Lexical recruitment across contrasts in Japanese and Mandarin L2 English speakers

Lexical recruitment in speech perception can vary across individuals and tasks (Giovannone & Theodore, 2023). This study examines second-language (L2) English speakers to explore how lexical bias can be shaped by language background and L2 proficiency. Mandarin and Japanese speakers (ages 18–35) participated in a Ganong task for phoneme categorization using stimuli from four phonemic contrasts: /ɛ/–/æ/, /r/–/l/, /s/–/ʃ/, and /d/–/t/. Using L2 populations allows us to assess how language experience influences lexical bias without confounding age-related cognitive factors. The selected contrasts span acoustic dimensions—including formant, fricative spectra, and voice onset time. They also vary in expected difficulty across groups: the liquid contrast is likely more challenging for Japanese speakers, while the vowel contrast may be difficult for both groups but slightly less so for Japanese speakers due to exposure through English loanwords. Data collection is ongoing. Preliminary results show contrast-dependent differences in lexical bias between language groups, but no consistent correlation between English proficiency (measured through LexTALE; Lemhöfer & Broersma, 2012) and lexical bias. This suggests that language ability in L2 speakers may not directly modulate lexical recruitment. These findings suggest a potential role for native language background in integrating lexical and acoustic information in perception.