Adolescent Speakers Research Articles

Increased Breathiness in Adolescent Kiezdeutsch Speakers: A Marker of Multiethnolectal Group Affiliation?

Kiezdeutsch is a multiethnolectal variety of German spoken by young people from multicultural communities that exhibits lexical, syntactic, and phonetic differences from standard German. A rather salient and pervasive feature of this variety is the fronting of the standard palatal fricative /ç/ (as in ich "I") to [ɕ] or [ʃ]. Previous perception work shows that this difference is salient and carries social meaning but dependent on the listener group. Further investigations also point to the significance of /ɔɪ/-fronting in production; however, whether this is salient in perception has not yet been investigated. In several (multi)ethnolectal varieties, differences in voice quality compared to the standard have been identified. Therefore, in this study, we present an acoustic comparison of voice quality in adolescent speakers of Kiezdeutsch and standard German, with results showing that Kiezdeutsch speakers produce a breathier voice quality. In addition, we report on a perception test designed to examine the social meaning of voice quality in combination with two segmental cues: coronalization of /ç/ and /ɔɪ/-fronting. The results indicate perceptual gradience for phonetic alternations detected in Kiezdeutsch with coronalization of /ç/ being a highly salient and reliable marker, whereas fronting of /ɔɪ/ and breathy voice do not appear to be clearly enregistered features of Kiezdeutsch by all listeners. Thus, even though we find differences in production, these may not necessarily be relevant in perception, pointing toward enregisterment- like sound change-being a continuous process of forming learned associations through tokens of experiences.

Fast and friendly: The role of vocal cues in adolescents' responses to and perceptions of peer provocation.

Adolescents self-report using different strategies to respond to peer provocation. However, we have a limited understanding of how these responses are behaviorally enacted and perceived by peers. This study examined the extent to which adolescents' self-reported responses to peer provocation (i.e., aggressive, assertive, and withdrawn) predicted how their vocal enactments of standardized responses to peer provocation were perceived by other adolescents. Three vocal cues relevant to the communication of emotional intent-average pitch, average intensity, and speech rate-were explored as moderators of these associations. Adolescent speakers (n = 39; Mage = 12.67; 66.7% girls) completed a self-report measure of how they would choose to respond to scenarios involving peer provocation; they also enacted standardized vocal responses to hypothetical peer provocation scenarios. Recordings of speakers' vocal responses were presented to a separate sample of adolescent listeners (n = 129; Mage = 12.12; 52.7% girls) in an online listening task. Speakers who self-reported greater use of assertive response strategies enacted standardized vocal responses that were rated as significantly friendlier by listeners. Vocal responses enacted with faster speech rates were also rated as significantly friendlier by listeners. Speakers' self-reported use of aggression and withdrawal was not significantly related to listeners' ratings of their standardized vocal responses. These findings suggest that adolescents may be perceived differently by their peers depending on the way in which their response is enacted; specifically, faster speech rate may be perceived as friendlier and thus de-escalate peer conflict. Future studies should consider not only what youth say and/or do when responding to peer provocation but also how they say it.

Variation in pre-nasal raising of TRAP in Australian English

Phonetically raised and fronted realizations of pre-nasal TRAP are increasingly common in Australian English with previous research suggesting that greater raising may be associated with speakers from monolingual English-speaking backgrounds. Here, we present the results of an acoustic examination of pre-nasal TRAP raising (which we refer to as HAND) in a corpus of speech recordings from 183 adolescent speakers (aged 15–18) from five areas of Sydney that differ according to levels of linguistic diversity and the major heritage languages spoken (English-only, Arabic, Chinese, Indian, and Vietnamese). We extracted 1971 items containing the HAND vowel, along with 1807 items of pre-obstruent TRAP and 540 items of pre-obstruent DRESS. We calculated the degree of raising in HAND relative to pre-obstruent TRAP and DRESS through Euclidean Distance. The results show increased HAND raising in female speakers, although less raising is seen in the area with the highest proportion of Vietnamese language background speakers. Among male speakers the greatest incidence of raising is seen in the area with the lowest level of linguistic diversity (i.e., highest level of English-speaking background). These results suggest that HAND raising is associated with English-speaking backgrounds, but also that this is a change led by females.

Ke Dise, Mi Arma? Dialectal Varieties in WhatsApp Digital Norm of Andalusian Adolescent Speakers

This article analyzes the written expression in WhatsApp-type instant messaging applications of Andalusian adolescents who are in the last years of compulsory education in Spain. It aims to establish the relationship between the most relevant characteristics of the digital norm used by Andalusian adolescents in their communications through WhatsApp and the dialectal characteristics of their variety of Spanish. Additionally, this study intends to determine whether the writing norm in instant messaging applications influences the standard orthography of Spanish in school texts. A quantitative methodology has been used, analyzing objective data and carrying out a systematic and structured information collection process. A descriptive research design was employed using textual content analysis. The results show that the dialectal linguistic identity of Andalusian adolescent speakers on WhatsApp is mainly identified with suprasegmental linguistic features such as intonation and rhythm. Textisms related to the loss of the intervocalic -d- stand out, as well as those which reproduce the different realizations of the phonemes /s/ and /ʝ/. These features characterize the norm used by adolescent Andalusian speakers and coincide with the features that distinguish their way of pronouncing Spanish. The results show that these textisms are not related to the standard orthography of Spanish and do not cause non-standard orthography.

‘They are asking me why I am speaking Gagauz’: family language practices and the level of linguistic (in)security of adolescents speaking an endangered language

ABSTRACT In this study, the relationship between the family language practice and the level of linguistic (in)security of adolescent Gagauz speakers is examined in the context of an endangered language. To this end, a language-use questionnaire and linguistic insecurity scale were administered to 674 participants. The questionnaire included questions exploring demographic information, self-reported language skills, language acquired at home, parents’ speaking proficiency and the language of interaction. The linguistic insecurity scale comprised (self)-evaluations of language practices, linguistic status and linguistic quality. Using a quantitative methodology, ten interviews were conducted. The findings show that the participants felt more secure while using Russian and there was a strong correlation between family language practice and linguistic insecurity perceived by the adolescent speakers. Moreover, language choice in interactions was found to be speaker-specific. In other words, as a part of the family language policy, the participants spoke Gagauz with their parents, siblings and grandparents. In some cases, however, the language choice was based on the ethnicity of the interlocutor and the language which friends and neighbours were speaking. It was found that although speakers felt secure and motivated to speak the Gagauz language, the use of Gagauz seemed to be limited to family contexts.

T‐tapping in Standard Southern British English: An ‘elite’ sociolinguistic variant?

AbstractSocial class is one of the key axes of sociolinguistic variation, but the speech of those at the top of the class spectrum—the elite—is rarely studied. While T‐glottalling has spread widely across British English accents, a competing variant—T‐tapping—has attracted little scholarly attention in the United Kingdom. This article presents a study of elite speech by examining sociolinguistic variation in T‐tapping among adolescent speakers of Standard Southern British English. Data were collected from interviews with teenagers aged 16–19 at two schools in Hampshire, UK. T‐tapping is led by those who previously attended private school and is used more by boys than girls in formal speech. The findings suggest that T‐tapping may be used to index a combination of authority and informality, which is invoked by elite speakers to assert themselves from a position of privilege while maintaining an image of openness and approachability.

Maintenance of Russian as a heritage language in Germany: A longitudinal approach

The study discusses the perspectives of long-term maintenance of Russian as a heritage language in Germany. Based on data from a longitudinal study (2014-2018) we investigated changes in the sociolinguistic situation of 19 adolescent heritage speakers and in their proficiency in Russian. The aim was to investigate whether changes in the participants sociolinguistic situation are reflected in their knowledge of Russian. Data on the sociolinguistic situation were collected via an extensive questionnaire that the participants had to fill out once a year. Language proficiency was measured by experimental tasks targeting different linguistic domains. For the current paper, we used data from the longitudinal measurement of lexical and grammatical proficiency. The results revealed that the participants exposure to Russian input is decreasing in several domains over time, especially concerning media consumption and personal visits to the homeland. Russian is increasingly restricted to interactions with parents, and to educational settings (classes in Russian as a foreign or heritage language). Regarding language attitudes, our participants explicitly consider Russian important primarily for family interactions and cultural factors, but less with regard to career goals. Nevertheless, there was a positive trend in lexical and grammatical proficiency. We interpret these findings as a result of the prolonged exposure to heritage language instruction which leads to a stabilized proficiency in Russian. Given the institutional support and the size of the community, we hypothesize that the perspectives for long-term maintenance of Russian as a heritage language in Germany are better than for Russian heritage speaker communities in other countries.

Communities of practice and adolescent speakers in the Basque Country. Research and transformation face-to-face

ABSTRACT In recent years, the relevant data has revealed continuous growth in knowledge of Basque. Formal education has played a significant role in this advance, in which young speakers have been front and centre. Yet the levels of Basque-use, especially in regard to informal and relationship contexts, have not mirrored this increase. Expanding our understanding of this phenomenon is an urgent priority at present. But not the only one. One such concern focuses not only on accessing data and describing the situation, but also on creating understanding from within, by means of young people themselves. Specifically, this paper attempts to go more deeply into the topic via such approaches and reflect on the possibilities that the concept of ‘community of practice’ (CofP) offers in this regard. An idea that, as demonstrated in the ‘D ereduko kirola’ project, allows for a research model along the lines of what J. Katherine Gibson-Graham (2008) terms a ‘performative ontological project’. The present work seeks to document the process that led us from analyzing different CofPs to conceiving them as safe spaces in which young people could try out modifications in their linguistic practices at different levels.

Just in Tyneside English

The present study evaluates the ongoing development of just as a discourse marker in Tyneside English. To capture the diachronic development of just in real-time, the study focuses on a sample of 34 adolescent speakers from the Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English (Corrigan et al.). The results of an accountable analysis of the verb phrase (N = 4,386) show that the depreciatory use of just is increasing across real time, while other uses remain stable. Further investigation reveals a significant association of depreciatory just with narrative discourse contexts. A recent framework of context-modulated multifunctionality (Wiltschko et al.) has been used to postulate the functional development of just as a rhetorical story-telling device. More broadly, this paper contributes to the growing body of discourse markers analyzed through the variationist lens, offering a systematic and replicable methodology that will enable robust comparative analyses of the feature's development across world Englishes.

Morphosyntactic Transfer from a Spoken Heritage Dialect to the Standard Variety

This study examines cases of morphosyntactic transfer from Syrian Arabic to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in the production of heritage speakers who are not only bilingual (L1 Syrian Arabic, L2 English), but also diglossic; Syrian Arabic is their heritage language (HL), and MSA is the form they learned in school. Two control groups, native speakers of Syrian Arabic and learners of MSA, were also included. The proposal presented here is that adolescent heritage speakers of Syrian Arabic have a more developed Syrian Arabic grammar, which results in- transfer to MSA, and that degree and duration of input-output and exposure to both varieties impact the type and number of non-target forms in the production of the studied heritage group. The goal is to find the extent of such transfer, how it is manifested, and whether it is also related to sentence and subject type or other factors. The focus of this study is verbs in SV and VS sentences in MSA, where the subject is a nominal DP and the verb is in the third person. The agreement patterns in VS and SV sentences are asymmetrical in MSA but they are not in Syrian Arabic. The SV order in MSA reflects different agreement patterns with both genders and all three numbers, whereas in Syrian Arabic there is one default non-singular verb form. In this paper I provide a formal account of the differences among the agreement patterns in MSA and Syrian Arabic within the Minimalist framework. Using this approach, a morphosyntactic transfer of agreement features from Syrian Arabic to MSA is argued to be a transfer of T0 features. The results demonstrate that errors in the MSA verb produced by the heritage speakers differ from those of MSA learners and that more than half of the heritage speakers’ errors are compatible with morphosyntactic agreement forms in Syrian Arabic. These findings provide evidence for transfer from Syrian Arabic to MSA. It is possible that when three linguistic systems are competing (L1, L2, and L3) and where L1 is the most dominant, L2 is less developed than L1 but more developed than L3, and L2 and L3 are typologically close, transfer takes place from L2 to L3. More research to address this question is needed. The study contributes to the understanding of agreement in heritage speakers’ production and the phenomenon of transfer in bilingual and diglossic situations.

The Development of Subject Position in Dutch-Dominant Heritage Speakers of Spanish: From Age 9 to Adulthood

This exploratory study investigates the knowledge of word order in intransitive sentences by heritage speakers of Spanish of different age groups: 9-year-olds, 13-year-olds and adults. In doing so, we aim to fill a gap in the heritage language literature, which, to date, has mainly focused on adult heritage speakers and preschool bilingual children. The results from a judgment task reveal that child- and adolescent heritage speakers do not entirely resemble monolingual age-matched children in the acquisition of subjects in Spanish, nor do they assimilate adult heritage speakers. The data suggest that several different processes can occur simultaneously in the acquisition of word order in heritage speakers: monolingual-like acquisition, delayed acquisition, and attrition. An analysis of the influence of extraneous variables suggests that most of these effects are likely to be the consequence of quantitatively reduced input in the heritage language and increased input in the majority language.

Speech accommodation across communication partners by adolescent speakers

Communication context has considerable impact on speech production, with speakers accommodating their speech based on the needs and attributes of their communication partner. For instance, speakers demonstrate acoustic-phonetic convergence, wherein they alter their speech characteristics to converge with those of their communication partner (e.g., Borrie & Liss, 2014). This speech modulation promotes closeness, shared identity, and communication effectiveness. While documented in adult speakers, the occurrence and presentation of speech accommodation throughout development is unclear. The current study compared the acoustic characteristics of speech samples produced by adolescent speakers in isolation versus in response to communication partners. Twelve neurotypical male adolescents (13–17 years) read sentences aloud with and without pre-exposure to speech recordings collected from four speakers varying by age and sex. Acoustic correlates of rhythm and prosody were compared across elicitation conditions. ...

Rasch Analysis of the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ)

A valid metacognitive awareness second language (L2) listening questionnaire is important for both researchers and teachers to facilitate the measurement of language learners’ ability to reflect on and direct their L2 learning. However, very few metacognitive awareness questionnaires have been validated, particularly in the area of L2 listening (cf., Vandergrift, Goh, Mareschal, & Tafaghodtari, 2006). The Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) (Vandergrift et al.) is one exception. However, very little information has been collected on the MALQ’s psychometric properties. To address this paucity, we administered the MALQ to a sample of 299 male Korean adolescent speakers of English. Using a modern measurement approach to scale validation (Rasch modeling), we found that with the exception of one subscale (Person knowledge) the subscales had good psychometric properties in that it was reliable and unidimensional.

Testismi, messaggistica e didattica dell'italiano: percezioni degli studenti universitari

This study analyses the perception of the norm used in text messages among Italian university students, and its effects on the acquisition of orthographic competence in adolescent speakers. 107 graduate students from 48 provinces participated in the survey. Data were collected administering a 39 item ad hoc questionnaire. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to gather construct validity of the developing instrument. The classification for italiano digitato textisms is confirmed by psycometric properties. The qualitative analysis showed a high degree of rejection in the educational context, although this writing norm was not considered as prejudicial to texts drafted by the participants of the study. The results revealed that the participants have a negative assessment of textisms related to the graphic and phonological level, while they accept textisms related to lexical and semantic level. Also, the dialectalisms are confirmed as relevant textisms in Italian digital writing.

Speech-evoked brainstem response in normal adolescent and children speakers of Brazilian Portuguese

This study aimed to analyze the coding responses of speech sounds (syllable/da/) in children and adolescent speakers of Brazilian Portuguese with typical development and normal hearing, aged between 8 and 16 years, in order to establish normative data of speech ABR response. This normative data can be used as a reference for speech ABR responses and also to enable the diagnosis in individuals with different pathologies. The analyze for absolute latency of speech sounds, more specifically the syllable/da/, for speech-ABR in children and adolescent speakers of Brazilian Portuguese with typical development were: right ear - wave V (6,43–6,57), wave A (7,35–7,57), wave C (18,19–18,46), wave D (21,99–22,42), wave E (30,73–31,05), wave F (39,19–39,55) and wave O (47,75–48,24) and left ear - wave V (6,44–6,57), wave A (7,36–7,59), wave C (18,26–18,55), wave D (22,22 -22,50), wave E (30,58–30,97), wave F (39,05–39,35) and wave O (47,78–48,13). For the amplitude values (μv), the responses were within the following ranges: right ear - wave V (0,10–0,14), wave A (0,19–0,25), wave C (0,08–0,13), wave D (0,11–0,17), wave E (0,17–0,42), wave F (0,14–0,33) and wave O (0,11–0,31) and left ear - wave V (0,09–0,13), wave A (0,08–0,23), wave C (0,08–0,14), wave D (0,10–0,15), wave E (0,20–0,26), wave F (0,16–0,22) and wave O (0,12–0,20). For the values of complex VA (slope: μv/ms and area μv x ms) the follow values obtained were: right ear – slope (0,32–0,42) and area (0,29–0,38) and left ear – slope (0,30–0,39) and area (0,27–0,35).

The influence of classroom input and community exposure on the learning of variable grammar

As pointed out by Carroll (Carroll), our team has investigated the influence of input on the spoken French competence of older Ontario bilinguals. Our research has examined the learning of invariant and variable aspects of French grammar. We focus here on the learning of variation, since it is an under-researched topic not covered by Carroll. Our research examines adolescent speakers of Ontario French from French-medium schools (e.g., Mougeon & Beniak, 1991), same-age immersion students (e.g., Mougeon, Nadasdi & Rehner, 2010) and advanced learners from a bilingual university (e.g., Mougeon & Rehner, 2015). Two key dimensions of input are teacher classroom speech and frequency of use of French in the community for the Franco-Ontarian students and amount of extra-curricular interactions with Francophones for the FSL students. Having collected corpora from these student groups, we compared the output of learners with primarily classroom-based input with that of learners with broader ranging (extra-) curricular input. The availability of teacher in-class recordings for these learner groups has been crucial in identifying additional factors influencing these students’ output.

Minority language abandonment in Welsh-medium educated L2 male adolescents: classroom, not chatroom

ABSTRACTThe education system has played a crucial role in Welsh language maintenance, with Welsh-medium education providing a central locus of language transmission. However, language transmission through education is not without pitfalls. This paper discusses the impact of top-down minority language transmission and the growing issue of formal domain dependency in Wales. We present results of 4 focus groups, undertaken with 19 male adolescent L2 speakers of Welsh. The key findings indicate that top-down formal-domain transmission has amplified the view of Welsh as a language limited to formal, ‘high’ domains, thus inhibiting language application among male adolescents. The inherent association of Welsh with formality as well as tradition and patriotism has led to cultural disengagement among the target group.

Propuesta de un programa de atención a la salud y prevención del consumo de alcohol en adolescentes hablantes del maya. Una primera aproximación desde la interculturalidad

Es una realidad que los adolescentes de las comunidades indígenas de nuestro país representan un sector poblacional con severas carencias de salud, educación y derechos, entre otras necesidades imperantes. Problemas de salud como desnutrición, alcoholismo, drogadicción, vih / sida y suicidio, se encuentran con frecuencia en esta población como causas principales de mortalidad. Atender estas problemáticas de manera efectiva y urgente, necesariamente requiere alejarse del modelo médico hegemónico y acercarse a las comunidades con otra visión, desde un enfoque intercultural que incluya el conocimiento y respeto por la lengua, sus formas de comunicación, sus valores y creencias, así como su organización social y rescate de los recursos terapéuticos. En este contexto, se presenta el Programa de Atención Integral a la Salud para Adolescentes en Condiciones de Vulnerabilidad (paisav), el cual tiene como propósito general prevenir e intervenir en las conductas de riesgo que se han identificado con mayor incidencia en 300 estudiantes de secundaria, en tres comunidades de alto riesgo con población maya hablante de la región oriente del estado de Yucatán. La intervención se implementará en modalidad de talleres grupales en los salones de la escuela en el turno vespertino, dos veces por semana durante 4 meses. Se usará apoyo audiovisual, videos, diapositivas, música, además de folletos informativos y diferentes dinámicas participativas. Se concluye con una serie de recomendaciones derivadas de un primer acercamiento con una aplicación piloto del programa con 30 estudiantes: 15 hombres y 14 mujeres de la Escuela Secundaria No. 69 de Xocén, Valladolid, mismas que se integrarán en las aplicaciones subsiguientes del programa, a fin de mejorar el trabajo desde una perspectiva intercultural con población adolescente hablante del maya.

Phonetic variation in Scottish Gaelic laterals

This paper is an acoustic investigation of laterals in contemporary Scottish Gaelic. Scottish Gaelic is described as having three phonemic laterals /l̪ˠ l̪ʲ l/, which have previously been the subject of small-scale acoustic and static palatographic work. I expand on previous acoustic studies, including static and dynamic formant measures, and consider data from the diverse contemporary Gaelic-speaking population including [1] older speakers in a Gaelic-heartland area, [2] middle-aged speakers living in Glasgow, [3] adolescent speakers in immersion education in a heartland area, [4] adolescents in immersion education in Glasgow. Results suggest overall maintenance of the triple lateral system, but with substantial variation in the production of (phonemically) palatalised laterals in particular, which some young Glaswegians do not produce. These results are discussed with reference to language change in language revitalisation contexts, language contact, and modes of acquisition in revitalisation contexts.

Neutralization of the intervocalic rhotic contrast in Northern Belizean Spanish

<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 22.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-left: 22.5pt; text-align: justify;"> </p><p>While it has been contended that the tap/trill intervocalic contrast has been lost in many Spanish varieties, maintenance of the normative intervocalic tap/trill contrast has been attested via segmental duration rather than the number of lingual contacts. The present paper investigates the neutralization of the intervocalic rhotic contrast in emerging, bi-dialectal speakers of Northern Belizean Spanish, an understudied variety of contact Spanish with innovative patterns of rhotic distribution. Acoustic analysis of data from 10 adolescent speakers from Orange Walk, Belize showed that in the elicited, oral production data, speakers were able to more consistently maintain their native Spanish variety's intervocalic tap/retroflex approximant phonemic contrast. However, in an effort to phonetically switch to a more standard variety of Spanish in the read-aloud task, speakers' overgeneralization of the tap led to neutralization of the tap/trill contrast and partial loss of their native Spanish variety's intervocalic phonemic contrast. </p><p> </p>