Phonetic discrimination and non-native spoken-word recognition

Abstract

When phoneme categories of a non-native language do not correspond to those of the native language, non-native categories may be inaccurately perceived. This may impair non-native spoken-word recognition. Weber and Cutler investigated the effect of phonetic discrimination difficulties on competitor activation in non-native listening. They tested whether Dutch listeners use English phonetic contrasts to resolve potential competition. Eye movements of Dutch participants were monitored as they followed spoken English instructions to click on pictures of objects. A target picture (e.g., picture of a paddle) was always presented along with distractor pictures. The name of a distractor picture either shared initial segments with the name of the target picture (e.g., target paddle, /paedl/ and competitor pedal, /pEdl/) or not (e.g., strawberry and duck). Half of the target-competitor pairs contained English vowels that are often confused by Dutch listeners (e.g., /ae/ and /E/ as in ‘‘paddle-pedal’’), half contained vowels that are unlikely to be confused (e.g., /ae/ and /aI/ as in ‘‘parrot-pirate’’). Dutch listeners fixated distractor pictures with confusable English vowels longer than distractor pictures with distinct vowels. The results demonstrate that the sensitivity of non-native listeners to phonetic contrasts can result in spurious competitors that should not be activated for native listeners.