Doctoral Dissertation Research: The role of visual cues in imitating a new sound

一个人是如何学会用第二语言发出一个新的声音的？本文的研究重点是第二语言学习者学习新语音的一种可能机制：内隐模仿。具体而言，本研究旨在了解视觉线索是否可能促进新的声音的内隐模仿，从而有助于发展第二语言的言语产生。先前的研究表明，在谈话中，成年人会自动快速地与对话者融合，听起来更像他们。事实上，这种融合甚至发生在看到但听不到对话者的时候。不仅视觉言语本身会引起模仿，而且视听言语的模仿程度要比纯视觉言语的模仿程度更高。拟议的一组实验将研究儿童和成人如何密切模仿不熟悉的声音的制作，包括手势和听觉，以确定他们是否从视听与听觉接触相同的声音中获得任何好处。本研究的最后一部分将是确定不同的口语语域如何有助于模仿。这些实验的结果应该有助于理解视觉模态与第二语言学习的相关性，并确定儿童在语音处理中依赖视觉线索的程度。

How does a person learn to produce a new sound in a second language? The proposed study focuses on one possible mechanism by which a second-language learner might learn to produce a new sound: implicit imitation. Specifically, this study seeks to understand whether visual cues might facilitate implicit imitation of new sounds and thus help with developing speech production in a second language. Previous research shows that during a conversation, adults automatically and quickly converge with their interlocutors to sound more like them. In fact, this convergence occurs even when see, but do not hear the interlocutor. Not only does visual speech elicit imitation on its own, but imitation is greater for audiovisual speech than for auditory-only speech. The proposed set of experiments will examine how closely children and adults imitate the productions of unfamiliar sounds, both gesturally and acoustically, to determine whether they derive any benefit from audiovisual versus auditory exposure to the same sounds. The final component of this study will be to determine how different speaking registers can aid in imitation. The results of these experiments should add to an understanding of how the visual modality is relevant to second language learning, as well as determine the extent to which children rely on visual cues in speech processing.