Cross-linguistic transfer in lexical stress perception: A cue-weighting typology

This study investigates how second-language (L2) listeners from five first-language (L1) backgrounds—English, Dutch, Mandarin, Spanish, and Korean—perceive English lexical stress, focusing on their use of vowel quality, pitch, and duration cues. Participants completed a cue-weighting perception task (Tremblay et al., 2021) in which two acoustic dimensions were manipulated orthogonally while the third was neutralized. Data for Dutch listeners come from the original study. Predictions about cross-linguistic transfer were based on the functional weight of each cue in the L1. The following L1 effects were predicted: For vowel quality: English, Mandarin Dutch Spanish, Korean; for pitch: Mandarin Korean Dutch, Spanish English; for duration: English, Mandarin Dutch, Spanish Korean. Bayesian mixed-effects models tested the effects of cues and L1 with L2 proficiency (Lemhöfer Mandarin Dutch Korean Spanish; for pitch: Mandarin Korean, Dutch Spanish English; for duration: English, Mandarin, Dutch Spanish Korean. These findings support a cue-weighting typology shaped by L1-specific cue prominence, with implications for theories of transfer and perceptual learning in L2 acquisition.