Sensitivity to Phonological Similarity Within and Across Languages

Marian, Viorica; Blumenfeld, Henrike K.; Boukrina, Olga

doi:10.1007/s10936-007-9064-9

Cited by 65 publications

(55 citation statements)

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“…The observed reaction time (RT) values were within the range reported for picture description tasks (Smith and Wheeldon 1999; Allum and Wheeldon 2007; Marian et al 2008). As in our previous study, the Chinese speakers showed significantly shorter RT values (on average, saving over 170 ms or nearly 20% of RT), but no significant scaling of RT with ln( ID ) was observed.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Speed-difficulty trade-off in speech: Chinese versus English

et al. 2011

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This study continues the investigation of the previously described speed-difficulty trade-off in picture description tasks. In particular, we tested a hypothesis that the Mandarin Chinese and American English are similar in showing logarithmic dependences between speech time and index of difficulty (ID), while they differ significantly in the amount of time needed to describe simple pictures, this difference increases for more complex pictures, and it is associated with a proportional difference in the number of syllables used. Subjects (eight Chinese speakers and eight English speakers) were tested in pairs. One subject (the Speaker) described simple pictures, while the other subject (the Performer) tried to reproduce the pictures based on the verbal description as quickly as possible with a set of objects. The Chinese speakers initiated speech production significantly faster than the English speakers. Speech time scaled linearly with ln(ID) in all subjects, but the regression coefficient was significantly higher in the English speakers as compared with the Chinese speakers. The number of errors was somewhat lower in the Chinese participants (not significantly). The Chinese pairs also showed a shorter delay between the initiation of speech and initiation of action by the Performer, shorter movement time by the Performer, and shorter overall performance time. The number of syllables scaled with ID, and the Chinese speakers used significantly smaller numbers of syllables. Speech rate was comparable between the two groups, about 3 syllables/s; it dropped for more complex pictures (higher ID). When asked to reproduce the same pictures without speaking, movement time scaled linearly with ln(ID); the Chinese performers were slower than the English performers. We conclude that natural languages show a speed-difficulty trade-off similar to Fitts’ law; the trade-offs in movement and speech production are likely to originate at a cognitive level. The time advantage of the Chinese participants originates not from similarity of the simple pictures and Chinese written characters and not from more sloppy performance. It is linked to using fewer syllables to transmit the same information. We suggest that natural languages may differ by informational density defined as the amount of information transmitted by a given number of syllables.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Speed-difficulty trade-off in speech: Chinese versus English

et al. 2011

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“…The speech evaluators, however, tended to not be NSs of Spanish, but rather were NSs of English with varying levels of familiarity with Spanish-accented speech. So the pronunciation and accent evaluations in Arizona may have resulted in reducing the number of teachers in the classroom who shared an L1 with the students, something that has been shown to be beneficial in language learning programmes (Hertel & Sunderman, 2009;Marian et al, 2008;Park, 2012). As in Scales et al's (2006) and Isaacs' (2008) research, we found that comprehension was a high priority for students in accepting a speaker as a teacher.…”

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confidence: 51%

Second Language Pronunciation Assessment

Fulcher¹,

Browne²

2016

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General rightsThis document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pure/about/ebr-terms This series brings together titles dealing with a variety of aspects of language acquisition and processing in situations where a language or languages other than the native language is involved. Second language is thus interpreted in its broadest possible sense. The volumes included in the series all offer in their different ways, on the one hand, exposition and discussion of empirical findings and, on the other, some degree of theoretical reflection. In this latter connection, no particular theoretical stance is privileged in the series; nor is any relevant perspective -sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic, etc. -deemed out of place. The intended readership of the series includes final-year undergraduates working on second language acquisition projects, postgraduate students involved in second language acquisition research, and researchers, teachers and policy-makers in general whose interests include a second language acquisition component. Second Language Pronunciation Assessment SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITIONFull details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK. SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: 107 Second Language Pronunciation AssessmentInterdisciplinary Perspectives All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Edited by Talia Isaacs and Pavel Trofi movich MULTILINGUAL MATTERSThe policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned.Typeset by Nova Techset Private Limited, Bengaluru and Chennai, India. Printed and bound in the UK by the CPI Books Group Ltd. Printed and bound in the US by Edwards Brothers Malloy, Inc. In Memory of Alan Davies and Danielle Guénette AcknowledgementsThis edited volume, which brings together different but complementary research perspectives to establish a common platform in which to discuss issues relevant to assessing second language (L2) pronunciation, would not have been possible without the contributions and commitment of the authors, who explore key issues through different disciplinary lenses in the chapters that make up this volume. The vision for the book arose during a cold Canadian winter at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, when a sense of momentum for i...

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“…For bilingual listeners, auditory input in one language activates possible word candidates regardless of language membership (e.g., Marian & Spivey, 2003a, 2003b). This input-driven language co-activation is observed across different proficiency levels, ages of onset of language acquisition, and highly diverse language pairs (e.g., Blumenfeld & Marian, 2007, 2013; Canseco-Gonzalez et al, 2010; Cutler, Weber, & Otake, 2006; Ju & Luce, 2004; Marian, Blumenfeld, & Boukrina, 2008; Weber & Cutler, 2004). Resolving such cross-linguistic competition has been posited to require cognitive inhibition skills (e.g., Green, 1998; Shook & Marian, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Parallel language activation and inhibitory control in bimodal bilinguals

et al. 2015

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Findings from recent studies suggest that spoken-language bilinguals engage nonlinguistic inhibitory control mechanisms to resolve cross-linguistic competition during auditory word recognition. Bilingual advantages in inhibitory control might stem from the need to resolve perceptual competition between similar-sounding words both within and between their two languages. If so, these advantages should be lessened or eliminated when there is no perceptual competition between two languages. The present study investigated the extent of inhibitory control recruitment during bilingual language comprehension by examining associations between language co-activation and nonlinguistic inhibitory control abilities in bimodal bilinguals, whose two languages do not perceptually compete. Cross-linguistic distractor activation was identified in the visual world paradigm, and correlated significantly with performance on a nonlinguistic spatial Stroop task within a group of 27 hearing ASL-English bilinguals. Smaller Stroop effects (indexing more efficient inhibition) were associated with reduced co-activation of ASL signs during the early stages of auditory word recognition. These results suggest that the role of inhibitory control in auditory word recognition is not limited to resolving perceptual linguistic competition in phonological input, but is also used to moderate competition that originates at the lexico-semantic level.

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Sensitivity to Phonological Similarity Within and Across Languages

Cited by 65 publications

References 63 publications

Speed-difficulty trade-off in speech: Chinese versus English

Speed-difficulty trade-off in speech: Chinese versus English

Second Language Pronunciation Assessment

Parallel language activation and inhibitory control in bimodal bilinguals

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