Minimal effects of L2 phonetic training on non-naïve learners’ perception of cross-linguistic similarity

Accuracy of L2 categorization is linked to the degree of perceived similarity between L1 and L2 categories. The effectiveness of high variability phonetic training in improving L2 perception is widely reported. Still, the effect of training on cross-linguistic perceived similarity is largely unexplored. Thirty-eight Catalan/Spanish bilingual learners of English underwent L2 vowel identification and discrimination training and were tested on their perceptual assimilation of English vowels. Although perceptual training improved both vowel identification and discrimination, training generally did not affect cross-linguistic perceived similarity. The only exception was a tendency for English /ɪ/ to show a decrease in assimilations to Spanish /e/ and an increase in assimilations to Spanish /i/, possibly as a result of enhanced metalinguistic knowledge about the target language. Longer training regimes or different types of tasks or stimuli may be necessary to influence the perception of cross-linguistic similarity.