Tuning in to the prosody of a novel language is easier without orthography

Kateřina Chládková; Václav Jonáš Podlipský; Lucie Jarůšková; Šárka Šimáčková

Tuning in to the prosody of a novel language is easier without orthography

Chládková, Kateřina ^[3] ; Podlipský, Václav Jonáš ^[1] ; Jarůšková, Lucie ^[2] ; Šimáčková, Šárka ^[1]
1. [1] Palacký University, Olomouc
  
  Palacký University, Olomouc
  
  Chequia
2. [2] Institute of Czech Literature
  
  Institute of Czech Literature
  
  Chequia
3. [3] Institute of Czech Language and Theory of Communication, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Czech Republic Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
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Localización: Bilingualism: Language and cognition, ISSN 1366-7289, Vol. 28, Nº 5, 2025, págs. 1239-1248
Idioma: inglés
DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925000082
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Resumen
- Mastering prosody is a different task for adults learning a second language and infants acquiring their first. While prosody crucially aids the process of L1 acquisition, for adult L2 learners it is often considerably challenging. Is it because of an age-related decline in the language-learning ability or because of unfavorable learning conditions? We investigated whether adults can auditorily sensitize to the prosody of a novel language, and whether such sensitization is affected by orthographic input. After 5 minutes of exposure to Māori, Czech listeners could reliably recognize this language in a post-test using low-pass filtered clips of Māori and Malay. Recognition accuracy was lower for participants exposed to the novel-language speech along with deep-orthography transcriptions or orthography with unfamiliar characters. Adults can thus attune to novel-language prosody, but orthography hampers this ability. Language-learning theories and applications may need to reconsider the consequences of providing orthographic input to beginning second-language learners.
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