The Perception of Vowel Quality and Quantity by Turkish Learners of German as a Foreign Language

Nimz, Katharina

doi:10.1002/9781118555491.ch12

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…This shows that L2 orthographic forms affect vowel length in L2 speakers’ production in a reading-aloud task. Results confirm predictions that experienced Italian speakers of L2 English can produce vowels with different lengths, even though vowel length is not contrastive in their native language, in line with evidence that L2 learners can perceive and produce vowel duration (Bohn, 1995; Escudero & Boersma, 2004; Nimz, 2011). Findings show that Italians rely on orthography to determine the length of English vowels, in line with results from Piske et al's (2002) pseudoword reading-aloud task, and in line with findings that Italian pronounce consonant digraphs as long consonants in English (Bassetti, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…As speakers gain experience with an L2, their production and perception of L2 vowels becomes more nativelike (Flege, Bohn, & Jang, 1997; Flege, MacKay, & Meador, 1999). In general, quantitative (durational) differences between vowels are easier for L2 learners to perceive and produce than are qualitative differences, such as vowel height and frontness (Bohn, 1995; Escudero & Boersma, 2004; Nimz, 2011). For Italian speakers in particular, durational differences in vowels may be easy to acquire for two reasons.…”

Section: Study 2—segmental Effects: Orthographic Effects On Vowel Durmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of orthographic forms on pronunciation in experienced instructed second language learners

Bassetti

Atkinson

2015

Applied Psycholinguistics

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In spite of burgeoning evidence that the orthographic forms ('spellings') of second language (L2) words affect L2 learners' pronunciation, little is known about the pronunciation of known words in experienced learners. In a series of four studies, we investigated various orthographic effects on the pronunciation of L2 English words in instructed learners with ten years' experience of learning English. Participants were native users of the phonologically transparent Italian writing system. Study 1 investigated the pronunciation of 'silent letters', using a word reading task and a word repetition task. Study 2 examined the effects of vowel spelling on vowel duration, namely whether L2 speakers produce the same target vowel as longer when it is spelled with a vowel digraph than with a singleton letter. Study 3 explored the effects of the morphemic spelling of the past tense marker using a verb paradigm production task. Study 4 tested whether L2 speakers produce homophonic words differently when they are spelled differently. Results confirmed that orthographic forms affect experienced instructed learners' pronunciation of known words, albeit less so in immediate word repetition than in reading aloud tasks.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Study 2—segmental Effects: Orthographic Effects On Vowel Durmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of orthographic forms on pronunciation in experienced instructed second language learners

Bassetti

Atkinson

2015

Applied Psycholinguistics

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“…Duration is therefore claimed to be present as an acoustic cue for word stress perception although it does not make a significant contribution to automatic lexical access. This is not surprising given that the vowel length is not phonemically distinctive in Turkish (Kornfilt, 1997 ; Nimz, 2015 ). Previous acoustic studies (Konrot, 1981 ; Levi, 2005 ; Pycha, 2006 ) ruled out duration as an acoustic correlate in Turkish word stress.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Perceptual Correlates of Turkish Word Stress and Their Contribution to Automatic Lexical Access: Evidence from Early ERP Components

2016

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Perceptual correlates of Turkish word stress and their contribution to lexical access were studied using the mismatch negativity (MMN) component in event-related potentials (ERPs). The MMN was expected to indicate if segmentally identical Turkish words were distinguished on the sole basis of prosodic features such as fundamental frequency (f0), spectral emphasis (SE), and duration. The salience of these features in lexical access was expected to be reflected in the amplitude of MMN responses. In a multi-deviant oddball paradigm, neural responses to changes in f0, SE, and duration individually, as well as to all three features combined, were recorded for words and pseudowords presented to 14 native speakers of Turkish. The word and pseudoword contrast was used to differentiate language-related effects from acoustic-change effects on the neural responses. First and in line with previous findings, the overall MMN was maximal over frontal and central scalp locations. Second, changes in prosodic features elicited neural responses both in words and pseudowords, confirming the brain's automatic response to any change in auditory input. However, there were processing differences between the prosodic features, most significantly in f0: While f0 manipulation elicited a slightly right-lateralized frontally-maximal MMN in words, it elicited a frontal P3a in pseudowords. Considering that P3a is associated with involuntary allocation of attention to salient changes, the manipulations of f0 in the absence of lexical processing lead to an intentional evaluation of pitch change. f0 is therefore claimed to be lexically specified in Turkish. Rather than combined features, individual prosodic features differentiate language-related effects from acoustic-change effects. The present study confirms that segmentally identical words can be distinguished on the basis of prosodic information alone, and establishes the salience of f0 in lexical access.

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“…Furthermore, vowel length correlates with vowel tenseness and for high and mid vowels, vowel quality seems to be even more important for vowel identification in German native speakers than vowel length (Nimz, 2015;Sendlmeier, 1981). For this reason, the investigation of vowel quality productions by Polish L2 German learners becomes essential.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the role of orthography in L2 vowel production: The case of Polish learners of German

Nimz

Khattab

2019

Second Language Research

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This study investigates the role of orthography in German vowel production by Polish L1 speakers with German as an L2. Eighteen intermediate to advanced Polish L2 German learners and 20 German native speakers were recorded during a picture-naming task in which half of the experimental items were explicitly marked in their orthographic representation for their vowel length (short or long). Duration measurements revealed that explicit orthographic marking helped the Polish L2 German learners produce the short-long contrast more nativelike. The analysis of vowel quality further showed that (in)congruencies between L1 and L2 grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences may influence L2 vowel production as well. These findings have important implications for models of L2 speech learning and pronunciation training. 1997; Moyer, 1999). One of the greatest challenges for Polish L1 speakers with German as an L2 is the German vowel system (Hentschel, 1986; Hirschfeld, 1998; Morciniec, 1990). In contrast to Polish, which has six vowels and no phonological vowel length contrast, German exhibits a relatively high number of 15 vowel phonemes and makes use of a phonological distinction between long/tense and short/lax vowels (Pompino-Marschall, 2009). This leads to a number of minimal pairs that could potentially cause communication problems for L2 learners of German (e.g., Höhle /høːlə/ "cave" versus Hölle /hoelə/ "hell" or fühlen /fyːlən/ "to feel" versus füllen /fʏlən/ "to fill"). From an orthographic point of view, the long vowels in Höhle and fühlen are explicitly marked for their length by so called Dehnungs-h ("lengthening h"), which is a silent letter and a reliable marker for a preceding vowel to be ON THE ROLE OF ORTHOGRAPHY IN L2 VOWEL PRODUCTION long (Eisenberg, 2013). At the same time, the short vowels in Hölle and füllen are also explicitly marked for their length in that all German vowels which are followed by double consonant letters are short (Ramers, 1999). Since not all short and long vowels are explicitly marked for their length (e.g., Boden /boːdən/ "floor" or Wolke /vɔlkə/ "cloud") 1 , German is an ideal testing ground for the investigation of the effects of orthographic markings on L2 vowel productions. ON THE ROLE OF ORTHOGRAPHY IN L2 VOWEL PRODUCTIONL2 pronunciation researchers and teachers assume that orthographic cues such as lengthening h can help German L2 learners establish different phonetic categories for short and long vowels and hence produce them more native-like (e.g., Dieling, 1983; Dieling & Hirschfeld, 2007). However, experimental evidence to test this assumption is still missing.Furthermore, German and Polish use the same graphemes to represent similar vowel phonemes. Escudero et al. (2014) have shown that the "congruency" between L1 and L2 grapheme-to-phoneme (G-P) correspondences plays an important role in L2 sound perception and can both help and hinder L2 word learning. The influence of (in)congruencies between L1 and L2 G-P mappings might also be relevant for L2 vowel production. Polish L2...

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The Perception of Vowel Quality and Quantity by Turkish Learners of German as a Foreign Language

Cited by 4 publications

References 21 publications

Effects of orthographic forms on pronunciation in experienced instructed second language learners

Effects of orthographic forms on pronunciation in experienced instructed second language learners

Perceptual Correlates of Turkish Word Stress and Their Contribution to Automatic Lexical Access: Evidence from Early ERP Components

On the role of orthography in L2 vowel production: The case of Polish learners of German

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