Fast Speech Rate Research Articles

How is L2 pair interaction related to fluency and language use? A quantitative approach

Previous research examined L2 interaction by describing salient features exhibited in different patterns of peer interaction. These studies mostly used qualitative methods and focused on the collaborative aspect of such construct (Galaczi, 2008). The present study adopts a quantitative approach to explore and describe L2 interaction, utilizing the data of the Corpus of Collaborative Oral Tasks (CCOT). Specifically, it measures pairs’ interaction by creating a composite score of interactivity to understand the relationship between the dyads' degree of interactivity and their use of lexico-grammatical features as well as their L2 fluency. Pearson's correlation tests showed weak to moderate positive relationships between interactivity and discourse particles, response forms, wh-questions, and second person pronouns. Additionally, the tests revealed weak negative relationships between interactivity and both nominal forms and hesitations. Furthermore, revealing moderate relationships, Pearson's correlation tests showed that interactivity was associated with more fluent L2 speech, where learners of higher interactivity levels tended to produce fewer silent pauses and faster speech rates. The study provides insights for scholars interested in L2 interaction. It suggests that some linguistic features were not only associated with collaborative behaviors (as reported in the literature) but also with interactivity as broad aspect. Furthermore, it provides a description of how the act of turn taking might potentially serve the fluency of higher interactivity students, warranting further investigation of turn frequency among L2 test takers as test raters might potentially be influenced by the test candidates’ fluency. Finally, it reports that L2 interactivity exhibited a relationship pattern with linguistic features that resembles patterns reported in the literature of studies on native speakers of English.

The realization of /t/ and /ən/ in words like ‘button’: A change in progress on Long Island

In American English, the pronunciation of words like ‘button,’ with the underlying post-tonic string /tən/, is variable. Previous research has found that although the traditional pronunciation of these words is with [ʔn̩ ], as in [bʌʔn̩ ], this is not the only possible pronunciation. Recent studies have shown that /ən/ is realized as [ən] in certain speech communities, resulting in pronunciations like [bʌʔən]. Furthermore, there have been anecdotal reports that /t/ can be realized as [ɾ], resulting in pronunciations like [bʌɾən]. This article examines whether there is indeed a change underway in /ən/ and /t/ realizations, how these phonemes are interrelated, and what factors and populations are conditioning this change. To address these issues, a production experiment was carried out with participants from Long Island, NY. Results suggest that there is an early-stage change underway, such that younger speakers are more likely to realize /tən/ words with [ən] than [n̩ ]. Realization of /ən/ as [ən] is also significantly correlated with /t/ being realized as [ɾ] and a faster speech rate. There is not yet evidence for a change in progress for /t/ realizations, but [ɾ] productions are significantly correlated with the realization of /ən/ as [ən].

Need Analysis of DKV Student Toward English Listening Skill

In an increasingly globalized world, proficiency in English, particularly in listening skills, is essential for students across various disciplines, including Design and Visual Communication (DKV). This study aims to conduct a comprehensive need analysis to identify specific difficulties and requirements related to English listening skills among DKV students at Universitas Indraprasta PGRI. Utilizing surveys and stratified random sampling, the research gathers detailed data on current proficiency levels, perceived importance, and specific challenges faced by these students. Key findings reveal that while most students possess intermediate proficiency, they face significant difficulties with understanding different accents, fast speech rates, and technical vocabulary. These challenges are compounded by external factors such as background noise and lack of context. The study underscores the importance of tailored educational strategies, including exposure to diverse English accents, varied speech rates, and technical vocabulary specific to the DKV field. Additionally, it highlights the need for interactive and immersive learning experiences to enhance students' listening competencies. The results provide valuable insights for educators to develop effective interventions and support services, ultimately improving the academic and professional prospects of DKV students.

Perception of Voice Attractiveness: Effects of Speaking Rate, Gender, and Age

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the speaker’s speech rate level, listener’s age, and gender on the listener’s attractiveness evaluation of the speaker’s voice. Methods: A total of 8 speaker voices (4 males and 4 females in their 20s-30s) were selected from the speech corpus provided by the National Institute of Korean Language. These voices were manipulated to be 0.8 times and 1.2 times their original speed, resulting in 24 voice files for attractiveness evaluation. Evaluators were recruited from different age groups: adolescents (14), young adults (16), and middle-aged adults (14). They were instructed to perceptually evaluate the attractiveness of the speaker’s voice. In addition, speech data from evaluators were collected to measure their actual speech rates. Results: Evaluator age groups did not show significant differences in attractiveness scores. However, across all groups, the attractiveness ratings were consistently higher for normal speech rates. Middle-aged male evaluators reported a significant decrease in attractiveness for faster speech rates. The correlation between the actual speech rate of evaluators and speakers was significant only for slower speech rates, indicating that evaluators with faster speech rates, especially males, showed lower attractiveness. Conclusion: The listener’s attractiveness evaluation may depend on the listener’s gender and age according to the speaker’s speaking rate, with middle-aged male listeners being particularly inclined to find fast speech rates unacceptable. This study underscores the significance of speech rate as an acoustic evaluation factor influencing listener attractiveness.

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.

Prosody variations to improve cognitive processing in Alzheimer’s patients

AbstractBackgroundAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most widespread diseases in our society. Social interaction and communication with caregivers represent a challenge (Lowery, 2013). Few studies have taken a communication perspective on this problem. These studies show the importance of a satisfactory communicative exchange to improve the relationship between caregivers and Alzheimer patients (AP) (McGilton et al., 2017;Small et al., 2009). However, the variable prosody has yet to be deeply explored, yet it may be highly relevant to the quality of communication (Small et al., 2009). The main objective of this project was to analyze what prosody strategies improve communication between AP and their caregivers.MethodAn experiment was designed with a corpus of informative instructions related to AP’s routines. Different audio versions were produced with prosody variations: pitch (high or low), intensity (high or low), speed (fast and slow), intonation (monotonous, soft, or marked), emphasis/stress (soft or marked), and attitude (paternalistic style or loving style). The experiment was conducted with two groups of participants over 65 years old (77 on average): the experimental group, 30 subjects in a soft state AD, and the control group, 30 subjects without AD. The dependent variables (likeability, comprehension) were evaluated with yes/no (green/red buttons) questions after listening to the voice instruction with different prosody variations. Recognition was assessed with a specific test.ResultResults showed that the most effective strategies were the intonation variations (soft or marked), the use of emphasis (soft or strong), the loving style when talking, the middle pitch, and the paused or slow speed. The least effective ones were speaking with high intensity (volume), fast speech rate, paternalistic style, and monotonous intonationConclusionIn light of the findings, the prosody variations strategies can significantly improve the communication exchanges between AP and their family members and/or caregivers.

Provision of helpful review videos: Effects of video characteristics on perceived helpfulness

With the rapid growth and popularity of YouTube, an increasing number of consumers rely on online product review videos to obtain product‐related information. 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 visual and vocal characteristics of online review videos are associated with the perceived helpfulness of videos. We collect detailed observational data on 13,840 electronic product review videos posted on YouTube and employ video content analysis, speech recognition, and natural language processing techniques to extract the visual and vocal characteristics of review videos. By using econometric models, we find that the increase in visual stimulation, captured by brightness and visual dynamics, increases the perceived helpfulness of reviews. In addition, featuring reviewers’ faces in review videos increases the perceived helpfulness of videos. Consumers also perceive review videos in which reviewers express more positive facial emotions as more helpful. Furthermore, lower voice pitch and faster speech rates are associated with higher perceived helpfulness of reviews. To complement the empirical analysis and further isolate the causal effects of review brightness and pitch, we conduct controlled experiments. Overall, the findings can facilitate the management and operation of online review videos for product reviewers, businesses, review platforms, and consumers. In particular, the findings provide direct and actionable guidance to content generators who aim to create more helpful product reviews.

Application of advanced language technologies in analysis of category naming fluency task in healthy participants

AbstractBackgroundCategory naming fluency tasks have been used frequently to measure patients’ working memory and executive functions. Previous studies show that differences in scores in this task could reflect features of neurodegenerative disease. To better understand decreased performance in patients, it is critical to establish performance in healthy aging populations. Here, we investigated differences in total scores and lexical/speech features of words produced during animal fluency tasks of healthy young and older speakers which can only be derived with novel, automated, computational technologies.MethodData were collected in 52 young participants (26.9% males, mean age = 23.5±3.17) and 46 elderly participants (63.0% males, mean age = 69.9±6.77). Participants were instructed to list as many animals as possible for 60 seconds. Speech was transcribed and automatically force‐aligned. Transcripts were run through our automated Python pipeline to calculate the total number of animals listed and rate each word for the following semantic parameters: age of acquisition (AoA), ambiguity, familiarity, frequency. We also calculated phonetic and semantic distances between each word and its antecedent. Linear regression models tested the association between these automated language measures and total scores. We also examined the differences of the young and elderly groups using t‐tests.ResultElderly participants produced significantly fewer animals than young participants (p<0.001). Higher overall scores were associated with higher mean AoA (beta = 0.22, p = 0.049) and longer word duration (beta = 1.62, p = 0.037), as well as less frequent (beta = ‐0.51, p = 0.021) and familiar (beta = ‐3.96, p<0.001) animal names. We found no interaction with the age groups in any of the models. Elderly participants produced less frequent animal names than young participants (p = 0.029), along with significantly reduced phonetic distance scores (p = 0.008). Elderly participants scored significantly higher articulation rates (p = 0.007) and had a faster speech rate (p<0.001), attributable to producing more non‐animal words.ConclusionThis study demonstrates the applicability of advanced language technologies in analyzing category naming fluency tasks in healthy adults. We developed an automated scoring system and identify novel semantic and phonetic measures from digitally recorded fluency tasks. We also quantified some confounding age effects which could be explained by lexical/speech differences of words produced by the groups.

Acoustic Voice and Speech Biomarkers of Treatment Status during Hospitalization for Acute Decompensated Heart Failure.

This study investigates acoustic voice and speech features as biomarkers for acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF), a serious escalation of heart failure symptoms including breathlessness and fatigue. ADHF-related systemic fluid accumulation in the lungs and laryngeal tissues is hypothesized to affect phonation and respiration for speech. A set of daily spoken recordings from 52 patients undergoing inpatient ADHF treatment was analyzed to identify voice and speech biomarkers for ADHF and to examine the trajectory of biomarkers during treatment. Results indicated that speakers produce more stable phonation, a more creaky voice, faster speech rates, and longer phrases after ADHF treatment compared to their pre-treatment voices. This project builds on work to develop a method of monitoring ADHF using speech biomarkers and presents a more detailed understanding of relevant voice and speech features.

Listening Comprehension Problems Faced By The Third Semester Students Of The English Language Education Study Program

The purpose of this research was to investigate students’ listening comprehension problems. The researchers used a mixed-method design. The participants were third-semester students of the English Language Education Program at Universitas Katolik Indonesia Santu Paulus Ruteng. In collecting the data, the researchers used two instruments namely survey questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. The findings of this study revealed that the third-semester students of the English Language Education Study Program perceived some degree of listening comprehension problems. Parsing problems took 50%, utilization problems took 30%, and perception problems took 20% of listening comprehension problems faced by the third-semester students. In addition, the results of the interview revealed that mostly the students experienced listening comprehension problems due to the fast speech rate of the speakers in the recording. Another cause of their listening comprehension was the lack of vocabulary and unfamiliar topics which made them unable to comprehend the spoken texts. In conclusion, the listening difficulties encountered by the third-semester students were to due the semantics and lexical meaning of the spoken text

Audiovisual Mandarin Lexical Tone Perception in Quiet and Noisy Contexts: The Influence of Visual Cues and Speech Rate.

Armed with the theory of embodied cognition proposing tight interactions between perception, motor, and cognition, this study aimed to test the hypothesis that speech rate-altered Mandarin lexical tone perception in quiet and noisy environments could be affected by the bodily dynamic cross-modal information. Fifty-three adult listeners completed a Mandarin tone perception task with 720 tone stimuli in auditory-only (AO), auditory-facial (AF), and auditory-facial-plus-gestural (AFG) modalities, at fast, normal, and slow speech rates under quiet and noisy conditions. In AF and AFG modalities, both congruent and incongruent audiovisual information were designed and presented. Generalized linear mixed-effects models were constructed to analyze the accuracy of tone perception across different conditions. In Mandarin tone perception, the magnitude of enhancement of AF and AFG cues across three speech rates was significantly higher than that of the AO cue in the adverse context of noise, yet additional metaphoric gestures did not show significant differences from the facial information. Furthermore, the performance of auditory tone perception at the fast speech rate was significantly better than that at the normal speech rate when the inputs were incongruent between auditory and visual channels in quiet. This study provided compelling evidence showing that integrated audiovisual information plays a vital role not only in improving lexical tone perception in noise but also in modulating the effects of speech rate on Mandarin tone perception in quiet for native listeners. Our findings, supporting the theory of embodied cognition, are implicational for speech and hearing rehabilitation among both young and old clinical populations.

Prosodic markers of satirical imitation

Abstract Satirical imitation is a popular format of late-night comedy shows and can provide political entertainment and education. However, little research has been conducted on how satirists mark their satirical intent to clue audiences in on their intended messaging. This study investigates the prosodic marking of satirical imitation and contrasts it with prosodic marking of irony. We conducted a detailed case study of the prosodic marking in Alec Baldwin’s satirical imitation of Donald Trump in his audiobook You Can’t Spell America Without Me contrasted with both Baldwin’s and Trump’s regular voices. The analyzed corpus contained six hours of audio material across the three sources. Through a combination of automatic and manual coding, we measured average pitch, pitch variation, and speech rate. Our analysis did not reveal marking of satirical imitation by pitch or pitch variation. The satirical imitation was only marked by a faster speech rate than both baseline voices. These findings contrast with previous studies that identified a lower pitch, less pitch variation, and a slower speech rate as markers of verbal irony. Our study provides first evidence that satirical imitation is prosodically marked differently from verbal irony, with a faster speech rate as one potential marker.

한국 중학생의 영어 읽기 발화에서 문장유형에 따른 유창성 등급과 초분절 요소의 관계*

This study aims to help Korean English learners to learn English pronunciation by revealing which suprasegmentals affect the implementation of English sentences closer to native English speakers when they read English sentences. To this end, Korean middle school English learners were selected as subjects and research data were gathered through sentence types (declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamative), as well as syllables. Speech rate, pause frequency, pause duration, F0 range, and rhythm among suprasegmentals were used for analysis of these English sentence utterances. Mean analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were performed. The results showed that speech rate, pause frequency, pause duration, and F0 range affected the evaluation of fluency levels. In the regression analysis between all suprasegmentals and fluency levels, the suprasegmentals that most affected fluency levels were speech rate and F0 range. Rhythm had no meaningful relation with fluency levels. Therefore, when teaching English pronunciation, it is necessary to teach students to increase their speech rate and F0 range. In addition, students should be trained to reduce both the number and the duration of pauses during utterance to improve their fluency. It is noteworthy that of the four sentence types, exclamative sentences were produced with faster speech rate, fewer pauses, shorter pause duration, and higher rhythm values.

Effects of presentation delivery rate on errors in simultaneous interpreting: A pilot study

Although the success of information rendition in simultaneous interpreting (SI) is susceptible to many factors, the speed of the source speech (SS) is perceived as one of the most challenging problem triggers. However, previous studies that examine the effects of SS in SI have reported different results. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effects of normal and fast source speech rates on simultaneous interpreting performance through error analysis. In this pilot study, seven error categories are employed, i.e., segment omission, word-and-phrase level omission, addition, unfinished sentence, filled pause, and long pause, which are derived from error classifications by Barik (1971). The first four categories are part of linguistic errors, whereas the last three categories are part of paralinguistic errors. Two videos with a speed of 124-wpm (words per minute) and 184-wpm were used as the source speeches and three professional interpreters with more than seven years of experience were recruited as research participants. It is revealed that the fast speech rate has increased the frequency of errors. Additionally, segment omission appears to be the category mostly impacted by SS speed. Therefore, the result of this study suggests interpreters’ training institutions pay more attention to coping tactics learning and acquisition in their courses. Nevertheless, more replication studies are still required to verify this finding.

Strategies for interactive listening in modern foreign language learning

In two-way interactive listening, listeners are expected to use interactional skills or strategies to understand meaning, recognize interlocutors’ intentions, make responses, and establish common ground. However, strategy use can be affected by learner differences and affective factors. The present study investigated the effects of group difference (students majoring in five modern foreign languages) and an affective factor (self-perceived communication confidence) on Chinese native speakers’ strategies for interactive listening. A questionnaire survey was conducted to explore the listening strategies used by 445 college students, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 students to uncover listening difficulties in their language majors. A two-way between-groups MANOVA test revealed statistically significant main effects for language majors and communication confidence on overall and on certain types of strategy for interactive listening. Spanish language majors were found to use strategies more frequently than English, French, German, or Japanese major students. Students in all five language majors with higher self-perceived communication confidence used inference-making, phonological and nonverbal strategies more frequently than low-confidence students. Certain listening difficulties were found to be language specific. In general, vocabulary size as well as lexical segmentation were reported as main listening difficulties, followed by morphological and syntactic variation, and fast speech rate.

Emotional Speech Processing in 3- to 12-Month-Old Infants: Influences of Emotion Categories and Acoustic Parameters.

The aim of this study was to investigate infants' listening preference for emotional prosodies in spoken words and identify their acoustic correlates. Forty-six 3- to-12-month-old infants (M age = 7.6 months) completed a central fixation (or look-to-listen) paradigm in which four emotional prosodies (happy, sad, angry, and neutral) were presented. Infants' looking time to the string of words was recorded as a proxy of their listening attention. Five acoustic variables-mean fundamental frequency (F0), word duration, intensity variation, harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR), and spectral centroid-were also analyzed to account for infants' attentiveness to each emotion. Infants generally preferred affective over neutral prosody, with more listening attention to the happy and sad voices. Happy sounds with breathy voice quality (low HNR) and less brightness (low spectral centroid) maintained infants' attention more. Sad speech with shorter word duration (i.e., faster speech rate), less breathiness, and more brightness gained infants' attention more than happy speech did. Infants listened less to angry than to happy and sad prosodies, and none of the acoustic variables were associated with infants' listening interests in angry voices. Neutral words with a lower F0 attracted infants' attention more than those with a higher F0. Neither age nor sex effects were observed. This study provides evidence for infants' sensitivity to the prosodic patterns for the basic emotion categories in spoken words and how the acoustic properties of emotional speech may guide their attention. The results point to the need to study the interplay between early socioaffective and language development.

The phonetic realization of Russian pitch accents in contrastive questions and enumeration contexts

This paper presents the results of a phonetic experiment that compares the acoustic features of rising pitch configurations used in contrastive questions and on non-last elements of a list in enumeration contexts in Russian. 23 native Russian speakers were instructed to read aloud pairs of stimuli with similar segmental structure embedded in larger texts. Significant differences were found between the two syntactic context conditions. In enumeration contexts, both local minima and maxima associated with the prominent syllable had a significantly earlier and more stable alignment, and the slope of the rise between the tonal targets was steeper. In addition, the effect of the speech rate on these acoustic features was tested. The effects of fast and slow reading turned out to be asymmetric. In line with the segmental anchoring hypothesis, no significant effect of fast speech rate on alignment and pitch range was found; only the effect on slope was significant. Conversely, while reading the texts intentionally slowly the participants consistently used melodies with later alignment of local minima and maxima and larger pitch range. On the one hand, these data can be indicative of the interchangeability of stylistically marked pitch accent postulated for the incompleteness contexts in traditional descriptions of Russian intonation. On the other hand, this interpretation cannot account for the fact that the rightward shift in alignment in slow tempo was also found in the contrastive question condition.

Strategies for Teachers to Support Children Who Stutter: Perspectives of Speech-Language Pathologists

Purpose: This study assessed how speech-language pathologists (SLPs) believe teachers can best support school-age children who stutter (CWS) in the classroom. Method: An online survey adapted from the Personal Appraisal of Support for Stuttering–Parent was given to 122 SLPs licensed in the State of Oklahoma. The median age of the participants was 43 years (interquartile range [IQR] = 16), and the average number of CWS the participants reported treating was 14 (IQR = 14). The participants rated the helpfulness of supports teachers can use as they interact with CWS (e.g., “Tell the child to slow down”). The participants rated 41 items on a 1–5 Likert scale, with 1 indicating unhelpful and 5 indicating very helpful , followed by a “not sure” category. Results: The three items rated most helpful were for teachers to collaborate with the child's SLP, to be patient when the child talks, and to know how to react when the child stutters. The three items rated least helpful were for teachers to be bothered by the child's stuttering, to laugh at the child because of the child's stuttering, and to use a fast rate of speech. The two items with the greatest response variability were for teachers to tell the child to think about what to say before speaking and to tell the child what to do when stuttering. The variability suggests inconsistency in the SLPs' beliefs about the helpfulness of those actions. Conclusion: Findings from this study contribute to the literature on supporting CWS and the development of educational materials for classroom teachers.

Best Prosody for News: A Psychophysiological Study Comparing a Broadcast to a Narrative Speaking Style

Studies in different languages have identified a broadcast speaking style, a particular manner that broadcasters have of reading news. This speaking style is characterized by an emphatic intonation with a fast speech rate easily recognizable by listeners. Some authors have stated that messages in this style are not positively perceived by listeners, as it is repetitive and regular, but there is no empirical data to support this conclusion, nor has the style been analyzed with physiological measures. The physiological approach has some advantages, such as a more objective assessment and real-time evaluation. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the effectiveness, adequacy, and physiological response of this broadcast style compared to a narrative pattern. We combined self-report with physiological measures. Fifty-six participants listened to six news pieces in both styles and with two voices, male and female. They had to rate the effectiveness and adequacy of the news while we measured their physiological responses (heart rate and electrodermal activity). The results showed that news conveyed through the broadcast style elicited less cognitive resource allocation and emotional arousal than the narrative pattern, but there were no significant differences in self-report evaluations.

벅아이 코퍼스를 통해서 본 영어원어민들의 유무성 유형에 따른 단어경계파열음 발화 연구

In the currunt study investigates how the voicing types influence durations of homorganic word boundary stops. For this purpose, Buckeye speech corpus, which contains numerous spontaneous speech materials, were used. To measure the word boundary stops such as /p#p/, /b#p/, /p#b/, and /b#b/, stop closures of both word-final stops and those plus VOTs of word-initial stops were selected. The results were analyzed based on voicing types such as /voiceless#voiceless/, /voiced#voiceless/, /voiceless#voiced/, and /voiced#voiced/, and showed that word-boundary stops with word-initial voiceless stops were longer than those with word-initial voiced stops due to the VOT differences, and those with alveolar stops were shorter than those with bilabial and velar stops. In addition, the closure durations of the word-final stops were not statistically significant in the durations of word-boundary stops due to the fast rate of the spontaneous speech. (Dongguk University - Seoul)