Vowel inventory size matters: assessing cue-weighting in L2 vowel perception

Hanna Kivistö-de Souza; Angélica Carlet; Izabela Julkowska; Anabela Rato

doi:10.5007/2175-8026.2017v70n3p33

Authors

Hanna Kivistö-de Souza UFSC https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8498-2691
Angélica Carlet Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Izabela Julkowska Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Anabela Rato University of Toronto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2017v70n3p33

Abstract

To examine whether L1 vowel inventory size could be a contributing factor to the use of temporal cues in L2 vowel perception, this study assessed the perception of English /i-?/ by 66 learners of four different L1s: Danish, Portuguese, Catalan and Russian. The L2 learners performed a forced-choice identification task containing natural and duration-manipulated stimuli. Findings suggest that the participants’ over-reliance on duration cues seem to be partially related to their L1 vowel inventory size. The participants with the greatest L1 vowel inventory (Danish) demonstrated the most native-like vowel perception and the participants with the smallest L1 vowel inventory (Russian) over-relied on duration cues more than the other learners. Interestingly, the participants with somewhat comparable L1 vowel inventories (Portuguese and Catalan) performed similarly.

Author Biographies

Angélica Carlet, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Professor of English Phonetics and phonology at the International university of Catalonia (UIC). PhD. Research Areas: L2 Speech perception and production, phonetic training, The effect of formal instruction on L2 learners' oral skills

Izabela Julkowska, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Izabela Anna Jułkowska holds an MA in Advanced English Studies from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and is a Freelance Linguist. Her main research interests include perception and production of second and third language speech, phonetic training, sociophonetics and natural language processing

Anabela Rato, University of Toronto

Anabela Rato is an assistant professor at the department of Spanish and Portuguese of the university of Toronto. Her main research interests are L2 speech perception and production, phonetic training, and applied phonetics

References

Barnes, J. (2007). Phonetics and phonology in Russian unstressed vowel reduction: A study in hyperarticulation. (Unpublished Master’s thesis). Boston University, Boston, MA.

Barroso, H. (1999). Forma e substância da expressão da língua portuguesa. Coimbra: Livraria Almedina.

Best, C.T., & Tyler, M.D. (2007). Nonnative and second-language speech perception: Commonalities and complementarities. In M.J Munro & O. ‐S. Bohn (Eds.), Second language speech learning: The role of language experience in speech perception and production (pp.13-34). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Bohn, O.‐S. (1995). Cross language speech perception in adults: First language transfer doesn’t tell it all. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech Perception and Linguistic Experience: Issues in Cross‐language research (pp.279‐304). Timonium, MD: York Press.

Bohn, O.‐S., & Caudery, T. (2012). The Sounds of English: An Activity‐Based Course in English Phonetics and Phonology. Aarhus, DK: Aarhus University.

Bohn, O., & Flege, J. E. (1990). Interlingual identification and the role of foreign language experience in L2 vowel perception. Applied Psycholinguistics, 11(03), 303. doi:10.1017/s0142716400008912

Bohn, O. -S., & Steinlen, A. K. (2003). Consonantal context affects cross‐language perception of vowels. In Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 2289‐2292). Barcelona: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Bondarko L. V. (1998). “Fonetika Sovremennogo Russkogo Jazyka” (Phonetics of Modern Russian Language). University of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Cebrian, J. (2006). Experience and the use of non-native duration in L2 vowel categorization. Journal of Phonetics, 34(3), 372-387. doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2005.08.003

Escudero, P. (2000). Developmental patterns in the adult L2 acquisition of new contrasts: The acoustic cue weighting in the perception of Scottish tense/lax vowels by Spanish speakers. (Unpublished Master’s thesis). University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

______. (2006). The phonological and phonetic development of new vowel contrasts in Spanish learners of English. In B. Baptista & M. Watkins (Eds.), English with a Latin Beat. Studies in Portuguese/Spanish‐ English Interphonology (pp. 51‐55). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Escudero, P., & Boersma, P. (2004). Bridging the Gap Between L2 Speech Perception Research and Phonological Theory. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26(04), 551-585. doi:10.1017/s0272263104040021

Escudero, P., Boersma, P., Rauber, A. S., & Bion, R. A. (2009). A cross-dialect acoustic description of vowels: Brazilian and European Portuguese. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 126(3), 1379-1393. doi:10.1121/1.3180321

Flege, J. E. (1995). Second language speech learning: Theory, findings and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Theoretical and methodological issues in cross‐language speech research (pp. 233‐277). Timonium, MD: York Press.

Flege, J. E., Bohn, O., & Jang, S. (1997). Effects of experience on non-native speakers’ production and perception of English vowels. Journal of Phonetics, 25(4), 437-470. doi:10.1006/jpho.1997.0052

Forster, K. I., Forster, J.C. (2012). DMDX (Version 4.0.6.0) [Computer software]. Retrieved from http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jforster/dmdx.htm

Fox, R. A., Flege, J. E., & Munro, M. J. (1995). The perception of English and Spanish vowels by native English and Spanish listeners: A multidimensional scaling analysis. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97(4), 2540-2551. doi:10.1121/1.411974

Frieda, E. & Nozawa, T. (2007). You are what you eat phonetically. The effect of linguistic experience on the perception of foreign vowels. In O.‐S. Bohn & M. Munro (Eds.), Language Experience in Second Language Speech Learning. In honor of James Emil Flege (pp.79‐96). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Gilabert, R., Mora, J. C., & Muñoz, C. (2010). Phonological short-term memory and working memory capacity in foreign language acquisition. Paper presented at SLRF 2010 (Second Language Research Forum. Invited colloquium on Aptitude and Individual Differences in SLA), University of Maryland, Washington, USA.

Hacquard, V., Walter, M. A., & Marantz, A. (2007). The effects of inventory on vowel perception in French and Spanish: An MEG study. Brain and Language, 100(3), 295-300. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2006.04.009

Higgins, J. (2013). Minimal pairs for English RP. Retrieved from http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/wordscape/wordlist/minpairs.html

Iverson, P., & Evans, B. G. (2007). Learning English vowels with different first-language vowel systems: Perception of formant targets, formant movement, and duration. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 122(5), 2842-2854. doi:10.1121/1.2783198

Jilka, M. (2009). Talent and proficiency in language. In G. Dogil & S. Reiterer (Eds.), Language talent and brain activity (pp.1-16). Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.

Kivistö-de Souza, H. (2011). Effects of speech style on the use of temporal and spectral cues in the production and perception of a non-native vowel contrast (Unpublished Master’s thesis). University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

Kivistö-de Souza, H., & Carlet, A. (2014). Vowel inventory size and the use of temporal cues in non-native vowel perception by Catalan and Danish EFL learners. Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 5, 322-336.

Kondaurova, M. V., & Francis, A. L. (2008). The relationship between native allophonic experience with vowel duration and perception of the English tense/lax vowel contrast by Spanish and Russian listeners. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 124(6), 3959-3971. doi:10.1121/1.2999341

Llisterri, J., Machuca, M., de la Mota, C., Riera, M., and Rios, A. (2003). The perception of lexical stress in Spanish, in Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, edited by M. J. Sole, D. Recasens, and J. Romero, Barcelona, 3–9 August, casual productions [CDROM].

Mateus, M. H. M., Falé, I., & Freitas, M. J. (2005). Fonética e fonologia do português. Lisboa: Universidade Aberta.

Meara, P. M. (2005). X_Lex: The Swansea vocabulary levels test (Version 2.05.) [Computer software]. Swansea: Lognostics.

Meara, P. M., & Miralpeix, I. (2006). Y_Lex: The Swansea advanced vocabulary levels test (Version 2.05.) [Computer software]. Swansea: Lognostics.

Miralpeix, I. (2012). X_Lex and Y_Lex: A validation study. Paper presented at the 22nd VARG Conference (Vocabulary Acquisition Research Group), Newtown, UK.

Mora, J.C., & Cerviño-Povedano, E. (2010). Phonological short-term memory and L2 vowel perception. Paper presented at the 20th Annual Conference of the European Second Language Association (EUROSLA-20), Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Morrison, G.S. (2002). Perception of English /i/ and /ɪ/ by Japanese and Spanish listeners: Longitudinal results. In G.S. Morrison & L. Zsoldes (Eds.), Proceedings of the North West Linguistics Conference (pp.29‐48). Burnaby, BC, Canada: Simon Fraser University.

______. (2008). L1-Spanish Speakers' Acquisition of the English /i /--/I/ Contrast: Duration-based Perception is Not the Initial Developmental Stage. Language and Speech, 51(4), 285-315. doi:10.1177/0023830908099067

Moya‐Galé, G. (2010). Overcoming non‐native over‐reliance: a study on English vowel duration manipulation and neutralization. (Unpublished Master’s thesis). Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

Padgett, J. (2004). Russian vowel reduction and Dispersion Theory. Phonological Studies, 7, 81–96.

Padgett, J., & Tabain, M. (2005). Adaptive Dispersion Theory and Phonological Vowel Reduction in Russian. Phonetica, 62(1), 14-54. doi:10.1159/000087223

Rato, A. (2014). Effects of Perceptual Training on the Identification of English Vowels by Native Speakers of European Portuguese. Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech - Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 5, 529-546.

Rato, A., Rauber, A., Soares, L., & Lucas, L. (2014). Challenges in the perception and production of English front vowels by native speakers of European Portuguese. Diacrítica - série ciências da linguagem, 28(1), 137-155.

Sampson, R. (1999). Nasal vowel evolution in Romance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Santos, G. B. (2003). Análise fonético-acústica das vogais orais e nasais do português: Brasil e Portugal. (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). Universidade Federal de Goiás, Brasil. Retrieved from: https://repositorio.bc.ufg.br

Steinlen, A.K. (2002). A cross‐linguistic comparison of the effects of consonantal contexts on vowels produced by native and non‐native speakers (Unpublished Doctoral dissertation). Aarhus University, Aarhus, DK.

______. (2005). The influence of consonants on native and non-native vowel production: a cross-linguistic study (Vol. 30). Tübingen: Gunter Narr.

Ylinen, S., Uther, M., Latvala, A., Vepsäläinen, S., Iverson, P., Akahane-Yamada, R., & Näätänen, R. (2010). Training the Brain to Weight Speech Cues Differently: A Study of Finnish Second-language Users of English. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(6), 1319-1332. doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21272