Explaining L2 Lexical Learning in Multiple Scenarios : Cross-Situational Word Learning in L1 Mandarin L2 English Speakers

Escudero, Paola; Smit, Eline A.; Mulak, Karen E.

Explaining L2 Lexical Learning in Multiple Scenarios : Cross-Situational Word Learning in L1 Mandarin L2 English Speakers

Dateien

Escudero_2-1qzhzejxhrr8u3.pdfGröße: 1.4 MBDownloads: 82

Datum

2022

Autor:innen

Escudero, Paola

Smit, Eline A.

Mulak, Karen E.

Open Access-Veröffentlichung

Open Access Gold

Sammlungen

Linguistik

Publikationstyp

Zeitschriftenartikel

Publikationsstatus

Published

Erschienen in

Brain Sciences. MDPI. 2022, 12(12), 1618. eISSN 2076-3425. Available under: doi: 10.3390/brainsci12121618

Zusammenfassung

Adults commonly struggle with perceiving and recognizing the sounds and words of a second language (L2), especially when the L2 sounds do not have a counterpart in the learner’s first language (L1). We examined how L1 Mandarin L2 English speakers learned pseudo English words within a cross-situational word learning (CSWL) task previously presented to monolingual English and bilingual Mandarin-English speakers. CSWL is ambiguous because participants are not provided with direct mappings of words and object referents. Rather, learners discern word-object correspondences through tracking multiple co-occurrences across learning trials. The monolinguals and bilinguals tested in previous studies showed lower performance for pseudo words that formed vowel minimal pairs (e.g., /dit/-/dɪt/) than pseudo word which formed consonant minimal pairs (e.g., /bɔn/-/pɔn/) or non-minimal pairs which differed in all segments (e.g., /bɔn/-/dit/). In contrast, L1 Mandarin L2 English listeners struggled to learn all word pairs. We explain this seemingly contradicting finding by considering the multiplicity of acoustic cues in the stimuli presented to all participant groups. Stimuli were produced in infant-directed-speech (IDS) in order to compare performance by children and adults and because previous research had shown that IDS enhances L1 and L2 acquisition. We propose that the suprasegmental pitch variation in the vowels typical of IDS stimuli might be perceived as lexical tone distinctions for tonal language speakers who cannot fully inhibit their L1 activation, resulting in high lexical competition and diminished learning during an ambiguous word learning task. Our results are in line with the Second Language Linguistic Perception (L2LP) model which proposes that fine-grained acoustic information from multiple sources and the ability to switch between language modes affects non-native phonetic and lexical development.

Fachgebiet (DDC)

400 Sprachwissenschaft, Linguistik

Schlagwörter

cross-situational word learning; L1 mandarin L2 english; minimal and non-minimal word pairs; acoustic cues; language modes; L2LP model

Zitieren

ISO 690

ESCUDERO, Paola, Eline A. SMIT, Karen E. MULAK, 2022. Explaining L2 Lexical Learning in Multiple Scenarios : Cross-Situational Word Learning in L1 Mandarin L2 English Speakers. In: Brain Sciences. MDPI. 2022, 12(12), 1618. eISSN 2076-3425. Available under: doi: 10.3390/brainsci12121618

BibTex

@article{Escudero2022-12Expla-59508,
  year={2022},
  doi={10.3390/brainsci12121618},
  title={Explaining L2 Lexical Learning in Multiple Scenarios : Cross-Situational Word Learning in L1 Mandarin L2 English Speakers},
  number={12},
  volume={12},
  journal={Brain Sciences},
  author={Escudero, Paola and Smit, Eline A. and Mulak, Karen E.},
  note={Article Number: 1618}
}

RDF

<rdf:RDF
    xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:bibo="http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/"
    xmlns:dspace="http://digital-repositories.org/ontologies/dspace/0.1.0#"
    xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
    xmlns:void="http://rdfs.org/ns/void#"
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#" > 
  <rdf:Description rdf:about="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/59508">
    <dc:creator>Mulak, Karen E.</dc:creator>
    <dc:contributor>Smit, Eline A.</dc:contributor>
    <dc:creator>Smit, Eline A.</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator>Escudero, Paola</dc:creator>
    <dc:language>eng</dc:language>
    <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://localhost:8080/"/>
    <bibo:uri rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/59508"/>
    <dc:contributor>Mulak, Karen E.</dc:contributor>
    <dcterms:title>Explaining L2 Lexical Learning in Multiple Scenarios : Cross-Situational Word Learning in L1 Mandarin L2 English Speakers</dcterms:title>
    <dcterms:hasPart rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/59508/1/Escudero_2-1qzhzejxhrr8u3.pdf"/>
    <dcterms:abstract xml:lang="eng">Adults commonly struggle with perceiving and recognizing the sounds and words of a second language (L2), especially when the L2 sounds do not have a counterpart in the learner’s first language (L1). We examined how L1 Mandarin L2 English speakers learned pseudo English words within a cross-situational word learning (CSWL) task previously presented to monolingual English and bilingual Mandarin-English speakers. CSWL is ambiguous because participants are not provided with direct mappings of words and object referents. Rather, learners discern word-object correspondences through tracking multiple co-occurrences across learning trials. The monolinguals and bilinguals tested in previous studies showed lower performance for pseudo words that formed vowel minimal pairs (e.g., /dit/-/dɪt/) than pseudo word which formed consonant minimal pairs (e.g., /bɔn/-/pɔn/) or non-minimal pairs which differed in all segments (e.g., /bɔn/-/dit/). In contrast, L1 Mandarin L2 English listeners struggled to learn all word pairs. We explain this seemingly contradicting finding by considering the multiplicity of acoustic cues in the stimuli presented to all participant groups. Stimuli were produced in infant-directed-speech (IDS) in order to compare performance by children and adults and because previous research had shown that IDS enhances L1 and L2 acquisition. We propose that the suprasegmental pitch variation in the vowels typical of IDS stimuli might be perceived as lexical tone distinctions for tonal language speakers who cannot fully inhibit their L1 activation, resulting in high lexical competition and diminished learning during an ambiguous word learning task. Our results are in line with the Second Language Linguistic Perception (L2LP) model which proposes that fine-grained acoustic information from multiple sources and the ability to switch between language modes affects non-native phonetic and lexical development.</dcterms:abstract>
    <dcterms:rights rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"/>
    <dc:contributor>Escudero, Paola</dc:contributor>
    <dspace:hasBitstream rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/59508/1/Escudero_2-1qzhzejxhrr8u3.pdf"/>
    <dc:date rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2022-12-14T09:16:34Z</dc:date>
    <dspace:isPartOfCollection rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/45"/>
    <dcterms:available rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2022-12-14T09:16:34Z</dcterms:available>
    <dc:rights>Attribution 4.0 International</dc:rights>
    <dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/45"/>
    <void:sparqlEndpoint rdf:resource="http://localhost/fuseki/dspace/sparql"/>
    <dcterms:issued>2022-12</dcterms:issued>
  </rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>

Universitätsbibliographie

Ja

Begutachtet

Ja