ling 542 presentation meng liu.iils 6 - v2
TRANSCRIPT
PROSODIC FACTORS IN
FOREIGN ACCENTS OF L1
ENGLISH LEARNERS OF
CHINESE
Meng Liu
Department of East Asian Language and Cultures
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Study Purpose
• The purpose of this study is to explore how
prosodic features contribute to the
perception of foreign accent of L1 English
learners of Chinese with a focus on rhythm,
by using rhythm metrics.
Overview
• Introduction English and Chinese prosody
Factors contribute to foreign accent
•Study1: Perception-foreign accent rating
•Study2: Production-rhythm measurements
•Conclusions
English and Chinese Prosody
• English: syllable-timed (Pike, 1945;
Abercrombie,1967; Grenon & White, 2008)
• Chinese: syllable-timed (Lehiste, 1970; Lin &
Wang, 2007, Arvantiti, 2009)
Foreign Accent
• Jilka (2000): any foreign accent’s major
characteristic could be described as a deviating
realization of corresponding phonological
units that can often be traced back to specific
features of the respective speakers’ native
language.
Factors contribute to Foreign Accent • English
• Segmentals and Syllable structure (Anderson-H. et al. ,
1992)
• Prosody-word duration, pauses and rhythm metrics
(Munro, 1995; Trofovimich & Baker, 2006; Baker, et al., 2011;
Ramus, et al., 1999; Grabe &Low, 2002; Low, et al., 2000;
Dellwo, 2006 )
• Speaking rates (Munro, 1995; Trofovimich & Baker, 2006)
• Chinese
• Vowel formant (Wu, 2011)
• Phrase-initial lengthening/shortening (Yang, 2011)
• Tone (Shih, et al, 2009).
Criticism from experimental
studies: Loukina, et al , 2013;
Arvaniti, A., in press
STUDY 1
Perception
Research question
• How rhythm measures correlate with
different degrees of foreign
accentedness?
• How speech rate correlates with different
degrees of foreign accentedness?
.
Method
• Participants :
• 3 native Mandarin speakers (3 female) from Mainland
China
• Stimuli 6*(8+8)
• 6 informants
• 8 sentences of story reading
• 8 10-second utterances
Procedure
• Accent rating: AVSA , 96 utterances
• Interview: rating criteria
Adaptive visual analogue scale
Statistical analysis • Fa.degree: mean centered.
• Speech rate:
• Syllable/sec.
• Rhythm measurements
• %V ratio=dv.sentence/d.sentence
• VarcoC (s(dc)/ mean(dc))*100
• VarcoV (s(dv)/ mean(dv))*100
• nPIV-V
Rhythm metrics indicate
the durational variability of
consonants and vowels
compared to adjacent
consonants and vowels.
Model Comparison • Linear mixed-effects model
• AIC (Akaike information criterion)
DV Foreign Accent Degree centered
(a-mean(a))/sd(a)
Fixed
effects
Group N, S
Style R,C
Speech rate
VarcoC VarcoV
%V
nPIV-V
Random
effect
Participants
Items
p1,p2,p3
n1c1-s3r8
Results Foreign accent rating : speech style and groups
Estimate Std. Error df t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept) -0.73350 0.20219 90.98000 -3.628 0.000471 ***
groups 1.72916 0.05264 90.98000 32.851 < 2e-16 ***
styler 0.10990 0.03407 90.98000 3.225 0.001749 **
speechrate -0.11756 0.02573 90.98000 -4.569 1.53e-05 ***
pv 0.23923 0.25827 90.98000 0.926 0.356756
Group: F(1,91)=1079.20, p<0.001 Style: F (1,91)=10.4, p<0.01
Estimate Std. Error df t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept) -0.73350 0.20219 90.98000 -3.628 0.000471 ***
groups 1.72916 0.05264 90.98000 32.851 < 2e-16 ***
styler 0.10990 0.03407 90.98000 3.225 0.001749 **
speechrate -0.11756 0.02573 90.98000 -4.569 1.53e-05 ***
pv 0.23923 0.25827 90.98000 0.926 0.356756 Speech rate:F(1,91)=20.88, p<0.001
STUDY 2
Production
Research question
What are the differences in rhythm between L1
English learners of Chinese and Mandarin
Chinese speakers ?
What are the differences in rhythm concerning
production during reading and spontaneous
speech?
Method
• Informants : • 3 native Mandarin speakers (3 female)
• 3 L1 English learners of Mandarin speakers (3 female)
• 3-4 years of Chinese learning experience
• Intermediate-advanced level
• Stimuli: • Reading story in Chinese ( 8 sentences)
• Answer 8 questions in Chinese
Statistical analysis • File segmenting:
• Force aligner http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phonetics/p2fa/
and manual adjust ment
• Model: Linear mixed model
Dependent Variable VarcoC VarcoV
%V
nPIV-V
Speech rate
Fixed Effect Group N, S
Style Reading,Conv
Random effect Speakers
Items
N1,N2,N3
S1,S2,S3
C1-C8
R1-R8
Estimate Std. Error df t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept) 3.5399 0.2632 4.6320 13.450 6.88e-05 ***
groups -1.6193 0.3584 4.0000 -4.519 0.0107 *
rcr 0.2830 0.1279 13.9940 2.212 0.0441 *
Group: F(1,4)=20.42, p<0.05 Style : F (1,14)=4.89, p<0.05
Style: F (1,89)=5.28, p<0.05
Estimate Std. Error df t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept) 65.5125 2.5220 6.3500 25.976 1.09e-07 ***
groups 0.8496 3.1748 4.0000 0.268 0.8023
rcr -5.2812 2.2985 89.0000 -2.298 0.0239 *
Style: F (1,89)=50.56, p<0.001
Estimate Std. Error df t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept) 64.017 3.555 5.510 18.008 4.17e-06 ***
groups -3.392 4.639 4.000 -0.731 0.505
rcr -19.484 2.740 89.000 -7.111 2.78e-10 ***
Style: F (1,93)=41.53, p<0.001
Estimate Std. Error df t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept) 57.549 2.177 93.000 26.438 < 2e-16 ***
groups 3.619 2.513 93.000 1.440 0.153
rcr -16.199 2.513 93.000 -6.445 5.08e-09 ***
Estimate Std. Error df t value Pr(>|t|)
(Intercept) 0.63436 0.02167 6.17400 29.268 7.37e-08 ***
groups 0.02378 0.02725 3.99900 0.873 0.432
rcr -0.02517 0.01623 13.99600 -1.551 0.143
Interview of foreign accent rating
participants • Rating criteria
p1 intonation articulation fluency the way of
expression
p2 tone (mainly),pronunciation
p3 intonation, tones, segment articulation pasues coherent content swallow
Further studies • Segments
• Tone
• Intonation
Conclusions
The study indicates that rhythm metrics is not a powerful tool to distinguish the native and nonnative speech of Chinese
Both the speech style and speaking rate have significant influence on the foreign accent rating score of the student group and native speaker group
Specifically, in spontaneous speech, students were rated with less foreign accent than the reading utterances. The faster the speaking rate, the less foreign accent is being perceived.
%V contributes more to the foreign accent perception than other rhythm metrics, though the statistical model is not significantly different.
Acknowledgements
• Dr. Chilin Shih
• Dr. Jennifer S. Cole
• Dr. Joseph Roy
• EALC TAs
• CHIN 305 participants
• CHIN 404 participants
THANK YOU!
Q & A