scholarly journals Intelligibility of English Mosaic Speech: Comparison between Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 6920
Author(s):  
Santi ◽  
Yoshitaka Nakajima ◽  
Kazuo Ueda ◽  
Gerard B. Remijn
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Information ◽  
Mosaic Block ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Speech Stimuli ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
New Information ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Speech Segments

Mosaic speech is degraded speech that is segmented into time × frequency blocks. Earlier research with Japanese mosaic speech has shown that its intelligibility is almost perfect for mosaic block durations (MBD) up to 40 ms. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the intelligibility of English mosaic speech, and whether its intelligibility would vary if it was compressed in time, preserved, or stretched in time. Furthermore, we investigated whether intelligibility differed between native and non-native speakers of English. English (n = 19), Indonesian (n = 19), and Chinese (n = 20) listeners participated in an experiment, in which the mosaic speech stimuli were presented, and they had to type what they had heard. The results showed that compressing or stretching the English mosaic speech resulted in similar trends in intelligibility among the three language groups, with some exceptions. Generally, the intelligibility for MBDs of 20 and 40 ms after preserving/stretching was higher, and decreased beyond MBDs of 80 ms after stretching. Compression also lowered intelligibility. This suggests that humans can extract new information from individual speech segments of about 40 ms, but that there is a limit to the amount of linguistic information that can be conveyed within a block of about 40 ms or below.

scholarly journals Phonemic restoration of interrupted locally time-reversed speech

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuo Ueda ◽  
Valter Ciocca
Keyword(s):  
Substantial Improvement ◽  
Combined Effects ◽  
Pink Noise ◽  
Speech Stimuli ◽  
Phonemic Restoration ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Interrupted Speech ◽  
High Level ◽  
Speech Segments ◽  
Segment Duration

AbstractIntelligibility of temporally degraded speech was investigated with locally time-reversed speech (LTR) and its interrupted version (ILTR). Control stimuli comprising interrupted speech (I) were also included. Speech stimuli consisted of 200 Japanese meaningful sentences. In interrupted stimuli, speech segments were alternated with either silent gaps or pink noise bursts. The noise bursts had a level of − 10, 0 or + 10 dB relative to the speech level. Segment duration varied from 20 to 160 ms for ILTR sentences, but was fixed at 160 ms for I sentences. At segment durations between 40 and 80 ms, severe reductions in intelligibility were observed for ILTR sentences, compared with LTR sentences. A substantial improvement in intelligibility (30–33%) was observed when 40-ms silent gaps in ILTR were replaced with 0- and + 10-dB noise. Noise with a level of − 10 dB had no effect on the intelligibility. These findings show that the combined effects of interruptions and temporal reversal of speech segments on intelligibility are greater than the sum of each individual effect. The results also support the idea that illusory continuity induced by high-level noise bursts improves the intelligibility of ILTR and I sentences.

Teaching Technical Writing to Non-Native Speakers of English

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest J. Parkin
Keyword(s):  
Special Needs ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Expository Writing ◽  
Good Program ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Preparatory Work ◽  
The U.S

Teaching technical writing to non-native speakers of English is complicated by their special needs. Central to the discussion is the idea that expository writing ought to be a key element of any program purporting to teach English. The nature of proper preparatory training is discussed with specific reference to the language groups American trainers are likely to encounter working in the U.S. or abroad. The justification for specific practices is discussed and should enable instructors to develop further strategies for training. Once the preparatory work is completed, effective technical writing instruction for non-native trainees requires modification of a good program for native speakers. Training is most effective if material is presented in culturally familiar and intellectually compatible ways.

scholarly journals The parallel development of the form and meaning of two-handed gestures and linguistic information packaging within a clause in narrative

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuki Sekine ◽  
Sotaro Kita
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Linguistic Information ◽  
Parallel Development ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Information Packaging ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

AbstractWe examined how two-handed gestures and speech with equivalent contents that are used in narrative develop during childhood. The participants were 40 native speakers of English consisting of four different age groups: 3-, 5-, 9-year-olds, and adults. A set of 10 video clips depicting motion events were used to elicit speech and gesture. There are two findings. First, two types of two-handed gestures showed different developmental changes: those with a single-handed stroke with a simultaneous hold increased with age, while those with a two handed-stroke decreased with age. Second, representational gesture and speech developed in parallel at the discourse level. More specifically, the ways in which information is packaged in a gesture and in a clause are similar for a given age group; that is, gesture and speech develop hand-in-hand.

Mundialização do conhecimento científico, distribuição de poder e controle do privilégio epistêmico na Geografia.

GEOgraphia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (36) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Joseli Maria Silva ◽  
Marcio Jose Ornat
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Este artigo tem por objetivo evidenciar alguns dos elementos que sustentam a lógica de centralidade do discurso científico anglo-americano nas redes mundiais de conhecimento, bem como destacar as mazelas da influência desta hegemonia científica nos processos de identificação das sexualidades no Brasil. Os argumentos do texto estão baseados nos princípios epistêmicos expressos na Sessão Publishing for Non-Native Speakers of English, que fez parte do Encontro Anual da Association of American Geographers (AAG) realizado em Tampa, Flórida, em abril de 2014. A organização das redes mundiais de conhecimento científico tem reforçado o lugar de enunciação anglo-americano que cria as representações de mundo que extrapolam o cenário acadêmico, atingindo também as experiências cotidianas e os movimentos sociais e políticos de travestis e transexuais brasileiras.

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