The predictors of foreign-accentedness in the home language of Polish–English bilingual children

Abstract

We investigated the speech patterns and accentedness of Polish–English bilingual children raised in Great Britain to verify whether their L1 Polish would be perceived as different from that of monolinguals matched for age and socioeconomic status. To this end, Polish-language speech samples of 32 bilinguals and 10 monolinguals (a 3:1 ratio, MAge = 5.79) were phonetically analysed by trained phoneticians and rated by 55 Polish raters, who assessed the degree of native accent, intelligibility, acceptability and perceived age. The results show significant differences in the phonetic performance of bilingual and monolingual children – both in terms of atypical speech patterns uncovered in the phonetic analysis and in terms of the holistic accentedness ratings. We also explored the socio-linguistic predictors of accent ratings in bilingual speech and found that the amount of L1 Polish input was the main predictor of accentedness in children's L1 Polish speech, while L2 English input was marginally significant. (149)

Foreign Accent in Pre- and Primary School Heritage Bilinguals

“…Accent rating studies with children are particularly challenging because, due to language development, children's "accents" are different from those of adults for an extended period of time, yet without being foreign. To date, only three accent rating studies have been carried out with children (Asher and García 1969;Snow and Hoefnagel-Höhle 1977;Wrembel et al 2019): The former two explored accentedness in bilingual children's ML, and the latter in their HL Polish. Asher and García (1969) analyzed the accentedness of Spanish-English bilinguals aged 7-19 years compared to English monolinguals in their ML English in the US.…”

Bilingual Children’s Phonology Shows Evidence of Transfer, But Not Deceleration in Their L1

“…Such discrepancies between the Polish and English phonological systems may lead to transfer in the speech production of Polish-English bilingual children (see our earlier analyses of this population: Marecka et al, 2015; Wrembel et al, 2019; Zembrzuski et al, 2018). Polish-English children raised in the United Kingdom tend to substitute Polish vowels and consonants with their English equivalents, produce atypical VOT patterns in Polish, apply the English process of vowel reduction to Polish vowels in unstressed positions, and fail to apply the obligatory palatalization to Polish consonants preceding high front vowels.…”

“…The second list enumerated the processes that are likely to occur in the speech of Polish-English bilingual children as a result of transfer from English. The list was based on previous analyses of a similar participant sample (Marecka et al, 2015; Wrembel et al, 2019). In those analyses, we identified phonological processes in the speech of bilingual children and of monolingual controls.…”

“…Overall, there is clear evidence of phonological transfer between bilingual children’s two languages: the presence of transfer phonological processes in their speech (e.g., Fabiano-Smith & Goldstein, 2010a; Gildersleeve-Neumann et al, 2008; Goldstein & Washington, 2001; Holm et al, 1999; Marecka et al 2015; Prezas et al, 2014; Wrembel et al, 2019; Zembrzuski et al, 2018). There is also some evidence of deceleration: while bilingual children above the age of 3, do not differ from monolinguals in phonetic inventories (Ballard & Farao, 2009; Fabiano-Smith & Barlow, 2010; Fabiano-Smith & Goldstein, 2010a; Gildersleeve-Neumann et al, 2008; Gildersleeve-Neumann & Wright, 2010; Goldstein & Washington, 2001; Kim, 2015; MacLeod et al, 2011), they can apply more developmental processes in their speech.…”

“…Transfer processes can result from either having one underlying representation for two slightly different sounds in the two languages (Fabiano-Smith et al, 2015) or from applying an articulatory pattern from one language to another. Transfer processes are known to frequently occur in bilingual migrant children (e.g., Barlow, 2014;Fabiano-Smith & Goldstein, 2010a;Fabiano-Smith et al, 2015;Gildersleeve-Neumann et al, 2008;Goldstein & Washington, 2001;Holm, Dodd, Stow, & Pert, 1999;Marecka, Wrembel, Zembrzuski, & Otwinowska-Kasztelanic, 2015;Prezas, Hodson, & Schommer-Aikins, 2014;Wrembel, Marecka, Szewczyk, & Otwinowska, 2019;Zembrzuski et al, 2018). Developmental processes are speech modifications typically produced by children acquiring their first language.…”