Second-language phonolexical representations of Italian children in an English immersion program

Relatively little is known about phonolexical development in children learning a second language (L2). This study examined whether Italian children enrolled in an English partial immersion program in Italy show accurate phonological representations of challenging L2 words and whether individual differences are related to age at onset of L2 exposure, richness of exposure to the L2 outside school, receptive vocabulary, and the proficiency in the L2 of the children's parents. Twenty-eight first-grade children (mean age=6;7 years, SD=0;3) participated in the study. Children were administered a receptive vocabulary test in English and participated in an experimental task in which they had to judge whether an English auditory stimulus matched an accompanying picture. Auditory words could be matched or mismatched with the picture. Mismatched pairs could be unrelated in form and meaning, overlapping in the first segment, or minimal pairs including a challenging vowel contrast for native Italian speakers (e.g., /i/-/ɪ/ contrast; picture: sheep; auditory word: ship). Information concerning age at onset and richness of L2 exposure and parental L2 proficiency was gathered through a validated questionnaire. Results showed significantly worse performance in the minimal pair condition, suggesting that, although children were actively constructing lexical representations in the L2, their phonological representations of L2 words were underspecified and influenced by their native vowel categories. Performance in this task was not related to age at onset of L2 exposure, receptive L2 vocabulary, or parents’ L2 proficiency. Further analyses suggested that richness of L2 exposure outside school was positively linked to L2 vocabulary acquisition but negatively correlated with accuracy in distinguishing minimal pairs, potentially due to exposure to accented input. Findings suggest that greater L2 exposure from non-native speakers outside school may support lexical acquisition but hinder the development of accurate phonolexical representations for children in the earlier stages of L2 learning.