english consonant phonemes: Topics by WorldWideScience.org

Sample records for english consonant phonemes

Phoneme Error Pattern by Heritage Speakers of Spanish on an English Word Recognition Test.

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Shi, Lu-Feng

2017-04-01

Heritage speakers acquire their native language from home use in their early childhood. As the native language is typically a minority language in the society, these individuals receive their formal education in the majority language and eventually develop greater competency with the majority than their native language. To date, there have not been specific research attempts to understand word recognition by heritage speakers. It is not clear if and to what degree we may infer from evidence based on bilingual listeners in general. This preliminary study investigated how heritage speakers of Spanish perform on an English word recognition test and analyzed their phoneme errors. A prospective, cross-sectional, observational design was employed. Twelve normal-hearing adult Spanish heritage speakers (four men, eight women, 20-38 yr old) participated in the study. Their language background was obtained through the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire. Nine English monolingual listeners (three men, six women, 20-41 yr old) were also included for comparison purposes. Listeners were presented with 200 Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 words in quiet. They repeated each word orally and in writing. Their responses were scored by word, word-initial consonant, vowel, and word-final consonant. Performance was compared between groups with Student's t test or analysis of variance. Group-specific error patterns were primarily descriptive, but intergroup comparisons were made using 95% or 99% confidence intervals for proportional data. The two groups of listeners yielded comparable scores when their responses were examined by word, vowel, and final consonant. However, heritage speakers of Spanish misidentified significantly more word-initial consonants and had significantly more difficulty with initial /p, b, h/ than their monolingual peers. The two groups yielded similar patterns for vowel and word-final consonants, but heritage speakers made significantly
How African American English-Speaking First Graders Segment and Rhyme Words and Nonwords With Final Consonant Clusters.

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Shollenbarger, Amy J; Robinson, Gregory C; Taran, Valentina; Choi, Seo-Eun

2017-10-05

This study explored how typically developing 1st grade African American English (AAE) speakers differ from mainstream American English (MAE) speakers in the completion of 2 common phonological awareness tasks (rhyming and phoneme segmentation) when the stimulus items were consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant (CVCC) words and nonwords. Forty-nine 1st graders met criteria for 2 dialect groups: AAE and MAE. Three conditions were tested in each rhyme and segmentation task: Real Words No Model, Real Words With a Model, and Nonwords With a Model. The AAE group had significantly more responses that rhymed CVCC words with consonant-vowel-consonant words and segmented CVCC words as consonant-vowel-consonant than the MAE group across all experimental conditions. In the rhyming task, the presence of a model in the real word condition elicited more reduced final cluster responses for both groups. In the segmentation task, the MAE group was at ceiling, so only the AAE group changed across the different stimulus presentations and reduced the final cluster less often when given a model. Rhyming and phoneme segmentation performance can be influenced by a child's dialect when CVCC words are used.
Understanding native Russian listeners' errors on an English word recognition test: model-based analysis of phoneme confusion.

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Shi, Lu-Feng; Morozova, Natalia

2012-08-01

Word recognition is a basic component in a comprehensive hearing evaluation, but data are lacking for listeners speaking two languages. This study obtained such data for Russian natives in the US and analysed the data using the perceptual assimilation model (PAM) and speech learning model (SLM). Listeners were randomly presented 200 NU-6 words in quiet. Listeners responded verbally and in writing. Performance was scored on words and phonemes (word-initial consonants, vowels, and word-final consonants). Seven normal-hearing, adult monolingual English natives (NM), 16 English-dominant (ED), and 15 Russian-dominant (RD) Russian natives participated. ED and RD listeners differed significantly in their language background. Consistent with the SLM, NM outperformed ED listeners and ED outperformed RD listeners, whether responses were scored on words or phonemes. NM and ED listeners shared similar phoneme error patterns, whereas RD listeners' errors had unique patterns that could be largely understood via the PAM. RD listeners had particular difficulty differentiating vowel contrasts /i-I/, /æ-ε/, and /ɑ-Λ/, word-initial consonant contrasts /p-h/ and /b-f/, and word-final contrasts /f-v/. Both first-language phonology and second-language learning history affect word and phoneme recognition. Current findings may help clinicians differentiate word recognition errors due to language background from hearing pathologies.
Effects of language experience and expectations on attention to consonants and tones in English and Mandarin Chinese.

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Lin, Mengxi; Francis, Alexander L

2014-11-01

Both long-term native language experience and immediate linguistic expectations can affect listeners' use of acoustic information when making a phonetic decision. In this study, a Garner selective attention task was used to investigate differences in attention to consonants and tones by American English-speaking listeners (N = 20) and Mandarin Chinese-speaking listeners hearing speech in either American English (N = 17) or Mandarin Chinese (N = 20). To minimize the effects of lexical differences and differences in the linguistic status of pitch across the two languages, stimuli and response conditions were selected such that all tokens constitute legitimate words in both languages and all responses required listeners to make decisions that were linguistically meaningful in their native language. Results showed that regardless of ambient language, Chinese listeners processed consonant and tone in a combined manner, consistent with previous research. In contrast, English listeners treated tones and consonants as perceptually separable. Results are discussed in terms of the role of sub-phonemic differences in acoustic cues across language, and the linguistic status of consonants and pitch contours in the two languages.
Modeling phoneme perception. II: A model of stop consonant discrimination.

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van Hessen, A J; Schouten, M E

1992-10-01

Combining elements from two existing theories of speech sound discrimination, dual process theory (DPT) and trace context theory (TCT), a new theory, called phoneme perception theory, is proposed, consisting of a long-term phoneme memory, a context-coding memory, and a trace memory, each with its own time constants. This theory is tested by means of stop-consonant discrimination data in which interstimulus interval (ISI; values of 100, 300, and 2000 ms) is an important variable. It is shown that discrimination in which labeling plays an important part (2IFC and AX between category) benefits from increased ISI, whereas discrimination in which only sensory traces are compared (AX within category), decreases with increasing ISI. The theory is also tested on speech discrimination data from the literature in which ISI is a variable [Pisoni, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 36, 277-282 (1964); Cowan and Morse, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 79, 500-507 (1986)]. It is concluded that the number of parameters in trace context theory is not sufficient to account for most speech-sound discrimination data and that a few additional assumptions are needed, such as a form of sublabeling, in which subjects encode the quality of a stimulus as a member of a category, and which requires processing time.
Phonemic Transcriptions in British and American Dictionaries

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Rastislav Šuštaršič

2005-06-01

Full Text Available In view of recent criticisms concerning vowel symbols in some British English dictionaries (in particular by J. Windsor Lewis in JIPA (Windsor Lewis, 2003, with regard to the Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation (Upton, 2001, this article extends the discussion on English phonemic transcriptions by including those that typically occur in standard American dictionaries, and by comparing the most common conventions of British and American dictionaries. In addition to symbols for both vowels and consonants, the paper also deals with the different representations of word accentuation and the issue of consistency regarding application of phonemic (systemic, broad, rather than phonetic (allophonic, narrow transcription. The different transcriptions are assessed from the points of view of their departures from the International Phonetic Alphabet, their overlapping with orthographic representation (spelling and their appropriateness in terms of reflecting actual pronunciation in standard British and/or American pronunciation.
Investigation into Korean EFL Learners’ Acquisition of English /s/ + Consonant Onset Clusters

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Jungyoun Choi

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This paper investigated the phonological acquisition of English /s/ + consonant onset clusters by Korean learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL who varied in their levels of proficiency. The data were collected from twenty eighth-graders in a Korean secondary school, who were divided into two groups according to their proficiency: low- and high-achievement. The major findings were: 1 the high-achievement group did not use a vowel epenthesis strategy in the articulation of the /s/ + consonant onset cluster, unlike the low-achievement group; 2 the duration of /s/ pronunciation was longer in the high-achievement group, as follows: /s/ + stop + liquid, /s/ + stop, /s/ + liquid; 3 the low-achievement group’s duration of oral closure was longer than was that of the high-achievement group, as follows: /s/ + stop + liquid, s/ + stop, and 4 with regard to how /s/ + consonant onset clusters are perceived by native English speakers, /s/ + stop + liquid was related more significantly to the learners’ level of proficiency than were the biliteral consonant onset clusters. Among biliteral onsets, /s/ + stop and /s/ + liquid clusters differed significantly between the groups, while the /s/ + nasal cluster did not. Keywords: English /s/ + consonant onset clusters, L1 transfer, the sonority sequencing principle, syllable structure, L2 phonological acquisition
A Model to Rehabilitate a Fossilized Pronunciation Error of Turkish English Language Teachers: the English Consonant Phoneme ( Wrongly Articulated as ( Through Nasal Devoicing

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Mehmet Demirezen

2007-10-01

Full Text Available Turkish English language teachers have a general affinity to mispronounce theword-final /ng/ sound combination as /ŋk/ form, but not in an /Iŋ/ form, which is theright case. This is a typical case of a fossilized pronunciation. The result of thearticulation is a bad sounding articulation that gives a serious hardship to the foreignlanguage teacher. It must be borne in mind that bad pronunciation impedes and obscuresintelligibility, accuracy, fluency, and automatic control of pronunciation in the targetlanguage. The fossilized pronunciation errors keep bothering the communicativefluency of the teacher trainees and novice foreign language teachers who are on the job.Since teaching foreign languages is a vocational job, developing a good intelligiblepronunciation skill is an integral part of the profession. In this study, a very commonand wrong articulation of /N/ phoneme as /Nk/ by Turkish English teachers will be triedto be rehabilitated by using the audioarticulation model.
On Spoken English Phoneme Evaluation Method Based on Sphinx-4 Computer System

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Li Qin

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In oral English learning, HDPs (phonemes that are hard to be distinguished are areas where Chinese students frequently make mistakes in pronunciation. This paper studies a speech phoneme evaluation method for HDPs, hoping to improve the ability of individualized evaluation on HDPs and help provide a personalized learning platform for English learners. First of all, this paper briefly introduces relevant phonetic recognition technologies and pronunciation evaluation algorithms and also describes the phonetic retrieving, phonetic decoding and phonetic knowledge base in the Sphinx-4 computer system, which constitute the technological foundation for phoneme evaluation. Then it proposes an HDP evaluation model, which integrates the reliability of the speech processing system and the individualization of spoken English learners into the evaluation system. After collecting HDPs of spoken English learners and sorting them into different sets, it uses the evaluation system to recognize these HDP sets and at last analyzes the experimental results of HDP evaluation, which proves the effectiveness of the HDP evaluation model.
Shared perceptual processes in phoneme and word perception: Evidence from aphasia

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Heather Raye Dial

2014-04-01

Replicating previous studies, performance on the two word recognition tasks without closely matched distractors (WAB and PWM was at ceiling for some subjects with impairments on consonant discrimination (see Figures 1a/1b. However, as shown in Figures 1c/1d, for word processing tasks matched in phonological discriminability to the consonant discrimination task, scores on consonant discrimination and word processing were highly correlated, and no individual demonstrated substantially better performance on word than phoneme perception. One patient demonstrated worse performance on lexical decision (d’ = .21 than phoneme perception (d’ = 1.72, which can be attributed to impaired lexical or semantic processing. These data argue against the hypothesis that phoneme and word perception rely on different perceptual processes/routes for processing, and instead indicate that word perception depends on perception of sublexical units.
Reading Fluency and Speech Perception Speed of Beginning Readers with Persistent Reading Problems: The Perception of Initial Stop Consonants and Consonant Clusters

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Snellings, Patrick; van der Leij, Aryan; Blok, Henk; de Jong, Peter F.

2010-01-01

This study investigated the role of speech perception accuracy and speed in fluent word decoding of reading disabled (RD) children. A same-different phoneme discrimination task with natural speech tested the perception of single consonants and consonant clusters by young but persistent RD children. RD children were slower than chronological age…
Factors that enhance English-speaking speech-language pathologists' transcription of Cantonese-speaking children's consonants.

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Lockart, Rebekah; McLeod, Sharynne

2013-08-01

To investigate speech-language pathology students' ability to identify errors and transcribe typical and atypical speech in Cantonese, a nonnative language. Thirty-three English-speaking speech-language pathology students completed 3 tasks in an experimental within-subjects design. Task 1 (baseline) involved transcribing English words. In Task 2, students transcribed 25 words spoken by a Cantonese adult. An average of 59.1% consonants was transcribed correctly (72.9% when Cantonese-English transfer patterns were allowed). There was higher accuracy on shared English and Cantonese syllable-initial consonants /m,n,f,s,h,j,w,l/ and syllable-final consonants. In Task 3, students identified consonant errors and transcribed 100 words spoken by Cantonese-speaking children under 4 additive conditions: (1) baseline, (2) +adult model, (3) +information about Cantonese phonology, and (4) all variables (2 and 3 were counterbalanced). There was a significant improvement in the students' identification and transcription scores for conditions 2, 3, and 4, with a moderate effect size. Increased skill was not based on listeners' proficiency in speaking another language, perceived transcription skill, musicality, or confidence with multilingual clients. Speech-language pathology students, with no exposure to or specific training in Cantonese, have some skills to identify errors and transcribe Cantonese. Provision of a Cantonese-adult model and information about Cantonese phonology increased students' accuracy in transcribing Cantonese speech.
English speech acquisition in 3- to 5-year-old children learning Russian and English.

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Gildersleeve-Neumann, Christina E; Wright, Kira L

2010-10-01

English speech acquisition in Russian-English (RE) bilingual children was investigated, exploring the effects of Russian phonetic and phonological properties on English single-word productions. Russian has more complex consonants and clusters and a smaller vowel inventory than English. One hundred thirty-seven single-word samples were phonetically transcribed from 14 RE and 28 English-only (E) children, ages 3;3 (years;months) to 5;7. Language and age differences were compared descriptively for phonetic inventories. Multivariate analyses compared phoneme accuracy and error rates between the two language groups. RE children produced Russian-influenced phones in English, including palatalized consonants and trills, and demonstrated significantly higher rates of trill substitution, final devoicing, and vowel errors than E children, suggesting Russian language effects on English. RE and E children did not differ in their overall production complexity, with similar final consonant deletion and cluster reduction error rates, similar phonetic inventories by age, and similar levels of phonetic complexity. Both older language groups were more accurate than the younger language groups. We observed effects of Russian on English speech acquisition; however, there were similarities between the RE and E children that have not been reported in previous studies of speech acquisition in bilingual children. These findings underscore the importance of knowing the phonological properties of both languages of a bilingual child in assessment.
Word and phoneme frequency of occurrence in conversational ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Frequency of occurrence of Setswana consonant phonemes in a conversational sample of 49 358 Setswana-words was deter- mined. The percentage of occurrence of each consonant in each of the three positions of words was found to be 53.9% in the initial, 41.8% in the medial and 4.1% in the final positions. In addition ...
THE ( AND ( PHONEMES AS FOSSILIZED PRONUNCIATION ERRORS FOR TURKISH ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS: UNDOING THE FOSSILIZED PRONUNCIATION ERROR

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Mehmet Demirezen

2008-10-01

Full Text Available According to Haycraft, (1984: 90, “Since all humans have almost identical speechorgans, there should not be any ‘difficult’ sounds.” This is not a totally true thought becausethe nonnative speaking students apply the pronunciation rules of their native language, andthe result of such a conduct is the establishment of mother-tongue interference which boilsdown to be an unavoidable intrusion while learning a foreign language. A great majority ofpronunciation errors are due to inevitable mother-tongue pronunciation habits, which exhibitcertain resistance to the sounds of the target language. The mother-tongue association to theacquisition of some target language phonemes that are called the core sounds. (Demirezen2007e. The core sounds of the English language, such “consonants like / t ---> T, d ---> D, v---> w / and vowels like / e ---> Q, e ---> E, Q ----> E, « ---> Q, Q ---> Ã, ----> ow, V-----> Vw /, constitute the prime fossilized mistake continuum for the Turkish teachers,teacher trainees and students in learning and teaching English as a foreign language.”Demirezen, 2007e: 306. This articles aims at analyzing and offering rehabilitative solutionsto one of such core sounds, namely / Q ---> Ã / contrast that harms the pronunciation ofTurkish learners of English.
Phonemes: Lexical access and beyond.

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Kazanina, Nina; Bowers, Jeffrey S; Idsardi, William

2018-04-01

Phonemes play a central role in traditional theories as units of speech perception and access codes to lexical representations. Phonemes have two essential properties: they are 'segment-sized' (the size of a consonant or vowel) and abstract (a single phoneme may be have different acoustic realisations). Nevertheless, there is a long history of challenging the phoneme hypothesis, with some theorists arguing for differently sized phonological units (e.g. features or syllables) and others rejecting abstract codes in favour of representations that encode detailed acoustic properties of the stimulus. The phoneme hypothesis is the minority view today. We defend the phoneme hypothesis in two complementary ways. First, we show that rejection of phonemes is based on a flawed interpretation of empirical findings. For example, it is commonly argued that the failure to find acoustic invariances for phonemes rules out phonemes. However, the lack of invariance is only a problem on the assumption that speech perception is a bottom-up process. If learned sublexical codes are modified by top-down constraints (which they are), then this argument loses all force. Second, we provide strong positive evidence for phonemes on the basis of linguistic data. Almost all findings that are taken (incorrectly) as evidence against phonemes are based on psycholinguistic studies of single words. However, phonemes were first introduced in linguistics, and the best evidence for phonemes comes from linguistic analyses of complex word forms and sentences. In short, the rejection of phonemes is based on a false analysis and a too-narrow consideration of the relevant data.
Phonetic basis of phonemic paraphasias in aphasia: Evidence for cascading activation.

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Kurowski, Kathleen; Blumstein, Sheila E

2016-02-01

Phonemic paraphasias are a common presenting symptom in aphasia and are thought to reflect a deficit in which selecting an incorrect phonemic segment results in the clear-cut substitution of one phonemic segment for another. The current study re-examines the basis of these paraphasias. Seven left hemisphere-damaged aphasics with a range of left hemisphere lesions and clinical diagnoses including Broca's, Conduction, and Wernicke's aphasia, were asked to produce syllable-initial voiced and voiceless fricative consonants, [z] and [s], in CV syllables followed by one of five vowels [i e a o u] in isolation and in a carrier phrase. Acoustic analyses were conducted focusing on two acoustic parameters signaling voicing in fricative consonants: duration and amplitude properties of the fricative noise. Results show that for all participants, regardless of clinical diagnosis or lesion site, phonemic paraphasias leave an acoustic trace of the original target in the error production. These findings challenge the view that phonemic paraphasias arise from a mis-selection of phonemic units followed by its correct implementation, as traditionally proposed. Rather, they appear to derive from a common mechanism with speech errors reflecting the co-activation of a target and competitor resulting in speech output that has some phonetic properties of both segments. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Assessing the Double Phonemic Representation in Bilingual Speakers of Spanish and English: An Electrophysiological Study

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Garcia-Sierra, Adrian; Ramirez-Esparza, Nairan; Silva-Pereyra, Juan; Siard, Jennifer; Champlin, Craig A.

2012-01-01

Event Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded from Spanish-English bilinguals (N = 10) to test pre-attentive speech discrimination in two language contexts. ERPs were recorded while participants silently read magazines in English or Spanish. Two speech contrast conditions were recorded in each language context. In the "phonemic in English"…
Assessing the efficacy of hearing-aid amplification using a phoneme test

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Scheidiger, Christoph; Allen, Jont B; Dau, Torsten

2017-01-01

Consonant-vowel (CV) perception experiments provide valuable insights into how humans process speech. Here, two CV identification experiments were conducted in a group of hearing-impaired (HI) listeners, using 14 consonants followed by the vowel /ɑ/. The CVs were presented in quiet and with added......, in combination with a well-controlled phoneme speech test, may be used to assess the impact of hearing-aid signal processing on speech intelligibility....
Human phoneme recognition depending on speech-intrinsic variability.

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Meyer, Bernd T; Jürgens, Tim; Wesker, Thorsten; Brand, Thomas; Kollmeier, Birger

2010-11-01

The influence of different sources of speech-intrinsic variation (speaking rate, effort, style and dialect or accent) on human speech perception was investigated. In listening experiments with 16 listeners, confusions of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) and vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV) sounds in speech-weighted noise were analyzed. Experiments were based on the OLLO logatome speech database, which was designed for a man-machine comparison. It contains utterances spoken by 50 speakers from five dialect/accent regions and covers several intrinsic variations. By comparing results depending on intrinsic and extrinsic variations (i.e., different levels of masking noise), the degradation induced by variabilities can be expressed in terms of the SNR. The spectral level distance between the respective speech segment and the long-term spectrum of the masking noise was found to be a good predictor for recognition rates, while phoneme confusions were influenced by the distance to spectrally close phonemes. An analysis based on transmitted information of articulatory features showed that voicing and manner of articulation are comparatively robust cues in the presence of intrinsic variations, whereas the coding of place is more degraded. The database and detailed results have been made available for comparisons between human speech recognition (HSR) and automatic speech recognizers (ASR).

Predicting consonant recognition and confusions in normal-hearing listeners

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Zaar, Johannes; Dau, Torsten

2017-01-01

, Kollmeier, and Kohlrausch [(1997). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 2892–2905]. The model was evaluated based on the extensive consonant perception data set provided by Zaar and Dau [(2015). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 138, 1253–1267], which was obtained with normal-hearing listeners using 15 consonant-vowel combinations...... confusion groups. The large predictive power of the proposed model suggests that adaptive processes in the auditory preprocessing in combination with a cross-correlation based template-matching back end can account for some of the processes underlying consonant perception in normal-hearing listeners....... The proposed model may provide a valuable framework, e.g., for investigating the effects of hearing impairment and hearing-aid signal processing on phoneme recognition....
Hypernasal Speech Detection by Acoustic Analysis of Unvoiced Plosive Consonants

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Alexander Sepúlveda-Sepúlveda

2009-12-01

Full Text Available People with a defective velopharyngeal mechanism speak with abnormal nasal resonance (hypernasal speech. Voice analysis methods for hypernasality detection commonly use vowels and nasalized vowels. However to obtain a more general assessment of this abnormality it is necessary to analyze stops and fricatives. This study describes a method with high generalization capability for hypernasality detection analyzing unvoiced Spanish stop consonants. The importance of phoneme-by-phoneme analysis is shown, in contrast with whole word parametrization which includes irrelevant segments from the classification point of view. Parameters that correlate the imprints of Velopharyngeal Incompetence (VPI over voiceless stop consonants were used in the feature estimation stage. Classification was carried out using a Support Vector Machine (SVM, including the Rademacher complexity model with the aim of increasing the generalization capability. Performances of 95.2% and 92.7% were obtained in the processing and verification stages for a repeated cross-validation classifier evaluation.
The Influence of Spanish Vocabulary and Phonemic Awareness on Beginning English Reading Development: A Three-Year (K-2nd) Longitudinal Study

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Kelley, Michael F.; Roe, Mary; Blanchard, Jay; Atwill, Kim

2015-01-01

This investigation examined the influence of varying levels of Spanish receptive vocabulary and phonemic awareness ability on beginning English vocabulary, phonemic awareness, word reading fluency, and reading comprehension development across kindergarten through second grade. The 80 respondents were Spanish speaking children with no English…
A formal account of the interaction of orthography and perception : English intervocalic consonants borrowed into Italian

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Hamann, S.; Colombo, I.E.

This study presents a formal generative model that integrates perception and reading, and uses English intervocalic consonants borrowed into Italian as either singletons or geminates to illustrate how the model works. Consisting of words borrowed in the 20th century, our data show that the quantity
Articulatory Distinctiveness of Vowels and Consonants: A Data-Driven Approach

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Wang, Jun; Green, Jordan R.; Samal, Ashok; Yunusova, Yana

2013-01-01

Purpose: To quantify the articulatory distinctiveness of 8 major English vowels and 11 English consonants based on tongue and lip movement time series data using a data-driven approach. Method: Tongue and lip movements of 8 vowels and 11 consonants from 10 healthy talkers were
An Examination of Sources of Variability Across the Consonant-Nucleus-Consonant Test in Cochlear Implant Listeners

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Julie Arenberg Bierer

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The 10 consonant-nucleus-consonant (CNC word lists are considered the gold standard in the testing of cochlear implant (CI users. However, variance in scores across lists could degrade the sensitivity and reliability of them to identify deficits in speech perception. This study examined the relationship between variability in performance among lists and the lexical characteristics of the words. Data are from 28 adult CI users. Each subject was tested on all 10 CNC word lists. Data were analyzed in terms of lexical characteristics, lexical frequency, neighborhood density, bi-, and tri-phonemic probabilities. To determine whether individual performance variability across lists can be reduced, the standard set of 10 phonetically balanced 50-word lists was redistributed into a new set of lists using two sampling strategies: (a balancing with respect to word lexical frequency or (b selecting words with equal probability. The mean performance on the CNC lists varied from 53.1% to 62.4% correct. The average difference between the highest and lowest scores within individuals across the lists was 20.9% (from 12% to 28%. Lexical frequency and bi-phonemic probabilities were correlated with word recognition performance. The range of scores was not significantly reduced for all individuals when responses were simulated with 1,000 sets of redistributed lists, using both types of sampling methods. These results indicate that resampling of words does not affect the test–retest reliability and diagnostic value of the CNC word test.
A Model of Classification of Phonemic and Phonetic Negative Transfer: The case of Turkish –English Interlanguage with Pedagogical Applications

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Sinan Bayraktaroğlu

2011-04-01

Full Text Available This article introduces a model of classification of phonemic and phonetic negative- transfer based on an empirical study of Turkish-English Interlanguage. The model sets out a hierarchy of difficulties, starting from the most crucial phonemic features affecting “intelligibility”, down to other distributional, phonetic, and allophonic features which need to be acquired if a “near-native” level of phonological competence is aimed at. Unlike previous theoretical studies of predictions of classification of phonemic and phonetic L1 interference (Moulton 1962a 1962b; Wiik 1965, this model is based on an empirical study of the recorded materials of Turkish-English IL speakers transcribed allophonically using the IPA Alphabet and diacritics. For different categories of observed systematic negative- transfer and their avoidance of getting “fossilized” in the IL process, remedial exercises are recommended for the teaching and learning BBC Pronunciation. In conclusıon, few methodological phonetic techniques, approaches, and specifications are put forward for their use in designing the curriculum and syllabus content of teaching L2 pronunciation.
Hupa Consonants.

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Bennett, Ruth, Ed.; And Others

This modified alphabet booklet belongs to a series of bilingual instructional materials in Hupa and English. The booklet begins with a Hupa Unifon alphabet chart giving the symbols used to reproduce the most simple version of the sounds in the Hupa language. Nearly 200 basic vocabulary words and phrases are given. A Hupa consonant is followed by…
Contrast effects on stop consonant identification.

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Diehl, R L; Elman, J L; McCusker, S B

1978-11-01

Changes in the identification of speech sounds following selective adaptation are usually attributed to a reduction in sensitivity of auditory feature detectors. An alternative explanation of these effects is based on the notion of response contrast. In several experiments, subjects identified the initial segment of synthetic consonant-vowel syllables as either the voiced stop [b] or the voiceless stop [ph]. Each test syllable had a value of voice onset time (VOT) that placed it near the English voiced-voiceless boundary. When the test syllables were preceded by a single clear [b] (VOT = -100 msec), subjects tended to identify them as [ph], whereas when they were preceded by an unambiguous [ph] (VOT = 100 msec), the syllables were predominantly labeled [b]. This contrast effect occurred even when the contextual stimuli were velar and the test stimuli were bilabial, which suggests a featural rather than a phonemic basis for the effect. To discount the possibility that these might be instances of single-trial sensory adaptation, we conducted a similar experiment in which the contextual stimuli followed the test items. Reliable contrast effects were still obtained. In view of these results, it appears likely that response contrast accounts for at least some component of the adaptation effects reported in the literature.
Onomatopoeias: a new perspective around space, image schemas and phoneme clusters.

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Catricalà, Maria; Guidi, Annarita

2015-09-01

Onomatopoeias (grammatical) descriptive and explicative model of onomatopoeia, because the rules that constrain processes of selection and construction remain idiosyncratic and variable (Dogana in Le parole dell'incanto. FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2002; Catricalà 2011). This article proposes a classification model based on spatial cognition criteria. The hypothesis (Catricalà 2011) is that onomatopoeias are related to image schemas (Johnson in The body in the mind. University Press, Chicago, 1987), i.e. to the visual mapping of a movement. We also refer to force dynamic (Talmy in Language typology and lexical description, pp 36-149, 1985; Jackendoff in Semantic structures. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1990) as a basic model of conceptual maps (Langacker in Grammar and conceptualization. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, 1999). Categories are related to the presence of specific phonemes and phoneme clusters, while visual patterns correspond to different image schemas. The association between specific categories of pseudo-onomatopoeias and specific spatial/movement patterns is also the object of an experiment focused on onomatopoeia interpretation. Most part of data confirms a correlation between image schemas as CONTAINER/CONTAINMENT (crunch, plop) or SOURCE-PATH-GOAL (tattarrattat 'shots') and an occlusive consonant, while liquid and trill consonants correlate with PATH (vroom).
New Grapheme Generation Rules for Two-Stage Modelbased Grapheme-to-Phoneme Conversion

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Seng Kheang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The precise conversion of arbitrary text into its corresponding phoneme sequence (grapheme-to-phoneme or G2P conversion is implemented in speech synthesis and recognition, pronunciation learning software, spoken term detection and spoken document retrieval systems. Because the quality of this module plays an important role in the performance of such systems and many problems regarding G2P conversion have been reported, we propose a novel two-stage model-based approach, which is implemented using an existing weighted finite-state transducer-based G2P conversion framework, to improve the performance of the G2P conversion model. The first-stage model is built for automatic conversion of words to phonemes, while the second-stage model utilizes the input graphemes and output phonemes obtained from the first stage to determine the best final output phoneme sequence. Additionally, we designed new grapheme generation rules, which enable extra detail for the vowel and consonant graphemes appearing within a word. When compared with previous approaches, the evaluation results indicate that our approach using rules focusing on the vowel graphemes slightly improved the accuracy of the out-of-vocabulary dataset and consistently increased the accuracy of the in-vocabulary dataset.
Varying acoustic-phonemic ambiguity reveals that talker normalization is obligatory in speech processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Ja Young; Hu, Elly R; Perrachione, Tyler K

2018-04-01

The nondeterministic relationship between speech acoustics and abstract phonemic representations imposes a challenge for listeners to maintain perceptual constancy despite the highly variable acoustic realization of speech. Talker normalization facilitates speech processing by reducing the degrees of freedom for mapping between encountered speech and phonemic representations. While this process has been proposed to facilitate the perception of ambiguous speech sounds, it is currently unknown whether talker normalization is affected by the degree of potential ambiguity in acoustic-phonemic mapping. We explored the effects of talker normalization on speech processing in a series of speeded classification paradigms, parametrically manipulating the potential for inconsistent acoustic-phonemic relationships across talkers for both consonants and vowels. Listeners identified words with varying potential acoustic-phonemic ambiguity across talkers (e.g., beet/boat vs. boot/boat) spoken by single or mixed talkers. Auditory categorization of words was always slower when listening to mixed talkers compared to a single talker, even when there was no potential acoustic ambiguity between target sounds. Moreover, the processing cost imposed by mixed talkers was greatest when words had the most potential acoustic-phonemic overlap across talkers. Models of acoustic dissimilarity between target speech sounds did not account for the pattern of results. These results suggest (a) that talker normalization incurs the greatest processing cost when disambiguating highly confusable sounds and (b) that talker normalization appears to be an obligatory component of speech perception, taking place even when the acoustic-phonemic relationships across sounds are unambiguous.
An orthographic effect in phoneme processing, and its limitations

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Anne eCutler

2012-02-01

Full Text Available To examine whether lexically stored knowledge about spelling influences phoneme evaluation, we conducted three experiments with a low-level phonetic judgement task: phoneme goodness rating. In each experiment, listeners heard phonetic tokens varying along a continuum centred on /s/, occurring finally in isolated word or nonword tokens. An effect of spelling appeared in Experiment 1: Native English speakers’ goodness ratings for the best /s/ tokens were significantly higher in words spelled with S (e.g., bless than in words spelled with C (e.g., voice. No such difference appeared when nonnative speakers rated the same materials in Experiment 2, indicating that the difference could not be due to acoustic characteristics of the S- versus C-words. In Experiment 3, nonwords with lexical neighbours consistently spelled with S (e.g., pless versus with C (e.g., floice failed to elicit orthographic neighbourhood effects; no significant difference appeared in native English speakers’ ratings for the S-consistent versus the C-consistent sets. Obligatory influence of lexical knowledge on phonemic processing would have predicted such neighbourhood effects; the findings are thus better accommodated by models in which phonemic decisions draw strategically upon lexical information.
Intransigent Vowel-Consonant Position in Korean Dysgraphia: Evidence of Spatial-Constructive Representation

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HyangHee Kim

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Dysgraphia due to a focal brain lesion can be characterized by substitution, transposition, deletion and/or addition errors of graphemes or strokes. However, those linguistic errors can be language-specific because the writing system of a given language may influence error patterns. We investigated a Korean stroke patient, a 57-year-old English teacher with dysgraphia both in Korean Han-geul (한글 and in English alphabet writings. The results of an experimental testing revealed transposition errors between a consonant and a vowel only in English but not in Korean writings. This austerity of vowel-consonant position may be attributed to a unique Korean writing system of a spatially well-formed syllabic configuration or block with consonant(s and a vowel. In light of a neuropsychological model of writing, which depicts a multi-level spelling and writing process, we suggest a spatial-constructional component of internal orthographic representations in Korean writing. This Korean graphemic configuration feature may be resistant to a focal, left cerebral damage, and thus, we also discuss our results in terms of cerebral lateralization of the writing processes.
Asymmetries in Igbo consonant confusion: A perceptual investigation

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Eme

On this basis, Laver (1994:392) displays a matrix of English consonants showing their .... The stimuli were presented to the control group in an almost noise-free ... will facilitate the task of identifying the phonological content of their speech…”.
PRONUNCIATION OF CONSONANTS /ð/ AND /θ/ BY ADULT VIETNAMESE EFL LEARNERS

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Thien Sao Bui

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This study examined the pronunciation of consonants /ð/ & /θ/ by adult Vietnamese learners of English. Ten adult Vietnamese learners of English were selected to be the sample for the audiotape observation, which aimed at identifying the participants’ mistakes in pronouncing /ð/ and /θ/. Secondly, 115 learners of English in Vietnam were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding the causes of their pronunciation errors. The findings indicated that substitution phenomenon was a dominant problem in the students’ pronunciation of /θ/ and /ð/. The most outstanding problem in pronouncing the consonant /θ/ was replacing this sound by Vietnamese /t‘/. With regards to /ð/ sound, it was most frequently mispronounced as /z/. Besides, there was a new kind of mistake found: it was the tendency to pronounce /dʒ/ instead of /ð/, which has not been reported ever. Apart from that, participants also confirmed some causes of their erroneous pronunciation. As perceived by the learners themselves, the most popular causes of their problems were the lack of English exposure and practice, which implicated that an effective environment for using English was highly necessary.
First Language Grapheme-Phoneme Transparency Effects in Adult Second Language Learning

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Ijalba, Elizabeth; Obler, Loraine K.

2015-01-01

The Spanish writing system has consistent grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences (GPC), rendering it more transparent than English. We compared first-language (L1) orthographic transparency on how monolingual English- and Spanish-readers learned a novel writing system with a 1:1 (LT) and a 1:2 (LO) GPC. Our dependent variables were learning time,…
Perception of Vowel Length by Japanese- and English-Learning Infants

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Mugitani, Ryoko; Pons, Ferran; Fais, Laurel; Dietrich, Christiane; Werker, Janet F.; Amano, Shigeaki

2009-01-01

This study investigated vowel length discrimination in infants from 2 language backgrounds, Japanese and English, in which vowel length is either phonemic or nonphonemic. Experiment 1 revealed that English 18-month-olds discriminate short and long vowels although vowel length is not phonemically contrastive in English. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed…
From Hearing Sounds to Recognizing Phonemes: Primary Auditory Cortex is A Truly Perceptual Language Area

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Byron Bernal

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to present a systematic review about the anatomy, function, connectivity, and functional activation of the primary auditory cortex (PAC (Brodmann areas 41/42 when involved in language paradigms. PAC activates with a plethora of diverse basic stimuli including but not limited to tones, chords, natural sounds, consonants, and speech. Nonetheless, the PAC shows specific sensitivity to speech. Damage in the PAC is associated with so-called “pure word-deafness” (“auditory verbal agnosia”. BA41, and to a lesser extent BA42, are involved in early stages of phonological processing (phoneme recognition. Phonological processing may take place in either the right or left side, but customarily the left exerts an inhibitory tone over the right, gaining dominance in function. BA41/42 are primary auditory cortices harboring complex phoneme perception functions with asymmetrical expression, making it possible to include them as core language processing areas (Wernicke’s area.
Behavioural evidence of a dissociation between voice gender categorization and phoneme categorization using auditory morphed stimuli

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Cyril R Pernet

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Both voice gender and speech perception rely on neuronal populations located in the peri-sylvian areas. However, whilst functional imaging studies suggest a left versus right hemisphere and anterior versus posterior dissociation between voice and speech categorization, psycholinguistic studies on talker variability suggest that these two processes (voice and speech categorization share common mechanisms. In this study, we investigated the categorical perception of voice gender (male vs. female and phonemes (/pa/ vs. /ta/ using the same stimulus continua generated by morphing. This allowed the investigation of behavioural differences while controlling acoustic characteristics, since the same stimuli were used in both tasks. Despite a higher acoustic dissimilarity between items during the phoneme categorization task (a male and female voice producing the same phonemes than the gender task (the same person producing 2 phonemes, results showed that speech information is being processed much faster than voice information. In addition, f0 or timbre equalization did not affect RT, which disagrees with the classical psycholinguistic models in which voice information is stripped away or normalized to access phonetic content. Also, despite similar response (percentages and perceptual (d’ curves, a reverse correlation analysis on acoustic features revealed, as expected, that the formant frequencies of the consonant distinguished stimuli in the phoneme task, but that only the vowel formant frequencies distinguish stimuli in the gender task. The 2nd set of results thus also disagrees with models postulating that the same acoustic information is used for voice and speech. Altogether these results suggest that voice gender categorization and phoneme categorization are dissociated at an early stage on the basis of different enhanced acoustic features that are diagnostic to the task at hand.

Biomechanically Preferred Consonant-Vowel Combinations Fail to Appear in Adult Spoken Corpora

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Whalen, D. H.; Giulivi, Sara; Nam, Hosung; Levitt, Andrea G.; Hallé, Pierre; Goldstein, Louis M.

2012-01-01

Certain consonant/vowel (CV) combinations are more frequent than would be expected from the individual C and V frequencies alone, both in babbling and, to a lesser extent, in adult language, based on dictionary counts: Labial consonants co-occur with central vowels more often than chance would dictate; coronals co-occur with front vowels, and velars with back vowels (Davis & MacNeilage, 1994). Plausible biomechanical explanations have been proposed, but it is also possible that infants are mirroring the frequency of the CVs that they hear. As noted, previous assessments of adult language were based on dictionaries; these “type” counts are incommensurate with the babbling measures, which are necessarily “token” counts. We analyzed the tokens in two spoken corpora for English, two for French and one for Mandarin. We found that the adult spoken CV preferences correlated with the type counts for Mandarin and French, not for English. Correlations between the adult spoken corpora and the babbling results had all three possible outcomes: significantly positive (French), uncorrelated (Mandarin), and significantly negative (English). There were no correlations of the dictionary data with the babbling results when we consider all nine combinations of consonants and vowels. The results indicate that spoken frequencies of CV combinations can differ from dictionary (type) counts and that the CV preferences apparent in babbling are biomechanically driven and can ignore the frequencies of CVs in the ambient spoken language. PMID:23420980
Variation in stop consonant voicing in two regional varieties of American English

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Jacewicz, Ewa; Fox, Robert Allen; Lyle, Samantha

2010-01-01

This study is an acoustic investigation of the nature and extent of consonant voicing of the stop /b/ in two dialectal varieties of American English spoken in south-central Wisconsin and western North Carolina. The stop /b/ occurred at the juncture of two words such as small bids, in a position between two voiced sonorants, i.e. the liquid /l/ and a vowel. Twenty women participated, ten representing the Wisconsin and ten the North Carolina variety, respectively. Significant dialectal differences were found in the voicing patterns. The Wisconsin stop closures were usually not fully voiced and terminated in a complete silence followed by a closure release whereas North Carolina speakers produced mostly fully voiced closures. Further dialectal differences included the proportion of closure voicing as a function of word emphasis. For Wisconsin speakers, the proportion of closure voicing was smallest when the word was emphasized and it was greatest in non-emphatic positions. For North Carolina speakers, the degree of word emphasis did not have an effect on the proportion of closure voicing. The results suggest different mechanisms by which closure voicing is maintained in these two dialects, pointing to active articulatory maneuvers in North Carolina speakers and passive in Wisconsin speakers. PMID:20198112
Pattern of language-related potential maps in cluster and noncluster initial consonants in consonant-vowel (CV syllables

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Naiphinich Kotchabhakdi

2006-09-01

Full Text Available Mismatch negativity (MMN was used to investigate the processing of cluster and noncluster initial consonants in consonant vowel syllables in the human brain. The MMN was elicited by either syllable with cluster or noncluster initial consonant, phonetic contrasts being identical in both syllables. Compared to the noncluster consonant, the cluster consonant elicited a more prominent MMN. The MMN to the cluster consonant occurred later than that of the noncluster consonant. The topography of the mismatch responses showed clear left-hemispheric laterality in both syllables. However, the syllable with an initial noncluster consonant stimulus produced MMN maximum over the middle temporal gyrus, whereas maximum of the MMN activated by the syllable with initial cluster consonant was observed over the superior temporal gyrus. We suggest that the MMN component in consonant-vowel syllables is more sensitive to cluster compared to noncluster initial consonants. Spatial and temporal features of the cluster consonant indicate delayed activation of left-lateralized perisylvian cell assemblies that function as cortical memory traces of cluster initial consonant in consonant-vowel syllables.
Auditory ERB like admissible wavelet packet features for TIMIT phoneme recognition

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P.K. Sahu

2014-09-01

Full Text Available In recent years wavelet transform has been found to be an effective tool for time–frequency analysis. Wavelet transform has been used as feature extraction in speech recognition applications and it has proved to be an effective technique for unvoiced phoneme classification. In this paper a new filter structure using admissible wavelet packet is analyzed for English phoneme recognition. These filters have the benefit of having frequency bands spacing similar to the auditory Equivalent Rectangular Bandwidth (ERB scale. Central frequencies of ERB scale are equally distributed along the frequency response of human cochlea. A new sets of features are derived using wavelet packet transform's multi-resolution capabilities and found to be better than conventional features for unvoiced phoneme problems. Some of the noises from NOISEX-92 database has been used for preparing the artificial noisy database to test the robustness of wavelet based features.
English Speech Acquisition in 3- to 5-Year-Old Children Learning Russian and English

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Gildersleeve-Neumann, Christina E.; Wright, Kira L.

2010-01-01

Purpose: English speech acquisition in Russian-English (RE) bilingual children was investigated, exploring the effects of Russian phonetic and phonological properties on English single-word productions. Russian has more complex consonants and clusters and a smaller vowel inventory than English. Method: One hundred thirty-seven single-word samples…
Discovering Phonemes of Bidayuh

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Jecky Misieng

2012-07-01

Full Text Available There are generally three views of the notion of a phoneme. The structuralist view of the phoneme focuses on this language phenomenon as a phonetic reality. In discovering phonemes of a language, phonologists who hold this view will look for minimal contrasting pairs as a way to determine contrasting sounds of that language. They will also look for allophones or two sounds of the same phoneme which may appear in complementary distribution. This paper will discuss the possible application of the structuralist approach to analyzing the phonemes of a dialect of Bidayuh, one of the Malayo-Polynesian languages spoken in the northern region of Borneo.
Sonority constraints on onset-rime cohesion: evidence from native and bilingual Filipino readers of English.

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Alonzo, Angelo; Taft, Marcus

2002-01-01

Research in English suggests that syllables can be analyzed in terms of two subunits-the onset (defined as the initial consonant or consonant cluster) and the rime (the unit formed by the vowel and following consonant/s). This study investigated whether nonnative readers of English, which in the case of the present study were native Filipino speakers, also make use of onset-rime units, particularly when some features of their native language (namely infixation and reduplication) appear to foster no awareness of such units. In two lexical decision experiments, monosyllabic English words were presented, divided in between their first and second consonants (e.g., B LIND), at their onset-rime boundary (e.g., BL IND), or at their antibody boundary (e.g., BLI ND). Results indicated that the processes of infixation and reduplication did not affect the English word processing of native Filipino speakers. Rather, results for both native Filipino and native English speakers suggest that onsets composed of an "s + consonant" sequence (e.g., STAMP) are less cohesive than onsets comprised of a stop-liquid sequence (e.g., BLIND). It was concluded that not only may sonority constraints underlie onset cohesiveness, but that such phonetic properties may also be involved in visual word recognition. Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).
Perceptual Confusions Among Consonants, Revisited: Cross-Spectral Integration of Phonetic-Feature Information and Consonant Recognition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Thomas Ulrich; Greenberg, Steven

2012-01-01

The perceptual basis of consonant recognition was experimentally investigated through a study of how information associated with phonetic features (Voicing, Manner, and Place of Articulation) combines across the acoustic-frequency spectrum. The speech signals, 11 Danish consonants embedded...... in Consonant + Vowel + Liquid syllables, were partitioned into 3/4-octave bands (“slits”) centered at 750 Hz, 1500 Hz, and 3000 Hz, and presented individually and in two- or three-slit combinations. The amount of information transmitted (IT) was calculated from consonant- confusion matrices for each feature...... the bands are essentially independent in terms of decoding this feature. Because consonant recognition and Place decoding are highly correlated (correlation coefficient r2 = 0.99), these results imply that the auditory processes underlying consonant recognition are not strictly linear. This may account...
Acoustic-Phonetic Versus Lexical Processing in Nonnative Listeners Differing in Their Dominant Language.

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Shi, Lu-Feng; Koenig, Laura L

2016-09-01

Nonnative listeners have difficulty recognizing English words due to underdeveloped acoustic-phonetic and/or lexical skills. The present study used Boothroyd and Nittrouer's (1988)j factor to tease apart these two components of word recognition. Participants included 15 native English and 29 native Russian listeners. Fourteen and 15 of the Russian listeners reported English (ED) and Russian (RD) to be their dominant language, respectively. Listeners were presented 119 consonant-vowel-consonant real and nonsense words in speech-spectrum noise at +6 dB SNR. Responses were scored for word and phoneme recognition, the logarithmic quotient of which yielded j. Word and phoneme recognition was comparable between native and ED listeners but poorer in RD listeners. Analysis of j indicated less effective use of lexical information in RD than in native and ED listeners. Lexical processing was strongly correlated with the length of residence in the United States. Language background is important for nonnative word recognition. Lexical skills can be regarded as nativelike in ED nonnative listeners. Compromised word recognition in ED listeners is unlikely a result of poor lexical processing. Performance should be interpreted with caution for listeners dominant in their first language, whose word recognition is affected by both lexical and acoustic-phonetic factors.
English Sounds and Their Spellings; a Handbook for Teachers and Students. Crowell Contemporary English Series.

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Robert L.; And Others

This handbook introduces the important correspondences existing between English sounds and English spelling patterns. The lessons present the vowel sounds, one by one, along with systematically selected consonant sounds, and show how each sound or combination of sounds is usually spelled in English words. Irregularly spelled words are introduced…
Speaker-specific variability of phoneme durations

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Van Heerden, CJ

2007-11-01

Full Text Available The durations of phonemes varies for different speakers. To this end, the correlations between phonemes across different speakers are studied and a novel approach to predict unknown phoneme durations from the values of known phoneme durations for a...
How Important Is Teaching Phonemic Awareness to Children Learning to Read in Spanish?

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Goldenberg, Claude; Tolar, Tammy D.; Reese, Leslie; Francis, David J.; Bazán, Antonio Ray; Mejía-Arauz, Rebeca

2014-01-01

This comparative study examines relationships between phonemic awareness and Spanish reading skill acquisition among three groups of Spanish-speaking first and second graders: children in Mexico receiving reading instruction in Spanish and children in the United States receiving reading instruction in either Spanish or English. Children were…
Oscillatory Dynamics Underlying Perceptual Narrowing of Native Phoneme Mapping from 6 to 12 Months of Age.

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Ortiz-Mantilla, Silvia; Hämäläinen, Jarmo A; Realpe-Bonilla, Teresa; Benasich, April A

2016-11-30

During the first months of life, human infants process phonemic elements from all languages similarly. However, by 12 months of age, as language-specific phonemic maps are established, infants respond preferentially to their native language. This process, known as perceptual narrowing, supports neural representation and thus efficient processing of the distinctive phonemes within the sound environment. Although oscillatory mechanisms underlying processing of native and non-native phonemic contrasts were recently delineated in 6-month-old infants, the maturational trajectory of these mechanisms remained unclear. A group of typically developing infants born into monolingual English families, were followed from 6 to 12 months and presented with English and Spanish syllable contrasts varying in voice-onset time. Brain responses were recorded with high-density electroencephalogram, and sources of event-related potential generators identified at right and left auditory cortices at 6 and 12 months and also at frontal cortex at 6 months. Time-frequency analyses conducted at source level found variations in both θ and γ ranges across age. Compared with 6-month-olds, 12-month-olds' responses to native phonemes showed smaller and faster phase synchronization and less spectral power in the θ range, and increases in left phase synchrony as well as induced high-γ activity in both frontal and left auditory sources. These results demonstrate that infants become more automatized and efficient in processing their native language as they approach 12 months of age via the interplay between θ and γ oscillations. We suggest that, while θ oscillations support syllable processing, γ oscillations underlie phonemic perceptual narrowing, progressively favoring mapping of native over non-native language across the first year of life. During early language acquisition, typically developing infants gradually construct phonemic maps of their native language in auditory cortex. It is well
Phonemic Awareness and Young Children.

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Wasik, Barbara A.

2001-01-01

Asserts that regardless of the method used to teach reading, children first need a strong basis in phonemic awareness. Describes phonemic awareness, differentiates it from phonics, and presents available research findings. Advises on the development of phonemic awareness and creation of a classroom environment supportive of its development. (SD)
Relationships between Categorical Perception of Phonemes, Phoneme Awareness, and Visual Attention Span in Developmental Dyslexia.

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Rachel Zoubrinetzky

Full Text Available We tested the hypothesis that the categorical perception deficit of speech sounds in developmental dyslexia is related to phoneme awareness skills, whereas a visual attention (VA span deficit constitutes an independent deficit. Phoneme awareness tasks, VA span tasks and categorical perception tasks of phoneme identification and discrimination using a d/t voicing continuum were administered to 63 dyslexic children and 63 control children matched on chronological age. Results showed significant differences in categorical perception between the dyslexic and control children. Significant correlations were found between categorical perception skills, phoneme awareness and reading. Although VA span correlated with reading, no significant correlations were found between either categorical perception or phoneme awareness and VA span. Mediation analyses performed on the whole dyslexic sample suggested that the effect of categorical perception on reading might be mediated by phoneme awareness. This relationship was independent of the participants' VA span abilities. Two groups of dyslexic children with a single phoneme awareness or a single VA span deficit were then identified. The phonologically impaired group showed lower categorical perception skills than the control group but categorical perception was similar in the VA span impaired dyslexic and control children. The overall findings suggest that the link between categorical perception, phoneme awareness and reading is independent from VA span skills. These findings provide new insights on the heterogeneity of developmental dyslexia. They suggest that phonological processes and VA span independently affect reading acquisition.
Relationships between Categorical Perception of Phonemes, Phoneme Awareness, and Visual Attention Span in Developmental Dyslexia.

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Zoubrinetzky, Rachel; Collet, Gregory; Serniclaes, Willy; Nguyen-Morel, Marie-Ange; Valdois, Sylviane

2016-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that the categorical perception deficit of speech sounds in developmental dyslexia is related to phoneme awareness skills, whereas a visual attention (VA) span deficit constitutes an independent deficit. Phoneme awareness tasks, VA span tasks and categorical perception tasks of phoneme identification and discrimination using a d/t voicing continuum were administered to 63 dyslexic children and 63 control children matched on chronological age. Results showed significant differences in categorical perception between the dyslexic and control children. Significant correlations were found between categorical perception skills, phoneme awareness and reading. Although VA span correlated with reading, no significant correlations were found between either categorical perception or phoneme awareness and VA span. Mediation analyses performed on the whole dyslexic sample suggested that the effect of categorical perception on reading might be mediated by phoneme awareness. This relationship was independent of the participants' VA span abilities. Two groups of dyslexic children with a single phoneme awareness or a single VA span deficit were then identified. The phonologically impaired group showed lower categorical perception skills than the control group but categorical perception was similar in the VA span impaired dyslexic and control children. The overall findings suggest that the link between categorical perception, phoneme awareness and reading is independent from VA span skills. These findings provide new insights on the heterogeneity of developmental dyslexia. They suggest that phonological processes and VA span independently affect reading acquisition.
Relationships between Categorical Perception of Phonemes, Phoneme Awareness, and Visual Attention Span in Developmental Dyslexia

Science.gov (United States)

Zoubrinetzky, Rachel; Collet, Gregory; Serniclaes, Willy; Nguyen-Morel, Marie-Ange; Valdois, Sylviane

2016-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that the categorical perception deficit of speech sounds in developmental dyslexia is related to phoneme awareness skills, whereas a visual attention (VA) span deficit constitutes an independent deficit. Phoneme awareness tasks, VA span tasks and categorical perception tasks of phoneme identification and discrimination using a d/t voicing continuum were administered to 63 dyslexic children and 63 control children matched on chronological age. Results showed significant differences in categorical perception between the dyslexic and control children. Significant correlations were found between categorical perception skills, phoneme awareness and reading. Although VA span correlated with reading, no significant correlations were found between either categorical perception or phoneme awareness and VA span. Mediation analyses performed on the whole dyslexic sample suggested that the effect of categorical perception on reading might be mediated by phoneme awareness. This relationship was independent of the participants’ VA span abilities. Two groups of dyslexic children with a single phoneme awareness or a single VA span deficit were then identified. The phonologically impaired group showed lower categorical perception skills than the control group but categorical perception was similar in the VA span impaired dyslexic and control children. The overall findings suggest that the link between categorical perception, phoneme awareness and reading is independent from VA span skills. These findings provide new insights on the heterogeneity of developmental dyslexia. They suggest that phonological processes and VA span independently affect reading acquisition. PMID:26950210
Pronounceability: a measure of language samples based on children's mastery of the phonemes employed in them.

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Whissell, Cynthia

2003-06-01

56 samples (n > half a million phonemes) of names (e.g., men's, women's jets'), song lyrics (e.g., Paul Simon's, rap, Beatles'), poems (frequently anthologized English poems), and children's materials (books directed at children ages 3-10 years) were used to study a proposed new measure of English language samples--Pronounceability-based on children's mastery of some phonemes in advance of others. This measure was provisionally equated with greater "youthfulness" and "playfulness" in language samples and with less "maturity." Findings include the facts that women's names were less pronounceable than men's and that poetry was less pronounceable than song lyrics or children's materials. In a supplementary study, 13 university student volunteers' assessments of the youth of randomly constructed names was linearly related to how pronounceable each name was (eta = .8), providing construct validity for the interpretation of Pronounceability as a measure of Youthfulness.
Neural indices of phonemic discrimination and sentence-level speech intelligibility in quiet and noise: A P3 study.

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Koerner, Tess K; Zhang, Yang; Nelson, Peggy B; Wang, Boxiang; Zou, Hui

2017-07-01

This study examined how speech babble noise differentially affected the auditory P3 responses and the associated neural oscillatory activities for consonant and vowel discrimination in relation to segmental- and sentence-level speech perception in noise. The data were collected from 16 normal-hearing participants in a double-oddball paradigm that contained a consonant (/ba/ to /da/) and vowel (/ba/ to /bu/) change in quiet and noise (speech-babble background at a -3 dB signal-to-noise ratio) conditions. Time-frequency analysis was applied to obtain inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC) and event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) measures in delta, theta, and alpha frequency bands for the P3 response. Behavioral measures included percent correct phoneme detection and reaction time as well as percent correct IEEE sentence recognition in quiet and in noise. Linear mixed-effects models were applied to determine possible brain-behavior correlates. A significant noise-induced reduction in P3 amplitude was found, accompanied by significantly longer P3 latency and decreases in ITPC across all frequency bands of interest. There was a differential effect of noise on consonant discrimination and vowel discrimination in both ERP and behavioral measures, such that noise impacted the detection of the consonant change more than the vowel change. The P3 amplitude and some of the ITPC and ERSP measures were significant predictors of speech perception at segmental- and sentence-levels across listening conditions and stimuli. These data demonstrate that the P3 response with its associated cortical oscillations represents a potential neurophysiological marker for speech perception in noise. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Consonants, vowels and tones across Vietnamese dialects.

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PhȦm, Ben; McLeod, Sharynne

2016-04-01

Vietnamese is spoken by over 89 million people in Vietnam and it is one of the most commonly spoken languages other than English in the US, Canada and Australia. This study defines between one and nine different dialects of Vietnamese spoken in Vietnam. In Vietnamese schools, children learn Standard Vietnamese which is based on the northern dialect; however, if they live in other regions they may speak a different dialect at home. This paper describes the differences between the consonants, semivowels, vowels, diphthongs and tones for four dialects: Standard, northern, central and southern Vietnamese. The number and type of initial consonants differs per dialect (i.e. Standard = 23, northern = 20, central = 23, southern = 21). For example, the letter "r" is pronounced in the Standard and central dialects as the retroflex /ʐ/, northern dialect as the voiced alveolar fricative /z/ or the trilled /r/ and in the southern dialect as the voiced velar fricative /ɣ/. Additionally, the letter "v" is pronounced in the Standard, northern and central dialects as the voiced bilabial fricative /v/, the southern dialect as the voiced palatal approximant /j/ and in the lower northern dialect (Ninh Binh) as the voiceless bilabial fricative /f/. Similarly, the number of final consonants differs per dialect (i.e. Standard = 6, northern = 10, central = 10, southern = 8). Finally, the number and type of tones differs per dialect (i.e. Standard = 6, northern = 6, central = 5, southern = 5). Understanding differences between Vietnamese dialects is important so that speech-language pathologists and educators provide appropriate services to people who speak Vietnamese.

The status of /r/ in the pronunciation of Turkish PhD candidates and its rehabilitation by computer and audacity programs

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Mehmet Demirezen

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Today, there are two major standard varieties in English pronunciation in the world: British English (BrE, alsocalled Received Pronunciation (RP and North American English (NAE. British English is the hub of all thevarieties of English dialects. One cannot consider NAE a separate language. Within British English andAmerican English there are also a great variety of accents due the lingua franca effect of English. The ReceivedPronunciation (RP and General American (GA have received more attention than others from phoneticians andphonologists. In GA, which is a rhotic accent – /r/ phoneme, can occur in positions where many of the vowelscan be r-colored by way of realization of a following /r/. American-r is a retroflex consonant and in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet, it is indicated with a hook in the bottom right, such as [ɻ]. The retroflexapproximant /ɻ/, which is an allophone of the alveolar approximant /ɹ/, are heard in many dialects of AmericanEnglish, particularly in the Midwestern United States. One of the biggest differences between the British and theAmerican accents is that Americans always pronounce the/r/ phoneme word-initially, word-medially and wordfinally.In this paper, general situation of /r/ phoneme and special existence of retroflex-r of NAE will beexplored in the pronunciation of 45 PhD candidates, who took an oral exam at Hacettepe University, Faculty ofEducation in the Department of English Language Education on July, 11th, 2012. In this research, the existenceof /r/ phoneme will be investigated by using the Error Hunt Approach and a diagnostic test in listeningcomprehension, and a 50-minute lesson plan will be presented as a remedial rehabilitation refinement by AudioarticulationModel by computer and Audacity Program (1.2.6.
Word-final stops in Brazilian Portuguese English: acquisition and pronunciation instruction

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Walcir Cardoso

2010-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents current research on the second language acquisition of English phonology and its implication for (and applications to pronunciation instruction in the language classroom. More specifically, the paper follows the development of English word-final consonants by Brazilian Portuguese speakers learning English as a foreign language. The findings of two parallel studies reveal that the acquisition of these constituents is motivated by both extralinguistic (proficiency, style and linguistic (word size, place of articulation factors, and that the process is mediated by an intermediate stage characterized by consonant lengthening or aspiration (Onset-Nucleus sharing. Based on these results, I propose that the segments and environments that seem to delay coda production (i.e., monosyllabic words, labial and dorsal consonants should be given priority in pronunciation instruction. Along the lines of Dickerson (1975, this paper proposes (what we believe is a more effective and socially realistic pedagogy for the teaching of English pronunciation within an approach that recognizes that "variability is the norm rather than the exception" in second language acquisition.
Cross-spectral synergy and consonant identification (A)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Thomas Ulrich; Greenberg, Steven

2008-01-01

The auditory processing of consonants was investigated using an information-theoretic approach. Listeners identified eleven different Danish consonants spoken in a Consonant + Vowel + [l] environment. Each syllable was processed so that only a portion of the original audio spectrum was present. T...
Electrophysiological correlates of grapheme-phoneme conversion.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Koongliang; Itoh, Kosuke; Suwazono, Shugo; Nakada, Tsutomu

2004-08-19

The cortical processes underlying grapheme-phoneme conversion were investigated by event-related potentials (ERPs). The task consisted of silent reading or vowel-matching of three Japanese hiragana characters, each representing a consonant-vowel syllable. At earlier latencies, typical components of the visual ERP, namely, P1 (110 ms), N1 (170 ms) and P2 (300 ms), were elicited in the temporo-occipital area for both tasks as well as control task (observing the orthographic shapes of three Korean characters). Following these earlier components, two sustained negativities were identified. The earlier sustained negativity, referred here to as SN1, was found in both the silent-reading and vowel-matching task but not in the control task. The scalp distribution of SN1 was over the left occipito-temporal area, with maximum amplitude over O1. The amplitude of SN1 was larger in the vowel-matching task compared to the silent-reading task, consistent with previous reports that ERP amplitude correlates with task difficulty. SN2, the later sustained negativity, was only observed in the vowel-matching task. The scalp distribution of SN2 was over the midsagittal centro-parietal area with maximum amplitude over Cz. Elicitation of SN2 in the vowel-matching task suggested that the vowel-matching task requires a wider range of neural activities exceeding the established conventional area of language processing.
Pinyin and English Invented Spelling in Chinese-Speaking Students Who Speak English as a Second Language.

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Yi; Liu, Ru-De; McBride, Catherine A; Fan, Chung-Hau; Xu, Le; Wang, Jia

2018-05-07

This study examined pinyin (the official phonetic system that transcribes the lexical tones and pronunciation of Chinese characters) invented spelling and English invented spelling in 72 Mandarin-speaking 6th graders who learned English as their second language. The pinyin invented spelling task measured segmental-level awareness including syllable and phoneme awareness, and suprasegmental-level awareness including lexical tones and tone sandhi in Chinese Mandarin. The English invented spelling task manipulated segmental-level awareness including syllable awareness and phoneme awareness, and suprasegmental-level awareness including word stress. This pinyin task outperformed a traditional phonological awareness task that only measured segmental-level awareness and may have optimal utility to measure unique phonological and linguistic features in Chinese reading. The pinyin invented spelling uniquely explained variance in Chinese conventional spelling and word reading in both languages. The English invented spelling uniquely explained variance in conventional spelling and word reading in both languages. Our findings appear to support the role of phonological activation in Chinese reading. Our experimental linguistic manipulations altered the phonological awareness item difficulties.
Toward a model of phoneme perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Ardila, A

1993-05-01

Hemisphere asymmetry in phoneme perception was analyzed. Three basic mechanisms underlying phoneme perception are proposed. Left temporal lobe would be specialized in: (1) ultrashort auditory (echoic) memory; (2) higher resolution power for some language frequencies; and (3) recognition of rapidly changing and time-dependent auditory signals. An attempt was made to apply some neurophysiological mechanisms described for the visual system to phoneme recognition in the auditory system.
Investigating lexical competition and the cost of phonemic restoration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Balling, Laura Winther; Morris, David Jackson; Tøndering, John

2017-01-01

Due to phonemic restoration, listeners can reliably perceive words when a phoneme is replaced with noise. The cost associated with this process was investigated along with the effect of lexical uniqueness on phonemic restoration, using data from a lexical decision experiment where noise replaced...... phonemes that were either uniqueness points (the phoneme at which a word deviates from all nonrelated words that share the same onset) or phonemes immediately prior to these. A baseline condition was also included with no noise-interrupted stimuli. Results showed a significant cost of phonemic restoration......, with 100 ms longer word identification times and a 14% decrease in word identification accuracy for interrupted stimuli compared to the baseline. Regression analysis of response times from the interrupted conditions showed no effect of whether the interrupted phoneme was a uniqueness point, but significant...
Investigating Lexical Competition and the Cost of Phonemic Restoration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Balling, Laura Winther; Morris, David Jackson; Tøndering, John

2017-01-01

Due to phonemic restoration, listeners can reliably perceive words when a phoneme is replaced with noise. The cost associated with this process was investigated along with the effect of lexical uniqueness on phonemic restoration, using data from a lexical decision experiment where noise replaced...... phonemes that were either uniqueness points (the phoneme at which a word deviates from all nonrelated words that share the same onset) or phonemes immediately prior to these. A baseline condition was also included with no noise-interrupted stimuli. Results showed a significant cost of phonemic restoration......, with 100 ms longer word identification times and a 14% decrease in word identification accuracy for interrupted stimuli compared to the baseline. Regression analysis of response times from the interrupted conditions showed no effect of whether the interrupted phoneme was a uniqueness point, but significant...
THE PRINCIPLES OF PHONOLOGICAL WORD STRUCTURE COMPARISON OF RUSSIAN AND CHINESE LANGUAGES

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Alexey N. Aleksakhin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the phonological structure of words of Russian and Chinese languages. With phonological point of view the word as a Central significant unit of language is a sequence of consonants and vowel phonemes. A comparative study shows that the phonological structure of the Russian words prevail consonant phonemes and the phonological structure of the Chinese words prevail vowel phonemes. The phonological system of the Russian language is characterized by consonant dominant, and the phonological system of the Chinese language Mandarin is characterized by vocal dominant. In the vowel system of the Russian language there are six vowel phonemes, in the vowel system of the Chinese language Mandarin there are thirty-one vowel phonemes. The typical sound pattern of words of the Chinese language consists of vowel combinations. The strong (vowels differ in different effective modes of vocal cords vowels are implemented in the even phonological position; the weak vowels are implemented in the left and right odd phonological positions of the syllabic matrix 0123. Consonant phonemes of the Chinese language are implemented only in the zero phonological position. The Sound variety of simple one-syllable words of the Chinese language is constructed by oppositions: twenty-five consonants in the zero position, thirty-one strong vowel phonemes in the even position, as well as three weak vowels in the left odd position and five weak vowels in the right odd position . The typical distribution of consonant and vowel phonemes is shown in the following examples of words: 0123 - guai «obedient», gudi «rotate», guài «strange». The opposition of weak vowels with a derivative phonological zero is also an effective method of making words: guai «obedient» - gai «must» - gua « blow» - ga «a dark corner». Both Russian and Chinese Synharmonia variety of sound words is supported by five derivative phonological zeros that are phonetically in
The Principles Of Phonological Word Structure Comparison Of Russian And Chinese Languages

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Alexey N. Aleksakhin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the phonological structure of words of Russian and Chinese languages. With phonological point of view the word as a Central significant unit of language is a sequence of consonants and vowel phonemes. A comparative study shows that the phonological structure of the Russian words prevail consonant phonemes and the phonological structure of the Chinese words prevail vowel phonemes. The phonological system of the Russian language is characterized by consonant dominant, and the phonological system of the Chinese language Mandarin is characterized by vocal dominant. In the vowel system of the Russian language there are six vowel phonemes, in the vowel system of the Chinese language Mandarin there are thirty-one vowel phonemes. The typical sound pattern of words of the Chinese language consists of vowel combinations. The strong (vowels differ in different effective modes of vocal cords vowels are implemented in the even phonological position; the weak vowels are implemented in the left and right odd phonological positions of the syllabic matrix 0123. Consonant phonemes of the Chinese language are implemented only in the zero phonological position. The Sound variety of simple one-syllable words of the Chinese language is constructed by oppositions: twenty-five consonants in the zero position, thirty-one strong vowel phonemes in the even position, as well as three weak vowels in the left odd position and five weak vowels in the right odd position . The typical distribution of consonant and vowel phonemes is shown in the following examples of words: 0123 - guai «obedient», gudi «rotate», guài «strange». The opposition of weak vowels with a derivative phonological zero is also an effective method of making words: guai «obedient» - gai «must» - gua « blow» - ga «a dark corner». Both Russian and Chinese Synharmonia variety of sound words is supported by five derivative phonological zeros that are phonetically in
Word-final stops in Brazilian Portuguese English: acquisition and pronunciation instruction

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Walcir Cardoso

2008-01-01

Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2008n55p153 This paper presents current research on the second language acquisition of English phonology and its implication for (and applications to pronunciation instruction in the language classroom. More specifically, the paper follows the development of English word-final consonants by Brazilian Portuguese speakers learning English as a foreign language. The findings of two parallel studies reveal that the acquisition of these constituents is motivated by both extralinguistic (proficiency, style and linguistic (word size, place of articulation factors, and that the process is mediated by an intermediate stage characterized by consonant lengthening or aspiration (Onset-Nucleus sharing. Based on these results, I propose that the segments and environments that seem to delay coda production (i.e., monosyllabic words, labial and dorsal consonants should be given priority in pronunciation instruction. Along the lines of Dickerson (1975, this paper proposes (what we believe is a more effective and socially realistic pedagogy for the teaching of English pronunciation within an approach that recognizes that "variability is the norm rather than the exception" in second language acquisition.
PEMEROLEHAN FONOLOGI DAN METATESIS: STUDI KASUS PADA ANAK USIA 2 TAHUN 10 BULAN

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Aria Septi Anggaira

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract This study aimed to describe the phonemes produced by children aged 2 years and 10 months and describes forms of exchange or metathesis sound that occurs in producing the sounds of language in words. The data collection technique use three stages of strategic sequence. These stages are (1 a method of providing data, (2 data analysis methods, and (3 methods of presenting the results of the analysis. Data in the form of speech is transcribed into a phonetic transcription. The findings of this research are: The respondent has been able to produce almost any sounds or phonemes that exist in Indonesian. Phonemes produced consisting of consonant phonemes that are already emerging that a total of 18 phonemes: / b /, / t∫ /, / d /, / g /, / d /, / dj /, / k /, / l /, / m /, / n /, / ŋ /, / ñ /, / p /, / r /, / s /, / t /, / w /, / y /. From the 18 consonant phonemes are emerging, 8 of them have variations, so that the number of phonemes is generated as a whole is 27 consonant phonemes. Respondents have been able to produce six vowel phonemes plus two variations so that all amount to 8 vowel phonemes. It was found five pieces of diphthongs are: / au /, / ai /, / ei /, / o /, and / ua /. In the span of less than one month found 19 words that contain elements of metathesis. From the 19 words, found 5 types or form of an exchange of sounds and sound accompaniment of addition and subtraction. Keywords: language acquisition, phonology, metathesis, phonemes.
Extracting pronunciation rules for phonemic variants

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Davel, M

2006-04-01

Full Text Available Various automated techniques can be used to generalise from phonemic lexicons through the extraction of grapheme-to-phoneme rule sets. These techniques are particularly useful when developing pronunciation models for previously unmodelled languages...
Large-corpus phoneme and word recognition and the generality of lexical context in CVC word perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Gelfand, Jessica T; Christie, Robert E; Gelfand, Stanley A

2014-02-01

Speech recognition may be analyzed in terms of recognition probabilities for perceptual wholes (e.g., words) and parts (e.g., phonemes), where j or the j-factor reveals the number of independent perceptual units required for recognition of the whole (Boothroyd, 1968b; Boothroyd & Nittrouer, 1988; Nittrouer & Boothroyd, 1990). For consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonsense syllables, j ∼ 3 because all 3 phonemes are needed to identify the syllable, but j ∼ 2.5 for real-word CVCs (revealing ∼2.5 independent perceptual units) because higher level contributions such as lexical knowledge enable word recognition even if less than 3 phonemes are accurately received. These findings were almost exclusively determined with the 120-word corpus of the isophonemic word lists (Boothroyd, 1968a; Boothroyd & Nittrouer, 1988), presented one word at a time. It is therefore possible that its generality or applicability may be limited. This study thus determined j by using a much larger and less restricted corpus of real-word CVCs presented in 3-word groups as well as whether j is influenced by test size. The j-factor for real-word CVCs was derived from the recognition performance of 223 individuals with a broad range of hearing sensitivity by using the Tri-Word Test (Gelfand, 1998), which involves 50 three-word presentations and a corpus of 450 words. The influence of test size was determined from a subsample of 96 participants with separate scores for the first 10, 20, and 25 (and all 50) presentation sets of the full test. The mean value of j was 2.48 with a 95% confidence interval of 2.44-2.53, which is in good agreement with values obtained with isophonemic word lists, although its value varies among individuals. A significant correlation was found between percent-correct scores and j, but it was small and accounted for only 12.4% of the variance in j for phoneme scores ≥60%. Mean j-factors for the 10-, 20-, 25-, and 50-set test sizes were between 2.49 and 2.53 and were not
Investigating lexical competition and the cost of phonemic restoration.

Science.gov (United States)

Balling, Laura Winther; Morris, David Jackson; Tøndering, John

2017-12-01

Due to phonemic restoration, listeners can reliably perceive words when a phoneme is replaced with noise. The cost associated with this process was investigated along with the effect of lexical uniqueness on phonemic restoration, using data from a lexical decision experiment where noise replaced phonemes that were either uniqueness points (the phoneme at which a word deviates from all nonrelated words that share the same onset) or phonemes immediately prior to these. A baseline condition was also included with no noise-interrupted stimuli. Results showed a significant cost of phonemic restoration, with 100 ms longer word identification times and a 14% decrease in word identification accuracy for interrupted stimuli compared to the baseline. Regression analysis of response times from the interrupted conditions showed no effect of whether the interrupted phoneme was a uniqueness point, but significant effects for several temporal attributes of the stimuli, including the duration and position of the interrupted segment. These results indicate that uniqueness points are not distinct breakpoints in the cohort reduction that occurs during lexical processing, but that temporal properties of the interrupted stimuli are central to auditory word recognition. These results are interpreted in the context of models of speech perception.
Elegant grapheme-phoneme correspondence: a periodic chart and singularity generalization unify decoding.

Science.gov (United States)

Gates, Louis

2017-12-11

The accompanying article introduces highly transparent grapheme-phoneme relationships embodied within a Periodic table of decoding cells, which arguably presents the quintessential transparent decoding elements. The study then folds these cells into one highly transparent but simply stated singularity generalization-this generalization unifies the decoding cells (97% transparency). Deeper, the periodic table and singularity generalization together highlight the connectivity of the periodic cells. Moreover, these interrelated cells, coupled with the singularity generalization, clarify teaching targets and enable efficient learning of the letter-sound code. This singularity generalization, in turn, serves as a model for creating unified but easily stated subordinate generalizations for any one of the transparent cells or groups of cells shown within the tables. The article then expands the periodic cells into two tables of teacher-ready sample word lists-one table includes sample words for the basic and phonogram vowel cells, and the other table embraces word samples for the transparent consonant cells. The paper concludes with suggestions for teaching the cellular transparency embedded within reoccurring isolated words and running text to promote decoding automaticity of the periodic cells.
A PHONETIC CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH WORDS IN THREE JAPANESE SONGS BY AKB48

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Harwintha Y. Anjarningsih

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Many studies have revealed how Japanese speakers pronounce English words differently. However, not much research has explained the causes of the difference, let alone relating such difference with native language interference. By drawing a comparison between the sound structures of the English and Japanese languages using Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH, we will see how native language may influence foreign language usage and cause pronunciation differences in popular songs. Transcriptions of three AKB48’s songs – Heavy Rotation, Sugar Rush, and Namida Surprise – will be used as the data sources to determine native language interference. Our findings show that additions of vowel sounds, changes of syllable, changes of height and place of vowel articulation, replacements of a consonant with another consonant, and elisions of consonants happened to the English words across the three songs. These phonetic changes should inform discussions about the relationship between lyrics and melody in songs that incorporate two or more languages (i.e., bilingual.
Consonance perception of complex-tone dyads and chords

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Marc; Santurette, Sébastien; MacDonald, Ewen

2014-01-01

Sensory consonance and dissonance are perceptual attributes of musical intervals conveying pleasant- ness, tension, and harmony in musical phrases. For complex-tone dyads, corresponding to two musical notes played simultaneously, consonance is known to vary with the ratio in fundamental frequency...... for a potential role of frequency selectivity for consonance perception of dyads, might not hold for chords...
Consonant/vowel asymmetry in early word form recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Poltrock, Silvana; Nazzi, Thierry

2015-03-01

Previous preferential listening studies suggest that 11-month-olds' early word representations are phonologically detailed, such that minor phonetic variations (i.e., mispronunciations) impair recognition. However, these studies focused on infants' sensitivity to mispronunciations (or omissions) of consonants, which have been proposed to be more important for lexical identity than vowels. Even though a lexically related consonant advantage has been consistently found in French from 14 months of age onward, little is known about its developmental onset. The current study asked whether French-learning 11-month-olds exhibit a consonant-vowel asymmetry when recognizing familiar words, which would be reflected in vowel mispronunciations being more tolerated than consonant mispronunciations. In a baseline experiment (Experiment 1), infants preferred listening to familiar words over nonwords, confirming that at 11 months of age infants show a familiarity effect rather than a novelty effect. In Experiment 2, which was constructed using the familiar words of Experiment 1, infants preferred listening to one-feature vowel mispronunciations over one-feature consonant mispronunciations. Given the familiarity preference established in Experiment 1, this pattern of results suggests that recognition of early familiar words is more dependent on their consonants than on their vowels. This adds another piece of evidence that, at least in French, consonants already have a privileged role in lexical processing by 11 months of age, as claimed by Nespor, Peña, and Mehler (2003). Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Language Specific Listening of Japanese Geminate Consonants: Cross-linguistic study

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Makiko eSadakata

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Various aspects of linguistic experience influence the way we segment, represent, and process speech signals. The Japanese phonetic and orthographic systems represent geminate consonants (double consonants, e.g. /ss/, /kk/ in a unique way compared to other languages: one abstract representation is used to characterize the first part of geminate consonants despite the acoustic difference between two distinct realizations of geminate consonants (silence in the case of e.g. stop consonants and elongation in the case of fricative consonants. The current study tests this discrepancy between abstract representations and acoustic realizations influences how native speakers of Japanese perceive geminate consonants. The experiments used pseudo words containing either the geminate consonant /ss/ or a manipulated version in which the first part was replaced by silence /_s/. The sound /_s/ is acoustically similar to /ss/, yet does not occur in everyday speech. Japanese listeners demonstrated a bias to group these two types into the same category while Italian and Dutch listeners distinguished them. The results thus confirmed that distinguishing fricative geminate consonants with silence from those with sustained frication is not crucial for Japanese native listening. Based on this observation, we propose that native speakers of Japanese tend to segment geminated consonants into two parts and that the first portion of fricative geminates is perceptually similar to a silent duration. This representation is compatible with both Japanese orthography and phonology. Unlike previous studies that were inconclusive in how native speakers segment geminate consonants, our study demonstrated relatively strong effect of Japanese specific listening. Thus the current experimental methods may open up new lines of investigation into the relationship between development of phonological representation, orthography and speech perception.

Phonology in English language teaching an international approach

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Pennington, Martha C

2014-01-01

Phonology in English Language Teaching is an introductory text, specifically directed at the needs of language teachers internationally. Combining an overview of English phonology with structured practical guidance, this text shows how phonology can be applied in the classroom.An introductory chapter provides the philosophical framework, followed by separate chapters on the phonology of consonants, vowels and prosody. As well as presenting core material on English phonology, the book explores the relationship of orthography to the English sound system from a historical and a pre
Phonemic awareness as a pathway to number transcoding

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Júlia Beatriz Lopes-Silva

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Although verbal and numerical abilities have a well-established interaction, the impact of phonological processing on numeric abilities remains elusive. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of phonemic awareness in number processing and to explore its association with other functions such as working memory and magnitude processing. One hundred seventy-two children in 2nd grade to 4th grade were evaluated in terms of their intelligence, number transcoding, phonemic awareness, verbal and visuospatial working memory and number sense (nonsymbolic magnitude comparison performance. All of the children had normal intelligence. Among these measurements of magnitude processing, working memory and phonemic awareness, only the last was retained in regression and path models predicting transcoding ability. Phonemic awareness mediated the influence of verbal working memory on number transcoding. The evidence suggests that phonemic awareness significantly affects number transcoding. Such an association is robust and should be considered in cognitive models of both dyslexia and dyscalculia.
Cultural and biological evolution of phonemic speech

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Boer, B.; Freitas, A.A.; Capcarrere, M.S.; Bentley, Peter J.; Johnson, Colin G.; Timmis, Jon

2005-01-01

This paper investigates the interaction between cultural evolution and biological evolution in the emergence of phonemic coding in speech. It is observed that our nearest relatives, the primates, use holistic utterances, whereas humans use phonemic utterances. It can therefore be argued that our
Cultural Consonance, Religion and Psychological Distress in an Urban Community

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William W. Dressler

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals approximate prototypes encoded in cultural models. Low cultural consonance is associated with higher psychological distress. Religion may moderate the association between cultural consonance and psychological distress. Brazil, with substantial variation in religion, is an important society for the examination of this hypothesis. Research was conducted in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, using a mixed-methods design. Measures of cultural consonance were derived using ethnographic methods and then applied in a survey of 271 individuals drawn from four distinct social strata. Low cultural consonance was associated with higher psychological distress in multiple regression analysis ( B = -.430, p < .001. Members of Pentecostal Protestant churches reported lower psychological distress independently of the effect of cultural consonance ( B = -.409, p < .05. There was no buffering effect of religion. Implications of these results for the study of religion and health are discussed.
English Syllabic Consonants and Quantity Factor in Educated ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Nekky Umera

Therefore // and syllabic /, , / occur typically in unstressed syllables. It is established in the literature reviewed on Standard Spoken. English that a vowel occurring in an unstressed position is more often than not reduced to the schwa sound // or totally elided. In some instances, especially at word boundaries, the elided vowel ...
Physiologic discrimination of stop consonants relates to phonological skills in pre-readers: A biomarker for subsequent reading ability?

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Travis eWhite-Schwoch

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Reading development builds upon the accurate representation of the phonological structure of spoken language. This representation and its neural foundations have been studied extensively with respect to reading due to pervasive performance deficits on basic phonological tasks observed in children with dyslexia. The subcortical auditory system—a site of intersection for sensory and cognitive input—is exquisitely tuned to code fine timing differences between phonemes, and so likely plays a foundational role in the development of phonological processing and, eventually, reading. This temporal coding of speech varies systematically with reading ability in school age children. Little is known, however, about subcortical speech representation in pre-school age children. We measured auditory brainstem responses to the stop consonants [ba] and [ga] in a cohort of 4-year-old children and assessed their phonological skills. In a typical auditory system, brainstem responses to [ba] and [ga] are out of phase (i.e., differ in time due to formant frequency differences in the consonant-vowel transitions of the stimuli. We found that children who performed worst on the phonological awareness task insufficiently code this difference, revealing a physiologic link between early phonological skills and the neural representation of speech. We discuss this finding in light of existing theories of the role of the auditory system in developmental dyslexia, and argue for a systems-level perspective for understanding the importance of precise temporal coding for learning to read.
Neural speech recognition: continuous phoneme decoding using spatiotemporal representations of human cortical activity

Science.gov (United States)

Moses, David A.; Mesgarani, Nima; Leonard, Matthew K.; Chang, Edward F.

2016-10-01

Objective. The superior temporal gyrus (STG) and neighboring brain regions play a key role in human language processing. Previous studies have attempted to reconstruct speech information from brain activity in the STG, but few of them incorporate the probabilistic framework and engineering methodology used in modern speech recognition systems. In this work, we describe the initial efforts toward the design of a neural speech recognition (NSR) system that performs continuous phoneme recognition on English stimuli with arbitrary vocabulary sizes using the high gamma band power of local field potentials in the STG and neighboring cortical areas obtained via electrocorticography. Approach. The system implements a Viterbi decoder that incorporates phoneme likelihood estimates from a linear discriminant analysis model and transition probabilities from an n-gram phonemic language model. Grid searches were used in an attempt to determine optimal parameterizations of the feature vectors and Viterbi decoder. Main results. The performance of the system was significantly improved by using spatiotemporal representations of the neural activity (as opposed to purely spatial representations) and by including language modeling and Viterbi decoding in the NSR system. Significance. These results emphasize the importance of modeling the temporal dynamics of neural responses when analyzing their variations with respect to varying stimuli and demonstrate that speech recognition techniques can be successfully leveraged when decoding speech from neural signals. Guided by the results detailed in this work, further development of the NSR system could have applications in the fields of automatic speech recognition and neural prosthetics.
English as a Foreign Language Spelling: Comparisons between Good and Poor Spellers

Science.gov (United States)

Russak, Susie; Kahn-Horwitz, Janina

2015-01-01

This study examined English as a foreign language (EFL) spelling development amongst 233 fifth-grade, eighth-grade and 10th-grade Hebrew first-language speakers to examine effects of English orthographic exposure on spelling. Good and poor speller differences were examined regarding the acquisition of novel phonemes (/ae/, /?/ and /?/) and…
The ( and ( Contrast as a Case of Fossilized Pronunciation Error for Turkish English Teachers

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Mehmet Demirezen

2007-04-01

Full Text Available The ƒËƒÁƒÍ, called ¡§ash¡¨ and ƒË„ƒÍ, called ¡§schwa¡¨ are very frequent phonemes inEnglish language that confuse the Turkish teachers of English. The main reason for thisconfusion is that both of them do not exist in modern standard Turkish. Another reasonis the reduction of ƒËƒÁƒÍ into ƒË„ƒÍ in word formation process with the accompaniment ofthe change of primary stress to another syllable. For example, milk maƒ°n, post maƒ°n, andgate maƒ°n are phrases by nature, but in a process of compounding they take themorphological form of milkmaƒtn, poƒ°stmaƒtn, and gaƒ°temaƒtn through a phonological decayof the /ƒÁ/ phoneme into /„/ phoneme with the reduction of the primary stress of the freeword maƒ°n into the weak stress form like -maƒtn, relegating it into the position of a boundmorpheme. This article, through a model lesson plan, will explore such sound changesthat confuse the Turkish English teachers.
Contrast of Lexical Motivation Between English And Chinese

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

周倩

2015-01-01

This thesis aims to make a contrast between English and Chinese in their lexical motivation in order to seek the source of form and meaning to further promote the study,explanation and application of lexical meaning.The contrast of lexical motivation is mainly discussed from three aspects:phonological motivation,morphological motivation and semantic motivation.Through the combination of diachronic study with synchronic study,the conclusion is drawn:the English lexicon is basically arbitrary while the Chinese one is highly motivated,namely,Chinese motivation is much more obvious than that of English for Chinese is an ideographic language and English is a phonemic language.
Contrast of Lexical Motivation Between English And Chinese

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

周倩

2015-01-01

[ABSTRACT]This thesis aims to make a contrast between English and Chinese in their lexical motivation in order to seek the source of form and meaning to further promote the study,explanation and application of lexical meaning.The contrast of lexical motivation is mainly discussed from three aspects:phonological motivation,morphological motivation and semantic motivation.Through the combinationof diachronic study with synchronic study,the conclusion is drawn:the English lexicon is basically arbitrary while the Chinese one is highly motivated,namely,Chinese motivation is much more obvious than that of English for Chinese is an ideographic language and English is a phonemic language.
The Linguistic Affiliation Constraint and Phoneme Recognition in Diglossic Arabic

Science.gov (United States)

Saiegh-Haddad, Elinor; Levin, Iris; Hende, Nareman; Ziv, Margalit

2011-01-01

This study tested the effect of the phoneme's linguistic affiliation (Standard Arabic versus Spoken Arabic) on phoneme recognition among five-year-old Arabic native speaking kindergarteners (N=60). Using a picture selection task of words beginning with the same phoneme, and through careful manipulation of the phonological properties of target…
Phonemic restoration in developmental dyslexia

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Stephanie N. Del Tufo

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The comprehension of fluent speech in one’s native language requires that listeners integrate the detailed acoustic-phonetic information available in the sound signal with linguistic knowledge. This interplay is especially apparent in the phoneme restoration effect, a phenomenon in which a missing phoneme is ‘restored’ via the influence of top-down information from the lexicon and through bottom-up acoustic processing. Developmental dyslexia is a disorder characterized by an inability to read at the level of one’s peers without any clear failure due to environmental influences. In the current study we utilized the phonemic restoration illusion paradigm, to examine individual differences in phonemic restoration across a range of reading ability, from very good to dyslexic readers. Results demonstrate that restoration occurs less in those who have high scores on measures of phonological processing. Based on these results, we suggest that the processing or representation of acoustic detail may not be as reliable in poor and dyslexic readers, with the result that lexical information is more likely to override acoustic properties of the stimuli. This pattern of increased restoration could result from a failure of perceptual tuning, in which unstable representations of speech sounds result in the acceptance of non-speech sounds as speech. An additional or alternative theory is that degraded or impaired phonological processing at the speech sound level may reflect architecture that is overly plastic and consequently fails to stabilize appropriately for speech sound representations. Therefore the inability to separate speech and noise may result as a deficit in separating noise from the acoustic signal.
The basis of musical consonance as revealed by congenital amusia.

Science.gov (United States)

Cousineau, Marion; McDermott, Josh H; Peretz, Isabelle

2012-11-27

Some combinations of musical notes sound pleasing and are termed "consonant," but others sound unpleasant and are termed "dissonant." The distinction between consonance and dissonance plays a central role in Western music, and its origins have posed one of the oldest and most debated problems in perception. In modern times, dissonance has been widely believed to be the product of "beating": interference between frequency components in the cochlea that has been believed to be more pronounced in dissonant than consonant sounds. However, harmonic frequency relations, a higher-order sound attribute closely related to pitch perception, has also been proposed to account for consonance. To tease apart theories of musical consonance, we tested sound preferences in individuals with congenital amusia, a neurogenetic disorder characterized by abnormal pitch perception. We assessed amusics' preferences for musical chords as well as for the isolated acoustic properties of beating and harmonicity. In contrast to control subjects, amusic listeners showed no preference for consonance, rating the pleasantness of consonant chords no higher than that of dissonant chords. Amusics also failed to exhibit the normally observed preference for harmonic over inharmonic tones, nor could they discriminate such tones from each other. Despite these abnormalities, amusics exhibited normal preferences and discrimination for stimuli with and without beating. This dissociation indicates that, contrary to classic theories, beating is unlikely to underlie consonance. Our results instead suggest the need to integrate harmonicity as a foundation of music preferences, and illustrate how amusia may be used to investigate normal auditory function.
Auditory Phoneme Discrimination in Illiterates: Mismatch Negativity--A Question of Literacy?

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Schaadt, Gesa; Pannekamp, Ann; van der Meer, Elke

2013-01-01

These days, illiteracy is still a major problem. There is empirical evidence that auditory phoneme discrimination is one of the factors contributing to written language acquisition. The current study investigated auditory phoneme discrimination in participants who did not acquire written language sufficiently. Auditory phoneme discrimination was…
Identification and discrimination of English unreleased voiceless stops: data from Brazilian learners

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Reiner Vinicius Perozzo

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This study investigates how Brazilian EFL learners, living in Porto Alegre (RS, perceive the differences in place of articulation of the American English unreleased voiceless stops [p¬], [t¬], and [k¬], in word-final position. Thirty-two undergraduate students (leveled as having basic and intermediate proficiency In English, taking their English major at UFRGS, participated in the research study. In order to verify the perceptual accuracy regarding the place of articulation of the consonants, two psycholinguistic tasks containing CVC words (whose nuclear segments were represented by front vowels were conducted. The results suggest that: (a the segments [p¬] and [k¬] are perceived much more accurately than the segment [t¬]; (b there were higher levels of accuracy in the tasks when the nuclear segment was a short/lax vowel; and (c the participants’ level of proficiency is not crucial to the perceptual accuracy of the consonants which were tested.
Predictive Validity of Early Literacy Measures for Korean English Language Learners in the United States

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Han, Jeanie Nam; Vanderwood, Michael L.; Lee, Catherine Y.

2015-01-01

This study examined the predictive validity of early literacy measures with first-grade Korean English language learners (ELLs) in the United States at varying levels of English proficiency. Participants were screened using Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF), DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency…
Intelligibility in Context Scale: Normative and Validation Data for English-Speaking Preschoolers.

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McLeod, Sharynne; Crowe, Kathryn; Shahaeian, Ameneh

2015-07-01

The purpose of this study was to describe normative and validation data on the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS; McLeod, Harrison, & McCormack, 2012c) for English-speaking children. The ICS is a 7-item, parent-report measure of children's speech intelligibility with a range of communicative partners. Data were collected from the parents of 803 Australian English-speaking children ranging in age from 4;0 (years;months) to 5;5 (37.0% were multilingual). The mean ICS score was 4.4 (SD = 0.7) out of a possible total score of 5. Children's speech was reported to be most intelligible to their parents, followed by their immediate family, friends, and teachers; children's speech was least intelligible to strangers. The ICS had high internal consistency (α = .94). Significant differences in scores were identified on the basis of sex and age but not on the basis of socioeconomic status or the number of languages spoken. There were significant differences in scores between children whose parents had concerns about their child's speech (M = 3.9) and those who did not (M = 4.6). A sensitivity of .82 and a specificity of .58 were established as the optimal cutoff. Test-retest reliability and criterion validity were established for 184 children with a speech sound disorder. There was a significant low correlation between the ICS mean score and percentage of phonemes correct (r = .30), percentage of consonants correct (r = .24), and percentage of vowels correct (r = .30) on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (Dodd, Hua, Crosbie, Holm, & Ozanne, 2002). Thirty-one parents completed the ICS related to English and another language spoken by their child with a speech sound disorder. The significant correlations between the scores suggest that the ICS may be robust between languages. This article provides normative ICS data for English-speaking children and additional validation of the psychometric properties of the ICS. The robustness of the ICS was suggested
Verbal fluency in bilingual Spanish/English Alzheimer's disease patients.

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Salvatierra, Judy; Rosselli, Monica; Acevedo, Amarilis; Duara, Ranjan

2007-01-01

Studies have demonstrated that in verbal fluency tests, monolinguals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show greater difficulties retrieving words based on semantic rather than phonemic rules. The present study aimed to determine whether this difficulty was reproduced in both languages of Spanish/English bilinguals with mild to moderate AD whose primary language was Spanish. Performance on semantic and phonemic verbal fluency of 11 bilingual AD patients was compared to the performance of 11 cognitively normal, elderly bilingual individuals matched for gender, age, level of education, and degree of bilingualism. Cognitively normal subjects retrieved significantly more items under the semantic condition compared to the phonemic, whereas the performance of AD patients was similar under both conditions, suggesting greater decline in semantic verbal fluency tests. This pattern was produced in both languages, implying a related semantic decline in both languages. Results from this study should be considered preliminary because of the small sample size.
Functions of graphemic and phonemic codes in visual word-recognition.

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Meyer, D E; Schvaneveldt, R W; Ruddy, M G

1974-03-01

Previous investigators have argued that printed words are recognized directly from visual representations and/or phonological representations obtained through phonemic recoding. The present research tested these hypotheses by manipulating graphemic and phonemic relations within various pairs of letter strings. Ss in two experiments classified the pairs as words or nonwords. Reaction times and error rates were relatively small for word pairs (e.g., BRIBE-TRIBE) that were both graphemically, and phonemically similar. Graphemic similarity alone inhibited performance on other word pairs (e.g., COUCH-TOUCH). These and other results suggest that phonological representations play a significant role in visual word recognition and that there is a dependence between successive phonemic-encoding operations. An encoding-bias model is proposed to explain the data.

Complexity in phonology: The complex consonants of simple CV ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The main objective of this article is to investigate the interplay of simplicity and complexity in the phonological structure of Zezuru. The article argues that Zezuru affricates, prenasalised consonants (NCs) and velarised consonants (Cws) are subsegmentally complex segments which function as simple onsets. Treating them ...
Nurturing Phonemic Awareness and Alphabetic Knowledge in Pre-Kindergartners.

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Steinhaus, Patricia L.

Reading research continues to identify phonemic awareness and knowledge of the alphabetic principle as key factors in the literacy acquisition process and to indicate that they greatly facilitate decoding efforts. While research indicates that phonemic awareness and alphabetic knowledge are necessary to literacy acquisition, many early childhood…
Phoneme Similarity and Confusability

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Bailey, T.M.; Hahn, U.

2005-01-01

Similarity between component speech sounds influences language processing in numerous ways. Explanation and detailed prediction of linguistic performance consequently requires an understanding of these basic similarities. The research reported in this paper contrasts two broad classes of approach to the issue of phoneme similarity-theoretically…
Spectro-Temporal Analysis of Speech for Spanish Phoneme Recognition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sharifzadeh, Sara; Serrano, Javier; Carrabina, Jordi

2012-01-01

are considered. This has improved the recognition performance especially in case of noisy situation and phonemes with time domain modulations such as stops. In this method, the 2D Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) is applied on small overlapped 2D Hamming windowed patches of spectrogram of Spanish phonemes...
What Does the Right Hemisphere Know about Phoneme Categories?

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Wolmetz, Michael; Poeppel, David; Rapp, Brenda

2011-01-01

Innate auditory sensitivities and familiarity with the sounds of language give rise to clear influences of phonemic categories on adult perception of speech. With few exceptions, current models endorse highly left-hemisphere-lateralized mechanisms responsible for the influence of phonemic category on speech perception, based primarily on results…
Predicting effects of hearing-instrument signal processing on consonant perception

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zaar, Johannes; Schmitt, Nicola; Derleth, Ralph-Peter

2017-01-01

–1064] that combines an auditory processing front end with a correlation-based template-matching back end. In terms of HA processing, effects of strong nonlinear frequency compression and impulse-noise suppression were measured in 10 NH listeners using consonant-vowel stimuli. Regarding CI processing, the consonant......This study investigated the influence of hearing-aid (HA) and cochlear-implant (CI) processing on consonant perception in normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Measured data were compared to predictions obtained with a speech perception model [Zaar and Dau (2017). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 141, 1051...... perception data from DiNino et al. [(2016). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 140, 4404-4418] were considered, which were obtained with noise-vocoded vowel-consonant-vowel stimuli in 12 NH listeners. The inputs to the model were the same stimuli as were used in the corresponding experiments. The model predictions obtained...
Evaluation of articulation of Turkish phonemes after removable partial denture application

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Özbeki Murat

2003-01-01

Full Text Available In this study, the adaptation of patients to removable partial dentures was evaluated related to articulation of Turkish phonemes. Articulation of /t,d,n,l,r/, /g,k/, /b,p,m/ and /s,z,Õ,v,f,y,j,h,c/ phonemes were evaluated by three speech pathologists, on records taken from 15 patients before the insertion of a removable partial denture, just after insertion, and one week later. The test consisted of evaluation of phoneme articulation of independent syllables in terms of distortion, omission, substitution, mass effect, hypernasality and hyponasality. Data were evaluated with Cochrane Q, McNemar and Kruskal-Wallis tests. The results showed that for some phonemes, problems in articulation occurred after the insertion of a removable partial denture while for others a significant amelioration was observed after the insertion of a removable partial denture. In general, problems in articulation of evaluated phonemes were resolved after one week of use.
Integrated Phoneme Subspace Method for Speech Feature Extraction

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Park Hyunsin

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Speech feature extraction has been a key focus in robust speech recognition research. In this work, we discuss data-driven linear feature transformations applied to feature vectors in the logarithmic mel-frequency filter bank domain. Transformations are based on principal component analysis (PCA, independent component analysis (ICA, and linear discriminant analysis (LDA. Furthermore, this paper introduces a new feature extraction technique that collects the correlation information among phoneme subspaces and reconstructs feature space for representing phonemic information efficiently. The proposed speech feature vector is generated by projecting an observed vector onto an integrated phoneme subspace (IPS based on PCA or ICA. The performance of the new feature was evaluated for isolated word speech recognition. The proposed method provided higher recognition accuracy than conventional methods in clean and reverberant environments.
Tracking the emergence of the consonant bias in visual-word recognition: evidence with developing readers.

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Soares, Ana Paula; Perea, Manuel; Comesaña, Montserrat

2014-01-01

Recent research with skilled adult readers has consistently revealed an advantage of consonants over vowels in visual-word recognition (i.e., the so-called "consonant bias"). Nevertheless, little is known about how early in development the consonant bias emerges. This work aims to address this issue by studying the relative contribution of consonants and vowels at the early stages of visual-word recognition in developing readers (2(nd) and 4(th) Grade children) and skilled adult readers (college students) using a masked priming lexical decision task. Target words starting either with a consonant or a vowel were preceded by a briefly presented masked prime (50 ms) that could be the same as the target (e.g., pirata-PIRATA [pirate-PIRATE]), a consonant-preserving prime (e.g., pureto-PIRATA), a vowel-preserving prime (e.g., gicala-PIRATA), or an unrelated prime (e.g., bocelo -PIRATA). Results revealed significant priming effects for the identity and consonant-preserving conditions in adult readers and 4(th) Grade children, whereas 2(nd) graders only showed priming for the identity condition. In adult readers, the advantage of consonants was observed both for words starting with a consonant or a vowel, while in 4(th) graders this advantage was restricted to words with an initial consonant. Thus, the present findings suggest that a Consonant/Vowel skeleton should be included in future (developmental) models of visual-word recognition and reading.
Consonant acquisition in the Malay language: a cross-sectional study of preschool aged Malay children.

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Phoon, Hooi San; Abdullah, Anna Christina; Lee, Lay Wah; Murugaiah, Puvaneswary

2014-05-01

To date, there has been little research done on phonological acquisition in the Malay language of typically developing Malay-speaking children. This study serves to fill this gap by providing a systematic description of Malay consonant acquisition in a large cohort of preschool-aged children between 4- and 6-years-old. In the study, 326 Malay-dominant speaking children were assessed using a picture naming task that elicited 53 single words containing all the primary consonants in Malay. Two main analyses were conducted to study their consonant acquisition: (1) age of customary and mastery production of consonants; and (2) consonant accuracy. Results revealed that Malay children acquired all the syllable-initial and syllable-final consonants before 4;06-years-old, with the exception of syllable-final /s/, /h/ and /l/ which were acquired after 5;06-years-old. The development of Malay consonants increased gradually from 4- to 6 years old, with female children performing better than male children. The accuracy of consonants based on manner of articulation showed that glides, affricates, nasals, and stops were higher than fricatives and liquids. In general, syllable-initial consonants were more accurate than syllable-final consonants while consonants in monosyllabic and disyllabic words were more accurate than polysyllabic words. These findings will provide significant information for speech-language pathologists for assessing Malay-speaking children and designing treatment objectives that reflect the course of phonological development in Malay.
Why not model spoken word recognition instead of phoneme monitoring?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vroomen, J.; de Gelder, B.

2000-01-01

Norris, McQueen & Cutler present a detailed account of the decision stage of the phoneme monitoring task. However, we question whether this contributes to our understanding of the speech recognition process itself, and we fail to see why phonotactic knowledge is playing a role in phoneme
Frequency Selective Filtering of the Modulation Spectrum and its Impact on Consonant Identification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Thomas Ulrich; Greenberg, Steven

2005-01-01

The spectro-temporal coding of Danish consonants was investigated using an information-theoretic approach. Listeners were asked to identify eleven different consonants spoken in a CV[l] syllable context (where C refers to the initial consonant, V refers to one of three vowels, [I, a, u], and [l] ....... In addition, the analysis provides a means to associate specific portions of the modulation spectrum with phonetic feature properties. Such analyses indicate that: (1) Accurate, robust decoding of place-of-articulation information requires broadband cross-spectral integration (2) Place......-of-articulation information is associated most closely with the modulation spectrum above 6 Hz, with the most significant contribution coming from the region above 12 Hz. (3) Place-of-articulation information is crucial for accurate consonant recognition. Hence, consonant decoding requires cross-spectral integration...
Learning to Read Setswana and English: Cross-Language Transference of Letter Knowledge, Phonological Awareness and Word Reading Skills

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Lekgoko, Olemme; Winskel, Heather

2008-01-01

The current study investigates how beginner readers learn to read Setswana and English, and whether there is cross-language transference of skills between these two languages. Letter knowledge, phoneme awareness and reading of words and pseudowords in both Setswana and English were assessed in 36 Grade 2 children. A complex pattern emerged.…
Constraints of Tones, Vowels and Consonants on Lexical Selection in Mandarin Chinese.

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Wiener, Seth; Turnbull, Rory

2016-03-01

Previous studies have shown that when speakers of European languages are asked to turn nonwords into words by altering either a vowel or consonant, they tend to treat vowels as more mutable than consonants. These results inspired the universal vowel mutability hypothesis: listeners learn to cope with vowel variability because vowel information constrains lexical selection less tightly and allows for more potential candidates than does consonant information. The present study extends the word reconstruction paradigm to Mandarin Chinese--a Sino-Tibetan language, which makes use of lexically contrastive tone. Native speakers listened to word-like nonwords (e.g., su3) and were asked to change them into words by manipulating a single consonant (e.g., tu3), vowel (e.g., si3), or tone (e.g., su4). Additionally, items were presented in a fourth condition in which participants could change any part. The participants' reaction times and responses were recorded. Results revealed that participants responded faster and more accurately in both the free response and the tonal change conditions. Unlike previous reconstruction studies on European languages, where vowels were changed faster and more often than consonants, these results demonstrate that, in Mandarin, changes to vowels and consonants were both overshadowed by changes to tone, which was the preferred modification to the stimulus nonwords, while changes to vowels were the slowest and least accurate. Our findings show that the universal vowel mutability hypothesis is not consistent with a tonal language, that Mandarin tonal information is lower-priority than consonants and vowels and that vowel information most tightly constrains Mandarin lexical access.
Effects of emotion on different phoneme classes

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Lee, Chul Min; Yildirim, Serdar; Bulut, Murtaza; Busso, Carlos; Kazemzadeh, Abe; Lee, Sungbok; Narayanan, Shrikanth

2004-10-01

This study investigates the effects of emotion on different phoneme classes using short-term spectral features. In the research on emotion in speech, most studies have focused on prosodic features of speech. In this study, based on the hypothesis that different emotions have varying effects on the properties of the different speech sounds, we investigate the usefulness of phoneme-class level acoustic modeling for automatic emotion classification. Hidden Markov models (HMM) based on short-term spectral features for five broad phonetic classes are used for this purpose using data obtained from recordings of two actresses. Each speaker produces 211 sentences with four different emotions (neutral, sad, angry, happy). Using the speech material we trained and compared the performances of two sets of HMM classifiers: a generic set of ``emotional speech'' HMMs (one for each emotion) and a set of broad phonetic-class based HMMs (vowel, glide, nasal, stop, fricative) for each emotion type considered. Comparison of classification results indicates that different phoneme classes were affected differently by emotional change and that the vowel sounds are the most important indicator of emotions in speech. Detailed results and their implications on the underlying speech articulation will be discussed.
Relating Pitch Awareness to Phonemic Awareness in Children: Implications for Tone-Deafness and Dyslexia

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Psyche eLoui

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Language and music are complex cognitive and neural functions that rely on awareness of one’s own sound productions. Information on the awareness of vocal pitch, and its relation to phonemic awareness which is crucial for learning to read, will be important for understanding the relationship between tone-deafness and developmental language disorders such as dyslexia. Here we show that phonemic awareness skills are positively correlated with pitch perception-production skills in children. Children between the ages of 7 and 9 were tested on pitch perception and production, phonemic awareness, and IQ. Results showed a significant positive correlation between pitch perception-production and phonemic awareness, suggesting that the relationship between musical and linguistic sound processing is intimately linked to awareness at the level of pitch and phonemes. Since tone-deafness is a pitch-related impairment and dyslexia is a deficit of phonemic awareness, we suggest that dyslexia and tone-deafness may have a shared and/or common neural basis.
How culture shapes the body: cultural consonance and body mass in urban Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Dressler, William W; Oths, Kathryn S; Balieiro, Mauro C; Ribeiro, Rosane P; Dos Santos, José Ernesto

2012-01-01

The aim of this article is to develop a model of how culture shapes the body, based on two studies conducted in urban Brazil. Research was conducted in 1991 and 2001 in four socioeconomically distinct neighborhoods. First, cultural domain analyses were conducted with samples of key informants. The cultural domains investigated included lifestyle, social support, family life, national identity, and food. Cultural consensus analysis was used to confirm shared knowledge in each domain and to derive measures of cultural consonance. Cultural consonance assesses how closely an individual matches the cultural consensus model for each domain. Second, body composition, cultural consonance, and related variables were assessed in community surveys. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the association of cultural consonance and body composition, controlling for standard covariates and competing explanatory variables. In 1991, in a survey of 260 individuals, cultural consonance had a curvilinear association with the body mass index that differed for men and women, controlling for sociodemographic and dietary variables. In 2001, in a survey of 267 individuals, cultural consonance had a linear association with abdominal circumference that differed for men and women, controlling for sociodemographic and dietary variables. In general, as cultural consonance increases, body mass index and abdominal circumference decline, more strongly for women than men. As individuals, in their own beliefs and behaviors, more closely approximate shared cultural models in socially salient domains, body composition also more closely approximates the cultural prototype of the body. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Sources of variability in consonant perception of normal-hearing listeners

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zaar, Johannes; Dau, Torsten

2015-01-01

between responses. The speech-induced variability across and within talkers and the across-listener variability were substantial and of similar magnitude. The noise-induced variability, obtained with time-shifted realizations of the same random process, was smaller but significantly larger than the amount......Responses obtained in consonant perception experiments typically show a large variability across stimuli of the same phonetic identity. The present study investigated the influence of different potential sources of this response variability. It was distinguished between source-induced variability......, referring to perceptual differences caused by acoustical differences in the speech tokens and/or the masking noise tokens, and receiver-related variability, referring to perceptual differences caused by within- and across-listener uncertainty. Consonant-vowel combinations consisting of 15 consonants...
English as a Foreign Language Spelling Development: A Longitudinal Study

Science.gov (United States)

Kahn-Horwitz, Janina; Sparks, Richard L.; Goldstein, Zahava

2012-01-01

English as a foreign language (EFL) spelling was examined longitudinally three times (4th, 9th, 12th grades) during 9 years of EFL study among Hebrew first language (L1) students. The study examined the impact of L1 literacy variables including phonemic awareness, word attack, and spelling on EFL spelling and the relationship between EFL literacy…
Effects of non-stationary noise on consonant identification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zaar, Johannes; Kowalewski, Borys; Dau, Torsten

2018-01-01

recognition scores were inversely related to the amount of simultaneous masking. However, even with minimum simultaneous masking, a substantial loss of consonant recognition was observed at low SNRs, suggesting a forward masking effect. The model, which employs adaptive processes in the front end, accounted...... in such conditions. Normal-hearing listeners were presented with 15 Danish CVs in 5-Hz interrupted noise at SNRs of −20, −10, 0, and 10 dB. Five different CV onset times with respect to the noise bursts were considered, differing in the amount of induced simultaneous and forward masking. As expected, the consonant...

Processing of syllable stress is functionally different from phoneme processing and does not profit from literacy acquisition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ulrike eSchild

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Speech is characterized by phonemes and prosody. Neurocognitive evidence supports the separate processing of each type of information. Therefore, one might suggest individual development of both pathways. In this study, we examine literacy acquisition in middle childhood. Children become aware of the phonemes in speech at that time and refine phoneme processing when they acquire an alphabetic writing system. We test whether an enhanced sensitivity to phonemes in middle childhood extends to other aspects of the speech signal, such as prosody. To investigate prosodic processing, we used stress priming. Spoken stressed and unstressed syllables (primes preceded spoken German words with stress on the first syllable (targets. We orthogonally varied stress overlap and phoneme overlap between the primes and onsets of the targets. Lexical decisions and Event-Related Potentials (ERPs for the targets were obtained for pre-reading preschoolers, reading pupils and adults. The behavioral and ERP results were largely comparable across all groups. The fastest responses were observed when the first syllable of the target word shared stress and phonemes with the preceding prime. ERP stress priming and ERP phoneme priming started 200 ms after the target word onset. Bilateral ERP stress priming was characterized by enhanced ERP amplitudes for stress overlap. Left-lateralized ERP phoneme priming replicates previously observed reduced ERP amplitudes for phoneme overlap. Groups differed in the strength of the behavioral phoneme priming and in the late ERP phoneme priming effect. The present results show that enhanced phonological processing in middle childhood is restricted to phonemes and does not extend to prosody. These results are indicative of two parallel processing systems for phonemes and prosody that might follow different developmental trajectories in middle childhood as a function of alphabetic literacy.
Impact of Cyrillic on Native English Speakers' Phono-lexical Acquisition of Russian.

Science.gov (United States)

Showalter, Catherine E

2018-03-01

We investigated the influence of grapheme familiarity and native language grapheme-phoneme correspondences during second language lexical learning. Native English speakers learned Russian-like words via auditory presentations containing only familiar first language phones, pictured meanings, and exposure to either Cyrillic orthographic forms (Orthography condition) or the sequence (No Orthography condition). Orthography participants saw three types of written forms: familiar-congruent (e.g., -[kom]), familiar-incongruent (e.g., -[rɑt]), and unfamiliar (e.g., -[fil]). At test, participants determined whether pictures and words matched according to what they saw during word learning. All participants performed near ceiling in all stimulus conditions, except for Orthography participants on words containing incongruent grapheme-phoneme correspondences. These results suggest that first language grapheme-phoneme correspondences can cause interference during second language phono-lexical acquisition. In addition, these results suggest that orthographic input effects are robust enough to interfere even when the input does not contain novel phones.
Universal and Language-Specific Constraints on Phonemic Awareness: Evidence from Russian-Hebrew Bilingual Children

Science.gov (United States)

Saiegh-Haddad, Elinor; Kogan, Nadya; Walters, Joel

2010-01-01

The study tested phonemic awareness in the two languages of Russian (L1)-Hebrew (L2) sequential bilingual children (N = 20) using phoneme deletion tasks where the phoneme to be deleted occurred word initial, word final, as a singleton, or part of a cluster, in long and short words and stressed and unstressed syllables. The experiments were…
Frequency Selective Filtering of the Modulation Spectrum and its Impact on Consonant Identification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Thomas Ulrich; Greenberg, Steven

2009-01-01

The spectro-temporal coding of Danish consonants was investigated using an information-theoretic approach. Listeners were asked to identify eleven different consonants spoken in a CV[l] syllable context (where C refers to the initial consonant, V refers to one of three vowels, [I, a, u], and [l] ...... of information-theoretic analysis can be used to delineate those parts of the speech signal of greatest importance for encoding phonetic features associated with intelligibility and speech understanding....
Consonant and Syllable Structure Patterns in Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Developmental Change in Three Children

Science.gov (United States)

Jacks, Adam; Marquardt, Thomas P.; Davis, Barbara L.

2006-01-01

Changes in consonant and syllable-level error patterns of three children diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) were investigated in a 3-year longitudinal study. Spontaneous speech samples were analyzed to assess the accuracy of consonants and syllables. Consonant accuracy was low overall, with most frequent errors on middle- and…
Using Start/End Timings of Spectral Transitions Between Phonemes in Concatenative Speech Synthesis

OpenAIRE

Toshio Hirai; Seiichi Tenpaku; Kiyohiro Shikano

2002-01-01

The definition of "phoneme boundary timing" in a speech corpus affects the quality of concatenative speech synthesis systems. For example, if the selected speech unit is not appropriately match to the speech unit of the required phoneme environment, the quality may be degraded. In this paper, a dynamic segment boundary defi- nition is proposed. In the definition, the concatenation point is chosen from the start or end timings of spectral transition depending on the phoneme environment at the ...
Stochastic Model for Phonemes Uncovers an Author-Dependency of Their Usage.

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Weibing; Allahverdyan, Armen E

2016-01-01

We study rank-frequency relations for phonemes, the minimal units that still relate to linguistic meaning. We show that these relations can be described by the Dirichlet distribution, a direct analogue of the ideal-gas model in statistical mechanics. This description allows us to demonstrate that the rank-frequency relations for phonemes of a text do depend on its author. The author-dependency effect is not caused by the author's vocabulary (common words used in different texts), and is confirmed by several alternative means. This suggests that it can be directly related to phonemes. These features contrast to rank-frequency relations for words, which are both author and text independent and are governed by the Zipf's law.
Articulación de fones en individuos clase esqueletal I,II y III Speech patterns in skeletal class I, II and III subjects

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Pía Villanueva

2009-09-01

Full Text Available OBJETIVO: determinar los patrones de articulación de fones consonánticos en sujetos de habla española chilena clases I, II y III esqueletal; comparar las diferencias fonéticas que existan entre clases esqueletales. MÉTODOS: se seleccionaron 54 individuos que cumplían con los criterios de inclusión determinados mediante un examen clínico intraoral y a través del análisis de Ricketts, y se conformaron los grupos de estudio de pacientes clases esqueletales I, II y III. Se les realizó un examen fonoarticulatorio estandarizado para determinar los fones modificados y el patrón articulatorio compensatorio realizado. RESULTADOS: se observaron cambios en el punto de articulación de fones consonánticos en las tres clases esqueletales, con diferencias significativas en los grupos de fones anteriores y medios entre pacientes clases I y II, sólo en el grupo de los fones anteriores entre pacientes I y III. Entre pacientes clases II y III no se observaron diferencias significativas. Se reportan modificaciones y compensaciones cualitativamente distintas entre las clases esqueletales. CONCLUSIONES: en relación a pacientes clase I, los pacientes clase II o III, presentan distinto grado de modificación en el punto de articulación de fones consonánticos. Las diferencias observadas se relacionan con los patrones esqueletales propios de cada clase.PURPOSE: to determine the consonant phonemes articulation patterns in Chilean skeletal class I, II and III Spanish speakers and compare their phonetic differences. METHODS: fifty-four skeletal class I, II and III subjects were selected, based on intraoral clinical examination and Ricketts cephalometric analysis, constituting the study groups. A standardized phonoarticulatory test was applied to each patient to determine the modified phonemes and their compensatory patterns. RESULTS: the findings indicate changes in articulation in all three groups. Significant differences were found in anterior and medium
Vowel reduction in word-final position by early and late Spanish-English bilinguals.

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Emily Byers

Full Text Available Vowel reduction is a prominent feature of American English, as well as other stress-timed languages. As a phonological process, vowel reduction neutralizes multiple vowel quality contrasts in unstressed syllables. For bilinguals whose native language is not characterized by large spectral and durational differences between tonic and atonic vowels, systematically reducing unstressed vowels to the central vowel space can be problematic. Failure to maintain this pattern of stressed-unstressed syllables in American English is one key element that contributes to a "foreign accent" in second language speakers. Reduced vowels, or "schwas," have also been identified as particularly vulnerable to the co-articulatory effects of adjacent consonants. The current study examined the effects of adjacent sounds on the spectral and temporal qualities of schwa in word-final position. Three groups of English-speaking adults were tested: Miami-based monolingual English speakers, early Spanish-English bilinguals, and late Spanish-English bilinguals. Subjects performed a reading task to examine their schwa productions in fluent speech when schwas were preceded by consonants from various points of articulation. Results indicated that monolingual English and late Spanish-English bilingual groups produced targeted vowel qualities for schwa, whereas early Spanish-English bilinguals lacked homogeneity in their vowel productions. This extends prior claims that schwa is targetless for F2 position for native speakers to highly-proficient bilingual speakers. Though spectral qualities lacked homogeneity for early Spanish-English bilinguals, early bilinguals produced schwas with near native-like vowel duration. In contrast, late bilinguals produced schwas with significantly longer durations than English monolinguals or early Spanish-English bilinguals. Our results suggest that the temporal properties of a language are better integrated into second language phonologies than
Some differences between English and Romanian resultative constructions

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Imola-Ágnes Farkas

2009-01-01

Full Text Available It is a generally accepted fact that Romance languages behave differently from English and other Germanic languages as far as the building of resultative constructions is concerned. The wide availability of resultatives in English is in sharp contrast with their less frequent occurrence in Romanian; not to mention the view according to which there are no such constructions in Romanian at all. In the present paper we focus our attention on some differences between the resultatives in English and Romanian. Most importantly, English resultatives can be built on activity, as well as accomplishment matrix verbs; whereas Romanian allows only resultatives built on accomplishment verbs. This approach is consonant with Kayne’s (2005 theory about the existence/non-existence of silent elements in the two (families of languages; we explain this difference between the two languages in terms of the presence/absence of a silent UP TO element.
Influence of current input-output and age of first exposure on phonological acquisition in early bilingual Spanish-English-speaking kindergarteners.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruiz-Felter, Roxanna; Cooperson, Solaman J; Bedore, Lisa M; Peña, Elizabeth D

2016-07-01

Although some investigations of phonological development have found that segmental accuracy is comparable in monolingual children and their bilingual peers, there is evidence that language use affects segmental accuracy in both languages. To investigate the influence of age of first exposure to English and the amount of current input-output on phonological accuracy in English and Spanish in early bilingual Spanish-English kindergarteners. Also whether parent and teacher ratings of the children's intelligibility are correlated with phonological accuracy and the amount of experience with each language. Data for 91 kindergarteners (mean age = 5;6 years) were selected from a larger dataset focusing on Spanish-English bilingual language development. All children were from Central Texas, spoke a Mexican Spanish dialect and were learning American English. Children completed a single-word phonological assessment with separate forms for English and Spanish. The assessment was analyzed for segmental accuracy: percentage of consonants and vowels correct and percentage of early-, middle- and late-developing (EML) sounds correct were calculated. Children were more accurate on vowel production than consonant production and showed a decrease in accuracy from early to middle to late sounds. The amount of current input-output explained more of the variance in phonological accuracy than age of first English exposure. Although greater current input-output of a language was associated with greater accuracy in that language, English-dominant children were only significantly more accurate in English than Spanish on late sounds, whereas Spanish-dominant children were only significantly more accurate in Spanish than English on early sounds. Higher parent and teacher ratings of intelligibility in Spanish were correlated with greater consonant accuracy in Spanish, but the same did not hold for English. Higher intelligibility ratings in English were correlated with greater current English
A Phonemic and Acoustic Analysis of Hindko Oral Stops

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Haroon Ur RASHID

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Hindko is an Indo-Aryan language that is mainly spoken in Khyber Pukhtoonkhaw province of Pakistan. This work aims to identify the oral stops of Hindko and determine the intrinsic acoustic cues for them. The phonemic analysis is done with the help of minimal pairs and phoneme distribution in contrastive environments which reveals that Hindko has twelve oral stops with three way series. The acoustic analysis of these segments shows that intrinsically voice onset time (VOT, closure duration and burst are reliable and distinguishing cues of stops in Hindko.
Consonant harmony in Nilotic: contrastive specifications and Stratal OT

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Sara Mackenzie

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Through analyses of dental harmony in four Nilotic languages, this paper argues both for contrastive representations and for a stratal version of Optimality Theory. Dholuo, Päri, Shilluk and Anywa all have dental harmony patterns which bar the co-occurrence of dental and alveolar segments. Details of the dental harmony patterning vary between languages and are tied to contrasts in the inventory. In Anywa, harmony is non-structure-preserving and an allophonic dental nasal surfaces in harmonic forms. This pattern can be analyzed in a stratal model of OT but leads to a ranking paradox if only a single level of evaluation is used. Further support for a stratal analysis can be found in the interaction between harmony and consonant mutation processes in the four languages. In Dholuo, harmony applies at the stem level and consonant mutation results in disharmonic surface forms in morphologically complex words. In Anywa, harmony applies later, at the word level, and words formed through consonant mutation must obey the dental harmony restrictions.
Teacher candidates' mastery of phoneme-grapheme correspondence: massed versus distributed practice in teacher education.

Science.gov (United States)

Sayeski, Kristin L; Earle, Gentry A; Eslinger, R Paige; Whitenton, Jessy N

2017-04-01

Matching phonemes (speech sounds) to graphemes (letters and letter combinations) is an important aspect of decoding (translating print to speech) and encoding (translating speech to print). Yet, many teacher candidates do not receive explicit training in phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Difficulty with accurate phoneme production and/or lack of understanding of sound-symbol correspondence can make it challenging for teachers to (a) identify student errors on common assessments and (b) serve as a model for students when teaching beginning reading or providing remedial reading instruction. For students with dyslexia, lack of teacher proficiency in this area is particularly problematic. This study examined differences between two learning conditions (massed and distributed practice) on teacher candidates' development of phoneme-grapheme correspondence knowledge and skills. An experimental, pretest-posttest-delayed test design was employed with teacher candidates (n = 52) to compare a massed practice condition (one, 60-min session) to a distributed practice condition (four, 15-min sessions distributed over 4 weeks) for learning phonemes associated with letters and letter combinations. Participants in the distributed practice condition significantly outperformed participants in the massed practice condition on their ability to correctly produce phonemes associated with different letters and letter combinations. Implications for teacher preparation are discussed.
Stochastic Model for Phonemes Uncovers an Author-Dependency of Their Usage.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Weibing Deng

Full Text Available We study rank-frequency relations for phonemes, the minimal units that still relate to linguistic meaning. We show that these relations can be described by the Dirichlet distribution, a direct analogue of the ideal-gas model in statistical mechanics. This description allows us to demonstrate that the rank-frequency relations for phonemes of a text do depend on its author. The author-dependency effect is not caused by the author's vocabulary (common words used in different texts, and is confirmed by several alternative means. This suggests that it can be directly related to phonemes. These features contrast to rank-frequency relations for words, which are both author and text independent and are governed by the Zipf's law.
Phonemes as short time cognitive components

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Feng, Ling; Hansen, Lars Kai

2006-01-01

are the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language. Generalizable components were found deriving from phonemes based on homomorphic filtering features with basic time scale (20 msec). We sparsified the features based on energy as a preprocessing means to eliminate the intrinsic noise. Independent...
Orthography-Induced Transfer in the Production of English-Speaking Learners of Spanish

Science.gov (United States)

Rafat, Yasaman

2016-01-01

This article reports on a study on the effect of orthography on L1-based phonological transfer in L2 production in 40 novice English-speaking learners of Spanish. In particular, the role of auditory-orthographic training and production and the influence of grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences are examined. Data elicited via a picture-naming task…
Impaired Perception of Sensory Consonance and Dissonance in Cochlear Implant Users.

Science.gov (United States)

Caldwell, Meredith T; Jiradejvong, Patpong; Limb, Charles J

2016-03-01

In light of previous research demonstrating poor pitch perception in cochlear implant (CI) users, we hypothesized that the presence of consonant versus dissonant chord accompaniment in real-world musical stimuli would not impact subjective assessment of degree of pleasantness in CI users. Consonance/dissonance are perceptual features of harmony resulting from pitch relationships between simultaneously presented musical notes. Generally, consonant sounds are perceived as pleasant and dissonant ones as unpleasant. CI users exhibit impairments in pitch perception, making music listening difficult and often unenjoyable. To our knowledge, consonance/dissonance perception has not been studied in the CI population. Twelve novel melodies were created for this study. By altering the harmonic structures of the accompanying chords, we created three permutations of varying dissonance for each melody (36 stimuli in all). Ten CI users and 12 NH listeners provided Likert scale ratings from -5 (very unpleasant) to +5 (very pleasant) for each of the stimuli. A two-way ANOVA showed main effects for Dissonance Level and Subject Type as well as a two-way interaction between the two. Pairwise comparisons indicated that NH stimuli pleasantness ratings decreased with increasing dissonance, whereas CI ratings did not. NH pleasantness ratings were consistently lower than CI ratings. For CI users, consonant versus dissonant chord accompaniment had no significant impact on whether a melody was considered pleasant or unpleasant. This finding may be partially responsible for the decreased enjoyment of many CI users during music perception and is another manifestation of impaired pitch perception in CI users.
Beyond Phonics: The Case for Teaching Children the Logic of the English Spelling System

Science.gov (United States)

Bowers, Jeffrey S.; Bowers, Peter N.

2017-01-01

A large body of research supports the conclusion that early reading instruction in English should emphasize phonics, that is, the teaching of grapheme-phoneme correspondences. By contrast, we argue that instruction should be designed to make sense of spellings by teaching children that spellings are organized around the interrelation of…
Developmental surface and phonological dyslexia in both Greek and English.

Science.gov (United States)

Sotiropoulos, Andreas; Hanley, J Richard

2017-11-01

The hallmark of developmental surface dyslexia in English and French is inaccurate reading of words with atypical spelling-sound correspondences. According to Douklias, Masterson and Hanley (2009), surface dyslexia can also be observed in Greek (a transparent orthography for reading that does not contain words of this kind). Their findings suggested that surface dyslexia in Greek can be characterized by slow reading of familiar words, and by inaccurate spelling of words with atypical sound-spelling correspondences (Greek is less transparent for spelling than for reading). In this study, we report seven adult cases whose slow reading and impaired spelling accuracy satisfied these criteria for Greek surface dyslexia. When asked to read words with atypical grapheme-phoneme correspondences in English (their second language), their accuracy was severely impaired. A co-occurrence was also observed between impaired spelling of words with atypical phoneme-grapheme correspondences in English and Greek. These co-occurrences provide strong evidence that surface dyslexia genuinely exists in Greek and that slow reading of real words in Greek reflects the same underlying impairment as that which produces inaccurate reading of atypical words in English. Two further individuals were observed with impaired reading and spelling of nonwords in both languages, consistent with developmental phonological dyslexia. Neither of the phonological dyslexics read words slowly. In terms of computational models of reading aloud, these findings suggest that slow reading by dyslexics in transparent orthographies is the consequence of a developmental impairment of the lexical (Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Zeigler, 2001; Perry, Ziegler, & Zorzi, 2010) or semantic reading route (Plaut, McClelland, Seidenberg, & Patterson, 1996). This outcome provides evidence that the neurophysiological substrate(s) that support the lexical/semantic and the phonological pathways that are involved in reading

On the (infissibility of intervocalic consonants in Norwegian and German: Evidence from a word game

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Martin Krämer

2013-02-01

Full Text Available The syllabification of word- or morpheme-internal consonants, especially those preceded by short vowels, in Germanic languages has been subject to various analyses and there is generally not much consensus on the analysis of single string-internal consonants in these languages. This paper presents the results of a study based on a word game, carried out with German and Norwegian subjects, that provides evidence for a differential analysis of string-internal syllable junctures and consonants in these two languages. We conclude that in German a consonant preceded by a short/lax stressed vowel is best analysed as short and ambisyllabic while in Norwegian a consonant in the same environment is a geminate that contributes weight to the preceding syllable via its mora even though it is parsed in the following syllable. The analysis highlights the need for orthogonal syllable and moraic representations.
Biomechanically Preferred Consonant-Vowel Combinations Fail to Appear in Adult Spoken Corpora

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Whalen, D. H.; Giulivi, Sara; Nam, Hosung; Levitt, Andrea G.; Halle, Pierre; Goldstein, Louis M.

2012-01-01

Certain consonant/vowel (CV) combinations are more frequent than would be expected from the individual C and V frequencies alone, both in babbling and, to a lesser extent, in adult language, based on dictionary counts: Labial consonants co-occur with central vowels more often than chance would dictate; coronals co-occur with front vowels, and…
English Voicing in Dimensional Theory*

Science.gov (United States)

Iverson, Gregory K.; Ahn, Sang-Cheol

2007-01-01

Assuming a framework of privative features, this paper interprets two apparently disparate phenomena in English phonology as structurally related: the lexically specific voicing of fricatives in plural nouns like wives or thieves and the prosodically governed “flapping” of medial /t/ (and /d/) in North American varieties, which we claim is itself not a rule per se, but rather a consequence of the laryngeal weakening of fortis /t/ in interaction with speech-rate determined segmental abbreviation. Taking as our point of departure the Dimensional Theory of laryngeal representation developed by Avery & Idsardi (2001), along with their assumption that English marks voiceless obstruents but not voiced ones (Iverson & Salmons 1995), we find that an unexpected connection between fricative voicing and coronal flapping emerges from the interplay of familiar phonemic and phonetic factors in the phonological system. PMID:18496590
Shallow versus deep footprints in pseudo-word grapheme-to-phoneme conversion: Dutch and English

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Borgwaldt, S.R.; Bolger, P.; Jakab, E.

2010-01-01

Our study is concerned with reading processes. Using a letter-detection paradigm with masked priming, we tested for the existence and time course of vowel digraph effects in Dutch and English. Whereas Dutch readers showed digraph effects with 67-ms primes, English readers showed only letter effects
Automatic phoneme category selectivity in the dorsal auditory stream.

Science.gov (United States)

Chevillet, Mark A; Jiang, Xiong; Rauschecker, Josef P; Riesenhuber, Maximilian

2013-03-20

Debates about motor theories of speech perception have recently been reignited by a burst of reports implicating premotor cortex (PMC) in speech perception. Often, however, these debates conflate perceptual and decision processes. Evidence that PMC activity correlates with task difficulty and subject performance suggests that PMC might be recruited, in certain cases, to facilitate category judgments about speech sounds (rather than speech perception, which involves decoding of sounds). However, it remains unclear whether PMC does, indeed, exhibit neural selectivity that is relevant for speech decisions. Further, it is unknown whether PMC activity in such cases reflects input via the dorsal or ventral auditory pathway, and whether PMC processing of speech is automatic or task-dependent. In a novel modified categorization paradigm, we presented human subjects with paired speech sounds from a phonetic continuum but diverted their attention from phoneme category using a challenging dichotic listening task. Using fMRI rapid adaptation to probe neural selectivity, we observed acoustic-phonetic selectivity in left anterior and left posterior auditory cortical regions. Conversely, we observed phoneme-category selectivity in left PMC that correlated with explicit phoneme-categorization performance measured after scanning, suggesting that PMC recruitment can account for performance on phoneme-categorization tasks. Structural equation modeling revealed connectivity from posterior, but not anterior, auditory cortex to PMC, suggesting a dorsal route for auditory input to PMC. Our results provide evidence for an account of speech processing in which the dorsal stream mediates automatic sensorimotor integration of speech and may be recruited to support speech decision tasks.
Influence of consonant voicing characteristics on sentence production in abductor versus adductor spasmodic dysphonia.

Science.gov (United States)

Cannito, Michael P; Chorna, Lesya B; Kahane, Joel C; Dworkin, James P

2014-05-01

This study evaluated the hypotheses that sentence production by speakers with adductor (AD) and abductor (AB) spasmodic dysphonia (SD) may be differentially influenced by consonant voicing and manner features, in comparison with healthy, matched, nondysphonic controls. This was a prospective, single blind study, using a between-groups, repeated measures design for the independent variables of perceived voice quality and sentence duration. Sixteen subjects with ADSD and 10 subjects with ABSD, as well as 26 matched healthy controls produced four short, simple sentences that were systematically loaded with voiced or voiceless consonants of either obstruant or continuant manner categories. Experienced voice clinicians, who were "blind" as to speakers' group affixations, used visual analog scaling to judge the overall voice quality of each sentence. Acoustic sentence durations were also measured. Speakers with ABSD or ADSD demonstrated significantly poorer than normal voice quality on all sentences. Speakers with ABSD exhibited longer than normal duration for voiceless consonant sentences. Speakers with ADSD had poorer voice quality for voiced than for voiceless consonant sentences. Speakers with ABSD had longer durations for voiceless than for voiced consonant sentences. The two subtypes of SD exhibit differential performance on the basis of consonant voicing in short, simple sentences; however, each subgroup manifested voicing-related differences on a different variable (voice quality vs sentence duration). Findings suggest different underlying pathophysiological mechanisms for ABSD and ADSD. Findings also support inclusion of short, simple sentences containing voiced or voiceless consonants as part of the diagnostic protocol for SD, with measurement of sentence duration in addition to judments of voice quality severity. Copyright © 2014 The Voice Foundation. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.
Can a linguistic serial founder effect originating in Africa explain the worldwide phonemic cline?

Science.gov (United States)

Fort, Joaquim; Pérez-Losada, Joaquim

2016-04-01

It has been proposed that a serial founder effect could have caused the present observed pattern of global phonemic diversity. Here we present a model that simulates the human range expansion out of Africa and the subsequent spatial linguistic dynamics until today. It does not assume copying errors, Darwinian competition, reduced contrastive possibilities or any other specific linguistic mechanism. We show that the decrease of linguistic diversity with distance (from the presumed origin of the expansion) arises under three assumptions, previously introduced by other authors: (i) an accumulation rate for phonemes; (ii) small phonemic inventories for the languages spoken before the out-of-Africa dispersal; (iii) an increase in the phonemic accumulation rate with the number of speakers per unit area. Numerical simulations show that the predictions of the model agree with the observed decrease of linguistic diversity with increasing distance from the most likely origin of the out-of-Africa dispersal. Thus, the proposal that a serial founder effect could have caused the present observed pattern of global phonemic diversity is viable, if three strong assumptions are satisfied. © 2016 The Authors.
Can a linguistic serial founder effect originating in Africa explain the worldwide phonemic cline?

Science.gov (United States)

2016-01-01

It has been proposed that a serial founder effect could have caused the present observed pattern of global phonemic diversity. Here we present a model that simulates the human range expansion out of Africa and the subsequent spatial linguistic dynamics until today. It does not assume copying errors, Darwinian competition, reduced contrastive possibilities or any other specific linguistic mechanism. We show that the decrease of linguistic diversity with distance (from the presumed origin of the expansion) arises under three assumptions, previously introduced by other authors: (i) an accumulation rate for phonemes; (ii) small phonemic inventories for the languages spoken before the out-of-Africa dispersal; (iii) an increase in the phonemic accumulation rate with the number of speakers per unit area. Numerical simulations show that the predictions of the model agree with the observed decrease of linguistic diversity with increasing distance from the most likely origin of the out-of-Africa dispersal. Thus, the proposal that a serial founder effect could have caused the present observed pattern of global phonemic diversity is viable, if three strong assumptions are satisfied. PMID:27122180
Cognitive interference can be mitigated by consonant music and facilitated by dissonant music

Science.gov (United States)

Masataka, Nobuo; Perlovsky, Leonid

2013-01-01

Debates on the origins of consonance and dissonance in music have a long history. While some scientists argue that consonance judgments are an acquired competence based on exposure to the musical-system-specific knowledge of a particular culture, others favor a biological explanation for the observed preference for consonance. Here we provide experimental confirmation that this preference plays an adaptive role in human cognition: it reduces cognitive interference. The results of our experiment reveal that exposure to a Mozart minuet mitigates interference, whereas, conversely, when the music is modified to consist of mostly dissonant intervals the interference effect is intensified. PMID:23778307
Cognitive interference can be mitigated by consonant music and facilitated by dissonant music.

Science.gov (United States)

Masataka, Nobuo; Perlovsky, Leonid

2013-01-01

Debates on the origins of consonance and dissonance in music have a long history. While some scientists argue that consonance judgments are an acquired competence based on exposure to the musical-system-specific knowledge of a particular culture, others favor a biological explanation for the observed preference for consonance. Here we provide experimental confirmation that this preference plays an adaptive role in human cognition: it reduces cognitive interference. The results of our experiment reveal that exposure to a Mozart minuet mitigates interference, whereas, conversely, when the music is modified to consist of mostly dissonant intervals the interference effect is intensified.
Native-language phonetic and phonological influences on perception of American English approximants by Danish and German listeners

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bohn, Ocke-Schwen; Best, Catherine T.

2012-01-01

/ but lack /w/, thus employing /r/-/l/ but lacking /w/-/j/ and /w/-/r/ as phonological contrasts. However, while the three languages realize /j/ identically, Danish/German “light” alveolar [l] differ modestly from English “velarized” [ɫ], Danish pharyngeal and labiodental approximant realizations of /r, v......, but discrimination was poorer than English and Danish listeners for /w/-/r/ and /r/-/l/, and intermediate for /w/-/j/. Thus, cross-language phonetic relationships among “the same” (or neighboring) phonemes strongly influence perception. These findings, together with systemic consideration of English, Danish...
Two spelling programmes that promote understanding of the alphabetic principle in preschool children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margarida Alves Martins & Cristina Silva

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Our aim in this study was to test two programmes designed to lead preschool children to use conventional letters to spell the initial consonants of words. These programmes differed in terms of the characteristics of the vowels that followed those consonants. The participants were 45 five-year-old Portuguese children whose spelling was pre-syllabic - they used strings of random letters in their spelling, making no attempt to match the oral to the written language. They were divided into two experimental and a control group. Their age, level of intelligence, and phonological awareness were controlled. Their spelling was assessed in a pre- and a post-test. In-between, children from the experimental groups participated in two programmes where they had to think about the relationships between the initial consonant and the corresponding phoneme in different words: In Experimental Group 1, the initial consonants were followed by an open vowel, and in Experimental Group 2, these same consonants were followed by a closed vowel. The control group classified geometric shapes. Experimental Group 1 achieved better results than Experimental Group 2 following open vowels, being more able to generalize the phonological procedures to sounds that were not taught during the programmes. Both experimental groups used conventional letters to represent several phonemes in the post-test whereas the control group continued to produce pre-syllabic spellings.
Using generalized maxout networks and phoneme mapping for low resource ASR- a case study on Flemish-Afrikaans

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Sahraeian, R

2015-11-01

Full Text Available -driven phoneme mapping we propose to use an approximation of Kullback Leibler Divergence (KLD) to generate a confusion matrix and find the best matching phonemes of the target language for each individual phoneme in the donor language. Moreover, we explore...
Differential Processing of Consonance and Dissonance within the Human Superior Temporal Gyrus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francine eFoo

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The auditory cortex is well known to be critical for music perception, including the perception of consonance and dissonance. Studies on the neural correlates of consonance and dissonance perception have largely employed non-invasive electrophysiological and functional imaging techniques in humans as well as neurophysiological recordings in animals, but the fine-grained spatiotemporal dynamics within the human auditory cortex remain unknown. We recorded electrocorticographic (ECoG signals directly from the lateral surface of either the left or right temporal lobe of 8 patients undergoing neurosurgical treatment as they passively listened to highly consonant and highly dissonant musical chords. We assessed ECoG activity in the high gamma (γhigh, 70-150 Hz frequency range within the superior temporal gyrus (STG and observed two types of cortical sites of interest in both hemispheres: one type showed no significant difference in γhigh activity between consonant and dissonant chords, and another type showed increased γhigh responses to dissonant chords between 75-200ms post-stimulus onset. Furthermore, a subset of these sites exhibited additional sensitivity towards different types of dissonant chords. We also observed a distinct spatial organization of cortical sites in the right STG, with dissonant-sensitive sites located anterior to non-sensitive sites. In sum, these findings demonstrate differential processing of consonance and dissonance in bilateral STG with the right hemisphere exhibiting robust and spatially organized sensitivity towards dissonance.
Consonant and Vowel Identification in Cochlear Implant Users Measured by Nonsense Words: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

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Rødvik, Arne Kirkhorn; von Koss Torkildsen, Janne; Wie, Ona Bø; Storaker, Marit Aarvaag; Silvola, Juha Tapio

2018-04-17

The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to establish a baseline of the vowel and consonant identification scores in prelingually and postlingually deaf users of multichannel cochlear implants (CIs) tested with consonant-vowel-consonant and vowel-consonant-vowel nonsense syllables. Six electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed articles reporting consonant and vowel identification scores in CI users measured by nonsense words. Relevant studies were independently assessed and screened by 2 reviewers. Consonant and vowel identification scores were presented in forest plots and compared between studies in a meta-analysis. Forty-seven articles with 50 studies, including 647 participants, thereof 581 postlingually deaf and 66 prelingually deaf, met the inclusion criteria of this study. The mean performance on vowel identification tasks for the postlingually deaf CI users was 76.8% (N = 5), which was higher than the mean performance for the prelingually deaf CI users (67.7%; N = 1). The mean performance on consonant identification tasks for the postlingually deaf CI users was higher (58.4%; N = 44) than for the prelingually deaf CI users (46.7%; N = 6). The most common consonant confusions were found between those with same manner of articulation (/k/ as /t/, /m/ as /n/, and /p/ as /t/). The mean performance on consonant identification tasks for the prelingually and postlingually deaf CI users was found. There were no statistically significant differences between the scores for prelingually and postlingually deaf CI users. The consonants that were incorrectly identified were typically confused with other consonants with the same acoustic properties, namely, voicing, duration, nasality, and silent gaps. A univariate metaregression model, although not statistically significant, indicated that duration of implant use in postlingually deaf adults predict a substantial portion of their consonant identification ability. As there is no ceiling
Developing consistent pronunciation models for phonemic variants

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Davel, M

2006-09-01

Full Text Available Pronunciation lexicons often contain pronunciation variants. This can create two problems: It can be difficult to define these variants in an internally consistent way and it can also be difficult to extract generalised grapheme-to-phoneme rule sets...
Psychophysical Boundary for Categorization of Voiced-Voiceless Stop Consonants in Native Japanese Speakers

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Tamura, Shunsuke; Ito, Kazuhito; Hirose, Nobuyuki; Mori, Shuji

2018-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychophysical boundary used for categorization of voiced-voiceless stop consonants in native Japanese speakers. Method: Twelve native Japanese speakers participated in the experiment. The stimuli were synthetic stop consonant-vowel stimuli varying in voice onset time (VOT) with…
Nasal Consonant Production in Broca's and Wernicke's Aphasics: Speech Deficits and Neuroanatomical Correlates

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Kurowski, Kathleen M.; Blumstein, Sheila E.; Palumbo, Carole L.; Waldstein, Robin S.; Burton, Martha W.

2007-01-01

The present study investigated the articulatory implementation deficits of Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics and their potential neuroanatomical correlates. Five Broca's aphasics, two Wernicke's aphasics, and four age-matched normal speakers produced consonant-vowel-(consonant) real word tokens consisting of [m, n] followed by [i, e, a, o, u]. Three…
Sex-Biased Sound Symbolism in English-Language First Names

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Pitcher, Benjamin J.; Mesoudi, Alex; McElligott, Alan G.

2013-01-01

Sexual selection has resulted in sex-based size dimorphism in many mammals, including humans. In Western societies, average to taller stature men and comparatively shorter, slimmer women have higher reproductive success and are typically considered more attractive. This size dimorphism also extends to vocalisations in many species, again including humans, with larger individuals exhibiting lower formant frequencies than smaller individuals. Further, across many languages there are associations between phonemes and the expression of size (e.g. large /a, o/, small /i, e/), consistent with the frequency-size relationship in vocalisations. We suggest that naming preferences are a product of this frequency-size relationship, driving male names to sound larger and female names smaller, through sound symbolism. In a 10-year dataset of the most popular British, Australian and American names we show that male names are significantly more likely to contain larger sounding phonemes (e.g. “Thomas”), while female names are significantly more likely to contain smaller phonemes (e.g. “Emily”). The desire of parents to have comparatively larger, more masculine sons, and smaller, more feminine daughters, and the increased social success that accompanies more sex-stereotyped names, is likely to be driving English-language first names to exploit sound symbolism of size in line with sexual body size dimorphism. PMID:23755148
Differential Processing of Consonance and Dissonance within the Human Superior Temporal Gyrus

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Foo, Francine; King-Stephens, David; Weber, Peter; Laxer, Kenneth; Parvizi, Josef; Knight, Robert T.

2016-01-01

The auditory cortex is well-known to be critical for music perception, including the perception of consonance and dissonance. Studies on the neural correlates of consonance and dissonance perception have largely employed non-invasive electrophysiological and functional imaging techniques in humans as well as neurophysiological recordings in animals, but the fine-grained spatiotemporal dynamics within the human auditory cortex remain unknown. We recorded electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals directly from the lateral surface of either the left or right temporal lobe of eight patients undergoing neurosurgical treatment as they passively listened to highly consonant and highly dissonant musical chords. We assessed ECoG activity in the high gamma (γhigh, 70–150 Hz) frequency range within the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and observed two types of cortical sites of interest in both hemispheres: one type showed no significant difference in γhigh activity between consonant and dissonant chords, and another type showed increased γhigh responses to dissonant chords between 75 and 200 ms post-stimulus onset. Furthermore, a subset of these sites exhibited additional sensitivity towards different types of dissonant chords, and a positive correlation between changes in γhigh power and the degree of stimulus roughness was observed in both hemispheres. We also observed a distinct spatial organization of cortical sites in the right STG, with dissonant-sensitive sites located anterior to non-sensitive sites. In sum, these findings demonstrate differential processing of consonance and dissonance in bilateral STG with the right hemisphere exhibiting robust and spatially organized sensitivity toward dissonance. PMID:27148011

Consonant and Vowel Processing in Word Form Segmentation: An Infant ERP Study

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Katie Von Holzen

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Segmentation skill and the preferential processing of consonants (C-bias develop during the second half of the first year of life and it has been proposed that these facilitate language acquisition. We used Event-related brain potentials (ERPs to investigate the neural bases of early word form segmentation, and of the early processing of onset consonants, medial vowels, and coda consonants, exploring how differences in these early skills might be related to later language outcomes. Our results with French-learning eight-month-old infants primarily support previous studies that found that the word familiarity effect in segmentation is developing from a positive to a negative polarity at this age. Although as a group infants exhibited an anterior-localized negative effect, inspection of individual results revealed that a majority of infants showed a negative-going response (Negative Responders, while a minority showed a positive-going response (Positive Responders. Furthermore, all infants demonstrated sensitivity to onset consonant mispronunciations, while Negative Responders demonstrated a lack of sensitivity to vowel mispronunciations, a developmental pattern similar to previous literature. Responses to coda consonant mispronunciations revealed neither sensitivity nor lack of sensitivity. We found that infants showing a more mature, negative response to newly segmented words compared to control words (evaluating segmentation skill and mispronunciations (evaluating phonological processing at test also had greater growth in word production over the second year of life than infants showing a more positive response. These results establish a relationship between early segmentation skills and phonological processing (not modulated by the type of mispronunciation and later lexical skills.
Vowel reduction in word-final position by early and late Spanish-English bilinguals

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

Vowel reduction is a prominent feature of American English, as well as other stress-timed languages. As a phonological process, vowel reduction neutralizes multiple vowel quality contrasts in unstressed syllables. For bilinguals whose native language is not characterized by large spectral and durational differences between tonic and atonic vowels, systematically reducing unstressed vowels to the central vowel space can be problematic. Failure to maintain this pattern of stressed-unstressed syllables in American English is one key element that contributes to a “foreign accent” in second language speakers. Reduced vowels, or “schwas,” have also been identified as particularly vulnerable to the co-articulatory effects of adjacent consonants. The current study examined the effects of adjacent sounds on the spectral and temporal qualities of schwa in word-final position. Three groups of English-speaking adults were tested: Miami-based monolingual English speakers, early Spanish-English bilinguals, and late Spanish-English bilinguals. Subjects performed a reading task to examine their schwa productions in fluent speech when schwas were preceded by consonants from various points of articulation. Results indicated that monolingual English and late Spanish-English bilingual groups produced targeted vowel qualities for schwa, whereas early Spanish-English bilinguals lacked homogeneity in their vowel productions. This extends prior claims that schwa is targetless for F2 position for native speakers to highly-proficient bilingual speakers. Though spectral qualities lacked homogeneity for early Spanish-English bilinguals, early bilinguals produced schwas with near native-like vowel duration. In contrast, late bilinguals produced schwas with significantly longer durations than English monolinguals or early Spanish-English bilinguals. Our results suggest that the temporal properties of a language are better integrated into second language phonologies than spectral
Validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale for Jamaican Creole-Speaking Preschoolers.

Science.gov (United States)

Washington, Karla N; McDonald, Megan M; McLeod, Sharynne; Crowe, Kathryn; Devonish, Hubert

2017-08-15

To describe validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS; McLeod, Harrison, & McCormack, 2012a) and ICS-Jamaican Creole (ICS-JC; McLeod, Harrison, & McCormack, 2012b) in a sample of typically developing 3- to 6-year-old Jamaicans. One-hundred and forty-five preschooler-parent dyads participated in the study. Parents completed the 7-item ICS (n = 145) and ICS-JC (n = 98) to rate children's speech intelligibility (5-point scale) across communication partners (parents, immediate family, extended family, friends, acquaintances, strangers). Preschoolers completed the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP; Dodd, Hua, Crosbie, Holm, & Ozanne, 2006) in English and Jamaican Creole to establish speech-sound competency. For this sample, we examined validity and reliability (interrater, test-rest, internal consistency) evidence using measures of speech-sound production: (a) percentage of consonants correct, (b) percentage of vowels correct, and (c) percentage of phonemes correct. ICS and ICS-JC ratings showed preschoolers were always (5) to usually (4) understood across communication partners (ICS, M = 4.43; ICS-JC, M = 4.50). Both tools demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α = .91), high interrater, and test-retest reliability. Significant correlations between the two tools and between each measure and language-specific percentage of consonants correct, percentage of vowels correct, and percentage of phonemes correct provided criterion-validity evidence. A positive correlation between the ICS and age further strengthened validity evidence for that measure. Both tools show promising evidence of reliability and validity in describing functional speech intelligibility for this group of typically developing Jamaican preschoolers.
Parsing the role of consonants versus vowels in the classic Takete-Maluma phenomenon.

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Alan K S; Rendall, Drew

2013-06-01

Wolfgang Köhler (1929, Gestalt psychology, New York, NY: Liveright) famously reported a bias in people's choice of nonsense words as labels for novel objects, pointing to possible naïve expectations about language structure. Two accounts have been offered to explain this bias, one focusing on the visuomotor effects of different vowel forms and the other focusing on variation in the acoustic structure and perceptual quality of different consonants. To date, evidence in support of both effects is mixed. Moreover, the veracity of either effect has often been doubted due to perceived limitations in methodologies and stimulus materials. A novel word-construction experiment is presented to test both proposed effects using randomized word- and image-generation techniques to address previous methodological concerns. Results show that participants are sensitive to both vowel and consonant content, constructing novel words of relatively sonorant consonants and rounded vowels to label curved object images, and of relatively plosive consonants and nonrounded vowels to label jagged object images. Results point to additional influences on word construction potentially related to the articulatory affordances or constraints accompanying different word forms.
The Phonemic Awareness Skills of Cochlear Implant Children and Children with Normal Hearing in Primary School

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Aliakbar Dashtelei

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Objectives: Phonemic awareness skills have a significant impact on children speech and language. The purpose of this study was investigating the phonemic awareness skills of children with cochlear implant and normal hearing peers in primary school. Methods: phonemic awareness subscales of phonological awareness test were administered to 30 children with cochlear implantation at the first to sixth grades of primary school and 30 children with normal hearing who were matched in age with cochlear implant group. All of children were between 6 to 11 years old. Children with cochlear implant had at least 1 to 2 years of implant experience and they were over 5 years when they receive implantation. Children with cochlear implant were selected from Special education centers in Tehran and children with normal hearing were recruited from primary schools in Tehran. The phonemic awareness skills were assessed in both groups. Results: The results showed that the Mean scores of phonemic awareness skills in cochlear implant children were significantly lower than children with normal hearing (P<.0001. Discussion: children with cochlear implant, despite Cochlear implantation prosthesis, had lower performance in phonemic awareness when compared with normal hearing children. Therefore, due to importance of phonemic awareness skills in learning of literacy skills, and defects of these skills in children with cochlear implant, these skills should be assessed carefully in children with cochlear implant and rehabilitative interventions should be considered.
Low-Frequency Cortical Entrainment to Speech Reflects Phoneme-Level Processing.

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Di Liberto, Giovanni M; O'Sullivan, James A; Lalor, Edmund C

2015-10-05

The human ability to understand speech is underpinned by a hierarchical auditory system whose successive stages process increasingly complex attributes of the acoustic input. It has been suggested that to produce categorical speech perception, this system must elicit consistent neural responses to speech tokens (e.g., phonemes) despite variations in their acoustics. Here, using electroencephalography (EEG), we provide evidence for this categorical phoneme-level speech processing by showing that the relationship between continuous speech and neural activity is best described when that speech is represented using both low-level spectrotemporal information and categorical labeling of phonetic features. Furthermore, the mapping between phonemes and EEG becomes more discriminative for phonetic features at longer latencies, in line with what one might expect from a hierarchical system. Importantly, these effects are not seen for time-reversed speech. These findings may form the basis for future research on natural language processing in specific cohorts of interest and for broader insights into how brains transform acoustic input into meaning. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The Effect of Adaptive Nonlinear Frequency Compression on Phoneme Perception.

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Glista, Danielle; Hawkins, Marianne; Bohnert, Andrea; Rehmann, Julia; Wolfe, Jace; Scollie, Susan

2017-12-12

This study implemented a fitting method, developed for use with frequency lowering hearing aids, across multiple testing sites, participants, and hearing aid conditions to evaluate speech perception with a novel type of frequency lowering. A total of 8 participants, including children and young adults, participated in real-world hearing aid trials. A blinded crossover design, including posttrial withdrawal testing, was used to assess aided phoneme perception. The hearing aid conditions included adaptive nonlinear frequency compression (NFC), static NFC, and conventional processing. Enabling either adaptive NFC or static NFC improved group-level detection and recognition results for some high-frequency phonemes, when compared with conventional processing. Mean results for the distinction component of the Phoneme Perception Test (Schmitt, Winkler, Boretzki, & Holube, 2016) were similar to those obtained with conventional processing. Findings suggest that both types of NFC tested in this study provided a similar amount of speech perception benefit, when compared with group-level performance with conventional hearing aid technology. Individual-level results are presented with discussion around patterns of results that differ from the group average.
A comparison of the effects of filtering and sensorineural hearing loss on patients of consonant confusions.

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Wang, M D; Reed, C M; Bilger, R C

1978-03-01

It has been found that listeners with sensorineural hearing loss who show similar patterns of consonant confusions also tend to have similar audiometric profiles. The present study determined whether normal listeners, presented with filtered speech, would produce consonant confusions similar to those previously reported for the hearing-impaired listener. Consonant confusion matrices were obtained from eight normal-hearing subjects for four sets of CV and VC nonsense syllables presented under six high-pass and six-low pass filtering conditions. Patterns of consonant confusion for each condition were described using phonological features in sequential information analysis. Severe low-pass filtering produced consonant confusions comparable to those of listeners with high-frequency hearing loss. Severe high-pass filtering gave a result comparable to that of patients with flat or rising audiograms. And, mild filtering resulted in confusion patterns comparable to those of listeners with essentially normal hearing. An explanation in terms of the spectrum, the level of speech, and the configuration of this individual listener's audiogram is given.
Orthography-Induced Length Contrasts in the Second Language Phonological Systems of L2 Speakers of English: Evidence from Minimal Pairs.

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Bassetti, Bene; Sokolović-Perović, Mirjana; Mairano, Paolo; Cerni, Tania

2018-06-01

Research shows that the orthographic forms ("spellings") of second language (L2) words affect speech production in L2 speakers. This study investigated whether English orthographic forms lead L2 speakers to produce English homophonic word pairs as phonological minimal pairs. Targets were 33 orthographic minimal pairs, that is to say homophonic words that would be pronounced as phonological minimal pairs if orthography affects pronunciation. Word pairs contained the same target sound spelled with one letter or two, such as the /n/ in finish and Finnish (both /'fɪnɪʃ/ in Standard British English). To test for effects of length and type of L2 exposure, we compared Italian instructed learners of English, Italian-English late bilinguals with lengthy naturalistic exposure, and English natives. A reading-aloud task revealed that Italian speakers of English L2 produce two English homophonic words as a minimal pair distinguished by different consonant or vowel length, for instance producing the target /'fɪnɪʃ/ with a short [n] or a long [nː] to reflect the number of consonant letters in the spelling of the words finish and Finnish. Similar effects were found on the pronunciation of vowels, for instance in the orthographic pair scene-seen (both /siːn/). Naturalistic exposure did not reduce orthographic effects, as effects were found both in learners and in late bilinguals living in an English-speaking environment. It appears that the orthographic form of L2 words can result in the establishment of a phonological contrast that does not exist in the target language. Results have implications for models of L2 phonological development.
Culture and the Immune System: Cultural Consonance in Social Support and C-reactive Protein in Urban Brazil.

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Dressler, William W; Balieiro, Mauro C; Ribeiro, Rosane P; Dos Santos, José Ernesto

2016-06-01

In this article, we examine the distribution of a marker of immune system stimulation-C-reactive protein-in urban Brazil. Social relationships are associated with immunostimulation, and we argue that cultural dimensions of social support, assessed by cultural consonance, are important in this process. Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals, in their own beliefs and behaviors, approximate shared cultural models. A measure of cultural consonance in social support, based on a cultural consensus analysis regarding sources and patterns of social support in Brazil, was developed. In a survey of 258 persons, the association of cultural consonance in social support and C-reactive protein was examined, controlling for age, sex, body mass index, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, depressive symptoms, and a social network index. Lower cultural consonance in social support was associated with higher C-reactive protein. Implications of these results for future research are discussed. © 2016 by the American Anthropological Association.
Deletion of /T, D/ and the Acquisition of Linguistic Variation by Second Language Learners of English

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Edwards, Jette G. Hansen

2011-01-01

This study investigated second language (L2) learners' acquisition of English /t, d/ deletion patterns in word-final consonant clusters, (a) focusing on how constraints such as grammatical conditioning and phonological environment affect deletion of /t, d/ in L2 acquisition and (b) determining the extent to which these L2 learners had acquired…
Enlargement of the supraglottal cavity and its relation to stop consonant voicing.

Science.gov (United States)

Westbury, J R

1983-04-01

Measurements were made of saggital plane movements of the larynx, soft palate, and portions of the tongue, from a high-speed cinefluorographic film of utterances produced by one adult male speaker of American English. These measures were then used to approximate the temporal variations in supraglottal cavity volume during the closures of voiced and voiceless stop consonants. All data were subsequently related to a synchronous acoustic recording of the utterances. Instances of /p,t,k/ were always accompanied by silent closures, and sometimes accompanied by decreases in supraglottal volume. In contrast, instances of /b,d,g/ were always accompanied both by significant intervals of vocal fold vibration during closure, and relatively large increases in supraglottal volume. However, the magnitudes of volume increments during the voiced stops, and the means by which those increments were achieved, differed considerably across place of articulation and phonetic environment. These results are discussed in the context of a well-known model of the breath-stream control mechanism, and their relevance for a general theory of speech motor control is considered.
Parietotemporal Stimulation Affects Acquisition of Novel Grapheme-Phoneme Mappings in Adult Readers

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Jessica W. Younger

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Neuroimaging work from developmental and reading intervention research has suggested a cause of reading failure may be lack of engagement of parietotemporal cortex during initial acquisition of grapheme-phoneme (letter-sound mappings. Parietotemporal activation increases following grapheme-phoneme learning and successful reading intervention. Further, stimulation of parietotemporal cortex improves reading skill in lower ability adults. However, it is unclear whether these improvements following stimulation are due to enhanced grapheme-phoneme mapping abilities. To test this hypothesis, we used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS to manipulate parietotemporal function in adult readers as they learned a novel artificial orthography with new grapheme-phoneme mappings. Participants received real or sham stimulation to the left inferior parietal lobe (L IPL for 20 min before training. They received explicit training over the course of 3 days on 10 novel words each day. Learning of the artificial orthography was assessed at a pre-training baseline session, the end of each of the three training sessions, an immediate post-training session and a delayed post-training session about 4 weeks after training. Stimulation interacted with baseline reading skill to affect learning of trained words and transfer to untrained words. Lower skill readers showed better acquisition, whereas higher skill readers showed worse acquisition, when training was paired with real stimulation, as compared to readers who received sham stimulation. However, readers of all skill levels showed better maintenance of trained material following parietotemporal stimulation, indicating a differential effect of stimulation on initial learning and consolidation. Overall, these results indicate that parietotemporal stimulation can enhance learning of new grapheme-phoneme relationships in readers with lower reading skill. Yet, while parietotemporal function is critical to new
Parietotemporal Stimulation Affects Acquisition of Novel Grapheme-Phoneme Mappings in Adult Readers

Science.gov (United States)

Younger, Jessica W.; Booth, James R.

2018-01-01

Neuroimaging work from developmental and reading intervention research has suggested a cause of reading failure may be lack of engagement of parietotemporal cortex during initial acquisition of grapheme-phoneme (letter-sound) mappings. Parietotemporal activation increases following grapheme-phoneme learning and successful reading intervention. Further, stimulation of parietotemporal cortex improves reading skill in lower ability adults. However, it is unclear whether these improvements following stimulation are due to enhanced grapheme-phoneme mapping abilities. To test this hypothesis, we used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to manipulate parietotemporal function in adult readers as they learned a novel artificial orthography with new grapheme-phoneme mappings. Participants received real or sham stimulation to the left inferior parietal lobe (L IPL) for 20 min before training. They received explicit training over the course of 3 days on 10 novel words each day. Learning of the artificial orthography was assessed at a pre-training baseline session, the end of each of the three training sessions, an immediate post-training session and a delayed post-training session about 4 weeks after training. Stimulation interacted with baseline reading skill to affect learning of trained words and transfer to untrained words. Lower skill readers showed better acquisition, whereas higher skill readers showed worse acquisition, when training was paired with real stimulation, as compared to readers who received sham stimulation. However, readers of all skill levels showed better maintenance of trained material following parietotemporal stimulation, indicating a differential effect of stimulation on initial learning and consolidation. Overall, these results indicate that parietotemporal stimulation can enhance learning of new grapheme-phoneme relationships in readers with lower reading skill. Yet, while parietotemporal function is critical to new learning, its role in
Processing of Phonological Variation in Children with Hearing Loss: Compensation for English Place Assimilation in Connected Speech

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Skoruppa, Katrin; Rosen, Stuart

2014-01-01

Purpose: In this study, the authors explored phonological processing in connected speech in children with hearing loss. Specifically, the authors investigated these children's sensitivity to English place assimilation, by which alveolar consonants like t and n can adapt to following sounds (e.g., the word ten can be realized as tem in the…
Heroism in three Old English poems: A Christian approach

OpenAIRE

Catherine Woeber

1995-01-01

It has been contended that the value system and terminology of Old English heroic poetry were not suitable vehicles for the later religious poetry, that their Germanic garb ill-fitted the Christian poems. This view, however, does not take cognisance of the the fact that there exists a Christian heroism in its own right. Only Christian scholarship can fully account for this phenomenon and show how the subject matter of this poetry is consonant with the heroic diction and formulae in which it i...
Comparison of HMM and DTW methods in automatic recognition of pathological phoneme pronunciation

OpenAIRE

Wielgat, Robert; Zielinski, Tomasz P.; Swietojanski, Pawel; Zoladz, Piotr; Król, Daniel; Wozniak, Tomasz; Grabias, Stanislaw

2007-01-01

In the paper recently proposed Human Factor Cepstral Coefficients (HFCC) are used to automatic recognition of pathological phoneme pronunciation in speech of impaired children and efficiency of this approach is compared to application of the standard Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) as a feature vector. Both dynamic time warping (DTW), working on whole words or embedded phoneme patterns, and hidden Markov models (HMM) are used as classifiers in the presented research. Obtained resul...
Paced Reading in Semantic Dementia: Word Knowledge Contributes to Phoneme Binding in Rapid Speech Production

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Jefferies, Elizabeth; Grogan, John; Mapelli, Cristina; Isella, Valeria

2012-01-01

Patients with semantic dementia (SD) show deficits in phoneme binding in immediate serial recall: when attempting to reproduce a sequence of words that they no longer fully understand, they show frequent migrations of phonemes between items (e.g., cap, frog recalled as "frap, cog"). This suggests that verbal short-term memory emerges directly from…
Cortical oscillations related to processing congruent and incongruent grapheme-phoneme pairs.

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Herdman, Anthony T; Fujioka, Takako; Chau, Wilkin; Ross, Bernhard; Pantev, Christo; Picton, Terence W

2006-05-15

In this study, we investigated changes in cortical oscillations following congruent and incongruent grapheme-phoneme stimuli. Hiragana graphemes and phonemes were simultaneously presented as congruent or incongruent audiovisual stimuli to native Japanese-speaking participants. The discriminative reaction time was 57 ms shorter for congruent than incongruent stimuli. Analysis of MEG responses using synthetic aperture magnetometry (SAM) revealed that congruent stimuli evoked larger 2-10 Hz activity in the left auditory cortex within the first 250 ms after stimulus onset, and smaller 2-16 Hz activity in bilateral visual cortices between 250 and 500 ms. These results indicate that congruent visual input can modify cortical activity in the left auditory cortex.
Psychophysics of Musical Consonance

CERN Document Server

Dosch, H G; CERN. Geneva

1998-01-01

Musical consonance and dissonance can, to a large extent, be traced back to basic, non-musical principles of auditory perception. The underlying physical, physiological and psychological phenomena appear to co-operate in two rather independent ways. One, first investigated by H. v. Helmholtz, is related to the perception of roughness (fast unresolved beats) among the partials of complex tones. The other one is related to the unique role of harmonic partials as a basic element of pitch perception (pattern recognition). We introduce the most important phenomena in a series of experiments and discuss their present theoretical understanding; we also include new psycho-acoustical data with high statistics obtained recently in Heidelberg. Besides using modern techniques, the experiments contain some demonstrations of original Helmholtz apparatus.

Two-year-olds' sensitivity to subphonemic mismatch during online spoken word recognition.

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Paquette-Smith, Melissa; Fecher, Natalie; Johnson, Elizabeth K

2016-11-01

Sensitivity to noncontrastive subphonemic detail plays an important role in adult speech processing, but little is known about children's use of this information during online word recognition. In two eye-tracking experiments, we investigate 2-year-olds' sensitivity to a specific type of subphonemic detail: coarticulatory mismatch. In Experiment 1, toddlers viewed images of familiar objects (e.g., a boat and a book) while hearing labels containing appropriate or inappropriate coarticulation. Inappropriate coarticulation was created by cross-splicing the coda of the target word onto the onset of another word that shared the same onset and nucleus (e.g., to create boat, the final consonant of boat was cross-spliced onto the initial CV of bone). We tested 24-month-olds and 29-month-olds in this paradigm. Both age groups behaved similarly, readily detecting the inappropriate coarticulation (i.e., showing better recognition of identity-spliced than cross-spliced items). In Experiment 2, we asked how children's sensitivity to subphonemic mismatch compared to their sensitivity to phonemic mismatch. Twenty-nine-month-olds were presented with targets that contained either a phonemic (e.g., the final consonant of boat was spliced onto the initial CV of bait) or a subphonemic mismatch (e.g., the final consonant of boat was spliced onto the initial CV of bone). Here, the subphonemic (coarticulatory) mismatch was not nearly as disruptive to children's word recognition as a phonemic mismatch. Taken together, our findings support the view that 2-year-olds, like adults, use subphonemic information to optimize online word recognition.
Bouba/Kiki in Touch: Associations Between Tactile Perceptual Qualities and Japanese Phonemes

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Maki Sakamoto

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Several studies have shown cross-modal associations between sounds and vision or gustation by asking participants to match pre-defined sound-symbolic words (SSWs, such as “bouba” or “kiki,” with visual or gustatory materials. Here, we conducted an explorative study on cross-modal associations of tactile sensations using spontaneous production of Japanese SSWs and semantic ratings. The Japanese language was selected, because it has a large number of SSWs that can represent a wide range of tactile perceptual spaces with fine resolution, and it shows strong associations between sound and touch. In the experiment, we used 120 everyday materials to cover basic material categories that could be associated with fundamental dimensions of tactile perception. Upon contact with these materials, participants expressed their tactile sensations by using Japanese SSWs, and at the same time, evaluated the tactile sensations by semantic differential scales using adjective pairs. Thanks to the variety of testing materials, we were able to demonstrate the existence of systematic associations between sounds and tactile fundamental perceptual dimensions in a more detailed and comprehensive way than ever done so before. In particular, we found that for vowels, positive tactile ratings were associated with the back vowel (/u/, while negative ratings were associated with the front vowels (/i/ and /e/. The central vowels (/o/ and /a/ were mainly associated with rough, hard, and dry feelings. Consonants were categorized based on vocal features and articulation. The category of the voiced consonants (e.g., /dz/ and /g/ corresponded to feelings of roughness, while that of voiceless consonants (e.g., /ʦ/, and /s/ corresponded to feelings of smoothness. The categories of the bilabial plosive (/p/ and /b/ and voiced alveolar nasal (/n/ consonants were mainly related to soft, sticky and wet feelings, while that of voiceless alveolar affricate (/ʦ/ and voiceless velar
Pre-aspiration in Welsh English: a case study of Aberystwyth

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hejná, Michaela

-aspiration would be manifested as a h sound inserted in the following words as indicated: paht, peht, piht, poht, puht, mahp, mahtt, mahck, ohff, mohth, mahss, mahsh. Because the sound is understudied in English, the work focuses on what other sounds condition the presence of the phenomenon and its duration......Lay abstract This thesis examines pre-aspiration in English spoken in Aberystwyth, mid Wales. Pre-aspiration is a sound very similar to h (as in honey), and it can be found mainly in the sequences of vowels (a, e, i, o, u, etc.) and certain consonants (p, t, k, f, th, s, sh). In English, pre......, if it is sensitive to social factors such as age or gender as well, and it suggests some implications for sound changes including pre-aspiration. Chapter 1 summarises the questions addressed in this thesis and outlines where this work is positioned with respect to our current knowledge of the phenomenon...
The Effect of Stress and Speech Rate on Vowel Coarticulation in Catalan Vowel-Consonant-Vowel Sequences

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Recasens, Daniel

2015-01-01

Purpose: The goal of this study was to ascertain the effect of changes in stress and speech rate on vowel coarticulation in vowel-consonant-vowel sequences. Method: Data on second formant coarticulatory effects as a function of changing /i/ versus /a/ were collected for five Catalan speakers' productions of vowel-consonant-vowel sequences with the…
Activations of human auditory cortex to phonemic and nonphonemic vowels during discrimination and memory tasks.

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Harinen, Kirsi; Rinne, Teemu

2013-08-15

We used fMRI to investigate activations within human auditory cortex (AC) to vowels during vowel discrimination, vowel (categorical n-back) memory, and visual tasks. Based on our previous studies, we hypothesized that the vowel discrimination task would be associated with increased activations in the anterior superior temporal gyrus (STG), while the vowel memory task would enhance activations in the posterior STG and inferior parietal lobule (IPL). In particular, we tested the hypothesis that activations in the IPL during vowel memory tasks are associated with categorical processing. Namely, activations due to categorical processing should be higher during tasks performed on nonphonemic (hard to categorize) than on phonemic (easy to categorize) vowels. As expected, we found distinct activation patterns during vowel discrimination and vowel memory tasks. Further, these task-dependent activations were different during tasks performed on phonemic or nonphonemic vowels. However, activations in the IPL associated with the vowel memory task were not stronger during nonphonemic than phonemic vowel blocks. Together these results demonstrate that activations in human AC to vowels depend on both the requirements of the behavioral task and the phonemic status of the vowels. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Consonance in Information System Projects: A Relationship Marketing Perspective

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Lin, Pei-Ying

2010-01-01

Different stakeholders in the information system project usually have different perceptions and expectations of the projects. There is seldom consistency in the stakeholders' evaluations of the project outcome. Thus the outcomes of information system projects are usually disappointing to one or more stakeholders. Consonance is a process that can…
The absoluteness of semantic processing: lessons from the analysis of temporal clusters in phonemic verbal fluency.

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Isabelle Vonberg

Full Text Available For word production, we may consciously pursue semantic or phonological search strategies, but it is uncertain whether we can retrieve the different aspects of lexical information independently from each other. We therefore studied the spread of semantic information into words produced under exclusively phonemic task demands.42 subjects participated in a letter verbal fluency task, demanding the production of as many s-words as possible in two minutes. Based on curve fittings for the time courses of word production, output spurts (temporal clusters considered to reflect rapid lexical retrieval based on automatic activation spread, were identified. Semantic and phonemic word relatedness within versus between these clusters was assessed by respective scores (0 meaning no relation, 4 maximum relation.Subjects produced 27.5 (±9.4 words belonging to 6.7 (±2.4 clusters. Both phonemically and semantically words were more related within clusters than between clusters (phon: 0.33±0.22 vs. 0.19±0.17, p<.01; sem: 0.65±0.29 vs. 0.37±0.29, p<.01. Whereas the extent of phonemic relatedness correlated with high task performance, the contrary was the case for the extent of semantic relatedness.The results indicate that semantic information spread occurs, even if the consciously pursued word search strategy is purely phonological. This, together with the negative correlation between semantic relatedness and verbal output suits the idea of a semantic default mode of lexical search, acting against rapid task performance in the given scenario of phonemic verbal fluency. The simultaneity of enhanced semantic and phonemic word relatedness within the same temporal cluster boundaries suggests an interaction between content and sound-related information whenever a new semantic field has been opened.
Emprego de estratégias de reparo para os fonemas fricativos no desvio fonológico Use of repair strategies for fricative phonemes in phonological disorder

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Fernanda Marafiga Wiethan

2012-03-01

Full Text Available OBJETIVO: Verificar e comparar a ocorrência de estratégias de reparo empregadas nas consoantes fricativas do Português Brasileiro, além de analisar as estratégias aplicadas para cada fricativa em relação à gravidade do desvio fonológico. MÉTODOS: Participaram do estudo 87 sujeitos de ambos os gêneros, com idades entre 4 anos e 8 anos e 11 meses. Todos apresentavam estratégias de reparo envolvendo pelo menos uma das consoantes fricativas (/f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, , , com ocorrência mínima de 40%. Os dados são provenientes de avaliações fonológicas pré-terapia, com a gravidade do desvio fonológico determinada pelo cálculo do Percentual de Consoantes Corretas - Revisado. Os dados foram analisados estatisticamente. RESULTADOS: Houve progressão no emprego de estratégias de reparo conforme a complexidade de produção do fonema. As estratégias de reparo foram encontradas em todas as gravidades do desvio fonológico, estando as que mais comprometem a inteligibilidade de fala nos graus mais acentuados. CONCLUSÃO: Quanto mais complexa a fricativa, mais estratégias de reparo são empregadas e, quanto maior o grau do desvio fonológico, mais vezes estes recursos são utilizados.PURPOSE: To verify and compare the occurrence of repair strategies used in the fricative consonants of Brazilian Portuguese, and to analyze the strategies applied for each fricative according to the severity of phonological disorders. METHODS: Participants were 87 subjects of both genders, with ages between 4 years and 8 years and 11 months. All children used repair strategies involving at least one of the fricative consonants (/f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, , , with minimal occurrence of 40%. Data are from the phonological assessments conducted before phonological therapy, and the severity of phonological disorders was determined by the Percentage of Consonants Correct - Revised. Data were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: There was progression in the use of repair
Comparing grapheme-based and phoneme-based speech recognition for Afrikaans

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Basson, WD

2012-11-01

Full Text Available This paper compares the recognition accuracy of a phoneme-based automatic speech recognition system with that of a grapheme-based system, using Afrikaans as case study. The first system is developed using a conventional pronunciation dictionary...
Influence of syllable structure on L2 auditory word learning.

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Hamada, Megumi; Goya, Hideki

2015-04-01

This study investigated the role of syllable structure in L2 auditory word learning. Based on research on cross-linguistic variation of speech perception and lexical memory, it was hypothesized that Japanese L1 learners of English would learn English words with an open-syllable structure without consonant clusters better than words with a closed-syllable structure and consonant clusters. Two groups of college students (Japanese group, N = 22; and native speakers of English, N = 21) learned paired English pseudowords and pictures. The pseudoword types differed in terms of the syllable structure and consonant clusters (congruent vs. incongruent) and the position of consonant clusters (coda vs. onset). Recall accuracy was higher for the pseudowords in the congruent type and the pseudowords with the coda-consonant clusters. The syllable structure effect was obtained from both participant groups, disconfirming the hypothesized cross-linguistic influence on L2 auditory word learning.
Call Me Alix, Not Elix: Vowels Are More Important than Consonants in Own-Name Recognition at 5 Months

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Bouchon, Camillia; Floccia, Caroline; Fux, Thibaut; Adda-Decker, Martine; Nazzi, Thierry

2015-01-01

Consonants and vowels differ acoustically and articulatorily, but also functionally: Consonants are more relevant for lexical processing, and vowels for prosodic/syntactic processing. These functional biases could be powerful bootstrapping mechanisms for learning language, but their developmental origin remains unclear. The relative importance of…
Validation of an auditory sensory reinforcement paradigm: Campbell's monkeys (Cercopithecus campbelli) do not prefer consonant over dissonant sounds.

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Koda, Hiroki; Basile, Muriel; Olivier, Marion; Remeuf, Kevin; Nagumo, Sumiharu; Blois-Heulin, Catherine; Lemasson, Alban

2013-08-01

The central position and universality of music in human societies raises the question of its phylogenetic origin. One of the most important properties of music involves harmonic musical intervals, in response to which humans show a spontaneous preference for consonant over dissonant sounds starting from early human infancy. Comparative studies conducted with organisms at different levels of the primate lineage are needed to understand the evolutionary scenario under which this phenomenon emerged. Although previous research found no preference for consonance in a New World monkey species, the question remained opened for Old World monkeys. We used an experimental paradigm based on a sensory reinforcement procedure to test auditory preferences for consonant sounds in Campbell's monkeys (Cercopithecus campbelli campbelli), an Old World monkey species. Although a systematic preference for soft (70 dB) over loud (90 dB) control white noise was found, Campbell's monkeys showed no preference for either consonant or dissonant sounds. The preference for soft white noise validates our noninvasive experimental paradigm, which can be easily reused in any captive facility to test for auditory preferences. This would suggest that human preference for consonant sounds is not systematically shared with New and Old World monkeys. The sensitivity for harmonic musical intervals emerged probably very late in the primate lineage.
The voiced pronunciation of initial phonemes predicts the gender of names.

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Slepian, Michael L; Galinsky, Adam D

2016-04-01

Although it is known that certain names gain popularity within a culture because of historical events, it is unknown how names become associated with different social categories in the first place. We propose that vocal cord vibration during the pronunciation of an initial phoneme plays a critical role in explaining which names are assigned to males versus females. This produces a voiced gendered name effect, whereby voiced phonemes (vibration of the vocal cords) are more associated with male names, and unvoiced phonemes (no vibration of the vocal cords) are more associated with female names. Eleven studies test this association between voiced names and gender (a) using 270 million names (more than 80,000 unique names) given to children over 75 years, (b) names across 2 cultures (the U.S. and India), and (c) hundreds of novel names. The voiced gendered name effect was mediated through how hard or soft names sounded, and moderated by gender stereotype endorsement. Although extensive work has demonstrated morphological and physical cues to gender (e.g., facial, bodily, vocal), this work provides a systematic account of name-based cues to gender. Overall, the current research extends work on sound symbolism to names; the way in which a name sounds can be symbolically related to stereotypes associated with its social category. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).
Consonants and Vowels: Different Roles in Early Language Acquisition

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Hochmann, Jean-Remy; Benavides-Varela, Silvia; Nespor, Marina; Mehler, Jacques

2011-01-01

Language acquisition involves both acquiring a set of words (i.e. the lexicon) and learning the rules that combine them to form sentences (i.e. syntax). Here, we show that consonants are mainly involved in word processing, whereas vowels are favored for extracting and generalizing structural relations. We demonstrate that such a division of labor…
The sound of round: evaluating the sound-symbolic role of consonants in the classic Takete-Maluma phenomenon.

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Nielsen, Alan; Rendall, Drew

2011-06-01

Köhler (1929) famously reported a bias in people's matching of nonsense words to novel object shapes, pointing to possible naïve expectations about language structure. The bias has been attributed to synesthesia-like coactivation of motor or somatosensory areas involved in vowel articulation and visual areas involved in perceiving object shape (Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). We report two experiments testing an alternative that emphasizes consonants and natural semantic distinctions flowing from the auditory perceptual quality of salient acoustic differences among them. Our experiments replicated previous studies using similar word and image materials but included additional conditions swapping the consonant and vowel contents of words; using novel, randomly generated words and images; and presenting words either visually or aurally. In both experiments, subjects' image-matching responses showed evidence of tracking the consonant content of words. We discuss the possibility that vowels and consonants both play a role and consider some methodological factors that might influence their relative effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).
Training Phoneme Blending Skills in Children with Down Syndrome

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Burgoyne, Kelly; Duff, Fiona; Snowling, Maggie; Buckley, Sue; Hulme, Charles

2013-01-01

This article reports the evaluation of a 6-week programme of teaching designed to support the development of phoneme blending skills in children with Down syndrome (DS). Teaching assistants (TAs) were trained to deliver the intervention to individual children in daily 10-15-minute sessions, within a broader context of reading and language…
Morpho-phonemic analysis boosts word reading for adult struggling readers.

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Gray, Susan H; Ehri, Linnea C; Locke, John L

2018-01-01

A randomized control trial compared the effects of two kinds of vocabulary instruction on component reading skills of adult struggling readers. Participants seeking alternative high school diplomas received 8 h of scripted tutoring to learn forty academic vocabulary words embedded within a civics curriculum. They were matched for language background and reading levels, then randomly assigned to either morpho-phonemic analysis teaching word origins, morpheme and syllable structures, or traditional whole word study teaching multiple sentence contexts, meaningful connections, and spellings. Both groups made comparable gains in learning the target words, but the morpho-phonemic group showed greater gains in reading unfamiliar words on standardized tests of word reading, including word attack and word recognition. Findings support theories of word learning and literacy that promote explicit instruction in word analysis to increase poor readers' linguistic awareness by revealing connections between morphological, phonological, and orthographic structures within words.
Computer game as a tool for training the identification of phonemic length.

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Pennala, Riitta; Richardson, Ulla; Ylinen, Sari; Lyytinen, Heikki; Martin, Maisa

2014-12-01

Computer-assisted training of Finnish phonemic length was conducted with 7-year-old Russian-speaking second-language learners of Finnish. Phonemic length plays a different role in these two languages. The training included game activities with two- and three-syllable word and pseudo-word minimal pairs with prototypical vowel durations. The lowest accuracy scores were recorded for two-syllable words. Accuracy scores were higher for the minimal pairs with larger rather than smaller differences in duration. Accuracy scores were lower for long duration than for short duration. The ability to identify quantity degree was generalized to stimuli used in the identification test in two of the children. Ideas for improving the game are introduced.
Análise acústica de características temporais de consoantes no Português Brasileiro Acoustic analysis of temporal characteristics of consonants from Brazilian Portuguese

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Cristina Ferraz Borges Murphy

2009-01-01

Full Text Available OBJETIVO: Analisar acusticamente as consoantes plosivas /p, b, t, d, k, g/ e fricativas /f, v, s, z,∫,/ do Português Brasileiro em relação às variáveis duração, frequência e variação de oitavas por segundo. MÉTODOS: A produção de palavras contendo os sons-alvo foi analisada por meio de uma prova de imitação de palavras. Cada participante, com idades entre oito e dez anos repetiram uma série de palavras isoladas retiradas de uma lista foneticamente balanceada para o Português Brasileiro. Os parâmetros analisados foram: duração do som-alvo (fricativo ou plosivo e valores das frequências inicial e final do F2 medidos em Hz. A partir destes valores foi calculada a variação de oitavas por segundo presente no F2 de cada consoante e, posteriormente, foi realizada a média para todos os sons. RESULTADOS: Quanto à duração das consoantes, os valores variaram entre 31 ms e 170,5 ms. Em relação ao F2, os valores variaram entre 2617 Hz na frequência inicial da plosiva sonora /b/, até 4557 Hz, valor médio da frequência inicial observado na fricativa sonora /z/. Em relação à variação de oitavas por segundo presentes no F2, a maior variação foi encontrada para a plosiva surda /p/ (16,23 oitavas por segundo e a menor para a fricativa surda /S/ (1,624 oitavas por segundo. Considerando a média para todos os sons-alvo analisados, o valor encontrado foi de aproximadamente 6,8 oitavas por segundo. CONCLUSÃO: Os valores observados serão úteis para a elaboração de testes e de treinamentos auditivos contendo estímulos auditivos não-verbais semelhantes às características temporais presentes no Português Brasileiro.PURPOSE: To acoustically analyze the stop consonants /p, b, t, d, k, g/ and the fricatives /f, v, s, z,∫, / from Brazilian Portuguese, regarding the variables duration, frequency and octave variation per second. METHODS: The production of words with the target phonemes was analyzed by using an imitation task
The effect of vowel height on Voice Onset Time in stop consonants in CV sequences in spontaneous Danish

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Johannes; Tøndering, John

2013-01-01

Voice onset time has been reported to vary with the height of vowels following the stop consonant. This paper investigates the effects of vowel height on VOT in Danish CV sequences with stop consonants in Danish spontaneous speech. A significant effect of vowel height on VOT was found...

Phonemic versus allophonic status modulates early brain responses to language sounds: an MEG/ERF study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Andreas Højlund; Gebauer, Line; Mcgregor, William

allophonic sound contrasts. So far this has only been attested between languages. In the present study we wished to investigate this effect within the same language: Does the same sound contrast that is phonemic in one environment, but allophonic in another, elicit different MMNm responses in native...... ‘that’). This allowed us to manipulate the phonemic/allophonic status of exactly the same sound contrast (/t/-/d/) by presenting it in different immediate phonetic contexts (preceding a vowel (CV) versus following a vowel (VC)), in order to investigate the auditory event-related fields of native Danish...... listeners to a sound contrast that is both phonemic and allophonic within Danish. Methods: Relevant syllables were recorded by a male native Danish speaker. The stimuli were then created by cross-splicing the sounds so that the same vowel [æ] was used for all syllables, and the same [t] and [d] were used...
Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context.

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Quam, Carolyn; Creel, Sarah C

2017-01-01

Previous research has mainly considered the impact of tone-language experience on ability to discriminate linguistic pitch, but proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. Here, we ask whether Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitch indicates word distinctions in one language but not the other, can process pitch differently in a Mandarin context vs. an English context. Across three eye-tracked word-learning experiments, results indicated that tone-intonation bilinguals process tone in accordance with the language context. In Experiment 1, 51 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 26 English speakers without tone experience were taught Mandarin-compatible novel words with tones. Mandarin-English bilinguals out-performed English speakers, and, for bilinguals, overall accuracy was correlated with Mandarin dominance. Experiment 2 taught 24 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 25 English speakers novel words with Mandarin-like tones, but English-like phonemes and phonotactics. The Mandarin-dominance advantages observed in Experiment 1 disappeared when words were English-like. Experiment 3 contrasted Mandarin-like vs. English-like words in a within-subjects design, providing even stronger evidence that bilinguals can process tone language-specifically. Bilinguals (N = 58), regardless of language dominance, attended more to tone than English speakers without Mandarin experience (N = 28), but only when words were Mandarin-like-not when they were English-like. Mandarin-English bilinguals thus tailor tone processing to the within-word language context.
Acoustic Analysis on the Palatalized Vowels of Modern Mongolian

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Bulgantamir, Sangidkhorloo

2015-01-01

In Modern Mongolian the palatalized vowels [a?, ??, ?? ] before palatalized consonants are considered as phoneme allophones according to the most scholars. Nevertheless theses palatalized vowels have the distinctive features what could be proved by the minimal pairs and nowadays this question is open and not profoundly studied. The purpose of this…
The effect of nasalization on /a/ vowel formants before and after nasal consonant in 4-9-year old normal Persian speaking children

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Kowsar Baghban

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Background and Aim : Nasalization of a vowel refers to the addition of nasal resonance to the vocal tract transfer function. Also, vowel nasalization occurs because of coarticulation. Coupling of the nasal resonating space to the oropharyngeal cavity alters the vocal tract formants in complex ways. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of nasalization on /a/ vowel formants in before and after nasal consonant.Methods: In current cross-sectional study, voice samples of 60 normal children ranging the age of four-nine years were investigated. Participants were asked to repeat / ʔ ama/ three times and vowel /a/ after presentation of an auditory model. Then, obtained samples were analyzed using Praat 5.3.13 . Average of F0, F1, F2 and F3 were calculated for /a/ comes before and after /m/ in production of / ʔ ama/ over three trials.Results: There were statistically significant differences of F1, F2 and F3 between / a/ which proceeds nasal consonant and /a/ follows nasal consonant , the before nasal consonant /a/ versus single /a/ and the after nasal consonant /a/ versus single /a/ (p=0.001 for all.Conclusion : F1, F2 and F3 in /a/ before nasal consonant affected by anticipatory nasal coarticulation and in /a/ after nasal consonant affected by carry-over nasal coarticulation . This study showed nasal coarticulation and nasalization result in decreasing F1, F2 and F3 in /a/ vowel.
Teaching Standard English as a Second Dialect to Primary School Children in Hilo, Hawaii. Appendix B: Teacher's Guide and Lessons. Volume II of II Volumes. Final Report.

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Sugai, Elaine E.; Sugano, Miyoko

This document comprises the teacher's guide and lessons for teaching standard English to kindergarten through third grade children in Hilo, Hawaii. Sections are (1) Teacher's Guide, (2) Audio-Visual Aids, (3) Phonemic Symbol List, (4) Phonology Lesson Section, and (5) Structure Lesson Section. Appended are a short glossary of terms,…
Evidences of Factorial Structure and Precision of Phonemic Awareness Tasks (TCFe

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Dalva Maria Alves Godoy

2015-12-01

Full Text Available AbstractTo assess phonological awareness - a decisive skill for learning to read and write - it is necessary to provide evidence about an instrument construct to present trustworthy parameters for both empirical research and the development of educational intervention and rehabilitation programs. In Brazil, at this moment, there are no studies regarding the internal structure for tests of phonological awareness. This article shows the factorial validity of a test of phonological awareness composed by three sub-tests: two tasks of subtraction of initial phoneme and one of phonemic segmentation. The multidimensional confirmatory factorial analysis was applied to a sample of 176 Brazilian students ( Mage= 9.3 years from the first to fifth grade of elementary school. Results indicated a well-adjusted model, with items of intermediate difficulty and high factor loadings; thus, this corroboratedthe internal structure and well-designed theoretical conception.
Evaluation of soft segment modeling on a context independent phoneme classification system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Razzazi, F.; Sayadiyan, A.

2007-01-01

The geometric distribution of states duration is one of the main performance limiting assumptions of hidden Markov modeling of speech signals. Stochastic segment models, generally, and segmental HMM, specifically overcome this deficiency partly at the cost of more complexity in both training and recognition phases. In addition to this assumption, the gradual temporal changes of speech statistics has not been modeled in HMM. In this paper, a new duration modeling approach is presented. The main idea of the model is to consider the effect of adjacent segments on the probability density function estimation and evaluation of each acoustic segment. This idea not only makes the model robust against segmentation errors, but also it models gradual change from one segment to the next one with a minimum set of parameters. The proposed idea is analytically formulated and tested on a TIMIT based context independent phenomena classification system. During the test procedure, the phoneme classification of different phoneme classes was performed by applying various proposed recognition algorithms. The system was optimized and the results have been compared with a continuous density hidden Markov model (CDHMM) with similar computational complexity. The results show 8-10% improvement in phoneme recognition rate in comparison with standard continuous density hidden Markov model. This indicates improved compatibility of the proposed model with the speech nature. (author)
A Brief Critique of Chomsky's Challenge to Classical Phonemic Phonology.

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Liu, Ngar-Fun

1994-01-01

Phonemic phonology became important because it provided a descriptive account of dialects and languages that had never been transcribed before, and it derives its greatest strength from its practical orientation, which has proved beneficial to language teaching and learning. Noam Chomsky's criticisms of it are largely unjust because he has not…
Multisensory speech perception in autism spectrum disorder: From phoneme to whole-word perception.

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Stevenson, Ryan A; Baum, Sarah H; Segers, Magali; Ferber, Susanne; Barense, Morgan D; Wallace, Mark T

2017-07-01

Speech perception in noisy environments is boosted when a listener can see the speaker's mouth and integrate the auditory and visual speech information. Autistic children have a diminished capacity to integrate sensory information across modalities, which contributes to core symptoms of autism, such as impairments in social communication. We investigated the abilities of autistic and typically-developing (TD) children to integrate auditory and visual speech stimuli in various signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). Measurements of both whole-word and phoneme recognition were recorded. At the level of whole-word recognition, autistic children exhibited reduced performance in both the auditory and audiovisual modalities. Importantly, autistic children showed reduced behavioral benefit from multisensory integration with whole-word recognition, specifically at low SNRs. At the level of phoneme recognition, autistic children exhibited reduced performance relative to their TD peers in auditory, visual, and audiovisual modalities. However, and in contrast to their performance at the level of whole-word recognition, both autistic and TD children showed benefits from multisensory integration for phoneme recognition. In accordance with the principle of inverse effectiveness, both groups exhibited greater benefit at low SNRs relative to high SNRs. Thus, while autistic children showed typical multisensory benefits during phoneme recognition, these benefits did not translate to typical multisensory benefit of whole-word recognition in noisy environments. We hypothesize that sensory impairments in autistic children raise the SNR threshold needed to extract meaningful information from a given sensory input, resulting in subsequent failure to exhibit behavioral benefits from additional sensory information at the level of whole-word recognition. Autism Res 2017. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1280-1290. © 2017 International
Visual Cues Contribute Differentially to Audiovisual Perception of Consonants and Vowels in Improving Recognition and Reducing Cognitive Demands in Listeners With Hearing Impairment Using Hearing Aids.

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Moradi, Shahram; Lidestam, Björn; Danielsson, Henrik; Ng, Elaine Hoi Ning; Rönnberg, Jerker

2017-09-18

We sought to examine the contribution of visual cues in audiovisual identification of consonants and vowels-in terms of isolation points (the shortest time required for correct identification of a speech stimulus), accuracy, and cognitive demands-in listeners with hearing impairment using hearing aids. The study comprised 199 participants with hearing impairment (mean age = 61.1 years) with bilateral, symmetrical, mild-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss. Gated Swedish consonants and vowels were presented aurally and audiovisually to participants. Linear amplification was adjusted for each participant to assure audibility. The reading span test was used to measure participants' working memory capacity. Audiovisual presentation resulted in shortened isolation points and improved accuracy for consonants and vowels relative to auditory-only presentation. This benefit was more evident for consonants than vowels. In addition, correlations and subsequent analyses revealed that listeners with higher scores on the reading span test identified both consonants and vowels earlier in auditory-only presentation, but only vowels (not consonants) in audiovisual presentation. Consonants and vowels differed in terms of the benefits afforded from their associative visual cues, as indicated by the degree of audiovisual benefit and reduction in cognitive demands linked to the identification of consonants and vowels presented audiovisually.
Recognition of Emotions in Mexican Spanish Speech: An Approach Based on Acoustic Modelling of Emotion-Specific Vowels

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Santiago-Omar Caballero-Morales

2013-01-01

Full Text Available An approach for the recognition of emotions in speech is presented. The target language is Mexican Spanish, and for this purpose a speech database was created. The approach consists in the phoneme acoustic modelling of emotion-specific vowels. For this, a standard phoneme-based Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR system was built with Hidden Markov Models (HMMs, where different phoneme HMMs were built for the consonants and emotion-specific vowels associated with four emotional states (anger, happiness, neutral, sadness. Then, estimation of the emotional state from a spoken sentence is performed by counting the number of emotion-specific vowels found in the ASR’s output for the sentence. With this approach, accuracy of 87–100% was achieved for the recognition of emotional state of Mexican Spanish speech.
Effects of a phonological awareness program on English reading and spelling among Hong Kong Chinese ESL children.

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Yeung, Susanna S S; Siegel, Linda S; Chan, Carol K K

2013-05-01

This study investigated the effects of a 12-week language-enriched phonological awareness instruction on 76 Hong Kong young children who were learning English as a second language. The children were assigned randomly to receive the instruction on phonological awareness skills embedded in vocabulary learning activities or comparison instruction which consisted of vocabulary learning and writing tasks but no direct instruction in phonological awareness skills. They were tested on receptive and expressive vocabulary, phonological awareness at the syllable, rhyme and phoneme levels, reading, and spelling in English before and after the program implementation. The results indicated that children who received the phonological awareness instruction performed significantly better than the comparison group on English word reading, spelling, phonological awareness at all levels and expressive vocabulary on the posttest when age, general intelligence and the pretest scores were controlled statistically. The findings suggest that phonological awareness instruction embedded in vocabulary learning activities might be beneficial to kindergarteners learning English as a second language.
PHONETIC AND NON-PHONETIC LANGUAGES: A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND TURKISH PHONOLOGY FOCUSING ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY-INDUCED PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS OF TURKISH LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (TURKISH EFL LEARNERS

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Amir KHALILZADEH

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The present study aims to investigate the pronunciation problems of Turkish learners of English as a foreign language (Turkish EFL learners due to the orthography system of English. Orthography is a standardized system for using a particular writing system (script to write a particular language. It includes rules of spelling, and may also concern other elements of the written language such as punctuation and capitalization. It is clear that English is a non-phonetic and Turkish is a phonetic language, so it is very natural for the Turkish EFL learners to have some phonological problems in learning English. The author has done a contrastive study concerning three linguistic systems, i.e. consonants, vowels and syllable structures of English and Turkish to find the causes of the problems to be used in teaching English as a foreign language to Turks. The results of the study showed that the problems under discussion are caused by some differences between the orthography and the phonology of the two languages. As a result, English teachers, to be helpful, should focus on the differences and help the Turkish learners overcome the pronunciation problems. The author of the paper believes that an English teacher should be both aware of the differences and be able to teach them effectively to the Turkish EFL learners.
Phoneme Awareness, Visual-Verbal Paired-Associate Learning, and Rapid Automatized Naming as Predictors of Individual Differences in Reading Ability

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Warmington, Meesha; Hulme, Charles

2012-01-01

This study examines the concurrent relationships between phoneme awareness, visual-verbal paired-associate learning, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and reading skills in 7- to 11-year-old children. Path analyses showed that visual-verbal paired-associate learning and RAN, but not phoneme awareness, were unique predictors of word recognition,…
Detection of target phonemes in spontaneous and read speech.

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Mehta, G; Cutler, A

1988-01-01

Although spontaneous speech occurs more frequently in most listeners' experience than read speech, laboratory studies of human speech recognition typically use carefully controlled materials read from a script. The phonological and prosodic characteristics of spontaneous and read speech differ considerably, however, which suggests that laboratory results may not generalise to the recognition of spontaneous speech. In the present study listeners were presented with both spontaneous and read speech materials, and their response time to detect word-initial target phonemes was measured. Responses were, overall, equally fast in each speech mode. However, analysis of effects previously reported in phoneme detection studies revealed significant differences between speech modes. In read speech but not in spontaneous speech, later targets were detected more rapidly than targets preceded by short words. In contrast, in spontaneous speech but not in read speech, targets were detected more rapidly in accented than in unaccented words and in strong than in weak syllables. An explanation for this pattern is offered in terms of characteristic prosodic differences between spontaneous and read speech. The results support claims from previous work that listeners pay great attention to prosodic information in the process of recognising speech.
Mandarin-English Bilinguals Process Lexical Tones in Newly Learned Words in Accordance with the Language Context

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Quam, Carolyn; Creel, Sarah C.

2017-01-01

Previous research has mainly considered the impact of tone-language experience on ability to discriminate linguistic pitch, but proficient bilingual listening requires differential processing of sound variation in each language context. Here, we ask whether Mandarin-English bilinguals, for whom pitch indicates word distinctions in one language but not the other, can process pitch differently in a Mandarin context vs. an English context. Across three eye-tracked word-learning experiments, results indicated that tone-intonation bilinguals process tone in accordance with the language context. In Experiment 1, 51 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 26 English speakers without tone experience were taught Mandarin-compatible novel words with tones. Mandarin-English bilinguals out-performed English speakers, and, for bilinguals, overall accuracy was correlated with Mandarin dominance. Experiment 2 taught 24 Mandarin-English bilinguals and 25 English speakers novel words with Mandarin-like tones, but English-like phonemes and phonotactics. The Mandarin-dominance advantages observed in Experiment 1 disappeared when words were English-like. Experiment 3 contrasted Mandarin-like vs. English-like words in a within-subjects design, providing even stronger evidence that bilinguals can process tone language-specifically. Bilinguals (N = 58), regardless of language dominance, attended more to tone than English speakers without Mandarin experience (N = 28), but only when words were Mandarin-like—not when they were English-like. Mandarin-English bilinguals thus tailor tone processing to the within-word language context. PMID:28076400
Computer-based auditory phoneme discrimination training improves speech recognition in noise in experienced adult cochlear implant listeners.

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Schumann, Annette; Serman, Maja; Gefeller, Olaf; Hoppe, Ulrich

2015-03-01

Specific computer-based auditory training may be a useful completion in the rehabilitation process for cochlear implant (CI) listeners to achieve sufficient speech intelligibility. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a computerized, phoneme-discrimination training programme. The study employed a pretest-post-test design; participants were randomly assigned to the training or control group. Over a period of three weeks, the training group was instructed to train in phoneme discrimination via computer, twice a week. Sentence recognition in different noise conditions (moderate to difficult) was tested pre- and post-training, and six months after the training was completed. The control group was tested and retested within one month. Twenty-seven adult CI listeners who had been using cochlear implants for more than two years participated in the programme; 15 adults in the training group, 12 adults in the control group. Besides significant improvements for the trained phoneme-identification task, a generalized training effect was noted via significantly improved sentence recognition in moderate noise. No significant changes were noted in the difficult noise conditions. Improved performance was maintained over an extended period. Phoneme-discrimination training improves experienced CI listeners' speech perception in noise. Additional research is needed to optimize auditory training for individual benefit.
Acoustic constituents of prosodic typology

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Komatsu, Masahiko

Different languages sound different, and considerable part of it derives from the typological difference of prosody. Although such difference is often referred to as lexical accent types (stress accent, pitch accent, and tone; e.g. English, Japanese, and Chinese respectively) and rhythm types (stress-, syllable-, and mora-timed rhythms; e.g. English, Spanish, and Japanese respectively), it is unclear whether these types are determined in terms of acoustic properties, The thesis intends to provide a potential basis for the description of prosody in terms of acoustics. It argues for the hypothesis that the source component of the source-filter model (acoustic features) approximately corresponds to prosody (linguistic features) through several experimental-phonetic studies. The study consists of four parts. (1) Preliminary experiment: Perceptual language identification tests were performed using English and Japanese speech samples whose frequency spectral information (i.e. non-source component) is heavily reduced. The results indicated that humans can discriminate languages with such signals. (2) Discussion on the linguistic information that the source component contains: This part constitutes the foundation of the argument of the thesis. Perception tests of consonants with the source signal indicated that the source component carries the information on broad categories of phonemes that contributes to the creation of rhythm. (3) Acoustic analysis: The speech samples of Chinese, English, Japanese, and Spanish, differing in prosodic types, were analyzed. These languages showed difference in acoustic characteristics of the source component. (4) Perceptual experiment: A language identification test for the above four languages was performed using the source signal with its acoustic features parameterized. It revealed that humans can discriminate prosodic types solely with the source features and that the discrimination is easier as acoustic information increases. The
Eliciting the Dutch loan phoneme /g/ with the Menu Task

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hamann, S.; de Jonge, A.

2015-01-01

This article introduces the menu task, which can be used to elicit infrequent sounds such as loan phonemes that only occur in a restricted set of words. The menu task is similar to the well-known map task and involves the interaction of two participants to create a menu on the basis of a list of
The use of interval ratios in consonance perception by rats (Rattus norvegicus) and humans (Homo sapiens).

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Crespo-Bojorque, Paola; Toro, Juan M

2015-02-01

Traditionally, physical features in musical chords have been proposed to be at the root of consonance perception. Alternatively, recent studies suggest that different types of experience modulate some perceptual foundations for musical sounds. The present study tested whether the mechanisms involved in the perception of consonance are present in an animal with no extensive experience with harmonic stimuli and a relatively limited vocal repertoire. In Experiment 1, rats were trained to discriminate consonant from dissonant chords and tested to explore whether they could generalize such discrimination to novel chords. In Experiment 2, we tested if rats could discriminate between chords differing only in their interval ratios and generalize them to different octaves. To contrast the observed pattern of results, human adults were tested with the same stimuli in Experiment 3. Rats successfully discriminated across chords in both experiments, but they did not generalize to novel items in either Experiment 1 or Experiment 2. On the contrary, humans not only discriminated among both consonance-dissonance categories, and among sets of interval ratios, they also generalized their responses to novel items. These results suggest that experience with harmonic sounds may be required for the construction of categories among stimuli varying in frequency ratios. However, the discriminative capacity observed in rats suggests that at least some components of auditory processing needed to distinguish chords based on their interval ratios are shared across species. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Detection of target phonemes in spontaneous and read speech

OpenAIRE

Mehta, G.; Cutler, A.

1988-01-01

Although spontaneous speech occurs more frequently in most listeners’ experience than read speech, laboratory studies of human speech recognition typically use carefully controlled materials read from a script. The phonological and prosodic characteristics of spontaneous and read speech differ considerably, however, which suggests that laboratory results may not generalize to the recognition of spontaneous and read speech materials, and their response time to detect word-initial target phonem...
Speech Rate Normalization and Phonemic Boundary Perception in Cochlear-Implant Users

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Jaekel, Brittany N.; Newman, Rochelle S.; Goupell, Matthew J.

2017-01-01

Purpose: Normal-hearing (NH) listeners rate normalize, temporarily remapping phonemic category boundaries to account for a talker's speech rate. It is unknown if adults who use auditory prostheses called cochlear implants (CI) can rate normalize, as CIs transmit degraded speech signals to the auditory nerve. Ineffective adjustment to rate…
Phonemic Awareness and the Teaching of Reading. A Position Statement from the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association.

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International Reading Association, Newark, DE.

This position paper considers the complex relation between phonemic awareness and reading. The paper seeks to define phonemic awareness (although there is no single definition), stating that it is typically described as an insight about oral language and in particular about the segmentation of sounds that are used in speech communication. It also…
Teaching Literature Written in English in Undergraduate Language Teacher Education Programs: A Dialogic-Pragmatic Approach

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Orison Marden Bandeira de Melo Júnior

2015-04-01

Full Text Available This article aims to be part of the ongoing discussion on the teaching of literature written in English (LWE in literature classes in undergraduate language programs. In order to do that, it shows the challenges posed by the Letras DCN (National Curriculum Guidelines for the undergraduate Language Teacher Education programs as well as the reality literature teachers face due to the reduced number of hours of literature classes assigned in course curricula and to students' limited knowledge of English. Based on the dialogical concept of language and on the possibility of cooperation between scientific trends, we present a cooperative work between DDA (Dialogical Discourse Analysis and Pragmatics, showing how consonant and dissonant they are. Besides, we present part of the analysis of Alice Walker's short story Her Sweet Jerome done by students, which, in this context of teaching LWE to students with limited knowledge of English, pointed to the possibility of Pragmatics being the first step towards a dialogical analysis of literary texts.
Infants' Discrimination of Consonants: Interplay between Word Position and Acoustic Saliency

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Archer, Stephanie L.; Zamuner, Tania; Engel, Kathleen; Fais, Laurel; Curtin, Suzanne

2016-01-01

Research has shown that young infants use contrasting acoustic information to distinguish consonants. This has been used to argue that by 12 months, infants have homed in on their native language sound categories. However, this ability seems to be positionally constrained, with contrasts at the beginning of words (onsets) discriminated earlier.…
A Nonverbal Phoneme Deletion Task Administered in a Dynamic Assessment Format

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Gillam, Sandra Laing; Fargo, Jamison; Foley, Beth; Olszewski, Abbie

2011-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of the project was to design a nonverbal dynamic assessment of phoneme deletion that may prove useful with individuals who demonstrate complex communication needs (CCN) and are unable to communicate using natural speech or who present with moderate-severe speech impairments. Method: A nonverbal dynamic assessment of phoneme…
Speech production accuracy and variability in young cochlear implant recipients: comparisons with typically developing age-peers.

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Ertmer, David J; Goffman, Lisa

2011-02-01

The speech production accuracy and variability scores of 6 young cochlear implant (CI) recipients with 2 years of device experience were compared with those of typically developing (TD) age-peers. Words from the First Words Speech Test (FWST; Ertmer, 1999) were imitated 3 times to assess the accuracy and variability of initial consonants, vowels, and words. The initial consonants in the 4 sets of the FWST followed a typical order of development. The TD group produced targets with high accuracy and low variability. Their scores across FWST sets reflected the expected order of development. The CI group produced most targets less accurately and with more variability than the TD children. Relatively high accuracy for the consonants of Sets 1 and 2 indicated that these phonemes were acquired early and in a typical developmental order. A trend toward greater accuracy for Set 4 as compared with Set 3 suggested that later-emerging consonants were not acquired in the expected order. Variability was greatest for later-emerging initial consonants and whole words. Although considerable speech production proficiency was evident, age-level performance was not attained after 2 years of CI experience. Factors that might influence the order of consonant acquisition are discussed.
Modulating phonemic fluency performance in healthy subjects with transcranial magnetic stimulation over the left or right lateral frontal cortex.

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Smirni, Daniela; Turriziani, Patrizia; Mangano, Giuseppa Renata; Bracco, Martina; Oliveri, Massimiliano; Cipolotti, Lisa

2017-07-28

A growing body of evidence have suggested that non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), can improve the performance of aphasic patients in language tasks. For example, application of inhibitory rTMS or tDCs over the right frontal lobe of dysphasic patients resulted in improved naming abilities. Several studies have also reported that in healthy controls (HC) tDCS application over the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) improve performance in naming and semantic fluency tasks. The aim of this study was to investigate in HC, for the first time, the effects of inhibitory repetitive TMS (rTMS) over left and right lateral frontal cortex (BA 47) on two phonemic fluency tasks (FAS or FPL). 44 right-handed HCs were administered rTMS or sham over the left or right lateral frontal cortex in two separate testing sessions, with a 24h interval, followed by the two phonemic fluency tasks. To account for possible practice effects, an additional 22 HCs were tested on only the phonemic fluency task across two sessions with no stimulation. We found that rTMS-inhibition over the left lateral frontal cortex significantly worsened phonemic fluency performance when compared to sham. In contrast, rTMS-inhibition over the right lateral frontal cortex significantly improved phonemic fluency performance when compared to sham. These results were not accounted for practice effects. We speculated that rTMS over the right lateral frontal cortex may induce plastic neural changes to the left lateral frontal cortex by suppressing interhemispheric inhibitory interactions. This resulted in an increased excitability (disinhibition) of the contralateral unstimulated left lateral frontal cortex, consequently enhancing phonemic fluency performance. Conversely, application of rTMS over the left lateral frontal cortex may induce a temporary, virtual lesion, with effects similar to those reported in left frontal
Heroism in three Old English poems: A Christian approach

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Catherine Woeber

1995-03-01

Full Text Available It has been contended that the value system and terminology of Old English heroic poetry were not suitable vehicles for the later religious poetry, that their Germanic garb ill-fitted the Christian poems. This view, however, does not take cognisance of the the fact that there exists a Christian heroism in its own right. Only Christian scholarship can fully account for this phenomenon and show how the subject matter of this poetry is consonant with the heroic diction and formulae in which it is couched. Three Old English poems dealing with aspects of Christ’ saving ministry will be examined to show that Christ is depicted as a hero bringing victory through suffering in God’s plan of salvation, rather than as a heroic warrior as he is usually regarded, fighting in the armour of the Germanic hero. A close study of these poems shows that the authors understood Christian heroism to mean more than brave battling on the side of God; rather, it is complete submission to the will of God.
General contrast effects in speech perception: effect of preceding liquid on stop consonant identification.

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Lotto, A J; Kluender, K R

1998-05-01

When members of a series of synthesized stop consonants varying acoustically in F3 characteristics and varying perceptually from /da/ to /ga/ are preceded by /al/, subjects report hearing more /ga/ syllables relative to when each member is preceded by /ar/ (Mann, 1980). It has been suggested that this result demonstrates the existence of a mechanism that compensates for coarticulation via tacit knowledge of articulatory dynamics and constraints, or through perceptual recovery of vocal-tract dynamics. The present study was designed to assess the degree to which these perceptual effects are specific to qualities of human articulatory sources. In three experiments, series of consonant-vowel (CV) stimuli varying in F3-onset frequency (/da/-/ga/) were preceded by speech versions or nonspeech analogues of /al/ and /ar/. The effect of liquid identity on stop consonant labeling remained when the preceding VC was produced by a female speaker and the CV syllable was modeled after a male speaker's productions. Labeling boundaries also shifted when the CV was preceded by a sine wave glide modeled after F3 characteristics of /al/ and /ar/. Identifications shifted even when the preceding sine wave was of constant frequency equal to the offset frequency of F3 from a natural production. These results suggest an explanation in terms of general auditory processes as opposed to recovery of or knowledge of specific articulatory dynamics.
THE SCANDCLEFT RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIALS: SPEECH OUTCOMES IN 5-YEAR-OLDS WITH UCLP – consonant proficiency and errors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Willadsen, Elisabeth; Persson, Christina; Lohmander, Anette

2017-01-01

Background and aim: Normal articulation before school start is a main objective in cleft palate treatment. The aim was to investigate if differences exist in consonant proficiency at age 5 years between children with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) randomised to different surgical protocol...... in terms of secondary pharyngeal surgeries, number of fistulae, and speech therapy visits differed. Trial registration: ISRCTN29932826. Keywords: Primary palatal repair, unilateral cleft lip and palate, consonant proficiency, cleft speech characteristics, randomised clinical trial...
Türkçede Ön Seste Y Initial Phonem Y In Turkish

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Sertan ALİBEKİROĞLU

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The Turkish language, which has an ancient history, is spread to a wide geography in the old continents. In classification of Turkish, Turcologists use different measures because this spread and natural qualifier of languages which is being alive are the main reasons that Turkish to branch into many dialects and accents. Studies ofTurcologists who use dialect for the classification of Turkish show thatthere are equivalences between West and East branches of theFirst/Proto Turkish on “l-ş”, “r-z” in internal and final phoneme; andon y-s/ş in initial phonemes. Between the Ancient and ModernTurkish, there emerged-especially base on time and place-manyphoneme evaluations and formed phoneme equivalences betweendialects. These equivalences allow us to understand current situationof the language and have information for the future while they shedlight evaluation of Turkish in its long historical journey. This studyaims to show the changes of the initial phoneme y which is used inclassification based on dialects. These changes will be shown byfirstly, determining if during the First Turkish, there were theconsonant primarily “y-” in initial phonemes of words, anddetermining the position of “y-” before the written era of Turkish; andsecondly, presenting the positions of initial phoneme y- during thewritten era of Turkish. Following these motivations, the study onlyconsiders the initial phoneme “y-” and does not include the changes ininternal and final phonemes. Kökleri çok eski tarihlere uzanan Türkçe, eski kıtalar üzerinde çok geniş coğrafyalara yayılmıştır. Bu coğrafyalara yayılım ve dilin doğasında bulunan canlı bir varlık olma vasfının Türkçenin çok çeşitli lehçe ve şivelere ayrılarak dallanmasının ana sebeplerini oluşturması, Türkologların, Türkçeyi tasnif ederken değişik ölçüler kullanmalarına neden olmuştur. Coğrafya, boy adları ve lehçe özelliklerine göre tasnif edilmeye �
Neural Correlates in the Processing of Phoneme-Level Complexity in Vowel Production

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Park, Haeil; Iverson, Gregory K.; Park, Hae-Jeong

2011-01-01

We investigated how articulatory complexity at the phoneme level is manifested neurobiologically in an overt production task. fMRI images were acquired from young Korean-speaking adults as they pronounced bisyllabic pseudowords in which we manipulated phonological complexity defined in terms of vowel duration and instability (viz., COMPLEX:…
Morpho-phonemic analysis boosts word reading for adult struggling readers

OpenAIRE

Gray, Susan H.; Ehri, Linnea C.; Locke, John L.

2017-01-01

A randomized control trial compared the effects of two kinds of vocabulary instruction on component reading skills of adult struggling readers. Participants seeking alternative high school diplomas received 8 h of scripted tutoring to learn forty academic vocabulary words embedded within a civics curriculum. They were matched for language background and reading levels, then randomly assigned to either morpho-phonemic analysis teaching word origins, morpheme and syllable structures, or traditi...
Polish Phoneme Statistics Obtained On Large Set Of Written Texts

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Bartosz Ziółko

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The phonetical statistics were collected from several Polish corpora. The paper is a summaryof the data which are phoneme n-grams and some phenomena in the statistics. Triphonestatistics apply context-dependent speech units which have an important role in speech recognitionsystems and were never calculated for a large set of Polish written texts. The standardphonetic alphabet for Polish, SAMPA, and methods of providing phonetic transcriptions are described.
PL2 production of english word-final consonants: the role of orthography and learner profile variables Produção de consoantes finais do inglês como L2: o papel da ortografia e de variáveis relacionadas ao perfil do aprendiz

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Rosane Silveira

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The present study investigates some factors affecting the acquisition of second language (L2 phonology by learners with considerable exposure to the target language in an L2 context. More specifically, the purpose of the study is two-fold: (a to investigate the extent to which participants resort to phonological processes resulting from the transfer of L1 sound-spelling correspondence into the L2 when pronouncing English word-final consonants; and (b to examine the relationship between rate of transfer and learner profile factors, namely proficiency level, length of residence in the L2 country, age of arrival in the L2 country, education, chronological age, use of English with native speakers, attendance in EFL courses, and formal education. The investigation involved 31 Brazilian speakers living in the United States with diverse profiles. Data were collected using a questionnaire to elicit the participants' profiles, a sentence-reading test (pronunciation measure, and an oral picture-description test (L2 proficiency measure. The results indicate that even in an L2 context, the transfer of L1 sound-spelling correspondence to the production of L2 word-final consonants is frequent. The findings also reveal that extensive exposure to rich L2 input leads to the development of proficiency and improves production of L2 word-final consonants.O presente estudo examina fatores que afetam a produção de consoantes em segunda língua (L2 por aprendizes que foram consideravelmente expostos à língua-alvo em um contexto de L2. Um dos objetivos do presente estudo foi investigar com que frequência os participantes utilizam processos fonológicos que resultam da transferência da correspondência entre ortografia e som da língua materna (L1 para a L2, quando produzem consoantes da língua inglesa em posição de final de palavra. O segundo objetivo consistiu em examinar o relacionamento entre índice de transferência grafo-fonológica e fatores ligados ao
How word-beginnings constrain the pronunciations of word-ends in the reading aloud of English: the phenomena of head- and onset-conditioning

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Anastasia Ulicheva

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Background. A word whose body is pronounced in different ways in different words is body-inconsistent. When we take the unit that precedes the vowel into account for the calculation of body-consistency, the proportion of English words that are body-inconsistent is considerably reduced at the level of corpus analysis, prompting the question of whether humans actually use such head/onset-conditioning when they read.Methods. Four metrics for head/onset-constrained body-consistency were calculated: by the last grapheme of the head, by the last phoneme of the onset, by place and manner of articulation of the last phoneme of the onset, and by manner of articulation of the last phoneme of the onset. Since these were highly correlated, principal component analysis was performed on them.Results. Two out of four resulting principal components explained significant variance in the reading-aloud reaction times, beyond regularity and body-consistency.Discussion. Humans read head/onset-conditioned words faster than would be predicted based on their body-consistency and regularity only. We conclude that humans are sensitive to the dependency between word-beginnings and word-ends when they read aloud, and that this dependency is phonological in nature, rather than orthographic.
Inovasi Fonologis dan Variasi Leksikal dalam Bahasa Bugis Dialek Sinjai

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Herawati A. Paduai

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper is about innovation in Buginese language that is used in Sinjai Regency. The result of the study indicates that there are six vowel phonemes and 21 consonant phonemes. Two kinds of phonological variations are found: vowel variations, namely, [e] ~ [i], [a] ~ [i], [o] ~ [u], [a] ~ [|], and [o] ~ [|], and consonant variations, namely, [k] ~ [g], and [w] ~ [h]. The lexical variation indicates the following linguistic phenomena: onomatiology, aphaeresis, syncope, epenthesis, prothesis, and metathesis. The result indicates that there are lexical items different from those of the standard Buginese language but have similarities with Konjo language. Dalam makalah ini dibahas mengenai inovasi dalam bahasa Bugis dialek Sinjai. Hasil penelitian membuktikan bahwa terdapat 6 fonem vokal dan 21 fonem konsonan dalam bahasa Bugis dialek Sinjai. Ditemukan juga dua jenis variasi fonologis, yaitu variasi fonem vokal: [e] ~ [i], [a] ~ [i], [o] ~ [u], [a] ~ [|], dan [o] ~ [|], serta variasi konsonan: [k] ~ [g], dan [w] ~ [h]. Variasi leksikal yang ditemukan meliputi beberapa gejala kebahasaan, yaitu: onomasiologis, aferesis, sinkope, epentesis, protesis, dan metatesis. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa banyak leksikon bahasa Bugis dialek Sinjai berbeda dengan bahasa Bugis standar, tetapi mirip dengan leksikon bahasa Konjo.
The Effects of Background Noise on Dichotic Listening to Consonant-Vowel Syllables

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Sequeira, Sarah Dos Santos; Specht, Karsten; Hamalainen, Heikki; Hugdahl, Kenneth

2008-01-01

Lateralization of verbal processing is frequently studied with the dichotic listening technique, yielding a so called right ear advantage (REA) to consonant-vowel (CV) syllables. However, little is known about how background noise affects the REA. To address this issue, we presented CV-syllables either in silence or with traffic background noise…
Phoneme Awareness, Vocabulary and Word Decoding in Monolingual and Bilingual Dutch Children

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Janssen, Marije; Bosman, Anna M. T.; Leseman, Paul P. M.

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate whether bilingually raised children in the Netherlands, who receive literacy instruction in their second language only, show an advantage on Dutch phoneme-awareness tasks compared with monolingual Dutch-speaking children. Language performance of a group of 47 immigrant first-grade children with various…

English Language Learners' Nonword Repetition Performance: The Influence of Age, L2 Vocabulary Size, Length of L2 Exposure, and L1 Phonology.

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Duncan, Tamara Sorenson; Paradis, Johanne

2016-02-01

This study examined individual differences in English language learners' (ELLs) nonword repetition (NWR) accuracy, focusing on the effects of age, English vocabulary size, length of exposure to English, and first-language (L1) phonology. Participants were 75 typically developing ELLs (mean age 5;8 [years;months]) whose exposure to English began on average at age 4;4. Children spoke either a Chinese language or South Asian language as an L1 and were given English standardized tests for NWR and receptive vocabulary. Although the majority of ELLs scored within or above the monolingual normal range (71%), 29% scored below. Mixed logistic regression modeling revealed that a larger English vocabulary, longer English exposure, South Asian L1, and older age all had significant and positive effects on ELLs' NWR accuracy. Error analyses revealed the following L1 effect: onset consonants were produced more accurately than codas overall, but this effect was stronger for the Chinese group whose L1s have a more limited coda inventory compared with English. ELLs' NWR performance is influenced by a number of factors. Consideration of these factors is important in deciding whether monolingual norm referencing is appropriate for ELL children.
Consonant Alternations in Changing Verb Forms in Modern Russian

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Olga Alekseevna Gracheva

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to consonant alternations in the verbal final basis that is associated with the processes of verbal form changes. It presents some results of the verbal form analysis that are being conjugated as types 4-8. The source of the material was "Grammatical dictionary of the Russian language" by A.A. Zaliznyak. It is proved that the alternation in verbal forms of modern Russian depends on the character of language levels coordination thus performing the following functions: grammar meaning intensification, lexical homonyms differentiation, and grammar form identification including. The novelty of the data presented in the article consists in defining the principle statement that there exists some variations in the balance between regularity and predictiveness of consonant alternations in verbal forms: the alternation is more predictable if the number of grammema clusters in a paradigm that they mark is lower (type 4 with inflection -ить; on the contrary, the less predictable the alternations are, the bigger grammema clusters in the paradigm are, (i.e. when used for intensifying type 6 (with inflection -ать. The comparison of verbal forms with and without alternations resulted in the following conclusion: an infinitive form of a verb will predict with greater certainly types of alternations in the final basis and point to a definite kind of morphological meaning. The regularities revealed might be used in a descriptive morphology of modern Russian and in practice of teaching Russian as a foreign language.
Lexical representation of novel L2 contrasts

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Hayes-Harb, Rachel; Masuda, Kyoko

2005-04-01

There is much interest among psychologists and linguists in the influence of the native language sound system on the acquisition of second languages (Best, 1995; Flege, 1995). Most studies of second language (L2) speech focus on how learners perceive and produce L2 sounds, but we know of only two that have considered how novel sound contrasts are encoded in learners' lexical representations of L2 words (Pallier et al., 2001; Ota et al., 2002). In this study we investigated how native speakers of English encode Japanese consonant quantity contrasts in their developing Japanese lexicons at different stages of acquisition (Japanese contrasts singleton versus geminate consonants but English does not). Monolingual English speakers, native English speakers learning Japanese for one year, and native speakers of Japanese were taught a set of Japanese nonwords containing singleton and geminate consonants. Subjects then performed memory tasks eliciting perception and production data to determine whether they encoded the Japanese consonant quantity contrast lexically. Overall accuracy in these tasks was a function of Japanese language experience, and acoustic analysis of the production data revealed non-native-like patterns of differentiation of singleton and geminate consonants among the L2 learners of Japanese. Implications for theories of L2 speech are discussed.
HIERtalker: A default hierarchy of high order neural networks that learns to read English aloud

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An, Z.G.; Mniszewski, S.M.; Lee, Y.C.; Papcun, G.; Doolen, G.D.

1988-01-01

A new learning algorithm based on a default hierarchy of high order neural networks has been developed that is able to generalize as well as handle exceptions. It learns the ''building blocks'' or clusters of symbols in a stream that appear repeatedly and convey certain messages. The default hierarchy prevents a combinatoric explosion of rules. A simulator of such a hierarchy, HIERtalker, has been applied to the conversion of English words to phonemes. Achieved accuracy is 99% for trained words and ranges from 76% to 96% for sets of new words. 8 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.
The selective role of premotor cortex in speech perception: a contribution to phoneme judgements but not speech comprehension.

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Krieger-Redwood, Katya; Gaskell, M Gareth; Lindsay, Shane; Jefferies, Elizabeth

2013-12-01

Several accounts of speech perception propose that the areas involved in producing language are also involved in perceiving it. In line with this view, neuroimaging studies show activation of premotor cortex (PMC) during phoneme judgment tasks; however, there is debate about whether speech perception necessarily involves motor processes, across all task contexts, or whether the contribution of PMC is restricted to tasks requiring explicit phoneme awareness. Some aspects of speech processing, such as mapping sounds onto meaning, may proceed without the involvement of motor speech areas if PMC specifically contributes to the manipulation and categorical perception of phonemes. We applied TMS to three sites-PMC, posterior superior temporal gyrus, and occipital pole-and for the first time within the TMS literature, directly contrasted two speech perception tasks that required explicit phoneme decisions and mapping of speech sounds onto semantic categories, respectively. TMS to PMC disrupted explicit phonological judgments but not access to meaning for the same speech stimuli. TMS to two further sites confirmed that this pattern was site specific and did not reflect a generic difference in the susceptibility of our experimental tasks to TMS: stimulation of pSTG, a site involved in auditory processing, disrupted performance in both language tasks, whereas stimulation of occipital pole had no effect on performance in either task. These findings demonstrate that, although PMC is important for explicit phonological judgments, crucially, PMC is not necessary for mapping speech onto meanings.
Infants Learn Phonotactic Regularities from Brief Auditory Experience.

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Chambers, Kyle E.; Onishi, Kristine H.; Fisher, Cynthia

2003-01-01

Two experiments investigated whether novel phonotactic regularities, not present in English, could be acquired by 16.5-month-olds from brief auditory experience. Subjects listened to consonant-vowel-consonant syllables in which particular consonants were artificially restricted to either initial or final position. Findings in a subsequent…
The Role of Perception in the Typology of Geminate Consonants: Effects of Manner of Articulation, Segmental Environment, Position, and Stress.

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Dmitrieva, Olga

2018-03-01

The present study seeks to answer the question of whether consonant duration is perceived differently across consonants of different manners of articulation and in different contextual environments and whether such differences may be related to the typology of geminates. The results of the cross-linguistic identification experiment suggest higher perceptual acuity in labeling short and long consonants in sonorants than in obstruents. Duration categories were also more consistently and clearly labeled in the intervocalic than in the preconsonantal environment, in the word-initial than in the word-final position, and after stressed vowels than between unstressed vowels. These perceptual asymmetries are in line with some typological tendencies, such as the cross-linguistic preference for intervocalic and post-stress geminates, but contradict other proposed cross-linguistic patterns, such as the preference for obstruent geminates and the abundance of word-final geminates.
PHONOLOGICAL FOSSILIZATION OF THE JAVANESE ADULT LEARNERS OF ENGLISH: R&D OF A MODEL OF TEACHING MATERIALS OF ENGLISH PHONOLOGY FOR EFL LEARNERS

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Senowarsito Senowarsito

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents preliminary study of R&D on Teaching Materials Model of English Phonology for EF2L. The preliminary study aims at finding out the phonological fossilization of adult learners of English in Javanese context and figuring out the factors influencing them. 25 fourth-semester Javanese students of English Departement from 5 universities in Semarang municipality were selected as respondents. The data were collected from observation, interview and documentation. The results show that phonological fossilizations occur on vowel (/e/ instead of /i/ in ‗english‘ /ˈɪŋ.glɪʃ/, /a/ instead of /æ/ in ‗aspect‘ /ˈæs.pekt/, it also occurs in /Ʌ,e, ǝ/ mostly in initial sound , consonant (/nð/ instead of /ð/ in ‗the‘ /ðǝ/, /ŋ/ instead of /ʤ/ in ‗change‘ /tʃeɪndʒ/, also in /tʃ, ϴ,ð,ʃ,v,Ʒ,z,j,k,g, suffix –ed and –es, and silent letter, and diphthong (/o/ instead of /ǝu/ in ‗over‘ /ǝuvǝr/ and in ‗power‘ /paʊər /, also in/ei,au/ . Factors affecting the occurrence of phonological fossilization are 1 the interference of respondents‘ mother tongue, such as Javanese tends to add sound /n/ in /nðǝlɔk/ ‗ndelok‘ and it interferes in pronouncing ‗the‘ to /nðǝ/ instead of /ðǝ/; 2 the learning materials of English Phonology course does not yet accommodate the learner‘s errors and or learner‘s fossilizations. These findings can be used as recommendation to develop teaching materials of English Phonology for EF2L.
Teachers' feeling of belonging, exhaustion, and job satisfaction: the role of school goal structure and value consonance.

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Skaalvik, Einar M; Skaalvik, Sidsel

2011-07-01

In their daily teaching and classroom management, teachers inevitably communicate and represent values. The purpose of this study was to explore relations between teachers' perception of school level values represented by the goal structure of the school and value consonance (the degree to which they felt that they shared the prevailing norms and values at the school), teachers' feeling of belonging, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and motivation to leave the teaching profession. The participants were 231 Norwegian teachers in elementary school and middle school. Data were analyzed by means of structural equation modeling (SEM). Teachers' perception of mastery goal structure was strongly and positively related to value consonance and negatively related to emotional exhaustion, whereas performance goal structure, in the SEM model, was not significantly related to these constructs. Furthermore, value consonance was positively related to teachers' feeling of belonging and job satisfaction, whereas emotional exhaustion was negatively associated with job satisfaction. Job satisfaction was the strongest predictor of motivation to leave the teaching profession. A practical implication of the study is that educational goals and values should be explicitly discussed and clarified, both by education authorities and at the school level.
Perceptual Recovery from Consonant-Cluster Simplification in Korean Using Language-Specific Phonological Knowledge

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Cho, T.; McQueen, J.M.

2011-01-01

Two experiments examined whether perceptual recovery from Korean consonant-cluster simplification is based on language-specific phonological knowledge. In tri-consonantal C1C2C3 sequences such as /lkt/ and /lpt/ in Seoul Korean, either C1 or C2 can be completely deleted. Seoul Koreans monitored for
Consonant acquisition: a first approach to the distribution of errors in four positions in the word

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Silvia Llach

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The goal of this study is to describe the behavior of errors in two types of onsets (initial and intervocalic and two types of codas (in the middle and end of the word in order to determine if any of these positions are more prone to specific types of errors than the others.We have looked into the errors that are frequently produced in these four contexts during the acquisition of consonant sounds in the Catalan language. The data were taken from a study on the acquisition of consonants in Catalan, carried out on 90 children between the ages of 3 and 5 years from several kindergarten schools. The results do show that there are characteristic errors depending on the position within the word.
Consonance and pitch.

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McLachlan, Neil; Marco, David; Light, Maria; Wilson, Sarah

2013-11-01

To date, no consensus exists in the literature as to theories of consonance and dissonance. Experimental data collected over the last century have raised questions about the dominant theories that are based on frequency relationships between the harmonics of music chords. This study provides experimental evidence that strongly challenges these theories and suggests a new theory of dissonance based on relationships between pitch perception and recognition. Experiment 1 shows that dissonance does not increase with increasing numbers of harmonics in chords as predicted by Helmholtz's (1863/1954) roughness theory, nor does it increase with fewer pitch-matching errors as predicted by Stumpf's (1898) tonal fusion theory. Dissonance was strongly correlated with pitch-matching error for chords, which in turn was reduced by chord familiarity and greater music training. This led to the proposition that long-term memory templates for common chords assist the perception of pitches in chords by providing an estimate of the chord intervals from spectral information. When recognition mechanisms based on these templates fail, the spectral pitch estimate is inconsistent with the period of the waveform, leading to cognitive incongruence and the negative affect of dissonance. The cognitive incongruence theory of dissonance was rigorously tested in Experiment 2, in which nonmusicians were trained to match the pitches of a random selection of 2-pitch chords. After 10 training sessions, they rated the chords they had learned to pitch match as less dissonant than the unlearned chords, irrespective of their tuning, providing strong support for a cognitive mechanism of dissonance. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.
Semantic Keys and Reading

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Zev bar-Lev

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Semantic Keys are elements (word-parts of written language that give an iconic, general representation of the whole word’s meaning. In written Sino-Japanese the “radical” or semantic components play this role. For example, the character meaning ‘woman, female’ is the Semantic Key of the character for Ma ‘Mama’ (alongside the phonetic component Ma, which means ‘horse’ as a separate character. The theory of semantic Keys in both graphic and phonemic aspects is called qTheory or nanosemantics. The most innovative aspect of the present article is the hypothesis that, in languages using alphabetic writing systems, the role of Semantic Key is played by consonants, more specifically the first consonant. Thus, L meaning ‘LIFT’ is the Semantic Key of English Lift, Ladle, Lofty, aLps, eLevator, oLympus; Spanish Leva, Lecantarse, aLto, Lengua; Arabic aLLah, and Hebrew① ªeL-ºaL ‘upto-above’ (the Israeli airline, Polish Lot ‘flight’ (the Polish airline; Hebrew ªeL, ªeLohim ‘God’, and haLLeluyah ‘praise-ye God’ (using Parallels, ‘Lift up God’. Evidence for the universality of the theory is shown by many examples drawn from various languages, including Indo-European Semitic, Chinese and Japanese. The theory reveals hundreds of relationships within and between languages, related and unrelated, that have been “Hiding in Plain Sight”, to mention just one example: the Parallel between Spanish Pan ‘bread’ and Mandarin Fan ‘rice’.
The relationship between maternal education and the neural substrates of phoneme perception in children: Interactions between socioeconomic status and proficiency level.

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Conant, Lisa L; Liebenthal, Einat; Desai, Anjali; Binder, Jeffrey R

2017-08-01

Relationships between maternal education (ME) and both behavioral performances and brain activation during the discrimination of phonemic and nonphonemic sounds were examined using fMRI in children with different levels of phoneme categorization proficiency (CP). Significant relationships were found between ME and intellectual functioning and vocabulary, with a trend for phonological awareness. A significant interaction between CP and ME was seen for nonverbal reasoning abilities. In addition, fMRI analyses revealed a significant interaction between CP and ME for phonemic discrimination in left prefrontal cortex. Thus, ME was associated with differential patterns of both neuropsychological performance and brain activation contingent on the level of CP. These results highlight the importance of examining SES effects at different proficiency levels. The pattern of results may suggest the presence of neurobiological differences in the children with low CP that affect the nature of relationships with ME. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Computer-assisted training of phoneme-grapheme correspondence for children who are deaf and hard of hearing: effects on phonological processing skills.

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Nakeva von Mentzer, Cecilia; Lyxell, Björn; Sahlén, Birgitta; Wass, Malin; Lindgren, Magnus; Ors, Marianne; Kallioinen, Petter; Uhlén, Inger

2013-12-01

Examine deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children's phonological processing skills in relation to a reference group of children with normal hearing (NH) at two baselines pre intervention. Study the effects of computer-assisted phoneme-grapheme correspondence training in the children. Specifically analyze possible effects on DHH children's phonological processing skills. The study included 48 children who participated in a computer-assisted intervention study, which focuses on phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Children were 5, 6, and 7 years of age. There were 32 DHH children using cochlear implants (CI) or hearing aids (HA), or both in combination, and 16 children with NH. The study had a quasi-experimental design with three test occasions separated in time by four weeks; baseline 1 and 2 pre intervention, and 3 post intervention. Children performed tasks measuring lexical access, phonological processing, and letter knowledge. All children were asked to practice ten minutes per day at home supported by their parents. NH children outperformed DHH children on the majority of tasks. All children improved their accuracy in phoneme-grapheme correspondence and output phonology as a function of the computer-assisted intervention. For the whole group of children, and specifically for children with CI, a lower initial phonological composite score was associated with a larger phonological change between baseline 2 and post intervention. Finally, 18 DHH children, whereof 11 children with CI, showed specific intervention effects on their phonological processing skills, and strong effect sizes for their improved accuracy of phoneme-grapheme correspondence. For some DHH children phonological processing skills are boosted relatively more by phoneme-grapheme correspondence training. This reflects the reciprocal relationship between phonological change and exposure to and manipulations of letters. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Rapid Naming and Phonemic Awareness in Children with or without Reading Disabilities and/or ADHD

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de Groot, Barry J.A.; van den Bos, Kees P.; van der Meulen, Bieuwe F.; Minnaert, Alexander E.M.G.

2017-01-01

Employing a large sample of children from Dutch regular elementary schools, this study assessed the contributing and discriminating values of reading disability (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to two types of phonological processing skills, phonemic awareness (PA) and rapid
Intra-oral pressure-based voicing control of electrolaryngeal speech with intra-oral vibrator.

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Takahashi, Hirokazu; Nakao, Masayuki; Kikuchi, Yataro; Kaga, Kimitaka

2008-07-01

In normal speech, coordinated activities of intrinsic laryngeal muscles suspend a glottal sound at utterance of voiceless consonants, automatically realizing a voicing control. In electrolaryngeal speech, however, the lack of voicing control is one of the causes of unclear voice, voiceless consonants tending to be misheard as the corresponding voiced consonants. In the present work, we developed an intra-oral vibrator with an intra-oral pressure sensor that detected utterance of voiceless phonemes during the intra-oral electrolaryngeal speech, and demonstrated that an intra-oral pressure-based voicing control could improve the intelligibility of the speech. The test voices were obtained from one electrolaryngeal speaker and one normal speaker. We first investigated on the speech analysis software how a voice onset time (VOT) and first formant (F1) transition of the test consonant-vowel syllables contributed to voiceless/voiced contrasts, and developed an adequate voicing control strategy. We then compared the intelligibility of consonant-vowel syllables among the intra-oral electrolaryngeal speech with and without online voicing control. The increase of intra-oral pressure, typically with a peak ranging from 10 to 50 gf/cm2, could reliably identify utterance of voiceless consonants. The speech analysis and intelligibility test then demonstrated that a short VOT caused the misidentification of the voiced consonants due to a clear F1 transition. Finally, taking these results together, the online voicing control, which suspended the prosthetic tone while the intra-oral pressure exceeded 2.5 gf/cm2 and during the 35 milliseconds that followed, proved efficient to improve the voiceless/voiced contrast.
Error Variability and the Differentiation between Apraxia of Speech and Aphasia with Phonemic Paraphasia

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Haley, Katarina L.; Jacks, Adam; Cunningham, Kevin T.

2013-01-01

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical utility of error variability for differentiating between apraxia of speech (AOS) and aphasia with phonemic paraphasia. Method: Participants were 32 individuals with aphasia after left cerebral injury. Diagnostic groups were formed on the basis of operationalized measures of recognized…
Exploring the role of hand gestures in learning novel phoneme contrasts and vocabulary in a second language

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Kelly, Spencer D.; Hirata, Yukari; Manansala, Michael; Huang, Jessica

2014-01-01

Co-speech hand gestures are a type of multimodal input that has received relatively little attention in the context of second language learning. The present study explored the role that observing and producing different types of gestures plays in learning novel speech sounds and word meanings in an L2. Naïve English-speakers were taught two components of Japanese—novel phonemic vowel length contrasts and vocabulary items comprised of those contrasts—in one of four different gesture conditions: Syllable Observe, Syllable Produce, Mora Observe, and Mora Produce. Half of the gestures conveyed intuitive information about syllable structure, and the other half, unintuitive information about Japanese mora structure. Within each Syllable and Mora condition, half of the participants only observed the gestures that accompanied speech during training, and the other half also produced the gestures that they observed along with the speech. The main finding was that participants across all four conditions had similar outcomes in two different types of auditory identification tasks and a vocabulary test. The results suggest that hand gestures may not be well suited for learning novel phonetic distinctions at the syllable level within a word, and thus, gesture-speech integration may break down at the lowest levels of language processing and learning. PMID:25071646
Practical Phonetics and Phonology

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Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M.

Practical Phonetics and Phonology: presents the essentials of the subject in a lively way whilst stressing the day-to-day applications of phonetics and phonology covers all the core concepts of speech science such as: the phoneme, syllable structure, production of speech, vowel and consonant...... language and linguistics and those training for a certificate in TEFL. The accompanying website to this book can be found at: www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415425148...

Volubility, consonant, and syllable characteristics in infants and toddlers later diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech: A pilot study.

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Overby, Megan; Caspari, Susan S

2015-01-01

This pilot study explored the volubility, consonant singleton acquisition, and syllable structure development between infants and toddlers (birth-24 months) with typical speech sound production (TYP) and those later diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). A retrospective longitudinal between- and within-subjects research design was utilized (TYP N=2; CAS N=4). Vocalizations from participants were analyzed between birth-24 months from home videotapes, volunteered by the children's parents, according to type (nonresonant vs. resonant), volubility, place and manner of consonant singletons, and syllable shape (V, CV, VC, CVC, VCV, CVCV, VCVC, and "Other"). Volubility between groups was not significant but statistically significant differences were found in the number of: resonant and non-resonant productions; different consonant singletons; different place features; different manner classes; and proportional use of fricative, glottal, and voiceless phones. Infants and toddlers in the CAS group also demonstrated difficulty with CVCs, had limited syllable shapes, and possible regression of vowel syllable structure. Data corroborate parent reports that infants and toddlers later diagnosed with CAS present differently than do those with typical speech sound skills. Additional study with infants and toddlers later diagnosed with non-CAS speech sound disorder is needed. Readers will: (1) describe current perspectives on volubility of infants and toddlers later diagnosed with CAS; (2) describe current perspectives of the consonant singleton and syllable shape inventories of infants and toddlers later diagnosed with CAS; and (3) discuss the potential differences between the speech sound development of infants and toddlers later diagnosed with CAS and those with typical speech sound skill. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Poor Phonemic Discrimination Does Not Underlie Poor Verbal Short-Term Memory in Down Syndrome

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Purser, Harry R. M.; Jarrold, Christopher

2013-01-01

Individuals with Down syndrome tend to have a marked impairment of verbal short-term memory. The chief aim of this study was to investigate whether phonemic discrimination contributes to this deficit. The secondary aim was to investigate whether phonological representations are degraded in verbal short-term memory in people with Down syndrome…
Learning of a Formation Principle for the Secondary Phonemic Function of a Syllabic Orthography

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Fletcher-Flinn, Claire M.; Thompson, G. Brian; Yamada, Megumi; Meissel, Kane

2014-01-01

It has been observed in Japanese children learning to read that there is an early and rapid shift from exclusive reading of hiragana as syllabograms to the dual-use convention in which some hiragana also represent phonemic elements. Such rapid initial learning appears contrary to the standard theories of reading acquisition that require…
Sources of Variability in Consonant Perception and Implications for Speech Perception Modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zaar, Johannes; Dau, Torsten

2016-01-01

The present study investigated the influence of various sources of response variability in consonant perception. A distinction was made between sourceinduced variability and receiverrelated variability. The former refers to perceptual differences induced by differences in the ...
The contribution of phonological awareness and receptive and expressive english to the reading ability of deaf students with varying degrees of exposure to accurate english.

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Luetke-Stahlman, Barbara; Nielsen, Diane Corcoran

2003-01-01

This study was planned with the knowledge that the tasks of reading require the same acquisition of skills, whether a child is hearing or deaf, monolingual, or bilingual. Reading and language research literature was reviewed. Subjects were 31 deaf students (7.9-17.9 years of age) who attended one of three U.S. programs. Performance on 15 language and literacy measures was analyzed. Results were that students who scored highest on a passage-comprehension measure also were more able (a) to provide synonyms, antonyms, and analogies of read words and phrases, (b) to read more listed words, and (c) to substitute one phoneme more correctly for another to create new words than were readers with lower scores. Two groups of students also were compared: a Longer Exposure to English Group (n = 22) who used Signing Exact English (SEE) for 5 years or more and a Shorter Exposure Group (n = 8) exposed to SEE for less than 2 years. A correlational analysis revealed that there were no significant relationships among 14 background variables with the exception of "age of identification of hearing loss," a variable then covaried in subsequent analysis of covariance. Students in the Longer Exposure Group scored higher on all measures. Significant differences were found between groups for short-term memory, receptive and expressive English, and five phonological subtests. Mini-case studies and the performance of eight students in the Longer Exposure Group who scored lowest on the comprehension measure also are discussed.
Processing of word stress related acoustic information: A multi-feature MMN study.

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Honbolygó, Ferenc; Kolozsvári, Orsolya; Csépe, Valéria

2017-08-01

In the present study, we investigated the processing of word stress related acoustic features in a word context. In a passive oddball multi-feature MMN experiment, we presented a disyllabic pseudo-word with two acoustically similar syllables as standard stimulus, and five contrasting deviants that differed from the standard in that they were either stressed on the first syllable or contained a vowel change. Stress was realized by an increase of f0, intensity, vowel duration or consonant duration. The vowel change was used to investigate if phonemic and prosodic changes elicit different MMN components. As a control condition, we presented non-speech counterparts of the speech stimuli. Results showed all but one feature (non-speech intensity deviant) eliciting the MMN component, which was larger for speech compared to non-speech stimuli. Two other components showed stimulus related effects: the N350 and the LDN (Late Discriminative Negativity). The N350 appeared to the vowel duration and consonant duration deviants, specifically to features related to the temporal characteristics of stimuli, while the LDN was present for all features, and it was larger for speech than for non-speech stimuli. We also found that the f0 and consonant duration features elicited a larger MMN than other features. These results suggest that stress as a phonological feature is processed based on long-term representations, and listeners show a specific sensitivity to segmental and suprasegmental cues signaling the prosodic boundaries of words. These findings support a two-stage model in the perception of stress and phoneme related acoustical information. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Effects of slow- and fast-acting compression on hearing impaired listeners’ consonant-vowel identification in interrupted noise

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kowalewski, Borys; Zaar, Johannes; Fereczkowski, Michal

2017-01-01

There is conflicting evidence about the relative benefit of slow- and fast- acting compression for speech intelligibility. It has been hypothesized tha tfast-acting compression improves audibility at low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) but may distort the speech envelope at higher SNRs. The present...... intelligibility benefit of fast-acting compression was found in both the quiet and the noisy conditions for the lower speech levels. No negative effects of fast-acting compression were observed when the speech level exceeded the level of the noise. These findings suggest that fast-acting compression provides...... study investigated the effects of compression with nearly instantaneous attack time but either fast (10 ms) or slow (500 ms) release times on consonant identification in hearing-impaired listeners. Consonant-vowel speech tokens were presented at several presentation levels in two conditions...
The Predictive Power of Phonemic Awareness and Naming Speed for Early Dutch Word Recognition

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Verhagen, Wim G. M.; Aarnoutse, Cor A. J.; van Leeuwe, Jan F. J.

2009-01-01

Effects of phonemic awareness and naming speed on the speed and accuracy of Dutch children's word recognition were investigated in a longitudinal study. Both the speed and accuracy of word recognition at the end of Grade 2 were predicted by naming speed from both kindergarten and Grade 1, after control for autoregressive relations, kindergarten…
Gaze Duration Biases for Colours in Combination with Dissonant and Consonant Sounds: A Comparative Eye-Tracking Study with Orangutans.

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Mühlenbeck, Cordelia; Liebal, Katja; Pritsch, Carla; Jacobsen, Thomas

2015-01-01

Research on colour preferences in humans and non-human primates suggests similar patterns of biases for and avoidance of specific colours, indicating that these colours are connected to a psychological reaction. Similarly, in the acoustic domain, approach reactions to consonant sounds (considered as positive) and avoidance reactions to dissonant sounds (considered as negative) have been found in human adults and children, and it has been demonstrated that non-human primates are able to discriminate between consonant and dissonant sounds. Yet it remains unclear whether the visual and acoustic approach-avoidance patterns remain consistent when both types of stimuli are combined, how they relate to and influence each other, and whether these are similar for humans and other primates. Therefore, to investigate whether gaze duration biases for colours are similar across primates and whether reactions to consonant and dissonant sounds cumulate with reactions to specific colours, we conducted an eye-tracking study in which we compared humans with one species of great apes, the orangutans. We presented four different colours either in isolation or in combination with consonant and dissonant sounds. We hypothesised that the viewing time for specific colours should be influenced by dissonant sounds and that previously existing avoidance behaviours with regard to colours should be intensified, reflecting their association with negative acoustic information. The results showed that the humans had constant gaze durations which were independent of the auditory stimulus, with a clear avoidance of yellow. In contrast, the orangutans did not show any clear gaze duration bias or avoidance of colours, and they were also not influenced by the auditory stimuli. In conclusion, our findings only partially support the previously identified pattern of biases for and avoidance of specific colours in humans and do not confirm such a pattern for orangutans.
DISSONANCE AND CONSONANCE BETWEEN THE COMPETITIVENESS OF

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OANA CRISTINA POPOVICI

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to identify to what extent the notions of organizational and regional competitiveness are similar, in order to be targeted by a comprehensive set of public policy measures. In this respect, we discuss the notions of organizations’ and regional competitiveness and find common factors of influence, namely innovation, networks and regulation. Based on these factors, we search for empirical evidences as regards the mutual impact between the competitiveness of organizations and competitiveness of regions. We present the results using the example of foreign direct investment companies, as their location decision making process is based on assessing both the competitiveness of organizations and the advantages of locations that point to the competitiveness of a location and, extended, to that of a region. While the dissonance is expressed in the differences of interpretation for the two notions, there is a consonant policy that can be employed for supporting both organizational and regional competitiveness: the cluster policy.
Effects of lips and hands on auditory learning of second-language speech sounds.

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Hirata, Yukari; Kelly, Spencer D

2010-04-01

Previous research has found that auditory training helps native English speakers to perceive phonemic vowel length contrasts in Japanese, but their performance did not reach native levels after training. Given that multimodal information, such as lip movement and hand gesture, influences many aspects of native language processing, the authors examined whether multimodal input helps to improve native English speakers' ability to perceive Japanese vowel length contrasts. Sixty native English speakers participated in 1 of 4 types of training: (a) audio-only; (b) audio-mouth; (c) audio-hands; and (d) audio-mouth-hands. Before and after training, participants were given phoneme perception tests that measured their ability to identify short and long vowels in Japanese (e.g., /kato/ vs. /kato/). Although all 4 groups improved from pre- to posttest (replicating previous research), the participants in the audio-mouth condition improved more than those in the audio-only condition, whereas the 2 conditions involving hand gestures did not. Seeing lip movements during training significantly helps learners to perceive difficult second-language phonemic contrasts, but seeing hand gestures does not. The authors discuss possible benefits and limitations of using multimodal information in second-language phoneme learning.
Effects of single-channel phonemic compression schemes on the understanding of speech by hearing-impaired listeners

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goedegebure, A.; Hulshof, M.; Maas, R. J.; Dreschler, W. A.; Verschuure, H.

2001-01-01

The effect of digital processing on speech intelligibility was studied in hearing-impaired listeners with moderate to severe high-frequency losses. The amount of smoothed phonemic compression in a high-frequency channel was varied using wide-band control. Two alternative systems were tested to
Evaluation of phoneme compression schemes designed to compensate for temporal and spectral masking in background noise

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Goedegebure, A.; Goedegebure-Hulshof, M.; Dreschler, W. A.; Verschuure, J.

2005-01-01

The effect of phonemic compression has been studied on speech intelligibility in background noise in hearing-impaired listeners with moderate-to-severe high-frequency losses. One configuration, anti-upward-spread-of-masking (anti-USOM) focuses on a release from spectral masking of high-frequency
Developmental changes in mismatch responses to mandarin consonants and lexical tones from early to middle childhood.

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Huei-Mei Liu

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to use mismatch responses (MMRs to explore the dynamic changes of Mandarin speech perception abilities from early to middle childhood. Twenty preschoolers, 18 school-aged children, and 26 adults participated in this study. Two sets of synthesized speech stimuli varying in Mandarin consonant (alveolo-palatal affricate vs. fricative and lexical tone features (rising vs. contour tone were used to examine the developmental course of speech perception abilities. The results indicated that only the adult group demonstrated typical early mismatch negativity (MMN responses, suggesting that the ability to discriminate specific speech cues in Mandarin consonant and lexical tone is a continuing process in preschool- and school-aged children. Additionally, distinct MMR patterns provided evidence indicating diverse developmental courses to different speech characteristics. By incorporating data from the two speech conditions, we propose using MMR profiles consisting of mismatch negativity (MMN, positive mismatch response (p-MMR, and late discriminative negativity (LDN as possible brain indices to investigate speech perception development.
The speech perception skills of children with and without speech sound disorder.

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Hearnshaw, Stephanie; Baker, Elise; Munro, Natalie

To investigate whether Australian-English speaking children with and without speech sound disorder (SSD) differ in their overall speech perception accuracy. Additionally, to investigate differences in the perception of specific phonemes and the association between speech perception and speech production skills. Twenty-five Australian-English speaking children aged 48-60 months participated in this study. The SSD group included 12 children and the typically developing (TD) group included 13 children. Children completed routine speech and language assessments in addition to an experimental Australian-English lexical and phonetic judgement task based on Rvachew's Speech Assessment and Interactive Learning System (SAILS) program (Rvachew, 2009). This task included eight words across four word-initial phonemes-/k, ɹ, ʃ, s/. Children with SSD showed significantly poorer perceptual accuracy on the lexical and phonetic judgement task compared with TD peers. The phonemes /ɹ/ and /s/ were most frequently perceived in error across both groups. Additionally, the phoneme /ɹ/ was most commonly produced in error. There was also a positive correlation between overall speech perception and speech production scores. Children with SSD perceived speech less accurately than their typically developing peers. The findings suggest that an Australian-English variation of a lexical and phonetic judgement task similar to the SAILS program is promising and worthy of a larger scale study. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Gestural overlap in consonant clusters: effects on the fluent speech of stuttering and non-stuttering subjects.

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Huinck, W.J.; Lieshout, P.H.H.M. van; Peters, H.F.M.; Hulstijn, W.

2004-01-01

This study was designed to investigate if persons who stutter differ from persons who do not stutter in the coproduction of different types of consonant clusters, as measured in the number of dysfluencies and incorrect speech productions, in speech reaction times and in word durations. Based on the
Effect of speech-intrinsic variations on human and automatic recognition of spoken phonemes.

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Meyer, Bernd T; Brand, Thomas; Kollmeier, Birger

2011-01-01

The aim of this study is to quantify the gap between the recognition performance of human listeners and an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system with special focus on intrinsic variations of speech, such as speaking rate and effort, altered pitch, and the presence of dialect and accent. Second, it is investigated if the most common ASR features contain all information required to recognize speech in noisy environments by using resynthesized ASR features in listening experiments. For the phoneme recognition task, the ASR system achieved the human performance level only when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was increased by 15 dB, which is an estimate for the human-machine gap in terms of the SNR. The major part of this gap is attributed to the feature extraction stage, since human listeners achieve comparable recognition scores when the SNR difference between unaltered and resynthesized utterances is 10 dB. Intrinsic variabilities result in strong increases of error rates, both in human speech recognition (HSR) and ASR (with a relative increase of up to 120%). An analysis of phoneme duration and recognition rates indicates that human listeners are better able to identify temporal cues than the machine at low SNRs, which suggests incorporating information about the temporal dynamics of speech into ASR systems.
Phonemic verbal fluency task in adults with high-level literacy.

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Opasso, Patrícia Romano; Barreto, Simone Dos Santos; Ortiz, Karin Zazo

2016-01-01

To establish normative parameters for the F-A-S form of the phonemic verbal fluency test, in a population of Brazilian Portuguese speaking adults with high-level literacy. The sample comprised 40 male and female volunteers aged 19 to 59 years, and at least 8 years of formal education. Volunteers were first submitted to the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Clock Drawing cognitive screening tests, then to the F-A-S Verbal Phonemic Fluency Test; in this test, examinees were given 60 seconds to generate as many words as possible beginning with each of the three test letters. The means for number of words beginning the letters F, A and S and for total number of words beginning with either letter generated per minute corresponded to 15.3, 14.4, 13.9 and 43.5, respectively. Reference values obtained from young adults with high levels of literacy submitted to the F-A-S Verbal Phonemic Fluency Test in this study were similar to those reported in the international literature. These reference values can be used for clinical assessment of language disorder and neuropsychological evaluation. Obter parâmetros de normalidade na tarefa de fluência verbal fonêmica, versão F-A-S, em uma população de alto letramento de adultos falantes do português brasileiro. A amostra foi constituída por 40 voluntários, de ambos os sexos, com idade entre 19 e 59 anos, e com mais de 8 anos de estudo. Todos os voluntários foram inicialmente submetidos ao Miniexame do Estado Mental e ao Teste do Desenho do Relógio, para fins de rastreio cognitivo, e, então, ao Teste de Fluência Verbal Fonêmica F-A-S. Neste último, os indivíduos foram orientados a produzirem o maior número de palavras que conseguissem, iniciadas com cada uma das três letras ditas pelo examinador, em um intervalo de 60 segundos cada. As médias das palavras produzidas com as letras F-A-S foram as seguintes: "F" = 15,3 palavras por minuto; "A" = 14,4 palavras por minuto; e "S" = 13,9 palavras por minuto. A m
Benefits of phoneme discrimination training in a randomized controlled trial of 50- to 74-year-olds with mild hearing loss.

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Ferguson, Melanie A; Henshaw, Helen; Clark, Daniel P A; Moore, David R

2014-01-01

The aims of this study were to (i) evaluate the efficacy of phoneme discrimination training for hearing and cognitive abilities of adults aged 50 to 74 years with mild sensorineural hearing loss who were not users of hearing aids, and to (ii) determine participant compliance with a self-administered, computer-delivered, home- and game-based auditory training program. This study was a randomized controlled trial with repeated measures and crossover design. Participants were trained and tested over an 8- to 12-week period. One group (Immediate Training) trained during weeks 1 and 4. A second waitlist group (Delayed Training) did no training during weeks 1 and 4, but then trained during weeks 5 and 8. On-task (phoneme discrimination) and transferable outcome measures (speech perception, cognition, self-report of hearing disability) for both groups were obtained during weeks 0, 4, and 8, and for the Delayed Training group only at week 12. Robust phoneme discrimination learning was found for both groups, with the largest improvements in threshold shown for those with the poorest initial thresholds. Between weeks 1 and 4, the Immediate Training group showed moderate, significant improvements on self-report of hearing disability, divided attention, and working memory, specifically for conditions or situations that were more complex and therefore more challenging. Training did not result in consistent improvements in speech perception in noise. There was no evidence of any test-retest effects between weeks 1 and 4 for the Delayed Training group. Retention of benefit at 4 weeks post-training was shown for phoneme discrimination, divided attention, working memory, and self-report of hearing disability. Improved divided attention and reduced self-reported hearing difficulties were highly correlated. It was observed that phoneme discrimination training benefits some but not all people with mild hearing loss. Evidence presented here, together with that of other studies that
Correlations between vocabulary and phonological acquisition: number of words produced versus acquired consonants.

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Wiethan, Fernanda Marafiga; Mota, Helena Bolli; Moraes, Anaelena Bragança de

2016-01-01

To verify the probable correlations between the number of word types and the number of consonants in the general phonological system in children with typical language development. Study participants were 186 children aged one year and six months to five years, 11 months and 29 days who were monolingual Brazilian Portuguese speakers with typical language development. Data collection involved speech, language and hearing assessments and spontaneous speech recordings. Phonology was assessed with regard to the number of acquired consonants in the general phonological system, in each syllable structure and in Implicational Model of Feature Complexity (IMFC) levels. Vocabulary was assessed with regard to number of word types produced. These data were compared across age groups. After that, correlations between the word types produced and the variables established for the phonological system were analyzed. The significance level adopted was 5%. All phonological aspects evaluated presented gradual growth. Word types produced showed a similar behavior, though with a small regression at the age of five years. Different positive correlations occurred between the spoken word types and the variables analyzed in the phonological system. Only one negative correlation occurred with respect to the production of complex onset in the last age group analyzed. The phonology and vocabulary of the study participants present similar behaviors. There are many positive correlations between the word types produced and the different aspects of phonology, except regarding complex onset.

Dynamic-range reduction by peak clipping or compression and its effects on phoneme perception in hearing-impaired listeners

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Dreschler, W. A.

1988-01-01

In this study, differences between dynamic-range reduction by peak clipping and single-channel compression for phoneme perception through conventional hearing aids have been investigated. The results from 16 hearing-impaired listeners show that compression limiting yields significantly better
From phonemes to images : levels of representation in a recurrent neural model of visually-grounded language learning

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Gelderloos, L.J.; Chrupala, Grzegorz

2016-01-01

We present a model of visually-grounded language learning based on stacked gated recurrent neural networks which learns to predict visual features given an image description in the form of a sequence of phonemes. The learning task resembles that faced by human language learners who need to discover
Restricted Consonant Inventories of 2-Year-Old Finnish Children with a History of Recurrent Acute Otitis Media

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Haapala, Sini; Niemitalo-Haapola, Elina; Raappana, Antti; Kujala, Tiia; Kujala, Teija; Jansson-Verkasalo, Eira

2015-01-01

Many children experience recurrent acute otitis media (RAOM) in early childhood. In a previous study, 2-year-old children with RAOM were shown to have immature neural patterns for speech sound discrimination. The present study further investigated the consonant inventories of these same children using natural speech samples. The results showed…
The Impact of Teaching Phonemic Awareness by Means of Direct Instruction on Reading Achievement of Students with Reading Disorder

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Ahmad Sharifi

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Background: Phonemic awareness is one of the most important predictors of reading skills that has been taught by different procedures. One of the procedures is implementation of direct instruction in instruction of phonemic awareness. Current study is one of the unique studies in Iran that investigate impact of direct instruction in phonemic awareness on reading achievement of students with reading disorder.Case: Three male second grade elementary students with reading disorder in a regular school in district six of the office of education in Tehran were selected. Multiple-baseline across subjects was selected as a research design. The following tests were used as diagnostic criteria: reading and dyslexia test and Wechsler intelligence scale for children-revised. Moreover, a reading inventory consisting of 100 words was developed by researchers to assess the reading ability of the subjects. Data were collected in three phases: baseline, intervention, and follow-up. During the intervention phase, the intervention strategies were used while during baseline and follow-up, data were collected without any intervention. Comparing three phases of the study, we may conclude that intervention package consisting of direct instruction of phonological awareness was an effective strategy in reading achievement of all three students. In addition, follow-up data indicated that the effects of the intervention procedures were stable across time.Conclusion: Direct instruction of phonological awareness was effective in reading achievement of students with reading disorder in elementary school and increasing their abilities in reading.
Action video games improve reading abilities and visual-to-auditory attentional shifting in English-speaking children with dyslexia.

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Franceschini, Sandro; Trevisan, Piergiorgio; Ronconi, Luca; Bertoni, Sara; Colmar, Susan; Double, Kit; Facoetti, Andrea; Gori, Simone

2017-07-19

Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties in learning to read and there is some evidence that action video games (AVG), without any direct phonological or orthographic stimulation, improve reading efficiency in Italian children with dyslexia. However, the cognitive mechanism underlying this improvement and the extent to which the benefits of AVG training would generalize to deep English orthography, remain two critical questions. During reading acquisition, children have to integrate written letters with speech sounds, rapidly shifting their attention from visual to auditory modality. In our study, we tested reading skills and phonological working memory, visuo-spatial attention, auditory, visual and audio-visual stimuli localization, and cross-sensory attentional shifting in two matched groups of English-speaking children with dyslexia before and after they played AVG or non-action video games. The speed of words recognition and phonological decoding increased after playing AVG, but not non-action video games. Furthermore, focused visuo-spatial attention and visual-to-auditory attentional shifting also improved only after AVG training. This unconventional reading remediation program also increased phonological short-term memory and phoneme blending skills. Our report shows that an enhancement of visuo-spatial attention and phonological working memory, and an acceleration of visual-to-auditory attentional shifting can directly translate into better reading in English-speaking children with dyslexia.
Framewise phoneme classification with bidirectional LSTM and other neural network architectures.

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Graves, Alex; Schmidhuber, Jürgen

2005-01-01

In this paper, we present bidirectional Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) networks, and a modified, full gradient version of the LSTM learning algorithm. We evaluate Bidirectional LSTM (BLSTM) and several other network architectures on the benchmark task of framewise phoneme classification, using the TIMIT database. Our main findings are that bidirectional networks outperform unidirectional ones, and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) is much faster and also more accurate than both standard Recurrent Neural Nets (RNNs) and time-windowed Multilayer Perceptrons (MLPs). Our results support the view that contextual information is crucial to speech processing, and suggest that BLSTM is an effective architecture with which to exploit it.
Development and Evaluation of a Speech Recognition Test for Persian Speaking Adults

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Mohammad Mosleh

2001-05-01

Full Text Available Method and Materials: This research is carried out for development and evaluation of 25 phonemically balanced word lists for Persian speaking adults in two separate stages: development and evaluation. In the first stage, in order to balance the lists phonemically, frequency -of- occurrences of each 29phonems (6 vowels and 23 Consonants of the Persian language in adults speech are determined. This section showed some significant differences between some phonemes' frequencies. Then, all Persian monosyllabic words extracted from the Mo ‘in Persian dictionary. The semantically difficult words were refused and the appropriate words choosed according to judgment of 5 adult native speakers of Persian with high school diploma. 12 openset 25 word lists are prepared. The lists were recorded on magnetic tapes in an audio studio by a professional speaker of IRIB. "nIn the second stage, in order to evaluate the test's validity and reliability, 60 normal hearing adults (30 male, 30 female, were randomly selected and evaluated as test and retest. Findings: 1- Normal hearing adults obtained 92-1 0O scores for each list at their MCL through test-retest. 2- No significant difference was observed a/ in test-retest scores in each list (‘P>O.05 b/ between the lists at test or retest scores (P>0.05, c/between sex (P>0.05. Conclusion: This research is reliable and valid, the lists are phonemically balanced and equal in difficulty and valuable for evaluation of Persian speaking adults speech recognition.
The Applications of Phonemic Contrasts and Their Implications for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

final-year Yoruba-English bilingual University undergraduates and the implications of their applications on pedagogic practices especially in English as a second language (ESL) environment. This subject is rarely studied in Nigeria, yet, it might be significant for shaping the effective teaching of oral English.
Dichotic beats of mistuned consonances.

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Feeney, M P

1997-10-01

The beats of mistuned consonances (BMCs) result from the presentation of two sinusoids at frequencies slightly mistuned from a ratio of small integers. Several studies have suggested that the source of dichotic BMCs is an interaction within a binaural critical band. In one case the mechanism has been explained as an aural harmonic of the low-frequency tone (f1) creating binaural beats with the high-frequency tone (f2). The other explanation involves a binaural cross correlation between the excitation pattern of f1 and the contralateral f2--occurring within the binaural critical band centered at f2. This study examined the detection of dichotic BMCs for the octave and fifth. In one experiment with the octave, narrow-band noise centered at f2 was presented to one ear along with f1. The other ear was presented with f2. The noise was used to prevent interactions in the binaural critical band centered at f2. Dichotic BMCs were still detected under these conditions, suggesting that binaural interaction within a critical band does not explain the effect. Localization effects were also observed under this masking condition for phase reversals of tuned dichotic octave stimuli. These findings suggest a new theory of dichotic BMCs as a between-channel phase effect. The modified weighted-image model of localization [Stern and Trahiotis, in Auditory Physiology and Perception, edited by Y. Cazals, L. Demany, and K. Horner (Pergamon, Oxford, 1992), pp. 547-554] was used to provide an explanation of the between-channel mechanism.
The different time course of phonotactic constraint learning in children and adults: Evidence from speech errors.

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Smalle, Eleonore H M; Muylle, Merel; Szmalec, Arnaud; Duyck, Wouter

2017-11-01

Speech errors typically respect the speaker's implicit knowledge of language-wide phonotactics (e.g., /t/ cannot be a syllable onset in the English language). Previous work demonstrated that adults can learn novel experimentally induced phonotactic constraints by producing syllable strings in which the allowable position of a phoneme depends on another phoneme within the sequence (e.g., /t/ can only be an onset if the medial vowel is /i/), but not earlier than the second day of training. Thus far, no work has been done with children. In the current 4-day experiment, a group of Dutch-speaking adults and 9-year-old children were asked to rapidly recite sequences of novel word forms (e.g., kieng nief siet hiem ) that were consistent with phonotactics of the spoken Dutch language. Within the procedure of the experiment, some consonants (i.e., /t/ and /k/) were restricted to the onset or coda position depending on the medial vowel (i.e., /i/ or "ie" vs. /øː/ or "eu"). Speech errors in adults revealed a learning effect for the novel constraints on the second day of learning, consistent with earlier findings. A post hoc analysis at the trial level showed that learning was statistically reliable after an exposure of 120 sequence trials (including a consolidation period). However, children started learning the constraints already on the first day. More precisely, the effect appeared significantly after an exposure of 24 sequences. These findings indicate that children are rapid implicit learners of novel phonotactics, which bears important implications for theorizing about developmental sensitivities in language learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).
Do Adults with Cochlear Implants Rely on Different Acoustic Cues for Phoneme Perception than Adults with Normal Hearing?

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Moberly, Aaron C.; Lowenstein, Joanna H.; Tarr, Eric; Caldwell-Tarr, Amanda; Welling, D. Bradley; Shahin, Antoine J.; Nittrouer, Susan

2014-01-01

Purpose: Several acoustic cues specify any single phonemic contrast. Nonetheless, adult, native speakers of a language share weighting strategies, showing preferential attention to some properties over others. Cochlear implant (CI) signal processing disrupts the salience of some cues: In general, amplitude structure remains readily available, but…
The relationship between native allophonic experience with vowel duration and perception of the English tense/lax vowel contrast by Spanish and Russian listeners.

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Kondaurova, Maria V; Francis, Alexander L

2008-12-01

Two studies explored the role of native language use of an acoustic cue, vowel duration, in both native and non-native contexts in order to test the hypothesis that non-native listeners' reliance on vowel duration instead of vowel quality to distinguish the English tense/lax vowel contrast could be explained by the role of duration as a cue in native phonological contrasts. In the first experiment, native Russian, Spanish, and American English listeners identified stimuli from a beat/bit continuum varying in nine perceptually equal spectral and duration steps. English listeners relied predominantly on spectrum, but showed some reliance on duration. Russian and Spanish speakers relied entirely on duration. In the second experiment, three tests examined listeners' use of vowel duration in native contrasts. Duration was equally important for the perception of lexical stress for all three groups. However, English listeners relied more on duration as a cue to postvocalic consonant voicing than did native Spanish or Russian listeners, and Spanish listeners relied on duration more than did Russian listeners. Results suggest that, although allophonic experience may contribute to cross-language perceptual patterns, other factors such as the application of statistical learning mechanisms and the influence of language-independent psychoacoustic proclivities cannot be ruled out.
The relationship between native allophonic experience with vowel duration and perception of the English tense∕lax vowel contrast by Spanish and Russian listeners

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Kondaurova, Maria V.; Francis, Alexander L.

2008-01-01

Two studies explored the role of native language use of an acoustic cue, vowel duration, in both native and non-native contexts in order to test the hypothesis that non-native listeners’ reliance on vowel duration instead of vowel quality to distinguish the English tense∕lax vowel contrast could be explained by the role of duration as a cue in native phonological contrasts. In the first experiment, native Russian, Spanish, and American English listeners identified stimuli from a beat∕bit continuum varying in nine perceptually equal spectral and duration steps. English listeners relied predominantly on spectrum, but showed some reliance on duration. Russian and Spanish speakers relied entirely on duration. In the second experiment, three tests examined listeners’ use of vowel duration in native contrasts. Duration was equally important for the perception of lexical stress for all three groups. However, English listeners relied more on duration as a cue to postvocalic consonant voicing than did native Spanish or Russian listeners, and Spanish listeners relied on duration more than did Russian listeners. Results suggest that, although allophonic experience may contribute to cross-language perceptual patterns, other factors such as the application of statistical learning mechanisms and the influence of language-independent psychoacoustic proclivities cannot be ruled out. PMID:19206820
Prediction of consonant recognition in quiet for listeners with normal and impaired hearing using an auditory model.

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Jürgens, Tim; Ewert, Stephan D; Kollmeier, Birger; Brand, Thomas

2014-03-01

Consonant recognition was assessed in normal-hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) listeners in quiet as a function of speech level using a nonsense logatome test. Average recognition scores were analyzed and compared to recognition scores of a speech recognition model. In contrast to commonly used spectral speech recognition models operating on long-term spectra, a "microscopic" model operating in the time domain was used. Variations of the model (accounting for hearing impairment) and different model parameters (reflecting cochlear compression) were tested. Using these model variations this study examined whether speech recognition performance in quiet is affected by changes in cochlear compression, namely, a linearization, which is often observed in HI listeners. Consonant recognition scores for HI listeners were poorer than for NH listeners. The model accurately predicted the speech reception thresholds of the NH and most HI listeners. A partial linearization of the cochlear compression in the auditory model, while keeping audibility constant, produced higher recognition scores and improved the prediction accuracy. However, including listener-specific information about the exact form of the cochlear compression did not improve the prediction further.
Intervention for bilingual speech sound disorders: A case study of an isiXhosa-English-speaking child.

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Rossouw, Kate; Pascoe, Michelle

2018-03-19

Bilingualism is common in South Africa, with many children acquiring isiXhosa as a home language and learning English from a young age in nursery or crèche. IsiXhosa is a local language, part of the Bantu language family, widely spoken in the country. Aims: To describe changes in a bilingual child's speech following intervention based on a theoretically motivated and tailored intervention plan. Methods and procedures: This study describes a female isiXhosa-English bilingual child, named Gcobisa (pseudonym) (chronological age 4 years and 2 months) with a speech sound disorder. Gcobisa's speech was assessed and her difficulties categorised according to Dodd's (2005) diagnostic framework. From this, intervention was planned and the language of intervention was selected. Following intervention, Gcobisa's speech was reassessed. Outcomes and results: Gcobisa's speech was categorised as a consistent phonological delay as she presented with gliding of/l/in both English and isiXhosa, cluster reduction in English and several other age appropriate phonological processes. She was provided with 16 sessions of intervention using a minimal pairs approach, targeting the phonological process of gliding of/l/, which was not considered age appropriate for Gcobisa in isiXhosa when compared to the small set of normative data regarding monolingual isiXhosa development. As a result, the targets and stimuli were in isiXhosa while the main language of instruction was English. This reflects the language mismatch often faced by speech language therapists in South Africa. Gcobisa showed evidence of generalising the target phoneme to English words. Conclusions and implications: The data have theoretical implications regarding bilingual development of isiXhosa-English, as it highlights the ways bilingual development may differ from the monolingual development of this language pair. It adds to the small set of intervention studies investigating the changes in the speech of bilingual
Intervention for bilingual speech sound disorders: A case study of an isiXhosa–English-speaking child

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Kate Rossouw

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Background: Bilingualism is common in South Africa, with many children acquiring isiXhosa as a home language and learning English from a young age in nursery or crèche. IsiXhosa is a local language, part of the Bantu language family, widely spoken in the country. Aims: To describe changes in a bilingual child’s speech following intervention based on a theoretically motivated and tailored intervention plan. Methods and procedures: This study describes a female isiXhosa–English bilingual child, named Gcobisa (pseudonym (chronological age 4 years and 2 months with a speech sound disorder. Gcobisa’s speech was assessed and her difficulties categorised according to Dodd’s (2005 diagnostic framework. From this, intervention was planned and the language of intervention was selected. Following intervention, Gcobisa’s speech was reassessed. Outcomes and results: Gcobisa’s speech was categorised as a consistent phonological delay as she presented with gliding of/l/in both English and isiXhosa, cluster reduction in English and several other age appropriate phonological processes. She was provided with 16 sessions of intervention using a minimal pairs approach, targeting the phonological process of gliding of/l/, which was not considered age appropriate for Gcobisa in isiXhosa when compared to the small set of normative data regarding monolingual isiXhosa development. As a result, the targets and stimuli were in isiXhosa while the main language of instruction was English. This reflects the language mismatch often faced by speech language therapists in South Africa. Gcobisa showed evidence of generalising the target phoneme to English words. Conclusions and implications: The data have theoretical implications regarding bilingual development of isiXhosa–English, as it highlights the ways bilingual development may differ from the monolingual development of this language pair. It adds to the small set of intervention studies
An investigation into spoken audio topic identification using the Fisher Corpus

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Kleynhans, N

2014-11-01

Full Text Available dictionary was sourced as a seed North American English pronunciation dic- tionary. It contains over 125k words and uses 39 stress-marked phonemes. For this investigation, the stress markings were removed. Phonetisaurus [10] was used to perform grapheme- to...-phoneme (G2P) prediction for words not found in the seed pronunciation dictionary. Phonetisaurus implements a WFST- driven G2P framework that is used to rapidly develop high quality G2P or P2G (phoneme-to-grapheme) systems – it does this by learning...
Analyzing the Pattern of L1 Sounds on L2 Sounds Produced by Javanese Students of Stkip PGRI Jombang

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Daning Hentasmaka

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The studyconcerns on an analysis on the tendency of first language (L1 sound patterning on second language (L2 sounds done by Javanese students.Focusing on the consonant sounds, the data were collected by recording students’ pronunciationof English words during the pronunciation test. The data then analysed through three activities: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/ verification. Theresult showedthatthe patterning of L1 sounds happened on L2 sounds especially on eleven consonant sounds: the fricatives [v, θ, ð, ʃ, ʒ], the voiceless stops [p, t, k], and the voiced stops [b, d, g].Thosepatterning case emergedmostlyduetothe difference in the existence of consonant sounds and rules of consonant distribution. Besides, one of the cases was caused by the difference in consonant clusters between L1 and L2
ANALYZING THE PATTERN OF L1 SOUNDS ON L2 SOUNDS PRODUCED BY JAVANESE STUDENTS OF STKIP PGRI JOMBANG

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Daning Hentasmaka

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The studyconcerns on an analysis on the tendency of first language (L1 sound patterning on second language (L2 sounds done by Javanese students.Focusing on the consonant sounds, the data were collected by recording students’ pronunciationof English words during the pronunciation test. The data then analysed through three activities: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/ verification. Theresult showedthatthe patterning of L1 sounds happened on L2 sounds especially on eleven consonant sounds: the fricatives [v, θ, ð, ʃ, ʒ], the voiceless stops [p, t, k], and the voiced stops [b, d, g].Thosepatterning case emergedmostlyduetothe difference in the existence of consonant sounds and rules of consonant distribution. Besides, one of the cases was caused by the difference in consonant clusters between L1 and L2.
A Prerequisite to L1 Homophone Effects in L2 Spoken-Word Recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Nakai, Satsuki; Lindsay, Shane; Ota, Mitsuhiko

2015-01-01

When both members of a phonemic contrast in L2 (second language) are perceptually mapped to a single phoneme in one's L1 (first language), L2 words containing a member of that contrast can spuriously activate L2 words in spoken-word recognition. For example, upon hearing cattle, Dutch speakers of English are reported to experience activation…

The LATL as locus of composition: MEG evidence from English and Arabic.

Science.gov (United States)

Westerlund, Masha; Kastner, Itamar; Al Kaabi, Meera; Pylkkänen, Liina

2015-02-01

Neurolinguistic investigations into the processing of structured sentences as well as simple adjective-noun phrases point to the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL) as a leading candidate for basic linguistic composition. Here, we characterized the combinatory profile of the LATL over a variety of syntactic and semantic environments, and across two languages, English and Arabic. The contribution of the LATL was investigated across two types of composition: the optional modification of a predicate (modification) and the satisfaction of a predicate's argument position (argument saturation). Target words were presented during MEG recordings, either in combinatory contexts (e.g. "eats meat") or in non-combinatory contexts (preceded by an unpronounceable consonant string, e.g. "xqkr meat"). Across both languages, the LATL showed increased responses to words in combinatory contexts, an effect that was robust to composition type and word order. Together with related findings, these results solidify the role of the LATL in basic semantic composition. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PHONEME THEORY FONEM TEORİSİNİN ÖNEMİ HAKKINDA

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Kerim DEMİRCİ

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Analyzing the structure of language has primarily to do with understanding the sounds that make up language. Saussure’s idea of ‘language is a system of mutually defining entities’ [there is nothing but differences in language] has been the main incentive behind the phoneme theory. The theory in modern terms has been formed especially by Baudouin de Courtenay and linguitsts such as Nikolai Trubetzkoy, Paul Passy, Roman Jakobson, Sergey Karçevski. These scholars made a tremendous contribution to linguistics by setting a system that made possible to differentiate speech sounds and phonemes from all other unprocessed (raw ones. This system laid the foundation of modern phonetic and phonology. This study examines the main features of the phoneme theory that analyzes distinctive features of speech sounds from a systematic approach Dilin yapısını çözümlemek öncelikli olarak dili oluşturan seslerin anlaşılmasıyla ilişkilidir. Ferdinand de Saussure’ün ‘Dilde aykırılıklardan başka bir şey yoktur’ varsayımından yola çıkan dilciler fonem teorisinin ortaya çıkmasını sağlamışlardır. Modern anlamda fonem teorisi, özellikle Rus bilgin Baudouin de Courtenay başta olmak üzere Nikolai Trubetzkoy, Paul Passy, Roman Jakobson, Sergey Karçevski gibi birçok uzmanın çalışmalarıyla şekillenmiştir. Bu bilginler dillerin konuşma seslerini çözümlemeyi mümkün kılan bir sitemi dilbilime kazandırmıştır. Bu sistem modern fonetik ve fonoloji çalışmalarının altyapısını oluşturmuştur. Bu yazıda konuşma seslerine mahsus ayırt edici özelliklerin bilimsel metotlarla tespitine dayanan fonem teorisinin en temel özellikleri ele alınacaktır.
Syllable processing in English

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kearns, R.K.; Norris, D.; Cutler, A.

2002-01-01

We describe a reaction time study in which listeners detected word or nonword syllable targets (e.g. zoo, trel) in sequences consisting of the target plus a consonant or syllable residue (trelsh, trelshek). The pattern of responses differed from an earlier word-spotting study with the same material,
Differences in the Association between Segment and Language: Early Bilinguals Pattern with Monolinguals and Are Less Accurate than Late Bilinguals

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Blanco, Cynthia P.; Bannard, Colin; Smiljanic, Rajka

2016-01-01

Early bilinguals often show as much sensitivity to L2-specific contrasts as monolingual speakers of the L2, but most work on cross-language speech perception has focused on isolated segments, and typically only on neighboring vowels or stop contrasts. In tasks that include sounds in context, listeners’ success is more variable, so segment discrimination in isolation may not adequately represent the phonetic detail in stored representations. The current study explores the relationship between language experience and sensitivity to segmental cues in context by comparing the categorization patterns of monolingual English listeners and early and late Spanish–English bilinguals. Participants categorized nonce words containing different classes of English- and Spanish-specific sounds as being more English-like or more Spanish-like; target segments included phonemic cues, cues for which there is no analogous sound in the other language, or phonetic cues, cues for which English and Spanish share the category but for which each language varies in its phonetic implementation. Listeners’ language categorization accuracy and reaction times were analyzed. Our results reveal a largely uniform categorization pattern across listener groups: Spanish cues were categorized more accurately than English cues, and phonemic cues were easier for listeners to categorize than phonetic cues. There were no differences in the sensitivity of monolinguals and early bilinguals to language-specific cues, suggesting that the early bilinguals’ exposure to Spanish did not fundamentally change their representations of English phonology. However, neither did the early bilinguals show more sensitivity than the monolinguals to Spanish sounds. The late bilinguals however, were significantly more accurate than either of the other groups. These findings indicate that listeners with varying exposure to English and Spanish are able to use language-specific cues in a nonce-word language categorization
Ukufundisa izicuku zeziqhakancu emagameni (Teaching click clusters in words

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Gxowa-Dlayedwa, Ntombizodwa Cynthia

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Some teachers find it uninteresting and difficult to teach isiXhosa phonemes and syllables to grade one to three learners. This has a negative impact as the literacy results are low because learners’ reading and writing skills are poor. The linguistics terms featuring in the title, namely; consonants, vowels and syllables as found in words facilitate reading, and thus improve literacy standards in every language. IsiXhosa is one of the eleven official languages in South Africa. Phonemes include clicks and/or click cluster and vowels. On the other hand, there are people who are interested in learning to speak isiXhosa, but the difficulties encountered during the pronunciation of clicks discourage many of them. This study believes that the knowledge of phonemes and syllables will boost the literacy standard in isiXhosa. Therefore, the purposes of this study are to show that clicks and click clusters are found in major word categories which are in life circles. Secondly, if words are divided into segments, it becomes easy to produce them in print and reading skills. Thirdly, reading is possible in every language, and most importantly, skills are transferable. The current study therefore, argues that the knowledge of phonemes and syllables facilitates reading and creative writing skills. The data used in this study were taken from a novel written by Sidlayi (2009. Few examples have been given by the researchers themselves with an objective to clarify some ideas.
Mathematical pattern, smoothing and digital filtering of a speech signal

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Razzam, Mohamed Habib

1979-01-01

After presentation of speech synthesis methods, characterized by a treatment of pre-recorded natural signals, or by an analog simulation of vocal tract, we present a new synthesis method especially based on a mathematical pattern of the signal, as a development of M. RODET's method. For their physiological origin, these signals are partially or totally voiced, or aleatory. For the phoneme voiced parts, we compute the formant curves, the sum of which constitute the wave, directly in time-domain by applying a specific envelope (operating as a time-window analysis) to a sinusoidal wave, The sinusoidal wave computation is made at the beginning of each signal's pseudo-period. The transition from successive periods is assured by a polynomial smoothing followed by a digital filtering. For the aleatory parts, we present an aleatory computation method of formant curves. Each signal is subjected to a melodic diagrams computed in accordance with the nature of the phoneme (vowel or consonant) and its context (isolated or not). (author) [fr
Carpet or Carcel: The Effect of Age of Acquisition and Language Mode on Bilingual Lexical Access

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Canseco-Gonzalez, Enriqueta; Brehm, Laurel; Brick, Cameron A.; Brown-Schmidt, Sarah; Fischer, Kara; Wagner, Katie

2010-01-01

Lexical access was examined in English-Spanish bilinguals by monitoring eye fixations on target and lexical competitors as participants followed spoken instructions in English to click on one of the objects presented on a computer (e.g., "Click on the beans"). Within-language lexical competitors had a phoneme onset in English that was shared with…
Back-and-Forth Methodology for Objective Voice Quality Assessment: From/to Expert Knowledge to/from Automatic Classification of Dysphonia

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Fredouille, Corinne; Pouchoulin, Gilles; Ghio, Alain; Revis, Joana; Bonastre, Jean-François; Giovanni, Antoine

2009-12-01

This paper addresses voice disorder assessment. It proposes an original back-and-forth methodology involving an automatic classification system as well as knowledge of the human experts (machine learning experts, phoneticians, and pathologists). The goal of this methodology is to bring a better understanding of acoustic phenomena related to dysphonia. The automatic system was validated on a dysphonic corpus (80 female voices), rated according to the GRBAS perceptual scale by an expert jury. Firstly, focused on the frequency domain, the classification system showed the interest of 0-3000 Hz frequency band for the classification task based on the GRBAS scale. Later, an automatic phonemic analysis underlined the significance of consonants and more surprisingly of unvoiced consonants for the same classification task. Submitted to the human experts, these observations led to a manual analysis of unvoiced plosives, which highlighted a lengthening of VOT according to the dysphonia severity validated by a preliminary statistical analysis.
Back-and-Forth Methodology for Objective Voice Quality Assessment: From/to Expert Knowledge to/from Automatic Classification of Dysphonia

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Corinne Fredouille

2009-01-01

Full Text Available This paper addresses voice disorder assessment. It proposes an original back-and-forth methodology involving an automatic classification system as well as knowledge of the human experts (machine learning experts, phoneticians, and pathologists. The goal of this methodology is to bring a better understanding of acoustic phenomena related to dysphonia. The automatic system was validated on a dysphonic corpus (80 female voices, rated according to the GRBAS perceptual scale by an expert jury. Firstly, focused on the frequency domain, the classification system showed the interest of 0–3000 Hz frequency band for the classification task based on the GRBAS scale. Later, an automatic phonemic analysis underlined the significance of consonants and more surprisingly of unvoiced consonants for the same classification task. Submitted to the human experts, these observations led to a manual analysis of unvoiced plosives, which highlighted a lengthening of VOT according to the dysphonia severity validated by a preliminary statistical analysis.
The Concept of Lenition as the Phonemic Linguistic Phenomena

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Azhar A. Alkazwini

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The term 'lenition’ has numerous definitions offered in the Phonology of English language, some of which will be discussed in this study. Moreover, “Spirantization”, “approximantization”, “debuccalization” and “voicing” are changes that are counted as lenition. There are also different types of lenition, and different views regarding what lenitions have in common. Some phonologists perceive lenition as the loss of segmental material, while it is perceived by others as an increase in sonority (Honeybone 2012. With regards to lenition in the English Language, English does not have such widespread lenitions. There are other phenomena that can be regarded as lenition in the English Language, and this will be casted light on it further in the current paper.
The Relationship between Articulatory Control and Improved Phonemic Accuracy in Childhood Apraxia of Speech: A Longitudinal Case Study

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Grigos, Maria I.; Kolenda, Nicole

2010-01-01

Jaw movement patterns were examined longitudinally in a 3-year-old male with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and compared with a typically developing control group. The child with CAS was followed for 8 months, until he began accurately and consistently producing the bilabial phonemes /p/, /b/, and /m/. A movement tracking system was used to…
Phonological abilities in literacy-impaired children: Brain potentials reveal deficient phoneme discrimination, but intact prosodic processing

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Claudia Männel

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Intact phonological processing is crucial for successful literacy acquisition. While individuals with difficulties in reading and spelling (i.e., developmental dyslexia are known to experience deficient phoneme discrimination (i.e., segmental phonology, findings concerning their prosodic processing (i.e., suprasegmental phonology are controversial. Because there are no behavior-independent studies on the underlying neural correlates of prosodic processing in dyslexia, these controversial findings might be explained by different task demands. To provide an objective behavior-independent picture of segmental and suprasegmental phonological processing in impaired literacy acquisition, we investigated event-related brain potentials during passive listening in typically and poor-spelling German school children. For segmental phonology, we analyzed the Mismatch Negativity (MMN during vowel length discrimination, capturing automatic auditory deviancy detection in repetitive contexts. For suprasegmental phonology, we analyzed the Closure Positive Shift (CPS that automatically occurs in response to prosodic boundaries. Our results revealed spelling group differences for the MMN, but not for the CPS, indicating deficient segmental, but intact suprasegmental phonological processing in poor spellers. The present findings point towards a differential role of segmental and suprasegmental phonology in literacy disorders and call for interventions that invigorate impaired literacy by utilizing intact prosody in addition to training deficient phonemic awareness.
An EMA Analysis of the Effect of Increasing Word Length on Consonant Production in Apraxia of Speech: A Case Study

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Bartle, Carly J.; Goozee, Justine V.; Murdoch, Bruce E.

2007-01-01

The effect of increasing word length on the articulatory dynamics (i.e. duration, distance, maximum acceleration, maximum deceleration, and maximum velocity) of consonant production in acquired apraxia of speech was investigated using electromagnetic articulography (EMA). Tongue-tip and tongue-back movement of one apraxic patient was recorded…
THE STRUCTURE OF MORPHEMES OF LITHUANIAN VERBS

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Asta Kazlauskienė

2013-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this research was to establish and describe the most important phonemic patterns of Lithuanian verb morphemes. The investigation was based on a corpus of 30,000 verb types (verbs and their forms. All words in the corpus were stressed and phonetically transcribed. A computer program was developed to extract statistics out of this corpus. The results indicate that monosyllabic morphemes dominate in Lithuanian. They comprise 97%, 99%, 98%, and 97% of all verb roots, prefixes, derivational suffixes, and endings respectively. Inflectional suffixes and the reflexive affix are exclusively monosyllabic. Pronominal inflection endings are either disyllabic (97% or trisyllabic. There is a high variety of vowelconsonant patterns among verbs: the verb root is represented by 91 patterns, prefixes by 8 patterns, derivational suffixes by 18 patterns, inflectional suffixes by 7 patterns, inflectional endings by 9 patterns, endings of pronominal participles by 7 patterns, and the reflexive affix by 3 different patterns. The consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC pattern appeared to be the most frequent among verb roots (45%, the CV pattern was the most frequent among prefixes (59%, the VC pattern was the most frequent among derivational suffixes (46%, and V pattern was the most frequent among inflectional endings of Lithuanian verbs (76%. In many cases, the root of a verb contains both initial and final consonants (82%. Because of this and because of the tendency to avoid hiatus in Lithuanian, the root can be adjoined by vowel-final prefixes and vowel-initial suffixes or inflectional endings. This appears to be the case, as prefixes are mostly open (80%, and both derivational suffixes (90% and all inflectional endings begin with vowels. Inflectional suffixes do not follow this regularity. Only one-third of them start with a vowel. The hypothesis that the phonemic structure of a verb root might determine the corresponding patterns of its adjoining affixes seems
Spoken Word Recognition Errors in Speech Audiometry: A Measure of Hearing Performance?

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Martine Coene

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This report provides a detailed analysis of incorrect responses from an open-set spoken word-repetition task which is part of a Dutch speech audiometric test battery. Single-consonant confusions were analyzed from 230 normal hearing participants in terms of the probability of choice of a particular response on the basis of acoustic-phonetic, lexical, and frequency variables. The results indicate that consonant confusions are better predicted by lexical knowledge than by acoustic properties of the stimulus word. A detailed analysis of the transmission of phonetic features indicates that “voicing” is best preserved whereas “manner of articulation” yields most perception errors. As consonant confusion matrices are often used to determine the degree and type of a patient’s hearing impairment, to predict a patient’s gain in hearing performance with hearing devices and to optimize the device settings in view of maximum output, the observed findings are highly relevant for the audiological practice. Based on our findings, speech audiometric outcomes provide a combined auditory-linguistic profile of the patient. The use of confusion matrices might therefore not be the method best suited to measure hearing performance. Ideally, they should be complemented by other listening task types that are known to have less linguistic bias, such as phonemic discrimination.
The Effect of Tier 2 Intervention for Phonemic Awareness in a Response-to-Intervention Model in Low-Income Preschool Classrooms

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Koutsoftas, Anthony D.; Harmon, Mary Towle; Gray, Shelley

2009-01-01

Purpose: This study assessed the effectiveness of a Tier 2 intervention that was designed to increase the phonemic awareness skills of low-income preschoolers who were enrolled in Early Reading First classrooms. Method: Thirty-four preschoolers participated in a multiple baseline across participants treatment design. Tier 2 intervention for…
Pedagogical and didactical rationale of phonemic stimulation process in pre-school age children

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López, Yudenia

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The paper describes the main results of a regional research problem dealing with education in pre-school age. It examines the effectiveness of the didactic conception of the process of phonemic stimulation in children from 3 to 5 years old. The pedagogical and didactic rationale of the process, viewed from the evolutionary, ontogeny, systemic perspective is explained. Likewise, possible scaffolding is illustrated. The suggested procedures focus the provision of support on a systematic and purposely practice which involve first the discrimination of non-verbal sounds and the discrimi-nation of verbal sound later, aiming to the creation of a phonological consciousness.
How Elementary-Age Children Read Polysyllabic Polymorphemic Words

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Kearns, Devin M.

2015-01-01

Developing readers of English appear to favor phonograms over grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) to read unknown words. For polysyllabic polymorphemic (PSPM) words, the morphophonemic nature of English means elementary-age children may focus on roots and affixes. Does developing readers' PSPM word reading accuracy relate to the morphological…
China English and ELT for English Majors

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Zhang, Mingjuan

2008-01-01

This paper is a general study of one of varieties of English--China English and its influence on English Language Teaching (ELT) for English majors. The status of English as an International language breaks the situation in which British English or American English is the sole standard. English becomes World Englishes, taking on a plural form,…
Making out in English (English phrasebook)

CERN Document Server

Crownover, Richard

2011-01-01

Making Out in English is a fun, accessible and thorough English phrase book and guide to the English language as it's really spoken. If you are a student, businessman or tourist traveling to the English speaking world and would like to have an authentic and meaningful experience, the key is being able to speak like a local. This friendly and easy-to-use English phrasebook makes this possible. Making Out in English has been revised and redesigned to act as a guide to modern colloquial English for use in everyday informal interactionsgiving access to the sort of catchy English expressions that

Culture as a mediator of gene-environment interaction: Cultural consonance, childhood adversity, a 2A serotonin receptor polymorphism, and depression in urban Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Dressler, William W; Balieiro, Mauro C; Ferreira de Araújo, Luiza; Silva, Wilson A; Ernesto Dos Santos, José

2016-07-01

Research on gene-environment interaction was facilitated by breakthroughs in molecular biology in the late 20th century, especially in the study of mental health. There is a reliable interaction between candidate genes for depression and childhood adversity in relation to mental health outcomes. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of culture in this process in an urban community in Brazil. The specific cultural factor examined is cultural consonance, or the degree to which individuals are able to successfully incorporate salient cultural models into their own beliefs and behaviors. It was hypothesized that cultural consonance in family life would mediate the interaction of genotype and childhood adversity. In a study of 402 adult Brazilians from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, conducted from 2011 to 2014, the interaction of reported childhood adversity and a polymorphism in the 2A serotonin receptor was associated with higher depressive symptoms. Further analysis showed that the gene-environment interaction was mediated by cultural consonance in family life, and that these effects were more pronounced in lower social class neighborhoods. The findings reinforce the role of the serotonergic system in the regulation of stress response and learning and memory, and how these processes in turn interact with environmental events and circumstances. Furthermore, these results suggest that gene-environment interaction models should incorporate a wider range of environmental experience and more complex pathways to better understand how genes and the environment combine to influence mental health outcomes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Pre-Service Teachers' Knowledge of Phonemic Awareness: Relationship to Perceived Knowledge, Self-Efficacy Beliefs, and Exposure to a Multimedia-Enhanced Lecture

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Martinussen, Rhonda; Ferrari, Julia; Aitken, Madison; Willows, Dale

2015-01-01

This study examined the relations among perceived and actual knowledge of phonemic awareness (PA), exposure to PA instruction during practicum, and self-efficacy for teaching PA in a sample of 54 teacher candidates (TCs) enrolled in a 1-year Bachelor of Education program in a Canadian university. It also assessed the effects of a brief…
Direct and Indirect Effects of Stimulating Phoneme Awareness vs. Other Linguistic Skills in Preschoolers with Co-Occurring Speech and Language Impairments

Science.gov (United States)

Tyler, Ann A.; Gillon, Gail; Macrae, Toby; Johnson, Roberta L.

2011-01-01

Aim: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an integrated phoneme awareness/speech intervention in comparison to an alternating speech/morphosyntax intervention for specific areas targeted by the different interventions, as well as the extent of indirect gains in nontargeted areas. Method: A total of 30 children with co-occurring…
Teste de figuras para discriminação fonêmica: uma proposta Phoneme Discrimination Picture Test: a proposal

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Beatriz dos Santos-Carvalho

2008-01-01

Full Text Available OBJETIVOS: Propor um teste que avaliasse a discriminação fonêmica por meio de pares mínimos, abrangendo todos os fonemas do Português Brasileiro e utilizando-os em palavras que possam ser facilmente representadas por figuras. Buscou-se que este teste contribua para o diagnóstico de alterações fonoaudiológicas e para a pesquisa científica. Procurou-se fazer um teste que fosse de fácil aplicação, podendo ser utilizado em qualquer local de trabalho dos fonoaudiólogos. MÉTODOS: Selecionou-se pares mínimos que opusessem fonemas em relação ao valor binário de cada traço distintivo e às combinações possíveis entre os traços de lugar ([labial], [coronal], [dorsal] bem como pelas oposições de estruturas silábicas. Criou-se figuras que representam as palavras dos pares. RESULTADOS: Elaborou-se o Teste de Figuras para Discriminação Fonêmica, que avalia a habilidade de discriminação fonêmica em crianças de quatro a oito anos. Este teste contém 40 apresentações, das quais 30 são pares mínimos e dez pares de palavras iguais. Nestas 30 apresentações, opôs-se os traços distintivos [+/- soante], [+/- aproximante], [+/- contínuo], [+/- voz], [coronal+/-ant], [labial] x [coronal], [dorsal] x [coronal] e [labial] x [dorsal]. Igualmente foram opostas as seguintes estruturas silábicas: V x CV, CV x CCV, CV x CVC. CONCLUSÃO: Conclui-se que os objetivos deste trabalho foram alcançados com êxito, pois o Teste de Figura para Discriminação Fonêmica contempla tudo a que se propôs. Acredita-se que o teste deva ser aplicado em um estudo piloto para averiguar se as palavras e as figuras estão adequadas para a faixa etária. Posteriormente, deve ser aplicado em diversas regiões do país para ser devidamente padronizado.PURPOSE: To propose a test to evaluate phonemic discrimination using minimum pairs, comprising all Brazilian Portuguese phonemes and using them in words which can be easily represented by pictures. The
A markedness analysis of initial consonant clusters in Aphasic Phonological Impairment: A case study

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Lesley Wolk

1978-11-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to assess both the theoretical and clinical value of markedness theory in phonological impairment in aphasia. A markedness analysis was carried out on initial consonant clusters in a single aphasic adult, at two points during the spontaneous recovery phase. Results revealed systematic, rule-governed behaviour, reflecting similar linguistic trends, in terms of natural segments and natural processes, on both testing occasions. Some inadequacies of the distinctive feature approach are discussed. The findings of this study suggest that a markedness analysis may be extremely useful for the analysis and treatment of phonological disorders in aphasia.
Grammars Leak: Modeling How Phonotactic Generalizations Interact within the Grammar

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Martin, Andrew

2011-01-01

I present evidence from Navajo and English that weaker, gradient versions of morpheme-internal phonotactic constraints, such as the ban on geminate consonants in English, hold even across prosodic word boundaries. I argue that these lexical biases are the result of a MAXIMUM ENTROPY phonotactic learning algorithm that maximizes the probability of…
BRAND NAMING: SOUND SYMBOLISM, BRAND PREFERENCE AND BRAND PERFORMANCE

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Alina Catalina Duduciuc

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to highlight the importance of sound symbolism for Romanian marketing and advertising applied research. Previous research showed that the phonetic structure of brand name communicates its characteristics, i.e. it drives consumers to assess certain features and performance of the product. We assumed that when consumers encounter an unknown brand name, they automatically infer characteristics from the meaning conveyed by the sounds (e.g. phonemes. Therefore, we supposed that a brand name for a shampoo (artificially created on experimental purpose containing back vowels is evaluated better by consumers when they compare it to another brand name with front vowels. Furthermore, we tested the influence of the stops and fricatives consonants in inferring certain attributes of product. To this end, fifty nine students (N=59 participated in a research based on questionnaire. The results revealed that subjects evaluated better the brand names containing back vowels than brand names with front vowel. No effect was obtained regarding the presence of stops and fricatives consonants in assessing the brand performance.
The Relative Predictive Contribution and Causal Role of Phoneme Awareness, Rhyme Awareness, and Verbal Short-Term Memory in Reading Skills: A Review

Science.gov (United States)

Melby-Lervag, Monica

2012-01-01

The acknowledgement that educational achievement is highly dependent on successful reading development has led to extensive research on its underlying factors. A strong argument has been made for a causal relationship between reading and phoneme awareness; similarly, causal relations have been suggested for reading with short-term memory and rhyme…
a sociophonetic study of young nigerian english speakers

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Oladipupo

between male and female speakers in boundary consonant deletion, (F(1, .... speech perception (Foulkes 2006, Clopper & Pisoni, 2005, Thomas 2002). ... in Nigeria, and had had the privilege of travelling to Europe and the Americas for the.
Auditory Scene Analysis and sonified visual images. Does consonance negatively impact on object formation when using complex sonified stimuli?

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David J Brown

2015-10-01

Full Text Available A critical task for the brain is the sensory representation and identification of perceptual objects in the world. When the visual sense is impaired, hearing and touch must take primary roles and in recent times compensatory techniques have been developed that employ the tactile or auditory system as a substitute for the visual system. Visual-to-auditory sonifications provide a complex, feature-based auditory representation that must be decoded and integrated into an object-based representation by the listener. However, we don’t yet know what role the auditory system plays in the object integration stage and whether the principles of auditory scene analysis apply. Here we used coarse sonified images in a two-tone discrimination task to test whether auditory feature-based representations of visual objects would be confounded when their features conflicted with the principles of auditory consonance. We found that listeners (N = 36 performed worse in an object recognition task when the auditory feature-based representation was harmonically consonant. We also found that this conflict was not negated with the provision of congruent audio-visual information. The findings suggest that early auditory processes of harmonic grouping dominate the object formation process and that the complexity of the signal, and additional sensory information have limited effect on this.
Voice Onset Time for the Word-Initial Voiceless Consonant /t/ in Japanese Spasmodic Dysphonia-A Comparison With Normal Controls.

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Yanagida, Saori; Nishizawa, Noriko; Mizoguchi, Kenji; Hatakeyama, Hiromitsu; Fukuda, Satoshi

2015-07-01

Voice onset time (VOT) for word-initial voiceless consonants in adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) and abductor spasmodic dysphonia (ABSD) patients were measured to determine (1) which acoustic measures differed from the controls and (2) whether acoustic measures were related to the pause or silence between the test word and the preceding word. Forty-eight patients with ADSD and nine patients with ABSD, as well as 20 matched normal controls read a story in which the word "taiyo" (the sun) was repeated three times, each differentiated by the position of the word in the sentence. The target of measurement was the VOT for the word-initial voiceless consonant /t/. When the target syllable appeared in a sentence following a comma, or at the beginning of a sentence following a period, the ABSD patients' VOTs were significantly longer than those of the ADSD patients and controls. Abnormal prolongation of the VOTs was related to the pause or silence between the test word and the preceding word. VOTs in spasmodic dysphonia (SD) may vary according to the SD subtype or speaking conditions. VOT measurement was suggested to be a useful method for quantifying voice symptoms in SD. Copyright © 2015 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Assessing the effect of physical differences in the articulation of consonants and vowels on audiovisual temporal perception

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Vatakis, Argiro; Maragos, Petros; Rodomagoulakis, Isidoros; Spence, Charles

2012-01-01

We investigated how the physical differences associated with the articulation of speech affect the temporal aspects of audiovisual speech perception. Video clips of consonants and vowels uttered by three different speakers were presented. The video clips were analyzed using an auditory-visual signal saliency model in order to compare signal saliency and behavioral data. Participants made temporal order judgments (TOJs) regarding which speech-stream (auditory or visual) had been presented first. The sensitivity of participants' TOJs and the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS) were analyzed as a function of the place, manner of articulation, and voicing for consonants, and the height/backness of the tongue and lip-roundedness for vowels. We expected that in the case of the place of articulation and roundedness, where the visual-speech signal is more salient, temporal perception of speech would be modulated by the visual-speech signal. No such effect was expected for the manner of articulation or height. The results demonstrate that for place and manner of articulation, participants' temporal percept was affected (although not always significantly) by highly-salient speech-signals with the visual-signals requiring smaller visual-leads at the PSS. This was not the case when height was evaluated. These findings suggest that in the case of audiovisual speech perception, a highly salient visual-speech signal may lead to higher probabilities regarding the identity of the auditory-signal that modulate the temporal window of multisensory integration of the speech-stimulus. PMID:23060756
Acoustic-phonetic and artificial neural network feature analysis to assess speech quality of stop consonants produced by patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Bruijn, Marieke J.; ten Bosch, Louis; Kuik, Dirk J.; Witte, Birgit I.; Langendijk, Johannes A.; Leemans, C. Rene; Verdonck-de Leeuw, Irma M.

Speech impairment often occurs in patients after treatment for head and neck cancer. A specific speech characteristic that influences intelligibility and speech quality is voice-onset-time (VOT) in stop consonants. VOT is one of the functionally most relevant parameters that distinguishes voiced and
Multidimensional Approach to the Development of a Mandarin Chinese-Oriented Sound Test

Science.gov (United States)

Hung, Yu-Chen; Lin, Chun-Yi; Tsai, Li-Chiun; Lee, Ya-Jung

2016-01-01

Purpose: Because the Ling six-sound test is based on American English phonemes, it can yield unreliable results when administered to non-English speakers. In this study, we aimed to improve specifically the diagnostic palette for Mandarin Chinese users by developing an adapted version of the Ling six-sound test. Method: To determine the set of…
Phoneme categorization and discrimination in younger and older adults: a comparative analysis of perceptual, lexical, and attentional factors.

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Mattys, Sven L; Scharenborg, Odette

2014-03-01

This study investigates the extent to which age-related language processing difficulties are due to a decline in sensory processes or to a deterioration of cognitive factors, specifically, attentional control. Two facets of attentional control were examined: inhibition of irrelevant information and divided attention. Younger and older adults were asked to categorize the initial phoneme of spoken syllables ("Was it m or n?"), trying to ignore the lexical status of the syllables. The phonemes were manipulated to range in eight steps from m to n. Participants also did a discrimination task on syllable pairs ("Were the initial sounds the same or different?"). Categorization and discrimination were performed under either divided attention (concurrent visual-search task) or focused attention (no visual task). The results showed that even when the younger and older adults were matched on their discrimination scores: (1) the older adults had more difficulty inhibiting lexical knowledge than did younger adults, (2) divided attention weakened lexical inhibition in both younger and older adults, and (3) divided attention impaired sound discrimination more in older than younger listeners. The results confirm the independent and combined contribution of sensory decline and deficit in attentional control to language processing difficulties associated with aging. The relative weight of these variables and their mechanisms of action are discussed in the context of theories of aging and language. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.
The Malay Lexicon Project: a database of lexical statistics for 9,592 words.

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Yap, Melvin J; Liow, Susan J Rickard; Jalil, Sajlia Binte; Faizal, Siti Syuhada Binte

2010-11-01

Malay, a language spoken by 250 million people, has a shallow alphabetic orthography, simple syllable structures, and transparent affixation--characteristics that contrast sharply with those of English. In the present article, we first compare the letter-phoneme and letter-syllable ratios for a sample of alphabetic orthographies to highlight the importance of separating language-specific from language-universal reading processes. Then, in order to develop a better understanding of word recognition in orthographies with more consistent mappings to phonology than English, we compiled a database of lexical variables (letter length, syllable length, phoneme length, morpheme length, word frequency, orthographic and phonological neighborhood sizes, and orthographic and phonological Levenshtein distances) for 9,592 Malay words. Separate hierarchical regression analyses for Malay and English revealed how the consistency of orthography-phonology mappings selectively modulates the effects of different lexical variables on lexical decision and speeded pronunciation performance. The database of lexical and behavioral measures for Malay is available at http://brm.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.
Listening effort and perceived clarity for normal-hearing children with the use of digital noise reduction.

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Gustafson, Samantha; McCreery, Ryan; Hoover, Brenda; Kopun, Judy G; Stelmachowicz, Pat

2014-01-01

The goal of this study was to evaluate how digital noise reduction (DNR) impacts listening effort and judgment of sound clarity in children with normal hearing. It was hypothesized that when two DNR algorithms differing in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) output are compared, the algorithm that provides the greatest improvement in overall output SNR will reduce listening effort and receive a better clarity rating from child listeners. A secondary goal was to evaluate the relation between the inversion method measurements and listening effort with DNR processing. Twenty-four children with normal hearing (ages 7 to 12 years) participated in a speech recognition task in which consonant-vowel-consonant nonwords were presented in broadband background noise. Test stimuli were recorded through two hearing aids with DNR off and DNR on at 0 dB and +5 dB input SNR. Stimuli were presented to listeners and verbal response time (VRT) and phoneme recognition scores were measured. The underlying assumption was that an increase in VRT reflects an increase in listening effort. Children rated the sound clarity for each condition. The two commercially available HAs were chosen based on: (1) an inversion technique, which was used to quantify the magnitude of change in SNR with the activation of DNR, and (2) a measure of magnitude-squared coherence, which was used to ensure that DNR in both devices preserved the spectrum. One device provided a greater improvement in overall output SNR than the other. Both DNR algorithms resulted in minimal spectral distortion as measured using coherence. For both devices, VRT decreased for the DNR-on condition, suggesting that listening effort decreased with DNR in both devices. Clarity ratings were also better in the DNR-on condition for both devices. The device showing the greatest improvement in output SNR with DNR engaged improved phoneme recognition scores. The magnitude of this improved phoneme recognition was not accurately predicted with
Effects of perceptual training on the identification and production of word-Initial voiceless stops by argentinean learners of English

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Ubiratã Kickhöfel Alves

2017-09-01

Full Text Available In this study, we investigate the effectiveness of perceptual training, administered to Argentinean learners, in the perception and production of word-initial voiceless stops in English. 24 participants were divided into 3 groups: (i Group 1, which participated in 3 training sessions; (ii Group 2, which, besides performing the same training tasks, was explicitly informed about the target item; (iii Group 3 (control. All participants took part in a pre-test, a post-test and a delayed post-test. In all these phases, they participated in a consonant identification task and took part in a reading exercise. Our results show a significant increase of both experimental groups in identification. As for production, Group 2 exhibited a significant increase in /p/ and /t/ after training. These results are indicative of the effectiveness of perceptual training tasks in helping learners focus on Voice Onset Time.
Normative data for a computer-assisted version of the auditory three-consonant Brown-Peterson paradigm in the elderly French-Quebec population.

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Callahan, Brandy L; Belleville, Sylvie; Ferland, Guylaine; Potvin, Olivier; Tremblay, Marie-Pier; Hudon, Carol; Macoir, Joël

2014-01-01

The Brown-Peterson task is used to assess verbal short-term memory as well as divided attention. In its auditory three-consonant version, trigrams are presented to participants who must recall the items in correct order after variable delays, during which an interference task is performed. The present study aimed to establish normative data for this test in the elderly French-Quebec population based on cross-sectional data from a retrospective, multi-center convenience sample. A total of 595 elderly native French-speakers from the province of Quebec performed the Memoria version of the auditory three-consonant Brown-Peterson test. For both series and item-by-item scoring methods, age, education, and, in most cases, recall after a 0-second interval were found to be significantly associated with recall performance after 10-second, 20-second, and 30-second interference intervals. Based on regression model results, equations to calculate Z scores are presented for the 10-second, 20-second and 30-second intervals and for each scoring method to allow estimation of expected performance based on participants' individual characteristics. As an important ceiling effect was observed at the 0-second interval, norms for this interference interval are presented in percentiles.
Phonemic discrimination and its relation to phonological disorder Discriminação fonêmica e sua relação com o transtorno fonológico

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Karine Leyla de Castro Oliveira

2012-12-01

Full Text Available It was performed a nonsystematic review on the importance of the phonemic discrimination to the phonological acquisition and its relation to the phonological disorder. Studies indicate that phonemic discrimination represents an essential ability in the process of acquiring sounds of speech and that children with phonological disorder present difficulties in that ability.Foi realizada uma revisão não sistemática sobre a importância da discriminação fonêmica para a aquisição dos sons da fala e sua relação com o transtorno fonológico. Os estudos indicam que a discriminação fonêmica representa uma habilidade essencial no processo de aquisição dos sons da fala e que as crianças com transtorno fonológico apresentam dificuldade nesta habilidade.

Some Problems of American Students in Mastering Persian Phonology.

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Ghadessy, Esmael

1988-12-01

An adult learning to speak a foreign language normally retains an "accent" which may affect the intelligibility of certain sounds, but more often simply conveys the fact that the speaker is a non-native speaker. Various scholars have experimented and discussed the elements involved in a foreign accent. However, in Iran very few researchers have attempted to verify scientifically what are the phonetic and phonological aspects of an "accent." This author tried to determine whether or not a selected group of words, emphasizing stop voicing, produced by native speakers of Persian had significant phonetic and phonemic differences from those achieved by the American students. Subjects for the experiments were three groups of students, one Iranian, two American. A contrastive analysis of the Persian and the English stop consonants was made. An identical measurement test for all three groups was administered. Utilized was a Kay Sona-graph for acoustic analysis, and all spoken data from the Iranian group were compared with those of the American groups. An examination of acoustic correlates of Tehran stops produced by American students shows that the phonetically different but similar feature of /voice/ found in Tehran, Persian and English stops is intuitive to the Americans, and that the language learner cannot readily disassociate a phonological feature from habits of articulation. The results of this research support using the phonetic method for adult learners who want to improve their pronunciation ability. Further research and experimentation is necessary on the effect of the suprasegmental elements on a foreign accent and the most effective teaching materials and methods and to explore other possible techniques in the teaching process.
N400 elicited by incongruent ending words of Chinese idioms in healthy adults

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

CHEN Xing-shi; ZHANG Tian-hong; TANG Yun-xiang; XIAO Ze-ping; WANG Ji-jun; ZHANG Ming-dao; ZHANG Zai-fu; HU Zhen-yu; LOU Fei-ying; CHEN Chong

2010-01-01

Background Prior research about N400 has been mainly based on English stimuli,while the cognitive.processing of Chinese characters is still unclear.The aim of the present study was to further investigate the semantic processing of Chinese idioms.Methods Event related potentials (ERP) component N400 was elicited by 38 pairs of matching (congruent) and mismatching (incongruent) ended Chinese idioms:ending words with same phoneme but different shape and meaning (sPdSdM),with similar shape but different phoneme and meaning(sSdPdM),with same meaning but different phoneme and shape(sMdPdS),and words with different phoneme,shape and meaning(dPdSdM)and recorded by Guangzhou Runjie WJ-1 ERP instruments.In 62 right-handed healthy adults(age 19-50 years),N400 amplitudes and latencies were compared between matching and mismatching conditions at Fz,Cz and Pz.Results N400 showed a midline distribution and could be elicited in electrodes Fz, Cz and Pz.The mean values of N400 latencies and amplitudes were obtained for matching and mismatching ending werds in healthy adults.Significant differences were found in N400 latencies and amplitudes in matching and mismatching ending-werds idioms in healthy adults(P0.05).Conclusions Compared with English stimuli.Chinese ideographic words could provide more flexible stimuli for N400 research in that the werds have 3-dimension changes-phoneme.shape and meaning.Features of N400 elicited by matching and mismatching ending words in Chinese idioms are mainly determined by the meaning of the werd.Some issues of N400 elicited by Chinese characters deserve further research.
The Phoneme Identification Test for Assessment of Spectral and Temporal Discrimination Skills in Children: Development, Normative Data, and Test-Retest Reliability Studies.

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Cameron, Sharon; Chong-White, Nicky; Mealings, Kiri; Beechey, Tim; Dillon, Harvey; Young, Taegan

2018-02-01

Previous research suggests that a proportion of children experiencing reading and listening difficulties may have an underlying primary deficit in the way that the central auditory nervous system analyses the perceptually important, rapidly varying, formant frequency components of speech. The Phoneme Identification Test (PIT) was developed to investigate the ability of children to use spectro-temporal cues to perceptually categorize speech sounds based on their rapidly changing formant frequencies. The PIT uses an adaptive two-alternative forced-choice procedure whereby the participant identifies a synthesized consonant-vowel (CV) (/ba/ or /da/) syllable. CV syllables differed only in the second formant (F2) frequency along an 11-step continuum (between 0% and 100%-representing an ideal /ba/ and /da/, respectively). The CV syllables were presented in either quiet (PIT Q) or noise at a 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio (PIT N). Development of the PIT stimuli and test protocols, and collection of normative and test-retest reliability data. Twelve adults (aged 23 yr 10 mo to 50 yr 9 mo, mean 32 yr 5 mo) and 137 typically developing, primary-school children (aged 6 yr 0 mo to 12 yr 4 mo, mean 9 yr 3 mo). There were 73 males and 76 females. Data were collected using a touchscreen computer. Psychometric functions were automatically fit to individual data by the PIT software. Performance was determined by the width of the continuum for which responses were neither clearly /ba/ nor /da/ (referred to as the uncertainty region [UR]). A shallower psychometric function slope reflected greater uncertainty. Age effects were determined based on raw scores. Z scores were calculated to account for the effect of age on performance. Outliers, and individual data for which the confidence interval of the UR exceeded a maximum allowable value, were removed. Nonparametric tests were used as the data were skewed toward negative performance. Across participants, the median value of the F2 range
Evidence for direct geographic influences on linguistic sounds: the case of ejectives.

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Caleb Everett

Full Text Available We present evidence that the geographic context in which a language is spoken may directly impact its phonological form. We examined the geographic coordinates and elevations of 567 language locations represented in a worldwide phonetic database. Languages with phonemic ejective consonants were found to occur closer to inhabitable regions of high elevation, when contrasted to languages without this class of sounds. In addition, the mean and median elevations of the locations of languages with ejectives were found to be comparatively high. The patterns uncovered surface on all major world landmasses, and are not the result of the influence of particular language families. They reflect a significant and positive worldwide correlation between elevation and the likelihood that a language employs ejective phonemes. In addition to documenting this correlation in detail, we offer two plausible motivations for its existence. We suggest that ejective sounds might be facilitated at higher elevations due to the associated decrease in ambient air pressure, which reduces the physiological effort required for the compression of air in the pharyngeal cavity--a unique articulatory component of ejective sounds. In addition, we hypothesize that ejective sounds may help to mitigate rates of water vapor loss through exhaled air. These explications demonstrate how a reduction of ambient air density could promote the usage of ejective phonemes in a given language. Our results reveal the direct influence of a geographic factor on the basic sound inventories of human languages.
Lexical selectivity in Danish toddlers with cleft palate

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Willadsen, Elisabeth

2013-01-01

. Methods: All participants were video recorded at 18 months of age during play interaction with a parent. The video recordings were transcribed according to the IPA and an individual consonant inventory was established for each participant. The video recordings were also analysed with respect to word...... productions establishing an observed productive vocabulary size for each participant. Results: At 18 months of age Danish toddlers with cleft palate showed marked lexical selectivity in their early words. The distribution of consonant classes observed at 11 months of age in a previous study of the children...... as it has been described for English speaking toddlers with and without cleft palate, even though some qualitative differences were found. Keywords: consonant inventory, lexical selectivity, early words, cleft palate....
English Lecturer’s Attitude Toward English Variety In English Learning

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Rahma Yanti

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This research investigates English lecturers’ attitude toward the variation of English in the process of English learning. The purpose of this study is to discuss the types of English variations uttered by English lecturers who are considered as respondents in this study and their attitudes toward the variations of language that appear to their own speech during the teaching-learning process. This research is descriptive by using qualitative approach. The data to be presented in this research is taken from several words of Indonesian lecturers at several universities in Padang West Sumatra by distributing some questionnaires and also interviews. The method of data analysis is divided into two types, first, methods which related to the correlation of external language objects with a non-linguistic element called correlation method or method of matching, and secondly, methods which related to surgical, processing or internal verbal tampering called the method of operation or distribution method.
Musical practice and cognitive aging: two cross-sectional studies point phonemic fluency as a potential candidate for a use-dependent adaptation

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Baptiste eFAUVEL

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Because of permanent use-dependent cerebral plasticity, all lifelong individuals’ experiences are believed to influence the cognitive aging quality. In old individuals, both former and current musical practices have been associated with better verbal skills, visual memory, processing speed, and planning function. This work sought for an interaction between musical practice and cognitive aging by comparing musician and nonmusician individuals for two periods of life (late adulthood and old age. Long-term memory, auditory verbal short-term memory, processing speed, nonverbal reasoning, and verbal fluencies were assessed. In study 1, measures of processing speed and auditory verbal short-term memory showed significant better performances for musicians compared with controls, but both groups displayed the same age-related difference. For verbal fluencies, musician individuals scored higher and displayed different age effects compared with controls. In study 2, we revealed that the life period at training onset (childhood versus adulthood was associated with phonemic, but not semantic fluency performances (musicians who had started practice in adulthood did not perform better on phonemic fluency compared with nonmusicians. For these two measures, current frequency of training did not account for musicians’ scores. These patterns of results are discussed by confronting the hypothesis of a transformative effect of musical practice with non-causal explanation.
Cómo prevenir algunas de las dificultades del aprendizaje de la lectura y de la escritura

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Ana Belén DOMÍNGUEZ GUTIÉRREZ

2009-11-01

Full Text Available RESUMEN: El propósito de este trabajo es analizar la naturaleza y el desarrollo del conocimiento fonológico, o habilidad para manipular los segmentos fonológicos del habla, a partir de un caso concreto: los errores que algunos niños cometen a la hora de leer o escribir sílabas que contienen grupos consonanticos (CCV. Estos errores pueden ser debidos a la ausencia de conocimiento fonológico, más concretamente, a una dificultad para analizar sílabas que contienen grupos consonanticos en los fonemas que las componen. El estudio presentado en este artículo muestra una posible forma de ayudar a estos niños a superar esos problemas, que no es otra que incrementar sus niveles de conocimiento fonológico, a través de una enseñanza explícita. Esta enseñanza podría ayudar a prevenir los problemas que algunos niños tienen para analizar sílabas que contienen grupos consonanticos en los fonemas que las componen y para leer y escribir palabras que contienen esos grupos consonanticos. En este artículo se analizan también las implicaciones educativas de la investigación que se presenta.ABSTRACT: The aim of the present research is to analyze the nature and development of phonological awareness, -or the ability to reflect upon and manipúlate the phonemic segments of speech- based on one particular case; namely, the errors made by some children in reading and spelling certain syllables containing consonant clusters. Such errors may be due to the absence of phonological awareness; specifically a difficulty in splitting syllables containing consonant clusters into their component phonemes. The data obtained point to a possible way to help these children to overeóme such problems; i.e. raising the childre's level of phonological awareness through explicit teaching. This kind of instruction may help to avoid the problems of some children in splitting syllables containing consonant clusters into heir component phonemes and in reading and writing
Spectral Coefficient Analyses of Word-Initial Stop Consonant Productions Suggest Similar Anticipatory Coarticulation for Stuttering and Nonstuttering Adults.

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Maruthy, Santosh; Feng, Yongqiang; Max, Ludo

2018-03-01

A longstanding hypothesis about the sensorimotor mechanisms underlying stuttering suggests that stuttered speech dysfluencies result from a lack of coarticulation. Formant-based measures of either the stuttered or fluent speech of children and adults who stutter have generally failed to obtain compelling evidence in support of the hypothesis that these individuals differ in the timing or degree of coarticulation. Here, we used a sensitive acoustic technique-spectral coefficient analyses-that allowed us to compare stuttering and nonstuttering speakers with regard to vowel-dependent anticipatory influences as early as the onset burst of a preceding voiceless stop consonant. Eight adults who stutter and eight matched adults who do not stutter produced C 1 VC 2 words, and the first four spectral coefficients were calculated for one analysis window centered on the burst of C 1 and two subsequent windows covering the beginning of the aspiration phase. Findings confirmed that the combined use of four spectral coefficients is an effective method for detecting the anticipatory influence of a vowel on the initial burst of a preceding voiceless stop consonant. However, the observed patterns of anticipatory coarticulation showed no statistically significant differences, or trends toward such differences, between the stuttering and nonstuttering groups. Combining the present results for fluent speech in one given phonetic context with prior findings from both stuttered and fluent speech in a variety of other contexts, we conclude that there is currently no support for the hypothesis that the fluent speech of individuals who stutter is characterized by limited coarticulation.
Reconsidering English Grammar Teaching for Improving Non-English Majors' English Writing Ability

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Shen, Yuru

2012-01-01

With the globalization of world economy, English learners' writing ability has been attached less and less importance. As a result, many college students in China, especially the non-English majors, cannot express themselves effectively in written English. They make various kinds of mistakes, mostly grammar mistakes, such as writing sentence…
English in Economy World: an Overview of English Learning

OpenAIRE

Setyaningsih, Ani; Kurniasih, Siwi Karmadi

2007-01-01

English is not a language for the English-speaking countries anymore. English has spread worldwide to the countries in the five continents. One of the reasons is economy. People need to acquire English since it is one way to cope with the communication in economy trend. English is needed to process information, analyze, evaluate, experiment, negotiate and collaborate in economy. The awareness of English importance in the globalization era has made people learn this universal language consciou...
The attentional blink is related to phonemic decoding, but not sight-word recognition, in typically reading adults.

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Tyson-Parry, Maree M; Sailah, Jessica; Boyes, Mark E; Badcock, Nicholas A

2015-10-01

This research investigated the relationship between the attentional blink (AB) and reading in typical adults. The AB is a deficit in the processing of the second of two rapidly presented targets when it occurs in close temporal proximity to the first target. Specifically, this experiment examined whether the AB was related to both phonological and sight-word reading abilities, and whether the relationship was mediated by accuracy on a single-target rapid serial visual processing task (single-target accuracy). Undergraduate university students completed a battery of tests measuring reading ability, non-verbal intelligence, and rapid automatised naming, in addition to rapid serial visual presentation tasks in which they were required to identify either two (AB task) or one (single target task) target/s (outlined shapes: circle, square, diamond, cross, and triangle) in a stream of random-dot distractors. The duration of the AB was related to phonological reading (n=41, β=-0.43): participants who exhibited longer ABs had poorer phonemic decoding skills. The AB was not related to sight-word reading. Single-target accuracy did not mediate the relationship between the AB and reading, but was significantly related to AB depth (non-linear fit, R(2)=.50): depth reflects the maximal cost in T2 reporting accuracy in the AB. The differential relationship between the AB and phonological versus sight-word reading implicates common resources used for phonemic decoding and target consolidation, which may be involved in cognitive control. The relationship between single-target accuracy and the AB is discussed in terms of cognitive preparation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Cross-language differences in cue use for speech segmentation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tyler, M.D.; Cutler, A.

2009-01-01

Two artificial-language learning experiments directly compared English, French, and Dutch listeners' use of suprasegmental cues for continuous-speech segmentation. In both experiments, listeners heard unbroken sequences of consonant-vowel syllables, composed of recurring three- and four-syllable
Building a Consonance Between Religion and Science: an Antidote for the Seeming Conflict

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Omomia O. Austin

2014-05-01

Full Text Available It is commonly argued by a school of thought that there is no relationship between religion and science. This extreme position has led to a lasting conflict, which has pitched religion against science and science against religion. The attempt in this paper is to articulate the fact that there can be an enduring consonance between religion and science. No doubt, the conflict and debate on the subject of religion and science has taken the front burner in both religious and philosophical discusses. Some scholars have argued that science has no role in religious or theological domain, while others contest that all religious concerns and considerations must be exposed to empirical investigations, and, proven by the dynamics of our intellect or reason. This paper, therefore, attempts to examine how religion and science complement each other. The author applied philosophical, sociological and historical methodology in his research. It is recommended that there is the need for dialogue between religion and science.
Speech understanding in noise with integrated in-ear and muff-style hearing protection systems

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Sharon M Abel

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Integrated hearing protection systems are designed to enhance free field and radio communications during military operations while protecting against the damaging effects of high-level noise exposure. A study was conducted to compare the effect of increasing the radio volume on the intelligibility of speech over the radios of two candidate systems, in-ear and muff-style, in 85-dBA speech babble noise presented free field. Twenty normal-hearing, English-fluent subjects, half male and half female, were tested in same gender pairs. Alternating as talker and listener, their task was to discriminate consonant-vowel-consonant syllables that contrasted either the initial or final consonant. Percent correct consonant discrimination increased with increases in the radio volume. At the highest volume, subjects achieved 79% with the in-ear device but only 69% with the muff-style device, averaged across the gender of listener/talker pairs and consonant position. Although there was no main effect of gender, female listener/talkers showed a 10% advantage for the final consonant and male listener/talkers showed a 1% advantage for the initial consonant. These results indicate that normal hearing users can achieve reasonably high radio communication scores with integrated in-ear hearing protection in moderately high-level noise that provides both energetic and informational masking. The adequacy of the range of available radio volumes for users with hearing loss has yet to be determined.
Teaching English through English: Proficiency, Pedagogy and Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Richards, Jack C.

2017-01-01

Most of the world's English language teachers speak English as a second or third language rather than as their first language. For many, their level of proficiency in English may not reach benchmarks established by their employers, raising the issue that is the focus of this article, namely, what kind of proficiency in English is necessary to be…
Criteria for Labelling Prosodic Aspects of English Speech.

Science.gov (United States)

Bagshaw, Paul C.; Williams, Briony J.

A study reports a set of labelling criteria which have been developed to label prosodic events in clear, continuous speech, and proposes a scheme whereby this information can be transcribed in a machine readable format. A prosody in a syllabic domain which is synchronized with a phonemic segmentation was annotated. A procedural definition of…
Daniel Jones

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

underrated, impact on the American structuralist school. This eight volume collection makes available the first editions of Jones' standard books, i.e. The Pronunciation of English (1909), An English Pronouncing Dictionary (1917) and An Outline of English Phonetics (1918). In addition, Jones' crucial...... pioneering works, now out of print for many decades, are made easily accessible to scholars once again. Numerous articles encompassing a variety of phonetic/phonological topics, for example, phonemic analysis, juncture, models of pronunciation, and historiography, are also included (converted where necessary...
Musical practice and cognitive aging: two cross-sectional studies point to phonemic fluency as a potential candidate for a use-dependent adaptation.

Science.gov (United States)

Fauvel, Baptiste; Groussard, Mathilde; Mutlu, Justine; Arenaza-Urquijo, Eider M; Eustache, Francis; Desgranges, Béatrice; Platel, Hervé

2014-01-01

Because of permanent use-dependent brain plasticity, all lifelong individuals' experiences are believed to influence the cognitive aging quality. In older individuals, both former and current musical practices have been associated with better verbal skills, visual memory, processing speed, and planning function. This work sought for an interaction between musical practice and cognitive aging by comparing musician and non-musician individuals for two lifetime periods (middle and late adulthood). Long-term memory, auditory-verbal short-term memory, processing speed, non-verbal reasoning, and verbal fluencies were assessed. In Study 1, measures of processing speed and auditory-verbal short-term memory were significantly better performed by musicians compared with controls, but both groups displayed the same age-related differences. For verbal fluencies, musicians scored higher than controls and displayed different age effects. In Study 2, we found that lifetime period at training onset (childhood vs. adulthood) was associated with phonemic, but not semantic, fluency performances (musicians who had started to practice in adulthood did not perform better on phonemic fluency than non-musicians). Current frequency of training did not account for musicians' scores on either of these two measures. These patterns of results are discussed by setting the hypothesis of a transformative effect of musical practice against a non-causal explanation.
Voice-to-Phoneme Conversion Algorithms for Voice-Tag Applications in Embedded Platforms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yan Ming Cheng

2008-08-01

Full Text Available We describe two voice-to-phoneme conversion algorithms for speaker-independent voice-tag creation specifically targeted at applications on embedded platforms. These algorithms (batch mode and sequential are compared in speech recognition experiments where they are first applied in a same-language context in which both acoustic model training and voice-tag creation and application are performed on the same language. Then, their performance is tested in a cross-language setting where the acoustic models are trained on a particular source language while the voice-tags are created and applied on a different target language. In the same-language environment, both algorithms either perform comparably to or significantly better than the baseline where utterances are manually transcribed by a phonetician. In the cross-language context, the voice-tag performances vary depending on the source-target language pair, with the variation reflecting predicted phonological similarity between the source and target languages. Among the most similar languages, performance nears that of the native-trained models and surpasses the native reference baseline.

The Phonotactic Influence on the Perception of a Consonant Cluster /pt/ by Native English and Native Polish Listeners: A Behavioral and Event Related Potential (ERP) Study

Science.gov (United States)

Wagner, Monica; Shafer, Valerie L.; Martin, Brett; Steinschneider, Mitchell

2012-01-01

The effect of exposure to the contextual features of the /pt/ cluster was investigated in native-English and native-Polish listeners using behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) methodology. Both groups experience the /pt/ cluster in their languages, but only the Polish group experiences the cluster in the context of word onset examined in…
Competition dynamics of second-language listening

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Broersma, M.; Cutler, A.

2011-01-01

Spoken-word recognition in a nonnative language is particularly difficult where it depends on discrimination between confusable phonemes. Four experiments here examine whether this difficulty is in part due to phantom competition from onear-wordso in speech. Dutch listeners confuse English /ae/ and
Amplitude Modulation Detection and Speech Recognition in Late-Implanted Prelingually and Postlingually Deafened Cochlear Implant Users.

Science.gov (United States)

De Ruiter, Anke M; Debruyne, Joke A; Chenault, Michelene N; Francart, Tom; Brokx, Jan P L

2015-01-01

Many late-implanted prelingually deafened cochlear implant (CI) patients struggle to obtain open-set speech understanding. Because it is known that low-frequency temporal-envelope information contains important cues for speech understanding, the goal of this study was to compare the temporal-envelope processing abilities of late-implanted prelingually and postlingually deafened CI users. Furthermore, the possible relation between temporal processing abilities and speech recognition performances was investigated. Amplitude modulation detection thresholds were obtained in eight prelingually and 18 postlingually deafened CI users, by means of a sinusoidally modulated broadband noise carrier, presented through a loudspeaker to the CI user's clinical device. Thresholds were determined with a two-down-one-up three-interval oddity adaptive procedure, at seven modulation frequencies. Phoneme recognition (consonant-nucleus-consonant [CNC]) scores (percentage correct at 65 dB SPL) were gathered for all CI users. For the prelingually deafened group, scores on two additional speech tests were obtained: (1) a closed-set monosyllable-trochee-spondee test (percentage correct scores at 65 dB SPL on word recognition and categorization of the suprasegmental word patterns), and (2) a speech tracking test (number of correctly repeated words per minute) with texts specifically designed for this population. The prelingually deafened CI users had a significantly lower sensitivity to amplitude modulations than the postlingually deafened CI users, and the attenuation rate of their temporal modulation transfer function (TMTF) was greater. None of the prelingually deafened CI users were able to detect modulations at 150 and 200 Hz. High and significant correlations were found between the results on the amplitude modulation detection test and CNC phoneme scores, for the entire group of CI users. In the prelingually deafened group, CNC phoneme scores, word scores on the monosyllable
HOW TO MOTIVATE NON-ENGLISH MAJORS TO MASTER ENGLISH

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

1999-01-01

This paper analyses the factors causing the lack of learning motivation of non-English majors,re-garded as one of the crucial reasons leading to the inefficiency of college English teaching in Chi-na.It also puts forward corresponding ways to motivate non-English majors to study English.
Gender effects on phonological processing and reading development in Northern Sotho children learning to read in English: A case study of Grade 3 learners

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carien Wilsenach

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Gender differences in reading development are a global phenomenon, with girls typically performing better than boys. Some studies have reported gender differences favouring girls in reading comprehension in South Africa, but little systematic evidence exists about gender differences in the cognitive-linguistic abilities that underlie reading development. This study investigated the effect of gender on phonological processing and reading development in Northern Sotho–English bilingual children. Grade 3 learners who received their literacy instruction in English were tested on various phonological processing and reading measures. Phonological awareness was assessed using phoneme isolation and elision tasks. Phonological working memory was assessed using memory for digits and non-word repetition tests while rapid automatised naming was tested using rapid letter, rapid digit, rapid object and rapid colour naming tasks. Reading achievement was assessed with various word reading tasks and with a fluent reading task. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that gender had a significant effect on the phonological processing and reading abilities of Northern Sotho– English bilingual children. Girls performed significantly better than boys on all the reading measures, as well as on some aspects of phonological processing. The findings provide behavioural evidence in support of biological theories of gender differences, in that girls seemed to have developed some of the cognitive-linguistic skills associated with reading before boys. The girls also coped better with tasks that required increased cognitive processing. This study suggests that sex differences in reading development cannot be ignored in South Africa and need to be addressed in future curriculum development.
English Language Teaching Through Literature : An Application of English Poetry in the High School English Textbook to the Classroom

OpenAIRE

濵口, 脩

2004-01-01

The aim of this present paper is to review the present state of English poetry in the high school English textbooks in Japan and to propose some practical application of English poems to the English language classroom. Several cases in which English poems are found in actual English high school textbooks are discussed, and then, since there seems to be no explanation of teaching English poems, with some notes of them and of reading English poems in general, some practical suggetions for impro...
Word position and stress effects in consonant cluster perception and production.

Science.gov (United States)

Cilibrasi, Luca; Stojanovik, Vesna; Riddell, Patricia

2015-02-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the saliency effect for word beginnings reported in children with dyslexia (Marshall & Van der Lely, 2009) can be found also in typically developing children. Thirty-four typically developing Italian children aged 8-10 years completed two specifically designed tasks: a production task and a perception task. Both tasks used nonwords containing clusters consisting of plosive plus liquid (e.g. pl). Clusters could be either in a stressed or in an unstressed syllable and could be either in initial position (first syllable) or in medial position (second syllable). In the production task, children were asked to repeat the nonwords. In the perception task, the children were asked to discriminate between two nonwords differing in one phoneme belonging to a cluster by reporting whether two repetitions were the same or different. Results from the production task showed that children are more accurate in repeating stressed than unstressed syllables, but there was no difference with respect to position of the cluster. Results from the perception task showed that children performed more accurately when discriminating word initial contrasts than when discriminating word medial contrasts, especially if the cluster was unstressed. Implications of this finding for clinical assessments are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
English Learners: Reaching the Highest Level of English Literacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia, Gilbert C., Ed.

This collection of papers examines the critical literacy development of English learners, focusing on English reading instruction in an immersion setting, English language development, and cultural issues pertaining to English learners in and out of the classroom. The 16 papers include the following: (1) "Reading and the Bilingual Student: Fact…
The Persian version of auditory word discrimination test (P-AWDT) for children: Development, validity, and reliability.

Science.gov (United States)

Hashemi, Nassim; Ghorbani, Ali; Soleymani, Zahra; Kamali, Mohmmad; Ahmadi, Zohreh Ziatabar; Mahmoudian, Saeid

2018-07-01

Auditory discrimination of speech sounds is an important perceptual ability and a precursor to the acquisition of language. Auditory information is at least partially necessary for the acquisition and organization of phonological rules. There are few standardized behavioral tests to evaluate phonemic distinctive features in children with or without speech and language disorders. The main objective of the present study was the development, validity, and reliability of the Persian version of auditory word discrimination test (P-AWDT) for 4-8-year-old children. A total of 120 typical children and 40 children with speech sound disorder (SSD) participated in the present study. The test comprised of 160 monosyllabic paired-words distributed in the Forms A-1 and the Form A-2 for the initial consonants (80 words) and the Forms B-1 and the Form B-2 for the final consonants (80 words). Moreover, the discrimination of vowels was randomly included in all forms. Content validity was calculated and 50 children repeated the test twice with two weeks of interval (test-retest reliability). Further analysis was also implemented including validity, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), Cronbach's alpha (internal consistency), age groups, and gender. The content validity index (CVI) and the test-retest reliability of the P-AWDT were achieved 63%-86% and 81%-96%, respectively. Moreover, the total Cronbach's alpha for the internal consistency was estimated relatively high (0.93). Comparison of the mean scores of the P-AWDT in the typical children and the children with SSD revealed a significant difference. The results revealed that the group with SSD had greater severity of deficit than the typical group in auditory word discrimination. In addition, the difference between the age groups was statistically significant, especially in 4-4.11-year-old children. The performance of the two gender groups was relatively same. The comparison of the P-AWDT scores between the typical children
Radiological English

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ribes, R. [Hospital Reina Sofia, Cordoba (Spain). Servicio de Radiologia; Ros, P.R. [Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (United States). Div. of Radiology

2007-07-01

The book is an introductory book to radiological English on the basis that there are a lot of radiologists, radiology residents, radiology nurses, radiology students, and radiographers worldwide whose English level is indeterminate because their reading skills are much higher than their fluency. It is intended to help those health care professionals who need English for their work but do not speak English on a day-to-day basis. (orig.)
Radiological English

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ribes, R.; Ros, P.R.

2007-01-01

The book is an introductory book to radiological English on the basis that there are a lot of radiologists, radiology residents, radiology nurses, radiology students, and radiographers worldwide whose English level is indeterminate because their reading skills are much higher than their fluency. It is intended to help those health care professionals who need English for their work but do not speak English on a day-to-day basis. (orig.)
Learning Strategies in Alleviating English Writing Anxiety for English Language Learners (ELLs) with Limited English Proficiency (LEP)

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Chia-Pei; Lin, Huey-Ju

2016-01-01

This study utilized the Oxford Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and an English writing anxiety scale to examine the relationship between learning strategies and English writing anxiety in 102 university-level English language learners (ELLs) with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in a university in Taiwan. Kruskal Wallis Test…
Phonemic verbal fluency and severity of anxiety disorders in young children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rudineia Toazza

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction: Previous studies have implicated impaired verbal fluency as being associated with anxiety disorders in adolescents. Objectives: To replicate and extend previously reported evidence by investigating whether performance in phonemic verbal fluency tasks is related to severity of anxiety symptoms in young children with anxiety disorders. We also aim to investigate whether putative associations are independent from co-occurring attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD symptoms. Methods: Sixty children (6-12 years old with primary diagnoses of anxiety disorders participated in this study. Severity of symptoms was measured using clinician-based, parent-rated and self-rated validated scales. Verbal fluency was assessed using a simple task that measures the number of words evoked in 1-minute with the letter F, from which we quantified the number of isolated words, number of clusters (groups of similar words and number of switches (transitions between clusters and/or between isolated words. Results: There was a significant association between the number of clusters and anxiety scores. Further analysis revealed associations were independent from co-occurring ADHD symptoms. Conclusion: We replicate and extend previous findings showing that verbal fluency is consistently associated with severity in anxiety disorders in children. Further studies should explore the potential effect of cognitive training on symptoms of anxiety disorders.
English in Africa

African Journals Online (AJOL)

English in Africa was founded in 1974 to provide a forum for the study of African literature and English as a language of Africa. The Editor invites contributions, including unsolicited reviews, on all aspects of English writing and the English language in Africa, including oral traditions. English in Africa is listed in the Journal of ...
7 CFR 247.13 - Provisions for non-English or limited-English speakers.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Provisions for non-English or limited-English speakers... § 247.13 Provisions for non-English or limited-English speakers. (a) What must State and local agencies do to ensure that non-English or limited-English speaking persons are aware of their rights and...
The predictability of name pronunciation errors in four South African languages

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Kgampe, M

2011-11-01

Full Text Available of the the typical errors made by speakers from four South African languages (Setswana, English, isiZulu) when producing names from the same four languages. We compare these results with the pronunciations generated by four language-specific grapheme-to-phoneme (G2P...
Making Room for Second Language Phonotactics: Effects of L2 Learning and Environment on First Language Speech Perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Carlson, Matthew T

2018-04-01

Language-specific restrictions on sound sequences in words can lead to automatic perceptual repair of illicit sound sequences. As an example, no Spanish words begin with /s/-consonant sequences ([#sC]), and where necessary (e.g., foreign loanwords) [#sC] is repaired by inserting an initial [e], (e.g. foreign loanwords, cf., esnob, from English snob). As a result, Spanish speakers tend to perceive an illusory [e] before [#sC] sequences. Interestingly, this perceptual illusion is weaker in early Spanish-English bilinguals, whose other language, English, allows [#sC]. The present study explored whether this apparent influence of the English language on Spanish is restricted to early bilinguals, whose early language experience includes a mixture of both languages, or whether later learning of second language (L2) English can also induce a weakening of the first language (L1) perceptual illusion. Two groups of late Spanish-English bilinguals, immersed in Spanish or English, were tested on the same Spanish AX (same-different) discrimination task used in a study by Carlson et al., (2016) and their results compared with the Spanish monolinguals from Carlson et al.'s study. Like early bilinguals, late bilinguals exhibited a reduced impact of perceptual prothesis on discrimination accuracy. Additionally, late bilinguals, particularly in English immersion, were slowest when responding against the Spanish perceptual illusion. Robust L1 perceptual illusions thus appear to be malleable in the face of later L2 learning. It is argued that these results are consonant with the need for late bilinguals to navigate alternative, conflicting representations of the same acoustic material, even in unilingual L1 speech perception tasks.
What is English?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ulrikke Rindal

2014-10-01

Full Text Available This article considers the developing status of English in Norway, both as a language and as a school subject, making predictions about which ontological and epistemological perspectives will influence English language teaching (ELT in Norway towards 2030. Status quo and predictions for English in Norway is approached from two angles; the development of presiding language beliefs in linguistic science and in ELT practices from the 16th century to the present, and the more recent and rapid development of English as the foremost global language of communication. The article shows how English language beliefs and the status of English are made visible in the national subject curriculum and in the English language practices among Norwegian adolescent learners. The discussion suggests that English is increasingly characterised by those who use it as a second or later language, including Norwegians who negotiate the meanings of English in the ELT classroom. The article predicts that a logical development for Norwegian ELT is increased influence from social constructionist perspectives, in combination with the existing focus on communicative competence. The study shows that global circumstances related to the status of English are reciprocally related to local language beliefs among educational authorities, teachers and students, and that these have major implications for English as a discipline in lower and higher education.
Learner Views on English and English Language Teaching in China

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Na; Lin, Chih-Kai; Wiley, Terrence G.

2016-01-01

Since the 1980s, China has represented one of the major growth areas in the world for English language education, and studying English has been a priority among its foreign language educational policies. As English has gained more popularity in China, some have noted the potential value of English as a means to greater educational access and…
Introducing Business English

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nickerson, C.; Planken, B.C.

2015-01-01

Introducing Business English provides a comprehensive overview of this topic, situating the concepts of Business English and English for Specific Business Purposes within the wider field of English for Special Purposes. This book draws on contemporary teaching and research contexts to demonstrate

Physiological Indices of Bilingualism: Oral–Motor Coordination and Speech Rate in Bengali–English Speakers

Science.gov (United States)

Chakraborty, Rahul; Goffman, Lisa; Smith, Anne

2009-01-01

Purpose To examine how age of immersion and proficiency in a 2nd language influence speech movement variability and speaking rate in both a 1st language and a 2nd language. Method A group of 21 Bengali–English bilingual speakers participated. Lip and jaw movements were recorded. For all 21 speakers, lip movement variability was assessed based on productions of Bengali (L1; 1st language) and English (L2; 2nd language) sentences. For analyses related to the influence of L2 proficiency on speech production processes, participants were sorted into low- (n = 7) and high-proficiency (n = 7) groups. Lip movement variability and speech rate were evaluated for both of these groups across L1 and L2 sentences. Results Surprisingly, adult bilingual speakers produced equally consistent speech movement patterns in their production of L1 and L2. When groups were sorted according to proficiency, highly proficient speakers were marginally more variable in their L1. In addition, there were some phoneme-specific effects, most markedly that segments not shared by both languages were treated differently in production. Consistent with previous studies, movement durations were longer for less proficient speakers in both L1 and L2. Interpretation In contrast to those of child learners, the speech motor systems of adult L2 speakers show a high degree of consistency. Such lack of variability presumably contributes to protracted difficulties with acquiring nativelike pronunciation in L2. The proficiency results suggest bidirectional interactions across L1 and L2, which is consistent with hypotheses regarding interference and the sharing of phonological space. A slower speech rate in less proficient speakers implies that there are increased task demands on speech production processes. PMID:18367680
Predicting word-recognition performance in noise by young listeners with normal hearing using acoustic, phonetic, and lexical variables.

Science.gov (United States)

McArdle, Rachel; Wilson, Richard H

2008-06-01

To analyze the 50% correct recognition data that were from the Wilson et al (this issue) study and that were obtained from 24 listeners with normal hearing; also to examine whether acoustic, phonetic, or lexical variables can predict recognition performance for monosyllabic words presented in speech-spectrum noise. The specific variables are as follows: (a) acoustic variables (i.e., effective root-mean-square sound pressure level, duration), (b) phonetic variables (i.e., consonant features such as manner, place, and voicing for initial and final phonemes; vowel phonemes), and (c) lexical variables (i.e., word frequency, word familiarity, neighborhood density, neighborhood frequency). The descriptive, correlational study will examine the influence of acoustic, phonetic, and lexical variables on speech recognition in noise performance. Regression analysis demonstrated that 45% of the variance in the 50% point was accounted for by acoustic and phonetic variables whereas only 3% of the variance was accounted for by lexical variables. These findings suggest that monosyllabic word-recognition-in-noise is more dependent on bottom-up processing than on top-down processing. The results suggest that when speech-in-noise testing is used in a pre- and post-hearing-aid-fitting format, the use of monosyllabic words may be sensitive to changes in audibility resulting from amplification.
Earphone English.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldsmith, Francisca

2002-01-01

Describes Earphone English, a student club sponsored through a partnership between Berkeley High School and the Berkeley Public Library that offers students whose primary language is not English to practice their spoken and aural English skills. Discusses the audiobooks used in the program and the importance of multicultural content and age…
Constructing English as a Ugandan Language through an English Textbook

Science.gov (United States)

Stranger-Johannessen, Espen

2015-01-01

English is a national language in Uganda and is widely used in elite areas such as politics and business, but most Ugandans master English to only a limited degree. In this situation, English can be seen as either a foreign language or a second language--influencing how English is taught. One goal of language teaching espoused in this article is…
Sadhana | Indian Academy of Sciences

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Sadhana. M Ravishankar. Articles written in Sadhana. Volume 31 Issue 3 June 2006 pp 277-290. Hidden Markov model-based approach for generation of Pitman shorthand language symbols for consonants and vowels from spoken English · G Hemantha Kumar M Ravishankar P Nagabushan Basavaraj S ...
Practices That Promote English Reading for English Learners (Els)

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez, Rebecca S.; Harris, Bryn; McClain, Maryellen Brunson

2014-01-01

Schools are becoming increasingly diversified; however, training and professional development related to working with English language learners (ELs), especially in the area of English reading, is limited. In this article, we identify three "Big Ideas" of effective and collaborative practices that promote English reading achievement for…
Signal-to-background-ratio preferences of normal-hearing listeners as a function of music

Science.gov (United States)

Barrett, Jillian G.

2005-04-01

The primary purpose of speech is to convey a message. Many factors affect the listener's overall reception, several of which have little to do with the linguistic content itself, but rather with the delivery (e.g., prosody, intonation patterns, pragmatics, paralinguistic cues). Music, however, may convey a message either with or without linguistic content. In instances in which music has lyrics, one cannot assume verbal content will take precedence over sonic properties. Lyric emphasis over other aspects of music cannot be assumed. Singing introduces distortion of the vowel-consonant temporal ratio of speech, emphasizing vowels and de-emphasizing consonants. The phonemic production alterations of singing make it difficult for even those with normal hearing to understand the singer. This investigation was designed to identify singer-to-background-ratio (SBR) prefer- ences for normal hearing adult listeners (as opposed to SBR levels maxi-mizing speech discrimination ability). Stimuli were derived from three different original songs, each produced in two different genres and sung by six different singers. Singer and genre were the two primary contributors to significant differences in SBR preferences, though results clearly indicate genre, style and singer interact in different combinations for each song, each singer, and for each subject in an unpredictable manner.
The influence of orthographic experience on the development of phonological preparation in spoken word production.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Chuchu; Wang, Min

2017-08-01

Three sets of experiments using the picture naming tasks with the form preparation paradigm investigated the influence of orthographic experience on the development of phonological preparation unit in spoken word production in native Mandarin-speaking children. Participants included kindergarten children who have not received formal literacy instruction, Grade 1 children who are comparatively more exposed to the alphabetic pinyin system and have very limited Chinese character knowledge, Grades 2 and 4 children who have better character knowledge and more exposure to characters, and skilled adult readers who have the most advanced character knowledge and most exposure to characters. Only Grade 1 children showed the form preparation effect in the same initial consonant condition (i.e., when a list of target words shared the initial consonant). Both Grade 4 children and adults showed the preparation effect when the initial syllable (but not tone) among target words was shared. Kindergartners and Grade 2 children only showed the preparation effect when the initial syllable including tonal information was shared. These developmental changes in phonological preparation could be interpreted as a joint function of the modification of phonological representation and attentional shift. Extensive pinyin experience encourages speakers to attend to and select onset phoneme in phonological preparation, whereas extensive character experience encourages speakers to prepare spoken words in syllables.
Students’ attitudes to lecturers' English in English-medium higher education in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Christian; Denver, Louise; Mees, Inger M.

2013-01-01

This study examines the evaluative reactions of university students to their non-native lecturers’ English skills in English-medium instruction, i.e. when English is used as a lingua franca in an academic context. In particular, we examine the relationship between perceptions of English language ....... This effect should be addressed when universities use student ratings to evaluate teaching in English-medium content courses.......This study examines the evaluative reactions of university students to their non-native lecturers’ English skills in English-medium instruction, i.e. when English is used as a lingua franca in an academic context. In particular, we examine the relationship between perceptions of English language...... proficiency and perceptions of general lecturing competence (defined here as knowledge of subject and teaching skills). Statistical analyses of 1,700 student responses to 31 non-native English-speaking lecturers at a major business school in Denmark revealed that the students’ perceptions of the lecturers...
N400 elicited by incongruent ending words of Chinese idioms in healthy adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xing-shi; Tang, Yun-xiang; Xiao, Ze-ping; Wang, Ji-jun; Zhang, Ming-dao; Zhang, Zai-fu; Hu, Zhen-yu; Lou, Fei-ying; Chen, Chong; Zhang, Tian-hong

2010-03-20

Prior research about N400 has been mainly based on English stimuli, while the cognitive processing of Chinese characters is still unclear. The aim of the present study was to further investigate the semantic processing of Chinese idioms. Event related potentials (ERP) component N400 was elicited by 38 pairs of matching (congruent) and mismatching (incongruent) ended Chinese idioms: ending words with same phoneme but different shape and meaning (sPdSdM), with similar shape but different phoneme and meaning (sSdPdM), with same meaning but different phoneme and shape (sMdPdS), and words with different phoneme, shape and meaning (dPdSdM) and recorded by Guangzhou Runjie WJ-1 ERP instruments. In 62 right-handed healthy adults (age 19 - 50 years), N400 amplitudes and latencies were compared between matching and mismatching conditions at Fz, Cz and Pz. N400 showed a midline distribution and could be elicited in electrodes Fz, Cz and Pz. The mean values of N400 latencies and amplitudes were obtained for matching and mismatching ending words in healthy adults. Significant differences were found in N400 latencies and amplitudes in matching and mismatching ending-words idioms in healthy adults (P idioms, N400 latencies were prolonged and the amplitudes were increased in mismatching ones. N400s elicited by different types of stimuli showed different latencies and amplitudes, and longest N400 latency and largest N400 amplitude were elicited by ending-words with dPdSdM. No gender difference was found of N400 latency and amplitude in this study (P > 0.05). Compared with English stimuli, Chinese ideographic words could provide more flexible stimuli for N400 research in that the words have 3-dimension changes - phoneme, shape and meaning. Features of N400 elicited by matching and mismatching ending words in Chinese idioms are mainly determined by the meaning of the word. Some issues of N400 elicited by Chinese characters deserve further research.
Perception of English palatal codas by Korean speakers of English

Science.gov (United States)

Yeon, Sang-Hee

2003-04-01

This study aimed at looking at perception of English palatal codas by Korean speakers of English to determine if perception problems are the source of production problems. In particular, first, this study looked at the possible first language effect on the perception of English palatal codas. Second, a possible perceptual source of vowel epenthesis after English palatal codas was investigated. In addition, individual factors, such as length of residence, TOEFL score, gender and academic status, were compared to determine if those affected the varying degree of the perception accuracy. Eleven adult Korean speakers of English as well as three native speakers of English participated in the study. Three sets of a perception test including identification of minimally different English pseudo- or real words were carried out. The results showed that, first, the Korean speakers perceived the English codas significantly worse than the Americans. Second, the study supported the idea that Koreans perceived an extra /i/ after the final affricates due to final release. Finally, none of the individual factors explained the varying degree of the perceptional accuracy. In particular, TOEFL scores and the perception test scores did not have any statistically significant association.
Multilingual Dyslexia in University Students: Reading and Writing Patterns in Three Languages

Science.gov (United States)

Lindgren, Signe-Anita; Laine, Matti

2011-01-01

We investigated reading and writing in two domestic languages (Swedish and Finnish) and one foreign language (English) among multilingual university students with (n = 20) versus without dyslexia (n = 20). Our analyses encompassed overall speed and accuracy measures and an in-depth analysis of grapheme-phoneme-grapheme errors and inflectional…
ON A SOUTH AFRICAN ENGLISH VOWEL SYSTEM V.N. Webb ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

the assumed prestige norms of pronunciation in the cOIlUllunity and thus represent the (ultra-) formal standard rather than the knowledge under- lying the vernacular of the community ...... error" thus seems to be very small. Figure 1 shows that these two phonemes. (symbols 1 and 2) overlap quite considerably, with lei often ...
To Teach Standard English or World Englishes? A Balanced Approach to Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Farrell, Thomas S. C.; Martin, Sonia

2009-01-01

This article suggests that English language teachers should consider all varieties of English, not just British Standard English or American Standard English. In order to better prepare students for the global world, and to show them that their own English is valued, teachers can implement a balanced approach that incorporates the teaching and…
English Voices in "Text-to-Speech Tools": Representation of English Users and Their Varieties from a World Englishes Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Karakas, Ali

2017-01-01

English has experienced grave transformations recently in terms of socio-demographic and geographical characteristics. While such transformations have resulted in diverse types of English uses and various English users, the existing ELT materials still fail to represent the global varieties and dynamic uses and users of English. Moving from a…
Teaching English to Engineers: Between English Language Teaching and Psychology

OpenAIRE

Irina-Ana Drobot

2016-01-01

Teaching English to Engineers is part of English for Specific Purposes, a domain which is under the attention of English students especially under the current conditions of finding jobs and establishing partnerships outside Romania. The paper will analyse the existing textbooks together with the teaching strategies they adopt. Teaching English to Engineering students can intersect with domains such as psychology and cultural studies in order to teach them efficiently. Textbooks for students o...
Decision making with consonant belief functions: Discrepancy resulting with the probability transformation method used

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cinicioglu Esma Nur

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Dempster−Shafer belief function theory can address a wider class of uncertainty than the standard probability theory does, and this fact appeals the researchers in operations research society for potential application areas. However, the lack of a decision theory of belief functions gives rise to the need to use the probability transformation methods for decision making. For representation of statistical evidence, the class of consonant belief functions is used which is not closed under Dempster’s rule of combination but is closed under Walley’s rule of combination. In this research, it is shown that the outcomes obtained using both Dempster’s and Walley’s rules do result in different probability distributions when pignistic transformation is used. However, when plausibility transformation is used, they do result in the same probability distribution. This result shows that the choice of the combination rule and probability transformation method may have a significant effect on decision making since it may change the choice of the decision alternative selected. This result is illustrated via an example of missile type identification.
[Intervention in dyslexic disorders: phonological awareness training].

Science.gov (United States)

Etchepareborda, M C

2003-02-01

Taking into account the systems for the treatment of brain information when drawing up a work plan allows us to recreate processing routines that go from multisensory perception to motor, oral and cognitive production, which is the step prior to executive levels of thought, bottom-up and top-down processing systems. In recent years, the use of phonological methods to prevent or resolve reading disorders has become the fundamental mainstay in the treatment of dyslexia. The work is mainly based on phonological proficiency, which enables the patient to detect phonemes (input), to think about them (performance) and to use them to build words (output). Daily work with rhymes, the capacity to listen, the identification of phrases and words, and handling syllables and phonemes allows us to perform a preventive intervention that enhances the capacity to identify letters, phonological analysis and the reading of single words. We present the different therapeutic models that are most frequently employed. Fast For Word (FFW) training helps make progress in phonematic awareness and other linguistic skills, such as phonological awareness, semantics, syntax, grammar, working memory and event sequencing. With Deco-Fon, a programme for training phonological decoding, work is carried out on the auditory discrimination of pure tones, letters and consonant clusters, auditory processing speed, auditory and phonematic memory, and graphophonological processing, which is fundamental for speech, language and reading writing disorders. Hamlet is a programme based on categorisation activities for working on phonological conceptualisation. It attempts to encourage the analysis of the segments of words, syllables or phonemes, and the classification of a certain segment as belonging or not to a particular phonological or orthographical category. Therapeutic approaches in the early phases of reading are oriented towards two poles based on the basic mechanisms underlying the process of learning
Researching awareness and attitudes : a study of world Englishes and English teachers in South Korea

OpenAIRE

Ahn, Hyejeong

2017-01-01

This study explores the awareness and attitudes of English teachers in South Korea (ETSK) toward eight selected varieties of English: American English (AmE), British English (BrE), Canadian English (CaE), Singaporean English (SiE), Indian English (InE), Chinese English (ChE), Japanese English (JaE) and Korean English (KoE). Data, consisting of 204 questionnaires and 63 interviews, is collected from both Korean and non-Korean English teachers, from two major regions, Busan Gyeongnam and Seoul ...
Roles of Position, Stress, and Proficiency in L2 Children's Spelling: A Developmental Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Hong, Su Chin; Chen, Shu Hui

2011-01-01

This study investigated the roles of phoneme position, stress, and proficiency in L2 spelling development by Taiwanese students learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL), an alphabetic writing system typologically different from the learners' L1 logographic system. Structured nonword spelling tests were administered to EFL sixth-graders with…

Letter-Transposition Effects Are Not Universal: The Impact of Transposing Letters in Hebrew

Science.gov (United States)

Velan, Hadas; Frost, Ram

2009-01-01

We examined the effects of letter-transposition in Hebrew in three masked-priming experiments. Hebrew, like English has an alphabetic orthography where sequential and contiguous letter strings represent phonemes. However, being a Semitic language it has a non-concatenated morphology that is based on root derivations. Experiment 1 showed that…
Formal Variability of Terms in the Sphere of Network Technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roman Viktorovich Deniko

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The article addresses the problem of formal variability of terms in the sphere of network terminology in the Russian language. The research is based on data from the Internet communication in the sphere of network technologies. Such formal variability types as graphical, phonemic, word building and complex (graphic and phonetic, morphologic and accentual are discussed in this article. The authors reveal the reasons for graphic variability of foreign origin terms making up the international terminological fund. These reasons cover such aspects as the use of graphics of source language and recipient language; the presence or absence of hyphenation, etc. It is determined that the phonemic variants of terms appear as a result of oral or written borrowings. The existence of such variants is also connected with the stage of their adaptation in the Russian language after borrowing. In this case the variants are related with soft or hard pronunciation of consonants. There are also some cases of phonemic variability on the graphic level. The complex variability is regarded as a part of active processes taking place in the modern Russian language, and these processes involve both native and foreign origin terms. The particular attention is paid to the word-building variants – word-building affixes the variability of which is peculiar of network technologies. The results of the research show that the variability of professional units belonging to the network technologies sublanguage is caused by the active process of borrowing of specialpurpose vocabulary into the Russian language. The process is due to the intensification of intercultural communication in the professional spheres.
Prospective Freshman English Teachers’ Knowledge of the English Sound System

OpenAIRE

TEZEL, Kadir Vefa

2016-01-01

Foreign language teachers use the spoken form of the target language when they teach. One of their professional responsibilities while teaching is to form a good model of pronunciation for their students. In Turkey, English is the primary foreign language taught in all educational institutions. Prospective English teachers in the English Teacher Education departments in Faculties of Education are the products of that system, and they come to their universities having been taught English for y...
Extramural English

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Signe Hannibal

activities are more supportive of language learning than others, i.e. gaming, watching television, music, etc. Finally, a qualitative gaming study will be carried out to explore what goes on linguistically when very young children game in English together: type of interaction between players...... and with the game and if this interaction can be seen to support their English language learning. Preliminary results indicate that although children use / are exposed to English in a range of different contexts and through a variety of modalities (internet, console/PC games, music etc.), the one activity...... that seems to have the most impact on children’s English learning is gaming....
Cross-linguistic perspectives on speech assessment in cleft palate

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Willadsen, Elisabeth; Henningsson, Gunilla

2012-01-01

. Finally, the influence of different languages on some aspects of language acquisition in young children with cleft palate is presented and discussed. Until recently, not much has been written about cross linguistic perspectives when dealing with cleft palate speech. Most literature about assessment......This chapter deals with cross linguistic perspectives that need to be taken into account when comparing speech assessment and speech outcome obtained from cleft palate speakers of different languages. Firstly, an overview of consonants and vowels vulnerable to the cleft condition is presented. Then......, consequences for assessment of cleft palate speech by native versus non-native speakers of a language are discussed, as well as the use of phonemic versus phonetic transcription in cross linguistic studies. Specific recommendations for the construction of speech samples in cross linguistic studies are given...
PET studies of phonetic processing of speech: review, replication, and reanalysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zatorre, R J; Meyer, E; Gjedde, A

1996-01-01

Positron emission tomography was used to investigate cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes associated with the processing of speech. In a first experiment, normal right-handed volunteers were scanned under two conditions that required phonetic processing (discrimination of final consonants and phoneme...... monitoring), and one baseline condition of passive listening. Analysis was carried out by paired-image subtraction, with MRI overlay for anatomical localization. Comparison of each phonetic condition with the baseline condition revealed increased CBF in the left frontal lobe, close to the border between...... Broca's area and the motor cortex, and in a left parietal region. A second experiment showed that this area was not activated by a semantic judgement task. Reanalysis of data from an earlier study, in which various baseline conditions were used, confirmed that this region of left frontal cortex...
平仮名表記の特質と学習指導原理

OpenAIRE

首藤, 久義

2003-01-01

The teaching of Hiragana is one of the most important tasks for the first grade teachers. Learning to read and write in Hiragana is easier for Japanese children than English writing systems are for the first grade speakers of English. There are three reasons for this: 1) The present Hiragana writing system is based on modern Japanese sounds. 2) Each Hiragana letter represents a syllable in Japanese. And recognizing each syllable is easier than recognizing each phoneme. And the structure of Ja...
English Teaching Profile: Peru.

Science.gov (United States)

British Council, London (England). English Language and Literature Div.

The role and status of English in Peru are examined, with attention directed to: (1) English within the education system; (2) teachers of English; (3) educational administration of English teaching, (4) materials support, development, and planning, (5) English outside the education system; (6) British and American support for the teaching of…
French Phonology for Teachers: A Programmed Introduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Jerald R.; Poulin, Norman A.

This programed, self-instructional course has the following terminal objectives: (1) to present some notions of the science of linguistics and the major branches of linguistics, (2) to teach the segmental and suprasegmental phonemes of French, (3) to identify the major articulatory problems of French for the native speaker of English, (4) to…
Japanese College Students' Attitudes towards Japan English and American English

Science.gov (United States)

Sasayama, Shoko

2013-01-01

This study investigated contemporary Japanese college students' attitudes towards Japan English (JE) and American English (AE) through a verbal guise test (VGT) as well as a questionnaire. Forty-four Japanese college students listened to four Japanese and four North Americans reading a text in English, rated them in terms of solidarity-related…
Remapping Englishness--the Impact of Globalization on College English Instruction in Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jade Tsui-yu

2008-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of globalization upon the college-level instruction of English/American literature in Taiwan. The examination will be centered upon the subject of Englishness as demonstrated in the courses of English/American Literature taught in Taiwan. By focusing on the term "Englishness," the paper…
A Way of Teaching English Based on Various Fields of English Linguistics

OpenAIRE

小倉, 美津夫

2018-01-01

　The aim of this paper is to analyze the present situation of English teaching in senior high schools in Aichi prefecture, clarify the problems English teachers have had since the 2010 reform of the Course of Study, and suggest that they should take in and use in their classrooms the perspectives of English linguistics. They had learned the introduction of English linguistics at their university before they became teachers, but they haven't noticed how the knowledge of English linguistics is ...
Why Do Primary School English Teachers Decide to Teach English?

Science.gov (United States)

Amengual-Pizarro, Marian; Garcia Laborda, Jesus

2015-01-01

This study is an attempt to explore the nature of L2 teachers' motivation towards English language learning and their decision to become English teachers. A total of 45 third-year prospective Primary school English teachers at the University of the Balearic Islands completed a small-scale survey adapted from Gardner's Attitude/Motivation Test…
World Englishes, English as an International Language and Applied Linguistics

Science.gov (United States)

Kilickaya, Ferit

2009-01-01

The paper discusses World Englishes (WEs) in relation to English as an International Language (EIL) and Applied Linguistics. Taking into account Kachru's interesting but at the same time controversial debate about the status of English in its varieties, which are commonly called WEs and the opposing ideas presented by Quirk, it is aimed to present…
English language status and English communication in culturally diverse academic departments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Selmer, Jan; Lauring, Jakob

2011-01-01

universities, results showed that English fluency had a positive association with inter-individual communication and management communication, both in English, while linguistic distance only had a positive relationship with inter-individual communication in English. Implications of these findings are discussed...
English in Fiji.

Science.gov (United States)

Siegel, Jeff

1989-01-01

Traces the history of English in Fiji, especially in relation to education. The role of English in interethnic communication and as a language of wider communication with the outside world is discussed, and features of Fiji English, a local language variety, are described. (Author/CB)
On Differences between General English Teaching and Business English Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Wenzhong; Liao, Fang

2008-01-01

With the accelerating rate of globalization, business exchanges are carried out cross the border, as a result there is a growing demand for talents professional both in English and Business. We can see that at present Business English courses are offered by many language schools in the aim of meeting the need for Business English talent. Many…
Non-Native & Native English Teachers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

İrfan Tosuncuoglu

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In many countries the primary (mother tongue language is not English but there is a great demand for English language teachers all over the world. The demand in this field is try to be filled largely by non-native English speaking teachers who have learned English in the country or abroad, or from another non native English peaking teachers. In some countries, particularly those where English speaking is a a sign of status, the students prefer to learn English from a native English speaker. The perception is that a non-native English speaking teacher is a less authentic teacher than a native English speaker and their instruction is not satifactory in some ways. This paper will try to examine the literature to explore whether there is a difference in instructional effectiveness between NNESTs and native English teachers.
ENGLISH / PIDGIN-ENGLISH (WES-KOS), PRELIMINARY GLOSSARY.

Science.gov (United States)

SCHNEIDER, GILBERT D.

THIS PRELIMINARY GLOSSARY OF ENGLISH / PIDGIN-ENGLISH (WES-KOS) HAS BEEN USED IN PEACE CORPS TRAINING PROGRAMS. WES-KOS (IN USE SINCE THE 18TH CENTURY) IS USED THROUGHOUT WEST AFRICA, HOWEVER THE GLOSSES IN THIS TEXT ARE THE COMMON CULTURAL-LINGUISTIC EQUIVALENTS USED IN WEST CAMEROON AND EASTERN NIGERIA. A BRIEF STATEMENT IS GIVEN IN THE…
English Phonetics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

potential applications helping to provide solutions to problems encountered in the real world. An area of prime importance was the teaching of pronunciation to language learners, and in particular the acquisition of English pronunciation by non-natives. Apart from works devoted to second...... Melville Bell, Isaac Pitman, Alexander J. Ellis, and Henry Sweet—the emphasis was on what is now known as articulatory phonetics. (See further Phonetics of English in the Nineteenth Century (Routledge, 2006), compiled by the editors of the current collection.) These pioneers regarded their task......-language acquisition, and in particular to the teaching of English as an acquired language, this emphasis also led to the production of important English pronunciation dictionaries, including the Afzelius dictionary reproduced as Volume I of this collection. Other areas covered in the following volumes include key...

Japanese Media in English.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanaka, Sachiko Oda

1995-01-01

Describes the use of English in the media in Japan, focusing on the role and history of English-language newspapers, radio, and television programs, as well as the proliferation of English-language films shown in Japanese cinemas. Discusses the implications of English in the Japanese media. (20 references) (MDM)
NEEDS ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE STUDENTS IN ENGLISH ORAL COMMUNICATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Angga Maulana

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to identify factual information about the needs of students of English Literature in the activities and supporting factors of oral communication by using English, whether linguistic and non-linguistic, and analyzing the difficulties of the situation of oral communication of English Literature students using English. This research uses descriptive method. Data collection is done through two stages: the questionnaire and the interview, followed by the review of someliteratures. The results of this study indicate that in general the students of English Literature feel that participating in a formal discussion is more important than the informal. While in terms of ability in the oral communication activity, generally students mastered informal communication activities. In terms of linguistic factors, the choice of vocabularies, and good and correct sentences are considered very important, although they only feel quite capable in it. It is also found that talking with self-confidence, having proper English pronunciation and mastering the topic of conversation become the important non-linguistic factors. The same thing does not happen on loudness and facial mimic. In general, students feel it is not important enough to master. Regarding situations that facilitate students in oral communication in English, they generally feel that well preparation, self-confidence, and mastery over vocabulary and what is being discussed becomes an easier factor. Different things revealed by most students about the difficult vocabulary and the lack of preparation in oral communication. It is difficult. As for things that require improvement, students generally feel that the confidence and the amount of vocabulary that is mastered should be improved in order to improve the quality of oral communication in English.
THE ROLE OF OUT-OF-SCHOOL ENGLISH LITERACY ACTIVITIES IN PROMOTING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LITERACY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

LILIES SETIASIH

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper reports on a case study of the role of out-of-school English literacy activities in promoting students’ English literacy at an elementary school in Bandung. The study is an attempt to respond to controversy among decision makers about the idea of offering English at elementary schools and the reality that at the school where the research was conducted, English is fully used as a means of instruction for English, Mathematics, and Science. Considering that literacy is shaped in socio-cultural contexts, the researcher assumed that the students acquired and developed their English literacy not only at school but also outside of school. Their out-of-school English literacy activities might contribute to their English literacy development. The research aims were to investigate the students’ English literacy level and to identify their out-of-school literacy activities. The theoretical framework covered the cognitive and socio-cultural theories of literacy. The research results were: 1 the majority of the fourth grade students were in early advanced and advanced levels for the aspects of reading and writing proficiency; and 2 their out-of-school English literacy activities played an important role in building their English literacy.
Chinese College Students' Views on Native English and Non-Native English in EFL Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Qian, Yang; Jingxia, Liu

2016-01-01

With the development of globalization, English is clearly spoken by many more non-native than native speakers, which raises the discussion of English varieties and the debate regarding the conformity to Standard English. Although a large number of studies have shown scholars' attitudes towards native English and non-native English, little research…
A Language without Borders: English Slang and Bulgarian Learners of English

Science.gov (United States)

Charkova, Krassimira D.

2007-01-01

This study investigated the acquisition of English slang in a foreign language context. The participants were 101 Bulgarian learners of English, 58 high school students, and 43 university students. The instrument included knowledge tests of English slang terms and questions about attitudes, sources, reasons, and methods employed in learning…
Study on Correlation of English Pronunciation Self-Concept to English Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Xin; Zhang, Shengqi; Li, Yucong; Zhao, Miqiang

2013-01-01

English pronunciation self-concept is formed in the process of pronunciation learning, which refers to the learners' self-conception and assessment of one's English pronunciation proficiency and pronunciation (Gimson, A. C. 1980). This paper reports an investigation on 237 non-English major college students into the relationship between English…
Teacher of primary English

CERN Multimedia

2003-01-01

Part-time teacher of primary English needed for September 2003 to teach English National Curriculum (KS2) and NLS to mother tongue or good second language English-speakers aged 7-10. 4 hours contact time per week, team planning, marking and meetings. Candidates should be English mother tongue qualified teachers, confident, flexible classroom practitioners and team players. For further details and how to apply see http://enpferney.org/staff_vacancies.htm English National Programme, Lycée International, Ferney-Voltaire (http://enpferney.org/)
English

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Phillipson, Robert

2011-01-01

The article exemplifies and presents the characteristics of linguistic imperialism, linguistic capital accumulation following the same pattern as capitalist economic dominance. The text summarizes the way English was established in the colonial period. Many of the mechanisms of linguistic hierarchy...... have been maintained and intensified since then, as African and Indian scholarship demonstrates. Language plays a key role in education, the World Bank taking over where colonial regimes left off. Anglo-American efforts to maintain global English dominance have intensified since 1945 and are central...... to the present-day world ‘order’, as the postcolonial is subsumed under global empire, assisted by English linguistic neoimperialism. Some scholars who deny the existence of linguistic imperialism are reported on, and the complexity of language policy in European integration is demonstrated. The article...
Online English-English Learner Dictionaries Boost Word Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Nurmukhamedov, Ulugbek

2012-01-01

Learners of English might be familiar with several online monolingual dictionaries that are not necessarily the best choices for the English as Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) context. Although these monolingual online dictionaries contain definitions, pronunciation guides, and other elements normally found in general-use dictionaries, they are…
English made easy

CERN Document Server

Crichton, Jonathan

2013-01-01

This is a fun and userfriendly way to learn English English Made Easy is a breakthrough in English language learningimaginatively exploiting how pictures and text can work together to create understanding and help learners learn more productively. It gives learners easy access to the vocabulary, grammar and functions of English as it is actually used in a comprehensive range of social situations. Selfguided students and classroom learners alike will be delighted by the way they are helped to progress easily from one unit to the next, using a combination of pictures and text to discover for themselves how English works. The pictorial method used in this book is based on a thorough understanding of language structure and how language is successfully learned.English Made Easy, Volume 1 consists of a total of 20 units arranged in groups of five. The first four units presents language and provide learners the opportunities to practice as they learn. The first page of each unit has a list of all the word...
English made easy

CERN Document Server

Crichton, Jonathan

2013-01-01

This is a fun and userfriendly way to learn EnglishEnglish Made Easy is a breakthrough in English language learningimaginatively exploiting how pictures and text can work together to create understanding and help learners learn more productively. It gives learners easy access to the vocabulary, grammar and functions of English as it is actually used in a comprehensive range of social situations. Selfguided students and classroom learners alike will be delighted by the way they are helped to progress easily from one unit to the next, using a combination of pictures and text to discover for themselves how English works. The pictorial method used in this book is based on a thorough understanding of language structure and how language is successfully learned.English Made Easy, Volume 2 consists of a total of 20 units arranged in groups of five. The first four units presents language and provide learners the opportunities to practice as they learn. The first page of each unit has a list of all the words...
English for au pairs the au pair's guide to learning English

CERN Document Server

Curtis, Lucy

2014-01-01

English for Au Pairs has interlinked stories about a group of au pairs new to England. Marta, an 18-year-old from Poland arrives in the UK to work as an au pair. Throughout her year-long stay she has many different experiences - some bad, some good - but with the support of her host family she finds new friends and improves her English. English for Au Pairs offers insight into the joys and difficulties of being an au pair while at the same time reinforcing English language learning through grammar explanations and exercises.
CALL English

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barlach, Else

This multimedia program of English grammar caters specifically for Danish students at Bachelor level. The handbook introduces students to well-established grammatical terminology within the traditional areas of English grammar, and the CD-ROM, which contains about 120 exercises, offers students...
Non-Native English Speakers and Nonstandard English: An In-Depth Investigation

Science.gov (United States)

Polat, Brittany

2012-01-01

Given the rising prominence of nonstandard varieties of English around the world (Jenkins 2007), learners of English as a second language are increasingly called on to communicate with speakers of both native and non-native nonstandard English varieties. In many classrooms around the world, however, learners continue to be exposed only to…
Non-Native English Varieties: Thainess in English Narratives

Science.gov (United States)

Singhasak, Piyahathai; Methitham, Phongsakorn

2016-01-01

This study aims at examining Thainess as a writing strategy used in non-literary texts written by non-professional bilingual writers. These writers are advanced language learners who are pursuing their Master's degree in English. Seven English narratives of their language learning experiences were analyzed based on Kachruvian's framework of…
Development of a serial order in speech constrained by articulatory coordination.

Science.gov (United States)

Oohashi, Hiroki; Watanabe, Hama; Taga, Gentaro

2013-01-01

Universal linguistic constraints seem to govern the organization of sound sequences in words. However, our understanding of the origin and development of these constraints is incomplete. One possibility is that the development of neuromuscular control of articulators acts as a constraint for the emergence of sequences in words. Repetitions of the same consonant observed in early infancy and an increase in variation of consonantal sequences over months of age have been interpreted as a consequence of the development of neuromuscular control. Yet, it is not clear how sequential coordination of articulators such as lips, tongue apex and tongue dorsum constrains sequences of labial, coronal and dorsal consonants in words over the course of development. We examined longitudinal development of consonant-vowel-consonant(-vowel) sequences produced by Japanese children between 7 and 60 months of age. The sequences were classified according to places of articulation for corresponding consonants. The analyses of individual and group data show that infants prefer repetitive and fronting articulations, as shown in previous studies. Furthermore, we reveal that serial order of different places of articulations within the same organ appears earlier and then gradually develops, whereas serial order of different articulatory organs appears later and then rapidly develops. In the same way, we also analyzed the sequences produced by English children and obtained similar developmental trends. These results suggest that the development of intra- and inter-articulator coordination constrains the acquisition of serial orders in speech with the complexity that characterizes adult language.
TEACHER OF ENGLISH NEEDED

CERN Multimedia

2002-01-01

Part-time teacher of primary English needed for September 2002 to teach English National Curriculum (KS2) and NLS to mother tongue or good second language English-speakers aged 7-10. 4 hours contact time per week, team planning, marking and meetings. Candidates should be English mother tongue qualified teachers, confident, flexible classroom practitioners and team players. For further details and how to apply: engnat@hotmail.com or 04 50 40 82 66. Apply as soon as possible, and in any case before 8 July. English National Programme, Lycée International, Ferney-Voltaire.
Influence of phonetic context on the dysphonic event: contribution of new methodologies for the analysis of pathological voice.

Science.gov (United States)

Revis, J; Galant, C; Fredouille, C; Ghio, A; Giovanni, A

2012-01-01

Widely studied in terms of perception, acoustics or aerodynamics, dysphonia stays nevertheless a speech phenomenon, closely related to the phonetic composition of the message conveyed by the voice. In this paper, we present a series of three works with the aim to understand the implications of the phonetic manifestation of dysphonia. Our first study proposes a new approach to the perceptual analysis of dysphonia (the phonetic labeling), which principle is to listen and evaluate each phoneme in a sentence separately. This study confirms the hypothesis of Laver that the dysphonia is not a constant noise added to the speech signal, but a discontinuous phenomenon, occurring on certain phonemes, based on the phonetic context. However, the burden of executing the task has led us to look to the techniques of automatic speaker recognition (ASR) to automate the procedure. With the collaboration of the LIA, we have developed a system for automatic classification of dysphonia from the techniques of ASR. This is the subject of our second study. The first results obtained with this system suggest that the unvoiced consonants show predominant performance in the task of automatic classification of dysphonia. This result is surprising since it is often assumed that dysphonia occurs only on laryngeal vibration. We started looking for explanations of this phenomenon and we present our assumptions and experiences in the third work we present.
Orientations towards English among English-Medium Instruction Students

Science.gov (United States)

Karakas, Ali

2015-01-01

Based on the empirical data of my PhD research, this paper analyses the perceptions of 351 undergraduate students enrolled at English-medium universities towards English in terms of the language ideology framework. The students were purposively sampled from three programs at three Turkish universities. The data were drawn from student opinion…
English Verb Accuracy of Bilingual Cantonese-English Preschoolers

Science.gov (United States)

Rezzonico, Stefano; Goldberg, Ahuva; Milburn, Trelani; Belletti, Adriana; Girolametto, Luigi

2017-01-01

Purpose: Knowledge of verb development in typically developing bilingual preschoolers may inform clinicians about verb accuracy rates during the 1st 2 years of English instruction. This study aimed to investigate tensed verb accuracy in 2 assessment contexts in 4- and 5-year-old Cantonese-English bilingual preschoolers. Method: The sample included…

Perception of "English" and Motivation in Learning English

Science.gov (United States)

Sahin, Mehmet; Seçer, Sule Y. E.; Erisen, Yavuz

2016-01-01

This study aims to present high school students' perception of "English" through the impressions and images and the effect of these perceptions on their motivation in learning English. This qualitative study is based on the data about students' metaphors and the focus group interview to determine their effect on the students' motivation.…
Thanking Responders in Cameroon English

Science.gov (United States)

Ouafeu, Yves Talla Sando

2009-01-01

An analysis of authentic or genuine interactions among Cameroon English speakers reveals that conversational routines in this variety of English differ a good deal from those obtained in other varieties of English, non-native varieties of English inclusive, and more specifically in native varieties of English. This paper looks at "thanking…
Understanding Disorder Within Variation: Production of English Grammatical Forms by English Language Learners.

Science.gov (United States)

Bedore, Lisa M; Peña, Elizabeth D; Anaya, Jissel B; Nieto, Ricardo; Lugo-Neris, Mirza J; Baron, Alisa

2018-04-05

This study examines English performance on a set of 11 grammatical forms in Spanish-English bilingual, school-age children in order to understand how item difficulty of grammatical constructions helps correctly classify language impairment (LI) from expected variability in second language acquisition when taking into account linguistic experience and exposure. Three hundred seventy-eight children's scores on the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment-Middle Extension (Peña, Bedore, Gutiérrez-Clellen, Iglesias, & Goldstein, 2008) morphosyntax cloze task were analyzed by bilingual experience groups (high Spanish experience, balanced English-Spanish experience, high English experience, ability (typically developing [TD] vs. LI), and grammatical form. Classification accuracy was calculated for the forms that best differentiated TD and LI groups. Children with LI scored lower than TD children across all bilingual experience groups. There were differences by grammatical form across bilingual experience and ability groups. Children from high English experience and balanced English-Spanish experience groups could be accurately classified on the basis of all the English grammatical forms tested except for prepositions. For bilinguals with high Spanish experience, it was possible to rule out LI on the basis of grammatical production but not rule in LI. It is possible to accurately identify LI in English language learners once they use English 40% of the time or more. However, for children with high Spanish experience, more information about development and patterns of impairment is needed to positively identify LI.
English made easy, v.1 a new ESL approach learning English through pictures

CERN Document Server

Crichton, Jonathan

2015-01-01

This is a fun and userfriendly way to learn EnglishEnglish Made Easy is a breakthrough in English language learningimaginatively exploiting how pictures and text can work together to create understanding and help learners learn more productively. It gives beginner English learners easy access to the vocabulary, grammar and functions of English as it is actually used in a comprehensive range of social situations. Selfguided students and classroom learners alike will be delighted by the way they are helped to progress easily from one unit to the next, using a combina
Teaching English for Specific Purposes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nijolė Netikšienė

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Teaching English for Specific Purposes and General English is analysed in the article. The scientific approach of a scientist M. Rosenberg is presented. The experience of teaching English for Specific Purposesat VGTU is alsopresented. The ideas and teaching methods from the classes of general English can be transferred to the classes of English for Specific Purposes.
English Training

CERN Multimedia

2003-01-01

General and Professional English Courses The next session will take place: from 03 March to 28 June 2003 (2 weeks break at Easter). These courses are open to all persons working on the Cern site, and to their spouses. For registration and further information on the courses, please consult our Web pages: http://cern.ch/Training or contact Mrs. Benz: tel.73127 or Mr. Liptow: tel.72957. Writing Professional Documents in English This course is designed for people with a good level of spoken English. Duration: 20 hours (2 hours a week) Price: 440 CHF (for 8 students) For registration and further information, please consult our Web pages: http://cern.ch/Training or contact Mrs. Tessa Osborne: Tessa.Osborne@cern. Oral Expression This course is intended for people with a good knowledge of English who want to practise and maintain their speaking skills while extending their vocabulary. There will be approximately 8 participants in a class. Speaking activities will include discussions, meeting simulations, rol...
English Training

CERN Multimedia

2003-01-01

General and Professional English Courses The next session will take place: from 03 March to 28 June 2003 (2 weeks break at Easter). These courses are open to all persons working on the Cern site, and to their spouses. For registration and further information on the courses, please consult our Web pages: http://cern.ch/Training or contact Mrs. Benz: tel.73127 or Mr. Liptow: tel.72957. Writing Professional Documents in English This course is designed for people with a good level of spoken English. Duration: 20 hours (2 hours a week) Price: 440 CHF (for 8 students) For registration and further information, please consult our Web pages: http://cern.ch/Training or contact Mrs. Tessa Osborne: Tessa.Osborne@cern. Oral Expression This course is intended for people with a good knowledge of English who want to practise and maintain their speaking skills while extending their vocabulary. There will be approximately 8 participants in a class. Speaking activities will include discussions, meeting simulations, role-p...
A Study of Effective Strategies to Stimulate College Non-English Majors' Motivation for Learning English

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

向玉

2008-01-01

As an English teacher for non-English majors in a college in Wuhan,I find that most of my students are not interested in learning English.Thus.I am concerned about how to stimulate my students' motivation in learning English.This paper discusses some effective strategies to stimulate college non-English majors' motivation for learning English.such as creating a comfortable atmosphere,buiIding students' confidence,promoting cooperative learning.and incorporating the multiple intelligences concept in the classroom.These strategies do have practical application in my classroom and have motivated my students' interest in English learning.
Ewe Pronunciation.

Science.gov (United States)

Schneeberg, Nan; Kpotufe, Prosper

This volume consists of a guide to Ewe pronunciation and an Ewe textbook designed for students who are native speakers of English. Consonants, vowels and tones are introduced in the first section, and exercises that drill the contrasts between the segments are provided. The volume is divided into five units, each unit including a dialogue,…
Infant Discrimination of a Morphologically Relevant Word-Final Contrast

Science.gov (United States)

Fais, Laurel; Kajikawa, Sachiyo; Amano, Shigeaki; Werker, Janet F.

2009-01-01

Six-, 12-, and 18-month-old English-hearing infants were tested on their ability to discriminate nonword forms ending in the final stop consonants /k/ and /t/ from their counterparts with final /s/ added, resulting in final clusters /ks/ and /ts/, in a habituation-dishabituation, looking time paradigm. Infants at all 3 ages demonstrated an ability…
Speech recognition in natural background noise.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julien Meyer

Full Text Available In the real world, human speech recognition nearly always involves listening in background noise. The impact of such noise on speech signals and on intelligibility performance increases with the separation of the listener from the speaker. The present behavioral experiment provides an overview of the effects of such acoustic disturbances on speech perception in conditions approaching ecologically valid contexts. We analysed the intelligibility loss in spoken word lists with increasing listener-to-speaker distance in a typical low-level natural background noise. The noise was combined with the simple spherical amplitude attenuation due to distance, basically changing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR. Therefore, our study draws attention to some of the most basic environmental constraints that have pervaded spoken communication throughout human history. We evaluated the ability of native French participants to recognize French monosyllabic words (spoken at 65.3 dB(A, reference at 1 meter at distances between 11 to 33 meters, which corresponded to the SNRs most revealing of the progressive effect of the selected natural noise (-8.8 dB to -18.4 dB. Our results showed that in such conditions, identity of vowels is mostly preserved, with the striking peculiarity of the absence of confusion in vowels. The results also confirmed the functional role of consonants during lexical identification. The extensive analysis of recognition scores, confusion patterns and associated acoustic cues revealed that sonorant, sibilant and burst properties were the most important parameters influencing phoneme recognition. . Altogether these analyses allowed us to extract a resistance scale from consonant recognition scores. We also identified specific perceptual consonant confusion groups depending of the place in the words (onset vs. coda. Finally our data suggested that listeners may access some acoustic cues of the CV transition, opening interesting perspectives for
Speech recognition in natural background noise.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Julien; Dentel, Laure; Meunier, Fanny

2013-01-01

In the real world, human speech recognition nearly always involves listening in background noise. The impact of such noise on speech signals and on intelligibility performance increases with the separation of the listener from the speaker. The present behavioral experiment provides an overview of the effects of such acoustic disturbances on speech perception in conditions approaching ecologically valid contexts. We analysed the intelligibility loss in spoken word lists with increasing listener-to-speaker distance in a typical low-level natural background noise. The noise was combined with the simple spherical amplitude attenuation due to distance, basically changing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Therefore, our study draws attention to some of the most basic environmental constraints that have pervaded spoken communication throughout human history. We evaluated the ability of native French participants to recognize French monosyllabic words (spoken at 65.3 dB(A), reference at 1 meter) at distances between 11 to 33 meters, which corresponded to the SNRs most revealing of the progressive effect of the selected natural noise (-8.8 dB to -18.4 dB). Our results showed that in such conditions, identity of vowels is mostly preserved, with the striking peculiarity of the absence of confusion in vowels. The results also confirmed the functional role of consonants during lexical identification. The extensive analysis of recognition scores, confusion patterns and associated acoustic cues revealed that sonorant, sibilant and burst properties were the most important parameters influencing phoneme recognition. . Altogether these analyses allowed us to extract a resistance scale from consonant recognition scores. We also identified specific perceptual consonant confusion groups depending of the place in the words (onset vs. coda). Finally our data suggested that listeners may access some acoustic cues of the CV transition, opening interesting perspectives for future studies.
Diagnostic features of English-lexified creoles: First attestations from Virgin Islands English Creole

OpenAIRE

Andrei A. Avram

2011-01-01

This paper presents the earliest attestations in Virgin Islands English Creole of the diagnostic features of English-lexified contact languages proposed by Baker and Huber (2001). It compares the distribution of these features in Virgin Islands English Creole and in the seven Atlantic English-lexified pidgins and creoles considered by Baker and Huber (2001). Also included is a discussion of a number of selected features.
Problems catching up – age disadvantage in letter recognition, phoneme awareness and speed naming in Danish five-year-olds at school entry does not disappear after the first school year

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wilms, Inge Linda

2017-01-01

(a) Research findings: Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the development in mastery of preparatory reading skills at the first school year. Method: 96 children from a high income, high resource area of Denmark were tested on alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, word mobiliza......(a) Research findings: Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the development in mastery of preparatory reading skills at the first school year. Method: 96 children from a high income, high resource area of Denmark were tested on alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, word...... mobilization and word reading at the entry and exit to school (0-grade). Results: There are significant differences in preparatory reading skills in five and six year old children. The differences in performance scores are not evened out during the first school year but remain the same. Conclusion: Even...... with intensive day care and similar demographical and socio-economical factors, children will start school with different levels of preparatory reading skills depending on entry to school age. The Danish curriculum which favors standardized reading practice will not be sufficient to even out skills differences...
English made easy volume one a new ESL approach learning English through pictures

CERN Document Server

Crichton, Jonathan

2015-01-01

This is a fun and userfriendly way to learn English English Made Easy is a breakthrough in English language learningimaginatively exploiting how pictures and text can work together to create understanding and help learners learn more productively. It gives beginner English learners easy access to the vocabulary, grammar and functions of English as it is actually used in a comprehensive range of social situations. Selfguided students and classroom learners alike will be delighted by the way they are helped to progress easily from one unit to the next, using a combination of pictures and text
Hong Kong English: phonological features

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irina-Ana Drobot

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to present phonological features of Hong Kong English, which is a variety of New English. I examine features of the sound system (vowel and consonantal systems, characteristics of stress, rhythm, intonation, and phonological processes of the English spoken by Hongkongers. The way in which the accent and characteristics of the Hong Kong variety of English differs from standard, RP English is pointed out. Influences of Chinese and Cantonese on the phonological features of Hong Kong English are noticeable
Diagnostic features of English-lexified creoles: first attestations from Virgin Islands English creole

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrei A. Avram

2011-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the earliest attestations in Virgin Islands English Creole of the diagnostic features of English-lexified contact languages proposed by Baker and Huber (2001. It compares the distribution of these features in Virgin Islands English Creole and in the seven Atlantic English-lexified pidgins and creoles considered by Baker and Huber (2001. Also included is a discussion of a number of selected features.
Diagnostic features of English-lexified creoles: First attestations from Virgin Islands English Creole

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrei A. Avram

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the earliest attestations in Virgin Islands English Creole of the diagnostic features of English-lexified contact languages proposed by Baker and Huber (2001. It compares the distribution of these features in Virgin Islands English Creole and in the seven Atlantic English-lexified pidgins and creoles considered by Baker and Huber (2001. Also included is a discussion of a number of selected features.
Research on the Relationship between English Majors’ Learning Motivation and Spoken English in Chinese Context

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

陆佳佳

2014-01-01

With the increasing importance attached to spoken English, it is of great significance to find how the motivation of English majors affects their oral English learning outcomes. Based on the research results and theoretical frameworks of the previous studies on this area, this paper carries out research in Zhujiang College of South China Agricultural University trying to find out the types of motivation and the correlation between motivation factors of English majors and their spoken English, and thus to guide spoken English learning and teaching.
English and Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin English) in Papua New Guinea.

Science.gov (United States)

Romaine, Suzanne

1989-01-01

Tok Pisin, New Guinea Pidgin English, is becoming increasingly important as a "lingua franca" in Papua New Guinea, even though English is the country's official language. Urban versus rural and spoken versus written varieties of the pidgin are examined, and the influence of English on Tok Pisin is investigated. 73 references. (Author/CB)

The non-English major lecturers speak English: The barriers encountered by adult learners

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad Madkur

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This study was aimed at investigating the difficulties and problems faced by non-English major lecturers when they were taking a part in English discussion. This study was a qualitative descriptive research involving 10 non-English major lecturers who took a part in a twice-a-week discussion so-called English Corner. To collect the data, in-depth interview and observation were used. The collected data were analyzed by using Miles and Huberman’s interactive data analysis data model consisting of data reduction, data display and data verifying. The result of the study showed that those barriers could be classified into three problems namely socio-cultural, linguistic and interpersonal problems. The found barriers were expected to be a consideration to find out the solution to make the betterment of English learning among lecturers with the non-English background of study.
INFLUENCE OF STUDENT ENGLISH UTILITY AND TEACHER EFFICACY ON ENGLISH PROFICIENCY OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruth A. ORTEGA-DELA CRUZ

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Learning second language considers a number of factors that influence the manner in which the language is taught. Understanding of the learners’ goals and motivation for learning is one. Using descriptive-correlational research design, this study determined the influence of student English utility and teacher efficacy on the students’ English proficiency. A total of 101 students from first year to fourth year level served as the respondents of the study. The study quantified the students’ perception towards English utility and their evaluation of English teacher efficacy which employed a researcher-made survey questionnaire. Results revealed high positive perceptions of students towards English utility. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences in the perceptions of high school students on the efficacy of their English teachers. Correlation coefficients indicated a positive linear relationship among the given variables. The p-value revealed significant relationship of teacher efficacy (r = .691, p-value = .000 and English utility (r = .467, p-value = .000 to students’ English proficiency. Results of regression statistics revealed that English utility has no significant influence on the student English proficiency. Therefore, the main factor that must still be considered then should be the teacher. Finally, there is an explicit indication that high level of teachers’ efficacy performing in teaching has much powerful influence on the English proficiency of high school students. Thus improving the methods of teaching English provides a better way of motivating students to achieve higher levels of proficiency in the future.
Motivation of Students’ English Learning and Its Implications for English Teaching

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

张亚莉

2016-01-01

As is well-known, people’s behaviors come from certain motivation. The learning of English also related to this certain motivation. The stronger the motivation is, the better effects on English learning students will have. If English teachers have a comprehensive understanding of the types and effects of the motivation, it will be useful for them to adjust their teaching methods to stimulate and sustain the students’ motivation.
THE ROLE OF NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER TEACHERS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lutfi Ashar Mauludin

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Native-English Speaker Teachers (NESTs and Non-Native English Speaker Teachers (NNESTs have their own advantages and disadvantages. However, for English Language Learners (ELLs, NNESTs have more advantages in helping students to acquire English skills. At least there are three factors that can only be performed by NNESTs in English Language Learning. The factors are knowledge of the subject, effective communication, and understanding students‘ difficulties/needs. The NNESTs can effectively provide the clear explanation of knowledge of the language because they are supported by the same background and culture. NNESTs also can communicate with the students with all levels effectively. The use of L1 is effective to help students building their knowledge. Finally, NNESTs can provide the objectives and materials that are suitable with the needs of the students.
Getting ready for reading: a follow-up study of inner city second language learners at the end of Key Stage 1.

Science.gov (United States)

Stuart, Morag

2004-03-01

A previous study (Stuart, 1999) showed that early phoneme awareness and phonics teaching improved reading and spelling ability in inner-city schoolchildren in Key Stage 1, most of whom were learning English as a second language. The present study, a follow-up of these children at the end of Key Stage 1, addresses four main questions: (1) Are these improvements maintained to the end of Key Stage 1? (2) Are different patterns of cognitive process evident in the word recognition skills of phonics trained versus untrained children? (3) Do the phonics trained children now also show a significant advantage in reading comprehension? (4) Are there differences in amount of reading, in self-concept as readers and in oral vocabulary development between phonics trained and untrained children? Relationships between reading and spelling ages and Key Stage 1 SATs levels are also explored. Data are reported from 101 seven-year-olds (85 of whom were second language learners) remaining from the original 112 children reported on previously. Children were tested on four standardized tests of reading, spelling and vocabulary, and on a further six experimental tests of phoneme segmentation, grapheme-phoneme correspondence knowledge, regular, exception and nonword reading, author recognition and reading self-concept. Lasting influences of early phoneme awareness and phonics teaching on phoneme awareness, grapheme-phoneme correspondence knowledge, word reading and spelling were found. Part of the previously untrained group had now received structured phonics teaching, and were therefore treated as a third (late trained) group. Early and late-trained groups showed similar levels of attainment and similar cognitive processing patterns, which were different from the untrained group. However, there were no influences of training on reading comprehension, self-concept or oral vocabulary. Early phoneme awareness and phonics training efficiently accelerates the word recognition and spelling
English courses

CERN Multimedia

HR Department

2010-01-01

New courses University of Cambridge ESOL examination course We will be starting two new courses in October leading to the Cambridge First Certificate in English (level B2 of the European Framework) and the Cambridge Advanced English (level C1) examinations. These courses will consist of two semesters of 15 weeks with two two-hourly classes per week. There will be an average of eight students per class. Normally the examination will be taken in June 2011 but strong participants could take it earlier. People wishing to take these courses should enrol: http://cta.cern.ch/cta2/f?p=110:9:1927376177842004::NO::X_COURSE_ID,X_STATUS:4133%2CD and they will then be required to take a placement test to check that their level of English is of an appropriate level. Please note that we need a minimum of seven students enrolled to open a session. For further information please contact Tessa Osborne 72957. General and Professional English Courses The next session will take place: From 4th October 2010 to 5th Feb...
Predictors and Outcomes of Early vs. Later English Language Proficiency Among English Language Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Halle, Tamara; Hair, Elizabeth; Wandner, Laura; McNamara, Michelle; Chien, Nina

2011-01-01

The development of English language learners (ELLs) was explored from kindergarten through eighth grade within a nationally representative sample of first-time kindergartners (N = 19,890). Growth curve analyses indicated that, compared to native English speakers, ELLs were rated by teachers more favorably on approaches to learning, self control, and externalizing behaviors in kindergarten and generally continued to grow in a positive direction on these social/behavioral outcomes at a steeper rate compared to their native English-speaking peers, holding other factors constant. Differences in reading and math achievement between ELLs and native English speakers varied based on the grade at which English proficiency is attained. Specifically, ELLs who were proficient in English by kindergarten entry kept pace with native English speakers in both reading and math initially and over time; ELLs who were proficient by first grade had modest gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native English speakers that closed narrowly or persisted over time; and ELLs who were not proficient by first grade had the largest initial gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native speakers but the gap narrowed over time in reading and grew over time in math. Among those whose home language is not English, acquiring English proficiency by kindergarten entry was associated with better cognitive and behavioral outcomes through eighth grade compared to taking longer to achieve proficiency. Multinomial regression analyses indicated that child, family, and school characteristics predict achieving English proficiency by kindergarten entry compared to achieving proficiency later. Results are discussed in terms of policies and practices that can support ELL children’s growth and development. PMID:22389551
INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH MANUAL

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

AMADOR, MABLE; KELLER, YVONNE KELLER

2002-02-22

This document presents a set of guidelines for authors who wish to express themselves more clearly to foreign readers, or readers whose first language is not American English. Topics include idioms, technical terms, jargon, word meaning, acronyms, and international conventions of measurement. The guidelines will help writers of technical documents present their ideas more effectively to audiences that may include individuals whose first language is not American English, including audiences with individuals from other English-speaking countries.
Nobody seems to speak English here today: Enhancing assessment and training in aviation English

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dan Douglas

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In 2003 the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO strengthened the provisions that English be made available for international radiotelephony communication. ICAO also developed standards for English proficiency for international pilots and air traffic controllers. However, these standards are applied variably from country to country and in no country are native speakers of English tested for their ability to employ what has been termed "interactional competence" when using English for intercultural communication. Problems with this situation are reviewed and suggestions made for improving English assessment and training.
The impact of teachers' limited English proficiency on English ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The importance of the role of language in teacher education programmes and in children's learning is crucial. This study focuses on the use of English as the language of learning and teaching and its impact on the language development of English second language (ESL) student teachers and ESL learners. Against the ...
Botswana English: Implications for English Language Teaching and Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Alimi, Modupe

2011-01-01

Concerted efforts to characterise Botswana English (BE), though still referred to as "a variety in development", have validated its existence. However, the teaching and assessment of English in the high schools do not seem to have responded to the development of this variety. This paper discusses the viability of using Standard British…
Language Growth in English Monolingual and Spanish-English Bilingual Children from 2.5 to 5 Years.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoff, Erika; Ribot, Krystal M

2017-11-01

To describe the trajectories of English and Spanish language growth in typically developing children from bilingual homes and compare those with the trajectories of English growth in children from monolingual homes, to assess effects of dual language exposure on language growth in typically developing children. Expressive vocabularies were assessed at 6-month intervals from age 30 to 60 months, in English for monolinguals and English and Spanish for bilinguals. Use of English and Spanish in the home was assessed via parental report. Multilevel modeling, including parent education as a covariate, revealed that children from bilingual homes lagged 6 months to 1 year behind monolingual children in English vocabulary growth. The size of the lag was related to the relative amount of English use in the home, but the relation was not linear. Increments in English use conferred the greatest benefit most among homes with already high levels of English use. These homes also were likely to have 1 parent who was a native English speaker. Bilingual children showed stronger growth in English than in Spanish. Bilingual children can lag 6 months to 1 year behind monolingual children in normal English language development. Such lags may not necessarily signify clinically relevant delay if parents report that children also have skills in the home language. Shorter lags are associated with 2 correlated factors: more English exposure and more exposure from native English speakers. Early exposure to Spanish in the home does not guarantee acquisition of Spanish. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Hong Kong English: phonological features

OpenAIRE

Irina-Ana Drobot

2008-01-01

The aim of the paper is to present phonological features of Hong Kong English, which is a variety of New English. I examine features of the sound system (vowel and consonantal systems), characteristics of stress, rhythm, intonation, and phonological processes of the English spoken by Hongkongers. The way in which the accent and characteristics of the Hong Kong variety of English differs from standard, RP English is pointed out. Influences of Chinese and Cantonese on the phonological features ...
Sentential Negation in English

Science.gov (United States)

Mowarin, Macaulay

2009-01-01

This paper undertakes a detailed analysis of sentential negation in the English language with Chomsky's Government-Binding theory of Transformational Grammar as theoretical model. It distinguishes between constituent and sentential negation in English. The essay identifies the exact position of Negation phrase in an English clause structure. It…
The Ideological Construction of English: A Critical Review on the Discourse of English in East Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Han-Yi

2014-01-01

This research investigates the ideological character of the English language in East Asia. It focuses on the prevailing beliefs, values and propositions relating to English as a global language and the spread of English in the non-English East Asian countries, namely China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. By analyzing how English is presented in…
“Is it English what we speak?” Irish English and Postcolonial Identity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariavita Cambria

2014-07-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the case of Ireland as an anti-litteram postcolonial context. Within this context, a main concern is that of the relationship between language and identity. Irish English (the variety of English spoken in Ireland enjoys a unique position within the constellation of world-wide English varieties. Various factors led to the emergence of Irish English, it may well have developed as a resistance to the (contrasting forces of colonialism and has been perceived as a different vehicle for communication when compared to received colonial English. Scholars now generally believe that Irish people, at a certain moment in time, decided to use a language which offered better possibilities for work. Via the analysis of some postcolonial issues, such as the linguistic crisis of the colonial subject, the paper will first illustrate the circumstances that led to the emergence of Irish English and then list the main features of this variety.
Teaching English Pronunciation of Suprasegmental Features on Students of English Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad Yousef Bani

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this research is to know the technique and activity in teaching English pronunciation on suprasegmental features (intonation and stress. This research uses qualitative approach with descriptive method. The subject of this research is 6 students from English education department. Technique of collecting data by doing observation, interview and documentation. The results showed In teaching English pronunciation for suprasegmental features is very concerned about the how to teach students, give materials and do exercises. There are some materials that are taught to improve students' ability in stress words of English sentences. Students learnt combination of words adjectives and nouns are generally stressed is in the first, students are taught about the prefix, learnt about words with suffixes and students were also given exercise with compound words. Furthermore, in teaching intonation, students are also given understanding and practicing the reading text, analyzing and pronouncing the English word in accordance with the correct intonation. The impact, students understand how to use rising and falling intonation.
Development of a serial order in speech constrained by articulatory coordination.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hiroki Oohashi

Full Text Available Universal linguistic constraints seem to govern the organization of sound sequences in words. However, our understanding of the origin and development of these constraints is incomplete. One possibility is that the development of neuromuscular control of articulators acts as a constraint for the emergence of sequences in words. Repetitions of the same consonant observed in early infancy and an increase in variation of consonantal sequences over months of age have been interpreted as a consequence of the development of neuromuscular control. Yet, it is not clear how sequential coordination of articulators such as lips, tongue apex and tongue dorsum constrains sequences of labial, coronal and dorsal consonants in words over the course of development. We examined longitudinal development of consonant-vowel-consonant(-vowel sequences produced by Japanese children between 7 and 60 months of age. The sequences were classified according to places of articulation for corresponding consonants. The analyses of individual and group data show that infants prefer repetitive and fronting articulations, as shown in previous studies. Furthermore, we reveal that serial order of different places of articulations within the same organ appears earlier and then gradually develops, whereas serial order of different articulatory organs appears later and then rapidly develops. In the same way, we also analyzed the sequences produced by English children and obtained similar developmental trends. These results suggest that the development of intra- and inter-articulator coordination constrains the acquisition of serial orders in speech with the complexity that characterizes adult language.
English Teaching in Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Salazar, Denise

2002-01-01

Discusses teaching English in Mexico, a country with important social, cultural, and economic ties to the United States. Looks at the various English teaching situations as well as teacher education for teachers in Mexico. Concludes that the English teaching situation in Mexico reflects great diversity and growth, and that the knowledge of English…
Maori English

Science.gov (United States)

Maclagan, Margaret; King, Jeanette; Gillon, Gail

2008-01-01

The Maori language is the language of the indigenous people of New Zealand. Today, not all Maori speak the Maori language, and many Maori as well as non-Maori speak Maori English, the fastest growing of the main varieties of New Zealand English. This paper provides a background to the linguistic situation of the Maori populace in New Zealand,…

Effective instruction for English learners.

Science.gov (United States)

Calderón, Margarita; Slavin, Robert; Sánchez, Marta

2011-01-01

The fastest-growing student population in U.S. schools today is children of immigrants, half of whom do not speak English fluently and are thus labeled English learners. Although the federal government requires school districts to provide services to English learners, it offers states no policies to follow in identifying, assessing, placing, or instructing them. Margarita Calderón, Robert Slavin, and Marta Sánchez identify the elements of effective instruction and review a variety of successful program models. During 2007-08, more than 5.3 million English learners made up 10.6 percent of the nation's K-12 public school enrollment. Wide and persistent achievement disparities between these English learners and English-proficient students show clearly, say the authors, that schools must address the language, literacy, and academic needs of English learners more effectively. Researchers have fiercely debated the merits of bilingual and English-only reading instruction. In elementary schools, English learners commonly receive thirty minutes of English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction but attend general education classes for the rest of the day, usually with teachers who are unprepared to teach them. Though English learners have strikingly diverse levels of skills, in high school they are typically lumped together, with one teacher to address their widely varying needs. These in-school factors contribute to the achievement disparities. Based on the studies presented here, Calderón, Slavin, and Sánchez assert that the quality of instruction is what matters most in educating English learners. They highlight comprehensive reform models, as well as individual components of these models: school structures and leadership; language and literacy instruction; integration of language, literacy, and content instruction in secondary schools; cooperative learning; professional development; parent and family support teams; tutoring; and monitoring implementation and outcomes
Navajo-English Dictionary.

Science.gov (United States)

Wall, Leon; Morgan, William

A brief summary of the sound system of the Navajo language introduces this Navajo-English dictionary. Diacritical markings and an English definition are given for each Navajo word. Words are listed alphabetically by Navajo sound. (VM)
Thinking of English Quality Education

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

袁捷

2012-01-01

On the suggestions of advancing quality-oriented education actively, the State Education Commission made detailed explanation to Chinese quality education: Quality Education is education taking improv- ing whole nation’s quality as its aim. With the high-speed development of economy, quality education, especially English quality education, is out of line from development in our country. Thus, based on the current situation of English Quality Education, it deserves our attention of Secondary Vocational English Quality Education on English quality, English quality education, principles and strategies.
English Language Teaching Profile: Sweden.

Science.gov (United States)

British Council, London (England). English-Teaching Information Centre.

This profile in outline form of the English language teaching situation in Sweden discusses the role of English within Swedish society and within the Swedish educational system. The status of English as the principal foreign language since 1945 for use in business, the media and tourism is pointed out. The system of English instruction in the…
My Hesitation to Speak English

Science.gov (United States)

Oda, Naruha

2015-01-01

Even though English was the author's favorite subject, she was not good at speaking in English, and always tried to avoid it. However, it did not matter because she did not have to speak to demonstrate her English ability. After entering university, her lack of confidence in speaking English became a major issue, and other students face the same…
Attitudes toward English & English Learning at an Iranian Military University: A Preliminary Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Mahdavi Zafarghandi, Amir; Jodai, Hojat

2012-01-01

This study intends to represent attitudes toward English and English learning at an Iranian military university. Iranian military staff is required to study English in a social environment where there is little immediate need or opportunity to use the language for real communicative purposes.The subjects included 34 Iranian military personnel who…
Teaching English or Producing Docility? Foucauldian Analysis of Pakistani State-Mandated English Textbooks

Science.gov (United States)

Channa, Liaquat Ali; Gilhooly, Daniel; Channa, Abdul Razaque; Manan, Syed Abdul

2017-01-01

The scholarship of language education, particularly with reference to learning and use of English, is marked by varieties of English. One may note two broad models: (1) ENL, ESL, and EFL; (2) EIL, ELF, and WEs. Although the scholarship is replete with debates, the debates seem to only construct and maintain that learning English and its use are…
Linguistic Characteristics of Advertising English

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

易高燕

2010-01-01

Advertising language takes form under the influence of linguistics,psychology and sociology,etc,and its way of choosing words and building sentences are quite different from normal English.And as a practical language,advertising English has its specific functions,and it has been distinguished from normal English as an independent language,and it has plentiful values.This paper aims to discuss some linguistic characteristics of advertising English.
THE BASIC SPECIFICITY OF THE ABILITY OF VARIED ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULUMS TO ENHANCE ENGLISH LEARNERS' CAPACITY TO DEVELOP NECESSARY SKILLS TO COMMUNICATE USING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

OpenAIRE

Michael Wayne Hendershot; Nutprapha K. Dennis; Suchada Chaiwiwattrakul; Ratirot Phiphitphakdee

2017-01-01

Inasmuch as the goal of teaching English to non-native English speakers should be focused on enhancing English learners’ ability to develop skills necessary for efficient and effective use of the English language in communication within their daily lives as well as within the context of educational, employment, governmental, and business related issues, the materials and resources used by the teacher to provide said English learners with enhanced ability to develop necessary skills for the us...
Examination of the neighborhood activation theory in normal and hearing-impaired listeners.

Science.gov (United States)

Dirks, D D; Takayanagi, S; Moshfegh, A; Noffsinger, P D; Fausti, S A

2001-02-01

Experiments were conducted to examine the effects of lexical information on word recognition among normal hearing listeners and individuals with sensorineural hearing loss. The lexical factors of interest were incorporated in the Neighborhood Activation Model (NAM). Central to this model is the concept that words are recognized relationally in the context of other phonemically similar words. NAM suggests that words in the mental lexicon are organized into similarity neighborhoods and the listener is required to select the target word from competing lexical items. Two structural characteristics of similarity neighborhoods that influence word recognition have been identified; "neighborhood density" or the number of phonemically similar words (neighbors) for a particular target item and "neighborhood frequency" or the average frequency of occurrence of all the items within a neighborhood. A third lexical factor, "word frequency" or the frequency of occurrence of a target word in the language, is assumed to optimize the word recognition process by biasing the system toward choosing a high frequency over a low frequency word. Three experiments were performed. In the initial experiments, word recognition for consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) monosyllables was assessed in young normal hearing listeners by systematically partitioning the items into the eight possible lexical conditions that could be created by two levels of the three lexical factors, word frequency (high and low), neighborhood density (high and low), and average neighborhood frequency (high and low). Neighborhood structure and word frequency were estimated computationally using a large, on-line lexicon-based Webster's Pocket Dictionary. From this program 400 highly familiar, monosyllables were selected and partitioned into eight orthogonal lexical groups (50 words/group). The 400 words were presented randomly to normal hearing listeners in speech-shaped noise (Experiment 1) and "in quiet" (Experiment 2) as
An Introduction to English Teaching, A Textbook for English Educators

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Grace Hui Chin; Chien, Paul Shih-chieh

2010-01-01

Teaching English became a professional and academic field from a half century ago. Many researches for teacher education and teacher training have been conducted in order to raise the English as well as the foreign language trainers' knowledge and capabilities in carrying out effective lessons in classroom. During second millennium of speedily…
Nineteenth-Century English

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fabricius, Anne

2009-01-01

The article reviews the book "Nineteenth-Century English: Stability and Change," by Merja Kytö, Mats Rydèn and Erik Smitterberg......The article reviews the book "Nineteenth-Century English: Stability and Change," by Merja Kytö, Mats Rydèn and Erik Smitterberg...
Characteristics of an Effective English Language Teacher as Perceived by Iranian Teachers and Learners of English

Science.gov (United States)

Shishavan, Homa Babai; Sadeghi, Karim

2009-01-01

This study attempted to characterize qualities of an effective English language teacher (EELT) as perceived by Iranian English language teachers and learners. For this purpose, a tailor-made questionnaire was administered to 59 English language teachers and 215 learners of English at universities, high schools and language institutes in Iran. The…
The Yale Kamusi Project: A Swahili-English, English-Swahili Dictionary.

Science.gov (United States)

Hinnebusch, Thomas

2001-01-01

Evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the Yale Online Kamusi project, an electronic Web-based Swahili-English and English-Swahili dictionary. The dictionary is described and checked for comprehensiveness, the adequacy and quality of the glosses and definitions are tested, and a number of recommendations are made to help make it a better and…
Which English? Whose English? An Investigation of "Non-Native" Teachers' Beliefs about Target Varieties

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Tony Johnstone; Walsh, Steve

2010-01-01

This study explored the beliefs of "non-native English speaking" teachers about the usefulness and appropriacy of varieties such as English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), compared with native speaker varieties. The study therefore addresses the current theoretical debate concerning "appropriate" target…
Attitudes towards English in Ghana

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kari Dako

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The paper considers official and individual attitudes towards bilingualism in English and a Ghanaian language. We ask whether bilingualism in English and Ghanaian languages is a social handicap, without merit, or an important indicator of ethnic identity. Ghana has about 50 non-mutually intelligible languages, yet there are no statistics on who speaks what language(s where in the country. We consider attitudes to English against the current Ghanaian language policy in education as practised in the school system. Our data reveal that parents believe early exposure to English enhances academic performance; English is therefore becoming the language of the home.
The effects of background noise on dichotic listening to consonant-vowel syllables: An fMRI study.

Science.gov (United States)

Dos Santos Sequeira, Sarah; Specht, Karsten; Moosmann, Matthias; Westerhausen, Rene; Hugdahl, Kenneth

2010-11-01

The present fMRI study attempts to identify brain areas that may underlie the effect of different background noises on functional brain asymmetry in a dichotic listening task. Previous studies have shown that the prominent right ear advantage in dichotic listening to consonant-vowel syllables is affected by background noise. To explore the underlying neuronal processes, haemodynamic brain responses using fMRI were recorded while participants performed the dichotic listening task in two different noisy backgrounds (conversational "babble" and traffic noise). The behavioural results showed a reduction of the right ear advantage in the background noise conditions, especially in the traffic noise condition. The behavioural results are discussed in terms of alertness-attentional mechanisms. The effects of background noise on brain activation involved significant activations in a speech-processing network. Specifically the changes in activations in the peri-Sylvian region of the superior temporal gyrus and in the temporo-parietal junction part in the left hemisphere, as well as in the superior temporal gyrus/sulcus area in the right hemisphere may mirror the effects of noise on behavioural performance. The effects of noise on brain activation are discussed with regard to pre-activation mechanisms.
Test for English Majors (TEM) in China

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Yan; Fan, Jinsong

2011-01-01

The purpose of the Test for English Majors (TEM) is to measure the English proficiency of Chinese university undergraduates majoring in English Language and Literature and to examine whether these students meet the required levels of English language abilities as specified in the National College English Teaching Syllabus for English Majors…
Standard English and Language Attitudes

OpenAIRE

ソランキ, ネイディン

2005-01-01

This paper investigates the attitudes and opinions surrounding Standard English (SE) within the United Kingdom. The definition of SE, for the purposes of this study, is standard grammar and standard pronunciation of southern English, commonly referred to as 'BBC English'. The subject of SE and attitudes towards different accents and dialects of British English is emotive and attracts strong opinions. The main issues discussed here are the place of language in society, the social implications ...
Introducing English grammar

CERN Document Server

Borjars, Kersti

2013-01-01

Answering key questions such as 'Why study grammar?' and 'What is standard English?', Introducing English Grammar guides readers through the practical analysis of the syntax of English sentences. With all special terms carefully explained as they are introduced, the book is written for readers with no previous experience of grammatical analysis. It is ideal for all those beginning their study of linguistics, English language or speech pathology, as well as students with primarily literary interests who need to cover the basics of linguistic analysis. The approach taken is in line with current research in grammar, a particular advantage for students who may go on to study syntax in more depth. All the examples and exercises use real language taken from newspaper articles, non-standard dialects and include excerpts from studies of patients with language difficulties. Students are encouraged to think about the terminology as a tool kit for studying language and to test what can and cannot be described using thes...

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