Spanish speakers’ English schwar production: Does orthography play a role?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Christine Shea
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Model ◽  
American English ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Native Spanish Speakers ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Mixed Model Analysis ◽  
Input Mode ◽  
Orthographic Representations

Abstract This study examines how input mode – whether written or auditory – interacts with orthography in the production of North American English (NAE) schwar (/ɝ/, found in fur, heard, bird) by native Spanish speakers. Greater orthographic interference was predicted for written input, given the obligatory activation of orthographic representations in the execution of the task. Participants were L1 Mexican Spanish/L2 English speakers (L2, n = 15) and NAE (n = 15, rhotic dialect speakers). The target items were 10 schwar words and 10 words matched in graphemes to the onset and nucleus of the schwar words (e.g., bird was matched with big), for a total of 20 items. The degree of overlap between schwar productions across group and input mode (L2 only) was analyzed, followed by a generalized additive mixed model analysis of F3, one of the acoustic cues to rhotacization. Results showed that L2 schwar productions were different from the NAE productions in both the overlap and F3 measures, and the written input mode showed greater L1 orthographic interference than the auditory input mode, supporting the hypothesis that L1 orthography–phonology correspondences affect L2 productions of English schwar words.

Cross-modal priming differences between native and nonnative Spanish speakers

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Herd ◽  
Joan Sereno ◽  
Allard Jongman
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Native Spanish Speakers ◽  
Visual Targets ◽  
American English Speakers

AbstractTraining has been shown to improve American English speakers’ perception and production of the Spanish /ɾ, r, d/ contrast; however, it is unclear whether successfully trained contrasts are encoded in the lexicon. This study investigates whether learners of Spanish process the /ɾ, r, d/ contrast differently than native speakers and whether training affects processing. Using a cross-modal priming design, thirty-three Spanish learners were compared to ten native Spanish speakers. For native speakers, auditory primes with intervocalic taps (like [koɾo]) resulted in faster reaction times in response to matching visual targets (like

scholarly journals Measures of speech rhythm and the role of corpus-based word frequency: a multifactorial comparison of Spanish(-English) speakers

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Harris ◽  
Stefan Th. Gries
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Speech Rhythm ◽  
Multiple Metrics ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
The Impact

In this study, we address various measures that have been employed to distinguish between syllable and stress- timed languages. This study differs from all previous ones by (i) exploring and comparing multiple metrics within a quantitative and multifactorial perspective and by (ii) also documenting the impact of corpus-based word frequency. We begin with the basic distinctions of speech rhythms, dealing with the differences between syllable-timed languages and stress-timed languages and several methods that have been used to attempt to distinguish between the two. We then describe how these metrics were used in the current study comparing the speech rhythms of Mexican Spanish speakers and bilingual English/Spanish speakers (speakers born to Mexican parents in California). More specifically, we evaluate how well various metrics of vowel duration variability as well as the so far understudied factor of corpus-based frequency allow to classify speakers as monolingual or bilingual. A binary logistic regression identifies several main effects and interactions. Most importantly, our results call the utility of a particular rhythm metric, the PVI, into question and indicate that corpus data in the form of lemma frequencies interact with two metrics of durational variability, suggesting that durational variability metrics should ideally be studied in conjunction with corpus-based frequency data.

Identity Markers and L2 Pronunciation

1988 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Zuengler
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
American English ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Native Spanish Speakers ◽  
Sociolinguistic Variation ◽  
English Pronunciation ◽  
Identity Markers ◽  
Social Markers ◽  
Social Marking

This is a report of a study of social marking in second language pronunciation. In particular, it tested out Trudgill's (1981) suggestion that sounds that are most likely to undergo sociolinguistic variation, that is, that may become social markers, are those that Labov (1972a, 1972b), calls stereotypes. This study sought to determine whether there were certain aspects of English pronunciation that native Spanish speakers would, at some level of awareness, associate with American English/American identity. The speakers were asked to perform several tasks, including a mimic of an American speaking Spanish with an American accent (following Flege & Hammond, 1982). Among the results, speakers displayed a tacit awareness of English-Spanish sound distinctions (in particular, allophonic differences) in performing the mimic (supporting Flege & Hammond, 1982). Additionally, some of the alterations they were very conscious of held as stereotypes of American English. Support was found for Trudgill's (1981) suggestion.

The effects of script on visual search

1987 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Green ◽  
Paul Meara
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Strategy ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Native Spanish Speakers ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
English Orthography ◽  
Letter Search ◽  
The Way

Native English speakers search short strings of letters differently from the way they search strings of nonalphanumeric symbols. Experiment 1 demonstrates the same contrast for native Spanish speakers. Letter search, therefore, is not a result of the peculiarities of English orthography. Since visual search is sensitive to the nature of the symbols being processed, different scripts should produce different effects. Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed such differences for Arabic and Chinese scripts. Furthermore, these experiments showed no evidence that native Arabic and native Chinese speakers adapt their search strategy when dealing with letters. Implications of these findings are considered.

scholarly journals English negative concord and double negation: The division of labor between syntax and pragmatics

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances Blanchette ◽  
Marianna Nadeu ◽  
Jeremy Yeaton ◽  
Viviane Deprez
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Division Of Labor ◽  
American English ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Negative Concord ◽  
Double Negation

Recent research demonstrates that prototypical negative concord (NC) languages allow double negation (DN) (Espinal & Prieto 2011; Prieto et al. 2013; Déprez et al. 2015; Espinal et al. 2016). In NC, two or more syntactic negations yield a single semantic one (e.g., the ‘I ate nothing’ reading of “I didn’t eat nothing”), and in DN each negation contributes to the semantics (e.g. ‘It is not the case that I ate nothing’). That NC and DN have been shown to coexist calls into question the hypothesis that grammars are either NC or DN (Zeijlstra 2004), and supports micro-parametric views of these phenomena (Déprez 2011; Blanchette 2017). Our study informs this debate with new experimental data from American English. We explore the role of syntax and speaker intent in shaping the perception and interpretation of English sentences with two negatives. Our results demonstrate that, like in prototypical NC languages (Espinal et al. 2016), English speakers reliably exploit syntactic, pragmatic, and acoustic cues to in selecting an NC or a DN interpretation.

scholarly journals “I’m Missing Something”: (Non) Nativeness in Prospective Teachers as Spanish and English Speakers

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Jairo Viafara
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Harmful Effect ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Native Spanish Speakers ◽  
Method Approach

AbstractRooted in the need to confront the pervasive and harmful effect of the myth of the native speaker and affiliated language ideologies, this article shares the findings of a research study conducted in two public Colombian universities. The study examined participants’ self-perceived (non) nativeness as speakers of Spanish and English. Using surveys and interviews within a mixed-method approach, the study found that participants perceived themselves as over-empowered in their being native Spanish speakers. Conversely, as speakers of English, most prospective teachers feared the disadvantages of not achieving native-like abilities, but they were confident in their university programs and their previous experience as English learners to achieve their language learning education goals.         

DISCOVERING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONTEXT AND ALLOPHONES IN A SECOND LANGUAGE

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 581-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine E. Shea ◽  
Suzanne Curtin
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
English Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Native Spanish Speakers ◽  
Conditioning Factors ◽  
Word Position ◽  
Distributional Information ◽  
Word Onset

The identification of stressed syllables by adult second-language (L2) Spanish learners was examined for evidence of influence of an allophonic alternation driven by word position and stress. The Spanish voiced stop-approximant alternation, whereby stops occur in stressed-syllable and word onsets, was utilized. If L2 learners track the distribution of this alternation, they should tend to link stops to stressed syllables in word-onset position and approximants to unstressed, word-medial position. Low- and high-intermediate-level first-language English learners of Spanish as well as native Spanish and monolingual English speakers listened to a series of nonce words and determined which of the two consonant-vowel (CV) syllables they perceived as stressed. In Experiment 1, onset allophone and vowel stress were crossed. In Experiment 2, the onset allophone alternated and a vowel unmarked for prominence was used. The results show that the monolingual English and low-intermediate groups were more likely to perceive syllables with stressed vowels as stressed, regardless of the allophone onset. In contrast, listeners with greater Spanish proficiency performed similarly to native Spanish speakers and were more likely to perceive stress on syllables with stop onsets, a pattern that follows the distributional information of Spanish. This finding suggests that learning the interplay between allophonic distributions and their conditioning factors is possible with experience and that knowledge of this relationship plays a role in the acquisition of L2 allophones.

Investigating L2 Acquisition of Spanish Vocalic Sequences

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany MacLeod
Keyword(s):  
Relative Intensity ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Native Spanish Speakers ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Beginning Learners ◽  
Vocalic Sequences ◽  
The Individual

AbstractWhile previous studies have investigated the acquisition of Spanish vowels by English speakers, none has examined how sequences of vowels are acquired. This study considers the developmental path of acquisition of diphthongs and hiatus by English-speaking learners of Spanish. Previous studies have found that duration is a robust acoustic cue to the difference between a diphthong and a hiatus (Face & Alvord 2004, Hualde & Prieto 2002). This study investigates how the durational difference is manifest in the speech of L2 learners of Spanish and how its realization changes as a function of proficiency in Spanish. In addition, transfer of a phonological constraint in English barring homorganic consonant-glide (CG) onset clusters (Davis & Hammond 1995, Ohala & Kawasaki-Fukumori 1997) and phonetic transfer of the relative intensity values of English glides, which have been found to be lower in English (MacLeod 2008), onto production of Spanish glides are also investigated. A delayed-repetition task with English and Spanish tokens tested 4 groups of speakers: beginning learners, intermediate learners, native Spanish speakers, and native English speakers. The results show that the learners produce a durational difference similar to the native speakers (in that hiatus were, on average, longer than diphthongs), but that the duration of the individual vowels was longer in the speech of the learners as compared to the native speakers. Transfer of the phonological constraint against homorganic CG clusters was found to some extent since glides in homorganic CG clusters were marginally statistically significantly longer than those in non-homorganic clusters in the speech of the beginning learners, but not for native Spanish speakers. In contrast, phonetic transfer of the relative intensity norms of English onto Spanish was not found since the learners produced Spanish glides with a higher relative intensity than the native Spanish speakers. The salience of duration and intensity for English speakers are discussed in concert with general articulatory concerns, both of the vocalic sequences themselves and in terms of the surrounding consonants.

The effects of age, education, and ethnicity on verbal fluency

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 531-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL KEMPLER ◽  
EVELYN L. TENG ◽  
MALCOLM DICK ◽  
I. MARIBEL TAUSSIG ◽  
DEBORAH S. DAVIS
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
American English ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Verbal Fluency Task ◽  
Animal Names ◽  
American English Speakers ◽  
Healthy Participants ◽  
Fluency Task

A group of 317 healthy participants between 54 and 99 years of age performed a verbal fluency task. The participants included Chinese, Hispanic, and Vietnamese immigrants, as well as White and African American English speakers. They were given 1 min to name as many animals as possible in their native language. The results showed that more animal names were produced by younger people and those with more education. Language background was also an important factor: The Vietnamese produced the most animal names and the Spanish speakers produced the fewest. The exaggerated difference between these two groups is attributed to the fact that Vietnamese animal names are short (predominantly 1 syllable) while the Spanish animal names are longer than any other language in this study (2 and 3 syllables per word). Finally, although the ethnic groups named different animals, and appeared to vary in the variety of animal names they used, these factors did not affect overall verbal fluency performance. (JINS, 1998, 4, 531–538.)

Perception of lexical stress in Spanish L2 by French speakers

2018 ◽  
pp. 177-190
Author(s):  
Joaquim Llisterri ◽  
Sandra Schwab
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Lexical Stress ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Native Spanish Speakers

Three experiments on the perception of lexical stress in Spanish (a free-stress language) by speakers of French (a fixed-stress language) are discussed in this chapter. The main goal of these experiments is to further investigate the effect of an ‘accentual filter’ that may lead to a stress ‘deafness’ in native speakers of a fixed-stress language. Taken together, the results of the three experiments lead to the conclusion that French speakers are not only sensitive to the acoustic cues that convey stress prominences in Spanish, but are also able, after a short training, to encode and retrieve the accentual information in a small lexicon of Spanish pseudowords. However, it appears that French listeners do not always rely on the same acoustic cues as the ones used by native Spanish speakers and that their representations of the accentual patterns seem to be less flexible than the native ones.

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