Role of context on the perception of syllable composition by French and English listeners as a function of their dominant language

Experimental studies on English and French have already given numerous answers about how ambisyllabicity and syllabification may work. Even if their conclusions are often contradictory, they provide a better understanding of ambisyllabicity in English and of the differing syllabification strategies between English and French native speakers; in the way bilingual speakers perceive syllabicity. Earlier studies suggest that perception of syllabification depends on the characteristics of the first language (L1, mother-tongue) of the hearers. In the present paper I would like to suggest that the “dominant language” is a more reliable criterion (since a bilingual’s dominant language may switch from L1 to L2 when strongly exposed to the L2 for a long period of time). Thanks to a 3-step pilot auditory perception experiment, the study attempts to evaluate the perception of a syllable as a function of its context (as an isolated syllable or inside an entire word), and of the hearers (French or English native monolingual speakers, French-English bilinguals or English-French bilinguals)