The relationship between phonological processing and lexical acquisition in a foreign language. A study on Polish primary school students learning English

Wydział AnglistykiCelem projektu jest zbadanie wpływu czynników fonologicznych na uczenie się słów. Badania nad akwizycją językową wskazują, że przetwarzanie fonologiczne i fonologiczna pamięć krótkotrwała może odgrywać ważną rolę w uczeniu się nowych słów. Jednak nadal brakuje badań, które zajmowałyby się związkiem pomiędzy przetwarzaniem fonologicznym a uczeniem się słów obcego języka. Co więcej, problemem w literaturze jest sam koncept przetwarzania fonologicznego, który nie jest zbyt dobrze zdefiniowany. Poniższa praca zawiera przegląd literatury nt. przetwarzania fonologicznego i proponuje definicję tego konceptu, a następnie przedstawia badanie na 44 polskich dziewięciolatkach uczących się angielskiego w szkole. Uczestnicy zbadani zostali baterią testów na przetwarzanie fonologiczne w języku polskim i angielskim, jak również testami na krótkotrwałą pamięć fonologiczną. Dzieci były też poproszone o wykonanie zadań mierzących uczenie się słów w języku ojczystym (polskim), drugim (angielskim) i w zupełnie obcym języku (LX). Ponadto w badaniu mierzono postępy w akwizycji słownictwa angielskiego u uczestników badania w przeciągu roku szkolnego. Wyniki badania wskazują na związek pomiędzy przetwarzaniem fonologicznym, a uczeniem się słów obcego języka.Phonological short-term memory, phonological processing, lexical acquisition, second language acquisitionThe aim of this project to investigate the phonological factors in word learning. Literature on language acquisition indicates that phonological processing and phonological short-term memory might play an important role in acquiring new vocabulary. However, this topic is still understudied. In particular, there is a lack of studies on the relationship between phonological processing and word learning in a foreign language. Another problem is that the concept of phonological processing is not very well defined in itself. This dissertation provides a review of studies on phonological processing and offers a definition of the concept. Then it goes on to describe a study, in which 44 Polish 9-year olds, who learned English as a second language at schools, are tested on several measures of phonological processing in both Polish and English, and on measures of phonological short-term memory. The participants were also asked to perform four experimental novel word learning tasks in their native language (Polish), second language (English) and in a completely foreign language (LX) and they were tested on the progress they made in term of English vocabulary acquisition over the period of the school year. The results point to relationship between phonological processing and foreign word learning

Bilingual children's phonology shows evidence of transfer, but not deceleration in their L1

Bilingual language development might be characterized by transfer, deceleration, and/or acceleration, the first two being relevant for the language impairment diagnosis. Studies on bilingual children’s productive phonology show evidence of transfer, but little is known about deceleration in this population. Here, we focused on phonological transfer and deceleration in L1 speech of typically developing Polish-English bilingual children of Polish migrants to the United Kingdom (aged 4.7-7). We analyzed L1 speech samples of 30 bilinguals and 2 groups of Polish monolinguals, matched to the bilinguals on age or vocabulary size. We found that bilingual children’ speech (both simultaneous and early sequential) was characterized by transfer, but not by deceleration, suggesting that while phonological deceleration phases out in children above the age of 4.7, transfer does not. We discuss our findings within the PRIMIR model of bilingual phonological acquisition (Curtin et al., 2011) and show their implications for SLT practices

How does L1 and L2 exposure impact L1 performance in bilingual children? : evidence from Polish-English migrants to the United Kingdom

Most studies on bilingual language development focus on children’s second language (L2). Here, we investigated first language (L1) development of Polish-English early migrant bilinguals in four domains: vocabulary, grammar, phonological processing and discourse. We first compared Polish language skills between bilinguals and their Polish non-migrant monolingual peers, and then investigated the influence of the cumulative exposure to L1 and L2 on bilinguals’ performance. We then examined whether high exposure to L1 could possibly minimize the gap between monolinguals and bilinguals. We analyzed data from 233 typically developing children (88 bilingual, 145 monolingual) aged 4;0 to 7;5 (years; months) on six language measures in Polish: receptive vocabulary, productive vocabulary, receptive grammar, productive grammar (sentence repetition), phonological processing (non-word repetition) and discourse abilities (narration). Information about language exposure was obtained via parental questionnaires. For each language task, we analyzed the data from the subsample of bilinguals who had completed all the tasks in question and from monolinguals matched one-on-one to the bilingual group on age, SES (measured by years of mother’s education), gender, non-verbal IQ and short term memory. The bilingual children scored lower than monolinguals in all language domains, except discourse. The group differences were more pronounced on the productive tasks (vocabulary, grammar, phonological processing) and moderate on the receptive tasks (vocabulary and grammar). L1 exposure correlated positively with the vocabulary size and phonological processing. Grammar scores were not related to the levels of L1 exposure, but were predicted by general cognitive abilities. L2 exposure negatively influenced productive grammar in L1, suggesting possible L2 transfer effects on L1 grammatical performance. Children’s narrative skills benefitted from exposure to two languages: both L1 and L2 exposure influenced story structure scores in L1. Importantly, we did not find any evidence (in any of the tasks in which the gap was present) that the performance gap between monolinguals and bilinguals could be fully closed with high amounts of L1 input

Extending perceptual assimilation model to L3 phonological acquisition

The scarcity of research on speech perception among multilingual speakers precludes a full understanding of phonological acquisition in the third language (L3). In this controlled case study, we investigate L3 phonological acquisition in the perceptual domain and test the predictions of Perceptual Assimilation Model- L2 (Best & Tyler, 2007) adopted for multilingual learners. We employed an AX discrimination task, testing categorical discrimination of Polish sibilants, and a cross-linguistic similarity task, testing perceptual distance between Polish, English and German vowels. We examined L3 Polish perception in 10 multilinguals (aged 14) with L1 German and L2 English who differed in terms of language status (heritage vs. non-heritage). Their perception tasks performance was analysed for accuracy and reaction time. The cross-linguistic similarity task demonstrated that multilinguals assimilate some L3 sounds to both L1 and L2 categories, with a preference for the latter. In the majority of cases multilinguals make a distinction between similar L1, L2 and L3 sounds. The AX results showed that even beginner L3 learners distinguish highly similar L3 sibilant pairs. Our data suggests that the PAM-L2 model could also be extended to L3 acquisition; however, beginner L3 learners seem more likely to perceive subtle acoustic differences in novel phonological contrast

The predictors of foreign : accentedness in the home language of Polish - English bilingual children

We investigated the speech patterns and accentedness of Polish–English bilingual children raised in Great Britain to verify whether their L1 Polish would be perceived as different from that of monolinguals matched for age and socioeconomic status. To this end, Polish-language speech samples of 32 bilinguals and 10 monolinguals (a 3:1 ratio, MAge = 5.79) were phonetically analysed by trained phoneticians and rated by 55 Polish raters, who assessed the degree of native accent, intelligibility, acceptability and perceived age. The results show significant differences in the phonetic performance of bilingual and monolingual children – both in terms of atypical speech patterns uncovered in the phonetic analysis and in terms of the holistic accentedness ratings. We also explored the socio-linguistic predictors of accent ratings in bilingual speech and found that the amount of L1 Polish input was the main predictor of accentedness in children's L1 Polish speech, while L2 English input was marginally significant. (149)</jats:p

Why learning foreign words is hard : evidence of shallower encoding for non-native than native sounding words

Research suggests that second language words are learned faster when they are similar in phonological structure or accent to the words of an individual’s first language. Many major theories suggest this happens because of differences in frequency of exposure and context between first and second language words. Here, we examine the independent contribution of accent and phonological structure on the speed of word learning and on the depth of semantic encoding while controlling for frequency of exposure and context. Fifteen participants learned novel words associated with abstract shapes in a paired associates task. The words systematically varied in their accent and phonological structure. Learning speed was measured for each word and the depth of semantic encoding was measured via a novel manipulation of the N300 ERP component in a Picture Recognition Task of the learned items. Both non-native structure and accent slowed word learning and differences in the N300 effect indicated that semantic encoding was shallower for words with a non-native than native phonological structure, despite almost ceiling levels of accuracy. These results are consistent with a model of second language learning that proposes both accent and phonological structure influence how fast and deep new language vocabulary is learnt