Perceptual considerations in multilingual adult and child speech acquisition

We have shown that both first and second language learning involves making sense of diverse language input. The second language learner will be forced to attend to new acoustic-phonetic cues and weight the importance of previously attended cues differently in order to develop a language-specific strategy for processing L2 input. The SLP can help the L2 learner make this transition by structuring the input to focus attention on the critical acoustic cues. The selection of stimuli for such listening tasks should be guided by one.'s knowledge of the prosodic and segmental characteristics of the target phonology and the typical developmental speech errors that children make when learning the target language. All activities should involve authentic engagement with natural language in meaningful contexts. Well established perceptual knowledge of the phonological characteristics of the second language will provide a target to guide the child.'s acquisition of the articulatory gestures required for accurate production of those phonological structures, facilitating improved speech accuracy and intelligibility over time.