Speakers Of Standard American English Research Articles

Portraying accent stereotyping by second language speakers.

Stereotyping towards the second language accent of second language learners is extensively seen even when the content of learner speech can be understood. Previous studies reported conflicting results on accent perception by speakers of second languages, especially among homogenous learners. In this paper, we conducted a survey and two experiments to test whether Mandarin-speaking advanced learners of English may give harsher accent ratings to their fellow learners than to Standard American English speakers. The survey was designed to understand the L2 listeners' beliefs about accented speech. In Experiment 1, participants rated short audio recordings of L2 learner' and Standard American English speech; in Experiment 2, they did the same in a more detailed word-in-sentence accent rating task. Results showed a markedly high level of perceived L2 accentedness for several learner speech stimuli despite good intelligibility, especially for the strongly-accented Cantonese passage and for specific vowel and consonant types. The findings reveal the existence of native-speakerism in China and highlight existing accent stereotypes. Implications for policymaking and language teaching are discussed.

Cultural Competency in Voice Evaluation: Considerations of Normative Standards for Sociolinguistically Diverse Voices

Significant differences exist in anatomical, acoustic, and aerodynamic parameters for nonspeech tasks between culturally and linguistically diverse sample populations. There is a need for expansion of the normative acoustic data to include sociolinguistically diverse groups to ensure that clinical objective measurements are accurately classifying the voice quality of all individuals. This study examined objective measures of voice quality assessment of monolingual speakers of Standard American English (SAE) with sequential bilingual, native (L1) French and Spanish speakers on perturbation, noise, spectral/cepstral analyses, and compared ratings on auditory-perceptual assessment with acoustic data secondary to degree of accentedness. Thirty speakers with normal voice quality were rated on the Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice scale. Voice quality measures were analyzed using the Multi-Dimensional Voice Program and Analysis of Dysphonia in Speech and Voice. A measure of accentedness of SAE was calculated using an informal task by two evaluators. Objective acoustic measures of jitter and all-voiced cepstral peak prominence were statistically significant between SAE speakers and L1 Spanish and French speakers. SAE speakers demonstrated significantly higher group mean cepstral peak prominence for the all-voiced sentence ("We were away a year ago.") than native French and Spanish speakers. There were no significant differences in perception of voice quality and acoustic measures secondary to degree of accentedness of the non-native SAE speakers. It is important to engage and strengthen voice diagnostic measures to support culturally competent service delivery for the diversifying clinical population. Normative databases established on SAE speakers should reflect the statistically significant differences evidenced between diverse sociolinguistic populations in anatomical, auditory-perceptual, aerodynamic, and acoustical parameters.

Americans’ attitudes toward foreign accents: evaluative hierarchies and underlying processes

ABSTRACT This study examined Americans’ attitudes toward standard American English (SAE) and nine, non-Anglo foreign accents: Arabic, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Hispanic, Mandarin, Russian, and Vietnamese. Compared to SAE speakers, all foreign-accented speakers were rated as harder to understand, more likely to be categorised as foreign (rather than American), and attributed less status and solidarity. However, not all foreign accents were equally denigrated on status and solidarity traits. Instead, an evaluative hierarchy emerged, with speakers of some varieties (e.g. French, German) consistently rated more favourably than speakers of others (e.g. Arabic, Farsi, Vietnamese). This variation in language attitudes was associated with variation in social categorisation – i.e. the higher the percentage of nonstigmatized foreign categorizations (i.e. Anglosphere, Western Europe) for a given foreign variety, the more favourably speakers of that variety were rated – and listeners’ processing fluency – i.e. the easier speakers of a given foreign variety were to understand, the more favourably they were rated.

Nasalance in Arabic-Speaking Jordanians: A Comparative Study

Objective: This investigation sought to establish nasalance scores for Jordanian Arabic (JA) speakers, to develop nasalance speech stimuli for JA speakers, and to compare JA adult nasalance scores with those of Standard American English (SAE) speakers. Subjects and Methods: Participants included normal native JA speakers (n = 100; males/females and adults/children) and adult SAE speakers (n = 49). Four speech tasks for JA speakers were developed, which included repetition of vowels, syllables, words, and sentences. Parallel speech tasks were also developed for SAE speakers. A nasometer (Nasometer II 6400; PENTAX Medical, Montvale, NJ, USA) was used to establish nasalance scores for all speakers across all speech tasks. Results: Nasalance values were established for adult and child JA speakers. The nasalance values were higher for Jordanian adults than for Jordanian children. No differences in nasalance were found between male and female Arabic speakers for nonnasal elements. JA speakers were significantly more nasal than SAE speakers on selected speech tasks. Conclusions: Nasalance values for JA speakers were established for both adults and children, and Arabic speech materials were developed. The results of this investigation add to the growing body of research documenting differences in nasalance scores for normal speakers across different languages.

Misinterpretation of African American English BIN by adult speakers of Standard American English

African American English (AAE) and Standard American English (SAE) share many cognates (forms similar in phonology and function) while differences are often masked by false cognates (forms similar in phonology but different in function). Because false cognates are interpretable via a listener's own variety, this likely impacts performance on language-based tests. This study investigates how adult SAE- (n = 24) and AAE-speakers (n = 24) process BIN, an AAE tense/aspect marker. In AAE, stressing BIN indicates the remote past; when unstressed, been indicates the recent past. Results show that while both AAE- and SAE-speakers can perceive and produce the phonetic cues that differentiate BIN and been, only the AAE-speakers accurately infer that BIN corresponds to the remote past.

Voice onset time in Indian English-accented speech

The purpose of this study was to determine possible differences in voice onset time (VOT) between speakers of standard American English (AE) and Indian English (IE) in a continuous speech context. The participants were 20 AE speakers, who were native to the Northeastern Pennsylvania region, and 20 IE speakers from the Indian subcontinent who had been residing in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Each subject read a phonetically balanced passage in a comfortable and natural speaking voice, and the recordings were analysed using a combination of waveform and spectrographic analyses. Results indicate that a reduced +VOT appears to characterise IE accent in comparison to AE. In addition, a difference in VOT between genders was observed in AE speakers but not in IE speakers.

Habitual Use of Vocal Fry in Young Adult Female Speakers

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of vocal fry in young adult Standard American-English (SAE) speakers. This was a preliminary attempt (1) to determine the prevalence of the use of this register in young adult college-aged American speakers and (2) to describe the acoustic characteristics of vocal fry in these speakers. Subjects were 34 female college students. They were native SAE speakers aged 18-25 years. Data collection procedures included high quality recordings of two speaking conditions, (1) sustained isolated vowel /a/ and (2) sentence reading task. Data analyses included both perceptual and acoustic evaluations. Results showed that approximately two-thirds of this population used vocal fry and that it was most likely to occur at the end of sentences. In addition, statistically significant differences between vocal fry and normal register were found for mean F(0) minimum, F(0) maximum, F(0) range, and jitter local. Preliminary findings were taken to suggest that use of the vocal fry register may be common in some adult SAE speakers.

Cues to upcoming Swedish prosodic boundaries: Subjective judgment studies and acoustic correlates

Studies of perceptually based predictions of upcoming prosodic boundaries in spontaneous Swedish speech, both by native speakers of Swedish and of native speakers of standard American English reveal marked similarity in judgments. We examined whether Swedish and American listeners were able to predict the occurrence and strength of upcoming boundaries in a series of web-based perceptive experiments. Utterance fragments (in both long and short versions) were selected from a corpus of spontaneous Swedish speech, which was first labeled for boundary presence and strength by expert labelers. These fragments were then presented to listeners, who were instructed to guess whether or not they were followed by a prosodic break, and if so, what the strength of the break was. Results revealed that both Swedish and American listening groups were indeed able to predict whether or not a boundary (of a particular strength) followed the fragment. This suggests that acoustic and prosodic, rather than lexico-grammatical and semantic information was being used by listeners as a primary cue. Acoustic and prosodic correlates of these judgments were then examined, with significant correlations found between judgments and the presence/absence of final creak and phrase-final f0 level and slope.

Difference or Deficit in Speakers of African American English?

Difference or Deficit in Speakers of African American English?

Comparing SCAN-A Scores Between Speakers of Standard Australian English and American English: A Preliminary Study

The SCAN-A: Test for Auditory Processing Disorders in Adolescents and Adults is currently used in Australia with normative data derived from speakers of standard American English. The present study aimed to compare preliminary normative data for SCAN-A for speakers of standard Australian English to those of standard American English. A total of 32 normal hearing adults aged between 18 and 47 years participated in this study. They were given all four subtests of the SCAN-A test. The Kolmogorov- Smirnov two-sample test was used to determine whether there was any significant difference in mean scores for each of the SCAN-A subtests and the test total between the Australian sample and the reported American normative data. The results of the study found a significant difference in mean scores between the Australian sample and the American normative data for the Filtered Words subtest and the Competing Sentences subtest. The Australian sample obtained a lower mean score for the Filtered Words subtest and a higher mean score for the Competing Sentences subtest. No significant difference in mean scores was found for the other subtests and the composite score. Overall, the performance of the SCAN-A in the Australian sample was similar to that of the American population. The results of this preliminary study stress the need for caution when interpreting the results of the Filtered Words subtest and the Competing Sentence subtest for the Australian population.

Relation of dialect to phonological processing: African American Vernacular English vs. Standard American English

Standard American English (SAE) and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) dialects differ in emphasis and use of word-final consonant sounds, with some consonants and clusters that are fully pronounced in SAE reduced or absent in AAVE. In two studies, SAE and AAVE speakers (age 7–11) completed phoneme deletion tasks in which the position of the deleted phoneme was varied. In general, SAE speakers performed better on word-final deletions than on word-initial deletions, whereas AAVE speakers performed better on word-initial deletions than on word-final deletions. Also, phoneme deletion performance tended to correlate more strongly with reading ability among SAE speakers than among AAVE speakers. Implications for phonological reading instruction and for the use of phonological screeners to identify at-risk readers are discussed.

Use of Brown's 14 Grammatical Morphemes by Bilingual Hispanic Preschoolers

This pilot study investigated Standard American English (SAE) morphological development for 15 bilingual Hispanic preschoolers who were attending a bilingual day care center. Participants included nine girls and six boys between the ages of 2.6 years and 5.0 years (mean age = 3.8 years). Thirty-minute spontaneous language samples were obtained, yielding 100 utterances for mean length of utterance (MLU) and morphological analysis according to Miller's (1981) criteria. Analysis of the data revealed emergent use of Brown's (1973) 14 grammatical morphemes, although mastery generally was not seen at the same ages as those expected for SAE speakers. Clinicians should exercise caution when applying SAE normative data to bilingual Spanish-speaking children.

Multimodal Standardization of Voice Among Four Multicultural Populations: Fundamental Frequency and Spectral Characteristics

A stratified random sample of 20 males and 20 females matched for physiological factors and cultural-linguistic markers were examined to determine differences in fundamental frequency and spectral characteristics during prolongation of three vowels: [a], [i], and [u]. The ethnic-gender breakdown included four sets of five male and five female subjects comprised of Caucasian and African-American speakers of standard American English, native Hindi Indian speakers, and native Mandarin Chinese speakers. Acoustic measures were analyzed using the Multidimensional Voice Program (Kay Elemetrics, Lincoln Park, NJ) (Model 4305) from which fundamental frequency and associated acoustic spectra were extracted from a 200-ms sample of each vowel token. Statistically significant group differences for the main effects of culture, race, and gender were found. The acoustic differences found are attributed to biomechanical, physiological, cultural, and linguistic factors.

Multimodal Standardization of Voice Among Four Multicultural Populations Formant Structures

A stratified random sample of 20 males and 20 females matched for physiologic factors and cultural-linguistic markers was examined to determine differences in formant frequencies during prolongation of three vowels: [a], [i], and [u]. The ethnic and gender breakdown included four sets of 5 male and 5 female subjects comprised of Caucasian and African American speakers of Standard American English, native Hindi Indian speakers, and native Mandarin Chinese speakers. Acoustic measures were analyzed using the Computerized Speech Lab (4300B) from which formant histories were extracted from a 200-ms sample of each vowel token to obtain first formant (F1), second formant (F2), and third formant (F3) frequencies. Significant group differences for the main effect of culture and race were found. For the main effect gender, sexual dimorphism in vowel formants was evidenced for all cultures and races across all three vowels. The acoustic differences found are attributed to cultural-linguistic factors.

A comparison of Hawaiian Creole and standard American English speakers by listeners familiar and unfamiliar with Hawaiian Creole

This study examined whether listeners unfamiliar with Hawaiian Creole (HCU) judge a Hawaiian Creole (HC) speaker and a Standard American English (SAE) speaker differently than listeners familiar with HC (HCF). Ninety-nine listeners evaluated equivalent telephone conversations presented in counterbalanced order. Evaluations were made of the speakers' status, character traits, and the speaking context. Between-group comparisons showed the HCU group ranked the SAE speaker higher on more variables than the HCF group, although both groups surprisingly ranked the HC speaker lower in intelligence and education than the SAE speaker. Within the HCF group, listeners reported no difference in dependability, but the HCU group ranked the HC speaker lower than the SAE speaker. All listeners felt the HC speaker was more likely talking to a peer and socializing than the SAE speaker.

Object relative pronoun use in native and non-native English: A variable rule analysis

ABSTRACTThis study examines the use of object relative pronouns by native (NS) and nonnative (NNS) speakers of Standard American English. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) relative pronoun choice by NNSs will differ from that of NSs, principally because of prescriptive grammar instruction abroad; (2) wh, that, and zero froms will be used variably by both NSs and NNSs, depending on the function of the object and the human/nonhuman status of its antecedent; and (3) increased exposure to native speaking environments will cause a shift toward NS norms of use by NNSs. Half the subjects were given a preference task and asked to mark the relative pronoun variants they would be most likely to use in speech and in writing. The other subjects were given a production task in which sentences were combined to produce relativization. The data and varbrul2 analyses supported all three hypotheses: NNSs used all forms roughly equally in speaking but preferred Wh in writing, whereas NSs favored That or no pronoun. A shift away from Wh was also evident in NNSs after extended exposure to NS English.

Communication

The widespread use of the Daniel Jone's English Pronouncing Dictionary in the commonwealth countries seem to imply that British Received Pronunciation (BRP) is the model of English prescribed for the learners of English in these countries. To my mind, this form of pronunciation represents an "unrealistic" objective and one that is perhaps "undesirable". I consider RP as the "normative model" that limits itself to the consideration of communicative intentions attributed to the speaker only. I should like to argue in favour of a communicative model which goes by the measure of success with which a transaction between two participants is negotiated. In the second part, the paper discusses the importance of paraphonological features such as "plesasant" voice quality for communicative purposes. It is suggested that perhaps a course of Spoken English based on "diction" and "dramatics" rather than on the exact phonetic quality of sounds will prove to be more effective. Phonetic correlates of what is called "pleasant" voice quality have also been discussed.

More on Indirect Questions

The nonstandard variety merely uses the direct-question order in the slot where standard English uses if, whether, or a question word, followed by the declarative order. However, the situation is much more complex than this simple dichotomy suggests. In a previous paper I have tried to demonstrate that the so-called nonstandard forms are actually commonplace in the speech (if not the writing) of speakers of standard American English and that they are widespread in Anglo-Irish.2 Even earlier, Gordon and Lakoff pointed out that such constructions as the following are common in certain American (presumably mainstream) dialects:3