Tongue width at rest versus tongue width during speech: A comparison of native and non-native speakers

Abstract

Most pronunciation researchers do not focus on the coronal view. However, it is also important to observe because the tongue is hydrostatic. We believe that some pronunciation differences between native speakers and second-language (L2) speakers could be due to differences in the coronal plane. Understanding these differences could be a key to L2 learning and modeling. It may be beneficial for pedagogical purposes and the results of this research may contribute to the improvement of pronunciation of L2 English speakers. An interesting way to look at native and L2 articulation differences is through the pre-speech posture and inter-speech posture (ISP—rest position between sentences). In this research, we compare native speakers to L2 speakers. We measure how different those postures are from the median position of the tongue during speech. We focus on movement of a side tongue marker in the coronal plane, and we normalize for speaker size. We found that the mean distance from pre-speech posture to speech posture is shorter for native English speakers (0.95 mm) than for non-native English speakers (1.62 mm). So, native speakers are more efficient in their pre-speech posture. Results will also be shown for distances from ISP to speech posture.