Effects of acoustic and linguistic experience on Japanese pitch accent processing

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of L2 learning experience in relation to L1 background on hemispheric processing of Japanese pitch accent. Native Mandarin Chinese (tonal L1) and English (non-tonal L1) learners of Japanese were tested using dichotic listening. These listener groups were compared with those recruited in Wu, Tu & Wang (2012), including native Mandarin and English listeners without Japanese experience and native Japanese listeners. Results revealed an overall right-hemisphere preference across groups, suggesting acoustically oriented processing. Individual pitch accent patterns also revealed pattern-specific laterality differences, further reflecting acoustic-level processing. However, listener group differences indicated L1 effects, with the Chinese but not English listeners approximating the Japanese patterns. Furthermore, English learners but not naïve listeners exhibited a shift towards the native direction, revealing effects of L2 learning. These findings imply integrated effects of acoustic and linguistic aspects on Japanese pitch accent processing as a function of L1 and L2 experience.

Second and Third Language Learners’ Sensitivity to Japanese Pitch Accent Is Additive

“…Our ABX discrimination results (Figure 1) confirmed previously reported effects of L1 affecting listeners’ Japanese pitch accent perception: L1-English listeners discriminated Japanese pitch accent less accurately than L1-Japanese listeners whereas L1-Mandarin listeners discriminated Japanese pitch accent marginally more accurately than L1-Japanese listeners (Goss, 2018; Shport, 2008, 2015, 2016; Wu et al, 2017).…”

“…This finding supports previous lab-based L2-Japanese perceptual learning studies (e.g., Hirata, 1999; Minematsu et al, 2016). Taken together, Wu et al (2012, 2017) established that while L1 background can constrain Japanese pitch accent perception, learners’ perception improves as a result of classroom L2 learning.…”

“…In Wu, Kawase, and Wang’s (2017) follow-up dichotic listening study, the authors demonstrated that L2-Japanese experience improves L1-English listeners’ perception of Japanese pitch accent. After roughly one year of L2 classroom learning, L1-English + L2-Japanese listeners showed a shift toward more nativelike behavior.…”

Perceptual assimilation of non-native prosodic cues: Cross-linguistic effects of lexical F0 learning

“…The present results suggest that observed variability may not be solely attributable to L1 category fit -even limited L2 experience such as a short 15week training in a tone language may affect the discrimination and categorization of pitch accent. The present research expands the scope of non-native pitch perception research to include variability due to L2 tone experience and supports the claim that experience with tone helps perceive pitch accent, e.g., [28,29].…”

The Margins of the Language Network in the Brain

“…Regarding the early auditory stages of speech encoding, an "asymmetric sampling in time" hypothesis was set up, suggesting that the left hemisphere has a preferred temporal integration window of 20-40 ms, adapted to detect phonetic features that are related to formant transitions in single speech sounds whereas the right hemisphere preferably processes longer time intervals (150-250 ms) that are related to suprasegmental aspects of speech such as the syllabic modulation (Poeppel, 2003;Poeppel et al, 2008). Furthermore, the right hemisphere seems to dominant with respect to the processing of pitch, as has been shown in dichotic listening experiments (Jia et al, 2013;Wu et al, 2017) as well as in studies on phase locking to pitch periodicity in auditory cortex (Hertrich et al, 2004). Further evidence for rightlateralized early representation of pitch was provided in studies on music processing (Jantzen et al, 2014;Wengenroth et al, 2014).…”