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Article published In: Journal of Second Language Studies
Vol. 8:1 (2025) ► pp.58–88

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Facilitative L1-transfer in nonnative sound production of monolingual and bilingual learners

Phonological overlap and L2 experience

ORCiD logo with link | Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain | Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Spain
ORCiD logo with link | Shanghai University, China | Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, The Netherlands
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Pompeu Fabra University.

Published online: 31 October 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jsls.00034.li
Abstract
The L1-transfer pattern may be different between bilinguals and monolinguals as the former has multiple L1 candidates to transfer. This study compared how Mandarin monolingual learners (MDN), Shanghainese-Mandarin bilingual learners (SHM), and Japanese natives produce Japanese stops in word-reading and paragraph-reading tasks. The L2 Japanese learners varied in the years of learning (1–3 years). Shanghainese differs from Mandarin in that the word-medial voiced stops are prevoiced, which may allow facilitative transfer to Japanese voiced stops. As a result, SHM in general showed more target-like pronunciation of voiced stops than MDN. Regarding the L2 experience, third-year SHM produced more target-like word-medial voiced stops, whereas first-year SHM produced less target-like word-initial voiceless and word-medial voiced stops. These results suggest that the overlap between the target L2 and one of the learners’ L1s may lead to finer phonetic realization, but the facilitative transfer is subject to bilingual learners’ L2 experience.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The role of native language in crosslinguistic influence with monolingual and bilingual learners
    • 1.2The role of L2 experience in crosslinguistic influence with monolingual and bilingual learners
    • 1.3Laryngeal configurations of stops in Japanese, Mandarin, and Shanghainese
    • 1.4Research questions and hypotheses
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Materials
    • 2.3Procedure
    • 2.4Data coding
    • 2.5Statistical analyses
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1RQ1: Do SHM show different phonetic realizations of Japanese stops than MDN?
    • 3.2RQ2: Does the word-internal position of the target stops influence the VOT of Japanese stops produced by MDN and SHM?
    • 3.3RQ3: To what extent does bilingualism interact with L2 experience in L1-transfer?
      • 3.3.1Comparisons between JPN and MDN
      • 3.3.2Comparisons between JPN and SHM
      • 3.3.3Comparisons between MDN and SHM
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1Effects of bilingualism, word-internal position, and L2 experience on L1 transfer
    • 4.2Theoretical remarks and future studies
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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