Fast Speech Rate Research Articles

Examining the implementation of academic vocabulary, lexical density, and speech rate features on OpenCourseWare and MOOC lectures

ABSTRACT OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have gained increasing popularity and importance because they greatly expand students’ access to university lectures. Although the main component of OCW and MOOC platforms is lectures, their differences may potentially affect the difficulty of academic listening comprehension. This study thus explores the extent to which the differences between OCW and MOOC lectures may affect L2 academic listening comprehension in terms of three affecting factors: academic vocabulary coverage, lexical density, and speech rate. The result shows that both OCW and MOOC lectures have a high academic vocabulary coverage, with many more higher-level academic words appearing in the current MOOC lectures. Moreover, the lexical density and speech rate of MOOC lectures are significantly higher than those of OCW lectures, suggesting that students may need to process denser information delivered at a faster speech rate when viewing MOOC lectures. It is thus concluded that comprehending MOOC lectures may demand higher-level academic listening skills and a larger academic vocabulary size. The findings can provide implications for EAP instruction in terms of using OCW and MOOC lectures as academic listening materials for students with different academic vocabulary knowledge and listening proficiency levels.

Intrinsic Motivation and Speech Production in Saudi EFL College Students.

This study aims to introduce a conceptual model that evaluates six variables, and their indicators, on a sample of 148 Saudi EFL students in their sophomoric year of studying English major in order to link intrinsic motivation, pre-lecture tasks preparation, and L2 rate of speech production. To this end, a sample of 148 experimental Saudi EFL students in their sophomoric year of studying English major was enrolled. The same tests are measured in a control group of 60 peers. The six variables are intrinsic motivation, pre-lecture tasks preparation, lexical knowledge, classroom interaction, L2 disfluency, and L2 rate of speech production. The analysis was carried out using statistical tests and structural equation modeling The results suggest that pre-lecture activities improved the students' rate of speech production and increased the students' classroom reaction, which could not be attained by e-learning. The language level was the most influencing factor that governed the intrinsic motivation after planning pre-lecture tasks. 148 students of the experimental group demonstrated a faster speech rate than the control groups. The pedagogical technique of teaching English in the Middle East, either on-campus or off-campus, would benefit from comparing the developed language and rate of speech production at different educational platforms.

EXPLORING EFL STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS IN LISTENING TO ENGLISH NEWS BROADCASTS

Listening is central for language learning and for daily communication. However, in foreign language learning, students still encounter problems in understanding listening materials. This present study is aimed to reveal the students’ problems in listening English news broadcasts. The subjects of this study were two classrooms at the Department of English Language Education at an acknowledged university in Banda Aceh. The samples were made of 50 students in their third semester. This study employed a quantitative analysis approach. A close-ended questionnaire was used as the instruments in collecting the data. The findings showed that the difficulties faced by the students in listening to English news broadcast were mainly caused by unfamiliar topics, unfamiliar vocabulary, different accents, fast speech rate, unintelligible pronunciation, difficulty in inference making, excessively long passages, complicated grammatical structure, as well as complex ideas.

Brain activity predicts future learning success in intensive second language listening training

This study explores neural mechanisms underlying how prior knowledge gained from pre-listening transcript reading helps comprehend fast-rate speech in a second language (L2) and applies to L2 learning. Top-down predictive processing by prior knowledge may play an important role in L2 speech comprehension and improving listening skill. By manipulating the pre-listening transcript effect (pre-listening transcript reading [TR] vs. no transcript reading [NTR]) and type of languages (first language (L1) vs. L2), we measured brain activity in L2 learners, who performed fast-rate listening comprehension tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Thereafter, we examined whether TR_L2-specific brain activity can predict individual learning success after an intensive listening training. The left angular and superior temporal gyri were key areas responsible for integrating prior knowledge to sensory input. Activity in these areas correlated significantly with gain scores on subsequent training, indicating that brain activity related to prior knowledge-sensory input integration predicts future learning success.

The impact of source text presence on simultaneous interpreting performance in fast speeches

AbstractThe issue addressed in this study is the impact of source text presence on simultaneous interpreting performance in fast speeches. Fast speech rate is assumed to frustrate even professional interpreters in simultaneous interpreting (SI) without source text (ST) scenario, yet little is known about what happens when the ST is available to interpreters, an interpreting practice of increasing popularity. Previous studies present mixed results concerning the effect of fast speech rate and ST presence on SI quality, which further adds to the complexity of this issue. This study adopted the experimental approach with a qualitative assessment of SI quality, quantisation of output parameters and retrospective interview, to unravel some myths surrounding this issue. The 54 trainees were randomly divided into two groups to interpret two fast Chinese speeches into English under with and without ST conditions. The results found a significant effect of ST presence on the qualitative assessment of interpreting performance, on the interpreting delivery fluency, and on the information completeness. The facilitative effect of ST presence in fast speeches was confirmed while new issues also arise concerning trainee interpreters’ ability in eye-ear coordination.

What Makes Online Review Videos Helpful? Evidence from Product Review Videos on Youtube

With the rapid growth and popularity of YouTube, an increasing number of consumers rely on online product review videos to obtain product-related information. Review videos, with visual and sound cues, can convey product experiences in rich and immersive ways and have a powerful impact on consumer’s perceptions and intentions to purchase the product. As the provision of online review videos grows and consumers increasingly rely on them for their purchase decisions, understanding factors that contribute to the perceived helpfulness of video reviews becomes critical for video review management. This paper examines how various video content characteristics—information accessibility, positivity, and subjectivity—and voice characteristics of reviewers—speech rate, pitch, and speech dynamics—are associated with the perceived helpfulness. We collect detailed data on 14,486 electronic product review videos posted on YouTube and employ speech recognition and natural language processing techniques to extract sentimental and speech characteristics. We find that video viewers perceive online product review videos that are more information-accessible, more positive, and less subjective as more helpful. In addition, review videos created by reviewers with faster speech rates, lower voice pitch, and more vocal dynamicity are perceived as more helpful. We additionally find that reviewers’ popularity can moderate the effect of information accessibility, positivity, and reviewers’ voice characteristics on perceived review helpfulness.

Spontaneous links between help option use and input features that hinder second language listening comprehension

As more second language (L2) learners autonomously attend to authentic online input, L2 researchers are examining the mediating role of technology in the listening process. This qualitative multiple-case study explored the links between spontaneous use of help options and identification of input text characteristics of dissemination talks. Working with authentic video clip segments in six individual sessions, 13 high-intermediate learners of English from Chile interacted with pre-, while-, and post-listening exercises hosted in a purpose-built listening environment that supports a range of help options.Data was collected through an entry-survey, task-directed listening questionnaires, screen-capturing software, and semi-structured interviews. Results suggest that the use of help options was instrumental for participants producing informed responses, and allowed for the identification of general lexis, technical vocabulary, and fast speech rate as comprehension-impeding characteristics of dissemination talks. In particular, transcripts were the most helpful ancillary element. The article presents pedagogical implications and discusses avenues for further research.

Angry, old, male - and trustworthy? How expressive and person voice characteristics shape listener trust.

This study examined how trustworthiness impressions depend on vocal expressive and person characteristics and how their dependence may be explained by acoustical profiles. Sentences spoken in a range of emotional and conversational expressions by 20 speakers differing in age and sex were presented to 80 age and sex matched listeners who rated speaker trustworthiness. Positive speaker valence but not arousal consistently predicted greater perceived trustworthiness. Additionally, voices from younger as compared with older and female as compared with male speakers were judged more trustworthy. Acoustic analysis highlighted several parameters as relevant for being perceived as trustworthy (i.e., accelerated tempo, low harmonic-to-noise ratio, more shimmer, low fundamental frequency, more jitter, large intensity range) and showed that effects partially overlapped with those for perceived speaker affect, age, but not sex. Specifically, a fast speech rate and a lower harmonic-to-noise ratio differentiated trustworthy from untrustworthy, positive from negative, and younger from older voices. Male and female voices differed in other ways. Together, these results show that a speaker’s expressive as well as person characteristics shape trustworthiness impressions and that their effect likely results from a combination of low-level perceptual and higher-order conceptual processes.

Analysis of Linguistic and Prosodic Features of Bilingual Arabic–English Speakers for Speech Emotion Recognition

Speech emotion recognition (SER) research has usually focused on the analysis of the native language of speakers, most commonly, targeting European and Asian languages. In the present study, a bilingual Arabic/English speech emotion database elicited from 16 male and 16 female Egyptian participants was created in order to investigate how the linguistic and prosodic features were affected by the anger, fear, happiness and sadness emotions across Arabic and English emotional speech. The results of the linguistic analysis indicated that the participants preferred to express their emotions indirectly, mainly using religious references, and that the female participants tended to use language that was more tentative and emotionally expressive, while the male participants tended to use language that was more assertive and independent. As for the prosodic analysis, statistical t-tests showed that the prosodic features of pitch, intensity and speech rate were more indicative of anger and happiness while less relevant to fear and scarcely significant for sadness. Furthermore, speech emotion recognition performed using linear support vector machine (SVM) with AdaBoost also supported these results. In regard to first and second language linguistic features, there was no significant difference in the choice of words and structures expressing the different emotions in the two languages, but in terms of prosodic features, the females' speech showed higher pitch in Arabic in all cases while both genders showed close intensity values in the two languages and faster speech rate in Arabic than in English.

The influence of prosody on politicians’ credibility

Prosody is an important feature in communication, and the way a speaker uses the various elements of prosody in public speaking may affect listeners’ perceptions and thus the speaker’s credibility. This paper explores this topic in relation to speeches made in English by three politicians representing their countries’ 2020 Olympic bids at the 125th IOC (International Olympic Committee) Session in Argentina in September 2013. Of these, the speech given by the Mayor of Madrid, Ana Botella, received widespread critical attention due her style of delivery. As such, it illustrates the importance of prosody in public speaking. However, how prosody affects credibility remains unclear. The aim of this study is to analyze the influence of prosody on listeners’ perceptions of politicians’ credibility. We conducted prosody analysis and rhetorical analysis on the three-minute speeches given by the different candidates at the IOC Session. We also conducted a credibility test to assess the relationship between prosody and credibility. The results confirm that prosody influences speakers’ credibility, with the most credible and the best speaker being the politician who used the highest loudness, a moderate pitch level with a wide pitch range, and a faster speech rate with enough pauses of sufficient length. The study also showed that the less influential the prosody parameters were, the more credible the speaker was perceived to be.

발화속도와 영어 모음약화

The present study examines the relation between phonetic vowel reduction and speech rate in English sentences spoken by native speakers and Korean speakers. This study specifically focused on six vowels (/i, u, ɛ, æ, ɑ, ɔ/). Twenty-six native female speakers and forty Korean female speakers read six sentences which included these vowels, at normal and fast speech rates. Individual vowels moved inward forward the formant centroid as the speech rate increased, and as a result, the size of the vowel space was reduced from normal to fast speech rates. The results indicated that the increase of speech rate caused the formant target undershoot by the effects of the time reduction rather than the increased articulatory velocity, or the increase in the extent of coarticulatory overlapping between the consonant and a following vowel, and stress did not affect the formant target undershoot.

Gestural Properties of the Non-Target Velar Stop /k/ and Its Variance with Respect to Supralaryngeal Constrictions in C2

In this study, we examine overlap-induced gestural properties in C1. Specifically, we examine the spatio-temporal properties of the non-target velar stop /k/ in Korean, as a function of three segmental contexts in C2 (pre-/h/, pre-/p/, and pre-/t/), two-boundary conditions, and two speech-rate conditions. The results show that gestural overlap with different supralaryngeal constrictions in C2 is positively correlated with the constriction duration of /k/, and is negatively correlated with the constriction maxima. Different constrictions in C2 distinctly affect the spatio-temporal properties of C1. The pre-/t/ context leads to distinct patterns in the C1 velar stop, compared to the pre-/h/ and pre-/p/ contexts. The pre-/t/ velar stops observed in most combinatoric phonological contexts have shorter constriction durations, and have greater constriction maxima for /k(#)t/. Greater constriction maxima is also observed for the within-word condition as well as for fast speech rate. The contradictory spatio-temporal properties of /k/ seem to be determined by physiological constraints on a consecutive lingual-lingual sequence, and by a higher jaw position facilitated by a coronal.

‘Is it always so fast?’

AbstractWhile much research has proved the benefits of subtitled audiovisuals for foreign language learning, few studies address such practices in out-of-classroom settings or focus on Asia-based video-sharing platforms. This study bridges this gap by introducing an increasingly popular viewing-commenting system in Japan and China, known asdanmuordanmaku, which displays viewers’ timeline-synchronized comments on video content. We analyse the metalinguistic comments which entail viewers’ knowledge of the language, their comprehension issues and sociolinguistic attitudes toward its use. Adopting an inductive or data-driven methodology, we extracted and manually coded 390 comments that are related to the Spanish language, Spanish–Chinese translation and learning Spanish. Results show that viewers are mostly interested in linguistic features that differ from Chinese or English (e.g. the complex grammar) and they usedanmuto access sociolinguistic issues that are central to daily communication such as the fast speech rate, language varieties, and frequent use of vulgarisms.

Effects of utterance rate and length on the spatiotemporal index in Parkinson’s disease

Purpose: To characterise labial articulatory pattern variability using the spatiotemporal index (STI) in speakers with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) across different speaking rates and syllable-sentence conditions compared to age- and sex-matched healthy controls.Method: Ten speakers with mild–severe idiopathic PD and 10 controls produced “pa” and the Rainbow Passage at slow, typical and fast speech rates. Upper lip and lower lip kinematics were digitised during a motion capture system. Data were analysed using linear mixed modelling.Result: Regardless of the participant group, a high STI value was observed in the fast speech rate for the “pa” syllable condition, particularly for movements of the lower lip. As utterance rate increased, the control group showed the highest variability, followed by PD OFF and PD ON conditions. Syllable “pa” showed a greater STI value compared to both the first and second utterance of Rainbow Passage.Conclusion: PD manifests sufficient residual capacity to achieve near-normal motor compensation to preserve the consistency of lower lip movements during speech production. The lack of a significant difference in lip STI values between ON-OFF medication states suggests that dopaminergic treatment does not influence stability of speech for individuals with mild-moderate stage PD.

The Dynamics of Speech Motor Control Revealed with Time-Resolved fMRI.

Holding a conversation means that speech must be started, maintained, and stopped continuously. The brain networks that underlie these aspects of speech motor control remain poorly understood. Here we collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data while participants produced normal and fast rate speech in response to sequences of visually presented objects. We took a non-conventional approach to fMRI data analysis that allowed us to study speech motor behavior as it unfolded over time. To this end, whole-brain fMRI signals were extracted in stimulus-locked epochs using slice-based fMRI. These data were then subjected to group independent component analysis to discover spatially independent networks that were associated with different temporal activation profiles. The results revealed two basic brain networks with different temporal dynamics: a cortical network that was activated continuously during speech production, and a second cortico-subcortical network that increased in activity during the initiation and suppression of speech production. Additional analyses explored whether key areas involved in motor suppression such as the right inferior frontal gyrus, sub-thalamic nucleus and pre-supplementary motor area provide first-order signals to stop speech. The results reveal for the first time the brain networks associated with the initiation, maintenance, and suppression of speech motor behavior.

Exploring multilingual speakers’ perspectives on their intelligibility in English

ABSTRACT Multilingual speakers’ ability to communicate effectively and intelligibly in the language of their country of residence is crucial to their participation. This study explored multilingual speakers’ motivations for improving their intelligibility in English and their perceptions of potential barriers and facilitators to enhancing intelligibility. Participants were multilingual students and staff at 14 Australian universities. Extended response data from 137 survey responses were combined with seven semi-structured interviews, thematically analyzed using the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health as a conceptual framework, and coded using NVivo software. Three overarching themes were: motivations, barriers, and facilitators. Themes that emerged under motivations were meeting their own and others’ expectations and career aspirations. Themes that emerged under barriers to intelligibility were lack of self-awareness of reduced English intelligibility, use of ineffective strategies (e.g., fast speech rate to disguise pronunciation difficulties), language differences, lack of opportunity to practise English, participants’ perceptions of others’ negative attitudes to their English skills, and challenging conversational partners. Facilitators to intelligibility were emotional support from others, beneficial strategies (e.g., confirming listener understanding), and opportunities to practice. The results highlight the importance of supporting multilingual speakers’ efforts to improve their English intelligibility. An environment with barriers such as lack of opportunity to practise English may restrict an individuals’ performance and participation, while facilitators such as support from others may increase participation. This study will inform the understanding of speech-language pathologists engaged in intelligibility enhancement, as well as SLPs working with multilingual speakers in any context.

Angry, old, male - and trustworthy? How expressive and person voice characteristics shape listener trust.

This study examined how trustworthiness impressions depend on vocal expressive and person characteristics and how their dependence may be explained by acoustical profiles. Sentences spoken in a range of emotional and conversational expressions by 20 speakers differing in age and sex were presented to 80 age and sex matched listeners who rated speaker trustworthiness. Positive speaker valence but not arousal consistently predicted greater perceived trustworthiness. Additionally, voices from younger as compared with older and female as compared with male speakers were judged more trustworthy. Acoustic analysis highlighted several parameters as relevant for differentiating trustworthiness ratings and showed that effects largely overlapped with those for speaker valence and age, but not sex. Specifically, a fast speech rate, a low harmonic-to-noise ratio, and a low fundamental frequency mean and standard deviation differentiated trustworthy from untrustworthy, positive from negative, and younger from older voices. Male and female voices differed in other ways. Together, these results show that a speaker’s expressive as well as person characteristics shape trustworthiness impressions and that their effect likely results from a combination of low-level perceptual and higher-order conceptual processes.

ТЕМПОРАЛЬНЫЕ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ КИТАЙСКОЙ КОММЕРЧЕСКОЙ РАДИОРЕКЛАМЫ

This paper examines prosodic features of Chinese commercial radio advertising in its informationally important and unimportant segments. We also present a brief description of the perceptual study that allowed to identify the syllables that comprise the informational core of the advertisements. The comparative analysis was performed to determine the significance of a number of factors in the distribution of the information load in advertising. Among these factors were: 1) beginning / middle / end of the utterance, 2) fast speech rate / slow speech rate / stability of speech rate, 3) the average speech rate and duration of the advertisement, 4) pauses location before / after / at both sides / the beginning of the utterance / the end of the utterance, 5) presence of repeated elements in advertising, 6) male / female voice. The conclusion is made that the most important factors in the distribution of the information load are duration, position in the utterance, male voice and slowing down the speech rate.

Speech-language pathologists’ support for multilingual speakers’ English intelligibility and participation informed by the ICF

PurposeTo use the ICF to classify characteristics and aspirations of multilingual university students and faculty who seek speech-language pathologists’ support for intelligibility in English and to identify activities, facilitators, and barriers that impact participation in society. MethodA retrospective record review was conducted on files of 175 clients attending a university clinic for intelligibility enhancement (accent modification). Participants came from 35 countries and spoke 28 different home languages. ResultsAssessment and intervention for intelligibility enhancement involved consideration of ICF components of Body Functions and Structures (e.g., articulating phonemes, rate, prosody), Environmental Factors (e.g., support), and Personal Factors (e.g., motivation). Consonant substitutions and deletions were common, although participants were often unaware of these. For example, only 25.6% of participants reported English dental fricatives (/θ/ and /ð/) were difficult to pronounce; however, 94.9% substituted them with other phonemes such as [t] and [d]. The combination of substitutions/deletions, fast speech rate, low speaking volume, and differences in word stress exacerbated poor intelligibility. More time conversing in English was associated with greater confidence and less difficulty communicating in English, although more time knowing English was not. Difficult communication situations were reported to be conversing over the phone, talking to strangers, and communicating in English on professional fieldwork placements. Participants were motivated to seek intelligibility enhancement for academic, employment, and social reasons. ConclusionsTo ensure multilingual speakers are able to participate fully in society, intelligibility enhancement requires a multi-pronged approach where speech and environmental characteristics interweave.

Now listen to this! Evidence from a cross-spliced experimental design contrasting pressuring and supportive communications

Motivating communications are a frequent experience within daily life. Recently, it has been found that two types of motivations are spoken with distinct tones of voices: control (pressure) is spoken with a low pitched, loud tone of voice, fast speech rate, and harsh sounding voice quality; autonomy (support) is spoken with a higher pitched, quieter tone of voice and a slower speech rate. These two motivational tones of voice also differentially impact listeners' well-being. Yet, little is known about the brain mechanisms linked to motivational communications. Here, participants were asked to listen to semantically identical sentences spoken in controlling, neutral, or autonomy-supportive prosody. We also presented cross-spliced versions of these sentences for maximum control over information presentation across time. Findings showed listeners quickly detected whether a speaker was providing support, being pressuring, or not using motivating tones at all. Also, listeners who are pressured do not seem to respond anew when a supportive motivational context arises, but those who had been supported are affected by a newly pressuring environment. Findings are discussed in light of motivational and prosody literatures, and in terms of significance for the role of motivational communications on behavior.