A paper entitled “LEXTALE_CH: A quick, character-based proficiency test for Mandarin Chinese” (Chan & Chang, 2018) has been published in the Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. This paper describes the development of the Mandarin proficiency test that was used for control purposes in the tone perception study presented at BUCLD 42. Abstract: Research […]
A research article entitled “Perceptual attention as the locus of transfer to nonnative speech perception” (Chang, 2018) has been published in the May issue of Journal of Phonetics. Abstract: One’s native language (L1) is known to influence the development of a nonnative language (L2) at multiple levels, but the nature of L1 transfer to L2 perception remains […]
A research article entitled “Age effects in first language attrition: Speech perception by Korean-English bilinguals” (Ahn, Chang, DeKeyser & Lee-Ellis, 2017) has been published in the September issue of Language Learning. Abstract: This study investigated how bilinguals’ perception of their first language (L1) differs according to age of reduced contact with L1 after immersion in a second […]
Prof. Chang’s work with Dr. Anita Bowles and Valerie Karuzis on tone aptitude (Bowles, Chang & Karuzis, 2016) was featured on the “Life as a bilingual” blog in Psychology Today: Do Musicians Make Better Language Learners? by Aneta Pavlenko (July 5, 2017)
A research article entitled “Pitch ability as an aptitude for tone learning” (Bowles, Chang & Karuzis, 2016) has been published in the December issue of Language Learning. Abstract: Tone languages such as Mandarin use voice pitch to signal lexical contrasts, presenting a challenge for second/foreign language (L2) learners whose native languages do not use pitch in this […]
A research article entitled “Toward an understanding of heritage prosody: Acoustic and perceptual properties of tone produced by heritage, native, and second language speakers of Mandarin” (Chang & Yao, 2016) has been published in the August issue of the Heritage Language Journal. Abstract: In previous work examining heritage language phonology, heritage speakers have often patterned differently from […]
A research article entitled “Bilingual perceptual benefits of experience with a heritage language” (Chang, 2016) has been published in the August issue of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. Abstract: Research on the linguistic knowledge of heritage speakers has been concerned primarily with the advantages conferred by heritage language experience in production, perception, and (re)learning of the heritage language. […]
A research article entitled “On the cognitive basis of contact-induced sound change: Vowel merger reversal in Shanghainese” (Yao & Chang, 2016) has been published in the June issue of Language, the journal of the Linguistic Society of America. Abstract: This study investigates the source and status of a recent sound change in Shanghainese (Wu, Sinitic) that has […]
A research article entitled “Context effects on second-language learning of tonal contrasts” (Chang & Bowles, 2015) has been published in the December issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Abstract: Studies of lexical tone learning generally focus on monosyllabic contexts, while reports of phonetic learning benefits associated with input variability are based largely on […]