When intake exceeds input: Language specific perceptual illusions induced by L1 prosodic constraints

Matthews, John; Brown, Cynthia A.

doi:10.1177/13670069040080010201

Cited by 25 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…We predicted higher epenthesis rates for voiceless-voiceless consonant clusters because Japanese speakers may be more likely to restore a vowel when they hear a sequence of two voiceless consonants, which appears to be the result of high vowel devoicing. Our prediction was consistent with the results from Dupoux et al's (2011) supplementary analysis, and possibly with Matthews and Brown (2004)'s results as well, but we aimed to provide more solid evidence through the examination of the four voicing patterns and their potential interactions with the other two factors, Loanword Representation and Proficiency.…”

Section: Question 3: Effects Of High Vowel Devoicingsupporting

confidence: 87%

Effects of first language processes and representations on second language perception: The case of vowel epenthesis by Japanese speakers

Nomura

Ishikawa

2016

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: Japanese speakers are known to perceive "illusory vowels" within consonant clusters illicit in their language. The present study examines how this perceptual vowel epenthesis is affected by first language (L1) processes (restoration of vowels devoiced through Japanese high vowel devoicing), L1 representations (loanword representations in Japanese speakers' lexicons), and proficiency in English. Design/methodology/approach: The participants judged the presence or absence of a mora (e.g., ム /mu/) in an auditorily presented English word (e.g., homesick). The 40 test items contained a heterosyllabic consonant cluster with four different voicing patterns to examine whether the vowel restoration process is related to vowel epenthesis. Twenty of the test items are frequently used as loanwords in Japanese, meaning that they are stored in the L1 lexicon with a vowel inserted inside the consonant cluster (e.g., /hoomusikku/). The other 20 are low-frequency items that are virtually nonwords for the non-native participants. Data and analysis: The vowel epenthesis rates and reaction times (RTs) were obtained from 14 introductory learners, 15 intermediate learners, and 19 native speakers. Findings/conclusions: The results show the main effects of Voice, Loanword Representation, and Proficiency, as well as the interaction among the three factors. Negative correlations between vowel epenthesis rates and RTs were also observed for the learners. The results indicate differential effects of vowel restoration and loanwords on perceptual epenthesis by learners of different proficiency levels. Originality: The present study was one of the first attempts to test the relation between proficiency and perceptual vowel epenthesis using real English words. Significance/implications: The findings demonstrate the robustness of L1 processes and representations in second language perception while substantiating the existing argument for early vowel epenthesis. They also raise questions regarding the effects of training and the role of native speaker input.

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Section: Question 3: Effects Of High Vowel Devoicingsupporting

confidence: 87%

Effects of first language processes and representations on second language perception: The case of vowel epenthesis by Japanese speakers

Nomura

Ishikawa

2016

International Journal of Bilingualism

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“…Research has shown that learners' mental representations of L2 phonemes created under the influence of orthographic input may affect their perception in such a way that they hear non-existing phonemes or phonetic features (see Matthews/ Brown 2004).…”

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confidence: 99%

The relationship between the perception and production of four General British vowels by Slovene university students of English

Komar

2017

linguistica

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This paper presents a study of the influence of orthography and phonemic transcription on the pronunciation of the four GB vowels /e/, /æ/, /ʌ/, and /ɜ:/ by Slovene university students of English. The paper also examines the relation between the perception and production of the four vowels in question by comparing the perception results of the same vowels from a previous study and the production results of this study. The results indicate a positive influence of phonemic transcription on the production of the examined vowels, whereas the influence of orthography on the pronunciation is confusing and leads to pronunciation errors. The results also confirm the findings of the perception study that the most difficult vowel contrast to maintain is between /e/ and /æ/. Interestingly, the perceived vocalic substitutes do not match the pronunciation substitutes for these two vowels. While the pronunciation of /e/ is excellent, its perception is still confused with /æ/.

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“…. This is what is known as an illusory vowel (see Matthews & Brown, 2004): a vowel perceived when none is found in the acoustic input. This is a phenomenon that Archibald and Yousefi (2018) have labelled Escher's Problem,* Why do we sometimes come to represent content which is not in the input?…”

Section: Syllabic Ambiguity: Illusory Vowelsmentioning

confidence: 98%

A Unified Model of Mono- and Bilingual Intelligibility

Archibald

2019

Journal of Monolingual and Bilingual Speech

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The construct of intelligibility in L2 speech has primarily been operationalized functionally in terms of speech being classified as intelligible if the listeners successfully recovered the intended message (Munro & Derwing, 1995). In this paper, I will operationalize intelligibility psycholinguistically in terms of spoken word recognition. We do not need to invoke any special machinery for intelligibility in bilinguals; monolinguals and bilinguals process speech in the same way (Libben, 2000; Libben & Goral, 2015). Listeners have to segment the speech stream and the parser maps the phonetic elements onto higher-level linguistic representations such as phonemes, syllable nodes and metrical feet. The role of experience in the listener is modelled analogously to high-variability phonetic training (HVPT) via broadening the prior likelihood (in a Bayesian sense) of the mapping of an L2 phone onto an extant phonological category. I conclude by discussing pedagogic implications, and suggesting that pedagogic models that advocate a single non-native variety of English, which will be intelligible to all ears (i.e. parsable by all grammars), are problematic psycholinguistically.

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When intake exceeds input: Language specific perceptual illusions induced by L1 prosodic constraints

Cited by 25 publications

References 30 publications

Effects of first language processes and representations on second language perception: The case of vowel epenthesis by Japanese speakers

Effects of first language processes and representations on second language perception: The case of vowel epenthesis by Japanese speakers

The relationship between the perception and production of four General British vowels by Slovene university students of English

A Unified Model of Mono- and Bilingual Intelligibility

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