Perception of stop aspiration and glottal stop allophonic cues for word juncture in English by Japanese second language ͑L2͒ learners of English was examined, extending a study of Spanish L2 learners ͓Altenberg, E. P. ͑2005͒. Second Lang. Res. 21, 325-358͔. Thirty Japanese listeners ranging in length of residence ͑LOR͒ in the United States ͑2 weeks-12 years͒ were tested on 42 contrasting pairs ͑e.g., aspiration: keeps talking vs keep stalking, glottal stop: a nice man vs an ice man, and double cues: grape in vs grey pin͒. Phrases were presented in randomly ordered lists and subjects responded in a two-choice identification task followed by a phrase familiarity test. The Japanese listeners performed more poorly than an American English-speaking control group ͑N =10͒, especially on aspiration pairs. Aspiration pairs were differentiated significantly less well ͑73% correct͒ by Japanese listeners than were glottal stop pairs ͑91% correct͒ and double cue pairs ͑94% correct͒; response biases predicted from relative familiarity of phrases were evident only for aspiration pairs. Performance correlated with LOR and suggested that aspiration cues take more immersion experience to learn than glottal stop cues. The patterns of errors were similar, but not identical, to Altenberg's Spanish data.
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.
Variability of vowels in three languages with small vowel inventories (Russian, Japanese, and Spanish) was explored. Three male speakers of each language produced vowels in two-syllable nonsense words (VCa) in isolation and three-syllable nonsense words (gaC1VC2a) embedded within carrier sentences in three contexts: bilabial stops in normal rate sentences and alveolar stops in both normal and rapid rate sentences. Dependent variables were syllable duration and formant frequency at syllable midpoint. Results showed very little variation across consonant and rate conditions in formants for /i/ in Russian and Japanese. Japanese short /u, o, a/ showed fronting (F2 increases) in alveolar context, which was more pronounced in rapid sentences. Fronting of Japanese long vowels was less pronounced. Japanese long/short vowel ratios varied with speaking style (isolation versus sentences) and speaking rate. All Russian vowels except /i/ were fronted in alveolar context, but showed little change in either spectrum or duration with speaking rate. Spanish showed a strong effect of consonantal context: front vowels were backed in bilabial context and back vowels were fronted in alveolar context, also more pronounced in rapid sentences. Results will be compared to female productions of the same languages, as well as American English production patterns.
This study investigated the perception of aspiration and glottal stop phonetic cues for word juncture in English phrases by Japanese L2 learners of English, replicating a study of Spanish L2 learners [E. P. Altenberg, Second Language Research. 21, 325–358 (2005)]. Thirty Japanese and 10 American listeners responded to 84 phrases in randomly ordered lists containing 42 contrasting pairs, e.g., keeps talking versus keep stalking (aspiration-cued contrasts) and a nice man versus an ice man (glottal stop-cued contrasts) in a two-choice task with confidence ratings. Results indicated that aspiration cues were less available to Japanese listeners (mean=73% correct) than glottal stop cues (mean=91% correct); Americans performed near ceiling on both types of contrasts (96% and 97% correct). Japanese listeners had the most difficulty perceiving aspiration-cued contrasts containing consonant clusters at word junctures, e.g., keeps canning versus keep scanning, tops crawled versus top scrawled. JapaneseEconfidence ratings were high even when they erred, while those of native listeners better reflected response accuracy. The results support the notion that L1/L2 differences in both phonetic and phonotactic structure significantly affects perception of L2 word boundaries.
Previous studies in this laboratory examining speeded discrimination of American English (AE) vowels in quiet by Japanese (JP) and Russian (RU) late L2 learners indicated differences in relative difficulty of non-native contrasts that were predictable from L1 phonological differences. Response latencies were a sensitive measure of continuing L2 perceptual difficulties. In the present study, the same task (a speeded categorial ABX task with disyllabic stimuli) was administered to Japanese and Russian listeners, with stimuli mixed in speech babble at three levels (SNR 0, 6, 12). Eight experimental contrasts (four with spectral plus duration differences and four with spectral differences only) and four control contrasts were tested in lists with both vowel contrast and noise level varying randomly. Results indicated that both L2 groups performed more poorly than native AE control subjects on many of the experimental contrasts, including those differentiated by duration as well as spectral differences. Again differences in relative perceptual difficulty across L2 groups emerged. Perceptual assimilation patterns and performance on a test of English fluency and pronunciation (versant) were correlated with discrimination performance across individuals. [Work supported by NSF.]
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.