewhat more bilingual language mode (Grosjean 1997, 2001), did show perceptual learning effects on German /f-s/ and German /v-z/. In study 4, intermediate-to-advanced L1 German - L2 English speakers in Germany who were in a bilingual language mode, showed perceptual learning on English /f-s/ and German /f-s/, but not on the voiced /v-z/ fricative contrast in either language. These bilingual results are explained with a model in which phonemes common to two languages have separate but dynamically associated representations. A bilingual mode strengthens the interconnections between phonemes, thus facilitating cross-linguistic effects. Effects are strongest in L2 sound systems when perceptual learning generalizes from the dominant L1 to the non-dominant, novice L2. Finally, non-native listeners adjust the representation of phoneme boundaries in their L2 at the level of individual phoneme contrasts, and do not generalize these adaptation effects to phoneme contrasts that share relevant phonological features. | 204 pages
Recommended Citation
Schuhmann, Katharina Sophie, "Perceptual Learning in Second Language Learners" (2015). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 3531.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/3531