Perception of French vowels by American English adults with and without French language experience

This study investigated the effects of language experience and consonantal context on American English (AE) listeners’ discrimination of contrasts involving Parisian French vowels /y, œ, u, i/. Vowels were produced in /rabVp/ and /rabVt/ nonsense disyllables in carrier phrases by 3 speakers and presented in a categorial AXB discrimination task. Two groups were tested: AE listeners who had studied French extensively beginning after age 13 (Exp) and non-French-speaking AE listeners (Inexp). The Exp group performed better than the Inexp group on /u-œ/, /i-y/ and /y-œ/ (mean errors: Exp=5%, Inexp=24%). However, for /u-y/, the groups did not differ (Exp=30% vs Inexp=24% errors). The Inexp group confused /i-y/ more often in bilabial context, but /u-y/ more often in alveolar context, whereas the Exp group confused /u-y/ in both contexts. Overall, the Inexp group performed better in bilabial than in alveolar context (16% vs 32% errors), whereas the Exp group revealed no context effect. Results suggest that learning a second language (L2) includes learning its coarticulatory rules. Implications for models of L2-speech perception are discussed.