Infants' Ability to Learn New Words Across Accent

The purpose of this study was to explore the phonetic flexibility of toddlers' early lexical representations. In this study (based on Schmale, et al., 2011), toddlers' ability to generalize newly learned words across speaker accent was measured using a split-screen preferential looking paradigm. Twenty-four toddlers (mean age = 29 months) were taught two new words by a Spanish-accented speaker and later tested by a native English speaker. One word had a phonological (vocalic) change across speaker accent (e.g., [fim]/[feem]), while the other word did not (e.g., [mef]/[mef]). Toddlers looked to the correct object significantly longer than chance only when the target label did not phonemically differ across accent. However, toddlers did not look longer to the non-phonemic target variant than the phonemic variant. High variability between subjects was noted and the potential need for additional exposure prior to testing infants on such a contrast is discussed

Duración del pie y acortamiento polisilábico entre los hablantes árabes de ingles

This study investigates a neglected aspect of second language acquisition. It compares the timing patterns adopted by speakers of English as a foreign language with those of English native speakers. The paper aims to explore the extent to which Arab speakers, whose L1 is not as stress-timed as English is, can acquire the mechanisms of polysyllabic shortening in English. Three groups (English native speakers and two groups of Jordanian speakers of English) were requested to read three sets of monosyllabic, disyllabic and trisyllabic words in a carrier sentence. The total length of the word and the vowel duration in all the words were measured. Clear differences between the native speaker group and the non-native speaker groups were attested. Results show that isochronous foot duration and polysyllabic shortening are a tendency in English speech timing, rather than a fundamental process. Furthermore, acquiring the timing patterns of the stress-timed English rhythm is challenging to Arab speakers.Este estudio investiga un aspecto poco abordado de la adquisición de una segunda lengua. Compara los patrones temporales adoptados por los hablantes de inglés como lengua extranjera con aquellos propios de los anglohablantes nativos. El objetivo del artículo es averiguar la medida en la que los locutores árabes -cuya L1 no es acentualmente acompasada como lo es el inglés- pueden adquirir los mecanismos del acortamiento polisilábico de esta lengua. Se pidió a tres grupos de hablantes (uno de anglohablantes nativos y dos de hablantes jordanos de inglés) que leyeran tres conjuntos de palabras monosílabas, disílabas y trisílabas en una frase portadora. Se midió la longitud total de la palabra y la duración de la vocal en todas esas palabras, y se hallaron claras diferencias entre el grupo de hablantes nativos y los dos de no nativos. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto que en la temporización del habla en inglés la duración isócrona del pie y el acortamiento polisilábico constituyen más una tendencia que un proceso fundamental. Además, se comprueba que la adquisición de los patrones temporales del ritmo acentualmente acompasado del inglés es un desafío para los hablantes árabes

Which phonetic features should pronunciation Instructions focus on? An evaluation on the accentedness of segmental/syllable errors in L2 speech

Many English language instructors are reluctant to incorporate pronunciation instruction into their teaching curriculum (Thomson 2014). One reason for such reluctance is that L2 pronunciation errors are numerous, and there is not enough time for teachers to address all of them (Munro and Derwing 2006; Thomson 2014). The current study aims to help language teachers set priorities for their instruction by identifying the segmental and structural aspects of pronunciation that are most foreign-accented to native speakers of American English. The current study employed a perception experiment. 100 speech samples selected from the Speech Accent Archive (Weinberger 2016) were presented to 110 native American English listeners who listened to and rated the foreign accentedness of each sample on a 9-point rating scale. 20 of these samples portray no segmental or syllable structure L2 errors. The other 80 samples contain a single consonant, vowel, or syllable structure L2 error. The backgrounds of the speakers of these samples came from 52 different native languages. Global prosody of each sample was controlled for by comparing its F0 contour and duration to a native English sample using the Dynamic Time Warping method (Giorgino 2009). The results show that 1) L2 consonant errors in general are judged to be more accented than vowel or syllable structure errors; 2) phonological environment affects accent perception, 3) occurrences of non-English consonants always lead to higher accentedness ratings; 4) among L2 syllable errors, vowel epenthesis is judged to be as accented as consonant substitutions, while deletion is judged to be less accented or not accented at all. The current study, therefore, recommends that language instructors attend to consonant errors in L2 speech while taking into consideration their respective phonological environments

Film policy and the emergence of the cross-cultural: exploring crossover cinema in Flanders (Belgium)

With several films taking on a cross-cultural character, a certain ‘crossover trend’ may be observed within the recent upswing of Flemish cinema (a subdivision of Belgian cinema). This trend is characterized by two major strands: first, migrant and diasporic filmmakers finally seem to be emerging, and second, several filmmakers tend to cross the globe to make their films, hereby minimizing links with Flemish indigenous culture. While paying special attention to the crucial role of film policy in this context, this contribution further investigates the crossover trend by focusing on Turquaze (2010, Kadir Balci) and Altiplano (2009, Peter Brosens & Jessica Woodworth)

Cross-language speech perception in context : advantages for recent language learners and variation across language-specific acoustic cues

This dissertation explores the relationship between language experience and sensitivity to language-specific segmental cues by comparing cross-language speech perception in monolingual English listeners and Spanish-English bilinguals. The three studies in this project use a novel language categorization task to test language-segment associations in listeners’ first and second languages. Listener sensitivity is compared at two stages of development and across a variety of language backgrounds. These studies provide a more complete analysis of listeners’ language-specific phonological categories than offered in previous work by using word-length stimuli to evaluate segments in phonological contexts and by testing speech perception in listeners’ first language as well as their second language. The inclusion of bilingual children also allows connections to be drawn between previous work on infants’ perception of segments and the sensitivities of bilingual adults. In three experiments, participants categorized nonce words containing different classes of English- and Spanish-specific sounds as sounding more English-like or Spanish-like; target segments were either a phonemic cue, a cue for which there is no analogous sound in the other language, or a phonetic cue, a cue for which English and Spanish share the category but for which each language varies in its phonetic implementation. The results reveal a largely consistent categorization pattern across target segments. Listeners from all groups succeeded and struggled with the same subsets of language-specific segments. The same pattern of results held in a task where more time was given to make categorization decisions. Interestingly, for some segments the late bilinguals were significantly more accurate than monolingual and early bilingual listeners, and this was the case for the English phonemic cues. There were few differences in the sensitivity of monolinguals and early bilinguals to language-specific cues, suggesting that the early bilinguals’ exposure to Spanish did not fundamentally change their representations of English phonology, but neither did their proficiency in Spanish give them an advantage over monolinguals. The comparison of adult listeners with children indicates that the Spanish-speaking children who grow to be early bilingual adults categorize segments more accurately than monolinguals – a pattern that is neutralized in the adult results. These findings suggest that variation in listener sensitivity to language-specific cues is largely driven by inherent differences in the salience of the segments themselves. Listener language experience modulates the salience of some of these sounds, and these differences in cross-language speech perception may reflect how recently a language was learned and under what circumstances.Linguistic