Articulatory working space in first and second languages

Abstract

Articulatory working space (acoustic and kinematic) is often studied to understand the overall size (limits) of a speaker’s articulatory behaviors. For example, prior research has shown that the magnitude of articulators’ movement (e.g., maximum tongue advancement, lip aperture) changes as a function of speech effort (loud, clear, and slow speech). To better understand second language acquisition in adults (i.e., articulatory working space determined by the language or anatomical differences), we compare both acoustic and kinematic working space of adult learners of English between their first language (L1) and second language (L2), which is also compared with that of native speakers of English. Specifically, the articulatory convex hull is measured during passage reading for both acoustic (F1 and F2 trajectories) and kinematic (tongue trajectories on x- and y-dimensions) data. Participants include 11 adult learners of English (four men and seven women) with a Korean language background and 10 adult L1 speakers of English (six men and four women). In the presentation, the findings will be discussed to address whether articulatory space is (1) different between native and nonnative languages (determined by linguistic needs) or (2) rather a constant articulatory characteristic of speakers between the languages, regardless of the speaker’s English proficiency.