Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2016-03
The development of regional accent discrimination in children: evidence from Spanish / El desarrollo de la discriminación de acentos regionales en niños: evidencia desde el español
This study explores children’s ability to discriminate between regional accents in Spanish. One hundred and seven Chilean children aged three to seven years old were asked to differentiate whether two sentences were spoken with the same accent or not. Results indicate that the ability to differentiate between regional accents emerges around age five, a result which contradicts previous studies. The discussion analyses possible explanations for this difference, particularly regarding the differences between languages according to how transparent or opaque they are, and the possible impact of those characteristics in the development of regional accent discrimination abilities.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Archila-SuerteP.ZevinJ.BuntaF.HernandezA. E. (2012). Age of acquisition and proficiency in a second language independently influence the perception of non-native speech. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 190–201. doi:10.1017/S1366728911000125
Bravo-ValdiviesoL.EscobarJ. P. (2014). How transparent is Spanish orthography?/¿ Cuán transparente es nuestra ortografía castellana?Estudios de Psicología, 35, 442–449. doi:10.1080/02109395.2014.965455
4.
ButlerJ.FlocciaC.GoslinJ.PannetonR. (2011). Infants’ discrimination of familiar and unfamiliar accents in speech. Infancy, 16, 392–417. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7078.2010.00050.x
5.
ClopperC. G.PisoniD. B. (2004). Homebodies and army brats: Some effects of early linguistic experience and residential history on dialect categorization. Language Variation and Change, 16, 31–48. doi:10.1017/S0954394504161036
6.
CutlerA.MehlerJ.NorrisD.SeguiJ. (1986). The syllable’s differing role in the segmentation of French and English. Journal of Memory and Language, 25, 385–400. doi:10.1016/0749-596X(86)90033-1
7.
DefiorS.SerranoF. (2014). Diachronic and synchronic aspects of Spanish: The relationship with literacy acquisition/Aspectos diacrónicos y sincrónicos del español: relación con la adquisición del lenguaje escrito. Estudios de Psicología, 35, 450–475. doi:10.1080/02109395.2014.974422
8.
FlocciaC.ButlerJ.GirardF.GoslinJ. (2009). Categorization of regional and foreign accent in 5- to 7-year-old British children. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 33, 366–375. doi:10.1177/0165025409103871
9.
GeorgiouG.ParrilaR.PapadopoulosT. (2008). Predictors of word decoding and reading fluency across languages varying in orthographic consistency. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 566–580. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.100.3.566
10.
GirardF.FlocciaC.GoslinJ. (2008). Perception and awareness of accents in young children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 26, 409–433. doi:10.1348/026151007X251712
MulakK. E.BestC. T. (2013). Development of word recognition across speakers and accents. In GogateL.HollichG. (Eds.), Theoretical and computational models of word learning: Trends in psychology and artificial intelligence (pp. 242–269). Hershey, PA: IGI Global, Robotics Division.
13.
MulakK.BestC.TylerM.KitamuraC.IrwinJ. (2013). Development of phonological constancy: 19-month-olds, but not 15-month-olds, identify words in a non-native regional accent. Child Development, 84, 2064–2078. doi:10.1111/cdev.12087
14.
NazziT.JusczykP. W.JohnsonE. K. (2000). Language discrimination by English-learning 5-month-olds: Effects of rhythm and familiarity. Journal of Memory and Language, 43, 1–19. doi:10.1006/jmla.2000.2698
StanislawH.TodorovN. (1999). Calculation of signal detection theory measures. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 31, 137–149. doi:10.3758/BF03207704
17.
YeungH. H.ChenK. H.WerkerJ. F. (2013). When does native language input affect phonetic perception? The precocious case of lexical tone. Journal of Memory and Language, 68, 123–139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2012.09.004
18.
ZieglerJ. C.BertrandD.TothD.CsepeV.ReisA.FaiscaL.BlomertL. (2010). Orthographic depth and its impact on universal predictors of reading: A cross language investigation. Psychological Science, 21, 551–559. doi:10.1177/0956797610363406
19.
ZieglerJ. C.GoswamiU. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: A psycholinguistic grain size theory. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 3–29. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.3
