PowerPoint Presentation

Foundations of psycholinguistics Week 4Early speech sound developmentVasiliki (Celia) AntoniouTodayBrief review about prosodySpeech perceptionSpeech productionAssignment queriesReview: ProsodyIncludes properties like rhythm/stress, intonationLow auditory frequency information, transmitted to the womb (5-7 month of gestation)Rhythm is used by newborns to recognise and prefer their native languageProsody helps infants to initialise acquisition of other linguistic areas = bootstrappingLexicon: Stress pattern used to segment words Syntax: Sensitivity to pauses and other prosodic markers that signal clause boundariesProsody and speech perception From what age can English infants use word stress to recognise words in fluent speech?

0 months5 months

7 months10 months

Speech sound perceptionVoice Onset Time in stops (e.g. [b] vs. [p]): Time between opening of closure and onset of vocal fold vibrations

bpa 0 ms VOTbpa 20 ms VOTbpa 40 ms VOTbpa 60 ms VOT

Wood 1976bapaCategorical perceptionHuman adults are better at discriminating pairs of sounds across category boundaries (e.g. ba1 vs. pa1) than within categories (e.g. ba1 vs. ba2)

Other contrastsAs for adults, speech rate affects categorisationthe same token can be perceived as pa in fast speech and ba in slow speech

Infants can also perceive subtle differences between vowels (e.g. a vs. o, see Kuhls work)although they have some difficulties with speaker variation

Audiovisual integrationAdults automatically integrate audio and visual informationMcGurk effect: audio ba and visual ga lead to perception of intermediate da in most adult subjectsThis effect has also been found in infants as young as 5 months!What is human about this?Human speech perception abilities present at birth are shared with other animals

chinchillas and quails can be trained to perceive sounds categorically i.e Ba vs. Pa

tamarin monkeys and rats can discriminate between rhythmically different languages

Cotton-top TamarinJapanese quailLater speech perception

Methods to investigate speech sound discrimination later in life (4-18 months)Conditioned Headturn ProcedureInfant EEG

Engl. 6-8m Engl. 8-10 ms Engl. 10-12m Native 11-12mWerker & Tees (1984)Changes in speech perceptionPercentage of infants reaching CHT criterionsensitivity loss for other non-native contrastsDecrease for r-l distinction in Japanese infants at 8mDecrease for [u]-[y] in English infants at 6m but: stable performance for some clicks, and for d-th distinction in French learnersenhancement for difficult native contrasts between 6 and 12 monthsr-l discrimination increased in English learners na-a increased in Filipino learners

Changes in speech perception

Birth Language preference6 mVowel perception8 12 mthsConsonant perception

Milestones in native speech perception6 - 9 mStress perceptionNative speech productionBirth 1 monthCrying, sounds of (dis) comfort1 month 5 months

Vocalisations with mouth closureCooing, first productions that sound like glottal or back vowel or consonantsFirst vocal play, imitationFirst vocalisationsSpeech production preparationLarynx descent and speech

larynx is higher in infants (b) than in adults (a) descent starts at 3 months speech and choking possible from 4-6 months descent finishes at 4 years (boys: more changes during puberty)Native speech productionBirth 1 monthCrying, sounds of (dis) comfort1 month 5 monthsVocalisations with mouth closureCooing, first productions that sound like glottal or back vowel or consonantsFirst vocal play, imitation5-6 monthsReduplicative canonical babbling (i.e. babababa)First vocalisationsBabbling phases

Babbling Phase Ireduplicative/ canonical babbling

first speech-like productions

repetitions of one syllablee.g. [babababa]

Native speech productionBirth 1 monthCrying, sounds of (dis) comfort1 month 5 monthsVocalisations with mouth closureCooing, first productions that sound like glottal or back vowel or consonantsFirst vocal play, imitation5-6 monthsReduplicative/ canonical babbling (i.e. babababa)First vocalisationsBabbling phases8-10 monthsVariegated babbling (i.e. bagota)

Babbling Phase IIvariegated babblingcombinations of different syllables e.g. [badotu]

sounds and intonation adapt to resemble target language e.g. more stops in Swedish19Native speech productionBirth 1 monthCrying, sounds of (dis) comfort1 month 5 monthsVocalisations with mouth closureCooing, first productions that sound like glottal or back vowel or consonantsFirst vocal play, imitation5-6 monthsReduplicative/ canonical babbling (i.e. babababa)First vocalisationsBabbling phases8-10 monthsVariegated babbling (i.e. bagota)10-12 months: jargonUnintelligible chains(babble stories)Native speech productionBirth 1 month

Crying, sounds of (dis) comfort1 month 5 months

Vocalisations with mouth closure

Cooing, first productions that sound like glottal or back vowel or consonants

First vocal play, imitation5-6 months

Reduplicative/ canonical babbling (i.e. babababa)First vocalisationsBabbling phases8-10 months

Variegated babbling (i.e. bagota)10-12 months: jargonUnintelligible chains(babble stories)10 -16 months

First word production

1. Transition from babbling 2. No silent period in between smooth transition, babbling and words co - occurMore about early phonologyGood summary on infants speech perceptionHouston (2011). Infant speech perception. In Seewald & Tharpe: Comprehensive Handbook of Pediatric Audiology. Plural Publishing (on Moodle) Good book on early speech and languagede Boysson-Bardies (1999). How Language Comes to Children: From Birth to Two Years. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

1st AssignmentDeadline?? Friday, November 9Try testing the Online submission system (OCS)Check the Departmental handout for formatting your essay and referencing rules (p. 89 96): http://www.essex.ac.uk/linguistics/publications/booklets/undergraduate_handbook/Handbook%20UG%202012-13.pdf Exemplary essays: http://www.essex.ac.uk/linguistics/current_students/Guidelines_e_d_t/Assignment/exemp_essays.aspxWord limit? 1000 wordsTopic? How does infants perception of speech sounds change during the first year of life?

1st assignementRead your sources: the coursebook, the lecture slides, the additional reading materials, the class slides and notesMake a plan! Introduction, Main Body, Conclusion, make a note of the key points you need to address Hints: Vowel vs consonant contrasts and perceptionInfants get better at different native contrastsCheck our previous class presentations for more about prosody and its contribution to speech perceptionE-mail me an outline!Support your arguments with examples and reference to studies where possible.Acknowledge your sources otherwise you commit plagiarism! FormatFonts: 12, Times New Roman, double spacedItalicise Journal names, article / book titles that appear in your main text bodyBe consistent! Whatever way you choose to do things it should be (p. 66) when you cite pages and not (Mehler: 66) and further down (Mehler, 69) or (Mehler, p. 69)Follow this link for additional help with structure, vocabulary and expressions, writing your references, abbreviations: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~vanton/ScanImage004.pdf

Common essay mistakesInclude an introduction and a conclusion!Reference all the resources you have used and remember to include page numbers. Create a reference list at the end of your essay......Create paragraphs according to topic..when you change topic, change paragraph.Pay attention to punctuation.Avoid using long sentences.When you write something use an example to illustrate what you say, and if needed, reference the example.Make sure that what you put in the essay is absolutely necessary this will reduce your word countUse theory and references, your textbook etc. and do not simply rely on class/lecture notes

When youve written your essay leave it for 1-2 days and get back to it later..youll be surprised!When you cant find a reference here are a few tips:Search the reference list of our text book, usually the reference will be there.If not search the library catalogue or google the reference (authors name, date).

Read the essay 3 times1st you read in order to check the content: Have I answered the questions? Is what I write correct according to what Ive read? Have I left anything important out? Do I have any examples?The 2nd time you read in order to check the structure: intro-conclusion, cohesion, do the ideas flow logically?, long sentences, do I have paragraphs, a reference list, have I used signposting?The 3rd time you read in order to check the punctuation, whether youve followed one way in referencing, line spacing, fonts and font size, page numbering, your details, etc.Dont forget to write your class instructors name!