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SECOND AND THIRD LANGUAGE LEARNERS’ SENSITIVITY TO JAPANESE PITCH ACCENT IS ADDITIVE

AN INFORMATION-BASED MODEL OF PITCH PERCEPTION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2019

Seth Wiener  and
Seth Goss
Seth Wiener*
Affiliation:
Carnegie Mellon University
Seth Goss
Affiliation:
Emory University
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Seth Wiener, Department of Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University, 160 Baker Hall, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. E-mail: sethw1@cmu.edu
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Abstract

This study examines second (L2) and third (L3) language learners’ pitch perception. We test the hypothesis that a listener’s discrimination of and sensitivity (d’) to Japanese pitch accent reflects how pitch cues inform all words a listener knows in an additive, nonselective manner rather than how pitch cues inform words in a selective, Japanese-only manner. Six groups of listeners performed a speeded ABX discrimination task in Japanese. Groups were defined by their L1, L2, and L3 experience with the target language’s pitch cues (Japanese), a language with less informative pitch cues (English), or a language with more informative pitch cues (Mandarin Chinese). Results indicate that sensitivity to pitch is better modeled as a function of pitch’s informativeness across all languages a listener speaks. These findings support cue-centric views of perception and transfer, demonstrate potential advantageous transfer of tonal-L1/L2 speakers, and highlight the cumulative role that pitch plays in language learning.

Type
Research Report
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , September 2019 , pp. 897 - 910
Open Practices
Open materials
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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Footnotes

The authors thank Joy Maa and Zhe Gao for their help with the experiment and the anonymous reviewers for their incredibly valuable and insightful feedback on earlier versions of the manuscript.

The experiment in this article earned an Open Materials badge for transparent practices. The materials are available at https://osf.io/9328s/.

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