First-language influence on second language speech perception depends on task demands.
Max R Freeman, Henrike K Blumenfeld, Matthew T Carlson and 1 others
PMID 33407003WHAT IT FOUND
Spanish-English bilinguals process English words with initial 's' clusters more slowly when asked to explicitly judge the sounds or words.
This L1 interference disappears in simple same/different tasks, suggesting the conflict is triggered by high-demand listening tasks rather than automatic perception.
Key findings
01Bilinguals were slower than monolinguals to detect vowels in English words starting with s+consonant clusters (e.g., strict), but not in non-words, indicating top-down lexical influence.
02In the most demanding task (lexical decision), bilinguals were slower than monolinguals to process both English words and non-words with s+consonant onsets.
03No significant differences in reaction time were found between bilinguals and monolinguals on the low-demand AX word discrimination task.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used a specific phonotactic conflict (Spanish s+consonant clusters), so findings may not generalize to other L1-L2 pairs or different types of phonological conflicts. Task order was fixed (AX, then vowel detection, then lexical decision), which may have influenced performance in later tasks due to practice or fatigue, although the authors argue the effects were driven by metalinguistic demand. The bilingual participants were early learners (acquired English around age five) with moderate Spanish exposure (30%), so results may not apply to late learners or those with different proficiency profiles.
Declared interests
No conflicts of interest or funding sources are reported in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that all bilingual clients will have difficulty perceiving English s+consonant onsets. The interference only appeared in tasks requiring explicit judgment of sounds or words, not in simple same/different discrimination. A client who performs well on basic listening tasks may still show slowing on metalinguistic assessments due to L1 influence, not necessarily a deficit.