[lingtalks] TODAY: Megha Sundara (Linguistics Colloquium)
Klinton Bicknell
kbicknell at ling.ucsd.edu
Mon Oct 13 09:24:05 PDT 2008
TODAY, Monday 13 October at 2pm, Megha Sundara (UCLA;http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/Sundara/index.htm
) will give a colloquium in the UCSD Linguistics Department, in AP&M
4301.
:: Abstract ::
How does phonetic perception develop in monolingual and bilingual
first language acquisition?
Megha Sundara
UCLA
From infant research conducted over the last two decades, we know
that language experience influences infant’s speech perception
abilities as early as the first year of life. With age, the infant’s
ability to differentiate between phonetic distinctions becomes
language-specific. Often this language-specificity is manifested as a
decline in the ability to differentiate phonetic distinctions that do
not contrast meaning in the native language. The bulk of the evidence
that the infant’s ability to differentiate phonetic distinctions
becomes language-specific comes from investigations of how English-
learning infants differentiate non-native distinctions.
In contrast, the research on the developing ability to differentiate
native phonetic distinctions is more limited. I will present
behavioral data from infants, children and adults learning English and
French to address three questions. First, how does language experience
influence the development of native phonetic distinctions in
monolinguals? Second, how is the effect of language experience
different in language learners exposed to two languages from birth?
Third, what accounts for these differences between monolinguals and
bilingual first language learners? Together, the similarities and
differences between monolinguals and bilingual first language learners
and their implications for models of grammar will be discussed.
--
For further information about the Linguistics department colloquia
series, including the schedule of future events, please visit http://ling.ucsd.edu/events/colloquia.html
.
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