Augmented visual feedback in second language learning: Training Japanese post-alveolar flaps to American English speakers

AbstractWhile a growing body of research investigates the influence of orthographic input on the acquisition of second language (L2) segmental contrasts, few studies have examined its influence on the acquisition of L2 phonological processes. Hayes-Harb, Brown, and Smith (2018) showed that exposure to words’ written forms caused native English speakers to misremember the voicing of final obstruents in German-like words exemplifying voicing neutralization. However, they did not examine participants’ acquisition of the final devoicing process. To address this gap, we conducted two experiments wherein native English speakers (assigned to Orthography or No Orthography groups) learned German-like words in suffixed and unsuffixed forms, and later completed a picture naming test. Experiment 1 investigated learners’ knowledge of the surface voicing of obstruents in both final and nonfinal position, and revealed that while all participants produced underlyingly voiced obstruents as voiceless more often in final than nonfinal position, the difference was only significant for No Orthography participants. Experiment 2 investigated participants’ ability to apply the devoicing process to new words, and provided no evidence of generalization. Together these findings shed light on the acquisition of final devoicing by naïve adult learners, as well as the influence of orthographic input in the acquisition of a phonological alternation.

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Inflation Metaphor in Contemporary American English

Higher Education Studies ◽

10.5539/hes.v5n6p21 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 5 (6) ◽

pp. 21

Author(s):

Chunyu Hu ◽

Zhi Chen

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

General Public ◽

Second Language Learning ◽

American English ◽

Potential Threat ◽

Constant Attention ◽

Teaching Of Economics ◽

The World

<p>Inflation is often regarded as a dangerous phenomenon which poses a potential threat to economies in the world. It is thus an entity that demands the constant attention of economists, policymakers and the general public. In order to make this abstract entry more concrete and vivid, a number of metaphorical expressions are used to depict inflation. Building on previous studies that relied on researchers’ intuition or a small corpus, this paper sets out to investigate the use of inflation metaphor by examining a 450-million-word Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The results show that there exist a considerable number of metaphorical collocates of inflation, which can be grouped into separate yet closely related categories: INFLATION IS FIRE, INFLATION IS DISEASE, INFLATION IS AN ANIMAL, INFLATION IS AN ENEMY, INFLATION IS A RACER, INFLATION IS A MACHINE, and the like. This study shows how these metaphors function in specific contexts, and how they structure and reframe our thinking about inflation and other related economic concepts. These findings have pedagogical implications for both teaching of economics and second language learning of relevant words and phrases.</p>

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The effects of age of second language learning on the production of English vowels

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716400007967 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 313-334 ◽

Cited By ~ 61

Author(s):

Murray J. Munro ◽

James Emil Flege ◽

Ian R. A. Mackay

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Second Language Learning ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

Foreign Accent ◽

English Speakers ◽

Correct Identification ◽

Percent Correct ◽

English Vowels

ABSTRACTThis study examined the English vowel productions of 240 native speakers of Italian who had arrived in Canada at ages ranging from 2 to 23 years and 24 native English speakers from the same community. The productions of 11 vowels were rated for degree of foreign accent by 10 listeners. An increase in perceived accentedness as a function of increasing age of arrival was observed on every vowel. Not one of the vowels was observed to be produced in a consistently native-like manner by the latest-arriving learners, even though they had been living in Canada for an average of 32 years. However, high intelligibility (percent correct identification) scores were obtained for the same set of productions. This was true even for English vowels that have no counterpart in Italian.

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Factors of Success and Failure in Second Language Learning

JURNAL ARBITRER ◽

10.25077/ar.1.1.1-7.2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Anita Anita

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Data Analysis ◽

Language Learning ◽

Learning Strategies ◽

Second Language Learning ◽

English Speakers ◽

Language Fluency ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Environment Exposure ◽

Language Environment

This study aims to examine and elaborate the factors that contribute to the success and failure of English speakers as the second language in the pursuit of this language in three aspects of the language: fluency, language structure and pronunciation. Data for this study was obtained by conducting semi structured interviews with two students at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. Qualitative data analysis shows that factors such as second language learning in the pre-trial period, in the second language environment, exposure to the second language, the ability to acculturate, the motivation and the learning strategies impact on the mastery of the languages in the three areas mentioned above. Data analysis also shows that the existence and absence of such factors in the second language learning period significantly affect the mastery of language in the three areas.

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Age of Second-Language Acquisition and Perception of Speech in Noise

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jslhr.4003.686 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 40 (3) ◽

pp. 686-693 ◽

Cited By ~ 249

Author(s):

Lynn Hansberry Mayo ◽

Mary Florentine ◽

Søren Buus

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

American English ◽

English Speakers ◽

Mexican Spanish ◽

Speech Perception In Noise ◽

Speech In Noise ◽

High Level ◽

American English Speakers ◽

Late Bilinguals

To determine how age of acquisition influences perception of second-language speech, the Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) test was administered to native Mexican-Spanish-speaking listeners who learned fluent English before age 6 (early bilinguals) or after age 14 (late bilinguals) and monolingual American-English speakers (monolinguals). Results show that the levels of noise at which the speech was intelligible were significantly higher and the benefit from context was significantly greater for monolinguals and early bilinguals than for late bilinguals. These findings indicate that learning a second language at an early age is important for the acquisition of efficient high-level processing of it, at least in the presence of noise.

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