Finding the key in Kiwi during second language spoken production: Low proficiency speakers sound more native-like if they live in mixed-language environments.

Abstract

The goal of this article was to determine if second language (L2) speakers benefit from living in mixed-language environments and whether said benefit applies across proficiency levels. To this end, we reanalyzed a subset of data from Gilbert et al. (2019) considering language entropy scores as a proxy for linguistic environment predictability. The task involved producing sentences designed around oronyms in French and English. Participants produced sentences in both languages, allowing the comparison of first language and L2 productions. Their results demonstrated the production of L2-appropriate prosodic cues, albeit after having reached a high level of L2 proficiency. Adding language entropy scores to the original statistical models revealed significant interactions suggesting that participants benefited from living in a mixed-languages environment whereby even low-proficiency speakers produced L2-appropriate prosodic cues. However, low-proficiency L2 speakers living in predictable linguistic environments failed to adapt their prosodic production to their L2, as previously observed. These results suggest that, irrespective of proficiency, the language environment has a significant impact on nonnative language production. This has implications for language development and models of language acquisition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).