Detection of non-native speech in a familiar language and in an unfamiliar language (original) (raw)
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Speaker-independent factors affecting the perception of foreign accent in a second language
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2007
Previous research on the perception of foreign accent has largely focused on speaker-dependent factors such as Age of Learning and Length of Residence which are specific to an individual speaker. Factors that are independent of particular speakers and their language learning history have also been shown to affect perception of second language speech. The present study examined two speaker-independent factors-lexical frequency and listening context-that affect the perception of foreign-accented speech. Using a seven-point scale, two groups of listeners rated speakers on how much of a foreign accent they displayed. Listeners in the Auditory-Only listening context heard only the target stimuli, while listeners in the Auditory + Orthography listening context were presented with both the auditory signal and an orthographic display of the target word. The results revealed that lexical frequency affects the perception of the degree of foreign accent; higher frequency words were consistently rated as sounding less accented than lower frequency words. The effect of the listening context emerged in two interactions; the Auditory + Orthography context reduced the effects of lexical frequency but increased the perceived differences between native and nonnative speakers. The results suggest that structural and methodological factors independent of the speakers' actual speech articulations or developmental history affect the perception of degree of foreign accent and that such factors should be considered when interpreting the results of studies on the perception of foreign accented speech.
AFinLA-e: Soveltavan kielitieteen tutkimuksia, 2018
This study evaluated the effect of some listener background factors—the listeners’ gender, age, experience of teaching Finnish as a second language, frequency of contact with immigrants, and being a native of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area in Finland— and task type on their degree of perceived accent (DPA) ratings in L2 Finnish. The participants were 31 native-Finnish speakers and 40 nonnative speakers of Turkish origin who ranged in age from 7 to 66 as well as 61 Finnish listeners who evaluated the speech samples for a foreign accent using a 9-point scale. Three speech samples were administered (word pairs, the reading-aloud of sentences, and a spontaneous speech task). The results showed that no marked differences were observed, despite differences in the listeners’ gender, age, Finnish as a L2 teaching experience, frequency of contact with immigrants speaking Finnish as an L2 , and being a native of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The results also showed that ratings of native de...
AFinLA-e: Soveltavan kielitieteen tutkimuksia, 2018
The study focuses on how different groups of listeners, that is native Finnish speakers (n = 18), non-native learners of Finnish (n = 12) and non-native non-learners of Finnish (n = 18), judge samples (n = 80) of Russian accented Finnish in an auditory experiment. The samples are read-aloud phrases of three Finnish speakers and three L1 Russian beginner learners of Finnish who were recorded three times at six-month intervals during their residence in Finland. The results show that the listener groups differ significantly from each other in the ability to identify the Russian accented samples. In addition, all the listener groups reported to have paid more attention to prosodic and segmental cues than speech rate. Finally, we conclude by considering implications of the study to further longitudinal studies on perception of foreign accented speech.
Perceptual Judgments of Accented Speech by Listeners from Different First Language Backgrounds
Research in second language speech has often focused on listeners' accent judgment and factors that affect their perception. However, the topic of listeners' application of specific sound categories in their own perceptual judgments has not been widely investigated. The current study explored how listeners from diverse language backgrounds weighed phonetic parameters (i.e., segmental features such as consonants and vowels and suprasegmental features such as word stress and sentence stress) differently when perceiving non-native speakers' accented speech. Two hundred forty listeners, including American, Vietnamese, and Arabic students, rated Vietnamese accented English for intelligibility, comprehensibility, and accentedness. Within this group of participants, 112 raters also provided interview responses to questions related to their perception of accented speech in general. The results suggest that listeners of English perceived degree of accent in fundamentally different ways, depending on factors such as their first language and their English instruction backgrounds. Features identified in this study can be useful both in the listeners' global judgments and in the communicative situations in which second language learners need to function.
Otras Cuestiones del Lenguaje: Traducción y enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, 2024
Whether or not to focus L2 pronunciation instruction in English on “eradicating” learners’ foreign accent has been the core question of different pedagogical ideologies. However, teachers and learners are still highly influenced by native models of pronunciation. Given this scenario and the importance of understanding more about the nature of the accentedness construct, this paper aims to investigate the influence of both speakers’ and listeners’ characteristics, specifically non-native proficiency, on accentedness perception. To this aim, five Argentinian speakers of English, ranked in terms of pronunciation proficiency from low to high, were assessed by 40 Brazilian learners of English divided into three general proficiency groups. Resulting scores of 9-point Likert scales representing accentedness levels were explored through a mixed-effects model, with ‘speaker’ and ‘listener group’ as predictor variables. The statistical test revealed a significant effect of the ‘speaker’ variable for the most proficient speaker, followed by a marginally significant interaction of the ‘speaker’ and ‘listener group’ variables for the same speaker and the most proficient listener group. Results indicate that accentedness judgements depend on both speakers’ and listeners’ characteristics, and that non native language learners may rely on the similarity with native models for the assessment of their fellow learners’ speech. Some pedagogical implications of this study for the teaching of L2 pronunciation are thoroughly discussed.
Factors affecting degree of perceived foreign accent in English
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1988
This study used interval scaling to assess degree of perceived foreign accent in English sentences spoken by native and non-native talkers. Native English listeners gave significantly higher (i.e., more authentic) pronunciation scores to native speakers of English than to Chinese adults who began learning English at an average age of 7.6 years. The results for the "child learners" suggest that a sensitive period for speech learning is reached long before the age of 12 years, as commonly supposed. Adults who had lived in the U.S. for 5 years did not receive higher scores than those who had lived there for only 1 year, suggesting that amount of unaided second-language (L2) experience does not affect adults' L2 pronunciation beyond an initial rapid stage of learning. Native speakers of Chinese who rated the sentences for foreign accent showed the same pattern of between-group differences as the native English listeners. The more experienced of two groups of Chinese listeners differentiated native and non-native talkers to a significantly greater extent than a less experienced group, even though the subjects in both groups spoke English with equally strong foreign accents. This suggests that tacit knowledge of how L2 sentences "ought" to sound increases more rapidly than the ability to produce those sentences. PACS numbers: 43.71.Es, 43.71.Hw INTRODUCTION Those who learn a second language (L2) are often perceived to speak it with a foreign accent. Degree of perceived foreign accent increases along with the number, and perhaps severity, of segmental misarticulations (Gatbenton, 1975; Ryan etal., 1975; Major, 1987; Flege and Eefting, 1987b). It may also be influenced by divergences from L2 phonetic norms for implementation of stress and emphasis, and divergences from L2 rhythmic and intonational patterns (Varonis and Gass, 1982; Willems, 1982; Fokes and Bond, 1984; Bond and Fokes, 1985). Foreign accents are often associated with low intelligibility and negative personal evaluations of non-native speakers (Flege, 1987b).
Comprehension of familiar and unfamiliar native accents under adverse listening conditions.
Journal of Experimental …, 2009
This study aimed to determine the relative processing cost associated with comprehension of an unfamiliar native accent under adverse listening conditions. Two sentence verification experiments were run in which listeners heard sentences at various signal-to-noise ratios. In Experiment 1, these sentences were spoken in a familiar native or an unfamiliar native accent, or in two familiar native accents. In Experiment 2, they were spoken in a familiar or unfamiliar native accent or in a non-native accent. The results indicated that the differences between the native accents influenced the speed of language processing under adverse listening conditions and that this processing speed was modulated by the relative familiarity of the listener with the native accent.
4. Suprasegmental Measures of Accentedness
2014
In high-stakes oral proficiency testing as well as in everyday encounters, accent is the most salient aspect of nonnative speech. Prior studies of English language learners' (ELLs') pronunciation have focused on single parameters of English, such as vowel duration, fundamental frequency as related to intonation, or temporal measures of speech production. The present study addresses a constellation of suprasegmental characteristics of nonnative speakers of accented English, combining indices of speech rate, pause, and intonation. It examines relations between those acoustic measures of accentedness and listeners' impressions of second-language oral proficiency. Twenty-six speech samples elicited from iBT TOEFL ® examinees were analyzed using a KayPENTAX Computerized Speech Laboratory. Monolingual U.S. undergraduates (n = 188) judged the speakers' oral proficiency and comprehensibility. A multiple regression analysis revealed the individual and joint predictiveness of each of the suprasegmental measures. The innovative aspect of this study lies in the fact that the multiple features of accentedness were measured via instrumentation rather than being rated by judges who may, themselves, be subject to rating biases. The suprasegmental measures collectively accounted for 50% of the variance in oral proficiency and comprehensibility ratings, even without taking into consideration other aspects of oral performance or of rater predilections.
Perception of Foreign Accent in Spontaneous L2 English Speech
2010
This study compared English and Mandarin Chinese listeners' assessments of foreign accent in spontaneous English spoken by speakers of eight L1 languages. Mandarin Chinese listeners perceived lower degree of foreign accent than native listeners, and were less sensitive to Mandarin and Cantonese accents than to the other accents, especially French, Spanish, and Russian. Acoustic analysis suggests that English and Mandarin Chinese listeners relied on different cues in the perception of Foreign Accent in L2 English.