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One of the main challenges individuals face when learning an additional language (L2) is learning its sound system, which includes learning to perceive L2 sounds accurately. High variability phonetic training (HVPT) is one method that has proven highly effective at helping individuals develop robust L2 perceptual categories, and recent meta-analytic work suggests that multi-talker training conditions provide a small but statistically reliable benefit compared to single-talker training. However, no study has compared lower and higher variability multi-talker conditions to determine how the number of talkers affects training outcomes, even though such information can shed additional light on how talker variability affects phonetic training. In this study, we randomly assigned 458 L2 Spanish learners to a two-talker or six-talker HVPT group or to a control group that did not receive HVPT. Training focused on L2 Spanish stops. We tested performance on trained talkers and words as well as several forms of generalization. The experimental groups improved more and demonstrated greater generalization than the control group, but neither experimental group outpaced the other. The number of sessions experimental participants completed moderated learning gains. 

Language learners often transfer the sounds and prosody of their native language into their second language, but this influence can also flow in the opposite direction, with the second language influencing the first. Among other variables, language proficiency is known to affect the degree and directionality of cross-linguistic influence. However, little is known about how second language learning affects listeners’ perception of their native language. To begin addressing this gap, we examined the relationship between learners’ second language proficiency and their category goodness ratings in their native language. Thirty-nine English-speaking learners of Spanish listened to English words that began with voiced and voiceless stop consonants and were asked to rate how well the word represented the intended word on a 5-point scale. To create a voicing continuum, we manipulated the voice onset time of the word-initial stop in each target item from 125 ms of prevoicing to 100 ms of aspiration, in 25 ms steps. Proficiency did not affect the perception of voiced targets, but both proficiency and L2 stop production affected the perception of voiceless targets. 

Previous research in speech perception has shown that perception is influenced by social factors that can result in behavioral consequences such as reduced intelligibility (i.e., a listeners’ ability to transcribe the speech they hear). However, little is known about these effects regarding Spanish speakers’ perception of heritage Spanish, Spanish spoken by individuals who have an ancestral and cultural connection to the Spanish language. Given that ideologies within the U.S. Latino community often equate Latino identity to speaking Spanish “correctly” and proficiently, there is a clear need to understand the potential influence these ideologies have on speech perception. Using a matched-guised methodology, we analyzed the influence of speaker social background information and listener social background information on speech perception. Participants completed a transcription task in which four different Spanish heritage speakers were paired with different social guises to determine if the speakers were perceived as equally intelligible under each guise condition. The results showed that social guise and listener social variables did not significantly predict intelligibility scores. We argue that the unique socio-political culture within the U.S. Latino community may lead to different effects of language ideology and social expectation on speech perception than what has been documented in previous work.