The non-native phonetic perception mechanism utilized by bilinguals with different L2 proficiency levels

Abstract

Aims:

The present study investigated whether bilinguals differing in L2 proficiency are different in their non-native phonetic perception mechanism.

Methodology:

An event-related potential (ERP) experiment was conducted, in which high and low L2 proficiency bilinguals were asked to focus their attention on a muted film while listening pre-attentively to phoneme contrasts arranged in the Oddball paradigm. Non-native and native phonetic conditions were investigated in two separate blocks.

Data and analysis:

The mean amplitudes of the ERP epochs time-locked to the onset of phonemes were analyzed within four consecutive time windows: 50–150 ms, 150–250 ms, 250–350 ms, and 350–600 ms. Repeated measures analyses were performed on the following factors: phonetic condition (non-native vs. native) × deviancy (standard vs. deviant) × brain region (frontal vs. parietal) × proficiency (high vs. low). Phonetic condition, deviancy, and brain region were within-subjects factors, whereas proficiency was a between-subjects factor.

Findings:

In the non-native phonetic condition, a deviancy effect in the form of mismatch negativity (MMN) and late discriminative negativity (LDN) ERP components was observed in bilinguals with high L2 proficiency, whereas the P3b and late positive component (LPC) were found in those with low L2 proficiency. In the native phonetic condition, the two proficiency groups were the same in the deviancy effect as manifested by their similar brain responses in the form of the MMN component.

Originality:

This was the first study to take native phonetic condition into consideration while investigating the relationship between L2 proficiency and non-native phonetic discrimination.

Significance/implications:

The current findings suggest that high L2 proficiency might be related to faster involuntary phonetic discrimination and efficient high-level phonetic evaluation, whereas low L2 proficiency bilinguals may need to rely on additional memory processing. Findings of this study provide more evidence for the perceptual plasticity in pre-attentive non-native phonetic processing as a function of L2 proficiency.

Keywords

Pre-attentive non-native phonetic discrimination L2 proficiency individual differences perceptual plasticity mismatch negativity (MMN)

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Archila-Suerte

Bunta

Hernandez

A. E.

(2016). Speech sound learning depends on individuals’ ability, not just experience. International Journal of Bilingualism, 20(3), 231–253.

Archila-Suerte

Zevin

Bunta

Hernandez

A. E.

(2012). Age of acquisition and proficiency in a second language independently influence the perception of non-native speech. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(1), 190–201.

Archila-Suerte

Zevin

Hernandez

A. E.

(2015). The effect of age of acquisition, socioeducational status, and proficiency on the neural processing of second language speech sounds. Brain and Language, 141, 35–49.

Benikos

Johnstone

S. J.

Roodenrys

S. J.

(2013). Varying task difficulty in the Go/Nogo task: The effects of inhibitory control, arousal, and perceived effort on ERP components. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 87(3), 262–272.

Boersma

Weenink

(2015). Praat: A system for doing phonetics by computer. http://www.praat.org

Burgaleta

Baus

Díaz

Sebastián-Gallés

(2014). Brain structure is related to speech perception abilities in bilinguals. Brain Structure and Function, 219, 1405–1416.

Cheour

Korpilahti

Martynova

Lang

A. H.

(2001). Mismatch negativity and late discriminative negativity in investigating speech perception and learning in children and infants. Audiology and Neuro-Otology, 6, 2–11.

Díaz

Baus

Escera

Costa

Sebastián-Gallés

(2008). Brain potentials to native phoneme discrimination reveal the origin of individual differences in learning the sounds of a second language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(42), 16083–16088.

Díaz

Burgaleta

Sebastián-Gallés

(2019). The gift of language learning: Individual differences in non-native speech perception. In Schwieter

J. W.

(Ed.), The handbook of the neuroscience of multilingualism (pp. 277–296). John Wiley.

10.

Díaz

Mitterer

Broersma

Escera

Sebastián-Gallés

(2016). Variability in L2 phonemic learning originates from speech-specific capabilities: An MMN study on late bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19(5), 955–970.

11.

Frenck-Mestre

Meunier

Espesser

Daffner

(2005). Perceiving nonnative vowels: The effect of context on perception as evidenced by event-related brain potentials. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48, 1496–1510.

12.

Friedman

Johnson

Jr. (2000). Event-related potential (ERP) studies of memory encoding and retrieval: A selective review. Microscopy Research and Technique, 51, 6–28.

13.

Golestani

Molko

Dehaene

LeBihan

Pallier

(2007). Brain structure predicts the learning of foreign speech sounds. Cerebral Cortex, 17(3), 575–582.

14.

Golestani

Paus

Zatorre

R. J.

(2002). Anatomical correlates of learning novel speech sounds. Neuron, 35(5), 997–1010.

15.

Golestani

Zatorre

R. J.

(2004). Learning new sounds of speech: Reallocation of neural substrates. NeuroImage, 21(2), 494–506.

16.

Golestani

Zatorre

R. J.

(2009). Individual differences in the acquisition of second language phonology. Brain and Language, 109(2–3), 55–67.

17.

Gratton

Coles

M. G. H.

Donchin

(1983). A new method for off-line removal of ocular artifact. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 55(4), 468–484.

18.

Hanulíková

Dediu

Fang

BaŠnaková

Huettig

(2012). Individual differences in the acquisition of a complex L2 phonology: A training study. Language Learning, 62(Suppl. 2), 79–109.

19.

Hommet

Vidal

Roux

Blanc

Barthez

M. A.

De Becque

Barthelemy

Bruneau

Gomot

(2009). Topography of syllable change-detection electrophysiological indices in children and adults with reading disabilities. Neuropsychologia, 47, 761–770.

20.

Hulstijn

J. H.

(2012). The construct of language proficiency in the study of bilingualism from a cognitive perspective. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(2), 422–433.

21.

Jacobsen

Schröger

Alter

(2004). Pre-attentive perception of vowel phonemes from variable speech stimuli. Psychophysiology, 41, 654–659.

22.

Jakoby

Goldstein

Faust

(2011). Electrophysiological correlates of speech perception mechanisms and individual differences in second language attainment. Psychophysiology, 48, 1516–1530.

23.

Jin

Díaz

Colomer

Sebastián-Gallés

(2014). Oscillation encoding of individual differences in speech perception. PLOS ONE, 9(7), Article e100901.

24.

Johnson

Jr. (1995). Event-related potential insights into the neurobiology of memory systems. In Boller

Grafman

(Eds.), Handbook of Neuropsychology (Vol. 10, pp. 135–163). Elsevier.

25.

Kimura

Takeda

(2013). Task difficulty affects the predictive process indexed by visual mismatch negativity. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, Article 267.

26.

Kotz

S. A.

Elston-Güttler

(2004). The role of proficiency on processing categorical and associative information in the L2 as revealed by reaction times and event-related brain potentials. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 17, 215–235.

27.

Legault

Litcofsky

K. A.

(2014). Neuroplasticity as a function of second language learning: Anatomical changes in the human brain. Cortex, 58, 301–324.

28.

Liang

Chen

(2014). Processing morphologically complex words in second language learners: The effect of proficiency. Acta Psychologica, 150, 69–79.

29.

Liang

Chen

(2020). The impact of language proficiency on the time course and neural basis of L2 semantic access in bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism, 24(4), 840–860.

30.

Liang

Sharwood Smith

Chondrogianni

Chen

(2017). The pre-attentive L2 orthographic perception mechanism utilized by bilinguals with different proficiency levels. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 1357.

31.

Luck

(2005). An introduction to the event-related potential technique. MIT Press.

32.

Mechelli

Crinion

J. T.

Noppeney

O’Doherty

Ashburner

Frackowiak

R. S.

Price

C. J.

(2004). Structural plasticity in the bilingual brain: Proficiency in a second language and age at acquisition affect grey-matter density. Nature, 431, 757.

33.

Näätänen

Gaillard

A. W. K.

Mäntysalo

(1978). Early selective-attention effect on evoked potential reinterpreted. Acta Psychologica, 42, 313–329.

34.

Näätänen

Paavilainen

Rinne

Alho

(2007). The mismatch negativity (MMN) in basic research of central auditory processing: A review. Clinical Neurophysiology, 118, 2544–2590.

35.

Perani

Abutalebi

(2005). The neural basis of first and second language processing. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 15, 202–206.

36.

Polich

(2007). Updating P300: An integrative theory of P3a and P3b. Clinical Neurophysiology, 118, 2128–2148.

37.

Polich

Criado

J. R.

(2006). Neuropsychology and neuropharmacology of P3a and P3b. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 60, 172–185.

38.

Rodriguez

S. M.

Archila-Suerte

Vaughn

K. A.

Chiarello

Hernandez

A. E.

(2018). Anterior insular thickness predicts speech sound learning ability in bilinguals. NeuroImage, 165, 278–284.

39.

Sebastián-Gallés

Díaz

(2012). First and second language speech perception: Graded learning. Language Learning, 62(Suppl. 2), 131–147.

40.

Sebastián-Gallés

Soriano-Mas

Baus

Díaz

Ressel

Pallier

Costa

Pujol

(2012). Neuroanatomical markers of individual differences in native and non-native vowel perception. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 25, 150–162.

41.

Silbert

N. H.

Smith

B. K.

Jackson

S. R.

Campbell

S. G.

Hughes

M. M.

Tare

(2015). Non-native phonemic discrimination, phonological short term memory, and word learning. Journal of Phonetics, 50, 99–119.

42.

Veivo

Järvikivi

(2012). Proficiency modulates early orthographic and phonological processing in L2 spoken word recognition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16(4), 864–883.

43.

Veivo

Järvikivi

Porretta

Hyönä

(2016). Orthographic activation in L2 spoken word recognition depends on proficiency: Evidence from eye-tracking. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, Article 1120.

44.

White

E. J.

Titone

Genesee

Steinhauer

(2017). Phonological processing in late second language learners: The effects of proficiency and task. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20(1), 162–183.