Production and perception of the English /æ/–/ɑ/ contrast in switched-dominance speakers

Casillas, Joseph V.; Simonet, Miquel

doi:10.1177/0267658315608912

Cited by 27 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Participants reported that they used English more than Spanish in their daily lives, and they were found to be significantly more proficient in English than in Spanish according to their d’ scores on the extended lexical decision tasks ( t (31) = 9.89; p < .001). Proficiency scores on the various measures were in line with norms for this population of Spanish-English bilinguals (Casillas & Simonet, 2016; Kohnert, Hernandez, & Bates, 1998). …”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 74%

Early processing of orthographic language membership information in bilingual visual word recognition: Evidence from ERPs

2017

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For successful language comprehension, bilinguals often must exert top-down control to access and select lexical representations within a single language. These control processes may critically depend on identification of the language to which a word belongs, but it is currently unclear when different sources of such language membership information become available during word recognition. In the present study, we used event-related potentials to investigate the time course of influence of orthographic language membership cues. Using an oddball detection paradigm, we observed early neural effects of orthographic bias (Spanish vs. English orthography) that preceded effects of lexicality (word vs. pseudoword). This early orthographic pop-out effect was observed for both words and pseudowords, suggesting that this cue is available prior to full lexical access. We discuss the role of orthographic bias for models of bilingual word recognition and its potential role in the suppression of nontarget lexical information.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 74%

Early processing of orthographic language membership information in bilingual visual word recognition: Evidence from ERPs

2017

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“…Although participants were competent users of both languages, they were significantly more proficient in English than in Spanish according to their d' scores on the extended lexical decision tasks (t(59) = 11.97; p < .001) and their percent correct scores on the MINT (t(59) = 10.71; p < .001). Scores on the various proficiency measures in each language were comparable to norms for this population of Spanish-English bilinguals (Casillas & Simonet, 2016;Kohnert, Hernandez, & Bates, 1998).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 60%

Zooming in on zooming out: Partial selectivity and dynamic tuning of bilingual language control during reading

Hoversten

Traxler

2020

Cognition

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Prominent models of bilingual visual word recognition posit a bottom-up nonselective view of lexical processing with parallel access to lexical candidates of both languages. However, these accounts do not accommodate recent findings of top-down effects on the relative global activation level of each language during bilingual reading. We conducted two eye-tracking experiments to systematically assess the degree of accessibility of each language in different global language contexts. When critical words were presented overtly in Experiment 1, code switches disrupted reading early during lexical processing, but not as much as pseudowords did. Participants zoomed out of the target language with increasing exposure to language switches. In Experiment 2, a monolingual language context was created by presenting critical words covertly as parafoveal previews. Here, code-switched words were treated like pseudowords, and participants remained zoomed in to the target language throughout the experiment. Switch direction analyses confirmed and extended these interpretations to provide further support for the role of global language control on lexical access, above and beyond effects due to proficiency differences across languages. Together, these data provide strong evidence for dynamic topdown adjustment of the degree of language selectivity during bilingual reading.

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“…However, it is not the first to show the critical importance of the first years of life on an individual’s phonological development. Several studies have examined the speech production abilities of adults who, as children, were exposed to a language without ever acquiring it (Au, Knightly, Jun, & Oh, 2002; Casillas & Simonet, 2016; Knightly et al, 2003; Oh, Jun, Knightly, & Au, 2003). For instance, Knightly et al (2003) showed that adults, who were not able to speak Spanish but who were passively exposed to the language as children, had more native-like Spanish pronunciation than typical late L2 learners.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interestingly, the childhood overhearing advantage seems to be domain specific: it was robust in phonology, a domain that is easy for children to acquire but difficult for adults to master, but was not detectable in morphosyntax (Au et al, 2002). Casillas and Simonet (2016) recently examined the production and perception of the /æ/-/ɑ/ vowel contrast by a group of proficient English speakers who were raised by Spanish-speaking families but who became dominant in English during childhood and, as adults, lacked communicative abilities in Spanish, together with a group of Spanish-speaking late learners of English who were dominant in Spanish. Both experimental groups differed from native controls in their production and perception of the English-specific vowel contrast.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Type of early bilingualism and its effect on the acoustic realization of allophonic variants: Early sequential and simultaneous bilinguals

Amengual

2017

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: This study examines the acoustic realization of phrase-initial voiced stops (/b, d, g/) and intervocalic voiced approximants ([β, ð, ɣ]) in Spanish by three groups of Spanish–English bilinguals: simultaneous bilinguals, early sequential bilinguals, and late second language (L2) Spanish learners to investigate if the type of early bilingualism has an effect on the acoustic realization of language-specific phonological processes. Design/Methodology/Approach: Early bilinguals were divided into two groups (simultaneous and sequential bilinguals), and together with late learners (L2 Spanish learners) they were recorded producing words eliciting phrase-initial and intervocalic voiced stops. Data and Analysis: The acoustic analyses examined the difference between the intensity minimum during the consonant and the intensity maximum of the following tautosyllabic vowel (intensity difference). The dataset comprised a total of 3,569 acoustic measurements. Findings/Conclusions: The group of early sequential bilinguals shows a significantly stronger tendency to produce a more lenited intervocalic segment than simultaneous bilinguals and L2 learners, who produce a more constricted realization. These data indicate that simultaneous bilinguals and L2 learners, who were exposed to English since birth, differ from early bilinguals who were exclusively exposed to Spanish for the first years of their life when applying the Spanish allophonic rule governing the distribution of voiced stops and spirants. Originality: This is one of the first studies that investigates the effects of the type of early bilingualism on bilingual phonetic performance in adulthood, especially in terms of bilingual phonetic production. These novel data examine the acoustic realization of Spanish heritage speakers, a largely understudied bilingual population. Significance/Implications: The findings suggest that the type of early bilingualism in language development, even at a very early age, still has consequences on the acoustic realization of allophonic variants in adulthood.

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Production and perception of the English /æ/–/ɑ/ contrast in switched-dominance speakers

Cited by 27 publications

References 55 publications

Early processing of orthographic language membership information in bilingual visual word recognition: Evidence from ERPs

Early processing of orthographic language membership information in bilingual visual word recognition: Evidence from ERPs

Zooming in on zooming out: Partial selectivity and dynamic tuning of bilingual language control during reading

Type of early bilingualism and its effect on the acoustic realization of allophonic variants: Early sequential and simultaneous bilinguals

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