Previous research in various languages has demonstrated that probabilistic phonotactics may serve as a cue to locate the beginnings and endings of spoken words in speech. It was hypothesized these types of information in L1 might also be used in spoken word recognition of L2 by fluent bilingual listeners. The present study used a word-spotting experiment investigate whether Cantonese-English bilingual listeners make use of their L1 (Cantonese) probabilistic phonotactic information in recognizing spoken words in L2 (English) speech. The results showed that the Cantonese-English bilingual listeners made use of L1 probabilistic phonotactics to recognize L2 words in speech.

先前对各种语言的研究表明，概率音位策略可以用作定位语音中口头单词的起点和终点的线索。假设L1中的这些类型的信息也可能被流利的双语听众用于L2的语音识别中。本研究使用一个单词发现实验，调查粤语-英语双语听众是否利用他们的L1（广东话）概率音位信息来识别L2（英语）语音中的口头单词。结果表明，粤语-英语双语听众利用L1概率音位策略识别语音中的L2单词。