L1 Categories Research Articles

Spectral and temporal acoustic differences between English and Dutch vowels

This study aims to compare the acoustic characteristics of English and Dutch vowels and to model the perception of Dutch vowels by English speakers on the basis of crosslinguistic acoustic similarity. The first three formant frequencies and the duration of vowels were extracted from the output of 20 native English and 20 native Dutch speakers. A linear discriminant analysis (LDA) algorithm was trained on the productions of English speakers and the Dutch productions were later supplied to the model to provide a predicted proportion of how each nonnative vowel would be classified in terms of the speakers’ L1 categories. The results of LDA demonstrated that all but one Dutch vowel were classified as above-chance responses in terms of two or more English categories. Due to the large and complex vowel system of English, completely overlapping contrasts were absent, while there was a large number of partially overlapping contrasts, which are predicted to exhibit moderate-to-good discrimination. The results of crosslinguistic acoustic similarity are largely consistent with those involving other English listeners of Dutch, potentially highlighting the importance of acoustic cues in estimating listeners’ speech perception patterns.

The Articulatory and Acoustic Representation of Second-Language French Vowels.

This study examines how L1 English-L2 French learners use L1 articulatory and acoustic categories to produce L2 vowels that are both similar to and different from their L1 vowels. Previous studies examining the relationship between L1 and L2 sound inventories have found that learners reuse L1 phone categories to produce L2 phones that are perceived as similar, but importantly, there is a lack of articulatory data included in these types of studies, which has reinforced the assumption that vowel categories can be solely represented by their acoustic properties. The present study uses ultrasound tongue imaging data and videos of lip rounding in addition to acoustic data to examine how L1 English-L2 French learners produce the French vowels /i y u e ø o/ compared with their English vowels /i u e o/. The results focus on individual paths to category formation to show how learners articulate L2 vowels, and reveal that they tend to reuse L1 tongue body gestures to produce the French vowels /i u e o/, and lip rounding gestures to produce the round vowels /y u o/. This study demonstrates that transfer of articulatory gestures depends on vowel quality and emphasizes the importance of using articulatory data to inform theories of L2 category formation.

Compactness of Native Vowel Categories in Monolingual, Bilingual, and Multilingual Speakers: Is Category Compactness Affected by the Number of Languages Spoken?

Phonetic category compactness pertains to the degree of variation or dispersion within a specific category. Previous research has shown that more compact native (L1) categories in production have been related to the discrimination of non-native sounds in perception and production. The understanding of the factors influencing L1 category compactness remains limited. Some proposals suggest that compactness may be influenced by individual differences in cognitive processes. Alternatively, category compactness could be linked to linguistic factors, such as the number of languages spoken or the density of the phonological system. This study investigates the latter hypothesis. This study examined category compactness in perception for three L1 Spanish vowels /i/, /e/, and /a/ across four participant groups: 12 monolinguals, 31 functional monolinguals, 24 bilinguals, and 19 multilinguals. To measure compactness in perception, the study employed a perceptual categorization task consisting of synthesized variants of /i/, /e/, and /a/. Participants were asked to label these variants as either acceptable or unacceptable members of their L1 /i/, /e/, and /a/ categories. The findings revealed significant differences in category compactness between monolingual and bi/multilingual speakers. More specifically, bilingual and multilingual speakers had larger/less compact L1 vowel categories than monolinguals. The substantial variability in compactness across all groups suggests that compactness may be influenced by a range of other individual differences, besides the number of languages spoken.

Acoustic Analyses of L1 and L2 Vowel Interactions in Mandarin–Cantonese Late Bilinguals

While the focus of bilingual research is frequently on simultaneous or early bilingualism, the interactions between late bilinguals’ first language (L1) and second language (L2) have rarely been studied previously. To fill this research gap, the aim of the current study was to investigate the production of vowels in the L1 Mandarin and L2 Cantonese of Mandarin–Cantonese late bilinguals in Hong Kong. A production experiment was conducted with 22 Mandarin–Cantonese bilinguals, as well as with 20 native Mandarin speakers and 21 native Cantonese speakers. Acoustic analyses, including formants of and Euclidean distances between the vowels, were performed. Both vowel category assimilation and dissimilation were noted in the Mandarin–Cantonese bilinguals’ L1 and L2 vowel systems, suggesting interactions between the bilinguals’ L1 and L2 vowel categories. In general, the findings are in line with the hypotheses of the Speech Learning Model and its revised version, which state that L1–L2 phonetic interactions are inevitable, as there is a common phonetic space for storing the L1 and L2 phonetic categories, and that learners always have the ability to adapt their phonetic space. Future studies should refine the data elicitation method, increase the sample size and include more language pairs to better understand L1 and L2 phonetic interactions.

Optimizing the input for learning of L2-specific constructions: The roles of Zipfian and balanced input, explicit rules and working memory

AbstractUsage-based theory has proposed that learning of linguistic constructions is facilitated by input that contains few high-frequency exemplars, in what is known as a skewed (or Zipfian) input distribution. Early empirical work provided support to this idea, but subsequent L2 research has provided mixed findings. However, previous approaches have not explored the impact that cognitive traits (e.g., working memory) have on the effectiveness of skewed or balanced input. The experiment reported here tested learners’ ability to develop new L2 categories of adjectives that guide lexical selection in Spanish verbs of “becoming.” The results showed that, when explicit rules are provided, low-working memory learners benefitted from reduced variability in skewed input, while high-working memory individuals benefitted from balanced input, which better allows for rule-based hypothesis testing. The findings help clarify the mixed findings in previous studies and suggest a way forward for optimizing the L2 input based on individual traits.

Relating assimilation data to identification data in second language learners

Commonly cited models of bilingual phonology, e.g., the Speech Learning Model and the Perceptual Assimilation Model, project hypotheses about second language (L2) developmental patterns based on hypothetical assimilation patterns between categories in the learner’s first language (L1) and L2, with the addition of a learning component which differentiates an L2 and L1 system. This paper relates two experiments with two participant groups, one native Korean, and one native Taiwan Mandarin. Both groups identify English obstruents /p b t d f v θ ð/ in four prosodic positions (onset, coda, and intervocalic pre-stress and post-stress) using their native non-Roman graphemes in the first experiment, and using English labels in the second. The assimilation results generate predictions for discrimination performance in the second experiment, assuming only the L1 categories. The two groups show large differences in assimilation pattern due largely to the non-sibilant fricative /f/ in Mandarin, in opposition to the Korean system which has only non-sibilant /h/. Analyses reveal a strong correlation between L2 discrimination patterns and predictions based solely on the L2-L1 assimilation results, suggesting that the perceptual system of L2 learners can be surprisingly well-captured as a single perceptual system with a bilingual array of segmental categories.

Classification of English vowels in terms of Cypriot Greek categories: The role of acoustic similarity between L1 and L2 sounds

Abstract Previous evidence has suggested that acoustic similarity between first language (L1) and second language (L2) sounds is an accurate indicator of the speakers’ L2 classification patterns. This study investigates this assumption by examining how speakers of an under-researched language, namely Cypriot Greek, classify L2 English vowels in terms of their L1 categories. The experimental protocol relied on a perception and a production study. For the purpose of the production study, two linear discriminant analysis (LDA) models, one with both formants and duration (FD) and one with only formants (F) as input, were used to predict this classification; the models included data from both English and Cypriot Greek speakers. The perception study consisted of a classification task performed by adult Cypriot Greek advanced speakers of English who permanently resided in Cyprus. The results demonstrated that acoustic similarity was a relatively good predictor of speakers’ classification patterns as the majority of L2 vowels classified with the highest proportion were predicted with success by the LDA models. In addition, the F model was better than the FD model in predicting the full range of responses. This shows that duration features were less important than formant features for the prediction of L2 vowel classification.

Producing a smaller sound system: Acoustics and articulation of the subset scenario in Gaelic–English bilinguals

Abstract When a bilingual speaker has a larger linguistic sub-system in their L1 than their L2, how are L1 categories mapped to the smaller set of L2 categories? This article investigates this “subset scenario” (Escudero, 2005) through an analysis of laterals in highly proficient bilinguals (Scottish Gaelic L1, English L2). Gaelic has three lateral phonemes and English has one. We examine acoustics and articulation (using ultrasound tongue imaging) of lateral production in speakers’ two languages. Our results suggest that speakers do not copy a relevant Gaelic lateral into their English, instead maintaining language-specific strategies, with speakers also producing English laterals with positional allophony. These results show that speakers develop a separate production strategy for their L2. Our results advance models such as the L2LP which has mainly considered perception data, and also contribute articulatory data to this area of study.

Spectrum of lymph node lesions as per recent Sydney system of lymph node classification

Background: Lymphadenopathy may be an incidental finding and/or primary or secondary manifestation of underlying diseases which may be neoplastic or non-neoplastic. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the spectrum of lymph node lesions according to the Sydney system in our setting and to assess the risk of malignancy in each category. Methods: The present study was carried out in the Department of Pathology, Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, Patna (Bihar) retrospectively during a one-year period from November 2020 to October 2021. 332 FNACs were performed on patients and the ROM (Risk of Malignancy) was assessed for each diagnostic category. Results: In the present study, 11 cases were categorized as L1, inadequate/non-diagnostic; 291 cases as L2,benign; 06 cases as L3, AUS/ALUS; 03 as L4, Suspicious for malignancy, and finally 21 cases were categorized as L5, Malignant. The ROM was 1.28% in L2, 50% in L3, and 100% in L4,L5. ROM for L1 category could not be assessed. Conclusion: The universal implementation of the Sydney system of reporting lymph node cytopathology can improve the diagnostic accuracy which will not only instill confidence in the pathologists but also help the clinicians to adopt better management strategies. Keywords: granulomatous; lymphadenitis; lymphoma; metastases; malignancy

Perception of Dutch vowels by Cypriot Greek listeners: To what extent can listeners’ patterns be predicted by acoustic and perceptual similarity?

There have been numerous studies investigating the perception of non-native sounds by listeners with different first language (L1) backgrounds. However, research needs to expand to under-researched languages and incorporate predictions conducted under the assumptions of new speech models. This study aimed to investigate the perception of Dutch vowels by Cypriot Greek adult listeners and test the predictions of cross-linguistic acoustic and perceptual similarity. The predictions of acoustic similarity were formed using a machine-learning algorithm. Listeners completed a classification test, which served as the baseline for developing the predictions of perceptual similarity by employing the framework of the Universal Perceptual Model (UPM), and an AXB discrimination test; the latter allowed the evaluation of both acoustic and perceptual predictions. The findings indicated that listeners classified each non-native vowel as one or more L1 vowels, while the discrimination accuracy over the non-native contrasts was moderate. In addition, cross-linguistic acoustic similarity predicted to a large extent the classification of non-native sounds in terms of L1 categories and both the acoustic and perceptual similarity predicted the discrimination accuracy of all contrasts. Being in line with prior findings, these findings demonstrate that acoustic and perceptual cues are reliable predictors of non-native contrast discrimination and that the UPM model can make accurate estimations for the discrimination patterns of non-native listeners.

Comparison of the prediction accuracy of machine learning algorithms in crosslinguistic vowel classification

Machine learning algorithms can be used for the prediction of nonnative sound classification based on crosslinguistic acoustic similarity. To date, very few linguistic studies have compared the classification accuracy of different algorithms. This study aims to assess how well machines align with human speech perception by assessing the ability of three machine learning algorithms, namely, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), decision tree (C5.0), and neural network (NNET), to predict the classification of second language (L2) sounds in terms of first language (L1) categories. The models were trained using the first three formants and duration of L1 vowels and fed with the same acoustic features of L2 vowels. To validate their accuracy, adult L2 speakers completed a perceptual classification task. The results indicated that NNET predicted with success the classification of all L2 vowels with the highest proportion in terms of L1 categories, while LDA and C5.0 missed only one vowel each. Furthermore, NNET exhibited superior accuracy in predicting the full range of above chance responses, followed closely by LDA. C5.0 did not meet the anticipated performance levels. The findings can hold significant implications for advancing both the theoretical and practical frameworks of speech acquisition.

Phonetic Dissimilarity and L2 Category Formation in L2 Accommodation.

Many studies of speech accommodation focus on native speakers with different dialects, whereas only a limited number of studies work on L2 speakers' accommodation and discuss theories for second language (L2) accommodation. This paper aimed to fill the theoretical gap by integrating the revised speech learning model (SLM) with the exemplar-based models for L2 speech accommodation. A total of 19 Cantonese-English bilingual speakers completed map tasks with English speakers of Received Pronunciation and General American English in two separate experiments. Their pronunciations of THOUGHT and PATH vowels, and fricatives [z] and [θ] were examined before, during, and after the map tasks. The role of phonetic dissimilarity in L2 accommodation and L2 category formation in the revised SLM (SLM-r) were tested. First, the results suggested that global phonetic dissimilarity cannot predict Hong Kong English (HKE) speakers' accommodation patterns. Instead, the segment-specific phonetic dissimilarity between participants and interlocutors was found to be positively correlated with the participants' degree of accommodation. In addition, HKE speakers who did not form a new L2 category of [z] were found to significantly accommodate toward their interlocutor, suggesting that L2 accommodation might not be constrained by phonological category. An integrated exemplar model for L2 accommodation is proposed to explain these findings.

Diagnostic Accuracy of Lymph Nodes Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy Based on The Sydney System for Reporting Lymph Node Cytology.

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and malignancy risk of The Sydney System Reporting for Lymph Nodes Cytology. This study utilized secondary data from 156 cases to conduct a retrospective analysis of a diagnostic test method. During 2019-2021, data were collected at Dr. Wahidin Sudirohusodo's Anatomical Pathology Laboratory in Makassar, Indonesia. The cytology slides of each case were split into five diagnostic groups using the Sydney method, which were then compared with the results of the histopathological diagnosis. There were six cases in the L1 category, thirty-two cases in the L2 category, thirteen patients in the L3 category, seventeen cases in the L4 category, and ninety-one cases in the L5 class. The malignant probability (MP) is computed for each diagnostic classification. L1 MP value is 66.7%, L2 MP value is 15.6%, L3 MP value is 76.9%, L4 MP value is 94.0%, and L5 MP value is 98.9%. The diagnostic value of the FNAB examination is as follows: 89.9% sensitivity, 92.9% specificity, 98.2% positive predictive value, 68.4% negative predictive value, and 90.47% diagnostic accuracy. The FNAB examination provides high sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy in diagnosing lymph node tumors. Using a classification based on the Sydney system promotes communication between laboratories and clinicians.<br />.

Speakers of different L1 dialects with acoustically proximal vowel systems present with similar nonnative speech perception abilities: Data from Greek listeners of Dutch

Previous evidence suggests that nonnative speech perception is modulated by the speakers’ first language (L1) dialect. This study aims (a) to examine the discrimination of Dutch vowel contrasts by Greek listeners , and (b) to determine whether listeners' L1 Greek dialectal background, namely, Standard Modern Greek (SMG) and Cypriot Greek (CG), affects the discrimination of nonnative contrasts. It has been proposed that crosslinguistic similarity between L1 and nonnative sounds can predict the perception of the latter sounds. For that purpose, discrimination predictions were developed using a linear discriminant analysis (LDA), which was based on the acoustic similarity between SMG/CG and Dutch vowels and which provided quantification of the classification of nonnative vowels in terms of the listeners' L1 categories. The participants of the perceptual study were adult Greek (SMG and CG) listeners of Dutch who completed an AXB test on a PC script. The results of the discrimination test showed that three out of four contrasts signaled good discrimination, while one contrast signaled less good discrimination. Although crosslinguistic acoustic similarity was a relatively good predictor of the listeners’ nonnative discrimination patterns, it failed to provide accurate predictions for some contrasts. Another important finding was that SMG listeners did not differ from CG listeners in the discrimination of Dutch vowel contrasts. Probably, the high acoustic proximity between the vowel systems of the two varieties led listeners to employ similar acoustic properties to discriminate nonnative sounds.

Spectral and temporal implementation of Japanese speakers’ English vowel categories: A corpus-based study

This study investigates the predictions of second language (L2) acquisition models — SLM, PAM-L2, and L2LP — on how native (L1) Japanese speakers implement the spectral and temporal aspects of L2 American English vowel categories. Data were obtained from 102 L1 Japanese speakers in the J-AESOP corpus, which also includes nativelikeness judgments by trained phoneticians. Spectrally, speakers judged to be less nativelike showed a strong influence of L1-L2 category assimilation, except L2 /æː/ whose dissimilarity from L1 categories likely triggered new category formation, in accordance with SLM and PAM-L2. However, more nativelike speakers showed vowel spectra similar to those of native English speakers for all vowels, which aligns better with L2LP. Temporally, although speakers tended to assimilate the phonetic length of English vowels to Japanese phonemic length distinctions, segment-level L1-L2 category similarity was not a significant predictor of the speakers’ nativelikeness. Instead, implementation of prosodic-level factors such as stress and phrase-final lengthening were better predictors. The results highlight the importance of suprasegmental factors in successful L2 category learning and also reveal a weakness in current models of L2 acquisition, which focus primarily on the segmental level. The use of speech corpora for L2 research is discussed.

L1 category precision hypothesis in L2 production: Korean learners’ English front vowels

It has been hypothesized that learners with more precisely defined categories in their native language (L1) are better at learning nonnative sounds in a second language (L2). Some perception studies have supported this hypothesis, but not many production studies have been conducted. Our study aims to fill this gap. Focusing on front vowels in F1/F2 acoustic space, we calculated compactness scores of L1 vowels and distances between learners’ and native speakers’ productions to operationalize category precision and L2 accuracy, respectively. Then, we examined whether learners with a lower compactness score would produce L2 vowels with a closer distance. The learners’ productions were taken from a corpus containing native Korean speakers’ reading and retelling of the North Wind and the Sun in Korean and English and comparable native English speakers’ productions from ALLSSTAR corpus. Results showed that learners with lower compactness scores produced more accurate English /i/ and /ɪ/, but not for /ɛ/ or /æ/, which partially supports the hypothesis's application to L2 production. We speculate that the merger between /e/ and /æ/ in Korean, the Northern Cities Vowel Shift in English, and/or perceptual mapping between native and L2 categories are responsible for the English non-high vowel results.

Nonverbal Intelligence Does Matter for the Perception of Second Language Sounds

Although there has been considerable research on the interplay between intelligence and second language (L2) learning, research focusing on the intelligence and L2 speech perception link is limited. The present study aims to fill this gap. The native language of the participants was Cypriot Greek and they spoke English as an L2. The participants completed a forced-choice psychoacoustic test in which they discriminated L2 sound contrasts and a nonverbal intelligence test which measured their nonverbal intelligence capacities. They were divided into two groups according to their performance in the intelligence test, namely, a low IQ and a high IQ group. The results showed that the high IQ group discriminated the majority of the L2 contrasts better than the low IQ group. In addition, the degree of perceived difficulty for most L2 contrasts differed between the two groups. It is concluded that nonverbal intelligence is associated with the discrimination of L2 sounds. This can be explained by the possibility that either intelligence triggers the more efficient functioning of other domains, such as information processing and attention, leading to increased speech perception skills, or that it directly affects the categorization of speech sounds resulting in the development of more robust L2 categories.

APPLICABILITY OF THE PROPOSED SYDNEY SYSTEM: CLASSIFICATION AND REPORTING OF LYMPH NODE FINE-NEEDLE CYTOLOGY

Most of the disease conditions whether benign or malignancypresents as lymphadenopathy. Therefore, first line evaluation of lymphadenopathy of unknown etiology, fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNC) act as an important diagnostic tool. Recently, an expert panel published the proposal of the Sydney system for reporting and classification of lymph node cytopathology. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the applicability of Sydney system of classification and reporting. Material and method: It is retrospective study done in tertiary health care center in which FNC diagnoses were correlated with histopathological and clinical follow-up, to assess the diagnostic accuracy and the risk of malignancy (ROM) for each diagnostic category. A total of 1204 lymph node FNCs that were performed between 1st of January 2021to 31st of August 2021 were reviewed. Results: Out of 1204 cases, n=127 cases (10.5%) were re-categorized as L1-inadequate/non-diagnostic n = 805 (66.8%) as benign (L2) n = 12 (0.99%) as atypical (L3) n = 15 (1.24%) as suspicious (L4), and n = 241 (20%) as malignant (L5). Statistical analysis: Sensitivity 99.37%, specificity 98.31%, positive predictive value 99.6%, negative predictive value 98.5%, and accuracy 98.12%. The ROM was 100% for L4 and L5category, 66.6% for L3, 1.51% and 0.66% for L1 and L2 categories, respectively. Conclusion:In lymph node FNC reporting, diagnostic accuracy can be improved by the implementation of Sydney system of classification and reporting. Moreover management recommendation specific for each categories with increased ROM that enables the clinician with better management of patient care.

THE PRODUCTION OF HIGH BACK VOWELS: A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF AMERICAN ENGLISH AND STANDARD SERBIAN

This paper reports on the findings of a contrastive study of American English high back vowels /u, ʊ/ and Serbian vowel /u/ produced by ten male native speakers of Serbian. Previous research (Marković 2009a; Bjekić, Čubrović 2021; Čubrović 2019, 2017; Dančetović, Nešić 2017) has indicated that the differences in quality between the English high back vowels /u/ and /ʊ/ are often poorly detected by Serbian speakers. Therefore, the overall aim of the present research is to observe the acoustic properties of high back vowels in the given languages, so as to determine whether or not our subjects can adequately produce the L2 vowels with respect to both quality and quantity, and whether they can differentiate them from their L1 categories. The research subjects were first instructed to read a set of 13 monosyllabic English words representing the high back vowels /u, ʊ/ in different phonetic environments. The second task called for the subjects to read a set of 13 Serbian words representing the vowel /u/ in short and long stressed syllables. The collected speech samples were then analyzed acoustically using Praat, version 6.2.13 (Boersma, Weenink 2022). The statistical analysis of the acoustic measurements was performed using R, version 4.2.1 (R Development Core Team 2022). The results suggest that, in terms of quantity, in the speech of Serbian students, the lax vowel, in particular, bears more resemblance to the subjects’ L1 category, rather than the targeted vowel. The analysis of the formant data indicates that, although our subjects’ L2 categories differ from those of native speakers, the quality of GA high back vowels our subjects produce does not reflect the quality of their L1 categories.

Structured Reporting of Lymph Node Cytopathology using the 2020 Sydney System Guidelines-A Retrospective Study

Introduction: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) is a valuable diagnostic aid for evaluation of lymph node pathology. The new Sydney System (2020) for classification and reporting of lymph node FNAC has put forth guidelines for a categorical classification using uniform terminology and morphologic criteria, a major step towards standardisation. Aim: The study was aimed to evaluate cytopathology of lymph node lesions during 2 year period by applying the proposed Sydney system and to assess the category wise Risk Of Malignancy (ROM) by comparing with histopathology diagnosis in available cases. Materials and Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted in 2021 December, on lymph node aspirates obtained during two-year period from January 2018 till January 2020 in the department of Pathology of a tertiary care centre. FNAC of 250 lymph node aspirates were evaluated. Smears were reviewed and categorised as per the Sydney System of reporting as, L1: non diagnostic/inadequate, L2: benign, L3: atypical cells/atypical lymphoid cells of undetermined significance, L4: suspicious for malignancy, L5: malignant. The diagnostic accuracy of cytology and ROM in each category was assessed comparing with the gold standard histopathology diagnosis where available. Results: Category wise distribution of 250 cytological diagnosis of lymphadenopathy reclassified in Sydney system were L1-14 (5.60%); L2-159 (63.60%); L3-04 (1.60%); L4-05 (2%); and L5-68 (27.20%) cases. Using histopathology as gold standard available in 53 cases, the ROM in each category was found to be 0%, 3%, 66.66%, 100% and 100%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, Positive Predictive Value (PPV), Negative Predictive Value (NPV) and diagnostic accuracy of cytological diagnosis was found to be 95.65%, 96.29%, 95.65%, 96.29% and 96%, respectively. Reactive lymphadenitis in 86 (34.40%) and metastatic carcinoma in 61 (24.40%) cases were the most common benign and malignant lesions respectively. Conclusion: The Sydney system of structured reporting in lymph node cytology provides a clear-cut terminology, uniformity, and reproducibility of reports. It enhances the role of FNAC by alerting the clinician for follow-up and ancillary studies in atypical and equivocal cases. In the non diagnostic L1 category, repeat procedure or biopsy should be recommended to avoid False Negative (FN) diagnosis.