Cordero, GaëlParedes-Paredes, Jazmin R.Perea, ManuelSebastián Gallés, NúriaDíaz, Begoña2025-05-292025-05-292025Cordero G, Paredes-Paredes JR, Perea M, Sebastian-Galles N, Díaz B. Voice processing ability predicts second-language phoneme learning in early bilingual adults. Bilingualism. 2025 Jan 17. DOI: 10.1017/S136672892400110X1366-7289http://hdl.handle.net/10230/70554Data de publicació electrònica: 17-01-2025Individuals differ greatly in their ability to learn the sounds of second languages, even when learning starts early in life. Recent research has suggested that the ability to identify the idiosyncratic acoustic variations introduced into the speech stream by the speaker might be relevant for second-language (L2) phoneme learning. However, only a positive correlation between voice recognition and phoneme learning has been shown. In the present study, we investigated whether voice processing ability predicts L2 phoneme learning. We employed a battery of behavioral cognitive ability measures to assess voice processing ability and L2 phoneme learning in 57 early bilingual adults. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that voice processing ability predicts L2 phoneme learning. Our findings align with theories of speech perception that attribute a fundamental role to the analysis of voice cues and suggest that the accurate identification of speaker-specific variation is also relevant for phoneme learning.application/pdfeng© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S136672892400110XVoice processingPhoneme learningIndividual differencesConfirmatory factor analysisStructural equation modelinginfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess