Native American English Speakers Research Articles

Negative pragmatic transfer and language proficiency: American learners of Arabic

ABSTRACT This study investigated the relationship between language proficiency and negative pragmatic transfer from a first language (L1), focusing on the speech act of refusal as realised by American learners of Arabic as a Foreign Language (AFL) in Egyptian Arabic. Twenty American AFL learners (10 intermediate and 10 advanced) and 2 baseline groups (10 native speakers of Egyptian Arabic and 10 native speakers of American English) participated in the study. Data were collected using enhanced open-ended role plays, which consisted of six scenarios eliciting refusals of requests and offers in lower, equal and higher status situations. The study is significant because it is the first to examine issues of pragmatic competence and transfer among American learners of AFL. Results showed that both learner groups engaged in negative pragmatic transfer from English with regard to the overall frequency of direct and indirect strategies, individual refusal strategies, strategy use relative to status and discourse-level transfer. The findings also showed that the intermediate learners engaged in negative pragmatic transfer more frequently than their advanced counterparts. Additionally, learners sometimes used patterns that deviated from the norms of both learners’ L1 and their target second language (L2).

An Acoustic Investigation of Pakistani and American English Vowels

Acoustic analysis tests the hypothesis that the physical properties of Pakistani English (PaKE) vowels differ in terms of acoustic measurements of Native American English speakers. The present paper aims to document the physical behavior of English vowels produced by PaKE learners. The major goal of this paper is to measure the production of sound frequencies coupled with vowel duration. The primary aim of this paper is to explore the different frequencies and duration of the vowels involved in articulation of PaKE. English vowels selected for this purpose are: /æ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/ and /ə/. Total ten samplings were obtained from the department of computer science at Sindh Madressatul Islam University, Karachi. The study was based on the analysis of 500 (10×5×10=500) voice samples. Five vowel minimal pairs were selected and written in a carrier phrase [I say CVC now]. Ten speakers (5 male & five female) recorded their 500 voice samples using Praat speech processing tool and a high-quality microphone on laptop in a computer laboratory with no background sound. Three parameters were considered for the analysis of PaKE vowels i.e., duration of five vowels, fundamental frequency (F1 and F2). It was hypothesized that the properties of PaKE vowels are different from that of English native speakers. The hypothesis was accepted since the acoustic measurements of PaKE and English Native American speakers’ physical properties of sounds were discovered different.

Politeness Strategies in Remindings A Cross-cultural Study of Iranian EFL learners and Americans

This cross-cultural study examines the speech act of reminding by Iranian English learners and American English native speakers. The primary objective is to study how Iranian EFL learners perform much understudied speech act of reminding in English. To this end, the participants are selected from Iranian learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and American English native speakers through an open-ended questionnaire in the form of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT).The collected data are then analyzed based on a framework adopted from Peterson’s (2012) study of speech act of reminding. The findings show that whereas English native speakers utilize more indirect strategies in reminding their interlocutors to cope with the required activity, EFL learners tend to use direct strategies more frequently.

Relation of musical experience to perceiving and producing aspirated Hindi consonants

Past research shows that those with musical experience often perceive and produce unfamiliar speech contrasts better than non-musicians (e.g., Gottfried, 2007; Lee & Hung, 2008; Marie, Delogu, Lampis, Belardinelli, & Besson, 2011; Slevc & Miyake, 2006). The present research seeks to clarify the mechanisms which underlie this relationship through a “test-teach-test” paradigm (see Vlahou, Protopapas, & Seitz, 2012). In the first session, native speakers of American English with and without conservatory training were tested on their discrimination of Hindi sentences that contained either an aspirated (e.g., [bh]) or unaspirated (e.g., [b]) consonant (“test”). In a second session, participants completed training on producing and perceptually discriminating the aspirated and unaspirated Hindi consonants (“teach”). In the third session, participants were tested on their ability to perceive and to produce these unfamiliar consonants in the same and different phonetic contexts (“test”). Preliminary results suggest that all participants benefited from the training, but Improvement was markedly greater for musicians than for non-musicians. Current studies are further testing additional musicians and non-musicians to evaluate the extent which musical experience influences perception and production of these unfamiliar Hindi phonemes.Past research shows that those with musical experience often perceive and produce unfamiliar speech contrasts better than non-musicians (e.g., Gottfried, 2007; Lee & Hung, 2008; Marie, Delogu, Lampis, Belardinelli, & Besson, 2011; Slevc & Miyake, 2006). The present research seeks to clarify the mechanisms which underlie this relationship through a “test-teach-test” paradigm (see Vlahou, Protopapas, & Seitz, 2012). In the first session, native speakers of American English with and without conservatory training were tested on their discrimination of Hindi sentences that contained either an aspirated (e.g., [bh]) or unaspirated (e.g., [b]) consonant (“test”). In a second session, participants completed training on producing and perceptually discriminating the aspirated and unaspirated Hindi consonants (“teach”). In the third session, participants were tested on their ability to perceive and to produce these unfamiliar consonants in the same and different phonetic contexts (“test”). Preliminary results sugges...

Speaker variability in spoken word recognition: Evidence from non-native listeners

Non-native listeners face many challenges during spoken word recognition. On the lexical level, the vocabulary size of non-native listeners is usually reduced relative to native listeners. Lexical competition can arise from the lexicon in both the native and the non-native language during speech perception. How do non-native listeners resolve speaker variability, a challenge that is presumably non-lexical in spoken word recognition? This study aims to explore non-native spoken word recognition in the face of speaker variability. Mandarin speakers using English as a second or foreign language are recruited to listen to pairs of English words (e.g., cat—dog). Lexical decision time and accuracy on the second item in a pair (e.g., dog) are measured. The pairs are either spoken by the same or different native speakers of American English to examine the effect of speaker change on reaction time and accuracy in a short-term priming paradigm. Non-native listeners’ pattern of response is explored as a function of the amount of priming received against speaker variability.

The effects of lexical and phonological factors on talker processing

Previous research has shown that listeners are better at processing talker information in their native language compared to an unfamiliar language, a phenomenon known as the Language Familiarity Effect. Several studies have explored the cause of this effect. Some have argued that it is tied to the lexicon and the ability to comprehend, while others have suggested that it is the familiarity with the phonology. In the current study, we use an AX discrimination task to test these two factors simultaneously by manipulating lexical status (words/nonwords) and phonotactic probability (high/low). We also test individual differences in reading ability, as poor phonological awareness skills are linked to reading impairment. Twenty-four native speakers of American English completed the AX task and a battery of phonological awareness tasks. Reaction time results revealed an interaction between lexical status and phonotactic probability: words with high phonotactic probability were processed faster than words with low phonotactic probability, but no difference was found for the nonwords. Sensitivity (A’) revealed no effects of lexical status or phonotactic probability, but did reveal that listeners with higher reading scores were more sensitive to talker differences.

An Argument for Self-Report as a Reference Standard in Audiology.

The primary components of a diagnostic accuracy study are an index test, the target condition (or disorder), and a reference standard. According to the Standards for Reporting Diagnostic Accuracy statement, the reference standard should be the best method available to independently determine if the results of an index test are correct. Pure-tone thresholds have been used as the "gold standard" for the validation of some tests used in audiology. Many studies, however, have shown a lack of agreement between the audiogram and the patient's perception of hearing ability. For example, patients with normal audiograms may report difficulty understanding speech in the presence of background noise. The primary purpose of this article is to present an argument for the use of self-report as a reference standard for diagnostic studies in the field of audiology. This will be in the form of a literature review on pure-tone threshold measures and self-report as reference standards. The secondary purpose is to determine the diagnostic accuracy of pure-tone threshold and Hearing-in-Noise Test (HINT) measures for the detection of a speech-recognition-in-noise disorder. Two groups of participants with normal pure-tone thresholds were evaluated. The King-Kopetzky syndrome (KKS) group was made up of participants with the self-report of speech-recognition-in-noise difficulties. The control group was made up of participants with no reports of speech-recognition-in-noise problems. The reference standard was self-report. Diagnostic accuracy of HINT and pure-tone threshold measures was determined by measuring group differences, sensitivity and specificity, and the area under the curve (AUC) for receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Forty-seven participants were tested. All participants were native speakers of American English. Twenty-two participants were in the control group and 25 in the KKS group. The groups were matched for age. Pure-tone threshold data were collected using the Hughson-Westlake procedure. Speech-recognition-in-noise data was collected using a software system and the standard HINT protocol. Statistical analyses were conducted using descriptive, correlational, two-sample t tests, and logistic regression. The literature review revealed that self-report has been used as a reference standard in investigations of patients with normal audiograms and the perception of difficulty understanding speech in the presence of background noise. Self-report may be a better indicator of hearing ability than pure-tone thresholds in some situations. The diagnostic accuracy investigation revealed statistically significant differences between control and KKS groups for HINT performance (p < 0.01), but not for pure-tone threshold measures. Better sensitivity was found for the HINT Composite score (88%) than pure-tone average (PTA; 28%). The specificities for the HINT Composite score and PTA were 77% and 95%, respectively. ROC curves revealed a greater AUC for the HINT Composite score (AUC = 0.87) than for PTA (AUC = 0.51). Self-report is a reasonable reference standard for studies on the diagnostic accuracy of speech-recognition-in-noise tests. For individuals with normal pure-tone thresholds, the HINT demonstrated a higher degree of diagnostic accuracy than pure-tone thresholds for the detection of speech-recognition-in-noise disorder.

Spectral patterns of the American English diphthong /aɪ/ as a function of coda voicing produced by native Korean speakers

This study aimed to investigate how native speakers of Korean who learned English as a second language realize spectral differences in the American English diphthong /ai/ as a function of coda voicing. Ten Korean learners of English and eight native speakers of American English participated in a production experiment. The monosyllabic words “bite” (/bait/) and “bide” (/baid/) were read along with filler words in isolation and in a carrier sentence. The native group demonstrated significantly smaller F1 and larger F2 before /t/ than /d/ both in the nucleus /a/ and in the offglide /i/ (Moreton 2004). The learner group did not show statistically significant spectral changes in the nucleus and the offglide. Also, the native group significantly reduced the temporal distance between the nucleus and the offglide, and showed spectral peripheralization in the offglide before /t/ than /d/ (Pycha and Dahan 2016). However, the learner group did not show native-like reduction of the temporal distance between the nucleus and the offglide and spectral peripheralization in the offglide. Although the non-native speakers in this study exhibited some durational changes as a function of coda voicing, they did not learn the fine phonetic details regarding the gestural timing and spectral patterns in the diphthong. A considerable degree of individual variation in the learner group and speaking context effects were also found. It was interpreted that the Hyperarticulation hypothesis (Thomas 2000; Moreton 2004) and the Gestural Timing hypothesis (Pycha and Dahan 2016) could provide indices modelling the non-native phenomena found in this study as not attaining native-like phonetic values and gradual approach to the values concerning the spectral and durational aspects in /ai/ as a function of coda voicing. (Ewha Womans University)

Iranian EFL Learners’ Realization of Condolence Speech Act: An Interlanguage Pragmatics Study

This study was an attempt to compare and contrast the realization patterns of condolence speech act in English and Persian and to examine Iranian EFL learners’ realization of this speech act in English. The study was further interested in investigating whether Iranian EFL learners’ realization of condolence speech act is associated with their level of L2 proficiency. To this end, a Discourse Completion Test (DCT) was administered to 82 undergraduate Iranian EFL students in English. The participants were divided into three levels of language proficiency (elementary level, intermediate level, and advanced level) based on their scores on the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). For baseline comparisons, the EFL learners also received the translated version of the same DCT in Persian, and the English DCT was administered to 20 native speakers (NSs) of American English. The data were analyzed based on Elwood’s (2004) coding scheme. The results revealed that English and Persian NSs and Iranian EFL learners had access to the same condolence strategies, yet they differed in the semantic formulas, content, or forms they adopted to formulize their condolence expressions. In addition, level of L2 proficiency was found to be associated with Iranian EFL learners’ realization of condolence speech act.

Accent Identification in RP, CE, and GA By Native and Non-Native English Speakers

This study was conducted in order to determine various groups’ accuracy in identifying three major standard English accents. The main purpose of the experiment that was performed was to determine how well speakers familiar with these accents could tell them apart from other accents. It focused on comparing the test subjects’ recognition of Canadian English pronunciation with General American pronunciations. Received Pronunciation was used as a control as it is generally considered to differ much more from the standard North American varieties than they differ from one another.Within North America, the 'standard' accents of Canada and the US are quite similar. So similar, that one of the experiment’s hypotheses is that that despite being identified by linguists as different, many native speakers of the two dialects would have difficulty telling the difference themselves. The differences in the features of Canadian English (CE) and General American (GA) have been identified and studied by linguists before, but what this experiment sought to determine was the degree to which speakers of these dialects could tell them apart purely through listening.Canada is given some degree of stigma from the United States for its dialect, and has had fun poked at it for such Canadianisms as the use of 'eh?' and Canadian Raising- Americans will exaggerate the difference when illustrating it, saying “aboot” [ə'but] for about [əˈbʌʊt]. But how well can they perceive the difference when not already informed about the speaker's origins?An online survey was prepared, with audio clips or words in isolation and sentences, spoken by speakers of GA, CE, and RP, specifically using words that exhibited features that vary between the accents. This allowed us to examine subjects’ degree of recognition with, and without prosody, and to analyze the degree to which prosody affects accent recognition. In order to better determine how prior exposure influences accent recognition, the subjects were broken down into three groups: Native speakers of Canadian English, native speakers of American English and ESL speakers who had had prior exposure to Canadian English.One of the main findings of this experiment is that more than 80% of American respondents recognized their own national standard accent, and around 67% recognized the Canadian accent; while only 62% of the Canadian respondents recognized the Canadian accent accurately. Compared to Canadians, Americans were better at telling the North American varieties of spoken English apart.

Evidence and characterization of a glide-vowel distinction in American English

<p class="p1">This study tests whether native speakers of American English exhibit a glide-vowel distinction ([j]-[i]) in a speech elicitation experiment. When reading sentences out loud, participants’ pronunciations of 4 near-minimal pairs of pre-existing lexical items (e.g., <em>Eston</em>[iə] vs. <em>pneumon</em>[jə]) exhibit significant differences when acoustically measured, confirming the presence of a [j]-[i] distinction. This distinction is also found to be productively extended to the production of 20 near-minimal pairs of nonce words (e.g., <em>Súmia </em>→ [sumiə] vs. <em>Fímya </em>→ [fimjə]), diversified and balanced along different phonologically relevant factors of the surrounding environment. Multiple acoustic measurements are compared to test what aspects most consistently convey the distinction: F2 (frontness), F1 (height), intensity, vocalic sequence duration, transition earliness, and transition speed. This serves the purpose of documenting the distinction’s acoustic phonetic realization. It also serves in the comparison of phonological representations. Multiple types of previously proposed phonological representations are considered along with the competing predictions they generate regarding the acoustic measurements performed. Results suggest that the primary and most consistent characteristic of the distinction is earliness of transition into the following vowel, with results also suggesting that the [j] glide has a greater degree of constriction. The [j] glide is found to have a significantly <em>less </em>anterior articulation, challenging the application of a representation based on place or articulator differences that would predict [j] to be <em>more </em>anterior.

The acoustic characteristics of non-native American English vowels

This study aims at discussing the phonetic property of vowel quality in English, as exercised by both native speakers of General American English (AE) and non-native speakers of General American English of Serbian language background, all residents of the United States. Ten Serbian male speakers and four native male speakers of AE are recorded in separate experiments and their speech analyzed acoustically for any significant phonetic differences, looking into a set of monosyllabic English words representing nine vowels of AE. The general aim of the experiments is to evaluate the phonetic characteristics of AE vowels, with particular attention to F1 and F2 values, investigate which vowels differ most in the two groups of participants, and provide some explanations for these variations. A single most important observation that is the result of this vowel study is an evident merger of three pairs of vowels in the non-native speech: /i ɪ/, /u ʊ/, and /ɛ æ/.

The influence of varying vowel phonation and duration on rhythmic grouping biases among Spanish and English speakers

Native Mexican Spanish and American English speakers were presented with streams of alternating syllables in which vowel duration and/or creaky phonation were rhythmically varied. Participants’ grouping biases were measured as a function of their behaviour in segmenting sequences into recurrent bisyllabic units. Results indicated a creak-last grouping bias in both language groups. Duration varied singly was associated with a weak long-first grouping bias for Spanish and no consistent trend for English. When long creaky and short modal syllables were alternated, there was a significant creak-last bias and again no effect of duration in the English group. However, in the Spanish group, the long-first trend observed for duration varied singly was reversed and the effects of duration and creak were additive. Finally, when short creaky and long modal syllables were alternated, duration effects were highly significant in both language groups (fewer creak-last, more long-last groupings). Creak has been associated with final positions in higher-order prosodic domains in English, and less prevalently in Spanish. The current results show that both English and Spanish speakers can use this cue to segment rhythmic sequences into smaller, foot or word-sized units. This study is the first to establish that creak is perceptually salient for Spanish speakers and to demonstrate that the percept associated with duration can differ depending on whether it is varied singly or together with creak. More generally, the current findings show that grouping effects extend beyond intensity, pitch and duration, the features most often manipulated in rhythmic grouping studies inspired by the Iambic-Trochaic Law.

Duration as a Cue to Perceive English Sentence Stress by Japanese Learners of English vs. Native Speakers of American English

Duration as a Cue to Perceive English Sentence Stress by Japanese Learners of English vs. Native Speakers of American English

The Identification of Stops in a Coda Position by Native Speakers of American English, Korean, and Japanese

The Identification of Stops in a Coda Position by Native Speakers of American English, Korean, and Japanese

Chinese aspect marker -le and its acquisition by American English speakers

Abstract This study investigates the functions of the perfective marker -le and its acquisition by native speakers of American English from the perspective of the Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen and Shirai, 1994). We set out to test the predicted order regarding four verb categories in terms of their frequencies of -le marking. Our results confirmed that -le was most frequently used with achievement verbs by learners, but revealed deviated patterns of distribution in other categories when they were compared with those of native speakers of Chinese. We discussed our data further from the perspective of prototypicality, and provide pedagogical implications to Chinese as a foreign language.

Micro-syntactic variation in American English Negative Concord

This paper presents a series of quantitative gradient acceptability judgment studies of English negative sentences. Adult native speakers of American English recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk were asked to rate sentences on a scale of 1 to 7 on the basis of their naturalness. The main study compares sentences with the marker n’t and either a negative object (e.g. ‘John didn’t eat nothing’) or a negative subject in canonical position (‘nobody didn’t eat’). Each sentence type has two possible interpretations, one in which the two negatives contribute a single semantic negation, the so-called Negative Concord reading, and another in which the two negations yield a semantic Double Negation logically equivalent to an affirmative. While mean acceptability ratings were below the median for all items, statistical analyses of the gradient data revealed that speakers prefer Negative Concord over Double Negation readings for sentences with negative objects. To rule out a processing explanation for the preference for negative objects over sentence initial negatives, a follow-up study tested the acceptability of sentences with a single negative subject or object and no negative marker. This revealed a preference for subjects, suggesting that the object preference in the two negatives study is a true grammatical effect. A third study revealed that Double Negation constructions are unacceptable overall even in explicit denial contexts, and a fourth study added Negative Auxiliary Inversion constructions (e.g. ‘Didn’t nobody eat’), to compare three types of Negative Concord. The results of all four studies are argued to reveal an English grammar that generates both Negative Concord and Double Negation, and in which Negative Concord is generated despite its unacceptability and reported absence in usage.

Expressing Gratitude in an EFL Context: The Case of Jordanian Learners

This study contributes to the existing literature on interlanguage pragmatics by investigating intermediate Jordanian English Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ gratitude speech act realization compared to that of native American English speakers. The study considered both aspects of pragmatic competence including pragmalinguistic knowledge (i.e., the use of gratitude strategies) and sociopragmatic knowledge (i.e., the influence of contextual variables). A discourse completion task (DCT) was employed to elicit data from 60 participants divided into two groups: 30 native speakers of American English, and 30 Jordanian EFL learners. Findings revealed that while Jordanian EFL learners and American English native speakers have access to the same gratitude strategies, both groups differed in the order preference of the used strategies and their frequency of use. Furthermore, the two groups showed different patterns in responding to contextual variables (i.e., social power and size of imposition), an indication that different cultural values govern the speech norms of each group. The study concludes with some pedagogical implications that could be implemented in the EFL classroom.

Quantifying sonority contour: A case study from American English

Previous studies have argued that the most reliable phonetic correlate of sonority is intensity (e.g., Parker 2002, 2008, Jany et al. 2007). However, those studies have only considered intensity of a single segment. This paper investigates the phonetic correlate of sonority contour in consonant clusters. 10 native speakers of American English (5 male, 5 female) read 33 monosyllabic English words that begin with a bi- or tri-consonantal cluster (e.g., play, stray) embedded in a frame sentence (“Father saw ‘____’ again,” used in Parker 2008). Measured first were (i) an average RMS and (ii) sound level minima of each consonant in the cluster C1C2, and the sonority contour was quantified by subtracting the intensity value of C1 from the intensity value of C2. Also, (iii) actual intensity slopes in the transition between the two consonants were measured. Results show that the intensity contours calculated based on (i) and (ii) do not always correspond to the intensity slopes (iii), while both of them are in general correlated with the sonority contour. It will also be suggested that it is intensity slopes (iii) that play a crucial role in consonant cluster perception and in phonological phenomena involving consonant clusters.

Identification of vowels of two different varieties of English by native speakers of Japanese and Korean

Native speakers of Japanese and Korean heard and identified /i, ɪ, eɪ, ɛ, ae, ɑ, ʌ/ uttered in /bVd/, /dVd/ and /kVd/ frames by native speakers of American and New Zealand English. New Zealand English has gone through an idiosyncratic vowel shift. For instance, /ae/ and /ɛ/ are raised and /ɪ/ is centralized. Overall American English vowels are identified more accurately by the two listener groups. Both listener groups identified American English /ɛ, ae/ better than New Zealand English equivalents, but on the contrary American English /ɑ/ is less accurately identified than New Zealand English /ɑ/ (or /ɒ/). Despite these similarities, some differences are observed between the two listener groups. While Japanese listeners identified New Zealand English /i, ɪ,/ less accurately than American English /i, ɪ/, Korean listeners identified New Zealand English /ɪ/ more accurately than American English /ɪ/. Japanese listeners outperformed Korean listeners in identifying American English /eɪ/ and New Zealand English /ɑ,/...