An acoustic analysis of English liquids uttered by the Japanese and native speakers of English

AbstractThe paper reports the results of a study investigating vowel reduction in the speech of non-native speakers of English. The aim was to unravel the links between reduction and speech rate, phonetic training and gender. We hypothesized that (i) Polish speakers of English reduce vowels; (ii) they speak slower than native speakers; (iii) the higher the rate, the higher the reduction degree; (iv) speakers with phonetic training reduce less than those lacking it; (v) male subjects reduce more than the female ones. In order to realize these aims, an acoustic analysis of vowels was performed on 2 hrs 42 mins of speech produced by 12 Polish speakers of English. The subjects were di-vided into an experimental group consisting of 6 students of English and a control group with 6 speakers who had no phonetic training. The obtained results positively verify that non-native speakers reduce vowels and cast some doubts on whether they speak slower than native speakers. The role of rate and gender could not be established due to statistical and methodological issues. The group with no phonetic training outperformed the group which underwent phonetic training, pointing instead to the role of exposure and perhaps music training in acquiring native-like reduction patterns.

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Rhythm in Ethiopian English: Implications for the Teaching of English Prosody

International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies ◽

10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.5n.1p.13 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 13 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anegagregn Gashaw

Keyword(s):

Acoustic Analysis ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Mother Tongue ◽

Language Group ◽

Acoustic Measures ◽

Canadian Native ◽

Pitch Contours ◽

Native Speakers Of English ◽

Almost All ◽

Point Of Reference

In order to verify that English speeches produced by Ethiopian speakers fall under syllable-timed or stress-timed rhythm, the study tried to examine the nature of stress and rhythm in the pronunciation of Ethiopian speakers of English by focusing on one language group speaking Amharic as a native language. Using acoustic analysis of the speeches recorded from four Amharic speaking learners and two Canadian native speakers of English, comparison was made between pitch contours and length of speeches between speech samples of Amharic speakers with native speakers who are used in this study as a point of reference. The result of acoustic analysis showed that Amharic native samples displayed actual peaks on almost all words, taking longer time of articulation. It can be said that acoustic measures the study used for prosodic assessment of Ethiopian English exemplified the most occurring production tendencies of pronunciation that learners should give attention to. English pronunciation teaching to Ethiopians should involve the practice of stressing, un-stressing and rhythm to help learners improve their pronunciation from the influence of the syllable-timed rhythm of their mother tongue.

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Acoustic Analysis of English Long Vowels Produced by Pashto Speakers

Liberal Arts and Social Sciences International Journal (LASSIJ) ◽

10.47264/idea.lassij/4.2.17 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 215-229

Author(s):

Adnan Ahad ◽

Ghani Rahman ◽

Abdul Hamid

Keyword(s):

Acoustic Analysis ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Tape Recorder ◽

Acoustic Properties ◽

Formant Frequencies ◽

Significant Difference ◽

English Vowels ◽

Proper Training ◽

Correct Pronunciation ◽

Native Speakers Of English

The present study investigates the acoustic properties of English long vowels produced by Pashto speakers by highlighting the problematic areas for Pashto speakers learning English. The data was collected from ten Pashtun learners of English through tape recorder. The data was analyzed using PRAAT software. The spectrograms produced by the software helped us in specifying the acoustic values (formant frequencies of F1 and F2) of target vowels compared with the production of the same vowels by native speakers of English. The analysis of the collected data revealed the problematic areas of English long vowels for Pashtun learners of English. The study proved that English long vowels like /I:/ and /a:/ were more problematic for Pashtun learners. A significant difference was seen in both the height and backness of the target English vowels produced by the subjects. The English vowels like /e:/ and /o:/ produced by subjects were like those produced by the native speakers. Similarly, target vowel like /u:/ was pronounced by subjects like native speakers of English. The study recommends that Pashto speakers should be given proper training for acquiring correct pronunciation of English.

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Investigating auditory processing of syntactic gaps with L2 speakers using pupillometry

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658317722386 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 34 (2) ◽

pp. 201-227 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Leigh Fernandez ◽

Barbara Höhle ◽

Jon Brock ◽

Lyndsey Nickels

Keyword(s):

Sentence Processing ◽

Auditory Processing ◽

Acoustic Analysis ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Auditory Presentation ◽

Syntactic Movement ◽

Processing Cost ◽

Two Factors ◽

Shallow Structure Hypothesis ◽

Native Speakers Of English

According to the Shallow Structure Hypothesis (SSH), second language (L2) speakers, unlike native speakers, build shallow syntactic representations during sentence processing. In order to test the SSH, this study investigated the processing of a syntactic movement in both native speakers of English and proficient late L2 speakers of English using pupillometry to measure processing cost. Of particular interest were constructions where movement resulted in an intermediate gap between clauses. Pupil diameter was recorded during auditory presentation of complex syntactic constructions. Two factors were manipulated: syntactic movement (such that some conditions contained movement while others did not), as well as syntactic movement type (either causing an intermediate gap or not). Grammaticality judgments revealed no differences between the two groups, suggesting both were capable of comprehending these constructions. Pupil change slope measurements revealed a potential sensitivity to intermediate gaps for only native speakers, however, both native and late L2 speakers showed similar facilitation during processing of the second gap site. Acoustic analysis revealed potential acoustic cues that may have facilitated the processing of these constructions. This suggests that, contrary to the predictions of the SSH, late L2 speakers are capable of constructing rich syntactic representations during the processing of intermediate gap constructions in spoken language.

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STRESS CLASH RESOLUTION IN ENGLISH AS L1 AND L2

PROLÍNGUA ◽

10.22478/ufpb.1983-9979.2019v14n1.48984 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 79-93

Author(s):

Leônidas J. Silva Jr ◽

Ester M. Scarpa

Keyword(s):

Statistical Analysis ◽

Acoustic Analysis ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Vowel Duration ◽

Anova Test ◽

Primary Stress ◽

Native Speakers Of English ◽

L1 And L2 ◽

Phonological Phrase ◽

Metrical Level

This paper aims to analyze which strategy speakers of English as L1 and Brazilian speakers of English as L2 use to solve stress clash, a phenomenon in which two syllables bearing primary stress are adjacent in different words forming a phonological phrase such as [thirteen men]. The representation of stress clash, as well as the operation that allows its undoing, is one of the justifications whereby Liberman & Prince (1977) propose the metrical grid. The clash depends on information about the metrical level in which it occurs. The simple phonetic adjacency is not enough to characterize a clash. This paper is based on the work of Pike (1945), Selkirk (1984), Major (1985) to show distinctions between language types of rhythm (stress/syllable-timed ones) as well as a non-categorical polarization for rhythm in languages (Barbosa, 2000, 2002) and Silva Jr, (2013), Fragozo (2017) when comparing native and Brazilian speakers of English for the choice of stress clash solving strategies. For the Methods, we have done acoustic analysis of what we extracted and normalized the vowel duration values and applied to a statistical analysis using ANOVA test to check the degree of variance between Brazilians and native speakers of English. Our results show that native and Brazilian speakers of English use distinct strategies to solve stress clash: the former using stress retraction, which undoes primary stress clashes by moving the first stress of the clash to the left and the latter using silent demibeat addition, inserting a short pause in between the clash environment.

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