The role of L1 knowledge on L2 speech perception: investigating how native speakers and Brazilian learners categorize different VOT patterns in English

The present study aimed to investigate how different Voice Onset Time (VOT) patterns are categorized by native speakers of American English and Brazilian Learners of English. American English and Brazilian Portuguese diverge as to the voicing patterns of plosive consonants, for the VOT cue plays different roles in the distinction between voiced and voiceless consonant categories in each system. This study contrasted four VOT patterns (Negative VOT, Zero VOT, Positive VOT and a manipulated pattern, named Artificial Zero VOT) in two perceptual tasks (AxB discrimination and identification tests), and verified how the two groups of participants categorized these patterns. Results reinforce the idea that speech perception is multimodal and, therefore, the action of multiple cues must be taken into account when we consider phonetic-phonological processes.