Acoustic variability in the speech of second language learners of American English as a function of accentedness

2014 ◽  
Vol 135 (4) ◽  
pp. 2356-2356
Author(s):  
Bruce L. Smith ◽  
Rachel Hayes-Harb
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
American English ◽  
Acoustic Variability

The neural timecourse of American English vowel discrimination by Japanese, Russian and Spanish second-language learners of English

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Valerie L. Shafer ◽  
Sarah Kresh ◽  
Kikuyo Ito ◽  
Miwako Hisagi ◽  
Nancy Vidal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
American English ◽  
First Language ◽  
Perceptual Task ◽  
Temporal Contrast ◽  
Asymmetrical Pattern ◽  
Significant Difference

Abstract This study investigated the influence of first language (L1) phoneme features and phonetic salience on discrimination of second language (L2) American English (AE) vowels. On a perceptual task, L2 adult learners of English with Spanish, Japanese or Russian as an L1 showed poorer discrimination of the spectral-only difference between /æ:/ as the oddball (deviant) among frequent /ɑ:/ stimuli compared to AE controls. The Spanish listeners showed a significant difference from the controls for the spectral-temporal contrast between /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/ for both perception and the neural Mismatch Negativity (MMN), but only for deviant /ɑ:/ versus /ʌ/ (duration decrement). For deviant /ʌ/ versus /ɑ:/, and for deviant /æ:/ versus /ʌ/ or /ɑ:/, all participants showed equivalent MMN amplitude. The asymmetrical pattern for /ɑ:/ and /ʌ/ suggested that L2 phonetic detail was maintained only for the deviant. These findings indicated that discrimination was more strongly influenced by L1 phonology than phonetic salience.

Second-language learners and taboo words in American English

English Today ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norma A. Register
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
American English ◽  
The United States ◽  
Taboo Words

A review of the problems learners of English can have with actual and borderline taboo usages in the United States

Relevance mapping: a study of second language learners’ processing of syntactically ambiguous sentences in English

2004 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 232-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. G. Ying
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Contextual Effects ◽  
Procedural Information ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Processing Effort

Forty adult Chinese-speaking learners of English and 20 native speakers of American English participated in a study of second language learners’ interpretation of syntactically ambiguous sentences involving that-clauses that could potentially be interpreted as complements or as relative clause. Two sentence interpretation tasks suggest that the principle of relevance constrained the interpretations. The learners showed a preference for interpreting the that-clause as a complement in the first task, using fewer syntactic nodes because it involved less processing effort. In the second task, however, the learners showed a preference for the relative clause reading, suggesting that the procedural information encoded by preceding referential sentences had the effect of reducing the overall processing effort required and of guiding the second language (L2) learners towards the intended contextual effects.

Processing of word-level stress by Mandarin-speaking second language learners of English

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 541-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZHEN QIN ◽  
YU-FU CHIEN ◽  
ANNIE TREMBLAY
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
American English ◽  
Cue Weighting ◽  
Taiwan Mandarin ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Suprasegmental Cues ◽  
Stress Experiment

ABSTRACTThis study investigates whether second language learners’ processing of stress can be explained by the degree to which suprasegmental cues contribute to lexical identity in the native language. It focuses on Standard Mandarin, Taiwan Mandarin, and American English listeners’ processing of stress in English nonwords. In Mandarin, fundamental frequency contributes to lexical identity by signaling lexical tones, but only in Standard Mandarin does duration distinguish stressed–unstressed and stressed–stressed words. Participants completed sequence-recall tasks containing English disyllabic nonwords contrasting in stress. Experiment 1 used natural stimuli; Experiment 2 used resynthesized stimuli that isolated fundamental frequency and duration cues. Experiment 1 revealed no difference among the groups; in Experiment 2, Standard Mandarin listeners used duration more than Taiwan Mandarin listeners did. These results are interpreted within a cue-weighting theory of speech perception.

Acquisition of second-language speech: Effects of visual cues, context, and talker variability

2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEBRA M. HARDISON
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
American English ◽  
Identification Accuracy ◽  
Talker Variability ◽  
Vowel Identification ◽  
Production Improvement ◽  
Word Position

The influence of a talker's face (e.g., articulatory gestures) and voice, vocalic context, and word position were investigated in the training of Japanese and Korean English as a second language learners to identify American English /[invertedr]/ and /l/. In the pretest–posttest design, an identification paradigm assessed the effects of 3 weeks of training using multiple natural exemplars on videotape. Word position, adjacent vowel, and training type (auditory–visual [AV] vs. auditory only; multiple vs. single talker for Koreans) were independent variables. Findings revealed significant effects of training type (greater improvement with AV), talker, word position, and vowel. Identification accuracy generalized successfully to novel stimuli and a new talker. Transfer to significant production improvement was also noted. These findings are compatible with episodic models for the encoding of speech in memory.

A longitudinal ERP study of language effects in beginning second language learners

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine J. Midgley ◽  
Laura N. Soskey ◽  
Phillip J. Holcomb ◽  
Jonathan Grainger
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Language Effects
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