Perceptual development of the Finnish /t-tː/ distinction in Dutch 12-year-old children: A training study

This paper addresses the issue of how perceptual sensitivity develops in child L2 learners along an acoustic dimension that contrasts two non-native speech sounds, and of how their language learning compares to that of adult learners, as investigated in Heeren and Schouten (2008). A pretest–training–posttest design was used to tap into the learning process, and development was predicted to occur mainly through increased sensitivity in the newly trained category boundary region, i.e. acquired distinctiveness, rather than through a decrease in sensitivity within the new categories, i.e. acquired similarity. This prediction was borne out by both adult and 12-year-old learners of the Finnish quantity contrast, but changes remained small. Even though the manner and speed of learning were comparable between age groups, adults showed higher discrimination scores than children did.

Research highlights►Dutch 12-year-olds learn a non-native contrast through acquired distinctiveness. ►Manner and speed of learning are comparable between children and adults. ►Discrimination level along a non-native continuum is higher in adults than children.