Bilingualism
Does speaking two languages help you learn words in a tone language?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Bilingual adults picked out the words of a made-up tone language better than monolinguals, while already speaking a tone language (Mandarin) gave no reliable advantage.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Human experiment — Adults listened to a continuous artificial tone-language stream, then chose words over non-words; language-background groups compared across three experiments (2 x 2 tonal experience by bilingualism).
- N
- Experiment 1 (English monolinguals): N not given in the available text; Experiment 2: 24 Mandarin monolinguals and 24 Mandarin-English bilinguals; Experiment 3: 15 non-tonal bilinguals.
- Population
- College-aged adults: English monolinguals, Mandarin monolinguals (China), Mandarin-English bilinguals and non-tonal bilinguals (US university)
- Outcome
- Proportion correct on a word vs non-word forced-choice test after exposure
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Key findings
English monolinguals did not perform above chance, which was surprising given the redundant cues. Mandarin monolinguals performed above chance (mean accuracy 0.57) but not significantly better than English monolinguals, so tone experience alone gave no reliable edge. Mandarin-English bilinguals did best (0.68) and beat Mandarin monolinguals, and non-tonal bilinguals (0.66) beat English monolinguals; across groups the main effect of bilingualism was significant while tonal experience was not. Musical background did not correlate with accuracy.
Methodology
The researchers built an artificial language whose three-syllable words were marked by both syllable and pitch-tone patterns, and played it as an unbroken speech stream. Afterwards listeners had to pick which of two sound strings was a word from the language. They tested English monolinguals, Mandarin monolinguals from China, Mandarin-English bilinguals, and bilinguals whose two languages had no tones (for example English and Spanish).
Limitations
Groups were not randomly assigned, so bilinguals may differ from monolinguals in other ways (culture, university, country of testing for the Mandarin monolinguals). The Experiment 1 methods and sample size are missing from the available text, and the non-tonal bilingual group was small and mixed in languages. Performance was measured on a tiny artificial lexicon, and the authors themselves flag ecological validity; the study does not show which mechanism (working memory, inhibitory control, word-length expectations) produces the bilingual advantage.
How this study connects
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