Bilingualism reading group

Speaker: Maria Dokovova (Queen Margaret University)

Title: Processing the speech of L2 speakers with your L1 background

Abstract: Everyone knows that listening to an unfamiliar accent will slow down and impair your understanding. However, surprisingly little is known about the effects of listening to your native accent in the context of a second language. In this study 94 L1 Bulgarian - L2 English bilinguals listened to English words produced either by native English speakers or by fellow L1 Bulgarian - L2 English bilinguals. The accent of the words and the English proficiency of the listeners were used to predict the reaction times and accuracy of recognising the stimuli, as well as the pattern of adaptation. The results indicate that the accent of the words and the proficiency of the listeners play an important role for the accuracy, speed of recognition and speed of adaptation, thus challenging some dominant models of second language speech perception.