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

2025

Notwithstanding a body of research examining the way names areassociated with the perception and treatment of individuals acrosssocial contexts, scant attention has been paid to the study of names inlanguage attitudes research. This study explores American English listeners’ evaluative reactions to standard American and Spanish-accented English when exposed to a name indexing ethnic affiliation (White or Latinx). Participants listened to recordings and rated them along the dimensions of status and solidarity, and perceived accentedness. Additionally, listeners’ expectations about name–accent pairings were measured, and responses about how they reasoned these expectations were also collected and analysed thematically. The results showed that, overall, standard American English was more positively evaluated for status, but not solidarity, than Spanish-accented English. Relatedly, although names were not associated with solidarity or accentedness, there was an effect in which speakers paired with Latinx names were attributed higher status when compared to a control group (audio only). Furthermore, name–accent pairings were a reliable predictor of the valence of listeners’ expectations, which the thematic analysis revealed were underpinned by ideologies of nativeness, raciolinguistic ideologies and ideologies of goodness-of-fit. These findings underscore the importance of exploring other non-verbal cues such as names to better understand listeners’ language attitudes.

2025

Fenyvesi Anna -Zsigri Gyula Hangsúlytalan szó eleji szótagok adaptációja amerikai magyar kölcsönszavakban: Elméleti vonatkozások 1. Bevezetés Egy olyan nyelvben, mint a magyar, ahol az elsődleges szóhangsúly mindig a szavak első szótagjára esik, a hangsúlyos szótag előtti fonetikus tartalmat a beszélők nem feltétlenül értelmezik a prozódiai szó részeként. Azokban a kölcsönszavakban, amelyekben az átadó nyelvi hangsúly nem az első szótagon van, a magyar nyelv nyelvváltozatai egyhangúlag úgy integrálják a pretonikus szótagot, hogy hangsúlyát ide mozgatják. Az amerikai magyar nyelvváltozatban azonban létezik még egy stratégia a hangsúlytalan szó eleji szótagok kiküszöbölésére: a szótag törlése. Ez a tendencia megfigyelhető az amerikai finnben is, ahogyan azt egy korábbi publikációnkban már elemeztük (Fenyvesi-Zsigri 2007), és hasonló ahhoz a jelenséghez, amit az angol gyereknyelvben is megfigyeltek (vö. ['dʒɪɾɨf] és [dat h ] mint a giraffe [dʒɪ'ɾaf] kezdetleges alakja, Stemberger-Bernhardt (1998: 418). Jelen dolgozatunkban ezt a jelenséget értelmezzük az Optimalitáselmélet elméleti keretein belül (vö. Prince-Smolensky 2004, Kager 1999), percepcionálisan motivált megszorítások és megszorításhierarchiák segítségével (vö. Kenstowitz 2001, Peperkamp-Dupoux 2003, Steriade 2001, Kenstowitz-Atiwong ms.). Mint a legtöbb finnugor nyelvben, a magyarban is szó eleji szóhangsúly van -ezt egyébként a nyelvcsalád egyik legszembetűnőbb fonológiai jellemzőjének is tartják (Austerlitz 1987: 574). A szó eleji hangsúly a magyar nyelv minden magyarországi (MM) és egyéb kárpát-medencei nyelvváltozatában egyeduralkodó. Amikor nyelvünk olyan szavakat kölcsönöz, amelyek az átadó nyelvben nem szó eleji hangsúllyal rendelkeznek, ezek a szavak brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk

2025

Poszterünk bemutatja, hogy egy fonetikailag feldolgozott beszédadatbázis információinak strukturált kinyerésére alkalmas program, hogyan segítheti újszer fonetikai ismeretek kidolgozását, továbbá nyelvészhallgatók fonetikaoktatásának... more

2025

A leíró hangtani osztályozások egyetértenek abban, hogy az igazodás nem eredményez fonémaváltást, a hasonulás viszont igen, az egyes esetek besorolásában mégis eltérnek egymástól. 1 Véleményem szerint ez a bizonytalanság a fonémaváltás fogalmának a tisztázásával megszüntethető vagy legalábbis jelentős mértékben csökkenthető. Ahhoz, hogy két beszédhangról megállapíthassuk, hogy ugyanannak a fonémának a változatai, vagy különböző fonémák, tudnunk kell, hogy melyek azok a fonetikai különbségek, amelyeket a nyelv felhasznál a fonémák megkülönböztetésére. Az Ockham borotvájaként 2 is emlegetett takarékossági elv megköveteli, hogy ezt a lehető legkevesebb fonetikai különbségről állítsuk. Vegyük például ezeket a fonémapárokat: p-f, b-v. Az első tag mindkét esetben kétajkú mássalhangzó, a második pedig ajak-fog hang. Ennek a szembenállásnak csak akkor tulajdoníthatnánk fonémamegkülönböztető szerepet, ha lenne legalább egy olyan mássalhangzópár, amelynek a tagjai csak ebben különböznének egymástól. Ilyen azonban nincs. A magyarban a kétajkú mássalhangzók mind zárhangok, az ajak-fog hangok pedig mind réshangok. Ezt a különbséget a t-sz, d-z párok miatt mindenképp fonémamegkülönböztető szerepűnek kell tekintenünk, nincs tehát szükségünk arra, hogy a bilabiális és labiodentális képzés közötti különbségnek ilyen szerepet tulajdonítsunk. A p azonosításához elég csak annyit mondanunk, hogy zöngétlen labiális zárhang, az f-thez pedig, hogy zöngétlen labiális réshang.

2025

Sammenlignende undersøgelse af engelske låneord i danske og svenske aviser.

2025, world-comp.org

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.

2025, Tourism & Management Studies

In international advertising, foreign languages often serve symbolic purposes, each associated with distinct characteristics. This study explores whether recognising the language in advertising messages influences the company's perceived image and Word-of-Mouth (WOM). We used a between-subjects experimental design to select five languages as independent variables: Italian, Turkish, Russian, English, and French. An audio-only advertising message for a fictional company was created and translated into these languages. Native Spanish-speaking participants listened to the message in a foreign language and responded to inquiries about the advertised firm. The findings clearly demonstrate that recognising the language significantly impacts both company image and WOM. This underscores the nuanced role of language in shaping perceptions in international advertising. The study provides valuable insights into effective language choices for global advertising strategies, emphasising the necessity of linguistic considerations beyond mere comprehension. Recognising and leveraging the symbolic nature of languages can profoundly influence consumer perceptions and communication strategies across diverse linguistic contexts, contributing to the overall effectiveness of international advertising campaigns.

2024, Revista de Estudos da Linguagem

many adults who learn a second language have a foreign accent to some extent. The misproduction of lexical stress (LS), which plays an important role in the prosodic structure of speech, contributes to the perception of a heavier foreign accent. Twenty-four Brazilian Portuguese (BP) speakers of English of four different selfreported levels underwent tests of production and perception of LS. This study aimed to describe how production and perception of lexical stress happen to BP speakers of four different self-reported levels. Acoustic data, as well as the percentage of scores in stress placement, were collected and compared to the production of a native speaker of American English (AmE). Syllable duration, total intensity, and relative intensity were the most important parameters used by the BP speakers to stress syllables. Hits in the perception task were greater than the production task, overall. Initially stressed words had the greatest hits in both production and perception. Overall, the BP speakers from this use, in AmE, the same acoustic parameters used in BP for signaling LS. The production, in regards of acoustic parameters use, gets closer to the native when the proficiency level increases. Cognate words were not relevant in the acoustic parameters choice of the speakers, but they were relevant for the stress position hits.

2024

This study develops a model of analytic rating scales to assess L2 Chinese oral performance. It uses Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to identify a model and employs Confirmative Factor Analysis (CFA) in a separate dataset to test the degree of model fit. The researcher videotaped ten speeches and ACTFL professional raters assessed the oral performances in these samples. The researcher then selected three samples (Samples 1, 2, and 3) to represent the proficiency levels of Novice High, Intermediate High, and Advanced Low. Then, the researcher developed 20 rating items by interviewing ten experienced L2 Chinese teachers and running an EFA. The 20 items were descriptors that Chinese teachers used to assess oral performance in two studies: Study 1 and Study 2. To complete Study 1, the researcher recruited 45 teachers to assess Sample 1 using the 20 items, 62 teachers rated Sample 2, and 49 teachers rated Sample 3. In Study 2, 104 teachers assessed all three samples. The EFA indicated ...

2024, Research in Language

The English central mid lax vowel (i.e., schwa) often contributes considerably to the sound differences between native and non-native speech. Many foreign speakers of English fail to reduce certain underlying vowels to schwa, which, on the suprasegmental level of description, affects the perceived rhythm of their speech. However, the problem of capturing quantitatively the differences between native and non-native schwa poses difficulties that, to this day, have been tackled only partially. We offer a technique of measurement in the acoustic domain that has not been probed properly as yet: the distribution of acoustic energy in the vowel spectrum. Our results show that spectral slope features measured in weak vowels discriminate between Czech and British speakers of English quite reliably. Moreover, the measurements of formant bandwidths turned out to be useful for the same task, albeit less direct

2024, MONA - Matematik- og Naturfagsdidaktik

2024, Lengua y Migración = Language and Migration

Individuals moving from one dialect-specific area to another often pick up some characteristics of the new region's speech patterns. Dialect acquisition is subtle in adults and therefore understudied in the field of sociolinguistics. This study collected speech samples from natives of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York and Catskill residents originally from the New York City Metropolitan Area. A perceptual methodology using a 9-point scale was employed to determine acquisition (Munro et al. 1999). Post-hoc tests showed that ratings of the two groups differed significantly (p < 0.0001), but 33% of migrant ratings fell on the 'Catskill' end of the spectrum. This supported the hypothesis that the migrants would exhibit an intermediate degree of Catskill dialect. Qualitative data from interviews collected in this study pointed to the existence of a social conflict between Catskill natives and migrants from downstate, which poses a possible barrier to acquisition. Both groups exhibited some degree of prejudice toward the other, which can be partially attributed to issues of linguistic prestige in the Catskill dialect.

2024

espanolCiudad y campo: adquisicion del dialecto en las montanas Catskill de Nueva York, al norte del estado. Las personas que se mudan de una zona dialectal a otra frecuentemente asimilan caracteristicas del discurso de la nueva region. La adquisicion del dialecto no esta muy marcada en adultos y, por lo tanto, apenas se estudia en el ambito de la sociolinguistica. En este studio, se recogieron muestras del discurso de nativos de las montanas de Catskill, en el norte del estado de Nueva York, y de los residentes de Catskill procedentes de la zona metropolitana de la ciudad de Nueva York. Se empleo una metodologia perceptiva que utiliza una escala de 9 puntos con el fin de determinar la adquisicion (Munro et al. 1999). Posteriormente, las pruebas han demostrado que los grupos difieren significativamente (p EnglishIndividuals moving from one dialect-specific area to another often pick up some characteristics of the new region�s speech patterns. Dialect acquisition is subtle in adults ...

2024, John Benjamins Publishing Company eBooks

Why do geminate consonants frequently appear in borrowed words when the foreign form does not contain a geminate? In this paper I review previous approaches to this problem, and suggest that they are insufficient in accounting for consonant length contrasts in English loan words in North American varieties of Italian. I suggest that many factors are involved in the determination of consonant length in loans, including aspects of the grammar of the borrowing language (in this case, Italian)-such as the inventory of segments, the structure of the stressed syllable, and the presence of similar native lexical items-as well as the interpretation of the morphological structure and phonetic details of the foreign word.

2024, Research in Computing Science

This work is part of a big research project named "Oreillodule" aimed to develop tools for automatic speech recognition, translation, and synthesis for Arabic language. In this paper, our attention has mainly been focused on an attempt to present the semantic analyzer developed for the automatic comprehension of the standard spontaneous Arabic speech. We present a model of Arabic speech understanding system. In this model, both speech recognition module and semantic decoding module are based on statistical approach. In this work, we present and evaluate speech recognition module but we just explain the principle of Arabic speech understanding module.

2024, Multimedia Tools and Applications

This work describes a new methodology for correcting voice defects contained in the Arabic speeches and assisting learners of Arabic vocabulary. For this purpose, we follow four stages. The first step consists in localizing the vocal disabilities which degrade an Arabic voice signal, so we focus on comparing between a referenced probabilistic-phonetic model and a speaker model. Second, we differentiate two cases: Degraded speeches can be generated from pathological problems, or it can be produced by non arabophone learners. Hence, we compare between forced alignment scores. Third, we develop a new algorithm to correct pathological pronunciations. The last task is the conception of an application assisting learners of Arabic vocabulary in improving their pronunciation. The achieved results are encouraging. Moreover, learners of Arabic vocabulary have presented a good amelioration using the developed application. A lot of applications that design systems of voice signal processing can use our proposition.

2024, Komunikácie

The paper defines and describes the basic stress characteristics in general and shows its functioning in Slovak and English language. It also implies that its wrong perception contributes to Slovak-English language interference.

2024, Contributi Alle Ricerche Romanze

Intonation is a key factor in the perception of foreign accents, still it is a rather underanalysed phenomenon in L2 phonetics, and it often remains unconsidered during L2 teaching as well. In the present case study we analyse the intonational patterns of 15 Hungarian future teachers of Italian who speak Italian fluently, results are compared to 5 native Italian speakers’ pronunciation. Beyond an important contribution to theoretical linguistics, the aim of the research is to consider foreign accent intonational elements in future Italian teachers’ classroom communication, which – being the only live oral input students have in the language class – has a huge significance. In addition to the comparative
examination of intonational patterns, our intention is to formulate methodological suggestions for improving the intonational patterns of Hungarian teachers of Italian.

2024

2024, Sprogforum. Tidsskrift for sprog- og kulturpædagogik

2024, Australian Review of Applied Linguistics

2024, Landbohistorisk Tidsskrift

En analyse af de ældste skifter i Skast Herreds tingbøger er grundlaget for en undersøgelse af hvilke møbler, brugsgenstande og private ejendele, der fandtes på gårdene i området. Formålet er at give et signalement af
gårdenes bohave og indretning og at identificere materielle strategier i bøndernes formueopsparing, som det kom til udtryk i prestigeobjekter i hjemmet. Artiklen består dels af en tematisk analyse fordelt på køkkeninventar, møbler, senge og sengesteder, bordtøj og diverse indbo, dels af en diskussion og vurdering af gårdenes bohave og indretning samt af genstandenes værdi. Endelig vurderes genstandenes kommunikative
betydning og deres betydning som luksusvarer og udtryk for velstand
eller det modsatte. Den tematiske analyse er uddybet i et stort antal bilag,
der giver en detaljeret oversigt over kildematerialet.

2024

INTRODUZIONE È noto che i dialetti italiani settentrionali hanno cancellato in generale le vocali finali atone diverse da /a/. È altrettanto noto che nei dialetti italiani dell'alto Meridione le vocali finali hanno d'altro canto subito un processo di centralizzazione, ma non di cancellazione categorica. E si può supporre che anche i dialetti settentrionali siano passati, in uno stadio predocumentario, per una fase in cui le vocali atone finali poi cancellatesi fossero dapprima soltanto centralizzate. Questa supposizione, per la quale adduceva argomenti Contini (1935) analizzando i testi lombardi del Duecento, è confermata per il veronese antico dal recente studio di Bertoletti (2005), che postula con solidi argomenti per quella varietà una fase predocumentaria con neutralizzazione delle vocali medie finali in //, poi rifonologizzato come /o/. Già Contini segnalava, in base ai materiali AIS, come della fase con neutralizzazione (ma non ancora con cancellazione) restino alcune tracce nei dialetti odierni, in area lombarda in un arco che va dalla Valsesia ai dintorni di Pavia nonché, alla periferia sud della Romània occidentale, sull'Appennino emiliano. A quest'area appenninica è dedicato il nostro studio, che analizza il sistema vocalico nel dialetto alto-frignanese di Piandelagotti, nell'alto Appennino modenese, mettendo a fuoco in particolare i caratteri acustici e la collocazione entro il sistema dello [] finale che in tale dialetto ricorre. 2. TIPI DI SCHWA NEI DIALETTI DELL'APPENNINO TOSCO-EMILIANO Lo schwa finale di Piandelagotti è particolarmente interessante per il quadro diacronico di cui al §1 poiché non ha le caratteristiche di uno schwa di «pianificazione articolatoria» nel senso di Gósy (2004), qual è invece ad es. la vocale inserita automaticamente in fine di parola nella pronuncia italiana centrale o centro-meridionale di stop [stp]. Dal punto di vista della tipologia fonologica delle inserzioni vocaliche di Bagemihl (1991: 600), dunque, non abbiamo a che fare con una vocale «escrescente», inserita ad un livello molto superficiale della derivazione e distinta non solo dalle vocali soggiacenti bensì anche dalle epentetiche inserite per regola allofonica. I dialetti appenninici dell'area che ci interessa presentano anche [] di quest'ultimo tipo, sintagmaticamente condizionati. Ad es. le parlate dell'alto Appennino reggiano descritte da Malagoli (1954: 18 n. 3) hanno [] finale dopo nessi di sonorità crescente:

2024, Temp - tidsskrift for historie

Dr.phil. Thorkild Kjaergaard synes at have en mission i livet: Han opererer som en enmandshaer i et korstog for at rehabilitere ideerne om et "helligt", omsorgsfuldt kolonivaelde, hvor de europaeiske herrefolk gjorde deres bedste for at "løfte" de undergivne folk og lande op på et højere civilisationstrin. For at frelse dem fra deres egen undergang-og for at velsigne dem med alt det gode, europaeisk kultur og samfund kunne byde på. Altså, europaeerne tog på sig "the white man's burden", og de gjorde det såre godt. Taenk, hvor langt de afrikanske stater kunne have nået, hvis de havde beholdt kolonistyret og ladet sig overrisle af en overlegen civilisations kilder! I stedet ik man a kolonisering, og det var en katastrofe (jfr. kronik i Politiken, 3.januar 2016), siger manden, der også retter sit korstog mod grønlandske bestraebelser på at gøre sig ua haengig af Danmark.

2024, TESOL Quarterly

This study examines the effect of incorporating a variety of international English accents into a simulated TOEFL listening comprehension test in growing recognition of internationalization of language teaching and learning in the field of TESOL. Although some highstakes English proficiency exams have begun incorporating speech samples produced by speakers from a range of inner circle Englishspeaking backgrounds (e.g., Britain, the United States, Australia), the inclusion of samples produced by speakers of outer and expanding circle English varieties (e.g., India, Nigeria, Mexico, South Korea) has been largely avoided. For this study the researchers recruited speakers from six distinct English varieties to produce speech samples for a mock TOEFL iBT listening exam. Listeners who spoke with the same six international English accents were then recruited to take the resulting tests. Results indicate that when accented English is highly comprehensible, listening test scores for stimuli based on high-proficiency speakers of outer and expanding circle varieties of English are not significantly lower than they are in response to stimuli based on inner circle varieties of English. With respect to a shared first language effect on test scores when test materials are spoken in the test taker's own accent, results are complex but inconclusive.

2024, TESOL Quarterly

This study examines the effect of incorporating a variety of international English accents into a simulated TOEFL listening comprehension test in growing recognition of internationalization of language teaching and learning in the field of TESOL. Although some high‐stakes English proficiency exams have begun incorporating speech samples produced by speakers from a range of inner circle English‐speaking backgrounds (e.g., Britain, the United States, Australia), the inclusion of samples produced by speakers of outer and expanding circle English varieties (e.g., India, Nigeria, Mexico, South Korea) has been largely avoided. For this study the researchers recruited speakers from six distinct English varieties to produce speech samples for a mock TOEFL iBT listening exam. Listeners who spoke with the same six international English accents were then recruited to take the resulting tests. Results indicate that when accented English is highly comprehensible, listening test scores for stimul...

2024, Speech Prosody 2016

This study investigated how Mandarin listeners process tone and intonation when the F 0 encodings of the lexical tone and intonation are in conflict or in congruency and the role context plays during these processes. Tone and intonation identification experiments were conducted within neutral vs. constraining semantic contexts. Tone identification was much easier than intonation identification irrespective of contexts. Participants could perceive tones accurately and quickly in both question and statement intonation. However, intonation identification was greatly deteriorated within the neutral semantic context. Questions ending with a rising tone and a falling tone were equally difficult to identify. In a constraining semantic context, questions ending with a falling tone were much better identified. Thus, top-down information provided by the constraining semantic context does play an important role in disentangling intonation information from tone information.

2023, International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature

Reduced forms are thought to have a significant influence on understanding spoken language. They are important aspects of spoken language which have sometimes been undervalued in material development, teaching, and testing. This problem is further aggravated in an Iranian EFL setting. In an attempt to address this issue, this study set out to examine the familiarity of Iranian EFL learners with reduced forms as well as the relationship between the proficiency level of language learners and their familiarity with reduced forms. To this end, a test of RFs on listening comprehension was developed based on the literature and findings of a pilot study. Afterward, 306 English language learners were selected from two Iranian cities of Shiraz and Ahwaz based on multi-stage cluster sampling to participate in the study. The results of this study indicate that Iranian EFL learners are not familiar with RFs in spoken language. However, in contrast to earlier findings, there was a significant difference between the performance of advanced and intermediate learners based on their familiarity with reduced forms.

2023, NyS

Anmeldelse af Ruben Schachtenhaufen Ny dansk fonetik, Books on Demand. 2022 (179 sider) NINA GRØNNUM INDLEDNING I forrige nummer af NyS anmeldte jeg Petersen et al.s Udtalt der er skrevet med saerligt henblik på danskstuderende på Københavns Universitet. Ruben Schachtenhaufens Ny dansk fonetik er mere bredt tiltaenkt sprogstuderende på videregående uddannelser. Jeg tror imidlertid ikke at det er de lidt forskellige målgrupper der gør de to bøger så forskellige. Udtalt er en traditionel og genkendelig beskrivelse af dansk fonetik. Det kan man ikke kalde Ny dansk fonetik. Det skyldes isaer bogens disposition med dens staerke fokus på lydskriften og den tilsvarende nedtoning af andre aspekter af dansk fonetik. Ruben Schachtenhaufen (herefter: RS) har sat sig for at rydde op i hvad han ser som en raekke foraeldede eller uhensigtsmaessige danske lydskrifttraditioner, og han vil nu bruge det internationale lydskriftalfabet (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA) nøjagtigt som han forstår symbolernes definition og anvisningerne i Handbook of the International Phonetic Association (herefter: Håndbogen) fra 1999. Men RS's brug af lydskriftsymbolerne-og dele af fremstillingen i øvrigt-bortser helt fra den viden vi efter flere store veldokumenterede undersøgelser har om dansk. Det har afgørende betydning for vurderingen af RS's forslag til en ny lydskrift, og det praeger også hans beskrivelse af det danske stød. For at undgå for mange gentagelser diskuterer jeg i det lys først RS's lydskrift. Derefter gennemgår jeg indholdet i bogens tolv kapitler. RS definerer bogens målsprog således: Der tages udgangspunkt [...] i hvad man kan kalde almindelig distinkt ungt rigsdansk. Uden at definere det naermere sigtes der

2023

Om kontrastiv antroponomastisk metodik 1 ensen og Müller repraesenterer de hyppigst bårne efternavne i hhv. Danmark og Tyskland. Jensen er et (sekundaert) 2 patronym og Müller oprindelig et erhvervstilnavn: Hermed har man allerede antydet en vaesentlig typologisk forskel på de to efternavnesystemer, som det er blevet fremhaevet af tidligere undersøgelser, nemlig at det danske system er domineret af patronymer, hvad der stiller alle andre efternavnetyper i skyggen, mens det tyske system isaer er kendetegnet af relativt transparente (sekundaert) appellativiske navne-det er formentlig også laegmandsindtrykket. Vi har imidlertid grunde til at differentiere dette billede. J Hensigten med denne artikel er at levere et bidrag til udviklingen af den empirisk-kontrastive metodik inden for den del af navneforskningen, som beskaeftiger sig med efternavne eller slaegtsnavne (der svarer til den tyske term Familiennamen), som de i dansk

2023

This paper attempts to establish that there is a correlation between the sociolinguistic identities of high school students and their productive English-speaking abilities. The paper initially explains the basic concept of sociolinguistic identity and refers to various aspects of research into Japanese national identity to analyse how these may influence the learning of English in Japan. Secondly, the participants' specific context is detailed and reasoning for the relevance of the two tasks that are put to them is provided. Following on from this, the methods of data collection and analysis are described. Results posit that learners with a greater interest in English-speaking cultures are more likely to interact competently, and in turn, having stronger productive skills correlates positively with the rejection of an anti-English sentiment. The paper ends with a brief discussion on how cultural constraints in Japan affect English expression and the importance of emerging trends such as "international posture" (Yashima, 2002).

2023, Nyelvelmélet és diakrónia 5. PPKE BTK Elméleti Nyelvészeti Tanszék – Magyar Nyelvészeti Tanszék, Budapest, pp. 253-271. ISBN 978-963-308-467-0

A dalmáciai latinból kifejlődött és a 19. század végére kihalt újlatin (avagy román) dalmát nyelv magánhangzórendszerének tipológiai besorolását illetően vita van arról, hogy nyugati típusú alias szimmetrikus vagy keleti alias aszimmetrikus típusú volt-e, illetve annak egy altípusát képviselte-e, azaz részlegesen aszimmetrikus típusú volt-e. A két különböző értelmezés részben a kérdés eldöntésében felhasználható kisszámú releváns dalmát példaszó értelmezésétől függ, részben pedig a dalmát alapjául szolgáló kései dalmáciai latin szöveganyag vizsgálatától, ti. hogy ez utóbbi melyik álláspontot támogathatja a latin oldaláról. Ennek megfelelően e tanulmány két részből áll: először a dalmát, utána pedig a latin helyzetet vizsgáljuk meg a hátul képzett (veláris) magánhangzók fúziójának szempontjából.

2023

Our conscious and subconscious linguistic racism. USC Rossier Magazine-Fall/Winter, 35. "I've gotten comments either to me or behind my back that I sound 'angry' when I speak in English because of my accent or their preconceived notion... more

2023, Language Testing in Asia

Although language test-takers have been the focus of much theoretical and empirical work in recent years, this work has been mainly concerned with their attitudes to test preparation and test-taking strategies, giving insufficient attention to their views on broader socio-political and ethical issues. This article examines test-takers’ perceptions and evaluations of the fairness, justice and validity of global tests of English, with a particular focus upon the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Based on relevant literature and theorizing into such tests, and on self-reported test experience data gathered from test-takers (N = 430) from 49 countries, we demonstrate how test-takers experienced fairness and justice in complex ways that problematized the purported technical excellence and validity of IELTS. Even as there was some evidence of support for the test as a fair measure of students’ English capacity, the extent to which it actually reflected their language ...

2023, Approaches to Hungarian

2023, Sprogforum. Tidsskrift for sprog- og kulturpædagogik

2023, System

The study examines whether a slower speech rate enhances listening comprehension of unfamiliar English varieties. The participants were 179 Japanese university students studying English as a foreign language in Japan. Speech samples elicited from a variety of fluent English speakers were digitally recorded. In our first experiment, we determined that a less familiar accent (Indian English) was more difficult for these students to comprehend than a more familiar North American English accent. In the second experiment, Japanese participants heard the samples first at the original speech rate and then, several weeks later, at a reduced rate. When listening to the most heavily accented speaker, participants, irrespective of their proficiency, achieved significantly higher mean comprehension scores with the slowed speech rate. However, no significant speech rate effect was observed for the less heavily accented samples. The results of the study will contribute to pedagogical developments in teaching English as a Lingua Franca (ELF).

2023, Lingua italiana - Treccani.it

nche per i più volenterosi fan delle lingue esistono «ostacoli sul percorso per raggiungere una competenza linguistica di tipo nativo. La fonologia è uno degli aspetti più impegnativi nell'acquisizione di una seconda lingua». Lo scrive Claudia Roberta Combei, linguista di origine rumena, ricercatrice in Linguistica all'Università di Pavia, dove insegna Fonetica e Fonologia e Linguistica computazionale e coordina il Laboratorio di Fonetica sperimentale. Ha appena pubblicato, in inglese, un libro intitolato "Speaking Italian with a Twist. A Corpus Study of Perceived Foreign Accent" (Franco Angeli Open Edition, 2023), scaricabile gratuitamente (il titolo riflette un gioco di parole, traducibile come “Parlare con un tocco diverso”). In questo studio, il più recente dedicato all'italiano con accento straniero, la ricercatrice ha esaminato diversi fattori che influenzano il modo in cui è percepito; l’ha fatto analizzando un corpus di accenti (russo, inglese, tedesco, francese, rumeno e spagnolo) composto da oltre 8 ore di parlato letto e spontaneo; hanno contribuito 122 giovani adulti che parlano italiano L1 (lingua madre) e L2 (seconda lingua). Combei adotta un approccio empirico, usando tecniche computazionali, per dimostrare come alcuni accenti non nativi mostrino una maggiore riconoscibilità rispetto ad altri.

2023, Sprog & Samfund

Sidste sommer udgav jeg en lærebog med den meget sigende titel Ny dansk fonetik. Den 9. oktober udkommer en revideret fagfællebedømt udgave på Modersmål-Selskabets forlag.

2023, Research in Language

The perennial question as to how perceived otherness in speech projects into listener assessment of one's personality has been systematically investigated within the field of foreign accentedness, vocal communication of affective states and vocal stereotyping. In the present study, we aimed at exploring non-native listeners' capacity to respond to differences in natural and modified native speech, particularly whether the manipulation of temporal structure in both stressed and unstressed syllables gives rise to any changes in the perception of the speaker's personality. The respondents' intuitive judgements were captured in the domain of the 'nervousness category' taken from the five-factor model of personality. Our results indicate an effect of temporal modifications on the listeners' judgements. Analysis of variance for repeated measures confirmed a highly significant shift of personality evaluations towards the undesired traits (e.g., nervousness, anxiety, querulousness). Several interesting interactions with the semantic contents of the utterances and with the intrinsic qualities of the speakers' voices were also found. We argue that the effects of accented speech go beyond conscious willingness to accept "otherness" and suggest a method for studying them.