So, what they found was that the Spanish over
hears could detect errors like [FOREIGN], but
they were much less accurate in detecting errors like [FOREIGN].
And the interesting part about this is it suggests that, yes,
hearing a language early in life does help people develop a better accent.
But it doesn't necessarily guarantee that they will learn things like
grammatical gender.
Right? Which is in Spanish.
Or plural markings, right?
That those come later in life.
And they're built upon this auditory footprint.
But there's no guarantee that if that's heard young,
at a young age that those things will get built up.
So, in this particular case there was no advantage in
this grammatical gender marking.
Even when it was quite transparent like it is here, [FOREIGN] right is
pretty transparent for a Spanish speaker and generally when I say those types of
things to the native Spanish speakers, they feel like it's like chalk, you know,
on a chalk board, it feels like nails on a chalk board.
I don't find it quite as offensive, because I'm softened from English.
But in any case, the overhears felt like it wasn't a problem at all.