Language beyond Words: The Neuroscience of Accent
Language beyond Words: The Neuroscience of Accent

Author: Ignacio Moreno-Torres

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Published: 2017-03-23

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 2889451070

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Language learning also implies the acquisition of a set of phonetic rules and prosodic contours which define the accent in that language. While often considered as merely accessory, accent is an essential component of psychological identity as it embodies information on origin, culture, and social class. Speaking with a non-standard (foreign) accent is not inconsequential because it may negatively impact communication and social adjustment. Nevertheless, the lack of a formal definition of accent may explain that, as compared with other aspects of language, it has received relatively little attention until recently. During the past decade there has been increasing interest in the analysis of accent from a neuroscientific perspective. This e-book integrates data from different scientific frameworks. The reader will find fruitful research on new models of accent processing, how learning a new accent proceeds, and the role of feedback on accent learning in healthy subjects. In addition, information on accent changes in pathological conditions including developmental and psychogenic foreign accent syndromes as well as the description of a new variant of foreign accent syndrome is also included. It is anticipated that the articles in this e-book will enhance the understanding of accent as a linguistic phenomenon, the neural networks supporting it and potential interventions to accelerate acquisition or relearning of native accents.

Crowdsourcing for Speech Processing
Crowdsourcing for Speech Processing

Author: Maxine Eskenazi

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-02-15

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1118541251

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Provides an insightful and practical introduction to crowdsourcing as a means of rapidly processing speech data Intended for those who want to get started in the domain and learn how to set up a task, what interfaces are available, how to assess the work, etc. as well as for those who already have used crowdsourcing and want to create better tasks and obtain better assessments of the work of the crowd. It will include screenshots to show examples of good and poor interfaces; examples of case studies in speech processing tasks, going through the task creation process, reviewing options in the interface, in the choice of medium (MTurk or other) and explaining choices, etc. Provides an insightful and practical introduction to crowdsourcing as a means of rapidly processing speech data. Addresses important aspects of this new technique that should be mastered before attempting a crowdsourcing application. Offers speech researchers the hope that they can spend much less time dealing with the data gathering/annotation bottleneck, leaving them to focus on the scientific issues. Readers will directly benefit from the book’s successful examples of how crowd- sourcing was implemented for speech processing, discussions of interface and processing choices that worked and choices that didn’t, and guidelines on how to play and record speech over the internet, how to design tasks, and how to assess workers. Essential reading for researchers and practitioners in speech research groups involved in speech processing

Foreign Accent Perception
Foreign Accent Perception

Author: Agnieszka Bryla-Cruz

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2016-04-26

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1443892017

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The phenomenon of foreign accents and their perception have received considerable attention from pronunciation specialists and academic researchers working within different fields of study, such as phonetics, phonology, foreign language teaching, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, social psychology, anthropology, and even law. The reason for this widespread interdisciplinary interest is caused by the fact that, in addition to revealing the speaker’s origin, accent carries significant social connotations and evokes various ethnic, racial, religious and socio-economic stereotypes. This book represents the largest, up-to-date qualitative and quantitative investigation into the accentedness, acceptability, intelligibility and comprehensibility of Polish English of three groups of native speakers, the English, the Irish and the Scottish, comparing the ways in which it is perceived by members of three nations and establishing pronunciation priorities. The book will be of interest not only to phoneticians, pronunciation specialists and sociolinguists, but also to EFL teachers and students.

The Handbook of Speech Perception
The Handbook of Speech Perception

Author: Jennifer S. Pardo

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2021-03-31

Total Pages: 784

ISBN-13: 111918407X

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A wide-ranging and authoritative volume exploring contemporary perceptual research on speech, updated with new original essays by leading researchers Speech perception is a dynamic area of study that encompasses a wide variety of disciplines, including cognitive neuroscience, phonetics, linguistics, physiology and biophysics, auditory and speech science, and experimental psychology. The Handbook of Speech Perception, Second Edition, is a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of technical and theoretical developments in perceptual research on human speech. Offering a variety of perspectives on the perception of spoken language, this volume provides original essays by leading researchers on the major issues and most recent findings in the field. Each chapter provides an informed and critical survey, including a summary of current research and debate, clear examples and research findings, and discussion of anticipated advances and potential research directions. The timely second edition of this valuable resource: Discusses a uniquely broad range of both foundational and emerging issues in the field Surveys the major areas of the field of human speech perception Features newly commissioned essays on the relation between speech perception and reading, features in speech perception and lexical access, perceptual identification of individual talkers, and perceptual learning of accented speech Includes essential revisions of many chapters original to the first edition Offers critical introductions to recent research literature and leading field developments Encourages the development of multidisciplinary research on speech perception Provides readers with clear understanding of the aims, methods, challenges, and prospects for advances in the field The Handbook of Speech Perception, Second Edition, is ideal for both specialists and non-specialists throughout the research community looking for a comprehensive view of the latest technical and theoretical accomplishments in the field.

Accent-based Implicit Prejudice
Accent-based Implicit Prejudice

Author: Carolyn Chu

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13:

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In the present study, implicit attitudes toward accents were examined. The most common method used to study accent-based perceptions is by self-report questionnaires, which measure explicit attitudes. To my knowledge, no previous study has examined implicit accent-based attitudes. In the present investigation, auditory stimuli were used in a novel application of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure implicit accent attitudes. Participants were randomly assigned to listen to a passage read in one of three foreign accents (Mexican, Chinese, or British) and the same passage in a Standard American accent. Participants also completed the Speech Dialect Attitudinal Scale, which measured explicit accent attitudes, and the IAT, which measured implicit attitudes toward the foreign accent relative to the Standard American accent. Implicit and explicit measures were counterbalanced. Results showed that participants had more favorable implicit attitudes for the Standard American accent than the Mexican accent and a mild preference for the Standard American accent compared to the Chinese and British accents. Implicit and explicit accent attitudes were largely uncorrelated. The examination of implicit attitudes in the current investigation complements previous accent research, which focused on explicit attitudes. Examining aspects of both implicit and explicit accent attitudes will lead to a more in-depth understanding of how accents affect individuals' perceptions, feelings, and judgments.

The Handbook of Speech Perception
The Handbook of Speech Perception

Author: David Pisoni

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 704

ISBN-13: 0470756772

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The Handbook of Speech Perception is a collection of forward-looking articles that offer a summary of the technical and theoretical accomplishments in this vital area of research on language. Now available in paperback, this uniquely comprehensive companion brings together in one volume the latest research conducted in speech perception Contains original contributions by leading researchers in the field Illustrates technical and theoretical accomplishments and challenges across the field of research and language Adds to a growing understanding of the far-reaching relevance of speech perception in the fields of phonetics, audiology and speech science, cognitive science, experimental psychology, behavioral neuroscience, computer science, and electrical engineering, among others.

Effects of Gesture on Recollection and Description of Auditory and Visual Stimuli
Effects of Gesture on Recollection and Description of Auditory and Visual Stimuli

Author: Mary Kate Richards

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13:

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"This study examined whether gesture impacts recollection of auditory and visual stimuli. In two experiments, adults were presented with visual images or auditory recordings describing dynamic scenes. After participating in a distraction task, the adults were asked to recall the stimuli they saw or heard in the scenes. In the first experiment, half of the participants were able to gesture naturally when recalling; the others were prohibited from gesturing. Because of the first study's results, a second study was designed to test how gesture is impacted in different conversational types. In the second study, all participants were able to gesture naturally. The results of the first study revealed that adults recalled auditory and visual stimuli similarly, regardless of gesture condition. However, the results of the combined data of both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 for the natural gesture condition demonstrated that individuals were more likely to gesture when participating in the recall task than when they were engaging in the conversational distraction task. The implications of these results are that gesture is impacted by the type of communication, and more specifically, gesture is more frequently utilized when trying to recall a piece of information, in comparison to conversational communication"--Leaf 4.