Relative Salience of Speech Rhythm and Speech Rate on Perceived Foreign Accent in a Second Language

We investigated the independent contribution of speech rate and speech rhythm to perceived foreign accent. To address this issue we used a resynthesis technique that allows neutralizing segmental and tonal idiosyncrasies between identical sentences produced by French learners of English at different proficiency levels and maintaining the idiosyncrasies pertaining to prosodic timing patterns. We created stimuli that (1) preserved the idiosyncrasies in speech rhythm while controlling for the differences in speech rate between the utterances; (2) preserved the idiosyncrasies in speech rate while controlling for the differences in speech rhythm between the utterances; and (3) preserved the idiosyncrasies both in speech rate and speech rhythm. All the stimuli were created in intoned (with imposed intonational contour) and flat (with monotonized, constant F0) conditions. The original and the resynthesized sentences were rated by native speakers of English for degree of foreign accent. We found that both speech rate and speech rhythm influence the degree of perceived foreign accent, but the effect of speech rhythm is larger than that of speech rate. We also found that intonation enhances the perception of fine differences in rhythmic patterns but reduces the perceptual salience of fine differences in speech rate

Syllable, accent, rhythm: typological and methodological considerations for teaching Spanish as a foreign language

El ritmo es una propiedad del habla relacionada con la organizacióntemporal de los sonidos en términos de agrupamiento. Las unidades desegmentación son específicas de cada lengua y emergen de propiedades fonológicastales como la estructura silábica, la fonotáctica, y los contrastes prosódicos en losniveles léxico y postléxico.Las diferencias rítmicas entre las lenguas plantean problemas para laadquisición de segundas lenguas, debido a la compleja combinación de clavesacústicas, las dificultades perceptivas causadas por la sordera fonológica, y lasinterferencias con la organización de los contrastes segmentales y con el accesoal léxico.Este artículo ofrece una comparación tipológica que incluye descripcionesde las distintas clases de ritmo existentes (temporización silábica, acentual, ymoraica), así como de los distintos sistemas de contraste prosódico en el nivelléxico (lenguas tonales, de acento tonal, y de acento tipo «stress»). Este análisispermite predecir los errores típicos que afectan a los estudiantes de español dedistintas procedencias lingüísticas.Además, se describe la estructura silábica y el sistema acentual del español, yse sugieren algunas estrategias para practicarlos en clase

ACOUSTIC CORRELATES OF LEXICAL STRESS IN NATIVE SPEAKERS OF UYGHUR AND L2 LEARNERS

Some syllables are louder, longer and stronger than other syllables at the lexical level. These prominent prosodic characteristics of certain syllables are captured by suprasegmental features including fundamental frequency, duration and intensity. A language like English uses fundamental frequency, duration and intensity to distinguish stressed syllables from unstressed syllables; however, a language like Japanese only uses fundamental frequency to distinguish the stressed syllables from unstressed syllables. This study investigates the stress pattern of Uyghur, a Turkic language, as produced by native and non-native speakers. The first three experiments provide a detailed phonetic analysis in order to determine the acoustic cues to stress in Uyghur. In Experiment 1, six disyllabic minimal pairs (e.g., A-cha, a-CHA), contrasting in location of stress, were produced by five native Uyghur speakers with three repetitions in a fixed sentence context. In order to generalize the results from the small set of minimal pairs in the first experiment, Experiment 2 examined the initial syllable of disyllabic nouns that contrasted in first-syllable stress (e.g., DA-ka, da-LA) while syllabic structure (CV versus CVC) was also manipulated. In both experiments, average fundamental frequency, syllable duration, and average intensity were collected in accented and unaccented syllables. The results from both experiments showed that there were significant differences in duration and intensity between stressed and unstressed syllables, with the intensity differences moderated by syllable structure. No difference was found in fundamental frequency. Experiment 3 investigated the role of F0 in lexical stress. Experiment 3 focused on the interaction between sentential intonation and lexical stress in which the declarative assertion sentence (falling F0) and the declarative question sentence (rising F0) were used. The results confirmed the previous experiments. No interaction between sentential intonation and lexical stress indicated that the obtained duration effect was due to lexical stress. There were no effects of fundamental frequency or intensity in terms of stress. While previous studies have classified Uyghur as a pitch-accent and a stress-accent language, the present acoustic data suggest that native speakers make no use of pitch cues to signal stress in Uyghur. Previous research has focused on the acquisition of lexical stress by non-native speakers of English. This study also examined the acquisition of lexical stress by English learners of Uyghur. Five highly advanced English learners of Uyghur produced the six minimal pairs and disyllabic nouns contrasting in the first syllables. The stimuli that were produced by L2 learners were the same as in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2. Highly advanced Uyghur learners used duration as a cue and did not use fundamental frequency and intensity as stress cues. The results indicated that native-like lexical stress can be acquired at the high advanced level

The effect of speech rhythm and speaking rate on assessment of pronunciation in a second language

Published online: 24 April 2019The study explores the effect of deviations from native speech rhythm and rate norms on the assessement of pronunciation mastery of a second language (L2) when the native language of the learner is either rhythmically similar to or different from the target language. Using the concatenative speech synthesis technique, different versions of the same sentence were created in order to produce segmentally and intonationally identical utterances that differed only in rhythmic patterns and/or speaking rate. Speech rhythm and tempo patterns modeled those from the speech of French or German native learners of English at different proficiency levels. Native British English speakers rated the original sentences and the synthesized utterances for accentedness. The analysis shows that (a) differences in speech rhythm and speaking tempo influence the perception of accentedness; (b) idiosyncratic differences in speech rhythm and speech rate are sufficient to differentiate between the proficiency levels of L2 learners; (c) the relative salience of rhythm and rate on perceived accentedness in L2 speech is modulated by the native language of the learners; and (d) intonation facilitates the perception of finer differences in speech rhythm between otherwise identical utterances. These results emphasize the importance of prosodic timing patterns for the perception of speech delivered by L2 learners.L.P. was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) via Juan de la Cierva fellowship. M.O. was supported by the IKERBASQUE–Basque Foundation for Science. The research institution was supported through the “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres/Units of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2015-490)

Second language comprehensibility revisited: investigating the effects of learner background

The current study investigated first language (L1) effects on listener judgment of comprehensibility and accentedness in second language (L2) speech. The participants were 45 university-level adult speakers of English from three L1 backgrounds (Chinese, Hindi, Farsi), performing a picture narrative task. Ten native English listeners used continuous sliding scales to evaluate the speakers’ audio recordings for comprehensibility, accentedness, as well as 10 linguistic variables drawn from the domains of pronunciation, fluency, lexis, grammar, and discourse. While comprehensibility was associated with several linguistic variables (segmentals, prosody, fluency, lexis, grammar), accentedness was primarily linked to pronunciation (segmentals, word stress, intonation). The relative strength of these associations also varied as a function of the speakers’ L1, especially for comprehensibility, with Chinese speakers influenced chiefly by pronunciation variables (segmental errors), Hindi speakers by lexicogrammar variables, and Farsi speakers showing no strong association with any linguistic variable. Results overall suggest that speakers’ L1 plays an important role in listener judgments of L2 comprehensibility and that instructors aiming to promote L2 speakers’ communicative success may need to expand their teaching targets beyond segmentals to include prosody-, fluency-, and lexicogrammar-based targets

Temporal Parameters of Spontaneous Speech in Forensic Speaker Identification in Case of Language Mismatch: Serbian as L1 and English as L2

Celem badania jest analiza możliwości identyfikacji mówcy kryminalistycznego i sądowego podczas zadawania pytań w różnych językach, z wykorzystaniem parametrów temporalnych. (wskaźnik artykulcji, wskaźnik mowy, stopień niezdecydowania, odsetek pauz, średnia czas trwania pauzy). Korpus obejmuje 10 mówców kobiet z Serbii, które znają język angielksi na poziomie zaawwansowanym. Patrametry są badane z wykorzystaniem beayesowskiego wzoru wskaźnika prawdopodobieństwa w 40 parach tcyh samych mówców i w 230 parach różnych mówców, z uwzględnieniem szacunku wskaźnika błędu, równiego wskaźnika błędu i Całościowego Wskaźnika Prawdopodobieństwa. badanie ma charakter pionierski w zakresie językoznawstwa sądowego i kryminalistycznego por1) ónawczego w parze jezyka serbskiego i angielskiego, podobnie, jak analiza parametrów temporalnych mówców bilingwalnych. Dalsze badania inny skoncentrować się na porównaniu języków z rytmem akcentowym i z rytmem sylabicznym. The purpose of the research is to examine the possibility of forensic speaker identification if question and suspect sample are in different languages using temporal parameters (articulation rate, speaking rate, degree of hesitancy, percentage of pauses, average pause duration). The corpus includes 10 female native speakers of Serbian who are proficient in English. The parameters are tested using Bayesian likelihood ratio formula in 40 same-speaker and 360 different-speaker pairs, including estimation of error rates, equal error rates and Overall Likelihood Ratio. One-way ANOVA is performed to determine whether inter-speaker variability is higher than intra- speaker variability across languages. The most successful discriminant is degree of hesitancy with ER of 42.5%/28%, (EER: 33%), followed by average pause duration with ER 35%/45.56%, (EER: 40%). Although the research features a closed-set comparison, which is not very common in forensic reality, the results are still relevant for forensic phoneticians working on criminal cases or as expert witnesses. This study pioneers in forensically comparing Serbian and English as well as in forensically testing temporal parameters on bilingual speakers. Further research should focus on comparing two stress-timed or two syllable-timed languages to test whether they will be more comparable in terms of temporal aspects of speech.

Identyfikacja parametrów czasowych mowy spontanicznej mówców kryminalistycznych w przypadku niedopasowania językowego: język serbski jako L1 i język angielski jako L2

The purpose of the research is to examine the possibility of forensic speaker identification if question and suspect sample are in different languages using temporal parameters (articulation rate, speaking rate, degree of hesitancy, percentage of pauses, average pause duration). The corpus includes 10 female native speakers of Serbian who are proficient in English. The parameters are tested using Bayesian likelihood ratio formula in 40 same-speaker and 360 different-speaker pairs, including estimation of error rates, equal error rates and Overall Likelihood Ratio. One-way ANOVA is performed to determine whether inter-speaker variability is higher than intra- speaker variability across languages. The most successful discriminant is degree of hesitancy with ER of 42.5%/28%, (EER: 33%), followed by average pause duration with ER 35%/45.56%, (EER: 40%). Although the research features a closed-set comparison, which is not very common in forensic reality, the results are still relevant for forensic phoneticians working on criminal cases or as expert witnesses. This study pioneers in forensically comparing Serbian and English as well as in forensically testing temporal parameters on bilingual speakers. Further research should focus on comparing two stress-timed or two syllable-timed languages to test whether they will be more comparable in terms of temporal aspects of speech. Celem badania jest analiza możliwości identyfikacji mówcy kryminalistycznego i sądowego podczas zadawania pytań w różnych językach, z wykorzystaniem parametrów temporalnych. (wskaźnik artykulcji, wskaźnik mowy, stopień niezdecydowania, odsetek pauz, średnia czas trwania pauzy). Korpus obejmuje 10 mówców kobiet z Serbii, które znają język angielksi na poziomie zaawwansowanym. Patrametry są badane z wykorzystaniem beayesowskiego wzoru wskaźnika prawdopodobieństwa w 40 parach tcyh samych mówców i w 230 parach różnych mówców, z uwzględnieniem szacunku wskaźnika błędu, równiego wskaźnika błędu i Całościowego Wskaźnika Prawdopodobieństwa. badanie ma charakter pionierski w zakresie językoznawstwa sądowego i kryminalistycznego por1) ónawczego w parze jezyka serbskiego i angielskiego, podobnie, jak analiza parametrów temporalnych mówców bilingwalnych. Dalsze badania inny skoncentrować się na porównaniu języków z rytmem akcentowym i z rytmem sylabicznym.