Production of French vowels by American-English learners of French: Language experience, consonantal context, and the perception-production relationship

Abstract

Second-language (L2) speech perception studies have demonstrated effects of language background and consonantal context on categorization and discrimination of vowels. The present study examined the effects of language experience and consonantal context on the production of Parisian French (PF) vowels by American English (AE) learners of French. Native AE speakers repeated PF vowels /i-y-u-oe-a/ in bilabial /bVp/ and alveolar /dVt/ contexts embedded in the phrase /raCVCa/. Three AE groups participated: speakers without French experience (NoExp), speakers with formal French experience (ModExp), and speakers with formal-plus-immersion experience (HiExp). Production accuracy was assessed by native PF listeners' judgments and by acoustic analysis. PF listeners identified L2 learners' productions more accurately when the learners had extensive language experience, although /y-u-oe/ by even HiExp speakers were frequently misidentified. A consonantal context effect was evident, including /u/ produced by ModExp misidentified more often in alveolar context than in bilabial, and /y/ misidentified more often in bilabial than in alveolar context, suggesting cross-language transfer of coarticulatory rules. Overall, groups distinguished front rounded /y/ from /u/ in production, but often in a non-native manner, e.g., producing /y/ as /(j)u/. Examination of perceptual data from the same individuals revealed a modest, yet complex, perception-production link for L2 vowels.

Production of phonetic and phonological contrast by heritage speakers of Mandarin

“…In other words, they may have simply been drawing upon vowel tokens that were already in their repertoire: particularly fronted versions of English /u/. It has been proposed that due to the fact that American English /u/, which is already relatively front on average, is further fronted in the context of alveolars, the front vowel /y/ may not actually constitute a "new" vowel for English-speaking L2 learners, but instead a "similar" vowel, at least in the context of alveolars (Strange et al, 2007;Levy, 2009;Levy and Law, 2010). Documented perceptual assimilation patterns in which English speakers identify German and French /y/ as closest to English /u/ (e.g.…”

Relación entre la percepción y la producción de las vocales del portugués brasileño por parte de monolingües de español europeo

“…However, the relation between the two abilities is rather complex and still a matter of debate. This seems due to the fact that there is not a well-established link in terms of empirical evidence (Levy & Law, 2010). In fact, some studies have found an opposite pattern where production precedes perception.…”

“…There are a number of studies that support these theoretical claims and have identified a link between perception and production (e.g., Flege, Bohn, & Jang, 1997;Levy & Law, 2010;Morrison, 2003Morrison, , 2006Rallo Fabra & Romero, 2012;Rauber, Escudero, Bion, & Baptista, 2005). In particular, these studies suggest that a learner's perception of the L2 influences their production of the L2 (Levy & Law, 2010;Llisterri, 1995;Morrison, 2003).…”

“…In particular, these studies suggest that a learner's perception of the L2 influences their production of the L2 (Levy & Law, 2010;Llisterri, 1995;Morrison, 2003). However, the relation between the two abilities is rather complex and still a matter of debate.…”

Mobile speech recognition software: A tool for teaching second language pronunciation

“…In the investigation, we focus on the acquisition of the French phoneme /y/ (as in tu /ty/ 'you') for two main reasons: (1) the sound is highly difficult to acquire in both production and perception (e.g. Baker and Smith, 2010;Levy and Law II, 2010;Rochet, 1995); and (2) it has a high functional load in the target language (Jenkins, 2002;King, 1967), as it is used to distinguish many French minimal pairs such as au-dessous /od.su/ 'below' and au-dessus /od.sy/ 'above'. To our knowledge, there are no studies that have investigated the use of ASR on mobile devices for pronunciation teaching (see also Godwin-Jones, 2009, for a similar observation).…”