Study shows how bilinguals switch between languages - 0 views
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Individuals who learn two languages at an early age seem to switch back and forth between separate "sound systems" for each language, according to new research
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The research
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addresses enduring questions in bilingual studies about how bilingual speakers hear and process sound in two different languages.
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"A lot of research has shown that bilinguals are pretty good at accommodating speech variation across languages, but there's been a debate as to how,"
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lead author Kalim Gonzales, a psychology doctoral student at the University of Arizona
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two views: One is that bilinguals have different processing modes for their two languages—they have a mode for processing speech in one language and then a mode for processing speech in the other language
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Another view is that bilinguals just adjust to speech variation by recalibrating to the unique acoustic properties of each language."
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Gonzales's research supports the first view—that bilinguals who learn two languages early in life learn two separate processing modes, or "sound systems
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The study looked at 32 Spanish-English early bilinguals, who had learned their second language before age 8.
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Participants were presented with a series of pseudo-words beginning with a 'pa' or a 'ba' sound and asked to identify which of the two sounds they heard
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'pa' and 'ba' sounds exist in both English and Spanish, how those sounds are produced and perceived in the two languages varies subtly
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'ba,' for example, English speakers typically begin to vibrate their vocal chords the moment they open their lips
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Spanish speakers begin vocal chord vibration slightly before they open their lips and produce 'pa' in a manner similar to English 'ba.'
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English-only speakers might, in some cases, confuse the 'ba' and 'pa' sounds they hear in Spanish
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most people think about differences between languages
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different words and they have different grammars
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at their base languages use different sounds
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One of the reasons it sounds different when you hear someone speaking a different language is because the actual sounds they use are different
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someone might sound like they have an accent if they learn Spanish first is because their 'pa' is like an English 'ba,' so when they say a word with 'pa,' it will sound like a 'ba' to an English monolingual
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For the study, the bilingual participants were divided into two groups. One group was told they would be hearing rare words in Spanish, while the other was told they would be hearing rare words in English
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Both groups heard audio recordings of variations of the same two words—bafri and pafri—which are not real words in either language
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Each group heard the same series of words, but for the group told they were hearing Spanish, the ends of the words were pronounced slightly differently, with the 'r' getting a Spanish pronunciation
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Participants perceived 'ba' and 'pa' sounds differently depending on whether they were told they were hearing Spanish words, with the Spanish pronunciation of 'r,' or whether they were told they were hearing English words, with the English pronunciation of 'r.'
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when you put people in English mode, they actually would act like English speakers, and then if you put them in Spanish mode, they would switch to acting like Spanish speakers
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hearing the exact same 'ba's and 'pa's would label them differently depending on the context
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When the study was repeated with 32 English monolinguals, participants did not show the same shift in perception; they labeled 'ba' and 'pa' sounds the same way regardless of which language they were told they were hearing
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that lack of an effect
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provided the strongest evidence for two sound systems in bilinguals
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true primarily for those who learn two languages very young
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If you learn a second language later in life, you usually have a dominant language and then you try to use that sounds system for the other language, which is why you end up having an accent