Memory span significantly predicted 17% of the variance in the second language SRTs, and 9% of the variance in first language SRTs, indicating the possibility that the SRT task places higher cognitive demands when listening to second language speech than when the target is in the listener's first language.Make your dreams come true with Animal Doctor! SRTs were unexpectedly higher by 0.9 dB in second language conditions. Main effects in the Spatial and Noise factors indicated that intelligibility was 3.8 dB lower in collocated conditions and 2.9 dB lower in MTBN conditions. The target sentences were presented in simulated, virtual classroom acoustics, masked by either 16‐talker multi‐talker babble noise (MTBN) or speech shaped noise (SSN), positioned either directly in front of the listener (collocated with the target speech), or spatially separated from the target speech by 90° to either side. First and second language speech reception thresholds (SRTs) at 50% intelligibility for numbers and colors presented in noise were obtained using an adaptive procedure. Forty‐four Swedish sequential bilingual 15 year‐olds were given memory span and vocabulary assessments in their first and second language (Swedish and English). This study considers whether bilingual children listening in a second language are among those on which higher processing and cognitive demands are placed when noise is present. The data and results of this study contribute to the understanding of the process and nature of second language acquisition. Nevertheless, the advanced speakers’ ability to produce native-like F0 patterns indicates the effect of language learning experience on prosodic acquisition. The results showed that F0 patterns of beginning-level L2 English are systematically different from those of native English speakers, which can be transferred from their native tone language. The F0 profiles (F0 maximum, F0 minimum, F0 range, F0 mean and F0 standard deviation at three levels: utterance, syllable and phoneme) were obtained from a set of 10 English sentences and 20 Vietnamese utterances. Ten native/L1 Australian English speakers, 20 Vietnamese speakers of English (10 beginners and 10 advanced speakers) and a control group of four native/L1 Vietnamese speakers were included.
This article reports a study that aimed to find out whether F0 patterns of L2 English produced by Vietnamese speakers are different to those of native English speakers, whether the non-native F0 patterns are transferred from Vietnamese, and to what extent English and Vietnamese F0 profiles differ. Based on evidence from recent findings in neuronatomy, neurophysiology, behavioural studies and speech production, we suggest that a new scale, the Octave-Median (OMe) scale, appears to be more natural for the study of speech prosody. linear, logarithmic, psychoacoustic) in the literature for the measurement of pitch. We finally discuss the use of acoustic scales (e.g.
We then address issues related to the detection and measurement of fundamental frequency, including tracking/detection errors and explain how many of these errors can in fact be avoided by an appropriate choice of pitch ceiling and floor settings. In this chapter, we first present some automatic models of pitch that have been developed both for speech synthesis and for the empirical study of intonation patterns. Estimating and measuring fundamental frequency and modelling pitch is not an easy task. Pitch corresponds to the physiological parameter of the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds (aka vocal cords) which can be measured in cycles per second (cps), or the equivalent acoustic parameter of fundamental frequency (f0), measured in hertz (Hz). Pitch, corresponding to the subjective impression of whether individual speech sounds are perceived as relatively high or low, as on a musical scale, is an important characteristic of spoken language, contributing in some languages to the lexical identity of words (tone and accent) and in all languages to the perception of the intonation pattern of utterances. Several issues, including the modelling of intonation, pitch detection and measurement and acoustic scales, described below, are addressed to inform the reader about best practice for teaching and learning. In this chapter, we introduce the reader to the concepts of pitch and fundamental frequency from a functional, physiological and physical perspective.