1887
Volume 6, Issue 2
  • ISSN 2542-3835
  • E-ISSN: 2542-3843
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

We studied the perception of segmental boundaries in native English and Japanese accents in terms of foreign accentedness, intelligibility and discrimination accuracy. Five American English vowels /ɪ, æ, ɑ, ə, ɝ/ and seven consonants /r, l, v, θ, f, t, k/ were extracted from English and Japanese words produced by an American English-Japanese bilingual speaker, and manipulated, with the acoustic properties shifting gradually from 100% Japanese to 100% American English using segmental foreign accent and gradation techniques. Perception tests were conducted online with native American English speakers, and groups of Japanese speakers with either low or high English proficiency. All three groups showed a negative correlation between the degree of foreign accent and intelligibility. Also, there was a greater reduction in intelligibility due to acoustic deviation from the native norm in consonants than in vowels. The results suggest that more standard-like accent does not necessarily improve intelligibility, thus highlighting the importance of FA research in terms of segmental accuracy.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/jsls.22017.kon
2024-02-27
2024-10-08
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Amano, S., Kondo, M. & Yamakawa, K.
    (2021) “Predicting and classifying Japanese singleton and geminate consonants using logarithmic duration”. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 150 (3), 1830–1843, September 2021. 10.1121/10.0006105
    https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006105 [Google Scholar]
  2. Anderson-Hsieh, J., Johnson, R. & Koehler, K.
    (1992) The relationship between native speaker judgments of non-native pronunciation and deviance in segmentals, prosody, and syllable structure. Language Learning, vol.42, no.4, 529–555. 10.1111/j.1467‑1770.1992.tb01043.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1992.tb01043.x [Google Scholar]
  3. Anwyl-Irvine, A. L., Dalmaijer, E. S., Hodges, N., & Evershed, J. K.
    (2021) Realistic precision and accuracy of online experiment platforms, web browsers, and devices. Behavior Research Methods. 10.3758/s13428‑020‑01501‑5
    https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01501-5 [Google Scholar]
  4. Anwyl-Irvine, A. L., Massonié, J., Flitton, A., Kirkham, N. Z., & Evershed, J. K.
    (2019) Gorilla in our midst: an online behavioral experiment builder. Behavior Research Methods. 10.3758/s13428‑019‑01237‑x
    https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-019-01237-x [Google Scholar]
  5. Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S.
    (2015) Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. 10.18637/jss.v067.i01
    https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01 [Google Scholar]
  6. Bengrait, N.
    (2020) Analysis of Algerian students English intonation deviations with the employment of speech analyzer and Praat programmes. Journal of Studies in Language, Culture and Society, 3 (1), 27–65.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Bent, T. & Bradlow, A. R.
    (2003) The interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 114 (3), September 2003 10.1121/1.1603234
    https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1603234 [Google Scholar]
  8. Boersma, P. & Weenink, D.
    (2022) Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version 6.2.14, retrieved24 May 2022fromwww.praat.org/
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Bolton, K.
    (2004) World Englishes. InA. Davies, & C. Elder, (Eds.), Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell, 367–396. 10.1002/9780470757000.ch15
    https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470757000.ch15 [Google Scholar]
  10. Campbell, N. & Sagisaka, Y.
    (1991) Moraic and Syllable-level Effects on Speech Timing. Journal of Electronic Information Communication Engineering SP90–1071, 35–40.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., Goodwin, J. M. & Griner, B.
    (2010) Teaching Pronunciation: A course Book and Reference Guide (2nd eds.). New York: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Collins, B. & Mees, I. M.
    (2013) Practical Phonetics and Phonology – A resource book for Students (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. 10.4324/9780203080023
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203080023 [Google Scholar]
  13. Cruttenden, A.
    (2014) Gimson’s Pronunciation of English (8th ed.). London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Dauer, R.
    (1983) Stress-timing and syllable-timing re-analyzed. Journal of Phonetics, 111, 52–62. 10.1016/S0095‑4470(19)30776‑4
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30776-4 [Google Scholar]
  15. Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J.
    (2015) Pronunciation fundamentals: Evidence-based perspectives for L2 teaching and research (Vol.421). John Benjamins Publishing Company. 10.1075/lllt.42.additional
    https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.42.additional [Google Scholar]
  16. Fayer, J. M. & Krasinski, E.
    (1987) Native and nonnative judgments of intelligibility and irritation. Language Learning, 371, 313–326. 10.1111/j.1467‑1770.1987.tb00573.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1987.tb00573.x [Google Scholar]
  17. Fox, J. & Weisberg, S.
    (2019) An {R} Companion to Applied Regression, Third Edition. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage. URL:https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Books/Companion/
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Ganong, W. F.
    (1980) Phonetic categorization in auditory word perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 6(1), 110–125. 10.1037/0096‑1523.6.1.110
    https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.6.1.110 [Google Scholar]
  19. García Lecumberri, M. L., Barra-Chicote, B., Pérez Ramón, R., Yamagishi, J., & Cooke, M.
    (2014) Generating segmental foreign accent. Proceedings of Interspeech 2014 1303–1306. 10.21437/Interspeech.2014‑324
    https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2014-324 [Google Scholar]
  20. Grice, M. & Bauman, S.
    (2007) An Introduction to Intonation –Functions and Models, InJ. Trouvain, & G. Ulrike (Eds), Non-native Prosody: Phonetic Description and Teaching Practice, 25–52, Mouton de Gruyter. 10.1515/9783110198751.1.25
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110198751.1.25 [Google Scholar]
  21. Gut, U.
    (2003) Non-native speech rhythm in German. Proceedings of 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Barcelona, Spain, 3–9 August 2003, 2437–2440.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Han, M. S.
    (1994) Mora timing in Japanese, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 96–11, 73–82. 10.1121/1.410376
    https://doi.org/10.1121/1.410376 [Google Scholar]
  23. Hayes, B.
    (1982) Extrametricality and English stress. Linguistic Inquiry, 13(2), 227–76.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Henter, G. E., Lorenzo-Trueba, J., Wang, X., Kondo, M., & Yamagishi, J.
    (2018) Cyborg speech: Deep multilingual speech synthesis for generating segmental foreign accent with natural prosody. 2018 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics. Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 4799–4803. IEEE. 10.1109/ICASSP.2018.8462470
    https://doi.org/10.1109/ICASSP.2018.8462470 [Google Scholar]
  25. Hillenbrand, J. M., Getty, L. A., Clark, M. J., & Wheeler, K.
    (1995) Acoustic characteristics of American English vowels. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America97 (5 Pt 1): 3099–3111. 10.1121/1.411872
    https://doi.org/10.1121/1.411872 [Google Scholar]
  26. Hillenbrand, J. M., Clark, M. J., & Houde, R. A.
    (2000) Some effects of duration on vowel recognition. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America1081: 3013–22. 10.1121/1.1323463
    https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1323463 [Google Scholar]
  27. Hirahara, T. & Yamada, R.
    (2004) Acoustic Characteristics of Japanese Vowels. Proceedings of the 18th International Congress on Acoustics, Kyoto, IV-3287-3290.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Hirschberg, J.
    (2002) Communication and Prosody: Functional Aspects of Prosody. Speech Communication, Volume 36, Issues1–2, 31–43. 10.1016/S0167‑6393(01)00024‑3
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-6393(01)00024-3 [Google Scholar]
  29. Horslund, C. S. & Van Nostrand, P. F.
    (2022) Segmental error patterns in Finnish-accented English. European Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol.10 (1), 109–141. 10.1515/eujal‑2020‑0019
    https://doi.org/10.1515/eujal-2020-0019 [Google Scholar]
  30. Kachru, B. B.
    (1985) Standards, codification and socio-Segmental Variation of Japanese Speakers’ English linguistic realism: The English language in the outer circle. InR. Quirk & H. G. Widdowson (Eds.), English in the world: Teaching and learning the language and literatures, 11–30. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. (1992) Teaching world Englishes. InB. B. Kachru (Ed.), The other tongue: English across cultures. University of Illinois Press, 355–366.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Kirkpatrick, A. & Deterding, D.
    (2011) World Englishes. InJ. Simpson (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics. London: Routledge, 373–387. 10.4324/9781315852515.ch3
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315852515.ch3 [Google Scholar]
  33. Kochanski, G., Grabe, E., Coleman, J. & Rosner, B.
    (2005) Loudness predicts prominence: fundamental frequency lends little. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 118(2), 1038–1054. 10.1121/1.1923349
    https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1923349 [Google Scholar]
  34. Kochanski, G. & Orphanidou, C.
    (2008) What marks the beat of speech?. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123(5), 2780–91. 10.1121/1.2890742
    https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2890742 [Google Scholar]
  35. Kondo, M.
    (2009) Is Acquisition of L2 Phonemes Difficult? Production of English Stress by Japanese Speakers. Proceedings of the 10th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2009), 105–112. Somerville, MA.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. (2013) Allophonic Variation in Japanese Consonants and Problems of Second Language Production’. inJ. van de Veijer & T. Nishihara (Eds.). Current Issues in Japanese Phonology: Segmental Variation in Japanese, 35–51, Kaitakusha: Tokyo.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Kondo, M., Tsubaki, H. & Sagisaka, Y.
    (2015) Segmental Variation of Japanese Speakers’ English: Analysis of “the North Wind and the Sun” in AESOP Corpus”. Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan, 19 (1), April, 3–17.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Konishi, T. & Kondo, M.
    (2015) Developmental Change in English Stress Manifestation by Japanese Speakers. Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Science, Glasgow, UK, Paper No.10291, 10–14August, 2015.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Konishi, T., Yun, J. & Kondo, M.
    (2018) Acoustic correlates of L2 English Stress- Comparison of Japanese English and Korean English. Phonetics and Speech Sciences, Vol.10, No.1, pp. 9–14. 10.13064/KSSS.2018.10.1.009
    https://doi.org/10.13064/KSSS.2018.10.1.009 [Google Scholar]
  40. Koster, C. J. & Koet, T.
    (1993) The evaluation of accent in the English of Dutchmen. Language Learning, 431, 69–92. 10.1111/j.1467‑1770.1993.tb00173.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1993.tb00173.x [Google Scholar]
  41. Lee, B., Guion, S. G., & Harada, T.
    (2006) Acoustic analysis of the production of unstressed English vowels by early and late Korean and Japanese bilinguals. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28(3), 487–513. 10.1017/S0272263106060207
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263106060207 [Google Scholar]
  42. Lee, J., Kim, D. J., & Park, H.
    (2019) Native listeners’ evaluations of pleasantness, foreign accent, comprehensibility, and fluency in the speech of accented talkers. Proceedings of the 10th Annual Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, 168–178.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Length, R. V.
    (2021) emmeans: Estimated Marginal Means, aka Least-Squares Means. R package version1.5.4. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=emmeans
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Levi, S. V., Winters, S. J., & Pisoni, D. B.
    (2007) Speaker-independent factors affecting the perception of foreign accent in a second language. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 121(4), 2327–2338. 10.1121/1.2537345
    https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2537345 [Google Scholar]
  45. Levis, J. M.
    (2018) Intelligibility, Oral Communication, and the Teaching of Pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781108241564
    https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108241564 [Google Scholar]
  46. Meng, H., Tseng, C., Kondo, M., Harrison, A. M. & Visceglia, T.
    (2009) Studying L2 Suprasegmental Features in Asian Englishes: A Position Paper. The Proceedings of 2009 INTERSPEECH, 1715–1718, Brighton, UK, September, 2009. 10.21437/Interspeech.2009‑517
    https://doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2009-517 [Google Scholar]
  47. Mullennix, J. W., Pisoni, D. B., & Martin, C. S.
    (1989) Some effects of talker variability on spoken word recognition. The Journal of the acoustical society of America, 85(1), 365–378. 10.1121/1.397688
    https://doi.org/10.1121/1.397688 [Google Scholar]
  48. Munro, M. J. & Derwing, T. M.
    (1995) Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility, and Intelligibility in the Speech of Second Language Learners. Language Learning. 45:1. 73–97. 10.1111/j.1467‑1770.1995.tb00963.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1995.tb00963.x [Google Scholar]
  49. (2001) Modeling perceptions of the accentedness and comprehensibility of L2 speech: The role of speaking rate. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 23(4): 451–468. 10.1017/S0272263101004016
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263101004016 [Google Scholar]
  50. (2020) Foreign accent, comprehensibility and intelligibility, redux. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, Volume 6, Issue 3, Nov 2020, 283–309. 10.1075/jslp.20038.mun
    https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.20038.mun [Google Scholar]
  51. NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute (Ed.)
    NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute (Ed.) (2016) NHK Nihongo Hatsuon Accent Shin-Dictionary (NHK New Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary). Tokyo: NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute [NHK Hoso Bunka Kenkyujo].
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Nogita, A., Yamane, N., & Bird, S.
    (2013) The Japanese unrounded back vowel/ɯ/is in fact rounded central/front [ʉ-ʏ]. Ultrafest VI Program and Abstract Booklet, 39–42, Sitert av 15 Beslektede artikler. 10.13140/RG.2.2.19051.39206
    https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.19051.39206 [Google Scholar]
  53. Pérez-Ramón, R., Cooke, M. & García Lecumberri, M. L.
    (2020) Is segmental foreign accent perceived categorically?. Speech Communication, 1171, 28–37. 10.1016/j.specom.2020.01.003
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2020.01.003 [Google Scholar]
  54. Pérez-Ramón, R., García Lecumberri, M. L., & Cooke, M.
    (2022) Foreign accent strength and intelligibility at the segmental level. Speech Communication, 1371, 70–76. 10.1016/j.specom.2022.01.005
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2022.01.005 [Google Scholar]
  55. Pérez-Ramón, R. & Kondo, M.
    (2021) Relationship between reaction time and nativeness rating. The proceedings of the 35th Japan Phonetic Society Annual Meeting, 95–100, 25–26 September, 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Polyanskaya, L., Ordin, M., & Busa, M. G.
    (2017) Relative salience of speech rhythm and speech rate on perceived foreign accent in a second language. Language and Speech, 60(3), 333–355. 10.1177/0023830916648720
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830916648720 [Google Scholar]
  57. Port, R. F., Dalby, J. & O’Dell, M.
    (1987) Evidence for Mora Timing in Japanese, Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, 811: 51, 1574–1585. 10.1121/1.394510
    https://doi.org/10.1121/1.394510 [Google Scholar]
  58. Price, P., Ostendorf, M., Shattuck-Hufnagel, S. & Fong, C.
    (1991) The Use of Prosody in Syntactic Disambiguation. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 90(6), 2956–2970. 10.1121/1.401770
    https://doi.org/10.1121/1.401770 [Google Scholar]
  59. R Core Team
    R Core Team (2020) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URLhttps://www.R-project.org/
    [Google Scholar]
  60. RStudio Team
    RStudio Team (2020) RStudio: Integrated Development for R. RStudio, PBC, Boston, MA.
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Roach, P.
    (1982) On the distinction between ‘stress-timed’ and ‘syllable-timed’ language. InD. Crystal (Ed.), Linguistic controversies: essays in linguistic theory in honour of F. R. Palmer. London: Arnold.
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Rogerson-Revell, P.
    (2011) English Phonology and Pronunciation Teaching. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. 10.5040/9781350934177
    https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350934177 [Google Scholar]
  63. Rognoni, L. & Busà, M. G.
    (2014) Testing the effects of segmental and suprasegmental phonetic cues in foreign accent rating: An experiment using prosody transplantation. Proceeding of the International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech, Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics (Vol.51). 547–560.
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Saito, K.
    (2021) What characterizes comprehensible and native-like pronunciation among English-as-a-second-language speakers? Meta-analyses of phonological, rater, and instructional factors. Tesol Quarterly, 55(3), 866–900. 10.1002/tesq.3027
    https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3027 [Google Scholar]
  65. Saitô, Y.
    (2006) Nihongo Onseigaku Nyûmon [An Introduction to Japanese Phonetics] (2nd ed.). Tokyo: Sanseido.
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Sato, Y.
    (1993) The durations of syllable-final nasals and the mora hypothesis in Japanese. Phonetica501, 44–67. 10.1159/000261925
    https://doi.org/10.1159/000261925 [Google Scholar]
  67. Tajima, K., Port, R. F., & Dalby, J.
    (1997) Effects of temporal correction on intelligibility of foreign-accented English. Journal of Phonetics, 25(1), 1–24. 10.1006/jpho.1996.0031
    https://doi.org/10.1006/jpho.1996.0031 [Google Scholar]
  68. Thompson, H. S.
    (1980) Stress and salience in English: theory and practice. Palo Alto Research Center, CA: Xerox.
    [Google Scholar]
  69. Vance, T. J.
    (2008) The Sounds of Japanese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  70. Well, J. C.
    (1982a) Accents of English 1: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511611759
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511611759 [Google Scholar]
  71. (1982b) Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511611759
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511611759 [Google Scholar]
  72. Wright, S. M., Lathouwers, M. D., Best, C. T., & Tyler, M. D.
    (2016) Cross-accent word recognition is affected by perceptual assimilation. Proceedings of the Sixteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 6–9 December 2016, Parramatta, Australia, 165–168.
    [Google Scholar]
  73. Yazawa, K., Ozaki, Y., Short, G., Kondo, M. & Sagisaka, Y.
    (2015) A Study of the Production of Unstressd Vowels by Japanese Speakers of English Using the J-AESOP Corpus, Proceedings of the Joint Conference of 2015 International Conference Oriental COCOSDA held jointly with 2015 Conference on Asian Spoken Language Research and Evaluation (O-COCOSDA/CASLRE), IEEE, pp.96–100. Shanghai, China. 28–30 October, 2015. 10.1109/ICSDA.2015.7357872
    https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSDA.2015.7357872 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/jsls.22017.kon
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/jsls.22017.kon
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error