Search Results (41)

Research has shown that language ability can vary enormously depending on variables such as musical ability, musical training, and second and/or foreign language experience. In this study, we simulated initial foreign language learning conditions in which learners must recognize and match unfamiliar language input. We recruited 500 participants with different levels of foreign language experience, different levels of musical training and different socio-economic backgrounds. Their auditory phonological pattern recognition ability, short-term memory (STM) capacity, musical ability, musical self-estimation, educational status, and socio-economic status (SES) were assessed. Both overall and group-specific analyses were conducted to investigate the impact of these variables. For the group-specific analysis, participants were assigned to four groups based on the presence or absence of musical training and extensive foreign language experience. For the overall analysis, regression models were applied to the entire sample to examine the combined effects of all variables. Group-specific analyses revealed that both musical training and extensive foreign language experience contributed to individual differences in the ability to recognize phonological patterns in unintelligible auditory stimuli. A key finding was that musical training appeared to have a stronger influence on auditory phonological pattern recognition than extensive foreign language experience, particularly in the early stages of language learning. This suggests that musical training may exert a greater impact on initial phonetic acquisition processes than extensive foreign language proficiency, especially when the language stimuli are relatively poor in linguistic content. The overall analysis revealed that musical variables, short-term memory capacity, socioeconomic status, and educational status all contributed to individual differences in auditory phonological pattern recognition. Notably, the most significant finding of the overall analysis was the association between SES and auditory phonological pattern recognition in unfamiliar speech—a result that challenges the notion of aptitude measures as stable and environment-independent and highlights the potential influence of environmental factors on this capacity. Full article

Background/Objectives: While machine learning has made substantial strides in pronunciation detection in recent years, there remains a notable gap in the literature regarding research on improvements in the acquisition of speech sounds following a training intervention, especially in the domain of perception. This study addresses this gap by developing a deep learning algorithm designed to identify perceptual gains resulting from second language (L2) phonetic training. Methods: The participants underwent multiple sessions of high-variability phonetic training, focusing on discriminating challenging L2 vowel contrasts. The deep learning model was trained on perceptual data collected before and after the intervention. Results: The results demonstrated good model performance across a range of metrics, confirming that learners’ gains in phonetic training could be effectively detected by the algorithm. Conclusions: This research underscores the potential of deep learning techniques to track improvements in phonetic training, offering a promising and practical approach for evaluating language learning outcomes and paving the way for more personalized, adaptive language learning solutions. Deep learning enables the automatic extraction of complex patterns in learner behavior that might be missed by traditional methods. This makes it especially valuable in educational contexts where subtle improvements need to be captured and assessed objectively. Full article

This study investigates L3 Spanish perception patterns among L1 Korean–L2 English bilinguals with varying L3 proficiency levels, aiming to test the applicability of traditional L2 perceptual models in multilingual contexts. We conducted two experiments: a cross-linguistic discrimination task and a cross-language identification task. Results revealed unexpected outcomes unique to multilingual contexts. Participants had difficulty reliably discriminating between cross-linguistic categories and showed little improvement over time. Similarly, they did not demonstrate progress in categorizing sounds specific to each language. The absence of a clear correlation between proficiency levels and the ability to discriminate and categorize sounds suggests that input distribution and language-specific activation may play more critical roles in L3 perception, consistent with the distributional learning approach. We argue that phoneme distributions from all three languages likely occupy a shared perceptual space. When a specific language is activated, the relevant phoneme distributions become dominant, while others are suppressed. This selective activation, while not crucial in traditional L1 and L2 studies, is critical in L3 contexts, like the one examined here, where managing multiple phonemic systems complicates discrimination and categorization. These findings underscore the need for theoretical adjustments in multilingual phonetic acquisition models and highlight the complexities of language processing in multilingual settings. Full article

The tonal system of Cantonese is very different from that of Mandarin, which creates potential challenges for Mandarin speakers when learning Cantonese. The aim of this study was to explore second language (L2) production of Cantonese tones by advanced learners whose first language (L1) is Mandarin. Forty-one informants participated in a recording experiment to provide production data of Cantonese tones. The speech data were measured acoustically using the computer software Praat (Version 6.3.10) and were evaluated perceptually by native Cantonese speakers. The relationship between the acoustic analysis and perceptual evaluation was also explored. The acoustic and perceptual evaluations confirmed that, while the tones that the Mandarin learners of Cantonese produced were non-native-like, their production of the Cantonese T1 and T2 was good in general. Furthermore, the accuracy of the perceptual evaluations could be predicted based on the acoustic features of the L2 tones. Our findings are in line with hypotheses in current speech learning models, and demonstrate that familiar phonetic categories are easier to acquire than are unfamiliar ones. To provide a more complete picture of L2 speech acquisition, future research should investigate L2 tone acquisition using both production and perception data obtained from participants with a greater variety of L1s. Full article

This article presents acoustic data on coarticulatory vowel nasalization from the productions of twelve L1 Korean speakers and of fourteen Korean learners of L2 English. The dataset includes eight monosyllabic target words embedded in eight carrier sentences, each repeated four times per speaker. Half of the words contain a nasal coda such as p*am in Korean and bomb in English and the other half a nasal onset such as mat in Korean and mob in English. These were produced under varied prosodic conditions, including three phrase positions and two focus conditions, enabling analysis of prosodic effects on vowel nasalization across languages along with individual speaker variation. The accompanying CSV files provide acoustic measurements such as nasal consonant duration, A1-P0, and normalized A1-P0 at multiple timepoints within the vowel. While theoretical implications have been discussed in two published studies, the full dataset is published here. By making these data publicly available, we aim to promote broad reuse and encourage further research at the intersection of prosody, phonetics, and second language acquisition—ultimately advancing our understanding of how phonetic patterns emerge, transfer, and vary across languages and learners. Full article

Children appear to acquire new words effortlessly from complex auditory input. However, this process is highly intricate, requiring the simultaneous integration of phonetic and phonemic details, prosodic cues, and grammatical structures. Furthermore, different components of a language’s sound system—such as phonemes, syllables, and prosodic features—appear with different frequencies in the input and follow distinct patterns of distribution in speech. This article reviews research that illustrates how infants’ growing understanding of their native language sound system facilitates their acquisition of new words. Full article

Lingual stops are among the earliest sounds acquired by young children, but the process of acquiring the temporal coordination of lingual gestures necessary for the production of stop consonants appears to be protracted. The current research aims to investigate the developmental process of lingual stop consonants in 100 Mandarin-speaking 2- to 5-year-olds using the acoustic parameter voice onset time (VOT). Children were engaged in a word-repetition task and recorded while producing words that begin with /t/, /d/, /k/, and /g/. Results indicate well-established contrasts between /t/ and /d/ as well as between /k/ and /g/ by age 2. However, comparing with adults’ speech patterns, children’s speech productions are characterized by greater within-category dispersion and overlap, as well as smaller phoneme discriminability. Mandarin-speaking children also go through an “overshoot” stage by producing longer-than-adult VOT values, especially for voiceless aspirated stops /t/ and /k/. Lastly, unlike adults who exhibit gender-specific patterns in VOT, boys and girls do not show distinct patterns in their VOT by age 5. These results will be discussed in relation to children’s lingual motor control development and the organization of phonological and phonetic structures during the process of language acquisition. Full article

Background: 22q11.2 deletion syndrome is considered as a rare disease. It is considered one of the most prevalent genetic disorders with multiple systemic and neuropsychological alterations. At present, there are few studies that define the linguistic profile in Spanish of children with this syndrome. Objectives: Therefore, the aim of the present study was to define the phonemic–phonological characteristics of people with 22q11.2 Syndrome. Method: Eight boys and girls between 5 and 16 years old participated in an evaluation using the following tests: Induced Phonological Register and Laura Bosh’s Phonological Assessment and Children’s Speech. Results: After analyzing the results obtained, it was observed that more than half of the participants presented a delay in the acquisition of phonemes. Conclusions: The conclusion of this study points out the importance of working on language, especially the phonetic-phonological area, throughout the development of people with 22q11.2 Syndrome. Full article

The present paper investigates the link between perception and production in the laryngeal phonology of multilingual speakers, focusing on non-contrastive segments and the dynamic aspect of these processes. Fourteen L1 Hungarian, L2 English, and L3 Spanish advanced learners took part in the experiments. The production experiments examined the aspiration of voiceless stops in word-initial position, regressive voicing assimilation, and pre-sonorant voicing; the latter two processes were analyzed both word-internally and across word boundaries. The perception experiments aimed to find out whether learners notice the phonetic outputs of these processes and regard them as linguistically relevant. Our results showed that perception and production are not aligned. Accurate production is dependent on accurate perception, but accurate perception is not necessarily transferred into production. In laryngeal postlexical processes, the native language seems to play the primary role even for highly competent learners, but markedness might be relevant too. The novel findings of this study are that phonetic category formation seems to be easier than the acquisition of dynamic allophonic alternations and that metaphonological awareness is correlated with perception but not with production. Full article

The purpose was to contribute to the validation of the TFPI, a new tool to assess the phonetic development of Italian-speaking children aged 18–47 months. Since currently norm-referenced instruments for Italian are lacking, the TFPI would fill this gap. We recruited 52 monolingual children aged 24–47 months with typical development. They were administered the complete TFPI, i.e., a naming task and repetition task; however, only their performances from the naming task were analyzed. The sessions were audio-recorded, in order to be later segmented and annotated in Praat, then manually transcribed with IPA. These data were then imported into Phon, an extremely suitable software for conducting analyses of phonological and speech data. We compiled the Phonetic Inventory (PhI) and calculated the Percentage of Consonants Correct (PCC) for each child, taking into consideration the allophones of Italian, in order to not compute them as errors. Both the PhI and the PCC improve with age, while intersubjective variability progressively decreases. Additionally, we investigated the age of the acquisition of each phone, since this domain lacks robust scientific data. Finally, our results align with previous findings, which proves the reliability and validity of the TFPI, and provides new information about the PCC, for which there are no reference values for the Italian language. Full article

Research into L3 phonological acquisition has grown in the past decade, yet perceptual studies remain scarce. Existing studies report complex interactions between the phonetic categories of multilinguals’ L1, L2 and L3, depending on investigated feature and stage of L3 learning. This small-scale study, grounded in Complex Dynamic Systems Theory, examines the development of coda obstruent perception in seven beginner learners of Polish as an L3 (aged 21–39), with German as their L1 and English as their L2. Over ten months of instructed L3 learning, participants were tested four times using a timed forced-choice goodness task in both L2 and L3. Additionally, three participants provided monthly data between the second and fourth testing. Analyses across the sample revealed a competitive relationship between L2 and L3 perception, with L2 accuracy declining as L3 accuracy improved. Individual data, however, indicated more varied patterns: while one learner followed the overall trend, another exhibited decreasing accuracy in both their L2 and L3, and the third maintained accurate L2 perception alongside more accurate yet increasingly variable L3 perception. These findings highlight the value of analyzing both overall trends and individual data to better understand multilingual speech perception development, and suggest that, with growing L3 experience, the newly learnt L3 may influence L2 perception of a phonological process shared in the L1 and marked in the L2. Full article

Research on heritage languages (HLs) has expanded considerably within the last 10 years worldwide. Despite the large waves of migration from Greece to other countries in Europe, the Americas, and Australia within the 20th century, research on Greek as an HL is still in its infancy. The present paper focuses on Greek as an HL in Germany. It starts with demographic information on the basis of official census data about the number of Greeks with a migration background who currently live in Germany. Then, it thematically presents 18 published studies to date that report on how Greek develops as an HL in children and adults in Germany and the acquisition of phonetics/phonology, morphosyntax, syntactic complexity, and narrative production. Several studies address the role of internal and external factors, the role of literacy, and the role of language proficiency and language dominance, as well as the effects of cross-linguistic influence between German and Greek. The paper concludes with a critical discussion of the literature and a reflection about open questions and directions for future research. Full article

Understanding the role of input in bilingual phonological acquisition is revealing for deciphering the workings of language acquisition processes. Input and usage distributional frequencies guide and differentiate speech sound acquisition patterns cross-linguistically. Such processes are operant in first- and second-language acquisition. There is an under-representation of investigations on how context-specific input in bilingualism influences the early acquisition of rhotics in child developmental speech longitudinally. This study addresses the gap by tracing a Greek/English bilingual girl’s rhotic development between ages 2;7 and 3;11, utilizing naturalistic data during daily interactions with an adult interlocutor. The study reports and schematically illustrates the child’s bilingual usage frequencies, informing language choice in her production variables, which demonstrate, quantitatively and qualitatively, the effects of context-specific input on rhotic accuracy levels and substitution patterns in both languages. Specifically, distributional frequencies in the input govern the child’s phonemic and phonetic tendencies in the languages. Findings are compared with previous reports in the literature and enhance language acquisition theory, revealing the pivotal role of input in the dynamic interplay with developmental universals, language-specific tendencies, transfer, and individual variation. Full article

Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic languages that use abjad alphabets, a consonant-primary writing system in which vowels are featured as optional diacritics. The relatively predictable morphology of Semitic language renders abjad writing feasible, with literate native speakers relying on grammatical and lexical familiarity to infer vowel sounds from consonantal texts. However, in the context of foreign language acquisition, abjads present unique difficulties in the attainment of literacy. Due to the absence of written vowels, learners of Hebrew and Arabic face manifold challenges, such as phonetic ambiguity, extensive homography, and morphological unpredictability. Therefore, the inherent complexities of abjad alphabets necessitate targeted pedagogical intervention to increase metalinguistic awareness to strengthen learners’ reading skills—specifically, by recreating elements of literacy education for native speakers in the second language context. This article explores the linguistic challenges of abjads for foreign language students and how pedagogical methodologies can be optimized to ameliorate long-term learning outcomes. Full article

This paper examines patterns of gemination in child Egyptian Arabic, with a focus on how gemination functions as a repair strategy, using data from the Egyptian Arabic Salama Corpus. The findings show that the phonological development of Egyptian Arabic-speaking children of geminated consonants correlates with previously established developmental stages. Initial stages involve the acquisition of labial geminates, transitioning through an increased use of alveolar and velar geminates, to the acquisition of rhotic and lateral geminates in later phases. The findings also suggest that gemination is not merely a phonetic phenomenon in child phonology, but also shows the children’s awareness of the phonology of the dialect, especially the moraicity of vowels and consonants. Full article