Search results

1

Which phonetic features should pronunciation Instructions focus on? An evaluation on the accentedness of segmental/syllable errors in L2 speech

100%

Gao Z., Weinberger S., University G. M., University G. M., Gao Z. z. g. e., Weinberger S. w. g. e.

Research in Language

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2018

|

vol. 16

|

issue 2

EN

Many English language instructors are reluctant to incorporate pronunciation instruction into their teaching curriculum (Thomson 2014). One reason for such reluctance is that L2 pronunciation errors are numerous, and there is not enough time for teachers to address all of them (Munro and Derwing 2006; Thomson 2014). The current study aims to help language teachers set priorities for their instruction by identifying the segmental and structural aspects of pronunciation that are most foreign-accented to native speakers of American English. The current study employed a perception experiment. 100 speech samples selected from the Speech Accent Archive (Weinberger 2016) were presented to 110 native American English listeners who listened to and rated the foreign accentedness of each sample on a 9-point rating scale. 20 of these samples portray no segmental or syllable structure L2 errors. The other 80 samples contain a single consonant, vowel, or syllable structure L2 error. The backgrounds of the speakers of these samples came from 52 different native languages. Global prosody of each sample was controlled for by comparing its F0 contour and duration to a native English sample using the Dynamic Time Warping method (Giorgino 2009). The results show that 1) L2 consonant errors in general are judged to be more accented than vowel or syllable structure errors; 2) phonological environment affects accent perception, 3) occurrences of non-English consonants always lead to higher accentedness ratings; 4) among L2 syllable errors, vowel epenthesis is judged to be as accented as consonant substitutions, while deletion is judged to be less accented or not accented at all. The current study, therefore, recommends that language instructors attend to consonant errors in L2 speech while taking into consideration their respective phonological environments.

2

Native Speaker Perceptions of Accented Speech: The English Pronunciation of Macedonian EFL Learners

100%

Kirkova-Naskova A.

Research in Language

|

2010

|

vol. 8

41-61

EN

The paper reports on the results of a study that aimed to describe the vocalic and consonantal features of the English pronunciation of Macedonian EFL learners as perceived by native speakers of English and to find out whether native speakers who speak different standard variants of English perceive the same segments as non-native. A specially designed computer web application was employed to gather two types of data: a) quantitative (frequency of segment variables and global foreign accent ratings on a 5-point scale), and b) qualitative (open-ended questions). The result analysis points out to three most frequent markers of foreign accent in the English speech of Macedonian EFL learners: final obstruent devoicing, vowel shortening and substitution of English dental fricatives with Macedonian dental plosives. It also reflects additional phonetic aspects poorly explained in the available reference literature such as allophonic distributional differences between the two languages and intonational mismatch.

3

Which Phonetic Features Should Pronunciation Instructions Focus on? An Evaluation on the Accentedness of Segmental/Syllable Errors in L2 Speech

100%

Gao Z., Weinberger S.

Research in Language

|

2018

|

vol. 16

|

issue 2

135-154

EN

Many English language instructors are reluctant to incorporate pronunciation instruction into their teaching curriculum (Thomson 2014). One reason for such reluctance is that L2 pronunciation errors are numerous, and there is not enough time for teachers to address all of them (Munro and Derwing 2006; Thomson 2014). The current study aims to help language teachers set priorities for their instruction by identifying the segmental and structural aspects of pronunciation that are most foreign-accented to native speakers of American English. The current study employed a perception experiment. 100 speech samples selected from the Speech Accent Archive (Weinberger 2016) were presented to 110 native American English listeners who listened to and rated the foreign accentedness of each sample on a 9-point rating scale. 20 of these samples portray no segmental or syllable structure L2 errors. The other 80 samples contain a single consonant, vowel, or syllable structure L2 error. The backgrounds of the speakers of these samples came from 52 different native languages. Global prosody of each sample was controlled for by comparing its F0 contour and duration to a native English sample using the Dynamic Time Warping method (Giorgino 2009). The results show that 1) L2 consonant errors in general are judged to be more accented than vowel or syllable structure errors; 2) phonological environment affects accent perception, 3) occurrences of non-English consonants always lead to higher accentedness ratings; 4) among L2 syllable errors, vowel epenthesis is judged to be as accented as consonant substitutions, while deletion is judged to be less accented or not accented at all. The current study, therefore, recommends that language instructors attend to consonant errors in L2 speech while taking into consideration their respective phonological environments.

4

Nasal place assimilation and the perceptibility of place contrasts

100%

Kawahara S., Garvey K.

Open Linguistics

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2014

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vol. 1

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issue 1

EN

Typological studies of place assimilation show that nasal consonants are more likely to assimilate in place than oral stops (Cho, 1990; Jun, 1995, 2004; Mohanan, 1993). Jun (1995, 2004) argues that this typological asymmetry derives from a difference in the perceptibility of the place contrasts in nasal consonants and in oral stops. Since the place contrasts in nasals are perceptually weaker than the place contrasts in oral stops, speakers are more willing to neutralize the former. However, the previous phonetic and psycholinguistic experiments do not provide unambiguous evidence for the weaker perceptibility of the place contrasts in nasal consonants (Hura et al., 1992; Mohr & Wang, 1968; Pols, 1983; Winters, 2002). To offer additional experimental findings bearing on this debate, this paper reports two similarity judgment experiments and two identification experiments in noise, which all show the lower perceptibility of the place contrasts in nasal consonants in coda. The results are compatible with- and thus can lend support to-Jun’s (1995, 2004) idea that the asymmetry in place assimilation may result from a difference in the perceptibility of place contrasts.

5

Native Speaker Perceptions of Accented Speech: The English Pronunciation of Macedonian EFL Learners

100%

Kirkova-Naskova A.

Research in Language

|

2010

|

vol. 8

1-21

EN

The paper reports on the results of a study that aimed to describe the vocalic and consonantal features of the English pronunciation of Macedonian EFL learners as perceived by native speakers of English and to find out whether native speakers who speak different standard variants of English perceive the same segments as non-native. A specially designed computer web application was employed to gather two types of data: a) quantitative (frequency of segment variables and global foreign accent ratings on a 5-point scale), and b) qualitative (open-ended questions). The result analysis points out to three most frequent markers of foreign accent in the English speech of Macedonian EFL learners: final obstruent devoicing, vowel shortening and substitution of English dental fricatives with Macedonian dental plosives. It also reflects additional phonetic aspects poorly explained in the available reference literature such as allophonic distributional differences between the two languages and intonational mismatch.

6

Children's Errors in the Perception of Casual Conversation

88%

Bonda D.

Ad verba liberorum

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2010

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vol. 2

|

issue 1

4-10

EN

Slips of the ear or misperceptions occur when what a listener hears does not correspond to what a speaker has said. Adult misperceptions have provided information about the ways listeners use linguistic knowledge in understanding spoken language.The goal of the investigation is to examine children's slips of the ear, as a source of information about perception when knowledge of language is still developing.This report is based on over 1000 examples of slips of the ear occurring in casual conversation. The majority of slips have been contributed by interested friends, students and colleagues. The collection includes more than 100 perceptual errors for which children have been the listeners.Children's misperceptions resemble adult misperceptions, suggesting that children employ the same strategies and sources of information as adults do. However, children's misperceptions also suggest that they are operating with incomplete linguistic knowledge.

7

The effect of non-conclusive melodic rises on Czech speech sounding French

88%

Bořil T., Šturm P., Skarnitzl R., Hévrová M., Köpke B.

Linguistica Pragensia

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2022

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vol. 32

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issue 1

125-141

EN

This paper is based on a study of first language attrition in Czechs living in France, which reveals that Czech expatriates in France use prominent rises in non-conclusive intonation patterns in their native language. We manipulated the speech of six expatriates by reducing the fundamental frequency (f 0) range of non-conclusive rises in a phrase, and the speech of six Czech control speakers by expanding the f 0 range to mimic the French-like prominent rises. The manipulations served, alongside filler items, as the basis for a perception test in which 37 native Czech listeners assessed how much the speakers’ pronunciation manifested marks of a long-term stay in France. The results confirmed our hypothesis that expanding the control speakers’ f 0 range would increase the perceived effect of French. However, reducing the f 0 range in the expatriate group did not yield lower French-effect ratings, most likely due to the presence of other pronunciation features in their speech.

8

Perception, Processing and Storage of Subphonemic and Extralinguistic Features in Spoken Word Recognition - An Argument from Language Variation and Change

88%

Łukasiewicz E.

Psychology of Language and Communication

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2012

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vol. 16

|

issue 1

1-19

EN

Recent research on speech perception and word recognition has shown that fine-grained sub-phonemic as well as speaker- and episode-specific characteristics of a speech signal are integrally connected with segmental (phonemic) information; they are all most probably processed in a non-distinct manner, and stored in the lexical memory. This view contrasts with the traditional approach holding that we operate on abstract phonemic representations extracted from a particular acoustic signal, without the need to process and store the multitude of its individual features. In the paper, I want to show that this turn towards the "particulars" of a speech event was in fact quite predictable, and the so-called traditional view would most probably have never been formulated if studies on language variation and language change-in-progress had been taken into account when constructing models of speech perception. In part one, I discuss briefly the traditional view ("abstract representations only"), its theoretical background, and outline some problems, internal to the speech perception theory, that the traditional view encounters. Part two will demonstrate that what we know about the implementation of sound changes has long made it possible to answer, once and for all, the question of integrated processing and storage of extralinguistic, phonemic and subphonemic characteristics of the speech signal.

9

Credibility of native and non-native speakers of English revisited: Do non-native listeners feel the same?

88%

Hanzlíková D., Skarnitzl R.

Research in Language

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2017

|

vol. 15

|

issue 3

285-298

EN

This study reports on research stimulated by Lev-Ari and Keysar (2010) who showed that native listeners find statements delivered by foreign-accented speakers to be less true than those read by native speakers. Our objective was to replicate the study with non-native listeners to see whether this effect is also relevant in international communication contexts. The same set of statements from the original study was recorded by 6 native and 6 non-native speakers of English. 121 non-native listeners rated the truthfulness of the statements on a 7-point scale. The results of our study tentatively do confirm a negative bias against non-native speakers as perceived by non-native listeners, showing that subconscious attitudes to language varieties are also relevant in communication among non-native speakers.

10

Role of Visual Speech Cues (Cued Speech) in Foreign Language Learning by Hearing School-Age Children

88%

Grabowska-Chenczke O., Francuz P., Bałaj B.

Roczniki Psychologiczne

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2023

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vol. 26

|

issue 3

215-240

EN

In this study, we aimed to determine the role of visual speech cues in the process of foreign language learning by hearing school-age children. Our experiments used Cued Speech, a method designed for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. We expected that the principles of the method might also be beneficial for people with normal hearing because they may help distinguish the sounds of foreign speech that are difficult to hear. This study mainly focused on the effects of speech perception. We tested 126 Polish junior high school students (66 girls and 60 boys) with a normal range of phonemic hearing and language aptitude. We envisaged that foreign language learners using visual speech cues would achieve a higher score on a test of foreign language than learners who had studied the language in the traditional manner. We also formulated a hypothesis concerning the interaction of training type and training conditions on the effectiveness of foreign language learning: that the difference in the effects of foreign language learning between participants who received visual or executive training and typical training would be more significant in the presence of auditory distractors than in their absence. We observed interactions between conditions and types of training for speech sound identification. Under conditions of auditory distraction, foreign language learners using Cued Speech scored significantly higher than learners who had traditional training.

11

Is there an interlanguage speech credibility benefit?

75%

Podlipský V. J., Šimáčková Š., Petráž D.

Topics in Linguistics

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2016

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vol. 17

|

issue 1

30-44

EN

Some (though not all) previous studies have documented the interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit (ISIB), i.e. the greater intelligibility of non-native (relative to native) speech to non-native listeners as compared to native listeners. Moreover, some studies (again not all) found that native listeners consider foreign-accented statements as less truthful than native-sounding ones. We join these two lines of research, asking whether foreign-accented statements sound more credible to non-native than to native listeners and whether difficult-to-process (less comprehensible) utterances are less credible. In two experiments we measure the intelligibility, comprehensibility and credibility of native and foreign-accented statements for native listeners and non-native listeners matched or mismatched in L1 with non-native talkers. We find an ISIB in both matched and mismatched non-native listeners, and an analogous matched comprehensibility benefit. However, we obtain no evidence of an interlanguage speech credibility benefit. Instead, both matched and mismatched non-native listeners tend to trust native statements more (i.e. statements produced by their target-language models). For native listeners, we do not confirm the tendency to mistrust non-native statements, but we do find a moderate correlation between the comprehensibility and credibility of foreign-accented utterances, giving limited support to the hypothesis that decreased perceptual fluency leads to decreased credibility.

12

Percepcja audytywna, właściwości akustyczne oraz cechy dystrybucyjne sylab w języku polskim

71%

Śledziński D.

Investigationes Linguisticae

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2015

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issue 32

106-123

EN

This paper presents experiments concerning properties of selected CV syllables. Acoustic speech signal related to particular syllables was analyzed using artificial neural networks. The goal of the analyses was to investigate whether realizations of particular syllables retain acoustic features distinctive of these syllables. Aditionally, a perception test aiming at identification of the same syllable set was carried out. In the test we analyzed to which degree it is possible to identify syllables isolated from the linguistic context. The paper discusses also results on distributional properties of syllables which indicate that such properties may play a significant role in speech perception.

PL

This paper presents experiments concerning properties of selected CV syllables. Acoustic speech signal related to particular syllables was analyzed using artificial neural networks. The goal of the analyses was to investigate whether realizations of particular syllables retain acoustic features distinctive of these syllables. Aditionally, a perception test aiming at identification of the same syllable set was carried out. In the test we analyzed to which degree it is possible to identify syllables isolated from the linguistic context. The paper discusses also results on distributional properties of syllables which indicate that such properties may play a significant role in speech perception.Percepcja audytywna, właściwości akustyczne oraz cechy dystrybucyjne sylab w języku polskim

13

Some remarks on stress and reduction correlations in Spanish

63%

Broś K.

Linguistica Copernicana

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2017

|

vol. 14

EN

Spanish is well-known for its consonant reduction processes across all dialects. At the same time, its vowel inventory is not particularly rich, with 5 evenly distributed, stable vowel categories that tend not to change their qualities regardless of stress and rhythm. Meanwhile, several Spanish varieties show vowel reduction, but crucially without accompanying advancement in terms of consonantal weakening. Based on this evidence it is proposed that the two types of reduction are correlated to the extent that one excludes the other. Given the extraordinary stability of the Spanish vowels in the vast majority of the dialects, the paper investigates various cues to stress and reduction, which is followed by a discussion of empirical studies on SLA and speech perception and production. These studies point to the fact that given the distribution of Spanish sounds and the Spanish stress system, changes in stress and vowel quality inhibit comprehension of native categories (sounds, words and prosodic elements). This should be taken as a point of departure for further studies on speech perception, second language acquisition by speakers of languages with rigid vowel systems and the correlation between vocalic and consonantal weakening (reduction).

PL

Kilka uwag na temat korelacji między akcentem a redukcją głosek w języku hiszpańskimJak powszechnie wiadomo, w języku hiszpańskim występuje wiele procesów redukcji spółgłosek. Jednocześnie, system samogłoskowy tego języka jest dość prosty. Obejmuje on 5 stabilnych, równomiernie rozłożonych fonemów, których realizacje są niezmienne bez względu na akcent wyrazowy czy intonację. Na uwagę zasługuje natomiast fakt, że w niektórych dialektach języka hiszpańskiego zaobserwować można redukcję samogłosek w postaci ubezdźwięcznienia, ale bez jednoczesnego występowania zmian spółgłoskowych o charakterze lenicyjnym. Biorąc pod uwagę taką a nie inną dystrybucję procesów redukcyjnych, można dojść do wniosku, że redukcja spółgłosek wyklucza redukcję samogłosek i odwrotnie. Pomiędzy omawianymi dwoma typami zjawisk zachodzi zatem ciekawa zależność, którą warto zbadać pod względem produkcyjnym, percepcyjnym, akwizycyjnym i typologicznym. Szereg badań z zakresu percepcji i produkcji samogłosek przez użytkowników rodzimych języka hiszpańskiego wskazuje na to, że systemy o mało rozbudowanym inwentarzu samogłosek i rytmie sylabicznym polegają na innych sygnałach niż typologicznie inne języki przy rozpoznawaniu akcentu i melodii (jakości samogłoski). Nawet niewielkie zmiany jakościowe i akcentowe wpływają zaś negatywnie na zrozumienie poszczególnych elementów leksykalnych i znacznie zaburzają procesy przetwarzania mowy.

14

Co dokáže náš hlas? Fonetický pohled na variabilitu řečové produkce

63%

Skarnitzl R.

Slovo a smysl - Word & Sense

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2016

|

vol. 13

|

issue 26

97-115

EN

The paper surveys the plasticity of the speech production mechanism. At the level of phonatory behaviour, a distinction is made between the frequency of vocal fold vibration, which is reflected in the pitch of the voice, and the manner in which the vocal folds vibrate, which lends our voice different qualities. The main types of phonatory modifications are described and some of their uses in everyday communication, as well as their perceptual effects, are documented from literature. Modifications of the primary makeup of speech sounds in the supraglottal vocal tract, such as rounding or spreading of the lips, hyper- or hyponasality, and palatalization, are discussed in the following section. The two levels of description — phonatory and articulatory — are formally anchored in Nolan’s model of the sources of variability in speech. The final part of the paper examines speech variability from the perspective of the listener, regarding one’s speech as their auditory face which signals biologically, psychologically, and socially conditioned information about the speaker.

15

Rytmus řeči a verše v češtině

38%

Palková Z.

Česká literatura (Czech Literature)

|

2012

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vol. 60

|

issue 3

338-354

EN

The author of the article takes as her starting point the premise that verse as a particular speech form is seen against the background of everyday use of language. A close examination of the suprasegmental prosodic structure of language and the study of the perceptual effect of individal acoustic features can contribute to the transparency of the debate on the implementation or modification of the verse system in a given language. The article picks out several features of the acoustic structure of languages, whose presence necessarily influences the possibilities of the rhythmic organization of a text. The author considers in particular the properties of the syllable and their consequences in the emergence and perception of linear acoustic units at the lexical level. Addressing the specific qualities of Czech, the author follows on from Miroslav Červenka´s essays on the nature of Czech syllabotonic verse. She then concludes by confirming that the indisputable predominance of syllabicity is demonstrated by the characteristic of the language. The main influences are the stable from of the syllable, the potentiality of the word´s accent, and the close link of the stress group to the word.

Refine search results

Which phonetic features should pronunciation Instructions focus on? An evaluation on the accentedness of segmental/syllable errors in L2 speech

Native Speaker Perceptions of Accented Speech: The English Pronunciation of Macedonian EFL Learners

Which Phonetic Features Should Pronunciation Instructions Focus on? An Evaluation on the Accentedness of Segmental/Syllable Errors in L2 Speech

Nasal place assimilation and the perceptibility of place contrasts

Native Speaker Perceptions of Accented Speech: The English Pronunciation of Macedonian EFL Learners

Children's Errors in the Perception of Casual Conversation

The effect of non-conclusive melodic rises on Czech speech sounding French

Perception, Processing and Storage of Subphonemic and Extralinguistic Features in Spoken Word Recognition - An Argument from Language Variation and Change

Credibility of native and non-native speakers of English revisited: Do non-native listeners feel the same?

Role of Visual Speech Cues (Cued Speech) in Foreign Language Learning by Hearing School-Age Children

Is there an interlanguage speech credibility benefit?

Percepcja audytywna, właściwości akustyczne oraz cechy dystrybucyjne sylab w języku polskim

Some remarks on stress and reduction correlations in Spanish

Co dokáže náš hlas? Fonetický pohled na variabilitu řečové produkce

Rytmus řeči a verše v češtině