Synthesized speech intelligibility among native speakers and non-native speakers of English

2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 258-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Mayasari Alamsaputra ◽  
Kathryn J. Kohnert ◽  
Benjamin Munson ◽  
Joe Reichle
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
John J. Sidtis ◽  
Diana Van Lancker Sidtis ◽  
Ritesh Ramdhani ◽  
Michele Tagliati

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) has become an effective and widely used tool in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD). STN-DBS has varied effects on speech. Clinical speech ratings suggest worsening following STN-DBS, but quantitative intelligibility, perceptual, and acoustic studies have produced mixed and inconsistent results. Improvements in phonation and declines in articulation have frequently been reported during different speech tasks under different stimulation conditions. Questions remain about preferred STN-DBS stimulation settings. Seven right-handed, native speakers of English with PD treated with bilateral STN-DBS were studied off medication at three stimulation conditions: stimulators off, 60 Hz (low frequency stimulation—LFS), and the typical clinical setting of 185 Hz (High frequency—HFS). Spontaneous speech was recorded in each condition and excerpts were prepared for transcription (intelligibility) and difficulty judgements. Separate excerpts were prepared for listeners to rate abnormalities in voice, articulation, fluency, and rate. Intelligibility for spontaneous speech was reduced at both HFS and LFS when compared to STN-DBS off. On the average, speech produced at HFS was more intelligible than that produced at LFS, but HFS made the intelligibility task (transcription) subjectively more difficult. Both voice quality and articulation were judged to be more abnormal with DBS on. STN-DBS reduced the intelligibility of spontaneous speech at both LFS and HFS but lowering the frequency did not improve intelligibility. Voice quality ratings with STN-DBS were correlated with the ratings made without stimulation. This was not true for articulation ratings. STN-DBS exacerbated existing voice problems and may have introduced new articulatory abnormalities. The results from individual DBS subjects showed both improved and reduced intelligibility varied as a function of DBS, with perceived changes in voice appearing to be more reflective of intelligibility than perceived changes in articulation.


GEOgraphia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (36) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Joseli Maria Silva ◽  
Marcio Jose Ornat

Este artigo tem por objetivo evidenciar alguns dos elementos que sustentam a lógica de centralidade do discurso científico anglo-americano nas redes mundiais de conhecimento, bem como destacar as mazelas da influência desta hegemonia científica nos processos de identificação das sexualidades no Brasil. Os argumentos do texto estão baseados nos princípios epistêmicos expressos na Sessão Publishing for Non-Native Speakers of English, que fez parte do Encontro Anual da Association of American Geographers (AAG) realizado em Tampa, Flórida, em abril de 2014. A organização das redes mundiais de conhecimento científico tem reforçado o lugar de enunciação anglo-americano que cria as representações de mundo que extrapolam o cenário acadêmico, atingindo também as experiências cotidianas e os movimentos sociais e políticos de travestis e transexuais brasileiras.


Interpreting ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ena Hodzik ◽  
John N. Williams

We report a study on prediction in shadowing and simultaneous interpreting (SI), both considered as forms of real-time, ‘online’ spoken language processing. The study comprised two experiments, focusing on: (i) shadowing of German head-final sentences by 20 advanced students of German, all native speakers of English; (ii) SI of the same sentences into English head-initial sentences by 22 advanced students of German, again native English speakers, and also by 11 trainee and practising interpreters. Latency times for input and production of the target verbs were measured. Drawing on studies of prediction in English-language reading production, we examined two cues to prediction in both experiments: contextual constraints (semantic cues in the context) and transitional probability (the statistical likelihood of words occurring together in the language concerned). While context affected prediction during both shadowing and SI, transitional probability appeared to favour prediction during shadowing but not during SI. This suggests that the two cues operate on different levels of language processing in SI.


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