Second-language vowel perception and production

描述（由申请人提供）：需要更好地了解成人第二语言言语产生和感知能力在一系列听力和口语条件下的发展。为了有效地进行交际，特别是在不利的条件下，非母语者必须适当地利用一系列的线索来识别第二语言中的语音。因此，在不同条件下的表现可以被视为反映了非母语者对这些线索的生产性和感知语音知识，并且发展可以被视为线索权重的变化。这些问题将探讨使用生产和感知数据，从高和低熟练程度的西班牙语的英语作为第二语言和英语为母语。实验一将探讨元音的声学特性产生的引用和hyperarticulation条件。实验二将考察被试对自然元音和合成元音的识别，这些元音被操纵以中和或保持时长和频谱变化的线索。实验3将测量实验1中产生的引用和超发音元音的可懂度。这些数据将被用来测试的假设，不太熟练的非母语缺乏知识的全方位的线索，元音识别。据预测，对于某些线索，不太熟练的非本地人将表现出没有差异的生产性能之间的引用和超清晰度条件和感知性能之间的完整线索和一些线索中性条件。第二个预测是，更熟练的非本地人的发展知识，这些线索将反映在一个夸大或限制程度的变化，跨条件的一些生产和感知措施。这些数据将有助于我们理解产出性语音知识和知觉性语音知识之间的关系。数据应该为以下三种观点之一提供一些支持：1）感知单向影响生产; 2）生产和感知相互影响;或3）感知和生产技能独立发展。本研究的结果将为提高第二语言学习者的交际能力提供更有效的训练方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A better understanding is needed of the development of adult second-language speech production and perception abilities across a range of listening and speaking conditions. In order to communicate effectively, especially in adverse conditions, non-native speakers must make appropriate use of a range of cues to speech sound identification in the second language. Thus, performance across differing conditions may be viewed as reflecting non-natives' productive and perceptual phonetic knowledge of these cues, and development can be viewed as changes in cue weighting. These issues will be explored using production and perception data from high- and low-proficiency Spanish speakers of English as a second language and native English speakers. Experiment 1 will investigate the acoustic properties of vowels produced in citation and hyperarticulation conditions. Experiment 2 will investigate subjects' identification of natural vowels and synthetic vowels manipulated to neutralize or maintain the cues of duration and spectral change. Experiment 3 will measure the intelligibility of the citation and hyperarticulated vowels produced in Experiment 1. The data will be used to test the hypothesis that less proficient non-natives lack knowledge of the full range of cues to vowel identification. It is predicted that, for some cues, the less proficient non-natives will exhibit no difference in production performance between citation and hyperarticulation conditions and no difference in perception performance between the full-cue and some cue-neutralized conditions. A second prediction is that the more proficient non-natives' developing knowledge of these cues will be reflected by an exaggerated or restricted degree of change across conditions for some production and perception measures. These data will contribute to our understanding of the relationship between productive and perceptual phonetic knowledge. The data should provide some support for one of three ideas: 1) that perception unidirectionally influences production; 2) that production and perception influence one another bi-directionally; or 3) that perception and production skills develop independently. The outcome of this research should lead to more effective training methods to improve second-language learners' communication skills.