On the Similarities Between Native, Non-native and Translated Texts

We present a computational analysis of three language varieties: native, advanced non-native, and translation. Our goal is to investigate the similarities and differences between non-native language productions and translations, contrasting both with native language. Using a collection of computational methods we establish three main results: (1) the three types of texts are easily distinguishable; (2) non-native language and translations are closer to each other than each of them is to native language; and (3) some of these characteristics depend on the source or native language, while others do not, reflecting, perhaps, unified principles that similarly affect translations and non-native language.Comment: ACL2016, 12 page

Using Dual-Language Books to Preserve Language & Culture in Alaska Native Communities

“Children learn their language on their mother’s lap.” This conventional wisdom from a Cup’ik Elder describes the approach used by many Alaska Native peoples to promote native language acquisition. Presumably, the children learn by listening to stories and tales from a trusted parent or caregiver. However, what happens when the caregiver does not speak the native language? This chapter describes an effort to address this issue while also promoting better educational outcomes by providing access to diverse dual-language books in Alaska Native languages through the use of a digital children’s library. Potential benefits from these efforts include an increase in resources for schools, a revitalization of Indigenous languages, and an increase in access, with hopes that future work will show evidence that using these dual-language books encourage greater parent support and involvement in education, support second language acquisition, and promote a strong sense of identity. Implications and future efforts follow.Ye

Predicting Native Language from Gaze

A fundamental question in language learning concerns the role of a speaker's first language in second language acquisition. We present a novel methodology for studying this question: analysis of eye-movement patterns in second language reading of free-form text. Using this methodology, we demonstrate for the first time that the native language of English learners can be predicted from their gaze fixations when reading English. We provide analysis of classifier uncertainty and learned features, which indicates that differences in English reading are likely to be rooted in linguistic divergences across native languages. The presented framework complements production studies and offers new ground for advancing research on multilingualism.Comment: ACL 201

Accounting for multicompetence and restructuring in the study of speech

Phonetic studies meant to generalize to monolingual speakers of a target language have often examined individuals with considerable experience using another language, such as the immigrant native speaker. This paper presents, first, results from a meta-analysis of the literature, suggesting that conflation of ostensibly bilingual (“multicompetent”) individuals with monolinguals remains common practice and, second, longitudinal data on speech production that demonstrate why this practice is problematic. Adult native English speakers recently arrived in Korea showed significant changes in acoustic properties of their English production during their first weeks of learning Korean (“phonetic drift”) and, furthermore, continued to show altered English production a year later, months after their last Korean class and without extensive use of Korean in daily life. These patterns suggest that the linguistic experience associated with residence in a foreign language environment tends to induce and then prolong phonetic drift of the native language, making the multicompetent native speaker living in a foreign language environment unrepresentative of a monolingual in the native language environment. The speed and persistence of these effects highlight the need for language researchers to be explicit about the population under study and to accordingly control (and describe) language background in a study sample.https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1_NoAiLQlnkbDEyb2M0ckRodGsOthe

The role of non-verbal communication in second language learner and native speaker discourse

It is undeniable that non-verbal signals exert a profound impact on communication. Many researchers proved that people, when they are hesitating, analyze non-verbal signals to comprehend the meaning of a message (Allen, 1999), because they prioritize non-verbal aspects of communication over the verbal ones. The role of non-verbal communication is much more profound when native/non-native discourse is taken into consideration (Allen, 1999; Gregersen, 2007). The aim of the present paper is to analyze non-verbal communication of a native speaker and a second language learner. The main emphasis is put especially on the differences between the non-verbal signals of second language learners and native speakers. Some of these differences may disturb or prevent the interlocutors from conveying a message in learner/native speaker discourse (Marsh et al., 2003) so it is necessary to raise awareness of cultural differences and underline the tremendous role of non-verbal communication in second language learning. Furthermore, the present paper also covers some suggestions for foreign language teachers in order to improve their knowledge of the body language of their learners in the target language and help them to raise awareness of the significance of non-verbal communication in second language discourse

Non-native children speech recognition through transfer learning

This work deals with non-native children's speech and investigates both multi-task and transfer learning approaches to adapt a multi-language Deep Neural Network (DNN) to speakers, specifically children, learning a foreign language. The application scenario is characterized by young students learning English and German and reading sentences in these second-languages, as well as in their mother language. The paper analyzes and discusses techniques for training effective DNN-based acoustic models starting from children native speech and performing adaptation with limited non-native audio material. A multi-lingual model is adopted as baseline, where a common phonetic lexicon, defined in terms of the units of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), is shared across the three languages at hand (Italian, German and English); DNN adaptation methods based on transfer learning are evaluated on significant non-native evaluation sets. Results show that the resulting non-native models allow a significant improvement with respect to a mono-lingual system adapted to speakers of the target language

Lexical stress constrains English-learning infants' segmentation in a non-native language.

Infants' ability to segment words in fluent speech is affected by their language experience. In this study we investigated the conditions under which infants can segment words in a non-native language. Using the Head-turn Preference Procedure, we found that monolingual English-learning 8-month-olds can segment bisyllabic words in Spanish (trochees and iambs) but not French (iambs). Our results are incompatible with accounts that rely on distributional learning, language rhythm similarity, or target word prosodic shape alone. Instead, we show that monolingual English-learning infants are able to segment words in a non-native language as long as words have stress, as is the case in English. More specifically, we show that even in a rhythmically different non-native language, English-learning infants can find words by detecting stressed syllables and treating them as word onsets or offsets

Phonological category quality in the mental lexicon of child and adult learners

• Aims and Objectives: The aim was to identify which criteria children used to decide on the category membership of native and non-native vowels, and to get insight into the organization of phonological representations in the bilingual mind. • Methodology: The study consisted of two cross-language mispronunciation detection tasks, in which L2 vowels were inserted in L1 words, and vice versa. In Experiment 1, 9-12-year-old Dutch-speaking children were presented with Dutch words which were either pronounced with the target Dutch vowel or with an English vowel inserted in the Dutch consonantal frame. Experiment 2 was a mirror of the first, with English words which were pronounced ‘correctly’ or which were ‘mispronounced’ with a Dutch vowel. • Data and Analysis: It was examined to what extent child and adult listeners accepted substitutions of Dutch vowels by English ones, and vice versa, and which vowel substitutions were accepted or rejected. • Findings: The results of Experiment 1 revealed that at that age children have well-established phonological vowel categories in their native language. However, Experiment 2 showed that in the non-native language, children tended to accept mispronounced items which involve sounds from their native language. At the same time, though, they did fully rely on their native phonemic inventory because the children accepted most of the correctly pronounced English items. • Originality: While many studies have examined native and non-native perception by infants, studies on first and second language perception of school-age children are rare. This study adds to the body of literature aimed at expanding our knowledge in this area. • Implications: The study has implications for models of the organization of the bilingual mind: while proficient adult non-native listeners generally have clearly separated sets of phonological representations for their two languages, for non-proficient child learners, the L1 phonology still exerts a big influence on the L2 phonology