Lexical accent perception in highly-proficient L2 Japanese learners: The roles of language-specific experience and domain-general resources

Abstract

This article reports empirical findings on the roles of domain-general resources and language-specific experience in the second language (L2) acquisition of Japanese lexical pitch accent. Sixty-one advanced-proficiency L2 Japanese learners from two first languages (L1s), Mandarin Chinese and Korean, identified and categorized Japanese nouns embedded in short sentences in two aurally-presented tasks. Mixed effects models showed that although the tonal-language Chinese group outperformed non-tonal Korean speakers, L2 lexical knowledge, but not overall proficiency or learning experience, predicted performance on both perception tasks regardless of L1, suggesting that long-term knowledge of L2 phonological structure facilitates perception of lexical-level prosody. Domain-general resources, however, played no predictive role in advanced learners’ accent perception. A decision-tree analysis then revealed further divergence in perception accuracy by accent pattern, L1, and task type. Taken together, the results establish a close connection between language learning experience and L2 speech perception at the advanced level, and highlight the complexity inherent in the learning of non-native prosodic categories.

Exploring variation in nonnative Japanese learners’ perception of lexical pitch accent: The roles of processing resources and learning context

“…Goss and Tamaoka (2015) found that F0 discrimination ability accounted for a significant amount of variation in L1 Japanese listeners' perception of accent patterns, suggesting that even native listeners, with their well-established lexical store, rely on a domain-general perceptual capacity to perform certain listening tasks. However, at the advanced L2 proficiency levels, F0 discrimination was no longer a significant predictor of accent perception or was a least masked by the stronger predictor of Japanese lexical knowledge (Goss & Tamaoka, 2019). This contradictory pattern of findings-that musicianship and acoustic sensitivity relate to perceptual ability in both inexperienced learners and L1 listeners, but not in advanced learners-calls for further data on the role of this capacity in L2 lexical accent learning.…”

“…There is also a large class of unaccented words in Japanese that do not contain an F0 fall (Ito & Mester, 2016). L1 Japanese listeners, and even highly proficient L2 learners with large vocabularies (Goss & Tamaoka, 2019), are assumed to represent these accent patterns as lexically relevant information in their mental lexicon (Cutler & Otake, 1999).…”

“…Hummel, 2009). For example, Goss and Tamaoka (2019) found that in advanced L2 Japanese learners, PSTM capacity failed to account for variation in pitch accent perception, with task performance being primarily a function of vocabulary size and tone language knowledge. It has thus been proposed that PSTM functions as an independent learning mechanism in the early stages of L2 phonological sequence learning but becomes inextricably tied to long-term lexical representations in more experienced learners (Juffs & Harrington, 2011).…”

“…Although native (L1) English learners of Japanese, for instance, exhibit clear development in the perception of phonemic length contrasts absent in their L1 (e.g., Hirata, 2004;Shibata & Hurtig, 2008), a similar trajectory is unattested with lexical pitch accent. Several reasons for this difficulty have been posited, including pitch's low perceptual prominence (Schaefer & Darcy, 2014;Tsurutani, 2011), its limited functional load in disambiguating minimal pairs (Kitahara, 2001;Tamaoka, 2014), variation in cross-linguistic speech categories (So & Best, 2010), and individual differences in speech processing resources (Bowles, Chang, & Karuzis, 2016;Goss & Tamaoka, 2019;Shport, 2016). This latter claim has yet to be adequately characterized for L2 Japanese learners.…”

“…Exploring these capacities is vital because they may account for some of the previously observed variation in L2 accent acquisition (e.g., Nishinuma, Arai, & Ayusawa, 1996;Taylor, 2011). Although the involvement of domain-general capacities in L2 suprasegmental acquisition has been examined before (e.g., Bowles et al, 2016;Goss & Tamaoka, 2019;Shport, 2015;Wong & Perrachione, 2007), this relationship needs further exploration in beginning learners of a pitch-accent language, as these capacities may play a greater role in early-stage L2 learning (Hummel, 2009). Furthermore, because learners with greater speech processing resources may be better equipped to utilize the increased input in the L2 environment (Sunderman & Kroll, 2009), the current study compared learning contexts that afford different amounts of speech input (i.e., at home and study abroad).…”