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Article published In:
Journal of Second Language Pronunciation
Vol. 7:3 (2021) ► pp.370–407

Perception of American English consonants /v/ and /w/ by Hindi speakers of English

ORCID logo | New York Medical College
| The Graduate Center, CUNY
| Haskins Laboratories | University of Georgia
| The Graduate Center, CUNY | Haskins Laboratories | Yale University
| Teachers College, Columbia University

This study examined perception of the American English (AE) /v/-/w/ consonant contrast by Hindi speakers of English as a second language (L2). A second aim was to determine whether residence in the US modulated perception of this difficult contrast for proficient bilingual Hindi-English listeners. Two groups of Hindi-English bilinguals (the first resided in the US for more than five years, the second lived in India) and a group of AE-speaking listeners participated in the study. Listeners’ identification and discrimination of nonsense words (e.g., “vagag” vs. “wagag”) were examined. Hindi listeners performed significantly less accurately than AE controls. Accuracy by Hindi listeners was near chance for identification and higher-than-chance for discrimination. Exposure to AE in the US did not improve performance. These results are consistent with previous studies of late L2 learners and extend findings to a population that was proficient in an L2 before arriving in the L2 environment.

Keywords: speech perception, Hindi, Bilingualism, length of residence
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Status of /v/ and /w/ in English versus Hindi
    • 1.2Bilingual experience
    • 1.3Automatic Selective Perception Model
    • 1.4The current study
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Stimulus materials
    • 2.3Procedure
      • 2.3.1Task 1-identification
      • 2.3.2Task 2-categorial AXB discrimination
    • 2.4Data analysis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Identification task: Control consonants
    • 3.2Identification task: Experimental contrast
      • 3.2.1Accuracy
    • 3.3AXB categorial task: Control pairs
    • 3.4AXB categorial task: Experimental pair
      • 3.4.1Accuracy
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1Perception patterns for /v/ and /w/
    • 4.2Models of second-language learning
    • 4.3Second language experience
    • 4.4Phonemic context effects
    • 4.5Limitations and future directions
    • 4.6Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 11 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.20033.gro
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