Hostname: page-component-6b989bf9dc-g5k2d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-14T09:53:01.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

FACTORS INFLUENCING SENSITIVITY TO LEXICAL TONE IN AN ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGE

Implications for Second Language Learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2015

Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris ,
Alia Lancaster ,
D. Robert Ladd ,
Dan Dediu  and
Morten H. Christiansen
Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris*
Affiliation:
Boston University
Alia Lancaster
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
D. Robert Ladd
Affiliation:
The University of Edinburgh
Dan Dediu
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Morten H. Christiansen
Affiliation:
Cornell University
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215. E-mail: charris@bu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examined whether musical training, ethnicity, and experience with a natural tone language influenced sensitivity to tone while listening to an artificial tone language. The language was designed with three tones, modeled after level-tone African languages. Participants listened to a 15-min random concatenation of six 3-syllable words. Sensitivity to tone was assessed using minimal pairs differing only in one syllable (nonword task: e.g., to-kà-su compared to ca-fí-to) or only in tone (tone task: e.g., to-kà-su compared to to-ká-su). Proficiency in an East Asian heritage language was the strongest predictor of success on the tone task. Asians without tone language experience were no better than other ethnic groups. We conclude by considering implications for research on second language learning, especially as approached through artificial language learning.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 37 , Special Issue 2: New Directions in the Study of Implicit and Explicit Learning , June 2015 , pp. 335 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alexander, J. A., Wong, P. C. M., & Bradlow, A. R. (2005). Lexical tone perception in musicians and non-musicians. INTERSPEECH-2005, 397–400. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/221484995_Lexical_tone_perception_in_musicians_and_non-musicians/file/e0b4951c9a69386504.pdfCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bent, T., Bradlow, A., & Wright, B. (2006). The influence of linguistic experience on the cognitive processing of pitch in speech and nonspeech sounds. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 32, 97–103.Google ScholarPubMed
Boersma, P. (2001). Praat, a system for doing phonetics by computer. Glot International, 5, 341–345.Google Scholar
Bowers, J. S., Mattys, S. L., & Gage, S. H. (2009). Preserved implicit knowledge of a forgotten childhood language. Psychological Science, 20, 1064–1069.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cacioppo, J., Petty, R., & Kao, C. (1982). The need for cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 116–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cattell, R. B. (1971). Abilities: Their structure, growth, and action. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin.Google Scholar
Chobert, J., & Besson, M. (2013). Musical expertise and second language learning. Brain Sciences, 3, 923–940.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dediu, D., & Ladd, D. R. (2007). Linguistic tone is related to the population frequency of the adaptive haplogroups of two brain size genes, ASPM and Microcephalin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 104, 10944–10949.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, D., Henthorn, T., & Dolson, M. (2004). Absolute pitch, speech, and tone language: Some experiments and a proposed framework. Music Perception, 21, 339–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, D., Henthorn, T., Marvin, E., & Xu, H. G. (2006). Absolute pitch among American and Chinese conservatory students: Prevalence differences, and evidence for a speech-related critical period. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119, 719–722.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Francis, A. L., Ciocca, V., Ma, L., & Fenn, K. (2008). Perceptual learning of Cantonese lexical tones by tone and non-tone language speakers. Journal of Phonetics, 36, 268–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hove, M. J., Sutherland, M. E., & Krumhansl, C. L. (2010). Ethnicity effects in relative pitch learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17, 310–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyman, L. M. (2009). How (not) to do a phonological typology: The case of pitch-accent. Language Sciences, 31, 213–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kempe, V., & Brooks, P. J. (2008). Second language learning of complex inflectional systems. Language Learning, 58, 703–746.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kempe, V., Brooks, P. J., & Kharkhurin, A. (2010). Cognitive predictors of generalization of Russian grammatical gender categories. Language Learning, 60, 127–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladd, D. R., Turnbull, R., Browne, C., Caldwell-Harris, C. L., Ganushchak, L., Swoboda, K.Dediu, D. (2013). Patterns of individual differences in the perception of missing-fundamental tones. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 39, 1386–1397.Google ScholarPubMed
Lee, Y., Vakoch, D. A., & Wurm, L. G. (1996). Tone perception in Cantonese and Mandarin: A cross-linguistic comparison. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 25, 527–542.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, Y., Wang, M., Perfetti, C. A., Brubaker, B., Wu, S., & MacWhinney, B. (2011). Learning a tonal language by attending to the tone: An in vivo experiment. Language Learning, 61, 1119–1141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattock, K., & Burnham, D. (2006). Chinese and English infants’ tone perception: Evidence for perceptual reorganization. Infancy, 10, 241–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattock, K., Molnar, M., Polka, L., & Durnham, D. (2007). The developmental course of lexical tone in perception in the first year of life. Cognition, 106, 1367–1381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morett, L. M., & Chang, L.-Y. (2014). Emphasising sound and meaning: Pitch gestures enhance Mandarin lexical tone acquisition. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/23273798.2014.923105Google Scholar
Onnis, L., Monaghan, P., Richmond, K., & Chater, N. (2005). Phonology impacts segmentation in speech processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 53, 225–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peña, M., Bonatti, L. L., Nespor, M., & Mehler, J. (2002). Signal-driven computations in speech processing. Science, 298, 604–607.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perrachione, T. K., Lee, J., Ha, L. Y., & Wong, P. C. (2011). Learning a novel phonological contrast depends on interactions between individual differences and training paradigm design. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 130, 461–472.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saffran, J. R., Aslin, E., Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month old infants. Science, 274, 1926–1928.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saffran, J. R., Johnson, E. K., Aslin, R. N., & Newport, E. L. (1999). Statistical learning of tone sequences by human infants and adults. Cognition, 70, 27–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saffran, J. R., Newport, E. L., & Aslin, R. N. (1996). Word segmentation: The role of distributional cues. Journal of Memory and Language, 35, 606–621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, P., Sluming, V., Roberts, N., Scherg, M., Goebel, R., Specht, H. J.,... Rupp, A. (2005). Structural and functional asymmetry of lateral Heschl’s gyrus reflects pitch perception preference. Nature Neuroscience, 8, 1241–1247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schön, D., & François, C. (2011). Musical expertise and statistical learning of musical and linguistic structures. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, Article 167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
So, C. K., & Best, C. T. (2011). Cross-language perception of non-native tonal contrasts: Effects of native phonological and phonetic influences. Language and Speech, 53, 273–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, T., & Saffran, J. R. (2014). Statistical learning of a tonal language: The influence of bilingualism and previous linguistic experience. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, Article 953.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, Y., Spence, M. M., Jongman, A., & Sereno, J. A. (1999). Training American listeners to perceive Mandarin tones. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 106, 3649–3658.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wayland, R. P., & Guion, S. G. (2004). Training English and Chinese listeners to perceive Thai tones: A preliminary report. Language Learning, 54, 681–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wayland, R. P., & Li, B. (2008). Effects of two training procedures in cross-language perception of tones. Journal of Phonetics, 36, 250–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, P. C. M., Chandrasekaran, B., & Zheng, J. (2012). The derived allele of ASPM is associated with lexical tone perception. PLoS ONE, 7(4), Article e34243.Google ScholarPubMed
Wong, P. C. M., & Perrachione, T. K. (2007). Learning pitch patterns in lexical identification by native English-speaking adults. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 565–585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yip, M. (2002). Tone. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar