Detecting and correcting mispronunciations: a note on methodology

Abstract

Two different techniques were employed to investigate subjects’ ability to detect mispronounced words in continuous speech. Twenty two-syllable words were mispronounced in each of three prose passages, changing either the stress pattern, the voicing of obstruents, or the front-back dimension of vowels. Subjects were tested in two conditions. In the first, subjects indicated mispronounced words on a script while listening to the passages. In the second, subjects were instructed to stop the tape recording when they detected a mispronounced word and to say which word was mispronounced. The first condition provides information regarding subjects’ ability to detect mispronunciations under optimal conditions. The second provides detection information as well as information about subjects’ ability to correct the mispronounced word and the location of the detection in the stream of speech. The results obtained in the two conditions were neither entirely congruent with each other, nor with results obtained in previous experiment which employed shadowing as the experimental task.