Non-native Speech
Non-native Speech

Author: Ulrike Gut

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9783631591154

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Based on an innovative corpus-based approach, this book offers a comprehensive survey of the phonological and phonetic properties of L2 speech in English and German. The first part of the book critically examines current theoretical models and research methodologies in the field of second language acquisition of phonology and describes the advances that have been made in corpus linguistics over the past few years - in particular, the development of phonological learner corpora. It furthermore presents the first learner corpus of L2 English and L2 German that is fully aligned and has extensive phonological annotations: the LeaP corpus. The second part of the book describes the results of the quantitative and qualitative corpus analyses in the following areas of non-native speech: fluency, final consonant cluster realisation, vowel reduction and speech rhythm, intonation and general foreign accent. In addition, the influence of many non-linguistic factors, including instruction and a stay abroad, on the phonological properties of non-native speech is explored.

Foreign Accent
Foreign Accent

Author: Alene Moyer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-03-14

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 1107328276

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To what extent do our accents determine the way we are perceived by others? Is a foreign accent inevitably associated with social stigma? Accent is a matter of great public interest given the impact of migration on national and global affairs, but until now, applied linguistics research has treated accent largely as a theoretical puzzle. In this fascinating account, Alene Moyer examines the social, psychological, educational and legal ramifications of sounding 'foreign'. She explores how accent operates contextually through analysis of issues such as: the neuro-cognitive constraints on phonological acquisition, individual factors that contribute to the 'intractability' of accent, foreign accent as a criterion for workplace discrimination, and the efficacy of instruction for improving pronunciation. This holistic treatment of second language accent is an essential resource for graduate students and researchers interested in applied linguistics, bilingualism and foreign language education.

Statistical Pronunciation Modeling for Non-Native Speech Processing
Statistical Pronunciation Modeling for Non-Native Speech Processing

Author: Rainer E. Gruhn

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2011-05-08

Total Pages: 118

ISBN-13: 3642195865

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In this work, the authors present a fully statistical approach to model non--native speakers' pronunciation. Second-language speakers pronounce words in multiple different ways compared to the native speakers. Those deviations, may it be phoneme substitutions, deletions or insertions, can be modelled automatically with the new method presented here. The methods is based on a discrete hidden Markov model as a word pronunciation model, initialized on a standard pronunciation dictionary. The implementation and functionality of the methodology has been proven and verified with a test set of non-native English in the regarding accent. The book is written for researchers with a professional interest in phonetics and automatic speech and speaker recognition.

Fluency in Native and Nonnative English Speech
Fluency in Native and Nonnative English Speech

Author: Sandra Götz

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 902720358X

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This book takes a new and holistic approach to fluency in English speech and differentiates between productive, perceptive, and nonverbal fluency. The in-depth corpus-based description of productive fluency points out major differences of how fluency is established in native and nonnative speech. It also reveals areas in which even highly advanced learners of English still deviate strongly from the native target norm and in which they have already approximated to it. Based on these findings, selected learners are subjected to native speakers' ratings of seven perceptive fluency variables in order to test which variables are most responsible for a perception of oral proficiency on the sides of the listeners. Finally, language-pedagogical implications derived from these findings for the improvement of fluency in learner language are presented. This book is conceptually and methodologically relevant for corpus-linguistics, learner corpus research and foreign language teaching and learning.

Non-Native Prosody
Non-Native Prosody

Author: Jürgen Trouvain

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2008-09-25

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 3110198754

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Non-Native Prosody: Phonetic Description and Teaching Practice is a response to the increasing interest in the field of prosody in second language acquisition and teaching. The volume presents an overview of the state of the art in second language prosody learning and teaching and brings together linguistic research on the description and modelling of non-native prosodic structures with L2 teaching methods and practices. The first part comprises descriptions of non-native prosodic structures (including intonation, stress and speech rhythm) as well as methodological considerations of research in second language acquisition written by experts in the field. These overviews of current theoretical models and results from empirical studies are presented in a format accessible to language teachers. In the second part, some of the leading teaching practitioners and developers of phonological learning materials present a variety of methods and exercises in the area of prosody. The accompanying audio examples make a useful addition illustrating the descriptions and exercises for various target and source languages. They could be found under "additional material" on this webpage (previously on the CD sold with the book).

Native and Non-Native Teachers in English Language Classrooms
Native and Non-Native Teachers in English Language Classrooms

Author: Juan de Dios Martinez Agudo

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2017-05-08

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1501504142

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Despite being highly debated in applied linguistics and L2 teaching literature, the controversial issue of (non)nativeness still remains unresolved. Contemporary critical research has questioned the theoretical foundations of the nativeness paradigm, which still exerts a strong influence in the language teaching profession. Written by well-known researchers and teacher educators from all over the world, both NSs and NNSs, the selected contributions of this volume cover a great variety of aspects related to the professional role and status of both NS and NNS teachers in terms of both perceived differences and professional concerns and challenges. The strongest aspects of this volume are the global perspectives and the implications for future research and teacher education. It is precisely this international perspective which makes this volume illustrative of different realities with a similar objective in mind: the improvement of second language teaching and teacher education. In today's world, being a NS or NNS should not really matter but rather teachers' professional competences. This publication thus provides a forum of reflection and discussion for all L2 educators who need to be aware of how much they might offer to their future students.

Investigating English Pronunciation
Investigating English Pronunciation

Author: Jose A. Mompean

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-10-08

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1137509430

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This book updates the latest research in the field of 'English pronunciation', providing readers with a number of original contributions that represent trends in the field. Topics include sociophonetic or sound-symbolic aspects of pronunciation English pronunciation teaching and learning.

Multilingual Speech Processing
Multilingual Speech Processing

Author: Tanja Schultz

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2006-06-12

Total Pages: 540

ISBN-13: 0080457622

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Tanja Schultz and Katrin Kirchhoff have compiled a comprehensive overview of speech processing from a multilingual perspective. By taking this all-inclusive approach to speech processing, the editors have included theories, algorithms, and techniques that are required to support spoken input and output in a large variety of languages. Multilingual Speech Processing presents a comprehensive introduction to research problems and solutions, both from a theoretical as well as a practical perspective, and highlights technology that incorporates the increasing necessity for multilingual applications in our global community. Current challenges of speech processing and the feasibility of sharing data and system components across different languages guide contributors in their discussions of trends, prognoses and open research issues. This includes automatic speech recognition and speech synthesis, but also speech-to-speech translation, dialog systems, automatic language identification, and handling non-native speech. The book is complemented by an overview of multilingual resources, important research trends, and actual speech processing systems that are being deployed in multilingual human-human and human-machine interfaces. Researchers and developers in industry and academia with different backgrounds but a common interest in multilingual speech processing will find an excellent overview of research problems and solutions detailed from theoretical and practical perspectives. - State-of-the-art research with a global perspective by authors from the USA, Asia, Europe, and South Africa - The only comprehensive introduction to multilingual speech processing currently available - Detailed presentation of technological advances integral to security, financial, cellular and commercial applications

Second Language Speech Learning
Second Language Speech Learning

Author: Ratree Wayland

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-02-04

Total Pages: 537

ISBN-13: 1108882366

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Including contributions from a team of world-renowned international scholars, this volume is a state-of-the-art survey of second language speech research, showcasing new empirical studies alongside critical reviews of existing influential speech learning models. It presents a revised version of Flege's Speech Learning Model (SLM-r) for the first time, an update on a cornerstone of second language research. Chapters are grouped into five thematic areas: theoretical progress, segmental acquisition, acquiring suprasegmental features, accentedness and acoustic features, and cognitive and psychological variables. Every chapter provides new empirical evidence, offering new insights as well as challenges on aspects of the second language speech acquisition process. Comprehensive in its coverage, this book summarises the state of current research in second language phonology, and aims to shape and inspire future research in the field. It is an essential resource for academic researchers and students of second language acquisition, applied linguistics and phonetics and phonology.