Foreign-accented Speech Research Articles

Faces with foreign accents: An event-related potential study of accented sentence comprehension

Mounting Event-Related Potential (ERP) research testing the neurocognitive processes of foreign- and native-accented speech comprehension shows that listeners process foreign-accented speech in qualitatively and quantitatively different ways from native-accented speech. Previous ERP research has presented listeners with foreign- and native-accented sentences only, devoid of any cues to the speaker's identity. Additional cues about the foreign-accented speaker identity, such as faces, may be useful in aiding listeners' processing, potentially reducing differences between neurocognitive processes associated with foreign-accented and native-accented speech comprehension. This study tested whether providing listeners with extra-linguistic face cues to the speakers' identity affects the ERP correlates of grammatical and semantic processing of foreign-accented and native-accented sentences. Specifically, we presented listeners with face cues to speaker identity followed by native- and foreign-accented sentences that were identical to Grey and Van Hell (2017), who did not provide face cues. To elucidate the effects of face cues, we compared the present study's Face Cue data with the Grey and Van Hell (2017) No Face Cue data. For grammar processing, the results showed a biphasic Nref-P600 for native-accented speech and a P600 for foreign-accented speech in the Face Cue group. In the No Face Cue group, results for grammar processing showed an Nref for native-accented speech and no significant ERP effects for foreign-accented speech. This result indicates that face cues were effective in aiding processing of foreign-accented sentences. For semantic processing, there were robust N400 effects for native-accented speech and delayed N400s for foreign-accented speech in the Face Cue and No Face Cue groups. This pattern indicates that the extra-linguistic face cue to foreign-accented speaker identity did not affect semantic processing. Overall, the results provide neurocognitive evidence that the integration of speaker and face information aids listeners during the processing of foreign-accented speech, particularly for grammatical processing.

Recognition of foreign-accented speech in noise: The interplay between talker intelligibility and linguistic structure.

Foreign-accented speech recognition is typically tested with linguistically simple materials, which offer a limited window into realistic speech processing. The present study examined the relationship between linguistic structure and talker intelligibility in several sentence-in-noise recognition experiments. Listeners transcribed simple/short and more complex/longer sentences embedded in noise. The sentences were spoken by three talkers of varying intelligibility: one native, one high-, and one low-intelligibility non-native English speakers. The effect of linguistic structure on sentence recognition accuracy was modulated by talker intelligibility. Accuracy was disadvantaged by increasing complexity only for the native and high intelligibility foreign-accented talkers, whereas no such effect was found for the low intelligibility foreign-accented talker. This pattern emerged across conditions: low and high signal-to-noise ratios, mixed and blocked stimulus presentation, and in the absence of a major cue to prosodic structure, the natural pitch contour of the sentences. Moreover, the pattern generalized to a different set of three talkers that matched the intelligibility of the original talkers. Taken together, the results in this study suggest that listeners employ qualitatively different speech processing strategies for low- versus high-intelligibility foreign-accented talkers, with sentence-related linguistic factors only emerging for speech over a threshold of intelligibility. Findings are discussed in the context of alternative accounts.

(Mis) understanding your native language: Regional accent impedes processing of information status.

Native-speaker listeners constantly predict upcoming units of speech as part of language processing, using various cues. However, this process is impeded in second-language listeners, as well as when the speaker has an unfamiliar accent. Whereas previous research has largely concentrated on the pronunciation of individual segments in foreign-accented speech, we show that regional accent impedes higher levels of language processing, making native listeners' processing resemble that of second-language listeners.In Experiment 1, 42 native speakers of Canadian English followed instructions spoken in British English to move objects on a screen while their eye movements were tracked. Native listeners use prosodic cues to information status to disambiguate between two possible referents, a new and a previously mentioned one, before they have heard the complete word. By contrast, the Canadian participants, similarly to second-language speakers, were not able to make full use of prosodic cues in the way native British listeners do.In Experiment 2, 19 native speakers of Canadian English rated the British English instructions used in Experiment 1, as well as the same instructions spoken by a Canadian imitating the British English prosody. While information status had no effect for the Canadian imitations, the original stimuli received higher ratings when prosodic realization and information status of the referent matched than for mismatches, suggesting a native-like competence in these offline ratings.These findings underline the importance of expanding psycholinguistic models of second language/dialect processing and representation to include both prosody and regional variation.

Comparing non-native and native speech: Are L2 productions more variable?

Foreign-accented speech of second language learners is often difficult to understand for native listeners of that language. Part of this difficulty has been hypothesized to be caused by increased within-category variability of non-native speech. However, until recently, there have been few direct tests for this hypothesis. The realization of vowels and word-final stops in productions of native-English L1 speakers and native-Mandarin speakers of L2 English is compared. With the largest sample size to date, it is shown that at least proficient non-native speakers exhibit little or no difference in category variability compared to native speakers. This is shown while correcting for the effects of phonetic context. The same non-native speakers show substantial deviations from native speech in the central tendencies (means) of categories, as well as in the correlations among cues they produce. This relativizes a common and a priori plausible assumption that competition between first and second language representations necessarily leads to increased variability-or, equivalently, decreased precision, consistency, and stability-of non-native speech. Instead, effects of non-nativeness on category variability are category- and cue-specific.

Tuning out tone errors? Native listeners do not down-weight tones when hearing unsystematic tone errors in foreign-accented Mandarin

AbstractListeners can adapt to errors in foreign-accented speech, but not all errors are alike. We investigated whether exposure to unsystematic tone errors in second language Mandarin impacts responses to accurately produced words. Native Mandarin speakers completed a cross-modal priming task with words produced by foreign-accented talkers who either produced consistently correct tones, or frequent tone errors. Facilitation from primes bearing correct tones was unaffected by the presence of tone errors elsewhere in the talker's speech. However, primes bearing tone errors inhibited recognition of real words and elicited stronger accentedness ratings. We consider theoretical implications for tone in foreign-accent adaptation.

Rater Effects on L2 Oral Assessment: Focusing on Accent Familiarity of L2 Teachers

ABSTRACT In the present study, I examined the effects of rater characteristics, in particular, raters’ familiarity with a foreign accent, on the assessment of second language (L2) pronunciation. Forty-three native English-speaking teachers were divided into three groups according to their reported types of familiarity with Korean accents: heritage, familiar, and unfamiliar. The teachers assessed global proficiency and accentedness of speech samples provided by 40 Koreans speaking L2 English. The ratings made on 1–9 numerical scales were analyzed for interrater reliability and rater severity. While the three teacher groups overall exhibited high interrater reliability, the findings suggest that prior exposure to, or regular contact with, foreign-accented speech may affect teachers’ consistency in ratings. A comparison of the three groups’ severity measures revealed that the heritage teachers were more lenient than the non-heritage (i.e., familiar and unfamiliar) teachers in evaluating global proficiency and accentedness. The difference in the level of severity between the familiar and unfamiliar teacher groups was not significant.

When processing costs impact predictive processing: The case of foreign-accented speech and accent experience.

Listeners use linguistic information and real-world knowledge to predict upcoming spoken words. However, studies of predictive processing have focused on prediction under optimal listening conditions. We examined the effect of foreign-accented speech on predictive processing. Furthermore, we investigated whether accent-specific experience facilitates predictive processing. Using the visual world paradigm, we demonstrated that although the presence of an accent impedes predictive processing, it does not preclude it. We further showed that as listener experience increases, predictive processing for accented speech increases and begins to approximate the pattern seen for native speech. These results speak to the limitation of the processing resources that must be allocated, leading to a trade-off when listeners are faced with increased uncertainty and more effortful recognition due to a foreign accent.

The perception of native vs. non-native Danish speech: Bent and Bradlow’s matched interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit revisited

The main objective of the study was to test the applicability of Bent and Bradlow’s matched interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit to the Danish-Polish language pair. We aimed to verify whether it was easier for Polish students of Danish to understand a Danish native speaker or a Polish speaker with a proficient command of Danish. Sixteen Polish students, divided into two groups of eight, listened to two recordings of two Danish texts: one recorded by a native speaker of Danish and the other one — by a native speaker of Polish who is a graduate of Danish philology from a Polish university. Before the experiment, all of the recordings were evaluated in terms of traces of foreign accent using a 7-point Likert scale, the experts being native speakers of Danish. The evaluators assessed the Polish native speaker’s pronunciation as proficient, but they identified certain segmental and suprasegmental features in his speech that are common indicators of a foreign accent in Danish. During the experiment, participants were asked to fill in each recording transcript with twenty missing words. The analysis of the results revealed that the participants scored higher when listening to the text recorded by the Polish speaker. Hence, the matched interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit was observed in a study using Polish as L1 (native language) and Danish as a foreign language. The study may provide a valuable insight into the question of non-native speech perception, foreign-accented speech and the veracity of the matched interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit for the Polish–Danish language pair.

How does foreign accent affect template matching mechanisms? ERP evidence from Polish

Sentential context is believed to have particularly robust effects on the processing of foreign-accented speech (Lev-Ari 2015). However, recent neurolinguistic studies investigating the relation between non-native speech and semantic predictability suggest that anticipation mechanisms are, in fact, hampered during the processing of foreign accents (Romero-Rivas et al. 2016). The current study is an attempt to shed more light on this issue and establish whether the mechanisms responsible for categorical template matching remain active during the processing of non-native speech. The study investigated neural reactions towards high cloze probability template endings (i.e., the endings of fixed phrases selected in a pre-test) and their unexpected counterparts. 120 Polish sentences were recorded by a native Polish speaker and a non-native (L1 Ukrainian) speaker of Polish in order to investigate the reactions towards an easily recognizable foreign accent. The brain activity of 28 monolinguals (L1 Polish) was recorded during the EEG sessions. In native-accented speech, violations of high cloze probability items resulted in a broadly distributed negativity followed by a P600 effect. No comparable effects were observed in the case of foreign-accented speech. These results are compatible with previous findings (Hanulíková et al. 2012; Romero-Rivas et al. 2016) as they confirm that linguistic anticipatory and reanalysis processes are hampered in the case of non-native speech.

Influencing the time and space of lexical competition: The effect of gradient foreign accentedness.

This article examines the influence of gradient foreign accentedness on lexical competition during spoken word recognition. Using native and Mandarin-accented English words ranging in degree of foreign accentedness, we investigate the effect of increased accentedness on (a) the size of the competitor space and (b) the strength and duration of competitor activation. Here, we analyze the number of misperceptions in a transcription task, as well as the time course of competitor activation in a Visual World Paradigm eye-tracking task. The transcription data show that as accentedness increases, the number of unique misperceptions increases. This indicates that greater accent strength induces the activation of many additional competitors within the competition space relative to native speech. The eye-tracking data further show that, as accentedness increases, looks to competitors (not produced in the transcription task) increase both in likelihood and duration. This indicates that greater accentedness boosts the strength of competitor activation as well as the duration of the competition process, even when comprehension is ultimately successful, suggesting strong and diffuse competition within the lexicon. The results provide evidence of changes in the underlying dynamics, which lead to the pervasive processing costs associated with foreign-accented speech that are commonly observed in behavioral data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The Influence of Native- Versus Foreign-Accented Speech on Spanish-English Bilingual Children's Spanish Receptive Vocabulary Performance: A Pilot Study.

Purpose There are many fewer speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who can administer Spanish language testing than there are children in the United States who need such testing. Although there are precautions against language testing by foreign speakers, results from testers using native- versus foreign-accented speech have not been compared using popular picture-pointing vocabulary tests of the sort used by SLPs. Therefore, we sought to determine if nonnative Spanish speech (i.e., foreign-accented speech) was sufficient for the administration of a Spanish receptive vocabulary test. Method Using a single group, within-subjects design, 15 Spanish-English bilingual 5-year-olds from a low socioeconomic background listened to native- and foreign-accented digital audio recordings of targeted vocabulary words. Native- and foreign-accented testing was counterbalanced with a 2-month interlude. Using standard procedures, children were also administered English and Spanish-English bilingual picture-pointing vocabulary tests. Language histories were collected from caregivers and teachers. Results Standard scores were significantly lower for foreign- than for native-accented Spanish vocabulary testing. However, native-accented testing produced outcomes similar to those found in the literature for standard administration procedures. Conclusions Results support precautions that language testers should be proficient in the language of testing. However, standardized picture-pointing receptive vocabulary tests might be amenable to adaptations using recorded speech instead of standard procedures. This potentially extends the number of SLPs who might administer some Spanish testing.

Foreign accents reduce false recognition rates in the DRM paradigm

ABSTRACTMore cognitive resources are required to comprehend foreign-accented than native speech. Focusing these cognitive resources on resolving the acoustic mismatch between the foreign-accented input and listeners’ stored representations of spoken words can affect other cognitive processes. Across two studies, we explored whether processing foreign-accented speech reduces the activation of semantic information. This was achieved using the DRM paradigm, in which participants study word lists and typically falsely remember non-studied words (i.e. critical lures) semantically associated with the studied words. In two experiments, participants were presented with word lists spoken both by a native and a foreign-accented speaker. In both experiments we observed lower false recognition rates for the critical lures associated with word lists presented in a foreign accent, compared to native speech. In addition, participants freely recalled more studied words when they had been presented in a native, compared to a foreign, accent, although this difference only emerged in Experiment 2, where the foreign speaker had a very strong accent. These observations suggest that processing foreign-accented speech modulates the activation of semantic information.HighlightsThe DRM paradigm was used to explore whether semantic activation is reduced when processing foreign-accented speech.Across two experiments, false recognition of non-studied semantic associates was lower when word lists were presented in a foreign accent, compared to native speech.The above results suggest semantic activation may be reduced when processing foreign-accented speech.Additionally, it was found that when the foreign speaker had a mild accent, correct recall of studied words was uninfluenced. If the foreign speaker had a strong accent, however, correct recall of studied words was reduced.

Anomaly detection based pronunciation verification approach using speech attribute features

Computer aided pronunciation training tools require accurate automatic pronunciation error detection algorithms to identify errors made by their users. However, the performance of these algorithms is highly dependent on the amount of mispronounced speech data used to train them and the reliability of its manual annotation. To overcome this problem, we turned the mispronunciation detection into an anomaly detection problem, which utilize algorithms trained with only correctly pronounced speech data. In this work we adopted the One-Class SVM as our anomaly detection model, with a specific model built for each phoneme. Each model was fed with a set of speech attribute features, namely the manners and places of articulation, extracted from a bank of binary DNN speech attribute detectors. We also applied multi-task learning and dropout approaches to alleviate the overfitting problem in the DNN speech attribute detectors. We trained the system using the WSJ0 and TIMIT standard data sets which contain only native English speech data and then evaluated it using three different data sets, a native English speaker corpus with artificial errors, a foreign-accented speech corpus and a children's disordered speech corpus. Finally, we compared our system with the conventional Goodness-of-Pronunciation (GOP) algorithm to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. The results show that our method reduced the false-acceptance and false-rejection rates by 26% and 39% respectively compared to the GOP method.

Specificity and generalization in perceptual adaptation to accented speech.

The present study investigated the degree to which perceptual adaptation to foreign-accented speech is specific to the regularities in pronunciation associated with a particular accent. Across experiments, the conditions under which generalization of learning did or did not occur were evaluated. In Experiment 1, listeners trained on word-length utterances in Korean-accented English and tested with words produced by the same or different set of Korean-accented speakers. Listeners performed better than untrained controls when tested with novel words from the same or different speakers. In Experiment 2, listeners were trained with Spanish-, Korean-, or mixed-accented speech and transcribed novel words produced by unfamiliar Korean- or Spanish-accented speakers at test. The findings revealed relative specificity of learning. Listeners trained and tested on the same variety of accented speech showed better transcription at test than those trained with a different accent or untrained controls. Performance after mixed-accent training was intermediate. Patterns of errors and analysis of acoustic properties for accented vowels suggested perceptual improvement for regularities arising from each accent, with learning dependent on the relative similarity of linguistic form within and across accents.

HOW DO SECOND LANGUAGE LISTENERS PERCEIVE THE COMPREHENSIBILITY OF FOREIGN-ACCENTED SPEECH?

AbstractThe current study examines how second language (L2) users differentially assess the comprehensibility (i.e., ease of understanding) of foreign-accented speech according to a range of background variables, including first language (L1) profiles, L2 proficiency, age, experience, familiarity, and metacognition. A total of 110 L2 listeners first evaluated the global comprehensibility of 50 spontaneous speech samples produced by low-, mid-, and high-proficiency Japanese speakers of English. The listeners were categorized into two subgroups according to a cluster analysis of their rating scores: lenient and strict. Results showed that while the lenient listeners appeared to rely equally on many linguistic areas of speech during their judgments, the strict listeners were strongly attuned to phonological accuracy. Analysis of the background questionnaire data revealed that more lenient listeners likely had higher levels of awareness of the importance of comprehensibility for communication (metacognition); regularly used L2 English in professional settings (experience); and had L1s more linguistically close to the target speech samples, Japanese-accented English (L1-L2 distance).

Effects of pitch contour and speaking rate on perception of foreign-accented speech

Perception of foreign accent is typically studied using an accentedness rating task. For example, native English listeners rate the degree of accentedness in sentences produced by non-native English speakers. However, in the past studies, it has been unclear that on what criteria participants used to judge accentedness. Here, native English speakers rated the accentedness of Korean-accented English sentences on a scale from 1 (strong accent) to 9 (little to no accent). Participants rated sentences that were unmodified or had one acoustic property removed. In one block, pitch contours of sentences were flattened and set to their mean values. In another block, speaking rates were set to the grand mean of all speaking rates (3.8 syllables/second). This way, changes in accentedness ratings across unmodified and modified sentences were attributable to the acoustic property that was removed. Accentedness ratings were not systematically influenced by manipulations of pitch contours but were influenced by speaking rate manipulations. Increasing the speaking rate (to 3.8 syllables/second) made sentences sound less accented than their unmodified versions; decreasing the speaking rate made sentences sound more accented than their unmodified versions. Results suggest that the speaking rate directly contributes to ratings of foreign accentedness.

Eyes Wide Open: Pupillary Response to a Foreign Accent Varying in Intelligibility

This study examines listening effort, as indexed by pupil dilation, needed for processing foreign-accented speech that varies in intelligibility. Previous research has shown that the magnitude of pupil dilation is influenced by various factors, crucially the amount of noise added to speech. However, the method has not yet been used to examine foreign-accented speech. Here, we determine if the full range of foreign accent intelligibility induces a similar increase in cognitive processing effort as that seen for speech in noise. Further, we examine whether listener experience with the accent mitigates this increase in cognitive effort. The results indicate that as speech becomes less intelligible due to accent, pupil dilation increases. Additionally, experience not only reduces the overall magnitude of pupil dilation, it shifts the threshold at which decreased intelligibility begins to incur additional processing effort. We discuss the present results in terms of listening effort when processing spoken variability. The present study establishes pupillometry as an informative method for investigating the processing demands associated with foreign-accented speech.

Native and Non-Native Listeners Perceptual Judgement of English Accentedness, Intelligibility, and Acceptability of Indonesian Speakers

This research aimed at investigating the extent of accentedness and intelligibility as well as the acceptability of Indonesian foreign-accented speech perceived by native and non-native listeners, as well as finding their correlation to each other. It used qualitative research. The participant of the research was selected using purposive sampling. The participants were divided into speakers and listeners. There are six speakers and four listeners selected. The four listeners were native and nonnative listeners who rated and transcribed six recorded reading of Indonesian speakers by means of SPIN (Speech Perception in Noise) test. The results show that native listeners rate the speech almost the same way as non-native listeners do. The speeches with clear and accurate pronunciation are rated highly accepted and fully intelligible, regardless of having a very strong accent. In contrast, less clear and accurate pronunciations, as well as a very strong accent of the speeches, are rated unacceptable and still reasonably intelligible. The result of the correlation test between accentedness and intelligibility as well as accentedness and acceptability of the accent finds on no account of correlation to each other. Therefore, accentedness and intelligibility plus accentedness and acceptability of the accent are independent, so that strong foreign accent could stay acceptable and intelligible. The factors found to influence the judgment are the familiarity of the accent, clarity, and accuracy of pronunciation. Aforementioned findings have implication to challenge English teachers in Indonesia to develop meaningful activities to teach English pronunciation accurately to be regarded as fully intelligible and acceptable by listeners, especially native English listeners.

Age Estimation in Foreign-accented Speech by Native and Non-native Speakers.

Current research shows that listeners are generally accurate at estimating speakers' age from their speech. This study investigates the effect of speaker first language and the role played by such speaker characteristics as fundamental frequency and speech rate. In this study English and Japanese first language speakers listened to English- and Japanese-accented English speech and estimated the speaker's age. We find the highest correlation between real and estimated speaker age for English listeners listening to English speakers, followed by Japanese listeners listening to both English and Japanese speakers, with English listeners listening to Japanese speakers coming last. We find that Japanese speakers are estimated to be younger than the English speakers by English listeners, and that both groups of listeners estimate male speakers and speakers with a lower mean fundamental frequency to be older. These results suggest that listeners rely on sociolinguistic information in their speaker age estimations and language familiarity plays a role in their success.

Training for English-Medium Instruction in French Higher Education: Keeping Pronunciation in Focus

English-Medium Instruction (EMI) is spreading in French higher education and this paper argues that appropriate support for teachers willing to teach their subject in English should focus on both language and content, and on the pedagogical specificities of combining the two. More specifically, I argue that the pronunciation component of any such training must go beyond improving a teacher’s intelligibility. Training in the specificities of spoken English – for both teachers and students, as interchangeable speakers and listeners – should aim to improve two things: attitudes toward variation of spoken language and awareness of the cognitive impact of foreign-accented speech (FAS) (speech which exhibits acoustic features from a speaker’s mother tongue(s)). In this paper, I start by describing pronunciation as a subject in English language teacher training in the English-speaking world and second language pronunciation as an international research field. This is followed by a brief description of EMI teacher training in France and the presentation of a few key findings of research into the social and cognitive impact of FAS. I then outline what is involved for both listeners and speakers, if we want to modify their attitudes to spoken language variation and to improve their cognitive comfort in processing FAS. Example training exercises are outlined, and in the conclusion a greater role is advocated for English language teachers within the internationalisation of French higher education.