Perceptions Of Speakers Research Articles

Non-native English listeners' adaptation to native English speakers.

Listeners often have difficulty understanding unfamiliar speech (e.g., non-native speech), but they are able to adapt to or improve their ability to understand unfamiliar speech. However, it is unclear whether non-native listeners demonstrate adaptation to novel native English speech broadly with relatively limited exposure. Thus, this study examines non-native English listeners' adaptation to native English speakers and whether talker variability affects adaptation. Results suggest that while greater variability initially disrupts non-native English listeners' perception of native English speakers, listeners are able to rapidly adapt to novel speakers and exposure to greater variability could result in cross-talker generalization.

The perceived credibility of repeated-event witnesses depends upon their veracity

For repeated crimes like domestic violence and workplace bullying, the primary evidence is often the alleged victim’s testimony. Consequently, the perceived credibility of repeated event speakers can be pivotal to legal proceedings. In order to investigate perceptions of truthful and deceptive repeated-event speakers, undergraduate students observed interviews of speakers describing a single occurrence of an event that was either experienced or fabricated either once or multiple times. Some participants additionally read an expert statement on repeated-event memory. The effect of repetition on perceived credibility depended on the speaker’s veracity, enhancing the credibility of fabricators but diminishing the credibility of truth-tellers. The expert testimony was found to raise the perceived honesty and cognitive competence of the repeated-event speakers and thus could be a promising mechanism for enhancing perceived credibility in legal proceedings.

Associative field of the concept “fire” in the linguistic consciousness of native Russian speakers at the background of the Latvian linguistic culture

The research is devoted to one of the modern trends in linguistics - cultural linguistics. The topicality is related to the study of the Russian language functioning as the language of diaspora in the eastern region of Latvia - Latgale. The research aims to characterize the means of expressing the concept fire based on modelling and analyzing its associative field in the aspect of Latvian picture of the world. Theory and practice of the associative experiment were used as a methodological framework for the research. The method of free associative experiment reveals the specific features of different cultures, as well as the functional peculiarities of the linguistic consciousness both of a separate individual - a native speaker, and of a certain ethnic or national group. The word fire (Latvian - uguns) was suggested as a stimulus word. The received reactions were analyzed according to linguistic and cultural-contextual aspects. A comparative analysis of the associative fields revealed both the specific features of the Russian linguistic picture of the world, which combines the characteristics inherent in the Russian language of the metropolis and the ones that indicate the influence of the linguistic and cultural environment, and the features and signs that coincide or are identical in the Russian and the Latvian linguistic picture of the worlds. The data processing and the analysis define the concept fire precisely as a full-fledged concept in the perception of the native speakers of the Russian language in Latgale, since not only the dictionary meaning is actualized in their linguistic picture of the world, but also a multi-level associative field, unique in terms of contextual connotations, is modelled.

Feeling Heard: Experiences of Listening (or Not) at Work.

Listening has been identified as a key workplace skill, important for ensuring high-quality communication, building relationships, and motivating employees. However, recent research has increasingly suggested that speaker perceptions of good listening do not necessarily align with researcher or listener conceptions of good listening. While many of the benefits of workplace listening rely on employees feeling heard, little is known about what constitutes this subjective perception. To better understand what leaves employees feeling heard or unheard, we conducted 41 interviews with bank employees, who collectively provided 81 stories about listening interactions they had experienced at work. Whereas, prior research has typically characterized listening as something that is perceived through responsive behaviors within conversation, our findings suggest conversational behaviors alone are often insufficient to distinguish between stories of feeling heard vs. feeling unheard. Instead, our interviewees felt heard or unheard only when listeners met their subjective needs and expectations. Sometimes their needs and expectations could be fulfilled through conversation alone, and other times action was required. Notably, what would be categorized objectively as good listening during an initial conversation could be later counteracted by a failure to follow-through in ways expected by the speaker. In concert, these findings contribute to both theory and practice by clarifying how listening behaviors take on meaning from the speakers' perspective and the circumstances under which action is integral to feeling heard. Moreover, they point toward the various ways listeners can engage to help speakers feel heard in critical conversations.

Evaluation of the 2020 European Academy of Neurology virtual congress: transition from a face-to-face to a virtual meeting.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific congresses are increasingly being organized as virtual congresses (VCs). In May 2020, the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) held a VC, free of charge. In the absence of systematic studies on this topic, the aim of this study is to evaluate the attendance and perceived quality of the 2020 EAN VC compared to the 2019 EAN face-to-face congress (FFC). An analysis of the demographic data of participants obtained from the online registration was done. A comparison of the two congresses based on a survey with questions on the perception of speakers' performance, quality of networking and other aspects was made. Of 43,596 registered participants, 20,694 active participants attended the VC. Compared to 2019, the number of participants tripled (6916 in 2019) and the cumulated number of participants attending the sessions was five times higher (169,334 in 2020 vs. 33,024 in 2019). Out of active participants 55% were from outside Europe, 42% were board-certified neurologists (FFC 80%) and 21% were students (FFC 0.6%). The content of the congress was evaluated as 'above expectation' by 56% of the attendees (FFC 41%). Of the respondents who had been exposed to earlier EAN congresses 73% preferred the FFC compared to the VC (17%). The VC fulfilled the main mission of organizing high quality EAN congresses despite the restrictions of the impersonal format. The geographical distribution of the participants proves the expected higher inclusivity of a VC. The large participation of students and neurologists in training opens new educational potentials for the EAN.

VALIDITY EVIDENCE: UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TOEFL IBT HIGH SCORE SPOKEN RESPONSES

ABSTRACT This study investigated U.S. undergraduates’ perceptions of non-native speakers’ (NNS) speech which had received 100% proficiency scores on the TOEFL iBT test. Fifty-five U.S. undergraduates rated 20 speech samples for comprehensibility, accentedness, and acceptability. The speech samples were also analyzed for acoustic fluency. Descriptively, although all NNSs had been certified as highly proficient by the high-stakes test raters, U.S. undergraduates perceived them to be heavily accented, not perfectly comprehensible, and not completely acceptable as a teacher and as a peer. Multiple regression analyses showed that comprehensibility significantly predicted high proficiency NNSs’ acceptability as a teacher and as a peer whereas accentedness did not. Additionally, syllables per second emerged as the strongest predictor of NNSs’ comprehensibility and accentedness whereas mean length of run emerged as the strongest predictor of NNSs’ acceptability. These findings suggest that obtaining competitive scores on the speaking component of the high stakes test may not sufficiently guarantee NNSs’ acceptability for teaching and group activities in U.S. academic contexts.

A Preliminary Comparison of In-Person and Telepractice Evaluations of Stuttering.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to compare in-person and telepractice evaluations of stuttering with adult participants. The research questions were as follows: Is an evaluation for stuttering via telepractice equivalent to an in-person evaluation in terms of (a) duration of individual evaluation tasks and overall length of the evaluation, (b) clinical outcomes across evaluating clinicians, and (c) participant experience? Method Participants were 14 adults who stutter (males = 11; age range: 20-68) who were simultaneously assessed via telepractice and in-person. Comprehensive evaluations included analysis of the speaker's stuttering, evaluation of the speaker's perceptions and attitudes about stuttering, and language testing. Evaluations were administered by either an in-person clinician or a telepractice clinician but were simultaneously scored by both clinicians. Participants were randomly assigned to the in-person-led assessment condition or the telepractice-led assessment condition. Results No statistically significant differences were found between the in-person and telepractice-led evaluations in terms of overall evaluation task duration, evaluation clinical outcomes, or participants' reported experiences. That is, telepractice evaluations for stuttering in adults may be an equivalent option to in-person evaluations. Conclusions Results of this preliminary study indicate that telepractice evaluations of stuttering may be comparable to in-person evaluations in terms of duration, clinical outcomes, and participant experiences. The current study supports the notion that telepractice evaluations may be a viable option for adult clients who stutter. Clinical considerations and future directions for research are discussed.

Cognitive Linguistic Perceptions of Spanish Speakers towards Honduran Spanish

Este estudio trata sobre las percepciones cognitivo-lingüísticas que los hispanohablantes tienen sobre el español de Honduras. Estas han sido extraídas del proyecto “Identidad y actitudes lingüísticas en Hispanoamérica (LIAS, por su sigla en inglés) realizado en las capitales de veinte países hispanohablantes (Chiquito y Quesada Pacheco 2014) con el auspicio del Consejo Noruego de Investigaciones Científicas.

Effect of Spectrally Modified Speech on Speech Perception of Native Speakers of Marathi

Objective: We investigated the effect of spectrally modified speech on speech perception of native speakers of Marathi. Methods: A total of eight word-lists with each list consisting of 25 words in Marathi were used as speech stimuli. The speech stimuli in List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5, List 6, and List 7 were spectrally modified by filtering them at 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, 1500 Hz, 2000 Hz, 2500 Hz, 3000 Hz, and 3500 Hz cutoff frequencies, respectively. The speech stimuli in List 8 were unfiltered. The speech identification score (SIS) testing was performed as a measure of speech perception using eight word-lists on a total of 125 normal hearing native speakers of Marathi in the age range between 18 and 25 years. Results: The results revealed that there was a statistically significant effect of spectral modification on speech perception. An increase in cutoff frequency of speech stimuli was analogous to increase in speech perception performance. The normal range of SIS (90%–100%) was achieved for speech stimuli filtered at 2500 Hz cutoff frequency. Conclusion: Although speech is a broadband signal, the findings of this study suggest that the spectral information till 2500 Hz is sufficient for optimum perception of speech of Marathi.

The Use of ‘woman/female’ and ‘man/male’ as a specific gender markers in Albanian language in light of society changes

Gender issues in Languages are very sensitive and interesting, especially in the societies making effort to empower the presence and the role of women in respective society. Kosovar society is one of the examples of such efforts and debates initiated by women's rights groups and organizations. The situation has changed rapidly in some senses of the use of different linguistics markers regarding the use of respective terms that are considered more appropriate or politically correct than the traditional ones. For example, the terms 'gender' and 'sex' are alternating each-other, not only to denote biological distinctions but also cultural ones. The most rapid changes have been noticed in the use of the term 'woman' instead of the traditional term 'female', which in the perception of the average speakers was not an offensive term for women. But, there is still in use the term 'female' to denote the person of certain gender or sex, especially in informal and social use and in instant messaging. One of the issues identified during the monitoring of media for this paper, was the use of masculine plural to cover also the feminine members of certain groups, especially while naming occupations and this situation is unavoidable because the gender in Albanian has clear grammatical features in the plural as well. To complete this research, I monitored media in different formats (newspapers, online media, social media, radio, and television, in Albanian, Serbian and Macedonian), and also I did a focus group with youngsters on instant messaging platforms.

Non-native speaker perception of Intelligent Virtual Agents in two languages: the impact of amount and type of grammatical mistakes

Having a mixed-cultural membership becomes increasingly common in our modern society. It is thus beneficial in several ways to create Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs) that reflect a mixed-cultural background as well, e.g., for educational settings. For research with such IVAs, it is essential that they are classified as non-native by members of a target culture. In this paper, we focus on variations of IVAs’ speech to create the impression of non-native speakers that are identified as such by speakers of two different mother tongues. In particular, we investigate grammatical mistakes and identify thresholds beyond which the agents is clearly categorised as a non-native speaker. Therefore, we conducted two experiments: one for native speakers of German, and one for native speakers of English. Results of the German study indicate that beyond 10% of word order mistakes and 25% of infinitive mistakes German-speaking IVAs are perceived as non-native speakers. Results of the English study indicate that beyond 50% of omission mistakes and 50% of infinitive mistakes English-speaking IVAs are perceived as non-native speakers. We believe these thresholds constitute helpful guidelines for computational approaches of non-native speaker generation, simplifying research with IVAs in mixed-cultural settings.

On Adjectival Attributives Blood, Direct, Peaceful as Components of Archaic Nominations of Friends

The article discusses the changes in collocability of the word friend over time. It notes that the works by A.S. Pushkin contain the forms, unexpected for the perception of the native speakers of the modern Russian language: blood friends, direct friend, peaceful friends. The analysis of the specified attributive combinations is carried out applying definitional, contextual, linguocultural analysis methods. The text material from the National Corpus of the Russian language is used. It is proved that the expression "blood friends" could denote "people connected by strong friendship" and "people of the same class". Physical kinship criterion has been proved to serve as a basis for cognitive understanding of spiritual intimacy and social class identification. However, the connection between primary and secondary semantics is not so direct here; it is mediated by the cultural layer – the custom of twinning, a form of artificial relationship noted among many peoples. Most examples of the usage of the phrase "direct friend" mean 'express your opinion to someone honestly, directly'. The expression "peaceful friends" is interpreted as based on a doubling of the meaning 'in a relationship of agreement'. The research results can be used in compiling dictionaries of the Russian language, and also in teaching linguistic disciplines.

Comparison of Declarative-Interrogative Intonation in Lampungnese

Intonation is a suprasegmental feature of language that constructs the meaning of utterances. The meaning constructed can be different from the lexical meaning and syntactical structure. This paper tried to examine the intonation system in the Lampung language, especially the acoustic characteristics which distinguish between declarative and interrogative. In this research, the researcher applied the IPO approach to collect and analyze data. Data were gathered by recording native speakers uttering declarative and interrogative sentences that were segmentally identical. Having the data, a perception test was conducted to get the best utterances for each mode as a contour prototype. Next, both prototypes were analyzed respectively using Praat software to find out each acoustic characteristic. Then, they were compared to find the suprasegmental features that characterize the acoustic features of each sentence mode. Based on the analysis, both intonations differed in the pitch of initial, final subject constituent, final complement constituent, initial predicate constituent, final pitch, peak, range of pitch, and duration of utterances. In addition, pitch of peak (H1) and slope (H2) were identified as the most influential component in the formation of a sentence model. Therefore, experiments of manipulating those acoustic features (H1 and H2) and testing them on the perception of native speakers were held to prove the identification. The result of the perception test showed that the peak significantly distinguished the mode of the sentence, the higher pitch of the peak determined the interrogative mode. While the second identification did not give any contribution in creating the meaning.

“It’s a Whole Vibe”: testing evaluations of grammatical and ungrammatical AAE on Twitter

Abstract This study focuses on listener perceptions of African American English (AAE) on Twitter, examining both grammatical and ungrammatical usages, as well as how these perceptions may be affected by the race of the speaker and rater. We conducted an experimental survey designed to address the following questions: 1. Does avatar race affect perception of the grammaticality of AAE? 2. Are differences between grammatical and ungrammatical AAE discernible to naive raters of different races? 3. How are various social attributes evaluated for avatars of different races and different linguistic varieties? Results indicate that participants generally do not downgrade avatars who use grammatical AAE on ratings of grammaticality or personal characteristics. However, participants of all races disprefer ungrammatical uses of AAE, with black raters being especially sensitive to ungrammatical AAE. These findings have implications for sociolinguistics in that they demonstrate that participants across racial backgrounds may differentiate grammatical versus ungrammatical AAE online, and that contrary to expectations based on previous literature, AAE is not universally downgraded in these contexts. However, results also indicate that the use of AAE still negatively impacts listeners’ perceptions of speakers as educated, demonstrating that some widespread biases against AAE-speakers persist in an online context.

From language to meteorology: kinesis in weather events and weather verbs across Sinitic languages

Interactions among the environment, humans and language underlie many of the most pressing challenges we face today. This study investigates the use of different verbs to encode various weather events in Sinitic languages, a language family spoken over a wide range of climates and with 3000 years of continuous textual documentation. We propose to synergise the many concepts of kinesis that grew from Aristotle’s original ideas to account for the correlation between meteorological events and their linguistic encoding. It is observed that the two most salient key factors of weather events, i.e., mass of weather substances and speed of weather processes, are the two contributing components of kinetic energy. Leveraging the linguistic theory that kinesis underpins conceptualisation of verb classes, this paper successfully accounts for the selection of verbs for different meteorological events in all Sinitic languages in terms of both language variations and changes. Specifically, weather events with bigger weather substances and faster weather processes tend to select action verbs with high transitivity. The kinesis driven accounts also predict the typological variations between verbal and nominal constructions for weather expressions. The correlation between kinesis and the selection of verbs is further corroborated by an experiment on the perception of native Sinitic language speakers, as well as analyses of regional variations of verb selections that do not follow general typological patterns. It is found that such typological exceptions generally correspond to variations in meteorological patterns. By explicating the pivotal role of kinesis in bridging weather events and the linguistic encoding of weather, this study underlines the role of cognition as the conceptualisation of physical and sensory inputs to sharable knowledge encoded by language.

Лінгвістичні властивості англомовних оперних арій

The article deals with the relationship between discourse and text, as well as song discourse and song text. The place and role of the style of the opera aria in the world culture (musical culture) has been determined. The object of the study is the English-language song texts of opera arias, and the subject is their stylistic arrangement. The signs of dialogism in the English-language song texts of opera arias are clarified: the use of interjections, the first and second person of pronouns and verbs, imperative constructions and addresses. It has been proven that stylistic means of addition and substitution play a significant role in style. The stylistic addition is aimed at depicting the magical and mystical with a breath of the imaginary. On the other hand, vernacular using interjections, imperatives, abbreviated forms reinforce the ordinariness of life. All stylistic techniques of addition are aimed at more emotional saturation of the realities of human existence in the English-language song texts of opera arias. Personification is perhaps the main technique of opera arias, because everything that is sung about the feeling of love is filled with human skills and capabilities. Stylistic figures of addition and substitution in the English-language opera arias emphasize the emphatic nature of thought and the acuteness of the speaker's perception of the world around him.

КОНЦЕПТ КЁЗ / ГЁЗ («ГЛАЗ») В КАРАЧАЕВО-БАЛКАРСКОЙ И КУМЫКСКОЙ НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫХ КАРТИНАХ МИРА

This article focuses on the concept of köz / göz ("eye"), which is one of the important segments of the national picture of the world, that is determined by the relevance of visual perception for the knowledge of reality and accumulated in a special vocabulary and presented in Karachay-Balkarian and Kumyk paremic funds in encrypted form and in the author's fiction. The linguoculturological characteristics of lexical and phraseological units of the language associated with the representation of ethno-culturally marked meanings of the above-mentioned somatism are subjected to polyvector analysis. In addition, the author identifies and describes the specifics of the world perception of native speakers of the Karachay-Balkarian and Kumyk languages, directly related to the system of stereotypes and representations that reflect the anthropomorphic cultural code, presented in paremic utterances. The functional-semantic and ethno-cultural potential of the considered conceptual lexeme in the artistic works of Karachay-Balkarian and Kumyk authors is determined.

한중 색채어 은유 양상 대조 연구 ― ‘푸르다’ 계열 어휘를 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to investigate the patterns of meaning expansion through conceptual metaphor and metonymy from the perspective of cognitive linguistics focusing on the color terms for “blue” in Korean and Chinese: “푸르다”, “파랗다,” and “초록색” and “青,” “蓝,” and “绿.” To this end, the semantic items in dictionaries were compared and corpus usage examples were analyzed. Next, the patterns of meaning expansion found in the examples were categorized and the cognitive systems were explained. Through this, the semantic characteristics of the color terms were examined and the effects of the experiences of Korean and Chinese speakers and their cultural and cognitive differences with respect to the languages were analyzed.BR The Korean and Chinese color terms for “blue,” which can be found in nature in items such as the sky, plants, and the ocean, are semantically expanded to objects with similarity and vicinity. In general, they are expanded to the meaning of lush plants, clear and clean, youth, immaturity, hope, anxiety and fear, coldness, anger and rage, embarrassment and surprise, environmental protection, and smoothness and safety. On the other hand, those in Korean and Chinese show different patterns due to cognitive differences. For instance, enormous vitality and strong vigor only appear in Korean, while youth, favor and respect, organic vegetables, convenience, and disparage are expanded meanings only shown in Chinese. As such, the different perceptions of speakers with different languages and cultures have an effect.BR This study found that color terms are widely used in both Korean and Chinese because they can efficiently convey abstract concepts or characteristics and that language is very closely related to our experiences and perceptions.

RUSSIAN ACCENT IN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE AFFECTS THE PERCEPTION OF VOICE PLEASANTNESS BY BRAZILIANS

The field of foreign accents in Brazilian Portuguese is very poorly explored mainly in relation to perceptual impressions caused on listeners by foreign accents. The objective of this paper is to conduct a perceptual experiment to analyze the perception of voice pleasantness in relation to degrees of foreign accent. Our focus is on Russian accented Brazilian Portuguese. Despite the representativeness of the Russian community in Brazil, there are hardly any studies on Russian accented speech. T o evaluate the perception of voice pleasantness in relation to the Russian accented speech, we have selected, from our database, speech samples in Brazilian Portuguese from 12 native Russian speakers and six Brazilians, all of them residing in São Paulo. The speech samples were incorporated into an online questionnaire. The analysis of the 129 answers given by the native Brazilian Portuguese speakers showed a strong negative correlation between the degree of Russian accent in Brazilian Portuguese and the degree of voice pleasantness. Experience of interaction with foreigners or knowledge of foreign languages, including Russian, did not influence the result. We conclude that higher degrees of Russian accented speech in Brazilian Portuguese affect the perception of speakers´ characteristics by Brazilians in a negative way.

Critical autoethnographic narrative: Ideological contention, metacommentary and aesthetic labor in language education

Abstract Based on the premise that human experience is storied, the researcher engaged in the writing of critical autoethnographic narratives to examine ideological contention in language learning, language use, and language teaching. Using raciolinguistic ideologies as theoretical framework, he shows the ways ideological orientations embedded in circulating metacommentary push individuals to engage in aesthetic labor around the ways they employ their linguistic resources. Findings suggest that language educators and learners should engage in critical examination of seemingly innocent metalinguistic commentary, as these contain contradictory and multiple ideological orientations that largely shape the perception and employment of speakers’ linguistic repertoires.