Language-experience facilitates discrimination of |d-partial derivative| in monolingual and bilingual acquisition of English

To trace how a e and language experience shape the discrimination of native and non-native phonetic contrasts, we compared 4-year-olds learning either English or French or both and simultaneous bilingual adults on their ability to di,crirninatc the English /d-partial derivative/ contrast, Finding, show that the ability to discriminate the native English contrast improved with age. However. in the absence of experience with this contrast. discrimination of French children and adults remained unchanued durin- development. Furthermore. although simultaneous bilingual and monolingual English adults were comparable. children exposed to both English and French were poorer at discriminating this contrast when compared to monolingual English-learning 4-year-olds. Thus. language experience facilitates perception of the English /d-6/ contrast and this facilitation occurs later in development when English and French are acquired simultaneously. The difference between bilingual and monolinpal acquisition has implications for language organization in children with simultaneous exposure. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.