Learning foreign and native accents: the role of production and listening

The present dissertation asks whether and to what extent producing, compared to listening to, accented words can contribute to accented word learning and accent learning more generally. Learning effects of accented speech production are compared with learning effects resulting from listening to accented speech. This is specifically asked in the global Question 1. By this comparison, conclusions can be drawn regarding the nature of learning and how learning mechanisms induced by listening and production relate to one another, which is asked in Question 2. Foreign accent learning is compared with native accent learning by presenting speech material recorded by L2 and L1 speakers. Moreover, the role of listeners’ native language background is investigated. The speakers presented during training and test are always different in order to test speaker-general learning. A further goal of this dissertation is to characterize the learning effects in terms of the processing levels where they are observed. This is done with different experimental paradigms. Reaction time and eye-tracking tasks investigate the effects of learning on online processing, and memory tasks look at the effects on memory recognition. The generality of learning with production is also tested by comparing learning with long-term familiar and unfamiliar accents. Further aspects that describe these learning effects refer to how long lasting they are and what the role of self-listening is. Finally, Question 3 scrutinizes the role of salience in accent learning and learning with production and listening

Implicit learning leads to familiarity effects for intonation but not for voice

Previous studies have shown that speech processing is accelerated for familiar voices in contrast to unfamiliar ones (e.g. [1]), and for familiar intonation in contrast to unfamiliar intonation [2]. The present experiments probed these effects in a single experiment and tested whether they also occur with short, implicit familiarization. Results of two auditory lexical decision tasks (Experiment 1 with a task-based familiarization phase and Experiment 2 with a passive listening familiarization phase), showed that familiarity with the intonation (rise vs. fall) affected reaction times but that familiarity with the voice (speaker A vs. B) did not. Our results suggest that intonation (which contributes to utterance interpretation) is stored in the mental lexicon, but voice information is not

Replication data for learning to comprehend foreign-accented speech by means of production and listening training

The effects of production and listening training on the subsequent comprehension of foreign-accented speech were investigated in a training-test paradigm. During training, German non-native (L2) and English native (L1) participants listened to a story spoken by a German speaker who replaced all English /θ/s with /t/ (e.g., *teft for theft) or they produced the story themselves with the t-substitutes. During test, participants made auditory lexical decisions to English words with t-substitutes. L2 participants’ reaction times to words from the training were significantly faster after having produced the story than after no training; having listened to the short story also resulted in faster reaction times, but less strongly so. For L1 participants, the facilitatory effect of training did not differ significantly between production and listening training. Thus, only for L2 participants, the effect of accent production for adaptation was superior to accent listening

Improve hip fracture outcome in the elderly patient (iHOPE): a study protocol for a pragmatic, multicentre randomised controlled trial to test the efficacy of spinal versus general anaesthesia

Introduction Hip fracture surgery is associated with high in-hospital and 30-day mortality rates and serious adverse patient outcomes. Evidence from randomised controlled trials regarding effectiveness of spinal versus general anaesthesia on patient-centred outcomes after hip fracture surgery is sparse. Methods and analysis The iHOPE study is a pragmatic national, multicentre, randomised controlled, open-label clinical trial with a two-arm parallel group design. In total, 1032 patients with hip fracture (>65 years) will be randomised in an intended 1: 1 allocation ratio to receive spinal anaesthesia (n=516) or general anaesthesia (n=516). Outcome assessment will occur in a blinded manner after hospital discharge and inhospital. The primary endpoint will be assessed by telephone interview and comprises the time to the first occurring event of the binary composite outcome of all-cause mortality or new-onset serious cardiac and pulmonary complications within 30 postoperative days. In-hospital secondary endpoints, assessed via in-person interviews and medical record review, include mortality, perioperative adverse events, delirium, satisfaction, walking independently, length of hospital stay and discharge destination. Telephone interviews will be performed for long-term endpoints (all-cause mortality, independence in walking, chronic pain, ability to return home cognitive function and overall health and disability) at postoperative day 30 +/- 3, 180 +/- 45 and 365 +/- 60. Ethics and dissemination iHOPE has been approved by the leading Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty of the RWTH Aachen University on 14 March 2018 (EK 022/18). Approval from all other involved local Ethical Committees was subsequently requested and obtained. Study started in April 2018 with a total recruitment period of 24 months. iHOPE will be disseminated via presentations at national and international scientific meetings or conferences and publication in peer-reviewed international scientific journals