Bilingualism affects audiovisual phoneme identification.
We all go through a process of perceptual narrowing for phoneme identification. As we become experts in the languages we hear in our environment we lose the ability to identify phonemes that do not exist in our native phonological inventory. This research examined how linguistic experience-i.e., the exposure to a double phonological code during childhood-affects the visual processes involved in non-native phoneme identification in audiovisual speech perception. We conducted a phoneme identification experiment with bilingual and monolingual adult participants. It was an ABX task involving a Bengali dental-retroflex contrast that does not exist in any of the participants' languages. The phonemes were presented in audiovisual (AV) and audio-only (A) conditions. The results revealed that in the audio-only condition monolinguals and bilinguals had difficulties in discriminating the retroflex non-native phoneme. They were phonologically "deaf" and assimilated it to the dental phoneme that exists in their native languages. In the audiovisual presentation instead, both groups could overcome the phonological deafness for the retroflex non-native phoneme and identify both Bengali phonemes. However, monolinguals were more accurate and responded quicker than bilinguals. This suggests that bilinguals do not use the same processes as monolinguals to decode visual speech.
LPNC (CNRS UMR 5105) - Université Grenoble Alpes Grenoble, France.
Sabine
S
Burfin
LPNC (CNRS UMR 5105) - Université Grenoble Alpes Grenoble, France.
Olivier
O
Pascalis
Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, Spain.
Elisa
E
Ruiz Tada
Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, Spain ; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats Barcelona, Spain.
Albert
A
Costa
GIPSA-lab (CNRS UMR 5216) - Université Grenoble Alpes Grenoble, France.
Christophe
C
Savariaux
LPNC (CNRS UMR 5105) - Université Grenoble Alpes Grenoble, France ; GIPSA-lab (CNRS UMR 5216) - Université Grenoble Alpes Grenoble, France ; Institut Universitaire de France.
Sonia
S
Kandel
audiovisual speech; bilinguals; monolinguals; phonological deafness