Phonological Targets Research Articles

Perception of English semivowels by Japanese-speaking learners of English

Abstract This study compared the perception of English semivowels /j/ and /w/ and their corresponding vowels /i/ and /u/ by two groups of Japanese-speaking learners of English: foreign language (FL) learners in Japan and second language learners who were initially FL learners (FL-L2). The phonological targets were /i/ and /u/ with and without preceding /j/ and /w/, respectively (/ji/-/i/ and /wu/-/u/). Discrimination and identification results showed that both groups performed comparably for /i/ with and without /j/, indicating their reliance on native phonological sensitivity to /i/ and /j/, which closely resemble Japanese /i/ and /j/. However, important differences emerged for /u/ with and without /w/, possibly due to articulatory differences in lip rounding for /u/ and /w/ between the two languages. Notably, while FL-L2 learners were equally competent in both the /u/-/wu/ and the /i/-/ji/ discriminations, FL learners were much less capable of the /u/-/wu/ discrimination than of the /i/-/ji/ discrimination. Moreover, FL-L2 learners were better at identifying /u/ than their FL peers, suggesting that L2 exposure may have facilitated their acquisition of the articulatory details associated with /u/. Overall, the study showed that engaging in L2 immersion following FL learning is beneficial for non-native phonological development among adult learners.

A Preliminary Exploration of Declarative Intonation in the Chilean Diaspora of Sweden

Motivated by a growing body of research on heritage Spanish prosody, the current study uses the Sp_ToBi framework for the transcription of Spanish intonation to report trends in phonological targets of broad focus declaratives produced by heritage speakers of Chilean Spanish living in Stockholm, Sweden. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews from six participants belonging to the same social network including two Spanish-dominant first-generation immigrants and four Swedish-dominant second-generation speakers who were born and raised in Sweden and are heritage speakers of Spanish. The G1 participants are the primary source of Spanish input for the G2 speakers. Data were analyzed by identifying word- and phrase-level phonological targets and associating them with the appropriate pitch accent and boundary tones. Results show that the heritage Spanish declarative intonation patterns of the G2 speakers closely resemble those of the G1 speakers. These patterns are scrutinized in terms of the potential influence of Swedish and/or other varieties of Spanish. This analysis exhibits evidence of the importance of source input variety and cross-generational transmission of phonological targets in a heritage language as well as the potential contributions of multiple intonational systems in forming the phonological inventory of heritage speakers.

The characteristics and effects of peer feedback on second language pronunciation

Abstract In order to investigate the characteristics and effects of peer feedback targeting second language (L2) pronunciation, the present study recruited 32 Mandarin-speaking learners of English who received five pronunciation instructional sessions through an instant messaging application on their smart phones. The phonological targets, types, and formats of peer feedback as well as its effects on their pronunciation (i.e., comprehensibility and accentedness) were examined. Results revealed that the participants mainly targeted segmental errors rather than suprasegmental errors and that they tended to provide more feedback on vowels rather than on consonants. Their feedback, delivered mainly in writing, was found to be effective in improving learners’ comprehensibility, but not their accentedness. The findings demonstrate the potential of peer feedback complementary to teacher feedback in instructed L2 pronunciation and highlight the importance of training in optimizing the effectiveness of peer feedback.

Complexity and cross-linguistic transfer in intervention for Spanish-English bilingual children with speech sound disorder.

With bilingual children, intervention for speech sound disorders must consider both of the child's phonological systems, which are known to interact with each other in development. Further, cross-linguistic generalization following intervention for bilingual children with speech sound disorders (i.e., the impact of treatment in one language on the other) has been documented to varying degrees in some prior studies. However, none to date have documented the cross-linguistic impact of treatment with complex targets (e.g., consonant clusters) for bilingual children. Because complex phonological targets have been shown to induce system-wide generalization within a single language, the potential for bilingual children to generalize learning across languages could impact the efficiency of intervention in this population. This pilot intervention study examines the system-wide, cross-linguistic effects of treatment targeting consonant clusters in Spanish for two Spanish-English bilingual children with phonological disorder. Treatment was provided with 45-minute sessions in Spanish via teletherapy, three times per week for six weeks. Comprehensive phonological probes were administered in English and Spanish prior to intervention and across multiple baselines. Pre-intervention data were compared to data from probes administered during and after intervention to generate qualitative and quantitative measures of treatment outcomes and cross-linguistic generalization. Results indicate a medium effect size for system-wide generalization in Spanish (the language of treatment) and English (not targeted in treatment), for both participants (mean effect size in Spanish: 3.6; English 4.3). These findings have implications for across-language transfer and system-wide generalization in treatment for bilingual children.

Word-final complexity in speech sound intervention: two case studies

ABSTRACT In speech sound intervention, consonant clusters promote generalisation (i.e. improvement in untreated sounds and words), ostensibly due to their relative complexity compared to other phonological targets. However, our understanding of clusters as intervention targets is largely restricted to those in word-initial position (e.g. [fl-], flip). The present study extends available work to consider the effects of word-final consonant cluster targets (e.g. [-ks]). Phonologically complex word-final clusters may be morphologically simple (e.g. mix) or morphologically complex (e.g. packs, inflected with third-person singular) – yet this cross-domain complexity remains an understudied phenomenon. Presently, two case studies provide an initial investigation of word-final cluster intervention targets for children with phonologically based speech sound disorders. Intervention targets for both Anna (3;7 [years;months]) and David (4;1) featured the phonologically complex word-final cluster [-ks], with Anna’s target being morphologically simple and David’s being morphologically complex. Intervention was provided in 45-minute, individual sessions three times per week for a maximum of 18 sessions. Both children demonstrated high target accuracy by intervention’s end. Following intervention, both children demonstrated progress in intelligibility and ability to produce word-final consonant clusters; David further demonstrated generalisation across multiple measures. Results are interpreted with consideration of individual differences and existing research on complexity in phonological intervention. Overall, present findings motivate continued research, as manipulation of word-final complexity allows for emphasis on a context that is relevant for children with speech sound disorders, for peers with difficulties in morphology (including word-final grammatical morphemes) and for the substantial proportion of children demonstrating weaknesses in both domains.

Unaltered morphemes as phonological triggers and targets in Rutooro

Abstract Rutooro, a Bantu language spoken in western Uganda, exhibits two processes common to Bantu languages: Mid Vowel Harmony (MVH), by which a high vowel is lowered to mid if it follows a mid root vowel, and Consonant Mutation (CM), by which a high front vowel of certain morphemes trigger a change in the immediately preceding consonant. In forms where both rules could potentially apply, CM applies, but MVH does not, even though its structural description is met. Ultimately, it is shown that MVH is blocked when an alveolar fricative intervenes between the trigger and the target. The most anomalous forms are those that contain the short causative /-i/ and the Perfective suffix /-ir/. In some forms CM would be expected to apply, but does not, and in other forms MVH is expected to be blocked, but is not. The key to the analysis lies in the fact that CM is not a purely phonological process, but rather is only triggered by a small set of specific morphemes. The surface anomalies in the perfect forms can all be accounted for if one formalizes the relevant processes as only being triggered (or blocked) by unaltered [-ir].

Treatment Targets for Co-Occurring Speech-Language Impairment: A Case Study.

The intersection of speech and language impairments is severely understudied. Despite repeatedly documented overlap and co-occurrence, treatment research for children with combined phonological and morphosyntactic deficits is limited. Especially little is known about optimal treatment targets for combined phonological-morphosyntactic intervention. We offer a clinically focused discussion of the existing literature pertaining to interventions for children with combined deficits and present a case study exploring the utility of a complex treatment target in word-final position for co-occurring speech and language impairment. Within a school setting, a kindergarten child (age 5;2) with co-occurring phonological disorder and developmental language disorder received treatment targeting a complex consonant cluster in word-final position inflected with third-person singular morphology. For this child, training a complex consonant cluster in word-final position resulted in generalized learning to untreated consonants and clusters across word positions. However, morphological generalization was not demonstrated consistently across measures. These preliminary findings suggest that training complex phonology in word-final position can result in generalized learning to untreated phonological targets. However, limited improvement in morphology and word-final phonology highlights the need for careful monitoring of cross-domain treatment outcomes and additional research to identify the characteristics of treatment approaches, techniques, and targets that induce cross-domain generalization learning in children with co-occurring speech-language impairment.

Semantic and phonological retrieval in traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACTBackground: Identifying associations or links between encoded stimuli can influence whether those stimuli are successfully retrieved at a later time.Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of semantic and phonological lexical targets on recall in individuals with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to identify if individuals with TBI form associations when recalling related information.Methods & Procedures: Forty-seven individuals, 14 with TBI, completed the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) word retrieval paradigm in which six digitally recorded word lists were presented auditorily. Three of the lists contained semantically related words and three contained phonologically related words.Outcomes & Results: Non-brain-injured (NBI) participants recalled significantly more phonological and semantic stimuli than participants with TBI. Phonologically related stimuli resulted in increased intrusions for both TBI and NBI participants. For participants with TBI, age and time post injury were not significantly correlated with performance on the DRM paradigm, though the number of semantically related items recalled was moderately correlated with performance on standardised assessments. Though TBI participants recalled fewer words, they appeared to utilise recall strategies in a manner similar to NBI peers with intrusion data suggesting that both groups were forming associations between words.Conclusions: Individuals with mild to moderate TBI successfully identify associations between encoded stimuli and used those associations when recalling target information.

Development of acoustic speech discrimination abilities in school-aged children

The acquisition of speech perception skills is challenging for children. Although some studies have shown that categorical perception boundaries become steeper during childhood and are sometimes shifted in children compared to adults, very few experiments on discrimination abilities in children have been conducted. To investigate this, we conducted a perceptual discrimination task in school-aged children. Sixty-seven 6- to 12-year-old native Quebec French-speaking children were asked to complete a speech perception task that used an AXB scheme. The children were asked to discriminate synthesized 5-formant vowels belonging to three continuums: /i-e/ and /e-ø/ (in which stimuli were equally stepped along F1) and /e-ø/ (in which stimuli were equally stepped along F2). There was a significant effect of age on peak discrimination scores, with older children having higher peak scores than younger children. There was no effect of age on the location of the categorical boundary on the three tested continuums. These findings support the hypothesis that speech development and learning experience play significant roles in the establishment of strong phonological targets.

An exploration of the role of executive functions in preschoolers’ phonological development

ABSTRACTThere is limited yet compelling evidence that domain-general processes may contribute to speech sound change. This study explored whether executive functions contribute to the achievement of adult-like speech production. Children who are 4 to 5 years old, 42 with high-average speech production skills, 11 with low-average and nine with speech sound disorder (SSD), participated in a battery of executive function and speech production tasks. Performance accuracy was compared across groups and also correlated with speech sound accuracy from a single-word naming task. Children with SSD demonstrated poorer performance than other groups on forward digit span, whereas children with low-average speech skills underperformed their peers on the Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST). These preliminary results suggest that children with speech errors may have less mature working memory than peers who have mastered phonological targets earlier in development.

On the phonological status of Spanish compound words

Primarily inspired by Bustos de Gisbert (1986) , Hualde (2006/2007 ), and Moyna (2011) , specifically by their comments on stress deletion in the left members of some Spanish compounds, the current investigation fills a gap in this field by conducting an acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency evidence of stress in Spanish compounds and phonologically classifying them through the Autosegmental-Metrical model. Using a data elicitation task of 30 noun+noun compounds demonstrating syntactic, semantic, orthographic, and phonological variation, eight speakers of Mexican Spanish recorded two iterations of each compound, which is embedded at the beginning or at the end of a declarative carrier phrase. The acoustic analysis reveals that, as expected, right members categorically exhibit F0 evidence of stress. However, only the 15 compounds written as two orthographic units show strong evidence of left stress. This is especially so in utterance-initial position. The number of unstressed syllables between left and right stresses determines the tonal sequences produced in left members. In compounds spelled as two orthographic units, the phonological targets of each member resemble those of two simple content words in broad focus declaratives. Evidence of left stress in orthographically united compounds occurs in less than 20% of cases, and these are viewed as carrying postlexical secondary stress. The tonal sequences of this group are more wide-ranging than those of the first group. The results have implications for language processing and raise questions for the study of compound stress in Spanish.

Auditory feedback perturbation of vowel production: A comparative study of congenitally blind speakers and sighted speakers

Studies with congenitally blind speakers show that visual deprivation yields increased auditory discrimination abilities as well as reduced amplitude of labial movements involved in vowel production, compared with sighted speakers. To further investigate the importance of auditory and visual feedback in speech, a study of auditory perturbation of rounded vowels was conducted in congenitally blind and sighted French speakers. Acoustic and articulatory (electromagnetic articulography) recordings from ten congenitally blind speakers and ten sighted speakers were obtained during the production of the French rounded vowel /ø/. All participants were first asked to produce the vowel repeatedly in a normal condition, i.e., with regular auditory feedback. In the perturbed condition, participants received, in real-time through headsets, an altered version of their speech, in which F2 was gradually increased up to 500 Hz. To compensate for this perturbation, speakers had to enhance lip protrusion and/or tongue retraction. These adaptive maneuvers should have been concurrent with auditory perception abilities. Preliminary results show that congenitally blind speakers gave greater weight to auditory perception than their sighted peers, while compensating differently for the perturbations. These findings support the hypothesis that vision plays a significant role in the implementation of phonological targets.

English spelling performance of Dutch grammar school students

The present study investigates English spelling performance of Dutch grammar school students to establish whether Dutch grammar school students are able to spell words differing in complexity, as well as whether they are sensitive to the information available in the spellings (phonological, orthographical, and lexical frequency). Twenty-one Dutch foreign language learners of English were presented with an English dictation task (from Kemp, Parrila, & Kirby, 2009). They had to spell base (uninflected) and derived (inflected) words and pseudowords which were matched on the basis of their phonological or orthographical patterns. Students also had to complete a Dutch dictation task, and a word and pseudoword reading task. Findings show that the students obtained higher scores on spelling words versus pseudowords, base versus derived targets, and on phonological versus orthographical targets. There was no correlation between Dutch and English spelling proficiency. These data are interpreted within a usage-based model of language acquisition.

When the Diagnosis Is Dual

When the Diagnosis Is Dual

The development of lingual gestures in speech: an experimental approach to language development

Learning to speak a language is related to the emergence of sensorimotor “maps” in which vowels and consonants are associated with articulatory-acoustic vocal tract configurations. One main challenge for young children is to develop these associations while integrating anatomical changes, as well as motor, perceptual, and cognitive abilities (Green, Moore, & Reilly, 2002; Kuhl & Meltzoff, 1982; Vorperian et al., 2005). There is empirical evidence that the physical growth in the vocal tract is not complete until adolescence (Kent, 2004). Hence, from birth to adulthood, the production of vowels and consonants is likely to reflect continuous articulatory and acoustic adjustments, as the production system matures. Determining the exact role of each component (anatomical, motor, perceptual, and cognitive) for producing intelligible speechis a complex task, especially from an ontogenetic perspective. The objective of this paper is to study the articulatory strategies used by children to produce speech targets. Those targets can be considered as phonological goals, implemented by phonetic articulatory gestures. Considering the facts that (i) 4-year-old children can produce intelligible phonemes, (ii) their motor control capacities are still immature, and (iii) their vocal tract anatomy greatly differs from that of adults, it is hypothesized that they use different phonetic strategies compared to adults to implement phonological targets. This report is part of a larger research program we have developed with our collaborators for the last decade (Menard et al., 2000; 2004). For the first time, this paper reports on articulatory data recorded via an ultrasound system. Data acquired by this method are compared to simulations with an articulatory-to-acoustic model (VLAM model), described below (Boe, 1999). 1.1. Non-Uniform Vocal Tract Growth, Motor Control Development, and Vowel Production At the anatomical level, cineradiographic (Goldstein, 1980) and MRI data (Callan, Kent, Guenther, & Vorperian, 2000; Fitch & Giedd, 1999; Vorperian et al., 2005) have shown that the adult vocal apparatus is the result of a complex remodeling of the infant tract. At birth, the overall vocal tract, determined from the larynx to the lips, is approximately 8 cm long, whereas the adult male vocal tract is 17 cm long (Goldstein, 1980). According to Goldstein (1980), the pharynx/oral cavity ratio changes in terms of length from 0.5 at birth to 1.1 in adulthood for a male. Therefore, while the infants’ pharyngeal cavity is much shorter than the oral cavity at birth, it is longer than the front cavity in adults (Fitch & Giedd, 1999). Various studies (Callan et al., 2000; Menard, Schwartz, & Boe, 2004) have reported on the impact of these major anatomical modifications on speakers’ productions of vowels at different developmental stages. For instance, Buhr (1980) suggested that the lack of [u]-like productions in infants’ vowel inventory is related to the small size of their pharyngeal cavity. In addition to the non-uniformity of infants’ anatomical growth, the emergence of vocalic sounds is constrained by limited speech motor abilities in the first year of life (Davis & MacNeilage, 1995; Kent, 1976; Vilain, Abry, Badin, & Brosda, 1999). One main hypothesis is that consonant- and vowel-like sounds are produced with the tongue and the lips being passively raised and lowered via rhythmic motions of the jaw (MacNeilage & Davis, 1990). In this view, the vowels that do not occur in infants’ early productions are those that cannot be articulated because of a lack of motor control over the tongue that would enable infants to produce tongue movements independent of jaw movements. The production of a wider variety of sounds occurs in late childhood or adolescence with the achievement of adult-like motor control (Kent, 1976; Smith & Zelaznik, 2004; Walsh & Smith, 2002). A few studies have investigated the development of articulatory control in young children. Among them, Green, Moore, Higashikawa, & Steeve (2000) showed that the coordination of lip and jaw movements develops as children grow up with a decrease in trial-to-trial variability indicative of the maturation of the speech production system. A similar pattern was observed by Smith and Zelaznik (2004) in a quantitative investigation of lip and jaw movements in 180 children and adults aged 4 to 22. Cheng, Murdoch, Goozee, and Scott (2007) have investigated tongue-jaw interactions with electromagnetic articulography in 48 subjects aged 6 to 38 during the production of the consonants /t/ and /k/. They observed an increase in synchronization of tongue-tip and jaw movements over time. Tongue-body and jaw movements did not show a similar pattern, but became less variable with age. Results were interpreted as indices of maturation of speech motor control with age. It seems that the acquisition of new controls and their integration into existing ones, such as the integration of tongue movements into already controlled jaw oscillatory movements, enables precision for the diversification of speech-related movements.

The effect of aging on event-related potentials and behavioral responses: Comparison of tonal, phonologic and semantic targets

Objective To investigate age-related changes in speech perception by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by auditory stimuli varying in their linguistic characteristics from pure tones to words. Methods ERPs were recorded from 64 subjects in three age groups (young, middle age and elderly) to auditory target stimuli, using an oddball paradigm. Three different tasks and stimuli were used: tonal, phonological and semantic. Results N100 latency to tonal targets was significantly shorter than to both types of speech targets. P300 latency to tonal targets was significantly shorter than to phonological targets, which in turn was shorter than to semantic targets. P300 amplitude recorded to the speech targets was significantly larger over the left hemisphere than over the right hemisphere in the young subjects. However, the reverse pattern of asymmetry, favoring the right hemisphere was found in the elderly subjects. The pattern of the hemispheric distribution for the middle aged was somewhere in between the young and elderly. Conclusions The data indicate possible progressive changes in left–right asymmetry in language processing with aging. Significance Findings may indicate an increased use of compensatory mechanisms for speech processing, or alternatively, an increased use of different generators as individuals age.

Event Related Potentials (ERPs) and Behavioral Responses: Comparison of Tonal Stimuli to Speech Stimuli in Phonological and Semantic Tasks

Event related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 20 young subjects to auditory target stimuli while they were performing three different tasks, using an oddball paradigm: 1. Tones: Subjects were instructed to respond to a 1 kHz tone, and ignore a 2 kHz tone; 2. Phonological: Subjects were instructed to respond only to pseudowords that had a specific ending ('f"); 3. Semantic: Subjects were instructed to respond to words that belonged to a specific category (animals). EEGs were recorded from 19 electrode sites. Peak amplitude of the early component (N100) did not differ significantly across the three tasks, although N100 peak latency differed significantly across tasks. In contrast, the later endogenous component (P300) was stimulus- and task-dependent. P300 latency differed significantly across stimuli and tasks: 336 ms to target tones; 682 ms to the phonological targets; and 727 ms to target words in the semantic task. P300 amplitude was significantly larger to tones than to speech stimuli. P300 peak amplitude recorded from electrode sites over the left hemisphere to the tonal target stimuli did not differ significantly from that recorded over the right hemisphere. In contrast, P300 amplitude recorded to both the phonological and semantic targets was significantly larger over the left hemisphere than over the right hemisphere at the parietal electrodes. The present results can contribute to our understanding of how humans process linguistic stimuli. These findings emphasize the importance of using similar experimental protocols when conducting broad comparisons of ERPs to a variety of stimuli and tasks.

Connections between phonology and semantics: an exploration of lexical processing in a language-impaired child

This is a study of lexical processing in a 6-year-old whose spontaneous output shows word-finding problems, phonological errors, and occa sional semantic errors. In order to investigate the level(s) of processing responsible for these errors, tasks tapping different stages of input and output processing were carried out. The child's responses showed that his errors were largely confined to output, and involved phonological deviation from the target. Responses to different output tasks showed similar types of errors, but some inconsistency in the treatment of particular phonological or lexical targets. The implications for the nature of the processing impairment and for intervention are discussed.

An acoustic analysis of frontal misarticulation of /s/ in children

In an attempt to investigate the acquisition of fine phonetic control and the nature of phonological representations in children who exhibit speech sound production errors, this study explored temporal, amplitude, and spectral characteristics of frontally misarticulated /s/ and compared these parameters to those associated with correctly articulated /θ/. The subjects included two groups of misarticulating children, aged 5–6 years and 7–8 years and two groups of age-matched normal control subjects. Recordings of /s/ and / θ/ as produced by these subjects in a variety of vocalic contexts were analyzed acoustically; mean duration, amplitude, and centroid frequency measures for the frication noise, and measures of variability were computed and contrasted across the four groups. Results indicated that all groups distinguished /s/ and / θ/ to some extent on all parameters measured. However, centroid values for misarticulated /s/ were lower in frequency than were those for normally-articulated /s/. Results are discussed in relation to the nature of phonological targets in misarticulating children and to the acoustic characteristics of misarticulated /s/ in developing speech production.

Playing with your speech organ: An unfinished play in five acts

Presented as an unachieved theater play, 4 this “paper” deals with the evolution of ideas concerning the relationships between the phonetic disintegration of non-fluent aphasics and the phonemic paraphasias of fluent aphasics. Act I summarizes how, soon after the turn of this century, neurologists, relying on half-implicit knowledge of the rule-governed nature of human languages, recognized three types of acquired dysfunctions impairing segmental production: the dysarthrias, anarthria and phonemic paraphasia. Act II underlines the influence of Troubetskoy's unachieved Grundzage der Phonologie and of the monograph by Alajouanine, Ombredane and Durand, entitled Le syndrome de désintégration phonétique dans l'aphasie (both published in 1939). In the context of Act III, psycholinguistics is presented as having given itself the task of testing the functional pertinency of linguistic theories, i.e. as concerned with the ways in which linguistic structures are dynamically processed by the human mind and its subserving brain. The problem of “false evaluation” in IPA transcripts of pathological speech is discussed at the beginning of Act IV; it is suggested that devoicing of voiced consonants, as observed in Broca's aphasia, is a phonetic rather than a phonological dysfunction (co-articulatory processing of segments, i.e. synchronous implementation of articulatory gestures is at fault, whereas underlying phonological targets are flawless). It is proposed, in Act V, that aphasiological dichotomies are bound to be somewhat mendacious. How, for instance, could the metathesis, assimilations and certain other deviation types observed in Broca's aphasia be phonetically constrained? Moreover, acoustical analyses of speech production have revealed the existence of subtle phonetic alterations in the discourse of Wernicke's jargonaphasics: how could these be phonologically constrained? The conclusion takes the form of a péroraison in which a fundamental question is raised as to the meaning of the prefix “neuro” in words such as neuropsychology and neurolinguistics.