Do Cantonese listeners have a non-native advantage in English stress-related lexical decision?

Abstract

Emerging evidence shows that non-native speakers can outperform native speakers in speech perception. This study investigated whether a non-native advantage in speech perception could feed forward to lexical decision. First language Cantonese and English listeners completed an English stress discrimination task, an English lexical decision task, and a non-verbal intelligence task. Perceptually, the Cantonese listeners showed a non-native advantage in English stress discrimination. In the English lexical decision task, the Cantonese listeners detected nonwords with second-syllable stress more accurately than did the English listeners, although this Cantonese advantage was only evident in the context without vowel reduction. In the context with vowel reduction, the Cantonese listeners still achieved a native-like accuracy. The results suggest that the Cantonese advantage in English stress perception can feed forward to lexical decision. However, this advantage is limited to second-syllable stressed nonwords without vowel reduction and does not apply to first-syllable stressed nonwords. Taken together, this study identified a non-native advantage in a stress-related lexical decision task and the limits of this advantage. Broadly, the findings highlight the theoretical need to account for non-native listener advantage at the lexical level.