Phonetic Category Formation in Korean-English Bilingual Children

描述(申请人提供)：使用两种语言的人如何组织他们的语音系统(S)一直是双语和第二语言(L2)语音研究领域的兴趣所在。成人二语学习者受到了极大的关注，但很少有研究描述双语儿童早期语音范畴的形成和发展，以及在这一过程中起作用的机制是什么。这项研究的主要目的是考察韩英双语儿童的元音和辅音产生，以确定言语产生的发展模式。在我们的初步研究中，我们对5岁和10岁的韩英双语儿童的言语产生进行了声学检查，发现了两个年龄段之间的发展差异。首先，5岁儿童为每种语言建立了不同的元音系统，而不是终止辅音系统，而10岁儿童获得了不同的元音和辅音系统；第二，两组儿童使用了不同的潜在机制。基于这些观察，我们建议进一步研究两个不同年龄段的言语产生，以确定更准确的发育模式：3岁和7岁儿童。对双语儿童言语的考察将对当前的双语文献做出重大贡献，因为这项拟议的研究将使我们能够解释双语者达到完全确定的言语产出水平的发展过程。此外，对发育正常的双语儿童进行检查，将为双语儿童言语发音障碍提供重要的教育和临床意义。如果不清楚地了解学习两种语言的典型发育儿童的言语模式，就很难实施言语评估和干预计划，以服务于语言不同的患有言语声音障碍的儿童。因此，这项研究的结果将为发展双语儿童的言语评估和干预计划提供重要的信息。 公共卫生相关性：研究发育正常的双语儿童的言语产生特征将为患有言语发音障碍的双语儿童提供重要的教育和临床意义，因为发育正常的儿童的言语模式通常被认为是言语障碍的诊断工具。如果不清楚地了解学习两种语言的典型发育儿童的言语模式，就很难实施评估和干预计划来服务于患有言语发音障碍的双语儿童。因此，这项研究的结果将为发展双语儿童的言语评估和干预计划提供重要的信息。

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.