Purpose : This scoping review considers the acoustic features of a clear speech register directed to nonnative listeners known as foreigner-directed speech (FDS). We identify vowel hyperarticulation and low speech rate as the most representative acoustic features of FDS; other features, including wide pitch range and high intensity, are still under debate. We also discuss factors that may influence the outcomes and characteristics of FDS. We start by examining accommodation theories, outlining the reasons why FDS is likely to serve a didactic function by helping listeners acquire a second language (L2). We examine how this speech register adapts to listeners' identities and linguistic needs, suggesting that FDS also takes listeners' L2 proficiency into account. To confirm the didactic function of FDS, we compare it to other clear speech registers, specifically infant-directed speech and Lombard speech. Conclusions: Our review reveals that research has not yet established whether FDS succeeds as a didactic tool that supports L2 acquisition. Moreover, a complex set of factors determines specific realizations of FDS, which need further exploration. We conclude by summarizing open questions and indicating directions and recommendations for future research.

As studies of bilingual language control (BLC) seek to explore the underpinnings of bilinguals’ abilities to juggle two languages, different types of language switching tasks have been used to uncover switching and mixing effects and thereby reveal what proactive and reactive control mechanisms are involved in language switching. Voluntary language switching tasks, where a bilingual participant can switch freely between their languages while naming, are being utilized more often due to their greater ecological validity compared to cued switching paradigms. Because this type of task had not yet been applied to language switching in bilingual patients, our study sought to explore voluntary switching in bilinguals with aphasia (BWAs) as well as in healthy bilinguals. In Experiment 1, we replicated previously reported results of switch costs and mixing benefits within our own bilingual population of Catalan-Spanish bilinguals. With Experiment 2, we compared both the performances of BWAs as a group and as individuals against control group performance. Results illustrated a complex picture of language control abilities, indicating varying degrees of association and dissociation between factors of BLC. Given the diversity of impairments in BWAs’ language control mechanisms, we highlight the need to examine BLC at the individual level and through the lens of theoretical cognitive control frameworks in order to further parse out how bilinguals regulate their language switching.

This review considers the acoustic features of a clear speech register directed to non-native listeners known as Foreigner Directed Speech (FDS). We identify vowel hyperarticulation and low speech rate as the most representative acoustic features of FDS; other features, including wide pitch range and high intensity, are still under debate.We also discuss factors that may influence the outcomes and characteristics of FDS. We start by examining accommodation theories (Lindblom, 1990), outlining the reasons why FDS is likely to serve a didactic function by helping listeners acquire a second language (L2). We examine how this speech register adapts to listeners’ identities and linguistic needs, suggesting that FDS also takes listeners’ L2 proficiency into account. To confirm the didactic function of FDS, we compare it to other clear speech registers, specifically Infant Directed Speech and Lombard Speech. However, our review reveals that research has not yet established whether FDS, in fact, succeeds as a didactic tool that supports L2 acquisition. Our review reveals a complex set of contextual factors that determine specific realisations of FDS, which need further exploration. We conclude our review by summarising open questions and indicating directions and recommendations for future research.

Background. Previous studies have argued that two types of linguistic gender exist: grammatical gender, which is arbitrarily assigned to nouns, and semantic gender, which depends on the gender of the referent.Aim. We explore the hypothesis that these two types of gender entail distinct cognitive processes by investigating the performance of people with aphasia at the level of sentence comprehension.Methods and Procedure. Eleven people with aphasia and a control group of 13 age-matched healthy participants took part in a constrained completion choice task. The participants had to complete sentences in a way that made the last word gender congruent. The subjects of the sentences had either Semantic gender (“enfermera”, nurse; indicating the sex of the referent), Grammatical gender (“silla”, chair), or Opaque-Grammatical gender (“tomate”, tomato).Results. People with aphasia performed more poorly in all gender conditions than healthy controls. They also were less accurate in both the Grammatical and Opaque-Grammatical conditions than in the Semantic gender condition.Conclusion. We propose that semantic and grammatical gender entail two levels of gender processing and that semantic gender is processed faster because it provides more salient information.