1
|
Desmeules-Trudel F, Joanisse MF. Learning unfamiliar words and perceiving non-native vowels in a second language: Insights from eye tracking. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2022; 226:103590. [PMID: 35439617 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103590] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2021] [Revised: 04/07/2022] [Accepted: 04/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
One of the challenges in second-language learning is learning unfamiliar word forms, especially when this involves novel phoneme contrasts. The present study examines how real-time processing of newly-learned words and phonemes in a second language is impacted by the structure of learning (discrimination training) and whether asking participants to complete the same task after a 16-21 h delay favours subsequent word recognition. Specifically, using a visual world eye tracking paradigm, we assessed how English listeners processed newly-learned words containing non-native French front-rounded [y] compared to native-sounding vowels, both immediately after training and the following day. Some learners were forced to discriminate between vowels that are perceptually similar for English listeners, [y]-[u], while others were not. We found significantly better word-level processing on a variety of indices after an overnight delay. We also found that training [y] words paired with [u] words (vs. [y]-Control pairs) led to a greater decrease in reaction times during the word recognition task over the two testing sessions. Discrimination training using perceptually similar sounds had facilitative effects on second language word learning with novel phonemic information, and real-time processing measures such as eyetracking provided valuable insights into how individuals learn words and phonemes in a second language.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Félix Desmeules-Trudel
- Department of Psychology, Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Canada.
| | - Marc F Joanisse
- Department of Psychology, Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Xie X, Weatherholtz K, Bainton L, Rowe E, Burchill Z, Liu L, Jaeger TF. Rapid adaptation to foreign-accented speech and its transfer to an unfamiliar talker. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2018; 143:2013. [PMID: 29716296 PMCID: PMC5895469 DOI: 10.1121/1.5027410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2017] [Revised: 02/28/2018] [Accepted: 03/01/2018] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
How fast can listeners adapt to unfamiliar foreign accents? Clarke and Garrett [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 116, 3647-3658 (2004)] (CG04) reported that native-English listeners adapted to foreign-accented English within a minute, demonstrating improved processing of spoken words. In two web-based experiments that closely follow the design of CG04, the effects of rapid accent adaptation are examined and its generalization is explored across talkers. Experiment 1 replicated the core finding of CG04 that initial perceptual difficulty with foreign-accented speech can be attenuated rapidly by a brief period of exposure to an accented talker. Importantly, listeners showed both faster (replicating CG04) and more accurate (extending CG04) comprehension of this talker. Experiment 2 revealed evidence that such adaptation transferred to a different talker of a same accent. These results highlight the rapidity of short-term accent adaptation and raise new questions about the underlying mechanism. It is suggested that the web-based paradigm provides a useful tool for investigations in speech adaptation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xin Xie
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
| | - Kodi Weatherholtz
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
| | - Larisa Bainton
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
| | - Emily Rowe
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
| | - Zachary Burchill
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
| | - Linda Liu
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
| | - T Florian Jaeger
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Clopper CG. Introduction to the Special Issue on Advancing Methods for Analyzing Dialect Variation. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2017; 142:317. [PMID: 28764423 DOI: 10.1121/1.4994300] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Documenting and analyzing dialect variation is traditionally the domain of dialectology and sociolinguistics. However, modern approaches to acoustic analysis of dialect variation have their roots in Peterson and Barney's [(1952). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 24, 175-184] foundational work on the acoustic analysis of vowels that was published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) over 6 decades ago. Although Peterson and Barney (1952) were not primarily concerned with dialect variation, their methods laid the groundwork for the acoustic methods that are still used by scholars today to analyze vowel variation within and across languages. In more recent decades, a number of methodological advances in the study of vowel variation have been published in JASA, including work on acoustic vowel overlap and vowel normalization. The goal of this special issue was to honor that tradition by bringing together a set of papers describing the application of emerging acoustic, articulatory, and computational methods to the analysis of dialect variation in vowels and beyond.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cynthia G Clopper
- Department of Linguistics, Ohio State University, 1961 Tuttle Park Place, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Cook SV, Pandža NB, Lancaster AK, Gor K. Fuzzy Nonnative Phonolexical Representations Lead to Fuzzy Form-to-Meaning Mappings. Front Psychol 2016; 7:1345. [PMID: 27708592 PMCID: PMC5030242 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2016] [Accepted: 08/23/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The present paper explores nonnative (L2) phonological encoding of lexical entries and dissociates the difficulties associated with L2 phonological and phonolexical encoding by focusing on similarly sounding L2 words that are not differentiated by difficult phonological contrasts. We test two main claims of the fuzzy lexicon hypothesis: (1) L2 fuzzy phonolexical representations are not fully specified and lack details at both phonological and phonolexical levels of representation (Experiment 1); and (2) fuzzy phonolexical representations can lead to establishing incorrect form-to-meaning mappings (Experiment 2). The Russian-English Translation Judgment Task (Experiment 1, TJT) explores how the degree of phonolexical similarity between a word and its lexical competitor affects lexical access of Russian words. Words with smaller phonolexical distance (e.g., parent–parrot) show longer reaction times and lower accuracy compared to words with a larger phonolexical distance (e.g., parent–parchment) in lower-proficiency nonnative speakers, and, to a lesser degree, higher-proficiency speakers. This points to a lack of detail in nonnative phonolexical representations necessary for efficient lexical access. The Russian Pseudo-Semantic Priming task (Experiment 2, PSP) addresses the vulnerability of form-to-meaning mappings as a consequence of fuzzy phonolexical representations in L2. We primed the target with a word semantically related to its phonological competitor, or a potentially confusable word. The findings of Experiment 2 extend the results of Experiment 1 that, unlike native speakers, nonnative speakers do not properly encode phonolexical information. As a result, they are prone to access an incorrect lexical representation of a competitor word, as indicated by a slowdown in the judgments to confusable words. The study provides evidence that fuzzy phonolexical representations result in unfaithful form-to-meaning mappings, which lead to retrieval of incorrect semantic content. The results of the study are in line with existing research in support of less detailed L2 phonolexical representations, and extend the findings to show that the fuzziness of phonolexical representations can arise even when confusable words are not differentiated by difficult phonological contrasts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Svetlana V Cook
- National Foreign Language Center, University of Maryland, College Park College Park, MD, USA
| | - Nick B Pandža
- Graduate Program in Second Language Acquisition, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, University of Maryland, College ParkCollege Park, MD, USA; Center for Advanced Study of Language, University of Maryland, College ParkCollege Park, MD, USA
| | - Alia K Lancaster
- Graduate Program in Second Language Acquisition, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, University of Maryland, College ParkCollege Park, MD, USA; Center for Advanced Study of Language, University of Maryland, College ParkCollege Park, MD, USA
| | - Kira Gor
- Graduate Program in Second Language Acquisition, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, University of Maryland, College Park College Park, MD, USA
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Dufour S, Nguyen N, Pattamadilok C, Frauenfelder UH. Does orthographic training on a phonemic contrast absent in the listener's dialect influence word recognition? THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2016; 140:1871. [PMID: 27914420 DOI: 10.1121/1.4962562] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
This study examined whether the ability of southern French speakers to discriminate between standard French word forms such as /pike/ and /pikε/ can be improved by a training procedure in which participants were exposed to the orthographic representations of words forming /e/-/ε/ minimal pairs. The results of the training procedure showed that southern French speakers were able to perceive the /e/-/ε/ contrast in word final position when they associated words containing these vowels with their correct spelled form. Further, participants in a priming experiment, which was run immediately after training, no longer showed the priming effect on the trained minimal pairs that they had shown in the pre-test. However, a priming effect on the untrained minimal pairs was still observed immediately after training, showing that this training failed to transfer to untrained items. Finally, the benefits of the training procedure were no longer observed the day after training, since southern French speakers once again showed a priming effect on the trained minimal pair of words in a one day post-test. Implications of these findings for the locus of the difficulties of the southern French speakers with the word-final /e/-/ε/ contrast are discussed.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Dufour
- Aix-Marseille Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Parole et Langage, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7309, 13100 Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Noël Nguyen
- Aix-Marseille Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Parole et Langage, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7309, 13100 Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Chotiga Pattamadilok
- Aix-Marseille Université, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire Parole et Langage, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7309, 13100 Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Ulrich Hans Frauenfelder
- Laboratoire de Psycholinguistique Expérimentale, Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Éducation, Université de Genève, Boulevard du Pont d'Arve 40, 1204 Genève, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Law F, Strange W. Acoustical analysis of Canadian French word-final vowels in varying phonetic contexts. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2015; 138:EL71-EL76. [PMID: 26233064 PMCID: PMC4506293 DOI: 10.1121/1.4922762] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2014] [Revised: 05/29/2015] [Accepted: 06/08/2015] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
This study analyzed Canadian French (CF) vowels /i y ø e ɛ o u a/ in word-final position. Of particular interest was the stability of /e-ɛ/; although some dialects of French have merged /e-ɛ/ to /e/ in word-final context, this contrast is maintained in CF. The present study investigated the stability of this contrast in various preceding phonetic contexts and in lexical vs morphological contrasts. Results showed that the contrast was maintained by all four speakers, although to varying degrees.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Franzo Law
- Departments of Psychology and Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Madison-Wisconsin, Waisman Center, 1500 Highland Avenue, Room 489, Madison, Wisconsin 53705-2280, USA
| | - Winifred Strange
- Program in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, Graduate School and University Center-CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10016-4309, USA
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Perceptual Evaluation of Dysphonic Voices: Can a Training Protocol Lead to the Development of Perceptual Categories? J Voice 2015; 29:304-11. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2014.07.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2014] [Accepted: 07/14/2014] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
|
8
|
Cristia A, Seidl A, Vaughn C, Schmale R, Bradlow A, Floccia C. Linguistic processing of accented speech across the lifespan. Front Psychol 2012; 3:479. [PMID: 23162513 PMCID: PMC3492798 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2012] [Accepted: 10/17/2012] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
In most of the world, people have regular exposure to multiple accents. Therefore, learning to quickly process accented speech is a prerequisite to successful communication. In this paper, we examine work on the perception of accented speech across the lifespan, from early infancy to late adulthood. Unfamiliar accents initially impair linguistic processing by infants, children, younger adults, and older adults, but listeners of all ages come to adapt to accented speech. Emergent research also goes beyond these perceptual abilities, by assessing links with production and the relative contributions of linguistic knowledge and general cognitive skills. We conclude by underlining points of convergence across ages, and the gaps left to face in future work.
Collapse
|
9
|
Brunellière A, Dufour S, Nguyen N. Regional differences in the listener's phonemic inventory affect semantic processing: A mismatch negativity (MMN) study. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2011; 117:45-51. [PMID: 21315438 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2010.12.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2010] [Revised: 11/26/2010] [Accepted: 12/11/2010] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Using the mismatch negativity (MMN) response, we examined how Standard French and Southern French speakers access the meaning of words ending in /e/ or /ε/ vowels which are contrastive in Standard French but not in Southern French. In Standard French speakers, there was a significant difference in the amplitude of the brain response after the deviant-minus-standard subtraction between the frontocentral (FC) and right lateral (RL) recording sites for the final-/ε/ word but not the final-/e/ word. In contrast, the difference in the amplitude of the brain response between the FC and RL recording sites did not significantly vary as a function of the word's final vowel in Southern French speakers. Our findings provide evidence that access to lexical meaning in spoken word recognition depends on the speaker's native regional accent.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Angèle Brunellière
- Laboratoire Parole et Langage, CNRS & University of Aix-Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, France.
| | | | | |
Collapse
|