scholarly journals THE ROLE OF ACOUSTIC CUES AND LISTENER PROFICIENCY IN THE PERCEPTION OF ACCENT IN NONNATIVE SOUNDS

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikola Anna Eger ◽  
Eva Reinisch
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Production Quality ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Minimal Pairs

AbstractThe speech of second language learners is often influenced by phonetic patterns of their first language. This can make them difficult to understand, but sometimes for listeners of the same first language to a lesser extent than for native listeners. The present study investigates listeners’ awareness of the accent by asking whether accented speech is not only more intelligible but also more acceptable to nonnative than native listeners. English native speakers and German learners rated the goodness of words spoken by other German learners. Production quality was determined by measuring acoustic differences between minimal pairs with “easy” versus “difficult” sounds. Higher proficient learners were more sensitive to differences in production quality and between easy and difficult sounds, patterning with native listeners. Lower proficient learners did not perceive such differences. Perceiving accented productions as good instances of L2 words may hinder development because the need for improvement may not be obvious.

scholarly journals An Overview of the Persian EFL learners’ Spelling Difficulties

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Maryam Alipour ◽  
Khazriyati Salehuddin ◽  
Siti Hamin Stapa
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Comprehensive Literature Review ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
English Spelling

Spelling is considered a difficult skill for foreign and second language learners of English as the ability to spell in English language comes with a lot of effort, particularly when the English spelling system is known to be a complex system, even among native speakers. The difficulties could be linguistic and extra-linguistic. This conceptual paper reviews the differences and similarities between English and Persian spelling system, the sages of spelling difficulties among children, particularly the approach suggested by Tabrizi, Tabrizi, and Tabrizi (2013)in which the stages of learning spelling among Iranian learners are analyzed. The types of morphological, phonological, and orthographical spelling difficulties, factors contributing to the spelling difficulty, as well as a comprehensive literature review of EFL studies conducted on English spelling are provided in this paper. Finally, the mental processing and the role of memory are discussed briefly. It was concluded that examining the differences between the learners’ first language and English language may provide useful insights into the English spelling problems faced by EFL learners.

Non-Foreign-Accented Speech in Adult Second Language Learners

2001 ◽  
Vol 133-134 ◽  
pp. 185-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald G. Neufeld
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Tape Recorder ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Test Conditions ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Rigorous Test

Abstract The findings of this study add to the growing number of reports in which investigators claim to have located adult second language learners who, under rigorous test conditions, manage to pass as native speakers in L2. The aims of this paper were two, first, to provide a detailed account of how we tested and qualified our Anglophones as native-like speakers of French and, second, to suggest that, interesting as our data were, more questions emerge than do answers. Seven of 18 English/French bilinguals, having acquired L2 after the age of 16, were selected by means of a pre-test interview with three Francophones as “potentially of French-speaking background.” These seven, along with three Francophone controls, recited an 81-word passage in French onto a tape-recorder. Sixty-eight native-speaking French raters, of similar dialectal background and weak in English, each heard one of four tapes with differing random roders of the 10 passages, their task being to designate each voice as “Franco-phone” or “non-Francophone.” Four of our seven English-Franch bilinguals obtained ratings statistically comparable to those of our three Francophone controls.

The production of gender agreement in native and L2 Spanish: The role of morphophonological form

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Foote
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Head Noun ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
And Gender

In native speakers of gender-marking languages, mechanisms of gender production appear to be affected by the morphophonological cues to gender present in the noun phrase. This influence is manifested in higher levels of production accuracy when more transparent cues to gender are present in comparison to when they are not. The goal of the present study was to examine the role of morphophonological cues to gender in the production of gender agreement in native speakers and second language learners of Spanish in light of the Marking and Morphing account of agreement (Eberhard et al., 2005). Participants repeated and completed complex subject noun phrases with head nouns that varied in gender and gender-marking transparency. Analyses of accuracy rates along with Marking and Morphing model simulations of the results indicated that, contrary to previous findings, native speakers were not affected by gender-marking transparency. However, based on model simulations, second language (L2) learners were affected by the morphophonological form of the head noun.

The acquisition of some Dutch morphological rules

1980 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Snow ◽  
Norval S. H. Smith ◽  
Marian Hoefnagel-Höhle
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Correct Performance ◽  
Rule Systems

ABSTRACTThe acquisition of the morphological rules for plural, agentive, and diminutive suffixes in Dutch was studied. Subjects included 7- and 12-year-old native speakers, and second-language learners in three age groups (5–10 years, 12–18 years, and adult). The first- and second-language learners showed very similar orders of acquisition for the rule systems governing plural and diminutive, but the second-language learners showed a subtle form of interference from their first language in acquiring the agentive. The findings suggest that morphological acquisition proceeds piecemeal, with the learning of specific word ending + allomorph sequences, and that generalizations at the level of morphological rules may not be made even after several years of correct performance with the allomorph in question.

scholarly journals Language transfer and positional bias in English stress

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-474
Author(s):  
Guilherme D Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Positional Bias ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Generalize Weight

This article shows that first language (L1) transfer may not be effectively maintained in the interlanguage due to confounding factors in the second language (L2). When two factors, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], are correlated in the L2, second language learners may only acquire [Formula: see text], even if [Formula: see text] is present in the L1. Transfer may not be effective because [Formula: see text], being more robust in the input, conceals [Formula: see text]. Native speakers, on the other hand, generalize [Formula: see text] in spite of [Formula: see text]. The variables in question are weight-sensitivity ([Formula: see text]) and positional bias ([Formula: see text]) in English, both of which can predict the location of stress in the language. I show that two seemingly target-like groups of second language learners of English (speakers of Mandarin and speakers Portuguese) fail to accurately generalize weight-sensitivity in the language, and instead display response patterns which are predictable given the existing positional bias in English stress.

Linguistic encoding of motion events in English and French

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Efstathia Soroli ◽  
Halima Sahraoui ◽  
Carol Sacchett
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Syndrome Type ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Syntactic Knowledge

Languages show differences in how they encode motion in discourse: Verb-framed languages lexicalize Path in the verb, leaving Manner peripheral or implicit; Satellite-framed languages lexicalize Manner together with Path adjuncts. The present study investigates: 1) the extent to which such typological constraints affect the verbalizations of second language learners (English learners of French) and of aphasic speakers (English and French speakers with agrammatism) — who typically show dissociations between lexical and syntactic knowledge — in comparison to controls (English and French native speakers); as well as 2) the role of language-independent factors (level of acquisition, syndrome type). Despite some similarities between learners and speakers with aphasia due to language-independent factors, the findings suggest typologically constrained verbalizations in all groups, as well as diverging strategies that may reflect distinct underlying conceptualization processes.

How do second language learners build syntactic structure?

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-64
Author(s):  
Eva M. Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
First Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Shallow Structure Hypothesis

Understanding the mechanisms learners use to process target language input is crucial to developing a complete model of both first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition. If adult L2 learners are found to process the target language with mechanisms that differ from those used by child L1 learners and adult native speakers, what implications might this have for the developing grammar? Clahsen and Felser review evidence that appears to point to such differences, generalizing their findings under a shallow structure hypothesis about how adult learners process input in L2.

scholarly journals Daur ʻIlm al-Lugah an-Nafsī fī Taʻlīm al-Lugah al-ʻArabiyyah li Gair an-Nāṭiqīn Bihā

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-20
Author(s):  
Imam Wahyudi ◽  
Zainuri Zainuri
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Teacher Factors ◽  
And Linguistics

Learning is a unit consisting of various factors that support each other. In learning Arabic, it is not only teacher factors and Arabic language material that must be considered, students as second language learners also need attention for the success of learning. The purpose of this article was to describe the role of psycholinguistics in learning Arabic for non-native speakers. Researchers used literature review to extract data from various sources. From the data obtained, it was known that the role of psycholinguistics in learning Arabic makes teachers able to understand the processes that occur in students when they listen, speak, read, or write. Psycholinguistics as an applied science between psychology and linguistics can be used to understand the behavior of second language learners, language acquisition, and language production and the processes that occur in it.

scholarly journals Acoustic Cues Used by Learners of English

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danica Reid
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Real Time Processing ◽  
Time Processing ◽  
Language Groups

Second language learners must acquire the ability to use word boundary cues to segment continuous speech into meaningful words. Previous studies have used two types of s+stop clusters to test second language English speakers on their ability to segment fluent English speech: cross-boundary clusters (this table) where allophonic aspiration is present and word-initial clusters (this stable) where allophonic aspiration is absent. These studies suggested that first language segmentation strategies influence second language segmentation. The goal of this study was to test real-time processing of these cluster types by second language learners from one language where cue adaptation was possible (Mandarin Chinese) and one where a new cue would have to be learned (French). Results did not support the idea that first language segmentation strategies influence second language segmentation, but found that both language groups had high accuracy of identification despite showing uncertainty in real-time processing.

Foreign Accent in Adult Simultaneous Bilinguals

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Kupisch ◽  
Dagmar Barton ◽  
Katja Hailer ◽  
Ewgenia Klaschik ◽  
Ilse Stangen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
L1 And L2

The study reported in this paper examines foreign accent (FA) in adult simultaneous bilinguals (2L1ers). Specifically, we investigate how accent is affected if a first language is acquired as a minority (heritage) language as compared to a majority (dominant) language. We compare the perceived FA in both languages of 38 adult 2L1ers (German-French and German-Italian) to that of monolingual native speakers (L1ers) and late second language learners (L2ers). Naturalistic speech samples are judged by 84 native speakers of the respective languages. Results indicate that the majority language is always spoken without an FA, while results for the heritage language fall between those of L1 and L2 speakers. For the heritage language, we further show that a native accent correlates with length of residence in the heritage country during childhood but not during adulthood. Furthermore, raters have comparatively more difficulties when judging the accent of a heritage speaker. The results of this study add to our current understanding of what factors shape the phonology of a heritage language system in adulthood.

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