Foreign Accent Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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- Teaching English as a Second Language, Phonetics, English language, TESOL

Hungarians who speak Italian fluently usually commit several pronunciation mistakes. These mistakes go unnoticed, sometimes even by native Italians because of the extreme dialectal fragmentation of Italian. However, the recurrent phonetic and phonological features of the Hungarian foreign accent show great differences compared to any Italian varieties. The aim of this paper is to collect and analyse the most common phonetic and phonological characteristics of the foreign accent of Hungarians while speaking Italian, and possibly help them avoid the most obvious mistakes, or, where it is not possible, at least make them realise the Hungarian aspects of their speech that affect their pronunciation of Italian.

- by Bálint Huszthy
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- Phonology, L2 pedagogy, Phonetics and Phonology, Foreign Accent

AWEJ Volume.5 Number.2, 2014 Pp.167... more

"""Rater effects, defined as the construct-irrelevant variation associated with rater characteristics, are critical to the reliability and validity of speaking assessments (Bachman, Lynch, & Mason, 1995; Kunnan, 2000). The current study investigates two under-explored characteristics among untrained raters: familiarity with the speakers’ non-native accents and experience in teaching English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL). This study is the first to use a novel, objective measure of accent familiarity, i.e., an accent identification task. It included three groups of raters (n=22 in each group) who varied on the two characteristics. All raters assigned holistic and three analytical ratings (foreign accents, grammar and vocabulary, and content) to 26 speech files. They also filled out a survey reporting their demographic information, perceived impacts of their background on their ratings, and evaluative features they used for rating.
Although there were no significant differences in the three groups’ ratings, ESL/EFL teachers self-reported that their background affected their rating decisions, and one third of them also felt that they were more lenient. Compared to non-teachers, ESL/EFL teachers were also better able to separate the analytical dimensions and were less biased by speakers’ foreign accents when judging the overall proficiency or the content of their speech."""

In the phonology of Italian it is undecided whether /sC/ clusters are parsed as heterosyllabic or tautosyllabic. I claim that /sC/ is phonetically acceptable both as an onset and parsed into different syllables, but from a phonological point of view it is better to handle it in Italian as a tautosyllabic cluster. My paper is based on the analysis of 68 Italian speakers’ foreign accent, who speak English, German, French and Spanish, and the data are analysed in classical Optimality Theory. My arguments concern, on the one hand, the pronunciation of ill-formed consonant clusters by Italian informants, with special regard to the repair strategies they apply; and on the other hand, the functioning (or rather malfunctioning) of regressive voicing assimilation in Italian.

Learners of a second language practice their pronunciation by listening to and imitating utterances from native speakers. Recent research has shown that choosing a well-matched native speaker to imitate can have a positive impact on pronunciation training. Here we propose a voice-transformation technique that can be used to generate the (arguably) ideal voice to imitate: the own voice of the learner with a native accent. Our work extends previous research, which suggests that providing learners with prosodically corrected versions of their utterances can be a suitable form of feedback in computer assisted pronunciation training. Our technique provides a conversion of both prosodic and segmental characteristics by means of a pitch-synchronous decomposition of speech into glottal excitation and spectral envelope. We apply the technique to a corpus containing parallel recordings of foreign-accented and native-accented utterances, and validate the resulting accent conversions through a series of perceptual experiments. Our results indicate that the technique can reduce foreign accentedness without significantly altering the voice quality properties of the foreign speaker. Finally, we propose a pedagogical strategy for integrating accent conversion as a form of behavioral shaping in computer assisted pronunciation training.

While the tendency of speakers to align their speech to that of others acoustic-phonetically has been widely studied among native speakers, very few studies have examined whether natives phonetically converge to non-native speakers. Here we measured native Dutch speakers' convergence to a non-native speaker with an unfamiliar accent in a novel non-interactive task. Furthermore, we assessed the role of participants' perceptions of the non-native accent in their tendency to converge. In addition to a perceptual measure (AXB ratings), we examined convergence on different acoustic dimensions (e.g., vowel spectra, fricative CoG, speech rate, overall f0) to determine what dimensions, if any, speakers converge to. We further combined these two types of measures to discover what dimensions weighed in raters' judgments of convergence. The results reveal overall convergence to our non-native speaker, as indexed by both perceptual and acoustic measures. However, the ratings suggest the stronger participants rated the non-native accent to be, the less likely they were to converge. Our findings add to the growing body of evidence that natives can phonetically converge to non-native speech, even without any apparent socio-communicative motivation to do so. We argue that our results are hard to integrate with a purely social view of convergence.

In this paper I present some phonetic and phonological phenomena which systematically recur in the foreign accent of Italian speakers of different origin. The aim of the paper is to argue in favour of the existence of a common “Italian foreign accent”, which may offer a new and unusual approach to the synchronic phonology of Italian. The conclusions of the research show that the Italian accent can be determined only at the phonological level, for example through various phonological processes related to the syllabic structure of Italian.

■ How do native listeners process grammatical errors that are frequent in non-native speech? We investigated whether the neu-ral correlates of syntactic processing are modulated by speaker identity. ERPs to gender agreement errors in sentences spoken by a native speaker were compared with the same errors spoken by a non-native speaker. In line with previous research, gender violations in native speech resulted in a P600 effect (larger P600 for violations in comparison with correct sentences), but when the same violations were produced by the non-native speaker with a foreign accent, no P600 effect was observed. Control sentences with semantic violations elicited comparable N400 effects for both the native and the non-native speaker, confirming no general integration problem in foreign-accented speech. The results demonstrate that the P600 is modulated by speaker identity , extending our knowledge about the role of speakerʼs characteristics on neural correlates of speech processing. ■

- by Merel van Goch
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- Morphosyntax, Event-Related Potentials, Foreign Accent, Syntactic Processing

This paper offers an overview of the studies focusing on attitudes towards pronunciation in a foreign language and its learning. After defining the object of study-examining conceptual and terminological issues-and providing the justification for its interest which has been put forward, the paradigms that have guided research on pronunciation and, consequently, research on attitudes toward it are presented. The core part of the paper tries to face bibliographic dispersion by elaborating an updated and well-ordered outline of experimental studies, with attention to subject areas and variables handled, which allows visualization of possible future developments.

- by Bálint Huszthy
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- Phonology, Italian Studies, Foreign Accent

Using an audiovisual perception task, two groups of native English listeners (monolinguals, and L2 learners of Spanish) were asked to identify which /p,t,k/ tokens had been produced by native English speakers and which ones by foreigners. The experiment found that self-reported criteria for foreign accent detection tended to be consistent with actual perceptual behavior, and that the L2 learners performed better, both at the group and at the individual level. These results suggest that foreign accent detection is cued by Voice Onset Time differences and taps into both our tacit knowledge of the native segmental norm and our implicit awareness of what constitutes a particular deviation from that norm. Moreover, the results suggest that, contrary to what some have assumed, monolinguals are not necessarily more sensitive to foreign accents than second language learners.

- by Josep Alba-Salas
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- Spanish, Phonetics, English, Voice Onset Time
- by Dao Minh
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- Second Language Acquisition, Voice Conversion, Foreign Accent, Implicit Feedback

Particular durable second language (L2) pronunciation distinctions of speakers who belong to the same first language (L1) community serve as their instant audio-identification markers, creating their typical phonetic portrait. Deviations in non-native English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher pronunciation remain a vibrant area of research due to their impact on speech intelligibility and comprehensibility, their pragmatic and emotional potential in oral verbal communication. The purpose of this contribution was to establish standard pronunciation deviations in academic speech of Ukrainian EFL teachers, thus depicting their phonetic portrait. A research methodology included acoustic and auditory analyses of pronunciation of British and Ukrainian speakers of English. The findings showed that Ukrainian EFL teachers display a set of common pronunciation distinctions: on the tonal level of the beginning and the end of the intonation group, tonal range, interval, rate and tone movement change in different parts of the intonation group, volume realization, speech rate; lack of qualitative and quantitative differences in the pronunciation of long and short monophthongs in stressed and unstressed syllables, full pronunciation of unstressed vowels. The results will find their application in EFL teacher education programs and further research of the accented speech nature.

- by Robert Dekeyser
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- Phonetics, English language, English, Korean linguistics

While the tendency of speakers to align their speech to that of others acoustic-phonetically has been widely studied among native speakers, very few studies have examined whether natives phonetically converge to non-native speakers. Here we measured native Dutch speakers’ convergence to a non-native speaker with an unfamiliar accent in a novel non-interactive task. Furthermore, we assessed the role of participants’ perceptions of the non-native accent in their tendency to converge. In addition to a perceptual measure (AXB ratings), we examined convergence on different acoustic dimensions (e.g., vowel spectra, fricative CoG, speech rate, overall f0) to determine what dimensions, if any, speakers converge to. We further combined these two types of measures to discover what dimensions weighed in raters’ judgments of convergence. The results reveal overall convergence to our non-native speaker, as indexed by both perceptual and acoustic measures. However, the ratings suggest the stronge...

- by Monica A Wagner
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- Computer Science, Phonetics, Acoustic Phonetics, Phonetic Convergence

Oral fluency and foreign accent distinguish L2 from L1 speech production. In language testing practices, both fluency and accent are usually assessed by raters. This study investigates what exactly native raters of fluency and accent take into account when judging L2. Our aim is to explore the relationship between objectively measured temporal, segmental and suprasegmental properties of speech on the one hand, and fluency and accent as rated by native raters on the other hand. For 90 speech fragments from Turkish and English L2 learners of Dutch, several acoustic measures of fluency and accent were calculated. In Experiment 1, 20 native speakers of Dutch rated the L2 Dutch samples on fluency. In Experiment 2, 20 different untrained native speakers of Dutch judged the L2 Dutch samples on accentedness. Regression analyses revealed, first, that acoustic measures of fluency were good predictors of fluency ratings. Second, segmental and suprasegmental measures of accent could predict som...

- by Hugo Quené
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- Education, Language Testing, Fluency, Foreign Accentedness
- by Roberto Barra Chicote
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- Computer Science, Phonology, Phonetics, Speech Synthesis
- by Joaquim Llisterri and +1
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- Phonetics, Prosody, Foreign Accent

This is a survey designed to assess the effects that the self-perception of a non-native accent, when speaking a foreign language, may have on a person's willingness to communicate. In particular, this survey is designed for native Arabic-speakers who speak English as a foreign language. I welcome feedback on this survey to improve its validity. The survey has not yet been implemented; the link to it will be shared here some time in April, 2016. Note that it may not remain active past June of 2016.

- by Kristin Lemhöfer
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- Computer Science, Phonetics, Acoustic Phonetics, Phonetic Convergence

Commercials regularly feature foreign accents. This paper aims to investigate whether the use of foreign accents in radio commercials is more effective for congruent than incongruent products, and whether foreign-accented commercials are evaluated differently than non-accented commercials. In an experiment, a group of 228 Dutch participants rated non-accented and accented commercials for four different products in a between-subject design. The products were either congruent or incongruent with the foreign accent in the commercial (e.g., a German-accented commercial for sausage vs. olive oil). Foreign-accented commercials for congruent products were assessed more positively on a number of variables than foreign-accented commercials for incongruent products. Foreign-accented commercials were rated more negatively than commercials without a foreign accent.

- by Berna Hendriks and +1
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- Product origin congruency, Foreign Accent, Radio Commercials
- by anna lia proietti ergun
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- Phonology, Bilingualism, Heritage Language Speakers, Foreign Accent

- by Dao Minh
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- Cognitive Science, Second Language Acquisition, Linguistics, Speech Communication

This paper proposes an acoustic phonetic study of the foreign accents in the Arabic language. To analyze on a large scale of the connected variations, the contribution of the automatic tools acoustico-phonetic decoding tools along the adaptation forces. Based on the results of the uses of these tools, we managed to differentiate between three major forms of accents: The English language speaker accent (American and British population’s accent), the European people accent (French speaker accent, German speaker accent) and the Persian speaker accent.

- by mounir Zrigui
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- Computer Science, Arabic, Speech, Learning
- by dao minh
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- Cognitive Science, Second Language Acquisition, Linguistics, Speech Communication
- by D. Felps
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- Cognitive Science, Second Language Acquisition, Linguistics, Speech Communication

Where native speakers supposedly are fluent by default, nonnative speakers often have to strive hard to achieve a nativelike fluency level. However, disfluencies (such as pauses, fillers, repairs, etc.) occur in both native and nonnative speech and it is as yet unclear how fluency raters weigh the fluency characteristics of native and nonnative speech. Two rating experiments compared the way raters assess the fluency of native and nonnative speech. The fluency characteristics were controlled by using phonetic manipulations in pause (Experiment 1) and speed characteristics (Experiment 2). The results show that the ratings of manipulated native and nonnative speech were affected in a similar fashion. This suggests that there is no difference in the way listeners weigh the fluency characteristics of native and nonnative speakers.

- by Hugo Quené
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- Psycholinguistics, Fluency, Speaking Fluency, Foreign Accent