The Effects of multilingualism and Music Experience on Tone and Vowel Discrimination Ability

Niloufar Ansari Dezfuly, The University of Western Ontario

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of language background (monolingual/bilingual and early/late bilingual exposure), knowledge of a tonal language and music experience on auditory discrimination by employing tone and vowel discrimination tasks. A total number of 8,769 observations were analyzed using logistic regression to answer the following questions: (1) Do vowel and tone discrimination abilities correlate with language background in diverse groups of speakers such as monolinguals and bilinguals of different types (early/late bilinguals)? (2) Does musical training affect tone and vowel discrimination? (3) Does knowledge of tonal language affect tone discrimination? The findings suggest that with regard to vowel discrimination, the only effective variable is early bilingual exposure. In the case of tone discrimination, early bilingual exposure, knowledge of a tonal language and music experience all have positive effects, while bilingualism (independent of early or late bilingual exposure) is associated with less accurate performance. The results suggest the positive impact of early bilingual exposure, knowledge of a tonal language and music experience on enhancing auditory discrimination and auditory sensory memory. Through its focus on the effects of language and music experience on auditory discrimination, this study contributes to the fields of linguistics and psycholinguistics.