Perception of place-of-articulation contrasts of English word-final consonants in connected speech by Japanese adult L2 learners
Item
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Title
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Perception of place-of-articulation contrasts of English word-final consonants in connected speech by Japanese adult L2 learners
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:5b2ecde85750:11440
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identifier
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11879
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Creator
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Ito, Kikuyo,
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Contributor
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Winifred Strange
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Date
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2012
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Linguistics | English as a second language | connected speech | Cross-language speech perception | Japanese learners of English | place of articulation | word boundary | word-final consonants
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Abstract
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This study investigated the perception of place-of-articulation contrasts of English word-final stops /p-t-k/, /b-d-g/, and /m-n-ng/ followed by a word-initial /p/, /t/, or /k/ in sentences by adult Japanese second language (L2) listeners of English and by native American English (AE) listeners. Minimal triplets differing in place of articulation (e.g., sip, sit, and sick), followed by positively, tauntingly, or cautiously were embedded in a carrier sentence and were recorded in clear and in casual fast speech. Detailed acoustic analysis was carried out, showing that the availability of acoustic cues signaling the place information of the target stops was very consistent as a function of speech mode and type of the target stimuli. Participants listened to sentences, such as, He said the word sit positively (or tauntingly or cautiously), and identified the target words by choosing one of three written options. Identifying place of articulation of word-final oral stops was expected to be challenging for Japanese listeners, especially when the stop is unreleased, because word-final oral stops do not exist in Japanese. Place identification of word-final nasal stops was also expected to be difficult for Japanese listeners because of the place assimilatory nature of Japanese syllable-final nasals that results in the realization of the final nasal as [m], [n] or [ng] depending on the place of the following segment.;Japanese listeners' perceptual difficulty was evident in results when word-final oral stop releases were absent/crucially reduced, indicating their heavy reliance on the releases. Japanese listeners also showed marked difficulty in correctly perceiving word-final nasal stops even in clear speech, contrasting with AE listener's ceiling performance regardless of the speech mode. Positive correlations of the performance by Japanese listeners were seen with their length of residence in English-speaking countries (LOR) and with their English proficiency. Negative correlations were seen with their age of arrival in English-speaking countries (AOA), mainly in fast speech.;Results indicate that L2 perception in context may be considerably improved by clearly articulated speech when the problems are due to reduced availability of acoustic cues and that clearer speech may not be very effective when the problem stems from a language-specific perceptual pattern affected by the phonological rules of listeners' first language.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Speech and Hearing Sciences
