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July 29, 2026International Journal of Bilingualism

Non-Natives Are Not Always Disadvantaged: Better-Than-Native Learning of Novel English Stress-Based Word Contrasts in Cantonese Listeners

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Authors

WCWilliam ChoiECEster Sze Hang ChanPSPandora Joy Sze

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Overview

Randomized trial investigates English word learning performance in Cantonese and English listeners, suggesting L1 advantage in L2 acquisition.

Key Points

  • This research aims to investigate the impact of Cantonese listeners' experience with lexical stress on their ability to learn English words.
  • Twenty Cantonese and twenty English listeners participated in four English word learning sessions.
  • Participants identified pseudowords differing in segmental information and lexical stress, with vowel reduction as a factor.
  • Data were analyzed using mixed-effects logistic regression to assess trial accuracy.
  • In Sessions 1 and 2, Cantonese listeners matched the performance of English listeners in pseudoword identification.
  • In Sessions 3 and 4, Cantonese listeners significantly outperformed English listeners on pseudowords without vowel reduction.
  • Results indicate that Cantonese linguistic experience aids in encoding L2 phonological contrasts in memory.

Cite This Study

Choi et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a69a26dc8da07d9defa5cc8https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069261464846
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