ERIC Number: EJ971326
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-May
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0269-9206
EISSN: N/A
Bidirectional Perception-Production Relations in Phonological Development: Evidence from Positional Neutralization
Byun, Tara McAllister
Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, v26 n5 p397-413 May 2012
Many children who neutralize phonemic contrasts in production exhibit diminished perception of the same contrasts. It is usually difficult to determine whether the perception deficit caused the production error, or vice versa; however, the direction of causation has implications for treatment planning. This study examines perception-production relationships in the phenomenon of "neutralization in strong position", where children neutralize only in perceptually salient contexts. To test a hypothesis that this phenomenon arises from a child-specific pattern of perceptual sensitivity, a non-word discrimination task was administered to a 4-year-old boy with neutralization in strong position in production. Contrary to the perceptual hypothesis, his discrimination accuracy was greatest for contrasts in initial/strong position, where his production errors occurred. Independent of position, however, his perception of a phonemic contrast he neutralized was decreased relative to other contrasts. This case is argued to constitute evidence that a primary production deficit can cause decreased perceptual ability. (Contains 2 tables and 5 notes.)
Descriptors: Young Children, Males, Speech, Perception, Phonology, Phonemics, Speech Impairments, Accuracy, Error Patterns, Case Studies
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A