Advances in the Study of Bilingualism

Enlli Môn Thomas, Ineke Mennen, Enlli Môn Thomas, Ineke Mennen

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781783091720
• Topic: Sprachen & Linguistik
• Subtopic: Sprachwissenschaft

This book provides a contemporary approach to the study of bilingualism. Drawing on contributions from leading experts in the field, this book brings together - in a single volume - a selection of the exciting work conducted as part of the programme of the ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism in Theory and Practice at Bangor University, Wales. Each chapter has as its main focus an exploration of the relationship between the two languages of a bilingual. Section by section, the authors draw on current findings and methodologies to explore the ways in which their research can address this question from a number of different perspectives.

Part 1

Bilingual Speech

1 Speech Learning in Bilinguals: Consonant Cluster Acquisition

Robert Mayr, Danna Jones and Ineke Mennen

Introduction

A key issue in the study of bilingual speech learning is to understand along which phonetic and phonological dimensions languages can systematically differ, and how such differences are generated in speech production, evaluated in speech perception and ultimately acquired by those learning to speak two (or more) languages. Identifying these dimensions is important as it will lead to a better understanding of how bilinguals manage two – partially competing – sound systems. This, in turn, will help identify what is learned phonetic behaviour and inform models of phonetic/phonological representation. Many studies have shown that one of the consequences of bilinguals having to manage or ‘juggle’ two competing sound systems is that their speech production differs at least to some extent from that of monolingual speakers in each language. We see such interaction between the two languages in bilinguals as a perfectly normal phenomenon resulting from language contact, and one that does not only occur in bilinguals who started learning a second language (L2) later in life (i.e. sequential or adult bilingualism) (e.g. Flege et al., 1995), but also in bilinguals whose exposure to both languages started at birth or soon thereafter (i.e. simultaneous or childhood bilingualism) (e.g. Kehoe, 2002).

The Speech Research group of the ESRC centre for research on bilingualism in theory and practice aims to investigate the nature and extent to which languages differ systematically in their phonetic and phonological properties, and how these differences are realised and acquired by bilinguals. Languages are known to differ in their phoneme inventories and their fine phonetic detail, but also in their prosody (i.e. rhythm, tempo, loudness, stress, voice quality and intonation), their phonotactic distribution (i.e. restrictions on the permissible combinations of speech sounds and the way in which the speech apparatus, such as the lips, tongue and jaw is used in a given language). Our research programme has primarily focused on those phonetic/phonological aspects and language pairs that have largely escaped attention to date. As such we have conducted research on prosody, in particular differences in the use of intonation and pitch range across languages and how such differences are realised and learned by bilingual speakers (Mennen et al., 2012; Mennen et al., in press); articulatory settings, that is, cross-linguistic differences in the way in which speakers of a language set up their articulators, such as their tongue, their lip and their jaw, during speech and in the preparation for speech (Mennen et al., 2010; Schaeffler et al., 2008; Scobbie et al., 2011); influences of the L2 learning experience on the L1 sound system (de Leeuw et al., 2010; de Leeuw et al., 2012; Mayr et al., 2012; Mennen, 2004; for a discussion see also Chapter 2); and phonological acquisition in bilingual children (Mayr et al., 2014). In this chapter, we will focus on phonological acquisition by presenting a study on the acquisition of consonant clusters in in Welsh-English bilingual children.

Consonant Cluster Acquisition in Welsh-English Bilingual Children

Background to the study

Phonological acquisition in bilingual children

Children acquiring the phonological system of their native language face a formidable task. This task becomes even more complex in the case of bilingual children. According to Watson (1991: 27), four steps are involved: the child must (1) learn to recognise distinct acoustic patterns in the two languages; (2) deduce the set of oppositions which constitute the phonological structure of the languages; (3) associate the acoustic patterns with the phonological systems, and (4) master the correct language-specific articulatory routines.

Given the enormity of this task, it is not surprising that many studies have found slower phonological acquisition in bilinguals than monolinguals, a phenomenon termed delay or deceleration (Fabiano-Smith & Goldstein, 2010; Gildersleeve-Neumann et al., 2008). The Spanish-English bilingual children in Fabiano-Smith and Goldstein (2010), for instance, were found to lag behind age-matched monolinguals in either language with respect to consonant production accuracy.

Other studies, however, have yielded the opposite effect, that is, faster acquisition by bilinguals compared with monolinguals, a phenomenon termed acceleration (Paradis & Genesee, 1996) or bilingual bootstrapping (Fabiano-Smith & Barlow, 2010). Evidence for acceleration is, for instance, found in Lléo et al. (2003). This study revealed greater accuracy in the production of final consonants in Spanish by Spanish-German bilingual children than age-matched Spanish-speaking monolinguals, perhaps because the less restricted patterns of syllable-final consonants in German had a facilitative effect. Similarly, Grech and Dodd (2008) found that children exposed to both Maltese and English at home were significantly more accurate in their overall percent consonant correct scores than those only exposed to one language at home.

However, bilinguals are not ‘the sum of two complete or incomplete monolinguals, but have a specific and unique linguistic configuration’ (Grosjean, 1995: 259). Some studies have therefore focused, not on comparisons between monolinguals and bilinguals, but between different types of bilinguals (Goldstein et al., 2005; Law & So, 2006; Munro et al., 2005). Munro et al. (2005), for instance, examined the acquisition of singleton consonants in Welsh-English bilingual children differing in language dominance. The results revealed significantly greater accuracy by the Welsh-dominant children on consonants occurring in Welsh words, such as /ɡ ŋ v θ ʃ ɬ w j r/. Interestingly, the advantage of the English-dominant bilinguals on consonants occurring in English words was somewhat less equivocal, with greater accuracy than the Welsh-dominant bilinguals on some consonants, that is, /s ʃtʃ ddʒ/, but worse performance on others, that is, /t h/. Interestingly, consonants shared by Welsh and English were sometimes acquired earlier in one language than the other. Language-specific differences of this kind are also reported in many other studies (Dodd et al., 1996; Holm & Dodd, 1999). Together, they indicate that bilingual children have differentiated language systems.

This does not mean, however, that their phonological systems are entirely independent of each other. Rather, the evidence suggests that the two languages of bilinguals interact with each other, exhibiting cross-linguistic effects (Fabiano-Smith & Barlow, 2010; Grech & Dodd, 2008; Holm & Dodd, 1999; Paradis, 2001; So & Leung, 2006; Stow & Pert, 2006; Yang & Hua, 2010). Keshavarz and Ingram (2002), for instance, report that the Farsi-English bilingual child in their study used patterns specific to one language in the other language. Likewise, the two sequential Cantonese-English bilingual children in Holm and Dodd (1999) generalised language-specific simplification patterns, such as final consonant backing in Cantonese and final consonant deletion in English, to the other language. This resulted in errors that would be considered atypical in monolingual children of either language. Although most studies report cross-linguistic effects of this kind, their incidence in individual bilingual children appears to be comparatively low (Fabiano-Smith & Barlow, 2010).

One aspect of phonological acquisition in bilingual children that has received little attention thus far is consonant clusters. Consonant clusters are an interesting area to explore as they constitute one of the most protracted aspects of phonological development (McLeod et al., 2001) and are commonly impaired in paediatric clients with speech impairments (Chin & Dinnsen, 1992). The present study aims to contribute to this line of research by investigating the acquisition of onset clusters in Welsh-English bilingual children differing in language dominance.

Consonant clusters and their acquisition in monolinguals

Consonant clusters are sequences of consonants produced in temporal succession without an intervening vowel. They may occur in syllable-initial position as onset clusters, as in play[plεɪ], or in syllable-final position in coda clusters, as in ask [ɑsk]. Some languages, such as Greek (Mennen & Okalidou, 2007), have a large cluster inventory. Cantonese, on the other hand, only has two consonant clusters, that is, word-initial /kw/ and /kʰw/ (So & Dodd, 1995). Sometimes a distinction is made between tautosyllabic clusters, that is, clusters occurring within the same syllable, and heterosyllabic clusters, that is, clusters occurring across syllable boundaries, as in dolphin (Barlow, 2003). Furthermore, clusters may be the result of schwa-deletion, for example, police as [plis], suppose as [spəʊz] (Heselwood, 2008). The present study only includes tautosyllabic onset clusters that are not a result of schwa-deletion.

Children’s acquisition of consonant clusters is a protracted process that may not even be complete by the age of 9;0 (Smit et al., 1990). Nevertheless, certain clusters may be mastered by children as young as 2;0 (Lleo & Prinz, 1996). Interestingly, word-final clusters tend to be acquired before word-initial ones (Dodd, 1995). This asymmetry appears to be attributable to articulatory factors, rather than structural, morphological or frequency-based ones (Kirk & Demuth, 2005). As the present study focuses on onset clusters, no further mention will be made of codas (but see Mayr et al., 2014).

Early attempts to produce onset clusters often result in forms that do not feature in the ambient language. Dyson (1988), for instance, reports that the most commonly produced cluster of the 2- to 3-year old English-learning children in her study was [fw]. By the age of 3;6, 75% of normally developing children in Smit et al.’s (1990) study were able to produce clusters containing a stop + /w/, by 4;6 to 5;6 clusters containing /l/, by 6;0 clusters containing /r/, and by 7;0 clusters containing /s/ and /θr/. The earliest target-like productions were /kw/ and/tw/, with /skr/ and /spr/ the last to develop.

Children’s early attempts to produce consonant clusters are characterised by systematic substitution patterns, or phonological processes (Grunwell, 1987), the most common of which are ‘cluster reduction’ and ‘cluster simplification’ (see McLeod et al., 2001 for details of rarer substitution patterns, for example, epenthesis, metathesis and coalescence).

Cluster reduction involves omission of one or more elements from a cluster, for example, brown as [baʊn], and appears to follow broadly the same pattern across languages (Locke, 1983). For example, word-initial clusters consisting of stop + approximant or fricative + approximant involve omission of the approximant, for example, cream as [kim]; fricative + stop clusters are reduced to stops, for example, spoon as [pun]; and nasal + approximant sequences are reduced to nasals, for example, music as [muzɪk].

The Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) provides an explanation for these patterns (Gierut, 1999; Ohala, 1999). Accordingly, cluster reductions will occur in such a manner as to produce a maximal rise in sonority from the syllable onset to its nucleus. Sonority, in turn, refers to a sound’s ‘loudness relative to that of other sounds with the same length, stress and pitch’ (Ladefoged, 1975: 221). By this definition, vowels are the most sonorous sounds, followed by approximants, liquids and nasals, with fricatives and stops the least sonorous. Thus, the reduction of a stop + approximant cluster to a stop, for instance, involves a greater rise in sonority than if the same cluster had been reduced to an approximant.

Over time, the occurrence of cluster reduction diminishes, whereas cluster simplifications increase. Cluster simplifications occur when all elements of a cluster are produced but at least one of them differs from the adult norm. These deviations, in turn, follow similar patterns as those in singleton consonants, for example, gliding, stopping, fronting (Grunwell, 1987). For example, glass and grass may involve liquid gliding and be pronounced [ɡwɑs].

Consonant cluster acquisition in bilingual children

A few accounts of bilingual phonological development include information on clusters. Holm and Dodd (1999), for instance, report language-specific reductions on shared clusters. Thus, one of the Cantonese-English bilinguals in their study reduced Cantonese /kw/ to [t], but English /kw/ to [w]. Similarly, Grech and Dodd (2008) report different patterns of cluster reduction in three-year-old children exposed to Maltese and English at home versus those only exposed to Maltese: although both sets of children reduced fricative + stop, fricative + nasal and stop + stop clusters, only children with Maltese as their exclusive home language also reduced stop + approximant clusters. Finally, Yavaş and his associates investigated cluster acquisition in bilingual children exposed to Spanish and English (Yavaş & Barlow, 2006; Yavaş & Someillan, 2005) and Haitian Creole and English (Yavaş & Beauburn, 2006). However, these studies were confined to initial /s/-clusters. The purpose of the present study is to complement existing studies by providing the first extensive account of onset cluster acquisition in bilingual children.

Methods

Participants

Forty-one Welsh-English bilingual children attending Welsh-medium nurseries and primary schools in Ceredigion, West Wales participated in the study. Ceredigion is one of the counties with the largest concentration of Welsh speakers, with 52% of speakers proficient in the language according to the 2001 census (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001, see alsoGathercole & Thomas, 2009; Jones, 2010). The participants w...