Enhancing the Perception and Recognition of Spoken Words in a Second Language: A Cue-Weighting Approach

本研究考察了来自不同语言背景的听者对英语词汇重音(如“沙漠”和“甜点”)的感知，以期提出有关言语感知和学习的几个重要问题。一个人的母语的语音系统不仅影响第二语言学习者产生单词的方式，也影响他们识别单词的方式，这使得第二语言学习者很难听到没有区分母语单词的声音对比，或者他们如何区分母语单词和第二语言单词的不同声音对比。这些困难反过来会影响第二语言学习者理解第二语言言语的能力，从而导致重要的交际障碍，并可能加剧第二语言学习者在言语产出中典型的外国口音程度。这个项目试图通过研究一种在跨语言口语识别中起着关键作用但一直被忽视的语言现象来澄清和解释这种母语影响的性质：词汇重音。该项目的具体目标有三个。首先，该项目将阐明言语知觉的线索加权理论是否能为理解第二语言学习者在词汇重读中遇到的听力困难提供一个强有力的理论框架，并为开发训练刺激和加强词汇重读的知觉学习方法提供有力的理论框架。其次，它将有助于解决关于第二语言知觉学习的机制、第二语言知觉表征的性质和稳健性以及成人第二语言知觉学习的可塑性程度的理论争论。第三，它将为第二语言言语感知教学提供理论基础，使教师能够根据学生的母语和个人能力，以及训练刺激和方法的有效性而量身定做教学实践。参赛者将完成线索加权感知实验、顺序回忆实验、视觉世界眼球跟踪实验、感知训练实验，以及熟练程度和感知能力测试。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project examines the perception of English lexical stress (e.g., “desert” vs. “dessert”) by listeners from various language backgrounds in order to advance several important questions about the nature of speech perception and learning. The sound system of a person's native language influences not only how second-language learners produce words but also how they recognize words, making it difficult for second-language learners to hear sound contrasts that do not distinguish words in the native language or that differ in how they distinguish words in the native and second languages. These difficulties can in turn impact second-language learners’ ability to understand speech in their second language, thus causing important communication breakdowns, and they can exacerbate the degree of foreign accent that second-language learners typically evidence in speech production. This project seeks to clarify and explain the nature of this native-language influence by investigating a linguistic phenomenon that plays a critical role in spoken-word recognition across languages but has been under-investigated: lexical stress. The project’s specific goals are threefold. First, the project will elucidate whether the cue-weighting theory of speech perception can provide a strong theoretical framework for understanding the listening difficulties that second-language learners encounter with lexical stress, and for developing training stimuli and methods to enhance the perceptual learning of lexical stress. Second, it will help resolve theoretical debates about the mechanisms underlying second-language perceptual learning, the nature and robustness of second-language perceptual representations, and the degree to which adult second-language perceptual learning remains malleable. Third, it will provide a theoretical foundation for the teaching of second-language speech perception, enabling instructors to tailor teaching practices according to students’ native language and individual abilities, and the effectiveness of training stimuli and methods. Participants will complete cue-weighting perception experiments, sequence-recall experiments, visual-world eye-tracking experiments, and perceptual training experiments, as well as proficiency and perceptual aptitude tests.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.