The influence of the native language on phonological preparation in spoken word production in a second language

Three experiments investigated the phonological preparation unit in planning English spoken words, comparing English monolinguals, native Chinese and Japanese-speakers who spoke English as their second language. All three groups named pictures in English, and the names could either share the same initial phoneme, mora, or syllable, or had no systematic commonality. A phoneme preparation effect was shown among English monolinguals but not among the two bilingual groups, suggesting that the phoneme is the phonological preparation unit for English monolinguals, but not for the two bilingual groups. All three groups showed mora and syllable preparation effects, but further analysis and a follow-up experiment suggested that Chinese-English bilinguals may treat morae as open syllables. English monolinguals showed similar phoneme and mora preparation effect sizes, possibly as a result of flexibility. Together, the selection of phonological preparation could be flexible, influenced by both the nature of the target language and speakers’ language experiences.

Monitoring phoneme acquisition for making treatment withdrawal decisions

ABSTRACTThis study examined phoneme acquisition in three phonologically impaired children to determine whether treatment needed to be provided continually until correct productions were consistently observed during conversation. This was done by examining the effects of withdrawing treatment on several target phonemes at predetermined performance levels. In addition, production of the target behaviors in untrained single words versus connected speech was compared as measures for monitoring progress during the phoneme acquisition process. Both ABA(B) and multiple baseline time series designs were employed. The results indicated two general patterns of phoneme acquisition. In one, the children continued to progress in phoneme acquisition, even though direct treatment on the target behavior had been withdrawn relatively early in the acquisition process. In the other, the children failed to continue their progress in phoneme acquisition when treatment was withdrawn, requiring the reintroduction of treatment until high levels of correct production were maintained over several weeks. In all cases, production of the target behavior in untrained single words and connected speech reflected a similar phoneme acquisition trend.