Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Speech and Hearing Sciences and University Honors
Department
Speech and Hearing Sciences
First Advisor
Carolyn Quam
Subjects
Language and languages -- Study and teaching -- Psychological aspects, Bilingualism -- Psychological aspects, English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers, Language attrition
DOI
10.15760/honors.685
Abstract
This thesis is a continuation and expansion of Quam and Creel’s 2017 publication that English dominant native Mandarin speakers showed an attrition effect in their ability to process tones. Experiment one tests a new set of research participants in the existing experimental paradigm. This experiment confirmed and solidified the findings in the original research paper. Quam and Creel offered two explanations for this finding. One is that lexical tones are more prone to attrition because of their inherent properties. Explanation two is that consistent use of English vowel perceptual categories reinforces Mandarin vowel perceptual categories. Experiment two tests Mandarin-English bilinguals on vowels using articulations that are non-phonemic in English. The lack of English dominant bilinguals and small sample size overall resulted in an inconclusive finding.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/28711
Recommended Citation
Elkinton, Sarah C., "Attrition Effects in Mandarin-English Bilinguals of Varying Proficiencies" (2019). University Honors Theses. Paper 671.
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/honorstheses/671
10.15760/honors.685