Von Holzen, K. & Mani, N.
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
During the first year of life, the language environment an infant experiences shapes their speech perception abilities. The resulting shift in sensitivity, known as perceptual reorganization, shows increased sensitivity for native language phoneme contrasts (Kuhl, Stevens, Hayashi, Deguchi, Kiritani, & Iverson, 2006) and decreased sensitivity for non-native contrasts (Werker & Tees, 1984). However, at this age, exposure to a second language (Kuhl, Tsao, & Liu, 2003; Conboy & Kuhl, 2011) or a brief familiarization period (Maye, Werker, & Gerken, 2002) can affect how infants perceive both native and non-native contrasts. Less is known about the impact of a changing language environment on speech perception later in development, after perceptual reorganization has taken place. To examine this, the current study tested German-English bilingual toddlers on their ability to discriminate between both a native (/ba/ - /pa/) and a non-native (Salish, / ` ki/-/`qi/) phoneme contrast, using the alternating/non-alternating procedure (Best & Jones, 1998). Any difference between alternating and non-alternating trials, regardless of direction, is indicative of discrimination. To observe how this ability is influenced by exposure to a second language (English) over time, toddlers were tested three times, spaced three months apart. As predicted, discrimination of non-native phonemes was not demonstrated at any time during the preschool year. Surprisingly, toddlers discriminated the native phoneme contrast at the beginning and end but not in the middle of the preschool year, suggesting a U-shaped pattern. These results provide evidence that hearing a second language (English) at preschool may have an influence, albeit temporary, on native phoneme discrimination. Monolingual German toddlers are currently being tested as controls to provide further support for this conclusion.