Table Of ContentThe Listening Bilingual
The Listening Bilingual
Speech Perception, Comprehension,
and Bilingualism
François Grosjean and Krista Byers‐Heinlein
With contributions from
Mark Antoniou
Theres Grüter
Robert J. Hartsuiker
Elizabeth D. Peña and Lisa M. Bedore
Lu‐Feng Shi
This edition first published 2018
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v
Contents
Author Biographies viii
Introduction 1
1 Bilingual Adults and Children: A Short Introduction 4
François Grosjean and Krista Byers‐Heinlein
Introduction 4
General Aspects of Bilingualism 5
Bilingual Children 13
Summary 21
References 21
2 Speech Perception and Comprehension 25
François Grosjean and Krista Byers‐Heinlein
Introduction 25
From the Speech Wave to the Mental Representation 26
Processing in Bilingual Adults 29
Processing in Bilingual Children 33
Summary 37
References 37
Part I Speech Processing in Adults 41
3 Speech Perception 43
Mark Antoniou
Introduction 43
Perception of Speech Segments by Bilinguals 43
Factors Affecting Bilinguals’ Speech Perception 48
Theories of Cross‐Language Speech Perception 54
The Role of Suprasegmentals in Speech Perception 58
Future Challenges and Directions 60
Summary 61
References 61
vi Contents
4 Spoken Word Recognition 65
François Grosjean
Introduction 65
How Does Word Recognition Take Place and How Do Bilinguals Fare? 66
Language Proficiency, Use and History 67
Lower Level Information 71
Processing Mechanisms and Strategies 73
The Activation of Candidates 77
Summary 82
References 83
5 Processing at Higher Levels 86
Robert J. Hartsuiker
Introduction 86
Auditory Sentence Comprehension: Stages and Principles 86
Syntactic Analysis 90
Processing the Meaning of Words 97
Syntactic Integration and Revision 102
Discussion and Conclusion 103
Summary 104
References 105
6 Processing Bilingual Speech 109
François Grosjean
Introduction 109
Does the Perception of Spoken Code‐Switches Take Extra Time? 110
The Recognition of Guest Words 115
The Processing of Interferences 123
Summary 126
References 126
7 Assessing Perception and Comprehension in Bilingual Adults 129
Lu‐Feng Shi
Introduction 129
Issues in Bilingual Assessment 129
Word Recognition 131
Recognition of Connected Speech 137
Factors That Affect Assessment of Speech Perception in Bilinguals 140
Summary 144
References 145
Part II Speech Processing in Children 151
8 Speech Perception 153
Krista Byers‐Heinlein
Introduction 153
Simultaneous Bilingual Infants 154
Contents vii
Child L2 Learners 166
Summary 171
References 172
9 Spoken Word Recognition 176
Krista Byers‐Heinlein
Introduction 176
Finding Words in the Speech Stream 176
Learning New Words 179
Recognizing Familiar Words 184
The Role of Speech Perception in Learning and Recognizing Words 187
Bilingual Children’s Vocabulary 190
Summary 194
References 194
10 Processing at Higher Levels 199
Theres Grüter
Introduction 199
Asymmetries Between Comprehension and Production 201
Real‐Time Processing 205
Cross‐Linguistic Influence 207
Input and Exposure 214
Summary 216
References 217
11 A ssessing Perception and Comprehension in Bilingual Children, Without
and With Speech and Language Impairment 220
Elizabeth D. Peña and Lisa M. Bedore
Introduction 220
Defining Language Impairment 220
Phonological Perception and Word Learning 221
Challenges in Assessment of Bilingual Children 223
Assessment of Single Word Knowledge 227
Assessment of Semantic Knowledge 233
Implications for Practice 236
Summary 236
References 237
Index 244
viii
Author Biographies
Primary authors
François Grosjean is Professor Emeritus of Psycholinguistics at Neuchâtel University,
Switzerland. His publications on bilingualism include many articles and chapters as well
as five books: Life with Two Languages: An Introduction to Bilingualism (1982), Studying
Bilinguals (2008), Bilingual: Life and Reality (2010), The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism
(with Ping Li, 2013) and Parler plusieurs langues: Le monde des bilingues (2015). He is a
Founding Editor of the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition and was its first
Coordinating Editor.
Krista Byers‐Heinlein is Associate Professor of Psychology at Concordia University,
where she holds the Concordia University Research Chair in Bilingualism. Her work
investigates language, cognitive, and social development in bilingual infants and chil-
dren. She has authored many peer‐reviewed articles on early bilingualism in journals
such as Psychological Science and Child Development. She is a member of the editorial
boards of Infancy and Developmental Science. This is her first book.
Guest Authors
Mark Antoniou is Senior Research Fellow at The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour
and Development, Western Sydney University. His published works on bilingual speech
perception, within the Journal of Phonetics and The Journal of the Acoustical Society of
America, were the first attempts to extend The Perceptual Assimilation Model to
account for language mode effects on speech perception in fluent bilingual listeners.
Theres Grüter is Associate Professor of Second Language Studies at the University of
Hawai‘i at Mānoa and currently serves as an Associate Editor for Applied Psycholinguistics.
Her research investigates how language learners of all kinds – children and adults,
monolingual and bilingual – process structural aspects of language. Her publications
include journal articles on child and adult second language acquisition and bilingual-
ism, and a co‐edited volume (with Johanne Paradis) on Input and Experience in Bilingual
Development (2014).
Robert J. Hartsuiker is Professor of Psychology at Ghent University, Belgium. He is
interested in the production and comprehension of language in bilinguals and on the
