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Perception of Spanish diphthong /ei/ by second language and heritage speakers of Spanish: findings from two perception tasks

  • Lauren B. Schmidt ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Edwin Rodriguez , Carolina Vargas and Alexa Cassio
Published/Copyright: September 3, 2025
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Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
From the journal Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics Volume 18 Issue 2

Abstract

The current study investigates how native English phonetic categories affect the perception of Spanish diphthong /ei/ for second language (L2) learners and heritage speakers (HS) of Spanish. Based in L2 speech models (PAM-L2 and SLM-r), it was hypothesized that late L2 learners, especially beginners, would struggle in the categorization and discrimination of Spanish diphthong /ei/ and monophthong /e/ due to their predicted assimilation to the same first language (L1) English category. In contrast, heritage speakers (HS), exposed to these sounds from an early age, may have advantages over the L2 learners in the perception of Spanish /ei/. To test this, an identification task and an ABX discrimination task were administered to beginning-L2 learners, HS, and non-heritage native speakers (NHNS) of Spanish. Results showed that L2 learners were less accurate in identifying and discriminating Spanish /ei/, particularly in word-final position, where more L2 vowel lengthening has been found to occur Nibert (2012. Factors affecting the off-gliding of mid vowels by intermediate-level adult learners of Spanish with L1 English. Poster presented at the Current Approaches to Spanish and Portuguese Second Language Phonology Conference, University of South Carolina, 16–19 February), while HS performed similarly to NHNS in perception of Spanish /ei/. Some differences in vowel identification mappings were noted between HS and NHNS, however, possibly due to HS knowledge of English orthography. Overall, findings support the predictions made under the PAM-L2 and SLM-r and highlight the effects of early language exposure and cross-linguistic influence on L2 and HS speech perception.

Keywords: cross-linguistic speech perception; diphthongs; heritage speakers; second language learners; Spanish
Corresponding author: Lauren B. Schmidt, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA, E-mail:

Appendix A: Information elicited in the language background questionnaire: L2 and HS version

  1. Age

  2. Gender

  3. Where did you grow up (city, state and country)?

  4. Choose all the options that apply to you. Language spoken at home growing up:

    English, Spanish, both English and Spanish or other language(s)

  5. Choose all the options that apply to you. Language spoken outside the house growing up:

    English, Spanish, both English and Spanish or other language(s)

  6. In which language do you prefer to communicate most of the time (now)?

    In English, in Spanish, in both in English and Spanish, in another language

  7. Do you speak Spanish at home or with family members now?

    Never, sometimes or frequently

  8. At what age did you start to acquire English: at birth, early childhood, adolescence or adult

  9. What is the highest level of education you have completed (or are currently completing)?

    Some high school or less, high school or equivalent, trade/technical school, college or university or graduate or professional school

  10. Major(s) & minor(s)

  11. How many years of Spanish classes have you taken (at any level/age)?

  12. Have you ever traveled to or lived in a Spanish-speaking country? If so, where and for how long?

  13. Do you speak any other languages (other than English and Spanish)? If so, which ones?

Appendix B: Information elicited in the language background questionnaire: NHNS version

  1. Edad

  2. Género

    Hombre, mujer, no-binario, otro o prefiero no decir

  3. ¿Dónde creciste (ciudad, estado y país)?

  4. ¿Has vivido en otras ciudades/países? Si es así, ¿dónde y por cuánto tiempo?

  5. ¿Cuál es el nivel de educación más alto que has completado (o estás completando actualmente)?

    Partes de secundaria o menos, educación secundaria o equivalente, escuela de oficios/técnica, universidad o escuela de posgrado o profesional

  6. Profesión

  7. ¿Cuál es (son) tu(s) idioma(s) nativo(s)?

  8. ¿Hablas alguna otra lengua? Si es así, ¿cuáles y en qué nivel?

Appendix C: List of identification task stimuli

Target words Control (vowels) Distractors (consonants)
Word-internal Word-final Word-internal V Word-final V Word-initial C Word-medial C
beima somey fique chasi nica suna
neilo maley pibo gapi numo bane
reibu llareya mela pume male chamo
deirra pamey femo lane mosa tima
tieto bapie lani fola
liena tinie leta nale
rate larro
rilo dirro

  1. aToken removed from the analysis.

Appendix D: List of ABX discrimination task stimuli

Target stimuli Distractor stimuli
Word-final Word-initial C Word-medial C Word-internal V Word-final V
mapey-mape-mapey rono-lono-rono dala-darra-dala lape-lope-lape loso-losa-loso
gale-galey-galey lamu-ramu-ramu sirre-sile-sile jate-jote-jote fico-fica-fica
rite-ritey-ritey nute-ñute-nute teño-teno-teño laque-luaque-luaque tesa-tesua-tesa
fosey-fose-fose ñoma-noma-noma quine-quiñe-quiñe
bane-baney-bane peba-teba-pebaa lipa-lita-lita
cale-caley-cale timo-pimo-pimoa bite-bipe-bite

  1. aTokens removed from the analysis.

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Published Online: 2025-09-03
Published in Print: 2025-09-25

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/shll-2025-2015
Keywords for this article
cross-linguistic speech perception; diphthongs; heritage speakers; second language learners; Spanish

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Generational change in the conditioning of coda /r/ manner of articulation in Lorain Puerto Rican Spanish
  4. An initial approximation of the indexical field of creaky voice in Chilean Spanish
  5. A continuous and categorical approach to the L2 acquisition of Spanish voiced stop allophones
  6. Testing competing accounts of adjective-noun code-switching in a Spanish-English written corpus
  7. Gender-inclusive morphology in Spanish: learnability, processing costs, and use
  8. Exploring factors that influence the accusative/dative experiencer alternation in Spanish psych verbs: data from three types of Spanish–English bilinguals
  9. Perception of Spanish diphthong /ei/ by second language and heritage speakers of Spanish: findings from two perception tasks
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