The development of consonant and lexical-tone discrimination between 3 and 6 years: Effect of language exposure:

Aims and objectives:The present study explored children’s discrimination capacities for lexical tones and consonants between 3 and 6 years of age and the effect of native language on this ability. Recent studies in infants have shown a perceptual rebound for non-native listeners during the second year of life, but only for lexical tones. However, the later stages of development, and particularly when children start pre-school, are yet not clear.Design:Discrimination abilities of 134 children were measured in three age groups between 3 and 6 years using a behavioural task where children detected a change in lexical tones or consonants. Children were either French monolinguals, French bilinguals exposed to an Asian tone language or French bilinguals exposed to a second non-tone language at home.Data and analysis:Overall, results indicated that higher detection scores for consonants were observed from 4 to 5 years, while for lexical tones the highest scores were observed only at 5–6 years. Moreover, bilingua...