The aim of this
study was to determine how passive auditory exposure to an L2 vowel category
affects 7-12 year-old Finnish children’s attentive and pre-attentive vowel
perception. The subjects listened passively to different variants of the
Swedish vowel /ʉ/ on two consecutive days, one hour per day. The effects
of the training were monitored with behavioral tasks (discrimination and reaction
time) and EEG recordings. The MMN results obtained with the EEG showed that the
younger (7-8 yo) and older (9-12 yo) subjects processed the stimuli
differently. An MMN was elicited in the older subjects for the L2 prototype vs.
non-prototype contrast after the training, while no MMN responses emerged in
the other group. Language awareness and experience might explain the difference
in processing between the two age groups.