Effect of native language experience on audio-visual perception of English fricatives by Korean and Mandarin natives

This study examines how native language (L1) experience affects audio-visual (AV) perception of nonnative (L2) speech. Mandarin, Korean, and English perceivers were presented English CV syllables containing fricatives with 3 places of articulation: labiodentals nonexistent in Korean, interdentals nonexistent in Korean and Mandarin, and alveolars occurring in all L1s. The stimuli were presented as: audio-only (A), visual-only (V), congruent AV, and incongruent AV. Results show that all groups performed better in the AV than A or V condition. The English perceivers outperformed the nonnatives. Mandarin perceivers relied more on V input, and greater AV integration with incongruent AV, whereas Koreans benefited more from A. These findings indicate that nonnatives had less effective AV integration than natives with sounds involving visually unfamiliar places of articulation. The nonnatives’ AV processing was differentially influenced by L1 experience. Conversely, similarities across groups indicate possible perceptual universals. Together they point to an integrated network in speech processing across modalities and linguistic backgrounds.