Lexical encoding and perception of palatalized consonants in L2 Russian

Previous studies have investigated the link between lexical encoding and perception by analyzing contrasts that differ in primary features of articulation, e.g., /l/ vs. /ɹ/. The goal of this study was to explore how the lexical encoding of contrasts that differ in the secondary feature of palatalization, e.g., /l/ vs. /lʲ/, was affected by learners’ perceptual abilities. The participants in the study were 40 American English learners of Russian and 10 Russian native speakers. Error rates on an auditory word-picture matching task measured learners’ ability to encode and retrieve words with the plain/palatalized contrast. Learners’ scores on an ABX task assessed their perceptual abilities. Results suggest that learners did not have clearly separated lexical representations for words with palatalized and plain consonants. They accepted most non-words as possible productions of the target words, especially in the word-final position, whereas Russian native speakers did not. The ability to perceive the contrast between plain and palatalized consonants was found to be helpful in establishing separate lexical representations for words with this contrast among advanced learners, even though it did not guarantee that words with palatalized consonants would be encoded and retrieved as such

Phonological context effects for voicing and devoicing in French

We examine occurrences of categorical assimilation (neutralizations) in French, the perception of voiced and unvoiced word-final obstruents in different phonological contexts. We first show the categorical nature of the alternation (Exp. 1), supported in Exp. 2 by perceptual categorization data. In Exp. 3, the interpretation of this first percept appears to be corrected in certain contexts, inducing compensation. We argue that context effects are phonological in this case, rather than auditory or phonetic. We conclude that linguistic knowledge of alternations is necessary in compensation for categorical assimilation

Object clauses, movement, and phrasal stress

In a production and perception experiment this paper investigates the prosody of object clause embedding in German. The prosodic pattern found separates the object clause from the (longer) matrix clause by an intonation phrase break. The matrix verb is stressed. The discussion addresses the interaction of movement and phrasal stress

Pitch Prominence Matters: Perception of Thai Tones by Seoul Korean and Kyungsang Korean Speakers

This paper is a follow‐up analysis of a previous study on the perception of Thai tones by speakers of various L1s differing in pitch prominence. Varying degrees of pitch prominence (Mandarin, tone = high; Japanese, pitch accent = intermediate; English, word stress = reduced; Korean, none = low) globally resulted in the expected hierarchy of performance: Mandarin (M = 87% correct), Japanese (M = 77%), English and Korean (M = 67% for both). However, the equal performance between the English and Korean participants was not predicted. In this study, we examined whether differences in dialectal exposure among the Koreans influenced results. Three speakers of the Korean Kyungsang dialect featuring pitch accent performed with higher accuracy than Seoul dialect speakers, reaching comparable accuracy levels with the L1 Japanese speakers. Additionally, the Seoul dialect speakers performed less accurately than the L1 English speakers. Both results confirm the originally predicted hierarchy of performance

Individual differences in attention control and the processing of phonological contrasts in a second language

This study investigated attention control in L2 phonological processing from a cognitive individual differences perspective, to determine its role in predicting phonological acquisition in adult L2 learning. Participants were 21 L1-Spanish learners of English, and 19 L1-English learners of Spanish. Attention control was measured through a novel speech-based attention-switching task. Phonological processing was assessed through a speeded ABX categorization task (perception) and a delayed sentence repetition task (production). Correlational analyses indicated that learners with more efficient attention switching skill and faster speed in correctly identifying the target phonetic features in the speech dimension under focus could perceptually discriminate L2 vowels at higher processing speed, but not at higher accuracy rates. Thus, attentional flexibility provided a processing advantage for difficult L2 contrasts but did not predict the extent to which precise representations for the target L2 vowels had been established. However, attention control was related to L2 learners’ ability to distinguish the contrasting L2 vowels in production. In addition, L2 learners’ accuracy in perceptually distinguishing between two contrasting vowels was significantly related to how much of a quality distinction between them they could make in production

Tongue movement in a second language: the case of Spanish /ei/-/e/ for English learners of Spanish

This study examines the amount of tongue movement in the productions of native Spanish speakers and native English learners of Spanish for the Spanish diphthong/monophthong contrast /ei/-/e/. We hypothesized that English learners would use their native English category /eɪ/ for both Spanish vowels. However, results show that against our prediction, for both Spanish vowels, learners produced less tongue movement than was expected if they used their L1 category. Instead, they produced both vowels as the monophthong /e/, effectively neutralizing the contrast in terms of tongue movement

Bringing pronunciation instruction back into the classroom: An ESL teachers’ pronunciation “toolbox”

Pronunciation is difficult to teach for several reasons. Teachers are often left without clear guidelines and are confronted with contradictory practices for pronunciation instruction. To date, there is no agreed upon system of deciding what to teach, and when and how to do it. Another challenge is the lack of immediate visible results, or a lack of carry-over: very often, students who practice a given pronunciation feature in class do well, but the minute they turn their attention to the message content, the practice effect vanishes. As a result of these difficulties, teaching pronunciation is often secondary, and teachers don’t feel comfortable doing it. Yet researchers and teachers alike agree that pronunciation instruction is important and efficient in improving intelligibility and comprehensibility. In this paper, we describe a new pronunciation curriculum for communication classes currently being designed for an intensive English program. Pronunciation instruction functions as a modular component fully integrated into the institutional learning outcomes across all levels of proficiency, addressing both the lack of carry-over, and the difficulty to teach pronunciation at early levels. Our goal is to provide teachers with enhanced confidence in applying strategies for pronunciation instruction that will contribute to their teaching “toolbox.

Second Language Working Memory Deficits and Plasticity in Hearing Bimodal Learners of Sign Language

Little is known about the acquisition of another language modality on second language (L2) working memory (WM) capacity. Differential indexing within the WM system based on language modality may explain differences in performance on WM tasks in sign and spoken language. We investigated the effect of language modality (sign versus spoken) on L2 WM capacity. Results indicated reduced L2 WM span relative to first language span for both L2 learners of Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL). Importantly, ASL learners had lower L2 WM spans than Spanish learners. Additionally, ASL learners increased their L2 WM spans as a function of proficiency, whereas Spanish learners did not. This pattern of results demonstrated that acquiring another language modality disadvantages ASL learners. We posited that this disadvantage arises out of an inability to correctly and efficiently allocate linguistic information to the visuospatial sketchpad due to L1-related indexing bias

The Role of Inhibitory Control in Second Language Phonological Processing

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Darcy, I., Mora, J. C., & Daidone, D. (2016). The role of inhibitory control in second language phonological processing. Language Learning, 66(4), 741-773. which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/lang.12161. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.This study investigated the role of inhibition in second language (L2) learners’ phonological processing. Participants were Spanish learners of L2 English and American learners of L2 Spanish. We measured inhibition through a retrieval‐induced inhibition task. Accuracy of phonological representations (perception and production) was assessed through a speeded ABX categorization task and a delayed sentence repetition task. We used a measure of L2 vocabulary size to tease out L2 proficiency effects. Higher inhibitory control was related to lower error rate in segmental perception. Inhibition was also related to consonant but not to vowel production accuracy. These results suggest a potential role for inhibition in L2 phonological acquisition, with inhibition enhancing the processing of phonologically relevant acoustic information in the L2 input, which in turn might lead to more accurate L2 phonological representations

Attention Control and Inhibition Influence Phonological Development in a Second Language

This study investigated the role of attention control and inhibition in L2 learners’ phonological processing. Participants were 16 L1‐Spanish/L2‐English learners, and 18 L1-English/L2‐Spanish learners. We measured attention and inhibition through a novel speech‐based attention‐switching task and a retrieval‐induced inhibition task. L2 phonology (perception and production) was assessed through a speeded ABX categorization task and a delayed sentence repetition task. We used a measure of L2 vocabulary size to partial out L2 proficiency effects. A more efficient attention control was associated with more accurate performance in ABX (for the L2‐English learners), and higher inhibitory skill was related to higher ABX accuracy in both learner groups. No clear relationship emerged with the production scores. These results suggest that a more efficient attention control and inhibitory skill enhance the processing of phonologically relevant acoustic information in the L2 input and may lead to more accurate L2 speech perception and production