Speech Speaker Research Articles

Temporal acoustic properties of the sibilant fricative /s/ for the differential diagnosis of dysarthria and apraxia of speech in Spanish speakers

ABSTRACT Dysarthria and Apraxia of Speech (AoS) are motor speech disorders in which neurological lesions differentially affect motor control, possibly leading to noticeable differences in articulation and consequently sound production. Among the sounds requiring greater motor capacity because of its articulatory complexity is the voiceless alveolar sibilant fricative /s/. The aim of this study was to identify acoustic variables able to distinguish between dysarthria and AoS, and between these disorders and normal speech in Spanish speakers. The production of this fricative was acoustically examined in 28 individuals with motor neurological disorders (20 with dysarthria, 8 with AoS) and in 28 neurologically healthy persons. Participants repeated 12 monosyllabic words containing the fricative plus one of the five Spanish vowels. The variables measured were absolute durations of the fricative, vowel, and fricative+vowel sequence, along with the vowel-to-fricative duration ratio. Findings indicate that duration of the fricative can distinguish between controls and speakers with dysarthria, but not between controls and speakers with AoS. Measures related to vowel duration served to distinguish between speakers with dysarthria and speakers with AoS and between each of them and controls. Further, speakers with dysarthria and those with AoS differed from each other and from controls in terms of articulatory variability; speakers with dysarthria showing most variability. In the latter participants, articulatory variability was higher for unrounded segments, vowels and fricatives, while in speakers with AoS this variability was higher for rounded segments. These observations are discussed within a framework of motor control models.

How similar are the formants in the speech of bilingual speakers?

This study investigated whether a stronger accent in the L2 of Cantonese-English bilingual speakers with high levels of English proficiency correlates with greater convergence of corresponding vowels (four monophthongs (/i a (a) c u/ and five diphthongs /ai au ei ci ou (eu)/) between their two languages in identical phonetic environments. No consistent effect of accent rating was found in either acoustic or perceptual similarity measures. Much individual variation and vowel-specific patterns were observed. The results demonstrate that the formant patterns in one language or one vowel cannot predict those in another language or another vowel, even with highly comparable materials and speakers with a relatively strong accent. Possible reasons and implications for the lack of correlation between accentedness and vowel convergence are discussed.

Differences in Connected Speech Outcomes Across Elicitation Methods

ABSTRACT Background Connected speech is often used to assess many aspects of an individual’s language abilities after stroke. However, it is unknown the degree to which elicitation methods differ in generating structural and syntactic aspects of connected speech, two critical components of successful communication. Quantifying the degree to which elicitation methods differ in eliciting structurally, syntactically, and lexically complex connected speech at the earliest stage of stroke before reorganization and rehabilitation of function independent of clinical diagnosis of aphasia has not been examined to date. Addressing this gap has implications for early clinical intervention as well as empirical studies of connected speech production. Aims We compared two common elicitation methods, picture description and storytelling on lexical, structural, and syntactic measures of connected speech in speakers during the acute stage of left hemisphere stroke. Methods & Procedures We measured connected speech using an automated quantitative production analysis approach (Fromm et al., 2021) in 71 native-English speaking participants (27 female; 59 ± 13 years) within an average 3.9 days from left hemisphere stroke onset. We tested the degree of agreement and consistency between elicitation methods for lexical, structural, and syntactic measures of connected speech, as well as the degree of concordance in classifying deficits across individuals. Outcomes & Results Storytelling elicited significantly more words and more structurally complex, lexically diverse, and syntactically accurate speech in comparison to picture description. Elicitation methods differed in measuring outcomes across participants for the lexical and syntactic, but not structural complexity aspects of connected speech where storytelling classified more participants with impairments in comparison to picture description. Conclusions These differences suggest storytelling provides assessment of connected speech abilities more reflective of real-world abilities where its use is particularly critical for examining individual differences and providing diagnoses of acute stroke language deficits. As a result, using storytelling as a connected speech elicitation method more effectively captures a patient’s language capabilities after stroke, consequently informing clinical diagnosis and treatment.

السجع في الأفعال الكلامية الإنجازية فى مسلسل كرتون محسن و محاسن لتأليف قناة يوتوب جمعية نمآء الخيرية (الدراسة براغماتية لجون رابيرت سيرلى)

This study discusses the types and functions of illocutionary speech acts in the cartoon series Muhsin wa Mahasin. The purpose of this study is to describe the types and functions of illocutionary speech acts contained in the cartoon series Muhsin wa Mahasin. The research method used in this research is qualitative with literature study. The data collection technique used in this research is the listening method, the data collection technique using reference materials and the data analysis technique using the equivalent method which is supported by the SPEAKING speech component. The results of the analysis in this study are that in assertive speech acts the researcher finds speeches stating with affirmation, expressing with anxiety and complaining to get help. In directive speech acts, the researcher finds utterances of suggesting, commanding, pleading and advising. In commissive speech acts, the researcher finds utterances in the form of promises and refusals. And in expressive speech acts the researcher found utterances in the form of thanking, apologizing, praising, worried and surprised. The function of speech acts that the researchers found is a competitive function in which there is an utterance that functions to command and ask the speech partner, in the convival function the researcher finds speech with a polite and friendly attitude, namely an utterance that functions to thank, congratulate and greet, collaborative function The researcher found utterances with the intention of working together, namely utterances which functioned to express and conflictive functions.

The Use of Digital Storytelling to Stimulate Learners’ Listening Comprehension

This study was conducted to investigate the teacher’s ways of teaching digital storytelling to improve learners’ listening comprehension and find out learners’ responses to the use of digital storytelling to stimulate their listening comprehension. The research method employed in this study was a qualitative method with a case study approach. An English teacher and eleventh-grade students at one of the senior high schools in Ciamis took part as the participants. The data were obtained from classroom observation, structured interviews, and questionnaires. The validity data was proceeded by the triangulation method. The finding revealed that the teacher in fact used top-down and bottom-up strategy in teaching listening using digital storytelling. In addition, in teaching and learning process of listening, the teacher used digital storytelling media as an activity that enables students understand what the speaker’ speech from the video, develops student motivation, and improves students' listening skills. This strategy gave students better understanding of a certain topic of listening. Furthermore, the students considered the teaching-learning process of listening through digital storytelling as an activity that makes students understand the speaker speech about in the video. Thus, the use of digital storytelling in learning makes learning joyful because of the ease of use and availability of facilities. The researcher recommended free and easily accessible digital media such as interesting digital storytelling to be practiced in classroom learning.

VARIASI BAHASA DALAM VIDEO YOUTUBE GITA SAVITRI DEVI BERJUDUL TOXIC POSITIVITY | BEROPINI EPS. 39

The use of language variation is a form of language diversity due to the social diversity of speakers. This is important for us to know in order to understand the existence of various forms of variety of languages as a form of education. The purpose of this study was to find out how the forms of language variations contained in YouTube videos on Gita Savitri Devi's channel entitled Toxic Positivity | Opinionated Eps. 39. The method in this study uses data analysis through a qualitative descriptive approach. The data of this study is in the form of language variance used by Gita Savitri Devi when communicating or conveying information. The source of data used in this study is in the form of a speech from a YouTube video on Gita Savitri Devi's channel entitled Toxic Positivity | Opinionated Eps. 39. The results of the study are in the form of the use of language or speech of speakers using various language variations in it. 1) Variations of speakers, namely, the use of dialects as Jakarta society, 2) Registers that show the use of language that refers to the world of psychology, 3) The formality aspect of using casual or casual varieties to make the video fresh, light, and familiar and 4) Oral means used. The variety of language selection is divided into two, namely code mixing and code switching. Code mixing is seen in the speaker's speech when pronouncing some vocabulary mixed with English in Indonesian. The code transfer found is in the form of external code transfer from Indonesian to English.

Impacts of Cortical Regions on EEG-based Classification of Lexical Tones and Vowels in Spoken Speech.

Speech impairment is one of the most serious problems for patients with communication disorders, e.g., stroke survivors. The brain-computer interface (BCI) systems have shown the potential to alternatively control or rehabilitate the neurological damages in speech production. The effects of different cortical regions in speech-based BCI systems are essential to be studied, which are favorable for improving the performance of speech-based BCI systems. This work aimed to explore the impacts of different speech-related cortical regions in the electroencephalogram (EEG) based classification of seventy spoken Mandarin monosyllables carrying four vowels and four lexical tones. Seven audible speech production-related cortical regions were studied, involving Broca's and Wernicke's areas, auditory cortex, motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, sensory cortex, left brain, right brain, and whole brain. Following the previous studies in which EEG signals were collected from ten subjects during Mandarin speech production, the features of EEG signals were extracted by the Riemannian manifold method, and a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was regarded as a classifier to classify different vowels and lexical tones. The results showed that when using electrodes from whole brain, the classifier reached the best performances, which were 48.5% for lexical tones and 70.0% for vowels, respectively. The vowel classification results under Broca's and Wernicke's areas, auditory cortex, or prefrontal cortex were higher than those under the motor cortex or sensory cortex. No such differences were observed in the lexical tone classification task.

Effects of speaking task and proficiency on the midclause pausing characteristics of L1 and L2 speech from the same speakers

AbstractThis study explored the effect of speaking task on midclause pausing characteristics in the L1 and L2 speech of the same speakers to gain further insights into the potential relationship between pause location and stages of speech production. Participants included English L1 learners of L2 French (n = 29) or Spanish (n = 27) from the publicly available, longitudinal LANGSNAP corpus. Participants completed two oral tasks in their L1 and L2: a picture-based narrative and a semistructured interview. The rate, duration, and proportion of midclause pauses were compared between tasks in the L1 as well as in the L2 before and during residence abroad. In the L1, results indicated more fluent performance in the narrative task except for rate. When speaking in their L2, participants showed improvement on each measure in the narrative task but ultimately remained less fluent in their L2 in comparison to their L1. In the interview task, the only measure of midclause pausing that consistently differentiated L1 from L2 speech was midclause pause rate. The findings call for a nuanced interpretation of connections between midclause pausing and formulation and suggest that midclause pause rate is least influenced by speaking task.

Investigations on the Optimal Estimation of Speech Envelopes for the Two-Stage Speech Enhancement.

Using the source-filter model of speech production, clean speech signals can be decomposed into an excitation component and an envelope component that is related to the phoneme being uttered. Therefore, restoring the envelope of degraded speech during speech enhancement can improve the intelligibility and quality of output. As the number of phonemes in spoken speech is limited, they can be adequately represented by a correspondingly limited number of envelopes. This can be exploited to improve the estimation of speech envelopes from a degraded signal in a data-driven manner. The improved envelopes are then used in a second stage to refine the final speech estimate. Envelopes are typically derived from the linear prediction coefficients (LPCs) or from the cepstral coefficients (CCs). The improved envelope is obtained either by mapping the degraded envelope onto pre-trained codebooks (classification approach) or by directly estimating it from the degraded envelope (regression approach). In this work, we first investigate the optimal features for envelope representation and codebook generation by a series of oracle tests. We demonstrate that CCs provide better envelope representation compared to using the LPCs. Further, we demonstrate that a unified speech codebook is advantageous compared to the typical codebook that manually splits speech and silence as separate entries. Next, we investigate low-complexity neural network architectures to map degraded envelopes to the optimal codebook entry in practical systems. We confirm that simple recurrent neural networks yield good performance with a low complexity and number of parameters. We also demonstrate that with a careful choice of the feature and architecture, a regression approach can further improve the performance at a lower computational cost. However, as also seen from the oracle tests, the benefit of the two-stage framework is now chiefly limited by the statistical noise floor estimate, leading to only a limited improvement in extremely adverse conditions. This highlights the need for further research on joint estimation of speech and noise for optimum enhancement.

БИБЛЕЙСКАЯ ФРАЗЕОЛОГИЯ В ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ

The multifaceted nature of the study of biblical phraseology today is due, on the one hand, to the ambiguity and insufficient study of biblical phraseological units, on the other hand, to their active use and frequent reproducibility in different types of discourse. Moreover, their study requires the involvement of several approaches, such as structural-semantic, linguocognitive and cognitive-discursive, linguocultural, and finally, functional. In this respect, the relevance of the presented problem is beyond any doubt. Designating the study of functional specificity of the phraseological units of biblical etymology, presented in the contexts of political communication as the aim of this study, we offer a comprehensive coverage of issues related to the specifics of communication in the political sphere, in particular the analysis of approaches to the definition of the notion of publicistic discourse, its key characteristics and ingredient features, consideration of the functioning of phraseological units of biblical origin and their usual and occasional variants. The methodology of this study is determined by the purpose and scientific hypothesis, which implies the identification of a representative corpus of examples of political discourse contexts, containing biblical phraseological units, performing the leading persuasive function. The research methods are as follows: the method of phraseological identification and phraseological description proposed by prof. A.V. Kunin, the contextual method, the method of lexico-semantic analysis, the search corpus method. The results of the research allow concluding the following: biblical phraseological units are a separate microsystem, biblical phraseological units are actively used in oral and written speech of native speakers in different types of discourse due to their polyfunctionality and variability, in political discourse biblical phraseological units are used in the function of persuasion. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time a systematic study of biblical phraseology in English and Russian on the example of their functioning in the texts of political discourse. The currently available works are few and sporadic. The practical significance of the study is determined by the possibility of using the data obtained in the classroom as part of the disciplines Fundamentals of First Foreign Language Theory, English Language Stylistics, special course English Language Phraseology.

Uh and Um in the Native and Non-Native Speech of Guests on a Saudi English-Language Podcast

Filled pauses (FPs), uh and um, are an inherent characteristic of impromptu spoken English. However, despite the ubiquity of FP studies across languages and their impacts on speech production and comprehension, they have not been thoroughly examined in the context of second language learners of English whose mother tongue is Arabic. Hence, this study analyzed FPs in the speech of female and male non-native speakers of English and those of an American speaker who were guests on a popular English-language podcast. Combining Praat (speech analysis software), and manual coding of FPs and fillers based on previous studies, native and non-native speech was overall peppered with FPs. Although uh was more frequent than um, their frequencies among speakers and characteristic positions varied greatly. Whereas the majority comprised standalone FPs, the remaining FPs co-occurred with fillers (and, but, so, well, and you know) or were aspirated. The average length of the FPs was slightly longer for the native speaker. There were more FPs in the samples taken from early in the podcast episodes than around the middles and sometimes the endings. Regarding gender, male speakers uttered more FPs than the female speaker, whether they are native or non-native speakers.

Preface

The 2022 3rd International Conference on Material Chemistry and Composite Materials (MCCM 2022) took place via virtual form on December 16th-18th, 2022 in Zhuhai, China particularly favorable for informal and in-depth discussions. Invited and contributed papers present state-of-the-art research in material chemistry and composite materials. This workshop always welcomes a fruitful mix of experienced researchers and students, to allow a better understanding of related fields.The 2022 session of the material chemistry and composite materials, hosted by Guilin University of Technology, was doubtlessly a great success. The program encompassed a wide variety of topics, namely New Energy Materials, Polymer Material, Computational Materials Science, Molding Process of the Material, etc. All papers published in this volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS) have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.About 150 delegates from around the world participated in the conference, and the conference agenda was divided into two sessions, including Keynote Speeches and Oral Presentations. Each keynote speaker was given 30-40 minutes for keynote speeches. Among them, Prof. Yang Liu from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China performed a keynote speech on the title: New Molecular Insight into Ferroelectric Polymer and Nanocomposites. In this talk, he first presented their discovery of morphotropic phase boundary-like behavior in ferroelectric P(VDF-TrFE) copolymers which exhibits the state-of-the-art piezoelectric coefficient of - 63.5 pC/N. Moreover, he revealed the origin of relaxor behavior in ferroelectric polymers. Finally, he addressed recent emerging advance especially achieved by scanning probe microscopy which has been used to characterize the interface in terms of different polymer matrix, fillers and filler size. The insightful speeches of each keynote speakers triggered heated and interesting discussions and a good number of informal talks between all the participants and it was a great opportunity to promote academic communication and collaboration.List of Committee member is available in the pdf.

TEACHERS’ SELF-EFFICACIOUS BELIEFS APROPOS GENDER EQUALITY PRIORITIZING TO THE UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS 5

Teachers are the important figure in society. They are the nation builders, and information providers and disseminate knowledge among students focusing on their efficacious beliefs for gender equality; the United Nations global agenda, 2030. As the globe intends to strengthen harmony among states, prosperity, lifelong learning, and well-being focusing on the aspect of gender equality accordingly. To spread national and international messages within states, the teachers are the backbone who confidently cooperate and implement the stances accordingly. Likewise, the authors structured the current research to figure out the aspect of teachers’ self-efficacious beliefs playing a role in prioritizing the United Nations SDG 5 “gender equality”. The authors planned the current research on a sample of 674 primary school teachers working in public sector schools of District Lahore. After obtaining unfettered and unrestricted permissions from the authors, the administration of standardized instruments assists the researcher to collect the data from participants. Following piloting criteria and ensuring reliability and normality statistics, the authors applied parametric statistics to analyze the data for smooth results in SPSS. The results revealed that teachers’ self-efficacious beliefs have a 74.90% influence on enhancing gender equality and were important to spreading UN, SDG 5 “gender equality”. Primary school teachers have equally treated and disseminated knowledge among students. However, the authors have identified that in public sector educational institutions, the government is hardly focusing on SGD to implement the UN global agenda. The current research recommends that the government of Pakistan, train teachers, conduct workshops, and arrange the speeches of motivational speakers to spread the UN 17 goals with 169 integrated targets.

Bilingual Phenomena Occurring in the Speech of Albanian Native Speakers

This study aims to determine whether bilingual phenomena occur in the speech of Albanian bilingual students with high exposure to English, in an attempt to detect the influence of English on the Albanian language. Special attention is paid to bilingual aspects like codeswitching, lexical borrowings, calques, and hybrid compounds. Data have been gathered through participant systematic observation: Albanian bilingual students have been observed within informal settings of Pristina international schools. Their conversations have been recorded and transcribed for further analysis. The study shows that code-switching is the most common linguistic behaviour among the students under investigation. However, in addition to code-switching, lexical borrowings and calques also play a roughly equivalent role in their speech. This research provides evidence of bilingual phenomena resulting from direct, everyday language contact between English and Albanian in Pristina international schools, which aids in understanding the sociolinguistic changes brought about by such contact.

Транслингвизм как повседневная практика (на материале русско-татарско-удмуртского многоязычия)

The paper is devoted to the study of spontaneous speech of polylinguals in situations of everyday communication in the setting of Russian-Tatar-Udmurt multilingualism based on the speech material of the native speakers of the Udmurt language in the village of Staraya Ucha in the Kukmorsky district of the Republic of Tatarstan. The aim of the research is to identify the features peculiar to the manifestation of translanguaging as a daily practice in the setting of interaction between Russian, Tatar and Udmurt. The scientific novelty lies in describing the strategies of the matrix (Udmurt) language and guest (Russian and Tatar) languages functioning in everyday communication practice; identifying the features of translanguaging as an everyday language practice. The research findings showed that the phenomenon of translanguaging in the speech of the native speakers of the Udmurt language on the territory of the Kukmorsky district of the Republic of Tatarstan is conditioned by extra- and intralinguistic factors. From the perspective of semantics, the foreign-language inclusions found in the speech of the native speakers of the Udmurt language tend to be names of specific objects, realities reflecting the peculiarities of Tatar material culture or intangible culture. The Russian inclusions in most cases are represented by adverbial forms, numerals, set expressions. The matrix Udmurt language is used usually in the predicative part of the sentence.

Challenging issues in Cantonese-English lexicography

ABSTRACT: At the outset of writing a bilingual Cantonese-English dictionary that is comprehensive in scope, the lexicographer confronts a series of challenging issues that are fundamental to the successful creation of such an ambitious dictionary. Among the crucial questions to be satisfactorily resolved are at least the following eight: 1) What are the principal criteria that guide the lexicographer's selection of the Cantonese lexical items that form the contents of the bilingual dictionary? Further, what is the scope of the lexical contents? Broad, by encompassing all lexical items that occur in the speech of Hong Kong Cantonese speakers, even those items that overlap with standard Chinese? Or, narrow, by focusing only on the uniquely Hong Kong Cantonese lexicon? 2) What categories of information about the lexical items should form the structural contents of lexical entries? These could include parts of speech, speech registers, cross-referencing of related lexical items, synonyms, alternative pronunciations and variant written forms, example sentences, etc. 3) How detailed should the equivalent English translations of the Cantonese lexical items be? 4) Should lexical entries include information on their social, cultural, historical, and political associations, usage, etymology (origin and historical development), etc.? 5) What is the organizing principle by which the Cantonese lexical entries are listed in the dictionary, as there are at least four? 6) As for Cantonese pronunciation, which register of the language should be romanized? The conservative, literary, standard pronunciation? The colloquial, informal, commonly-used 懶 音 laan5 jam1 "lazy" pronunciation? Or both of these? 7) Several Cantonese romanization systems are currently in use, so which one is best for representing Hong Kong's contemporary Cantonese pronunciation? 8) Given that the written form of the Cantonese language has never been formally or officially standardized, so that some lexical items are typically written in two or more different ways, what criteria should guide the lexicographer in deciding how Cantonese words are graphically transcribed in a Cantonese-English dictionary? In writing his ABC Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary 粵語英語大詞典 (Bauer 2020) over the past decade and a half, the author had to face and then answer appropriately each of these important questions. This article has described how he addressed and practically resolved these and other related problems. 摘要: 编写范围广泛的粤英双语词典之初，词典编撰者面临一系列甚具挑战 性的问题，这些问题对于成功创构这样一部耗时费力的词典至关重要。 要圆满解决的关键问题至少有以下八个：1)主要以什么标准指导词典 编撰者选择构成双语词典内容的粤语词项？此外，词汇内容的范围是 什么？是广泛的，包括所有除现在说香港粤语人士口语的词项，甚至 那些与标准汉语重叠的词项？或者，狭义的，只关注独特的香港粤语 词汇？2)关于词项的哪些类别的信息应该构成词条的结构内容？这些 可能包括词性、语域、相关词项的相互参照、同义词、替代或变异发 音和书面形式、例句等。3)粤语词项对应的英译应该有多详细？4)词 条应否包括有关其社会、文化、历史和政治关联、用法、词源（起源 和历史发展）等方面的信息？5)在词典中列出粤语词条的组织原则至 少有四个，而那些组织原则是什么？6)关于粤语发音，哪个语域发音 应该用拼音？保守的、文学的、标准的发音？还是口语化的、非正式 的、常用的懒音？或者这两种发音都应该用拼音？7)目前使用粤语的 拼音系统有好几种，那么哪一种最能代表当代香港粤语发音？8)鉴于 粤语的书面形式从未正式或官式标准化，因此一些词项通常以两种或 多种不同方式书写，应該以什么标准指导词典编撰者决定如何以图形 方式将粤语字词转录于粤英词典？作者在过去十五年编写他的《ABC Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary 粵語英語大詞典》(Bauer 2020)的过程中必须面对这些重要问题，并且就每一个问题恰当地予 以解答。本文描述了他如何处理并实际解决以上和其他相关疑难问题。

ANOPHONE: An Annotation Tool for Phonemes and L2 Annotation Systems for Czech

Abstract The goal of this text is the presentation of the ANOPHONE annotation system, which allows for the management and annotation of speech data to develop a tool for the automatic transcription of speech of non-native speakers of Czech. This system is currently designed for annotations on the segmental level of recordings of non-native speakers of Czech, with the aim to train automatic speech recognition (ASR) models used in this tool. After an introductory section that discusses the use of technology in pronunciation teaching and mentions some of the e-learning applications for teaching the pronunciation of second languages (L2), we address both general and more specific aspects of speech data annotation to train ASR models and mention attributive and synthetic segmental systems of speech data annotation for Czech as L2. We also briefly introduce the annotation system of non-native speakers of Czech called BV1, which is used for testing the ANOPHONE tool. The main part of this text focuses on presenting the annotation tool itself, while the conclusion describes the experience of testing the speech data annotation tool using BV1 annotation system for Czech as L2.

THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDENT’S SOCIOCULTURAL COMPETENCE DURING THEIR FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

The article analyzes the social component of the updated speech portrait of a university specialist. The sociocultural dominant of intercultural speech interaction is determined by the position of the individual in the social system, the situation of communication, his profession, region of origin, and age. In this regard, the subjects of communication are faced with various features of communication: this is communicative behavior, the cultural space of communication, the linguistic personality of a foreign language with an individually formed picture of the world. English language instruction at the Language Pedagogical Institute is governed by educational standards that call for a move to higher level of foreign language skill as measured by the mainstream European scale of non-native language proficiency. When learning a foreign language, particular focus should be placed on the practical aspects of mastering the language while taking into account contemporary linguistic trends, motivating factors, and the psychology-pedagogical aspects of oral speaking. Learning a foreign language becomes a creative process that opens up the culture and mindset of the nation where it is being learned. If a sociocultural aspect of learning foreign language content is fully realized, this will encourage students' interest in the subject and lead to more fully realized language mastery. The sociocultural field of research concerned with instructing the interpretation of foreign language speech is taken into consideration at the junction of competency-based and intercultural approaches. Emphasis is placed on the value of learning how to identify and evaluate the significance of social elements' influences on a speaker's speech behavior.

Language Choice in Brang Kidul Community of Ponorogo, Indonesia

This study aims to determine the language choice of Indonesian ethnic Javanese, especially of the Brang Kidul of Ponoragan; based on the distinguishing vocabulary and intonation in the narrative. “Ponorogo Brang Kidul” is the designation for the southern part of Ponorogo Regency of the East Java Province. Employing qualitative research method, sociolinguistic approach, and research communication model, this research was conducted in the higher education community toward three respondents who are native Ponoragan Javanese speakers. The research data were obtained from recorded dialogues of speakers in four speech contexts between students and lecturers and between fellow students. The language code selection patterns found were Bahasa Jawa (BJ), Bahasa Jawa Ponoragan (BJP), Bahasa Arab (BA), and Bahasa Indonesia (BI) which would had been considered mainly based on situations, age, and social status. The BJP vocabularies frequently found in the Brang Kidul dialect were "alah mendah", "ritek", "byungalaah", "angkan", "gor", "ale", "klawus", "dipadoni", and "kesit". Finally, found that factors influencing the choice of language in this study were the interlocutors and the topic of conversation as well as the intonation in the speech of the different speakers, namely the rising tone at the beginning of the speech and falling at the end.

SEC-GAN for robust speaker recognition with emotional state dismatch

Speaker recognition is often dependent on the speaker and susceptible to emotional factors, thus mostly decreasing recognition performance, we propose a framework by combining generative adversarial networks and speaker recognition for generating additional speaker-related emotional training speech feature to enhance robustness under different emotional conditions. In this framework, a new speaker emotion-converted generative adversarial network (SEC-GAN) is developed for speaker recognition. Given the neutral speech of the target speaker, SEC-GAN learns speech information to generate speech feature in other emotions based on neutral speech while retaining speaker identity. In addition, a new loss function is designed to retain the speaker’s internal information during feature reconstruction, and an emotion discriminator is introduced to classify the speech feature’s emotion for better emotion generation quality. Based on the origin neutral and generated training data from native speakers of Mandarin Affective Speech Corpus (MASC), the negative impact of emotion mismatch between speech can be decreased by using our framework. This strategy could solve the common problem in reality that most voice control devices enroll user’s calm speech but fail to recognize user’s identity when they are in other emotion. The experimental results on MASC which is 57.59% show the improvement of 8.27% compared with VGG baseline and 5.62% compared with x-vector in accuracy. Our framework also outperforms the existing state-of-the-art method ECAPA-TDNN and other comparison methods.