The effects of exposure to an unknown L2 (Dimroth, Gullberg, Roberts, Indefrey, Klein, Veroude)

This line of study explores the adult learning mechanism by examining what information adult listeners can extract from rich, complex, continuous speech after minimal exposure to an unknown L2. We investigate the effect of item frequency, gestural deictic links between sound and context, and amount of exposure by exposing native Dutch listeners to Mandarin Chinese, a typologically unrelated L2. We have found that learners can recognise word forms and link meaning to them after minimal exposure. We are currently exploring whether they can also generalise beyond the input and acquire phonotactic knowledge.