Identification of English vowels by non-native listeners: Effects of listeners’ experience of the target dialect and talkers’ language background

This study investigates how second language (L2) listeners’ perception is affected by two factors: the listeners’ experience with the target dialect – North American English (NAE) vs. Standard Southern British English (SSBE) – and talkers’ language background: native vs. non-native talkers; i.e. interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit (ISIB) talker effects. Two groups of native-Korean-speaking listeners with different target English dialects – L1-Korean listeners of English as a second language (ESL) in the USA and L1-Korean ESL listeners in the UK – were tested on the identification of 12 English vowels spoken by native and non-native (L1-Korean) talkers of NAE and SSBE. The results show that the L2 listeners’ experience with the target dialect had a significant impact on the accuracy of their identification of the L2 vowels. However, no ISIB-talker effects were observed for the L1-Korean listener groups regardless of the listeners’ differences in experience with the two varieties of English. The study adds to the L2 sound acquisition literature and the ISIB literature by looking into L2 learners’ identification of L2 vowels, taking into account the learners’ differences in experience with two standard varieties of English (NAE and SSBE) and the interaction between the learners’ experience with the two varieties and ISIB-talker effects. It also sheds some light on the issue of adult L2 learners’ ability to learn the vowels of a new target variety.

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ACOUSTIC MEASUREMENT ON VOWEL PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE BY INDONESIAN EFL LEARNERS

English Review Journal of English Education ◽

10.25134/erjee.v6i1.772 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 71

Author(s):

Rudha Widagsa ◽

Ahmad Agung Yuwono Putro

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

English Language ◽

Acoustic Analysis ◽

Native Speakers ◽

First Language ◽

English Language Teaching ◽

British English ◽

Formant Frequencies ◽

English Vowels ◽

Second Formant

Indonesian is the most widely spoken language in Indonesia. More than 200 million people speak the language as a first language. However, acoustic study on Indonesian learners of English (ILE) production remains untouched. The purpose of this measurement is to examine the influence of first language (L1) on English vowels production as a second language (L2). Based on perceptual magnet hypothesis (PMH), ILE were predicted to produce close sounds to L1 English where the vowels are similar to Indonesian vowels. Acoustic analysis was conducted to measure the formant frequencies. This study involved five males of Indonesian speakers aged between 20-25 years old. The data of British English native speakers were taken from previous study by Hawkins & Midgley (2005). The result illustrates that the first formant frequencies (F1) which correlates to the vowel hight of Indonesian Learners of English were significantly different from the corresponding frequencies of British English vowels. Surprisingly, the significant differences in second formant (F2) of ILE were only in the production of /ɑ, ɒ, ɔ/ in which /ɑ/=p 0.002, /ɒ/ =p 0,001, /ɔ/ =p 0,03. The vowel space area of ILE was slightly less spacious than the native speakers. This study is expected to shed light in English language teaching particularly as a foreign language.Keywords: VSA, EFL, Indonesian learners, formant frequencies, acoustic

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The acoustic characteristics of non-native American English vowels

Linguistica ◽

10.4312/linguistica.57.1.59-72 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 57 (1) ◽

pp. 59-72

Author(s):

Biljana Čubrović

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Native American ◽

Native Speakers ◽

American English ◽

The United States ◽

Vowel Quality ◽

Acoustic Characteristics ◽

Language Background ◽

English Vowels ◽

Native Speech

This study aims at discussing the phonetic property of vowel quality in English, as exercised by both native speakers of General American English (AE) and non-native speakers of General American English of Serbian language background, all residents of the United States. Ten Serbian male speakers and four native male speakers of AE are recorded in separate experiments and their speech analyzed acoustically for any significant phonetic differences, looking into a set of monosyllabic English words representing nine vowels of AE. The general aim of the experiments is to evaluate the phonetic characteristics of AE vowels, with particular attention to F1 and F2 values, investigate which vowels differ most in the two groups of participants, and provide some explanations for these variations. A single most important observation that is the result of this vowel study is an evident merger of three pairs of vowels in the non-native speech: /i ɪ/, /u ʊ/, and /ɛ æ/.

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SPOKEN AND WRITTEN REPRESENTATION OF NUMBER IN L2 CATALAN INDEFINITE DETERMINER PHRASES

Catalan Review ◽

10.3828/catr.21.14 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 321-350

Author(s):

Liliana Tolchinski ◽

Naymé Salas ◽

Joan Perera

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Literacy Instruction ◽

First Language ◽

Control Group ◽

Similar Time ◽

Language Background ◽

Indefinite Article ◽

L2 Learners ◽

L1 Influence ◽

The Relationship

The study explores the relationship that second language (L2) learners of Catalan establish between the spoken and the written representation of number inflection within an indefinite-article Determiner Phrase (DP); and it also addresses first language (L1) influence in this processo Five- to eight-year-olds, speakers of varieties of Chinese and Moroccan Arabic, with differing degrees of literacy instruction in their home countries —but similar time of residence in Catalonia— participated in the study. The children carried out individual semi-structured tasks designed to evaluate comprehension and production of changes in number inflections (un cotxe ‘a car’; uns cotxes ‘a-pl cars ’). Results showed that, irrespective of children’s language background, comprehension preceded production of singular and plural indefinite-article DPs; spoken representation was easier than written representation of number changes; and production of plural indefinite-article DPs was more difficult than its singular counterpart. Despite typological differences between the languages compared, both groups of L2 learners, even the Catalan control group, underwent similar processes.

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Conscientious Objection and the Politics of Cake-Making

Oxford Journal of Law and Religion ◽

10.1093/ojlr/rwaa013 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 329-349

Author(s):

Richard Moon

Keyword(s):

Religious Freedom ◽

Conscientious Objection ◽

The Other ◽

Special Position ◽

Political Position ◽

Two Factors ◽

The Usa ◽

The Individual ◽

The Uk ◽

Religiously Based

Abstract In two recent cases, one in the USA and the other in the UK, courts have considered conscientious objection claims made by cake bakers who objected to providing a cake for the celebration/advocacy of same-sex marriage. I will argue that the issue in these cases is not the reasonable balance between the individual’s religious interests and the interests or rights of others in the community but is instead whether the individual’s religiously based objection should be viewed as an expression of personal religious conscience or as a (religiously grounded) civic position or action that falls outside the scope of religious freedom protection. In determining whether a conscientious objection should be viewed as a personal/spiritual matter or instead as a civic/political position, two factors are relevant. The first is whether the individual is being required to perform the particular act (to which she/he objects) because she/he holds a special position not held by others. The other factor is the relative remoteness/proximity of the act that the objector is required to perform from the act that she/he considers to be inherently immoral. The more remote the legally required action, the more likely we are to regard the objection as a political position.

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Transfer, Similarity or Lack of Awareness? Inconsistencies of German Learners in the Pronunciation of LOT, THOUGHT, STRUT, PALM and BATH

Research in Language ◽

10.2478/v10015-011-0029-6 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 225-241 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alexander Kautzsch

Keyword(s):

Native Speakers ◽

American English ◽

First Year ◽

Close Approximation ◽

Advanced Learners ◽

British English ◽

English Vowels ◽

Vowel Systems ◽

Acoustic Analyses ◽

University Level

The current study presents acoustic analyses of non-high back vowels and low central vowels in the lexical sets LOT, THOUGHT, STRUT, PALM and BATH as pronounced by German learners of English. The main objective is to show that learners of English at university level are highly inconsistent in approximating the vowels of their self-chosen target accents British English (BrE) and American English (AmE). To that end, the acoustic qualities of the English vowels of learners are compared to their native German vowels and to the vowels of native speakers of BrE and AmE. In order to facilitate statements about the effect of increased experience, the study differentiates between students in their first year at university and in their third year or later. The results obtained are highly variable: In some cases the learners transfer their L1 vowels to English, other cases show clear approximations to the target vowels, while other cases again document the production of new vowels neither found in German nor in English. However, close approximation to the target vowels only sometimes correlates with higher proficiency. This might be an indicator of a low level of awareness of systematic differences between the BrE and AmE vowel systems. But the data also indicate that the more advanced learners produce more distinct AmE BATH vowels and BrE THOUGHT vowels than the less advanced learners, which points to a partial increase of awareness resulting from increased experience. All in all it seems that raising the awareness of differences between target accents in L2 instruction is necessary if the envisage goal is for learners to reach near-native pronunciation.

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Glimpses of semantic restructuring of English emotion-laden words of American English L1 users residing outside the USA

Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism ◽

10.1075/lab.15046.dew ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 320-342 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jean-Marc Dewaele

Keyword(s):

Exploratory Study ◽

American English ◽

Statistical Analyses ◽

The Self ◽

Semantic Representations ◽

Frequency Of Use ◽

Dependent Variables ◽

The Usa ◽

English Speaking ◽

The Uk

Abstract The present exploratory study focuses on the effect of living outside the USA on the understanding of the meaning, the perceived offensiveness and the self-reported frequency of use of four English emotion-laden words of British origin and four English emotion-laden words of American origin among 556 first (L1) users of American English. Statistical analyses revealed that the scores of the Americans living in the UK or in non-English-speaking countries differed significantly from those of compatriots living in the USA. Positive relationships emerged between multilingualism and scores on the dependent variables for the four British words, but no link emerged between languages known and the dependent variables for the American words. This is interpreted as an indication that semantic representations of emotion-laden words originating from another variety of the L1 are relatively weaker and are more likely to shift as a result of exposure to their use in other varieties, and the knowledge of other languages.

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Relevance mapping: a study of second language learners’ processing of syntactically ambiguous sentences in English

Second language Research ◽

10.1191/0267658304sr239ra ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 232-255 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

H. G. Ying

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Relative Clause ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

American English ◽

Contextual Effects ◽

Procedural Information ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Processing Effort

Forty adult Chinese-speaking learners of English and 20 native speakers of American English participated in a study of second language learners’ interpretation of syntactically ambiguous sentences involving that-clauses that could potentially be interpreted as complements or as relative clause. Two sentence interpretation tasks suggest that the principle of relevance constrained the interpretations. The learners showed a preference for interpreting the that-clause as a complement in the first task, using fewer syntactic nodes because it involved less processing effort. In the second task, however, the learners showed a preference for the relative clause reading, suggesting that the procedural information encoded by preceding referential sentences had the effect of reducing the overall processing effort required and of guiding the second language (L2) learners towards the intended contextual effects.

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Durational Characteristics of English Vowels Produced by Japanese and Thai Second Language (L2) Learners

Australian Journal of Linguistics ◽

10.1080/07268600902823144 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 287-299 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Kimiko Tsukada

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

English Vowels ◽

L2 Learners

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American English in Teaching English as a Second Language

International Journal of English Language Studies ◽

10.32996/ijels.2021.3.2.7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 52-57

Author(s):

Mammadova Gunay Aqil

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

English Learners ◽

Quantitative Methods ◽

English Language ◽

American English ◽

Contemporary History ◽

Teaching English ◽

Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽

The Usa

With the lapse of time the two nations- Americans and British always blamed each other for “ruining” English. In this article we aim to trace historical “real culprit” and try to break stereotypes about American English status in teaching English as a second language. In comparison with Great Britain the USA has very short and contemporary history; nevertheless, in today’s world American English exceeds British and other variants of English in so many ways, as well as in the choices of language learners. American English differs from other variants of the English language by 4 specific features: Inclusiveness, Flexibility, Innovativeness and Conservativeness. Notwithstanding, British disapprove of Americans taking so many liberties with their common tongue, linguistic researcher Daniela Popescu in her research mentions the fields of activities in which American words penetrated into British English. She classifies those words under 2 categories: everyday vocabulary (480 terms) and functional varieties (313 terms). In the case of functional varieties, the American influence is present in the areas of computing (10 %), journalism (15 %), broadcasting (24%), advertising and sales (5 %), politics and economics (24%), and travelling and transport (22%). Further on, the words and phrases in the broadcasting area have been grouped as belonging to two areas: film, TV, radio and theatre (83%), and music (17%). The purpose of the research paper is to create safe and reliable image of American English in the field of teaching English as a second language. Americans are accused in “ruining” English and for that reason learners are not apt to learn American English. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods is used while collecting the data. The study concluded that the real culprits are British who started out to ruin English mainly in in the age of Shakespeare and consequently, Americans inherited this ruin from the British as a result of colonization. Luckily, in the Victorian Age British saved their language from the ruins. The paper discusses how prejudices about American English effect the choices of English learners.

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