Does second language phonological acquisition affect native language word recognition?

Abstract

Research with monolingual adults has shown that words whose initial stop consonants have canonical VOTs show larger semantic priming effects than words beginning with phonetically non-canonical stops; the prime [k h ](long-lag) facilitates recognition of a semantically related target (queen) more than [k] (short-lag), though both facilitate target recognition (Andruski etal., 1994; van Alphen and McQueen, 2006). The present study asks how the acquisition of a second (L2) phonological system affects word recognition in the native language (L1). A longitudinal semantic priming study ([k]... queen) is being administered to American students in Paris at the beginning, middle, and end of their 4–6 weeks of immersion class enrollment. Two potential patterns may emerge: (1) exposure to instances of French short-lag /k/ may lead to increased facilitation of short-lag [k] primes, indicating an early established link between shared L1 and L2 phonological categories or (2) since stops in the short-lag VOT range are categorized differently in French versus English ([k] = /k/ vs. /g/), increased ambiguity introduced by the L2 system may incur a greater cost for non-canonical variants, causing [k] to become a less effective prime. Both findings have implications for theories of speech perception and representation.