This study evaluated whether age effects on second language (L2) speech learning derive from changes in how the native language (L1) and L2 sound systems interact. According to the “interaction hypothesis” (IH), the older the L2 learner, the less likely the learner is able to establish new vowel categories needed for accurate L2 vowel production and perception because, with age, L1 vowel categories become more likely to perceptually encompass neighboring L2 vowels. These IH predictions were evaluated in two experiments involving 64 native Korean- and English-speaking children and adults. Experiment 1 determined, as predicted, that the Korean children were less likely than the Korean adults to perceive L2 vowels as instances of a single L1 vowel category. Experiment 2 showed that the Korean children surpassed the Korean adults in production of certain vowels but equaled them in vowel perception. These findings, which partially support the IH, are discussed in relation to L2 speech learning.
Abu-Rabia, S., & Kehat, S. (2004). The critical period for second language pronunciation: is there such a thing? Ten case studies of late starters who attained a native-like Hebrew accent. Educational Psychology, 24, 77-98.
2.
Aoyama, K., Flege, J.E., Guion, S.G., Akahane-Yamada, R., & Yamada, T. (2004). Perceived phonetic dissimilarity and L2 speech learning: the case of Japanese /r/ and English /l/ and /r/. Journal of Phonetics, 32, 233-250.
3.
Attneave, F. (1959). Application of information theory to psychology: A summary of basic concepts, methods, and results. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson.
4.
Baker, W., & Trofimovich, P. (2005). Interaction of native- and second-language vowel system(s) in early and late bilinguals. Language and Speech, 48, 1-27.
5.
Baker, W., Trofimovich, P., Mack, M., & Flege, J.E. (2002). The effect of perceived phonetic similarity on non-native sound learning by children and adults. In B. Skarabela, S. Fish, & A. H.-J. Do (Eds.), Proceedings of the Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Boston, MA: Cascadilla Press.
6.
Best, C.T. (1994). The emergence of native-language phonological influences in infants: A perceptual assimilation model. In J. C. Goodman & H. C. Nusbaum (Eds.), The development of speech perception: the transition from speech sounds to spoken words. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
7.
Best, C.T. (1995). A direct-realist perspective on cross-language speech perception. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research (pp.171-204). Timonium, MD: York Press.
8.
Bever, T.G. (1981). Normal acquisition processes explain the critical period for language learning. In K. C. Diller (Ed.), Individual differences and universals in language learning aptitude (pp.48-95). London: Newbury .
9.
Birdsong, D., & Molis, M. (2001). On the evidence for maturational constraints in second-language acquisition. Journal of Memory and Language , 44, 235-249.
10.
Blausdel, C.G., Mitchell, D.E., Muir, D.W., & Pettigrew, J.D. (1977). A physiological and behavioural study in cats of the effect of early visual experience with contours of a single orientation. Journal of Physiology, 265, 615-636.
11.
Bond, Z., & Adamescu, L. (1979). Identification of novel phonetic segments by children, adolescents and adults. Phonetica, 36, 182-186.
12.
Bradlow, A.R., & Pisoni, D.B. (1999). Recognition of spoken words by native and nonnative listeners: Talker-, listener-, and item-related factors. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 106, 2074-2085.
13.
Butcher, A. (1976). The influence of native language on the perception of vowel quality. Arbeitsberichte des Instituts für Phonetik. Institut für Phonetik: Kiel University.
14.
Cunningham, J., Nicol, T., Zecker, S., & Kraus, N. (2000). Speech-evoked neuro-physiologic responses in children with learning problems: development and behavioral correlates of perception . Ear & Hearing, 21, 554-568.
15.
Edwards,J., Beckman, M.E., & Munson, B. (2004). The interaction between vocabulary size and phonotactic probability effects on children's production accuracy and fluency in nonword repetition. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research , 47, 421-436.
16.
Fifkova, E. (1968). Changes in the visual cortex of rats after unilateral deprivation. Nature, 220, 379-381.
17.
Flege, J.E. (1987). The production of "new" and "similar" phones in a foreign language: Evidence for the effect of equivalence classification . Journal of Phonetics, 15, 47-65.
18.
Flege, J.E. (1992). Speech learning in a second language. In C. A. Ferguson, L. Menn, & C. Stoel-Gammon (Eds.), Phonological development: models, research, implications (pp. 565-604). Timonium, MD: York Press.
19.
Flege, J.E. (1995). Second-language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: issues in cross-language research (pp. 233-277). Timonium, MD: York Press.
20.
Flege, J.E. (1999). Age of learning and second-language speech. In D. Birdsong (Ed.), Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis (pp.117-137). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
21.
Flege, J.E. (2002). Interactions between the native and second-language phonetic systems. In. P. Burmeister, T. Piske, & A. Rohde (Eds.), An integrated view of language development: Papers in honor of Henning Wode (pp.234-257). Trier: Wissenschaftilcher Verlag.
22.
Flege, J.E. (2003). Assessing constraints on second-language segmental production and perception. In A. Meyer & N. Schiller (Eds.), Phonetics and phonology in language comprehension and production: differences and similarities (pp. 319-345). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
23.
Flege, J.E., Birdsong, D., Bialystok, E., Mack, M., Sung, H., & Tsukada, K. (2006). Degree of foreign accent in English sentences produced by Korean children and adults. Journal of Phonetics , 34, 153-175.
24.
Flege, J.E., Bohn, O.-S., & Jang, S. (1997). Effects of experience on non-native speakers' production and perception of English vowels. Journal of Phonetics , 25, 437-470.
25.
Flege, J.E., & Efting, W. (1986). Linguistic and developmental effects on the production and perception of stop consonants. Phonetica, 43, 155-171.
26.
Flege, J.E., MacKay, I.R.A., & Meador, D. (1999). Native Italian speakers' perception and production of English vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America , 106, 2973-2987.
27.
Flege, J.E., Yeni-Komshian, G.H., & Liu, S. (1999). Age constraints on second-language acquisition . Journal of Memory and Language, 41, 78-104.
28.
Gatbonton, E., & Trofimovich, P. (2008). The ethnic group affiliation and L2 proficiency link: Empirical evidence. Language Awareness , 17, 229-245.
29.
Gottfried, T.L., Jenkins, J.J., & Strange, W. (1985). Categorial discrimination of vowels produced in syllable context and in isolation. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 23, 101-104.
30.
Guion, S.G., Flege, J.E., Akahane-Yamada, R., & Pruitt, J.C. (2000). An investigation of current models of second language speech perception: The case of Japanese adults' perception of English consonants . Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107, 2711-2724.
31.
Guion, S.G., Flege, J.E., Lin, S.H.Yeni-Komshian, G.H. (2000). Age of learning effects on the duration of sentences produced in a second language. Applied Psycholinguistics, 21(2), 205-228.
32.
Hakuta, K., Bialystok, E., & Wiley, E. (2003). Critical evidence: A test of the critical-period hypothesis for second-language acquisition. Psychological Science, 14, 31-37.
33.
Hazan, V., & Barrett, S. (2000). The development of phonemic categorization in children aged 6-12. Journal of Phonetics, 28, 377-396.
34.
Hillenbrand, J., Getty, L.A., Clark, M.J., & Wheeler, K. (1995). Acoustic characteristics of American English vowels . Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 97, 3099-3111.
35.
Hirsh, K.W., Morrison, C.M., Gaset, S., & Carnicer, E. (2003). Age of acquisition and speech production in L2 . Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 6, 117-128.
36.
Iverson, P., Kuhl, P.K., Akahane-Yamada, R., Diesch, E., Tohkura, Y., Kettermann, A., ET AL. (2003). A perceptual interference account of acquisition difficulties for non-native phonemes. Cognition, 87, B47-B57.
37.
Jia, G., & Aaronson, D.A. (2003). Longitudinal study of Chinese children and adolescents learning English in the United States. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 131-61.
38.
Johnson, C.E. (2000). Children's phoneme identification in reverberation and noise. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research , 43, 144-157.
39.
Johnson, J.S., & Newport, E.L. (1989). Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology, 21, 60-99.
40.
Kim, K., Relkin, N., Lee, K.-M., & Hirsch, J. (1997). Distinct cortical areas associated with native and second languages. Nature, 388, 171-174.
41.
Kuhl, P.K. (1991). Human adults and human infants show a "perceptual magnet effect" for the prototypes of speech categories, monkeys do not. Perception & Psychophysics, 50, 93-107.
42.
Kuhl, P.K. (1998). The development of speech and language. In T. C. Carew, R. Mezel, & C. J. Shatz (Eds.), Mechanistic relationships between development and learning (pp.53-74). New York: Wiley.
43.
Kuhl, P.K., Williams, K.A., Lacerda, F., Stevens, K.N., & Lindblom, B. (1992). Language experience alters phonetic perception in infants by 6 months of age. Science, 255, 606-608.
44.
Lenneberg, E. (1967). Biological foundations of language. New York: Wiley.
45.
Mack, M. (1990). Phonetic transfer in a French-English bilingual child. In P. H. Nelde (Ed.), Language attitudes and language conflict (pp.107-124). Bonn: Dümmler.
46.
Mack, M. (2003). The phonetic systems of bilinguals. In M. Banich & M. Mack (Eds.), Mind, brain, and language: multidisciplinary perspectives (pp.309-349). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
47.
Maye, J., Weiss, D.J., & Aslin, R. (2008). Statistical phonetic learning in infants: Facilitation and feature generalization. Developmental Science, 11, 122-134.
48.
Maye, J., Werker, J.F., & Gerken, L. (2002). Infant sensitivity to distributional information can affect phonetic discrimination. Cognition, 82(3), B101-B111.
49.
McCandliss, B.D., Fiez, J.A., Protopapas, A., Conway, M., & McClelland, J.L. (2002). Success and failure in teaching the r-l contrast to Japanese adults: predictions of a hebbian model of plasticity and stabilization in spoken language perception. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 2, 89-108.
50.
Mechelli, A., Crinion, J.T., Noppeney, U., O'Doherty, J., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R.S., ET AL. (2004). Structural plasticity in the bilingual brain. Nature, 431, 757.
51.
Moorman, S.J., Cordova, R., & Davies, S.A. (2002). A critical period for functional vestibular development in zebrafish. Developmental Dynamics, 223, 285-291.
52.
Munro, M.J., Flege, J.E., & MacKay, I.R.A. (1996). The effects of age of second language learning on the production of English vowels. Applied Psycholinguistics, 17, 313-334.
53.
Newport, E.L. (1990). Maturational constraints on language learning . Cognitive Science, 14, 11-28.
54.
Ohde, T.N., & Sharf, D.J. (1988). Perceptual categorization and consistency of synthesized /r-w/ continua by adults, normal children and /r/-misarticulating children . Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 31, 556-568.
55.
Olive, J.P., Greenwood, A., & Coleman, J. (1993). Acoustics of American English speech: A dynamic approach. New York: Springer-Verlag .
56.
Oyama, S. (1976). A sensitive period for the acquisition of a nonnative phonological system. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research , 5, 261-283.
57.
Pallier, C., Bosch, L., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (1997). A limit on behavioral plasticity in speech perception. Cognition, 64, B9-B17.
58.
Pallier, C., Dehaene, S., Poline, J.-B., LeBihan, D., Argenti, A.-M., Dupoux, E., ET AL. (2003). Brain imaging of language plasticity in adopted adults: Can a second language replace the first?Cerebral Cortex, 13, 155-161.
59.
Perani, D., Paulesu, E., Sebastián-Gallés, N., Dupoux, E., Dehaene, S., Bettinardi, V., ET AL. (1998). The bilingual brain: Proficiency and age of acquisition of the second language. Brain, 121, 1841-1852.
60.
Pierrehumbert, J.B. (2003). Phonetic diversity, statistical learning, and acquisition of phonology. Language and Speech, 46, 115-154.
61.
Pisoni, D.B., Lively, S.E., & Logan, J.S. (1994). Perceptual learning of nonnative speech contrasts: Implications for theories of speech perception. In J. C. Goodman & H. C. Nusbaum (Eds.), The development of speech perception: The transition from speech sounds to spoken words (pp.121-166). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
62.
Rozin, P. (1976). The evolution of intelligence and access to the cognitive unconscious. Progress in Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology, 6, 245-280.
63.
Sharma, A., Kraus, N., McGee, T.J., & Nicol, T.G. (1997). Developmental changes in P1 and N1 central auditory responses elicited by consonant-vowel syllables. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 104, 540-545.
64.
Smith, S.C. (1997). UAB software. Department of Rehabilitation SciencesUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham.
65.
Snodgrass, J.G., Levy-Berger, G., & Haydon, M. (1985). Human experimental psychology. London, OUP.
66.
Snow, C.E., & Hoefnagel-Höhle, M. (1978). The critical period for language acquisition: Evidence from second language learning. Child Development, 49, 1114-1128.
67.
Stevens, G. (1999). Age at immigration and second language proficiency among foreign-born adults. Language in Society, 28, 555-578.
68.
Strange, W., Akahane-Yamada, R., Kubo, R., Trent, S., & Nishi, K. (2001). Effects of consonantal context on perceptual assimilation of American English vowels by Japanese listeners. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 109, 1691-1704.
69.
Sussman, J.E., & Carney, A.E. (1989). Effect of transition length on the perception of stop consonants by children and adults. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 32, 151-160.
70.
Takagi, N. (1995). Signal detection modeling of Japanese listeners' /r/-/l/ labeling behavior in a one-interval identification task. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97, 563-574.
71.
Trofimovich, P., & Baker, W. (2006). Learning second-language suprasegmentals: Effect of L2 experience on prosody and fluency characteristics of L2 speech. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28, 1-30.
72.
Trofimovich, P., Baker, W. , & Mack, M. (2001). Context- and experience-based effects on the learning of vowels in a second language. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, 31, 167-186.
73.
Tsukada, K., Birdsong, D., Bialystok, E., Mack, M., Sung, H., & Flege, J.E. (2005). A developmental study of English vowel production and perception by native Korean adults and children. Journal of Phonetics, 33, 263-290.
74.
Walley, A.C., & Flege, J.E. (1999). Effect of lexical status on children's and adults' perception of native and non-native vowels. Journal of Phonetics , 26, 307-331.
75.
Werker, J.F. (1994). Cross-language speech perception: Development change does not involve loss. In J. C. Goodman & H. C. Nusbaum (Eds.), The development of speech perception: The transition from speech sounds to spoken words (pp.93-120). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
76.
Werker, J.F., & Tees, R.C. (1984). Cross-language speech perception: Evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life. Infant Behavior and Development, 7, 49-63.
77.
Yang, B. (1996). A comparative study of American English and Korean vowels produced by male and female speakers. Journal of Phonetics , 24, 245-261.
