Phonological structure, non-native phoneme discrimination, working memory, and word learning

Abstract

It is well known that perception of non-native speech sounds is influenced by exposure and the mapping between non-native and native phonological categories. However, very little is known about the relationships between phonological structure, individual differences in non-native phoneme discrimination ability, and non-native word learning. These relationships are important in the design of tests for personnel selection for second language training. Two experiments were conducted to probe the generality of phoneme discrimination ability and the role of phonological structure and discrimination ability in word learning. In one experiment, 169 participants discriminated non-native contrasts from nine languages - three voicing/laryngeal contrasts, three place contrasts, and three tone/intonation contrasts. Confirmatory factor analysis model comparisons show that correlations between discrimination accuracies across contrasts are driven by low-level phonological structure (featural and segmental/super-segmental properties). In a second experiment, phonological working memory and voicing, place, and tone discrimination were measured for 167 participants and used to predict learning of pairs of non-native words differing in voicing, place, and tone. Consistent with the results from the first experiment, discrimination ability predicts accuracy in word learning above and beyond the ability of phonological working memory and according to feature-specific differences. © 2013 Acoustical Society of America.