Phonetic Category Formation in Korean-English Bilingual Children

描述（由申请人提供）：使用两种语言的个体如何组织他们的语音系统一直是双语和第二语言（L2）语音研究领域的长期兴趣。人们对成人二语学习者的研究非常关注，但很少有研究描述双语儿童在早期习得过程中语音类别是如何产生和发展的，以及在这一过程中有什么样的机制在起作用。本研究的主要目的是研究韩英双语儿童元音和辅音的产生，以确定语言产生的发展模式。在我们的初步研究中，我们对5岁和10岁的韩英双语儿童进行了声学检查，发现了两个年龄组之间的发展差异。首先，5岁的儿童对每种语言的元音都建立了独特的系统，但对顿音却没有，而10岁的儿童对元音和辅音都建立了独特的系统；第二，两组儿童采用不同的潜在机制。基于这些观察结果，我们建议进一步研究两个不同年龄的语言产生，以确定更精确的发展模式：3岁和7岁儿童。对双语儿童语言的研究将对当前的双语文献做出重大贡献，因为所提出的研究将使我们能够解释双语者达到完全建立的语言产生水平的发展过程。此外，对正常发展的双语儿童进行检查将对有语音障碍的双语儿童提供重要的教育和临床意义。如果对正常发育儿童学习两种语言的语言模式没有清晰的认识，就很难实施语言评估和干预计划，以服务语言多样性的言语障碍儿童。因此，本研究结果将为双语儿童语音障碍的言语评估和干预方案的制定提供重要的信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): How individuals who use two languages organize their phonetic system(s) has been of long-standing interest in the area of bilingual and second language (L2) speech research. Great attention has been paid to adult L2 learners, but few studies have characterized how phonetic categories emerge and develop in early acquisition and what kind of mechanisms are at play in this process in bilingual children. The main goal of this proposed study is to examine vowel and consonant production in Korean-English bilingual children in order to determine developmental patterns of speech production. In our preliminary studies, we have acoustically examined speech production in 5- and 10-year-old Korean-English bilingual children and found developmental differences between the two age groups. First, 5-year-old children established distinctive systems for each language for vowels but not for stop consonants, while 10-year-old children obtained distinctive systems for both vowels and consonants; second, both groups of children employed different underlying mechanisms. Based on these observations, we propose to further investigate speech production at two different chronological ages in order to determine more precise developmental patterns: 3- and 7-year-old children. Examination of bilingual children's speech will make significant contributions to the current literature of bilingualism in that the proposed study will allow us to explain the developmental processes by which bilingual speakers reach the level of fully established speech production. Furthermore, examining normally developing bilingual children will provide important educational and clinical implications for bilingual children with speech sound disorders. Without a clear understanding of the speech patterns in typically developing children learning two languages, it is difficult to implement speech assessment and intervention programs to serve linguistically diverse children with speech sound disorders. Thus, the results of this proposed study will provide significant information for developing speech assessment and intervention programs for bilingual children with speech sound disorders. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Examining speech production characteristics of normally developing bilingual children will provide important educational and clinical implications for bilingual children with speech sound disorders because the developmental speech patterns of normally developing children are commonly considered to be a diagnostic tool for speech disorders. Without a clear understanding of the speech patterns in typically developing children learning two languages, it is difficult to implement assessment and intervention programs to serve bilingual children with speech sound disorders. Thus, the results of this proposed study will provide significant information for developing speech assessment and intervention programs for bilingual children with speech sound disorders.