title: Using Event-Related Brain Potentials to Assess Perceptibility: The Case of French Speakers and English [h].
abstract: French speaking learners of English encounter persistent difficulty acquiring English [h], thus confusing words likeeatandheatin both production and perception. We assess the hypothesis that the acoustic properties of [h] may render detection of this segment in the speech stream insufficiently reliable for second language acquisition. We use the mismatch negativity (MMN) in event-related potentials to investigate [h] perception in French speaking learners of English and native English controls, comparing both linguistic and non-linguistic conditions in an unattended oddball paradigm. Unlike native speakers, French learners of English elicit an MMN response only in the non-linguistic condition. Our results provide neurobiological evidence against the hypothesis that French speakers' difficulties with [h] are acoustically based. They instead suggest that the problem is in constructing an appropriate phonological representation for [h] in the interlanguage grammar.
authors.affiliation: Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Mount Royal UniversityCalgary, AB, Canada; Department of Linguistics, McGill UniversityMontreal, QC, Canada; Language Research Centre, University of CalgaryCalgary, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mah
authors.affiliation: Department of Linguistics, McGill UniversityMontreal, QC, Canada; Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill UniversityMontreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Goad
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill UniversityMontreal, QC, Canada; Neurocognition of Language Laboratory, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Medicine, McGill UniversityMontreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Karsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Steinhauer
keywords: ERP; English; French; MMN; [h]; laryngeals; phoneme perception; second language acquisition