Pre-attentive sensitivity to vowel duration reveals native phonology and predicts learning of second-language sounds

Chládková, Kateřina; Escudero, Paola; Lipski, S

doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2013.05.020

Cited by 21 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…As mentioned previously, the fact that L1 Spanish listeners rely on duration is somewhat puzzling given that length is not a distinctive feature of Spanish. Previous research has accounted for this either based on L1 allophonic experience (Kondaurova and Francis, 2008;Morrison, 2008) or based on a more developmental/universal approach (Bohn, 1995;Chládková et al, 2013;Escudero and Boersma, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, an L1 Spanish learner of English would begin processing English with a 'blank slate' for this acoustic cue because it is not contrastive in his/her L1, and new categories based on duration would develop with exposure. Research by Chládková et al (2013) using electroencephalography to investigate mismatch negativity found that native-Spanish listeners, when presented with native and nonnative vowels differing in length, were more attuned to durational cues in nonnative vowels. Thus, the fact that length is not a contrastive feature of Spanish, coupled with the fact that it seems to be universally salient, may actually aid native-Spanish speakers when learning length contrasts, and, in turn, explain their reliance on this cue when processing the /i/-/ɪ/ contrast.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Production and Perception of the /i/-/I/ Vowel Contrast: The Case of L2-Dominant Early Learners of English

Casillas¹

2015

Phonetica

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The present study explored the production and perception of the /i/-/I/ vowel contrast in second language (L2)-dominant early learners of American English who no longer fluently speak their first language (L1, Spanish). The production task analyzed the extent to which the early learner group differed from controls (native English speakers and L1-Spanish late-onset learners of English) with regard to duration and spectral centroids. The perception experiment examined how these early learners classified resynthesized stimuli drawn from the /i/-/I/ contrast using distinct acoustic cues - spectral and temporal - in a 2-alternative forced choice identification task. The first experiment revealed that the early learners produced the contrast in a native-like manner in terms of the spectral envelope and duration use. The second experiment found that early learners differed from both control groups in how they categorized the /i/-/I/ continua based on spectrum and duration, and the extent to which they rely on these two cues. The effects of linguistic experience on L2 phonetic behavior are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Production and Perception of the /i/-/I/ Vowel Contrast: The Case of L2-Dominant Early Learners of English

Casillas¹

2015

Phonetica

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“…Czech is a vowel-length language contrasting the monophthongs /iː, ɪ, ɛː, ɛ, aː, a, oː, o, uː, u/ (Šimáčková, Podlipský & Chládková 2012). Native Czechs are highly sensitive to vowel duration in speech even when listening to non-Czech vowels (Chládková, Escudero & Lipski 2013). Czech learners of English are biased to rely on duration at the expense of spectral information when differentiating vowels like English /ɛ/ and /ae/ (Šimáčková 2003) and tense /i/ and lax /ɪ/ (Podlipský 2004).…”

Section: High Back Vowels In Czech and Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foreign Language Learners Acquire L2 Phonetic Detail: Goose and Foot Fronting in Non-Native English

Šimáčková

Podlipský

2017

RiL

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Whether late learners discern fine phonetic detail in second-language (L2) input, form new phonetic categories, and realize them accurately remains a relevant question in L2 phonology, especially for foreign-language (FL) learning characterized by limited exposure to interactional native input. Our study focuses on advanced Czech learners’ production of the L2 English vowels GOOSE and FOOT. While English /u/ and /ʊ/ have been undergoing fronting, their Czech equivalents, /uː/ and /u/, are fully back. We show that although the spectral differentiation of /u/-/ʊ/ is smaller in the learners’ than in native speech, the vowels being contrasted primarily in length, even FL learners can shift their L2 sound categories towards native-like targets, or in this case, produce English /u/-/ʊ/ as fronted.

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“…The MMN is a negative waveform elicited by presentation of the deviant sound (Näätänen et al, 2007). The waveform peaks approximately 150-300 ms post-stimulus onset (e.g., Aaltonen et al, 2008;Chládková et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Visual Articulatory Information on the Neural Correlates of Non-native Speech Sound Discrimination

Plumridge

Barham

Foley

et al. 2020

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Behavioral studies have shown that the ability to discriminate between non-native speech sounds improves after seeing how the sounds are articulated. This study examined the influence of visual articulatory information on the neural correlates of non-native speech sound discrimination. English speakers' discrimination of the Hindi dental and retroflex sounds was measured using the mismatch negativity (MMN) eventrelated potential, before and after they completed one of three 8-min training conditions. In an audio-visual speech training condition (n = 14), each sound was presented with its corresponding visual articulation. In one control condition (n = 14), both sounds were presented with the same visual articulation, resulting in one congruent and one incongruent audio-visual pairing. In another control condition (n = 14), both sounds were presented with the same image of a still face. The control conditions aimed to rule out the possibility that the MMN is influenced by non-specific audio-visual pairings, or by general exposure to the dental and retroflex sounds over the course of the study. The results showed that audio-visual speech training reduced the latency of the MMN but did not affect MMN amplitude. No change in MMN amplitude or latency was observed for the two control conditions. The pattern of results suggests that a relatively short audiovisual speech training session (i.e., 8 min) may increase the speed with which the brain processes non-native speech sound contrasts. The absence of a training effect on MMN amplitude suggests a single session of audio-visual speech training does not lead to the formation of more discrete memory traces for non-native speech sounds. Longer and/or multiple sessions might be needed to influence the MMN amplitude.

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Pre-attentive sensitivity to vowel duration reveals native phonology and predicts learning of second-language sounds

Cited by 21 publications

References 47 publications

Production and Perception of the /i/-/I/ Vowel Contrast: The Case of L2-Dominant Early Learners of English

Production and Perception of the /i/-/I/ Vowel Contrast: The Case of L2-Dominant Early Learners of English

Foreign Language Learners Acquire L2 Phonetic Detail: Goose and Foot Fronting in Non-Native English

The Effect of Visual Articulatory Information on the Neural Correlates of Non-native Speech Sound Discrimination

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