5aSC5. The Correlation between Perceiving and Producing English Obstruents across Korean Learners

Kenneth de Jong & Yen-chen Hao Department of Linguistics

Indiana University http://www.indiana.edu/~lsl

Main PointsOur previous work Patterns of learning differ in

perception and production skills.

Perceptual learning: the acquisition of featural differentiation skills, while

Production learning: the acquisition and coordination of gestures.

This study The relationship between production and perception skills.

Depends on whether the featural contrasts are ‘new’ to the L1 or ‘similar’.

Similar contrasts exhibit no discernable correlation between production and perception learning.

New contrasts exhibit a strong correlation between perceptual and production accuracy, indicating an important role for perceptual feedback in production learning and/or a production component in perceptual learning.

Introduction

Previous work

Segmental grouping in learningIf learners acquire properties that generalize across

segments, then segments with the acquired property should be acquired as a group.

accuracy in one contrast should correlate with accuracy in another contrast that shares the same property

Perceptionde Jong, Silbert & Park (2009) use this technique with

Korean perceivers of English (EFL), finding:- Feature generalization: Stops contrast with

fricatives as a unit, regardless of segment or position. Manner constitutes one perceptual skill

- Prosodic specificity: voicing contrasts constitute three perceptual skills, depending on position in word: initial, medial, final

Production de Jong, Hao & Park (in press) use this technique with

Korean producers of English (EFL), finding: - Gestural generalization: manner accuracy

generalizes across voicing, but not across place, since different places require different gestures

- Prosodic specificity: coda neutralization makes final consonant production a different skill from other positions.

‘New’ vs. ‘Similar’ (c.f. Flege, 1995)Park & de Jong (2008) examined the mapping of

English onto Korean consonants:- Manner (stops vs. fricatives) is a ‘new’ contrast- Voicing is ‘similar’ to contrasts existing in Korean

Current Research QuestionHow do the perceptual skills relate to the gestural

acquisition skills? Does the similarity between L1 and L2 contrasts affect

the relationship?

DiscussionSimilar-Park & de Jong (2008): assimilated segments in an L2 are treated as though they were the segments in the L1 (as per Flege, 1987). L1 skills must get tuned to L2.

-Voicing contrasts display three patterns:- intervocalic: perceived and produced accurately- onset: perceived better than produced- coda: less well perceived and produced

-Possibly, reflection of degree of mismatch between L1 and L2

-Overall the L2 perceptual tuning appears to precede production tuning. Production is inherently more conservative of L1 effects.

-Production and Perception skills are largely independent in ‘similar’ voicing contrasts

New-Park & de Jong (2008): fricative perception is systematically better than predicted on the basis of L1 mapping. L2 skills are learned de novo.

-Manner contrasts show two effects:- Labial manner production and perception are

highly correlated.- Coronal manner production and perception are

not correlated.-Correlations indicate that production and perception development are closely related

- Either production requires perceptual input, or production acquisition aids perceptual learning -Difference between labial and coronal may be due to ‘degree of newness’ - Korean has coronal sibilants, so coronal non-

sibilants reside somewhere between L1 segments - Coronal fricatives are not perceptually similar to anything in L1 (Park & de Jong, 2008) - Perception and production skills develop in an integrated fashion in ‘new’ manner contrasts

Summary• Segmental accuracy doesn’t tell the whole story. • The relationship between perception and production varies depending on the similarity of the L2 contrasts to the L1.

• Perceptual accuracy does not correlate with production accuracy for “similar” contrasts. Perception tends to lead production.

• Perceptual accuracy correlates with production accuracy for “new” contrasts. Production and perceptual learning are intimately connected.

References Citedde Jong, K.J., Y.C. Hao & H. Park. (in press). Evidence for featural units in the acquisition of speech production skills: Linguistic structure in foreign accent. Journal of Phonetics, 37 (available online).

de Jong, K.J., N. Silbert & H. Park. (2009). Segmental generalization in second language segment identification. Language Learning, 59: 1-31.

Flege, J. E. (1987). The production of "new" and "similar" phones in a foreign language: Evidence for the effect of equivalence classification. Journal of Phonetics, 15: 47-65.

Flege, J. E. (1995). Second language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research (pp. 233–277). Timonium, MD: York Press.

Park, H., & K.J. de Jong (2008). Perceptual category mapping between English and Korean prevocalic obstruents: Evidence from mapping effects in second language identification skills. Journal of Phonetics, 36: 704-723.

MethodsParticipants• 20 Native Korean talkers/listeners• Undergraduate students at Kyonggi University in Korea•Very little exposure to native spoken English

Corpus Coronal Labial

Voiced Voiceless Voiced VoicelessStops /d/ /t/ /b/ /p/Fricatives /ð/ // /v/ /f/ • The Stops are similar to Korean stops, though the voicing contrast is somewhat different (Park & de Jong, 2008)• The Fricatives are new, Korean has no anterior non-sibilant fricatives (Park & de Jong, 2008)• All consonants paired with vowel /ɑ/• Consonant in 4 prosodic environments: onset, intervocalic pre-stress, intervocalic post-stress, coda• Korean does not have stress, and voicing and manner contrasts are neutralized at a final edge

TasksPerceptual IdentificationStimuli• Produced by 4 Speakers of Northern Midwest English• 1- or 2- syllable forms cued orthographically Procedure• Stimuli presented free-field in groups • Quasi open-set paper responses with 14 options ReadingStimuli• 1- or 2- syllable forms cued orthographically Procedure• Recorded digitally, and then spliced and randomized • Identified by 10 native English listeners

Analysis

Results - SegmentsAverage Segmental Accuracy

Results - ‘Similar’ ContrastsPerception of Voicing × Prosodic Position

Intervocalic-Both perception and production uniformly excellent for stops-Intervocalic voicing contrasts in Korean very similar to English

Onset-Perceptual accuracy generally good-Production shows larger individual variation-Perception leads production

Coda-Both perception and production vary -Variation not correlated -Some tendency for perception to lead production

• No significant correlation between any previously isolated perceptual skill and production skill with respect to voicing

Work supported by the NSF under Grant BCS-04406540. We also thank Hanyong Park, Noah Silbert and Kyoko Nagao for work in data analysis, and Mi-hee Cho for arranging and running participants for us.

Perceptual skill Production skill

Manner overall

Manner in labialsNon-coda

Coda

Manner in coronalsNon-coda

Coda

Voicing in onset Voicing in onsetStops

Fricatives

Voicing in intervocalic Voicing in intervocalicStops

Fricatives

Voicing in coda Voicing in coda Stops

Fricatives

Acknowledgements

The 158th Meeting of The Acoustical Society of America in San Antonio, Texas, October 30, 2009

Hypotheses Separate Skills Unitary Skill

Perception Leads Production

‘Similar’ vs. ‘New’ segments

- A moderate positive correlation between perceptual and production accuracy- Substantial ranges in both accuracies -No apparent precedence of perception or production

-Significant correlation between perception and production for the “new” segments (fricatives)- Non-significant correlation for the “similar” segments (stops)

Results - ‘New’ ContrastsPerception and Production of Manner

Labials -Both perception and production vary -Variation strongly correlated

Coronals -Both perception and production vary-Variation not correlated -Some tendency for production to lead perception

• Perceptual accuracy and production accuracy do tend to correlate with one another

Production Leads Perception