Speech preparation and articulation time in bilinguals and men. International Journal of Speech and Language Pathology and Audiology, 1, 37-42. DOI: 10.12970/2311-1917.2013.01.01.5 (original) (raw)

Speech Preparation and Articulation Time in Bilinguals and Men

International Journal of Speech & Language Pathology and Audiology, 2013

The current study investigated the relationship between word utterance preparation time and word articulation duration in young adults. In a stratified sample, 40 monolinguals' (20 males and 20 females) and 40 bilinguals' (20 males and 20 females) word pronunciation of English words vs. derived, scrambled non-words as well as the hesitation before speaking were measured in milliseconds. Positive effects of bilingualism were found as these speakers showed significantly faster articulation of new non-words than their monolingual counterparts. Sex differences showed that independently of the number of languages men were able to speak, they needed more speech preparation time than women, but no difference in the duration of their word articulation time was observed. Preparation and articulation were correlated in monolingual speakers, but not in bilingual speakers. This suggests that the phonological loop was circumvented in bilingual speakers. We presume that bilinguals map multilingual phonology and were thus not saving time during preparation for articulation, but they appeared to have benefited from knowing multiple fine motor mouth movements of various languages during articulation itself. Future research may benefit from controlling the psychological factor of confidence when preparing to speak.

Articulation and Speaking Rates in Bilinguals with Regard to Time of Exposure to One Language

Acta Neuropsychologica, 2020

The basic aim of the research presented in this paper was to check whether the language proficiency level of bilingual children with Polish as one of their languages is also related to the pace of speech, which is the result of two specific parameters i.e. articulation rate and speaking rate. It was assumed that children who use Polish more rarely and mostly at home will display slower speaking and articulation rates when contrasted with children who use Polish both at home and at school on an everyday basis. Participants were thirty-two children who speak Polish as one of two languages, the first research group consisting of sixteen Polish-French students at the age of 8.11 living in Wal-lonia. The second group consisted of sixteen Flemish-Polish students living in Flanders. Here the average age was 9.3 and subjects used Polish much less than their first group coun-terparts. The comparative analysis included the following parameters essential for the de-scription of the rate of spe...

Rate variation as a talker-specific property in bilingual talkers

2013

Nonnative talkers tend to exhibit slower speech rates than native talkers at the group level. Here we ask whether individual variation in rate is language-general to the extent that L1 rate is a significant predictor of L2 rate within bilinguals. 62 nonnative English talkers participated in three speech production tasks in both their L1 (14 Cantonese, 14 Mandarin, 11 Korean, 4 Portuguese-Brazilian, 6 Spanish, 13 Turkish) and L2 (English), namely, reading a paragraph, spontaneously answering questions, and spontaneously describing a picture story. Two measurements of rate were automatically extracted from the recordings: speech rate (syllables per second), and articulation rate (syllables per second excluding silent pauses). As expected, L2 speech and articulation rates were overall slower than L1 speech and articulation rates for all tasks. Importantly, L2 speech rates and articulation rates were positively related to L1 speech rates and articulation rates, respectively. There were also significant differences in L2 speech rates and L2 articulation rates depending on L1 background and tasks. However, the positive relationship between L1 and L2 rates still holds with these other effects taken into consideration, suggesting that overall rate variation is partially an individual-specific property that transcends L1 and L2 within bilinguals.

Language-independent talker-specificity in first-language and second-language speech production by bilingual talkers: L1 speaking rate predicts L2 speaking rate

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2017

Second-language (L2) speech is consistently slower than first-language (L1) speech, and L1 speaking rate varies within- and across-talkers depending on many individual, situational, linguistic, and sociolinguistic factors. It is asked whether speaking rate is also determined by a language-independent talker-specific trait such that, across a group of bilinguals, L1 speaking rate significantly predicts L2 speaking rate. Two measurements of speaking rate were automatically extracted from recordings of read and spontaneous speech by English monolinguals (n = 27) and bilinguals from ten L1 backgrounds (n = 86): speech rate (syllables/second), and articulation rate (syllables/second excluding silent pauses). Replicating prior work, L2 speaking rates were significantly slower than L1 speaking rates both across-groups (monolinguals' L1 English vs bilinguals' L2 English), and across L1 and L2 within bilinguals. Critically, within the bilingual group, L1 speaking rate significantly p...

Speaking Rate Effects on Stops Produced by Spanish and English Monolinguals and Spanish/English Bilinguals

Phonetica, 1996

Four groups of 10 subjects each (English and Spanish monolinguals, and two groups of Spanish/English bilinguals) produced Spanish or English sentences at speaking rates designated ‘normal’, ‘slow’, and ‘fast’. Voice onset time (VOT) was measured in word-initial tokens of /p/ and /t/ found in sentence-initial, -medial, and -final words. The four groups produced comparable changes in sentence duration across the three rates. The speaking rate changes exerted less effect on the VOT in stops spoken by the Spanish than the English monolinguals. Moreover, whereas English monolinguals produced /p, t/ (with shorter VOT at a fast than at a normal rate, many Spanish monolinguals showed a trend in the opposite direction. As expected, all 10 early bilinguals produced English stops with VOT values that were similar to the English monolinguals’. They also showed speaking rate effects on VOT that were similar to those observed for the English monolinguals. The late bilinguals, who had begun learni...

The influence of bilingualism on speech production: a systematic review

International journal of language & communication disorders / Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists, 2013

Background: Children who are bilingual and have speech sound disorder are likely to be under-referred, possibly due to confusion about typical speech acquisition in bilingual children. Aims: To investigate what is known about the impact of bilingualism on children's acquisition of speech in English to facilitate the identification and treatment of bilingual children with speech sound disorder.

Bilinguals use language-specific articulatory settings

Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR, 2014

Previous work has shown that monolingual French and English speakers use distinct articulatory settings, the underlying articulatory posture of a language. The present study reports an experiment investigating articulatory settings in bilingual speakers. We first test the hypothesis that in order to sound native-like, bilinguals must use distinct languagespecific articulatory settings in monolingual mode. Then, we test the hypothesis that in bilingual mode, a bilingual's articulatory setting is identical to the monolingual-mode setting of one of their languages.

Speech Perception and Production by Sequential Bilingual Children: A Longitudinal Study of Voice Onset Time Acquisition

Child Development, 2014

The majority of bilingual speech research has focused on simultaneous bilinguals. Yet, in immigrant communities, children are often initially exposed to their family language (L1), before becoming gradually immersed in the host country's language (L2). This is typically referred to as sequential bilingualism. Using a longitudinal design, this study explored the perception and production of the English voicing contrast in 55 children (40 Sylheti-English sequential bilinguals and 15 English monolinguals). Children were tested twice: when they were in nursery (52-month-olds) and 1 year later. Sequential bilinguals' perception and production of English plosives were initially driven by their experience with their L1, but after starting school, changed to match that of their monolingual peers.

Monolingual Speech Production in a Bilingual Context

2019

In language contact contexts, monolinguals may have knowledge of another language due to exposure. We tested the phonetic and phonological knowledge of 20 English monolinguals from Southern California (an English-Spanish contact community) on a bilingual task. We analysed their productions of /l/ and /p t k/, phonetically different phonemes that vary by context in English but not Spanish. Specifically, English /l/ varies in “darkness” due to an allophonic velarization rule, while /p t k/ vary in voice onset time due to an allophonic aspiration rule. Results suggest that socalled monolinguals in contact contexts may have phonetic but not phonological knowledge of the “unknown” contact language. Participants showed a qualitative difference between their productions of the same phonemes shared by the two languages, but transferred allophonic patterns of English to their Spanish productions. We consider these findings in light of future research that compares monolingual and bilingual s...