Theoretical models of non‐native speech perception: Implications for perception of foreign‐accented speech

Purpose Theoretical models and substantial research have proposed that general auditory sensitivity is a developmental foundation for speech perception and language acquisition. Nonetheless, controversies exist about the effectiveness of general auditory training in improving speech and language skills. This research investigated the relationships among general auditory sensitivity, phonemic speech perception, and word-level speech perception via the examination of pitch and lexical tone perception in children. Method Forty-eight typically developing 4- to 6-year-old Cantonese-speaking children were tested on the discrimination of the pitch patterns of lexical tones in synthetic stimuli, discrimination of naturally produced lexical tones, and identification of lexical tone in familiar words. Results The findings revealed that accurate lexical tone discrimination and identification did not necessarily entail the accurate discrimination of nonlinguistic stimuli that followed the pitch levels and pitch shapes of lexical tones. Although pitch discrimination and tone discrimination abilities were strongly correlated, accuracy in pitch discrimination was lower than that in tone discrimination, and nonspeech pitch discrimination ability did not precede linguistic tone discrimination in the developmental trajectory. Conclusions Contradicting the theoretical models, the findings of this study suggest that general auditory sensitivity and speech perception may not be causally or hierarchically related. The finding that accuracy in pitch discrimination is lower than that in tone discrimination suggests that comparable nonlinguistic auditory perceptual ability may not be necessary for accurate speech perception and language learning. The results cast doubt on the use of nonlinguistic auditory perceptual training to improve children's speech, language, and literacy abilities.

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Acoustic cue variability affects eye movement behaviour during non-native speech perception

10.21437/speechprosody.2018-100 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jessie S. Nixon ◽

Catherine T. Best

Keyword(s):

Speech Perception ◽

Eye Movement ◽

Movement Behaviour ◽

Native Speech

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Detection of Non-native Speaker Status from Backwards and Vocoded Contentmasked Speech

Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.31261/tapsla.7714 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 87-105

Author(s):

Arkadiusz Rojczyk ◽

Andrzej Porzuczek

Keyword(s):

White Noise ◽

Native Speaker ◽

Temporal Organization ◽

Speech Rhythm ◽

Accented Speech ◽

Significant Contributor ◽

Suprasegmental Features ◽

The Status ◽

Native Speech ◽

Vocoded Speech

This paper addresses the issue of speech rhythm as a cue to non-native pronunciation. In natural recordings, it is impossible to disentangle rhythm from segmental, subphonemic or suprasegmental features that may influence nativeness ratings. However, two methods of speech manipulation, that is, backwards content-masked speech and vocoded speech, allow the identification of native and non-native speech in which segmental properties are masked and become inaccessible to the listeners. In the current study, we use these two methods to compare the perception of content-masked native English speech and Polish-accented speech. Both native English and Polish-accented recordings were manipulated using backwards masked speech and 4-band white-noise vocoded speech. Fourteen listeners classified the stimuli as produced by native or Polish speakers of English. Polish and English differ in their temporal organization, so, if rhythm is a significant contributor to the status of non-native accentedness, we expected an above-chance rate of recognition of native and non-native English speech. Moreover, backwards content-masked speech was predicted to yield better results than vocoded speech, because it retains some of the indexical properties of speakers. The resultsshow that listeners are unable to detect non-native accent in Polish learners of English from backwards and vocoded speech samples.

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Task-evoked pupil response for accurately-recognized accented speech

10.31234/osf.io/vx2ty ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Drew Jordan McLaughlin ◽

Kristin J. Van Engen

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Cognitive Load ◽

Mandarin Chinese ◽

Recognition Accuracy ◽

Speech Understanding ◽

Pupil Response ◽

Accented Speech ◽

Linguistic Representations ◽

Native Speech ◽

Accented English

Unfamiliar second-language (L2) accents present a common challenge to speech understanding. However, the extent to which accurately-recognized unfamiliar L2-accented speech imposes a greater cognitive load than native speech remains unclear. The current study used pupillometry to assess cognitive load for native English listeners during the perception of intelligible Mandarin Chinese-accented English and American-accented English. Results showed greater pupil response (indicating greater cognitive load) for the unfamiliar L2-accented speech. These findings indicate that the mismatches between unfamiliar L2-accented speech and native listeners’ linguistic representations impose greater cognitive load even when recognition accuracy is at ceiling.

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