EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

Book Training Spanish Speakers in the Perception and Production of English Vowels

Download or read book Training Spanish Speakers in the Perception and Production of English Vowels written by Grisel María García Pérez and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Training Spanish Speakers to Perceive and Pronounce English Vowels

Download or read book Training Spanish Speakers to Perceive and Pronounce English Vowels written by Grisel Maria Garcia-Perez and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study investigates the effects of training native speakers of Spanish in the perception and production of English vowels in a regular classroom setting.

Book The Acquisition of Vowels in Spanish and English as a Second Language

Download or read book The Acquisition of Vowels in Spanish and English as a Second Language written by Mariche García de las Bayonas and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book English with a Latin Beat

Download or read book English with a Latin Beat written by Barbara O. Baptista and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2006-12-14 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although it has long been recognized that second language pronunciation is strongly influenced by the native language, second language phonology has only become a recognized area of study during the last thirty years. While English has been the most frequent target language involved, the learners' L1s have varied greatly. This is the first collection to gather together studies involving English learners whose L1 is Spanish or Brazilian Portuguese, two closely-related languages with important phonological differences. The research covers vowel perception and production, syllable simplification strategies, word and compound stress, and vowel reduction. While the papers confirm the important role of the native language, they also shed light on the sometimes subtle and unexpected ways in which this variable interacts with universal markedness relationships to determine the formation of phonetic categories and their use in perception and production. These eleven carefully conducted empirical studies will provide insights for practitioners and stimulate further research.

Book Second Language Perception of Spanish Monophthongal Vowels

Download or read book Second Language Perception of Spanish Monophthongal Vowels written by Daniel Bates and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation research examines the acquisition of second language vowels. For second language learners, learning a new languages' sound inventory, particularly its vowels, presents a challenge perceptually and in terms of production. Incorrectly perceiving and producing sounds in a second language results in a foreign accent in many adult learners (Flege, 1995), as mental representations of second language sounds have not been properly established in the mind of the learner (Best, 1991). Vowel sounds are particularly relevant in discussion of foreign-accented speech.Second language vowel perception has received relatively little attention in recent literature, especially for English speakers learning Spanish as a second language. Often, empirical findings are inconsistent with each other. For example, Gordon (2011) found that, perceptually, learners struggle with Spanish vowels /i/ and /e/, interpreting them as English vowels /ɪ/ and /ɛ/, respectively. Garcia de las Bayonas (2004; 2008) indicates that learners struggle most perceiving /u/ and /e/. Most research on the acquisition of these vowels focuses on learner production rather than perception, with equally inconsistent findings (see, for example, Cobb and Simonet, 2015; Menke and Face, 2010). Additionally, the role of syllable stress is often not incorporated into these studies despite the importance of syllable stress in saliency and understanding. These gaps in the literature present an exciting opportunity to understand these acquisitional processes, beginning with the under-studied role of perception. Building on the methodology of Garcia de las Bayonas (2004) and other perceptual studies, this remotely conducted study explores the perception of Spanish vowels by English-speaking learners with special attention paid to the role of syllable stress. Efforts are made to better understand (1) at what point these learners establish the mental representations necessary for Spanish vowel sounds, (2) which English vowels interfere with this learning process, and (3) the role of syllable stress in vowel perception. Participants included 243 Spanish learners in seven different levels of Spanish learning, indicated by class enrollment. The methodology include a discrimination task and an identification task. In the discrimination task, participants hea two disyllabic Spanish words and are asked to decide if the words were different or identical. In the identification task, participants are given a disyllabic Spanish word with one vowel highlighted. Participants are provided with five vowel sounds and select which of the sound options belonged with the highlighted vowel. The options consist of both Spanish and English vowel sound options. Confidence levels (on a scale of 1-7) are reported for all responses. Results from the first task indicate that vowels in stressed syllables are easier to perceive for all groups. For less-experienced learners, discriminating between the Spanish vowels /o/ and /u/ prove to be most difficult, as these vowels differ acoustically much more than their English vowel equivalents. The results of this task indicate that students in their fourth semester of learning (and those more advanced) performed statistically similar to native speaker controls. The identification task reveals that learners struggle to correctly identify the Spanish vowels /e/ and /a/. When asked to identify the vowel /e/, many learners select the English vowels /ɛ/, and especially /ɪ/. For items targeting /a/, many participants select /æ/, /ɑ/ and the reduced vowel schwa [ə]. These results indicate that these English vowels cause the most interference for learners learning Spanish, resulting in Multiple-category Assimilation (Best, 1991; Escudero and Boersma, 2002). Results from this task also indicate that learners in their 4th semester, and those who are more advanced, tend to make selections statistically similar to native Spanish speakers. The results of this study indicate that by the end of the second year of classroom study, many second language Spanish learners have established mental representations for the vowels of Spanish. Language dominance scores are also collected from each participant (using the Bilingual Language Profile (Birdsong, Gertken, and Amengual, 2012)), which were found to have a strong linear correlation with performance in both tasks, both in terms of accuracy and reported confidence levels. This supports the notion that the more a person uses a language, the better established their phonological inventory will be. Measures of language proficiency and language attitudes are also found to be correlated with participants' accuracy and confidence levels. These findings support theoretical claims made by the Perceptual Assimilation Model (Best, 1991), and shows the process by which mental representations are established for second language phones. Future studies should explore these results in conjunction with vowel production while not forgetting the effect of syllable stress.

Book Second Language Speech Learning

Download or read book Second Language Speech Learning written by Ratree Wayland and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-04 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Including contributions from a team of world-renowned international scholars, this volume is a state-of-the-art survey of second language speech research, showcasing new empirical studies alongside critical reviews of existing influential speech learning models. It presents a revised version of Flege's Speech Learning Model (SLM-r) for the first time, an update on a cornerstone of second language research. Chapters are grouped into five thematic areas: theoretical progress, segmental acquisition, acquiring suprasegmental features, accentedness and acoustic features, and cognitive and psychological variables. Every chapter provides new empirical evidence, offering new insights as well as challenges on aspects of the second language speech acquisition process. Comprehensive in its coverage, this book summarises the state of current research in second language phonology, and aims to shape and inspire future research in the field. It is an essential resource for academic researchers and students of second language acquisition, applied linguistics and phonetics and phonology.

Book The Cambridge Handbook of Spanish Linguistics

Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of Spanish Linguistics written by Kimberly L. Geeslin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-23 with total page 1098 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written for both researchers and advanced students, this Handbook provides a state-of-the-art survey of the field of Spanish linguistics. Balancing different theoretical perspectives among expert scholars, it provides an in-depth examination of all sub-fields of research in Hispanic linguistics, with a focus on recent advances.

Book English Pronunciation for Speakers of Spanish

Download or read book English Pronunciation for Speakers of Spanish written by María de los Ángeles Gómez González and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2016-01-15 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: English Pronunciation for Speakers of Spanish fills a gaping hole in the market for books on English phonetics and pronunciation because it not only combines theoretical issues and applications to practice, but it also adopts a contrastive English-Spanish approach to better suit the needs of Spanish-speaking learners of English (SSLE), enabling them to build gradually on the knowledge gained in each chapter. The book covers the key concepts of English phonetics and phonology in seven chapters written in an accessible and engaging style: 1. Phonetics and Phonology 2. The Production and Classification of Speech Sounds 3. Vowels and Glides 4. Consonants 5. Segment Dynamics: Aspects of Connected Speech 6. Beyond the Segment: Stress and Intonation 7. Predicting Pronunciation from Spelling (and vice versa) Features: in-text audio illustrations, as well as over a hundred written and audio exercises with corresponding keys and different kinds of artwork (Tables, Figures, illustrations, spectrograms, etc.) classic readings in the discipline in the Further Reading section of each chapter highlights the phonetic contrasts and specific cues that are more important to aid comprehension in English and offers guidelines on "correct" pronunciation habits to help SSLE sound as close as possible to native English The book's companion website, EPSS Multimedia Lab, can be used on computers, smartphones and tablets, and is useful for the self-taught student and the busy lecturer alike. The website of the EPSS Multimedia lab can be accessed here: http://www.usc.gal/multimlab/ Features of the website: a complete sound bank defining and illustrating the sounds of English RP as compared with those of Peninsular Spanish written definitions and animated diagrams, videos and original recordings (by native speakers of English and Spanish) showing the articulation of each sound, alongside its most common spellings, as well as pronunciation practice for individual words and whole sentences a comprehensive selection of over a hundred written and audio exercises (with their keys) for practice both at home or in the language lab audio files corresponding to the audio illustrations given in the written book a repository of useful resources by topics and a list of online glossaries and pronunciation dictionaries

Book The Effect of Auditory and Articulatory Phonetic Training on the Perception and Production of L2 Vowels by Catalan Spanish Learners of English

Download or read book The Effect of Auditory and Articulatory Phonetic Training on the Perception and Production of L2 Vowels by Catalan Spanish Learners of English written by Cristina Aliaga-Garcia and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adult second language learners often experience major difficulties in perceiving and producing non-native speech sounds. Several perception training studies (Iverson & Evans, 2007; Nishi, & Kewley-Port, 2007; Carlet & Cebrian, 2014) have shown that second- language (L2) learners can improve their L2 perception, also demonstrating significant gains in L2 production (Bradlow, Pisoni, Akahane-Yamada, & Tohkura, 1997; Kartushina et al., 2016). However, research on the assessment of methods other than perceptual training for non-native vowels is still scarce, and none of the previous vowel studies has compared the impact of auditory vs. production-based training on a full set of vowels. The purpose of this study was to evaluate two training methods that might be used to improve learners' identification and articulation of the 11 English RP monophthongal vowels (/i: ɪ e ɜ: æ ʌ ɑ: P N9 ʊ u:/). A total of 84 bilingual Catalan/Spanish learners of English were divided into two experimental groups and a control group, and all were tested on vowel identification, identification of synthesized vowels (with manipulated duration), vowel discrimination and vowel production based on a delayed repetition task. Two groups of bilingual Catalan/Spanish learners of English (N=64) were assigned to different types of audiovisual High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) based on natural CVC words from multiple talkers, either identification (ID) or articulatory (ART) training. Both training procedures comprised 10 one-hour computer-based sessions over 5 weeks, which guaranteed exposure to a minimum of 132 trials/ session. Whereas the ID training required learners to focus on the critical audiovisual cues to recognize the vowel category within a vowel subset, ART training learners were expected to focus on the relevant audiovisual cues for more accurate vowel articulation. Auditory feedback provided assistance to correct identification, or to change erroneous articulations. This paper compares some remarkable effects of perceptual and production-based audiovisual HVPT on the perception and production of the fullset of English vowels. The two HVPT groups showed higher accuracy in vowel perception, as well generalization to new words, talkers and contexts. HVPT not only improved vowel identification and discrimination, but also reduced the learners' heavy reliance on vowel duration and improved their use of spectral cues in English vowel perception. However, a clear advantage of the ID group was seen in a better identification of trained words and a lesser degree of error dispersion per vowel. Both HVPT methods were effective in leading to significant formant movement for some vowels, with less spectral overlap, but differences in the amount of spectral shift after each training method suggest that ART training was more effective in vowel production. Training was effective in making the production of contrastive vowels more distinct and revealed a conscious attempt of learners to produce acoustically distinct vowel quality targets, with a great deal less spectral overlapping. Pedagogical implications will be discussed. -- TDX.

Book The Acquisition of L2 Phonology

Download or read book The Acquisition of L2 Phonology written by Janusz Arabski and published by Multilingual Matters. This book was released on 2011-06-06 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Acquisition of L2 Phonology is a wide-ranging new collection which focuses on various aspects of the acquisition of an L2 phonological system. The authors are researchers and practitioners from five different countries. The volume has been divided into three major sections. Phonetic Analysis presents five studies of language learners in both naturalistic and formal-educational settings, which illustrate aspects of L2 production and perception. In Phonological Analysis a more abstract and comparative perspective is taken, in order to use recent theories modeling the route of L1/L2 pronunciation and reading ability development to account for observable tendencies in learner behavior. Pedagogical Perspectives consists of four contributions of high practical value, which look at the mastery of native-like or highly intelligible pronunciation as an important component of L2 education.

Book L2 Perception and Production of English Consonants and Vowels by Catalan Speakers

Download or read book L2 Perception and Production of English Consonants and Vowels by Catalan Speakers written by Angélica Foresti Carlet and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Este estudio compara el efecto de dos métodos de entrenamiento de alta variabilidad fonética o ‘high variability phonetic training' (HVPT) sobre sonidos específicamente entrenados y sobre sonidos no entrenados pero implícitamente presentados. Con este fin, se implementan diversos regímenes de entrenamiento fonético cuyo objetivo es mejorar la percepción y la producción de 5 vocales del inglés británico (/i ɪ æ ʌ ɜː/) y de las consonantes oclusivas en posición inicial y final de palabra por hablantes bilingües de catalán y castellano. Así, este estudio investiga: (a) si el entrenamiento fonético recibido puede mejorar la percepción y la producción de segmentos entrenados y no entrenados, (b) si la mejora se generaliza a nuevos estímulos y hablantes, (c) si la mejora se mantiene un tiempo después, (d) qué método de entrenamiento, identificación (ID) o discriminación categórica (DIS) es más eficaz, y (e) cuáles son las impresiones de los participantes sobre el entrenamiento fonético como una herramienta de instrucción fonética. Cien estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera fueron divididos en cuatro grupos experimentales y un grupo de control. Los grupos entrenados diferían tanto en método de entrenamiento (ID, DIS) como en el enfoque del entrenamiento (consonantes, vocales) dando lugar a cuatro grupos diferentes. Crucialmente, los cuatro grupos fueron entrenados con los mismos estímulos CVC (por ejemplo, zat, zut, zad, zud), exponiendo a los participantes a los contrastes fonéticos entrenados y a los contrastes fonéticos no entrenados. Los resultados revelan que todos los grupos experimentales superaron significativamente al grupo de control en su identificación de sonidos entrenados (vocales y consonantes oclusivas en posición inicial), mostrando la eficacia de ambas metodologías de entrenamiento fonético (ID y AX DIS). Sin embargo, mientras que ambos grupos experimentales mejoran su percepción de las oclusivas iniciales de manera similar, los aprendices de ID superan a los aprendices de DIS en la percepción de vocales específicamente entrenadas después del entrenamiento fonético. Estos resultados sugieren que la modificación de la percepción de los diferentes tipos de segmentos (vocales, consonantes) puede requerir diferentes procedimientos y duraciones de entrenamiento distintas. Curiosamente, sólo los aprendices de DIS mostraron una mejora significativa en la percepción de los sonidos no específicamente entrenados, lo que indica que este método de entrenamiento puede proporcionar mejoras en la percepción de sonidos entrenados y sonidos no entrenados pero implícitamente presentados. En cuanto a la generalización y a la retención de los efectos del entrenamiento, los resultados con sonidos vocálicos apuntan a la superioridad de la tarea de ID sobre la tarea categórica de DIS. Además, ambos métodos son adecuados para entrenar consonantes iniciales de manera similar. Con respecto a la producción, sólo los aprendices de ID entrenados en vocales fueron capaces de mejorar significativamente su producción de los sonidos vocálicos. Por último, las opiniones de los estudiantes acerca del entrenamiento fonético como una herramienta de enseñanza de L2 fueron en general positivas, e ID fue más valorado que DIS como un método de formación. Globalmente, estos resultados sugieren que ambos métodos son efectivos para entrenar la percepción de una L2. Sin embargo, los métodos pueden promover mejoras, generalización y retención de los distintos segmentos en diferentes grados. Los mejores resultados obtenidos con el método ID, en particular con las vocales, y el hecho de que sólo el método DIS proporcione la mejora de sonidos no entrenados pueden estar relacionados con la naturaleza y el fin de cada metodología y/o con las propiedades acústicas de cada segmento. Las consecuencias teóricas y prácticas de estos resultados pueden ser de utilidad para futuros trabajos de investigación y aplicaciones prácticas de aprendizaje de la pronunciación.

Book Second Language Speech Learning

Download or read book Second Language Speech Learning written by Ratree Wayland and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-04 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A state-of-the-art survey of second language speech research, presenting revision of an influential model alongside new empirical studies.

Book Factors Affecting English Speakers  Perception of L2 Spanish Vowels

Download or read book Factors Affecting English Speakers Perception of L2 Spanish Vowels written by Leslie S. Gordon and published by ProQuest. This book was released on 2008 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the existing studies of the perceptual abilities of the English speaking learner of Spanish some important variables have been left unexplored. The first of these regards the difference in size of the vowel inventories of these two languages and the effect of the larger English inventory upon listeners' perception of the L2 Spanish inventory. Specifically, the English vowel inventory includes some vowel categories whose existence has been shown to interfere with the English speaker's perception of Spanish vowels (Bradlow 1995, 1996). Additionally, the duration and diphthongized quality of English tense vowels may exert an influence upon the perception of 'similar' Spanish vowels. Lastly, studies on the effects of training on vowel perception have shown mixed results, (Francis, et al., 2000; Jamieson & Morosan, 1989; Lisker, 1970; Logan & Pruitt, 1995; Pisoni et al., 1982; Strange & Dittman, 1984; Tees & Werker, 1984; Werker & Tees, 1984). The current study addresses the effects of vowel inventory size, acoustic differences and perceptual training measures upon the vowel perception of native English speakers learning L2 Spanish.

Book Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation

Download or read book Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation written by Rajiv Rao and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-04-24 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation: From Description to Pedagogy is a resource that encourages Spanish teachers and curriculum designers to increase their incorporation of pronunciation into the classroom. Combining theory and practical guidance, it will help language practitioners integrate the teaching of Spanish pronunciation with confidence and effectiveness. The international group of scholars across its 15 chapters is made up of individuals with well-established research records and training in best pedagogical practices. Key features: A range of topics including vowels, various classes of consonants, prosody, the use of technology, the role of orthography, the importance of both perception and production, individual learner differences, and teacher training; Overviews of descriptive, empirical, and acquisition-based research associated with each aspect of the Spanish sound system; Guidance on the difficulties that teachers face when incorporating the teaching of pronunciation into the classroom; Clear explanations of concepts, accompanied by an abundance of concrete examples and references; Multiple sample activities and lesson plans tailored to different levels and backgrounds of students; A bilingual glossary of terms to help the content reach the widest audience possible. Written in a clear and accessible manner, Key Issues in the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation is an essential resource for teachers of Spanish at all levels. It is also an excellent reference book for researchers and both undergraduate and graduate university students interested in Spanish phonetics and language acquisition.

Book Sound perception and production in a foreign language

Download or read book Sound perception and production in a foreign language written by Nimz, Katharina and published by Universitätsverlag Potsdam. This book was released on 2016-04-13 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present study addresses the question of how German vowels are perceived and produced by Polish learners of German as a Foreign Language. It comprises three main experiments: a discrimination experiment, a production experiment, and an identification experiment. With the exception of the discrimination task, the experiments further investigated the influence of orthographic marking on the perception and production of German vowel length. It was assumed that explicit markings such as the Dehnungs-h ("lengthening h") could help Polish GFL learners in perceiving and producing German words more correctly. The discrimination experiment with manipulated nonce words showed that Polish GFL learners detect pure length differences in German vowels less accurately than German native speakers, while this was not the case for pure quality differences. The results of the identification experiment contrast with the results of the discrimination task in that Polish GFL learners were better at judging incorrect vowel length than incorrect vowel quality in manipulated real words. However, orthographic marking did not turn out to be the driving factor and it is suggested that metalinguistic awareness can explain the asymmetry between the two perception experiments. The production experiment supported the results of the identification task in that lengthening h did not help Polish learners in producing German vowel length more correctly. Yet, as far as vowel quality productions are concerned, it is argued that orthography does influence L2 sound productions because Polish learners seem to be negatively influenced by their native grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences. It is concluded that it is important to differentiate between the influence of the L1 and L2 orthographic system. On the one hand, the investigation of the influence of orthographic vowel length markers in German suggests that Polish GFL learners do not make use of length information provided by the L2 orthographic system. On the other hand, the vowel quality data suggest that the L1 orthographic system plays a crucial role in the acquisition of a foreign language. It is therefore proposed that orthography influences the acquisition of foreign sounds, but not in the way it was originally assumed.

Book Exploring Cross linguistic Effects and Phonetic Interactions in the Context of Bilingualism

Download or read book Exploring Cross linguistic Effects and Phonetic Interactions in the Context of Bilingualism written by Mark Amengual and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2021-07-21 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Special Issue includes fifteen original state-of-the-art research articles from leading scholars that examine cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speech. These experimental studies contribute to the growing number of studies on multilingual phonetics and phonology by introducing novel empirical data collection techniques, sophisticated methodologies, and acoustic analyses, while also presenting findings that provide robust theoretical implications to a variety of subfields, such as L2 acquisition, L3 acquisition, laboratory phonology, acoustic phonetics, psycholinguistics, sociophonetics, blingualism, and language contact. These studies in this book further elucidate the nature of phonetic interactions in the context of bilingualism and multilingualism and outline future directions in multilingual phonetics and phonology research.