Phonetic and phonological influences on the discrimination of non-native phones

Attunement to the native language (L1), or languages, has a profound effect on the perception of speech segments (or phones). Infants' attunement to the L1 has clear benefits for native listening as an adult, as it facilitates rapid and efficient L1 communication (for reviews, see Best, Goldstein, Nam, & Tyler, 2016; Cutler, 2012; Tyler, Best, Goldstein, & Antoniou, 2014). Many are interested in the effects of L1 attunement on the success of learning to communicate in a second language (L2), but the field of cross-language speech perception is focused on how L1 attunement affects perception. Cross-language speech perception is the focus of this chapter because L1 attunement determines the initial state of the L2 learner. It is crucial to understand how the L1 shapes perception, listeners are presented with phonologically contrasting phones (contrasts) from a never-before-heard non-native language. Discrimination accuracy of different contrasts is compared with a single listener group or, ideally, performance of listeners from different language backgrounds are compared to demonstrate the differential effects of L1 attunement on perception.