Tone matters for Cantonese–English bilingual children’s English word reading development: A unified model of phonological transfer

Abstract

Languages differ considerably in how they use prosodic features, or variations in pitch, duration, and intensity, to distinguish one word from another. Prosodic features include lexical tone in Chinese and lexical stress in English. Recent cross-sectional studies show a surprising result that Mandarin Chinese tone sensitivity is related to Mandarin-English bilingual children's English word reading. This study explores the mechanism underlying this relation by testing two explanations of these effects: the prosodic hypothesis and segmental phonological awareness transfer. We administered multiple measures of Cantonese tone sensitivity, English stress sensitivity, segmental phonological awareness in Cantonese and English, nonverbal ability, and English word reading to 123 Cantonese-English bilingual children ages 7 and 8 years. Structural equation modeling revealed a longitudinal prediction of Cantonese tone sensitivity to English word reading between 8 and 9 years of age. This relation was realized through two parallel routes. In one, Cantonese tone sensitivity predicted English stress sensitivity, and English stress sensitivity, in turn, significantly predicted English word reading, as postulated by the prosodic hypothesis. In the second, Cantonese tone sensitivity predicted English word reading through the transfer of segmental phonological awareness between Cantonese and English, as predicted by segmental phonological transfer. These results support a unified model of phonological transfer, emphasizing the role of tone in English word reading for Cantonese-English bilingual children.

From Lexical Tone to Lexical Stress: A Cross-Language Mediation Model for Cantonese Children Learning English as a Second Language

“…Consistent with a previous study ( Tong et al, 2016 ), we have shown the contribution of Cantonese lexical tone sensitivity to English lexical stress sensitivity among Cantonese ESL children. This finding has extended previous studies on L1 and L2 segmental dimension ( Comeau et al, 1999 ; Chien et al, 2008 ; Keung and Ho, 2009 ), by demonstrating that the contribution of L1 to L2 phonological skills of Cantonese ESL children is also evident at the suprasegmental dimension.…”

“…An odd-one-out tone discrimination task ( Tong et al, 2014 , 2016 ; Choi et al, 2016a , b ) was modified to assess children’s sensitivity to Cantonese lexical tones. There were 48 trials, each consisting of three real Cantonese monosyllabic words, with one tone differed from the others (e.g., /sɪŋ1/, /sa1/, /sɐu2/).…”

“…Each trial presented one of the eight minimum possible tone contrasts, i.e., mid level-low level, high rising-low rising, high level-mid level, high level-low level, low rising-low level, low falling-low level, low falling-low rising and high level-high rising, as in previous studies of tone perception in children of a similar age (e.g., Ciocca and Lui, 2003 ; Tong et al, 2014 , 2016 ; Choi et al, 2016a , b ). There were six repetitions for each tone contrast in the whole test.…”

“…Relative to the segmental dimension, e.g., consonants and vowels (e.g., Chien et al, 2008 ; Keung and Ho, 2009 ; Wang et al, 2009 ), there is a comparative paucity of research on the extent to which sensitivity to suprasegmental cues generalize across languages over the course of first language (L1) and second language (L2) development. Noticeably, there is emerging research demonstrating lexical prosodic transfer, a process through which adults and children who learn English as second language (ESL) capitalize on similarities in the structure of lexical tones and lexical stress in a way that allows them to harness their perceptual sensitivity to L1 lexical tones in the service of L2 English lexical stress perception (e.g., Nguyen et al, 2008 ; Wang, 2008 ; Yu and Andruski, 2010 ; Tong et al, 2015a , 2016 ). In the context of Cantonese ESL children, a previous study reported that Cantonese lexical tone sensitivity contributed to English lexical stress sensitivity ( Tong et al, 2016 ).…”

“…Noticeably, there is emerging research demonstrating lexical prosodic transfer, a process through which adults and children who learn English as second language (ESL) capitalize on similarities in the structure of lexical tones and lexical stress in a way that allows them to harness their perceptual sensitivity to L1 lexical tones in the service of L2 English lexical stress perception (e.g., Nguyen et al, 2008 ; Wang, 2008 ; Yu and Andruski, 2010 ; Tong et al, 2015a , 2016 ). In the context of Cantonese ESL children, a previous study reported that Cantonese lexical tone sensitivity contributed to English lexical stress sensitivity ( Tong et al, 2016 ). Little is known, however, on how Cantonese lexical tone sensitivity contributes to English lexical stress sensitivity among Cantonese ESL children.…”