Brain plasticity is the basis for learning to perceive non-native speech. Listen and repeat training has proven to be an effective method to study the learning of non-native phoneme contrasts and the plastic changes accomplished by learning. Models of second language speech learning predict learning difficulties within the overlapping phonological areas of the non-native and native phonological systems providing interesting contrasts for studying non-native learning. 

In this talk I mainly concentrate on listen and repeat training studies on inexperienced language learners, sequential bilinguals, and monolingual seniors. To explore the neural plasticity, both psychophysiological and behavioral measurements were used in these studies. While the inexperienced learners benefitted from the training as memory traces were developed during the training, the sequential bilinguals’ memory traces were strengthened by the same training. However, training effects were practically non-existent in the seniors who went through the same listen and repeat training as the inexperienced language learners and the sequential bi-linguals.