Input multiplicity and the robustness of phonological categories in child L2 phonology acquisition
Year: 2014
Type: article
Study designs: Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis
Abstract: This study looks at L2 English acquisition by Hong Kong (HK) Cantonese children when various varieties are present. Specifically, it targets youngsters exposed to Filipino‐accented English (FE) from live‐in housekeepers in addition to the school and community input encompassing HK, UK, and US varieties. Results show that kindergarteners aged 4;6‐6, and 1st year secondary school students aged 11‐14 who had received/ were still receiving FE significantly outperformed age‐matched controls, who never received such input, on perception tasks targeting FE plosives /p, t, k/ and fricatives /f, v/. The two groups do not differ in the other three varieties. Yet, participants’ performance on FE is significantly worse than that of native FE speakers. This casts doubts on the nature of informants’ acquisition of this variety. This paper argues that participants’ limited input from only one/ two Filipino housekeeper(s), which contrasts with the diverse input they obtained from various sources for the other varieties, impedes the development of robust categories essential for the processing of novel FE speech.
Author: Alex Ho‐Cheong Leung
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W19230036