Language Experience and Subjective Word Familiarity on the Multimodal Perception of Non-native Vowels

The Acquisition of /ɪ/-/iː/ Is Challenging: Perceptual and Production Evidence from Cypriot Greek Speakers of English

This study aims to investigate the perception and production of the English /ɪ/-/iː/ vowel contrast by Cypriot Greek speakers of English as a second language (L2). The participants completed a classification test in which they classified the L2 vowels in terms of their first language (L1) categories, a discrimination test in which they distinguished the members of the vowel contrast, and a production test in which they produced the target vowels. The results showed that they classified both L2 /ɪ/-/iː/ mostly in terms of L1 /i/, which denotes the formation of a completely overlapping contrast according to the theoretical framework of the Universal Perceptual Model (UPM), and that they could hardly distinguish the vowel pair. In addition, their productions deviated in most acoustic parameters from the corresponding productions of English controls. The findings suggest that /ɪ/-/iː/ may carry a universal marker of difficulty for speakers with L1s that do not possess this contrast. This distinction is difficult even for experienced L2 speakers probably because they had never been exposed to naturalistic L2 stimuli and they do not use the L2 that much in their daily life. Finally, the study verifies UPM's predictions about the discriminability of the contrast and extends the model's implications to speech production; when an L2 vowel contrast is perceived as completely overlapping, speakers activate a (near-) unified interlinguistic exemplar in their vowel space, which represents both L2 vowels.

Sound Feedback for Social Distance: The Case for Public Interventions during a Pandemic

Within the field of movement sensing and sound interaction research, multi-user systems have gradually gained interest as a means to facilitate an expressive non-verbal dialogue. When tied with studies grounded in psychology and choreographic theory, we consider the qualities of interaction that foster an elevated sense of social connectedness, non-contingent to occupying one’s personal space. Upon reflection of the newly adopted social distancing concept, we orchestrate a technological intervention, starting with interpersonal distance and sound at the core of interaction. Materialised as a set of sensory face-masks, a novel wearable system was developed and tested in the context of a live public performance from which we obtain the user’s individual perspectives and correlate this with patterns identified in the recorded data. We identify and discuss traits of the user’s behaviour that were accredited to the system’s influence and construct four fundamental design considerations for physically distanced sound interaction. The study concludes with essential technical reflections, accompanied by an adaptation for a pervasive sensory intervention that is finally deployed in an open public space.