Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Individual Differences Of L1 Category Precision In L2 Speech Learning, Sujin Oh

Theses and Dissertations

The revised Speech Learning Model (SLM-r) postulates that learners with more precisely defined categories in their native language (L1) exhibit greater proficiency in acquiring sounds in a second language (L2). Despite its recent emergence, empirical studies validating this hypothesis remain scarce. This study aims to investigate the predictive role of L1 category precision in L2 performance, particularly as a fundamental factor influencing L2 speech development. Furthermore, it aims to uncover a potential correlation between learners’ perceptual and production abilities, mediated by L1 category precision, within the framework of L2 speech development. The findings from Studies 1 and 2 furnish compelling …

Gaeilge In Éirinn: Irish Language Ideologies And Attitudes In A Divided Island Nation, Skyler D. Newhall

Linguistics Honors Projects

Sociolinguistic research on Irish has predominantly examined language dynamics within either the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland, neglecting the connected experiences of language communities across both territories. Drawing on media and interview data, this paper investigates the significance of a shared 'language=identity' ideology. The results reveal that despite most Irish identifying individuals operating within this framework, diverse controversies regarding attitudes towards language legitimacy, speaker agency, and perceived 'usefulness' affect native and new speaker language use and motivation. These findings underscore the need for language reclamation and revitalization projects to address language ideologies and attitudes.

What's In A Name? Plant Naming As Cultural Artifact And Story In The Midwestern United States, Sophie Wesseler

Undergraduate Theses

This project sought to collect and contextualize the historical and contemporary names given to plants by inhabitants of the Midwestern United States, understanding plant names as cultural artifacts that can offer insight into the communities in which they were created and evolved. Formatted as a series of entries, this collection gathered these names and contextualized them within other artifacts of cultural significance, such as art or poetry, and alongside historical research on their origins and cultural environments. Examining plant names through the fields of linguistics, semiology, anthropology, cultural studies, taxonomy, and ethnobotany, this work traces the names of various plants …

Exploring Asynchronous Pronunciation Training Through Context-Aware Pronunciation Applications, Claire L. Schweikert

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This paper provides a survey of various research articles on context-aware asynchronous pronunciation training applications. First, a set of seven articles is reviewed and summarized. Next, they are synthesized over the three main topics of 1) automated speech recognition, 2) non-native speaker considerations in language learning, and 3) future directions for research and development within computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT). Research in the areas of acoustic and pronunciation modeling (both implicit and explicit), pedagogical considerations for CAPT application design, Goodness of Pronunciation algorithm scoring, accent recognition and neutralization, and more are discussed.

Training Grammaticality: Can People Be Taught To Perceive The Singular ‘They’ As Grammatical?, Val Willham

Undergraduate Honors Theses

As the usage of personal pronouns other than he and she becomes more mainstream, debates about their usage have become more and more common. Many of the reasons discouraging their use are rooted in negative attitudes toward people who prefer to be referred to as such (Patev, et al 2019). However, prior research has also found that perceptions of singular gender-neutral pronouns like they/them as being grammatically confusing can be an obstacle toward their use, even by people who otherwise hold positive opinions towards transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) individuals (Patev, et al 2019). Given the role that language use …

Gestalt Language Processing In Accredited Communication Sciences And Disorders Programs, William Harris

Master's Theses

The language development and usage of autistic individuals has become a controversial topic in many of the disciplines and professions providing support to these individuals. As a result, two theories of language processing have been proposed. Analytical language processing suggests that children process and develop language from its most simple form, a phoneme, to its most complex form, a word or phrase. However, the theory of gestalt language processing proposes that some children may instead extract larger, more complex language such as whole words and phrases first and break it down to the simpler language. Gestalt language processing is often …

Bilingual Comprehension Of Accented Speech And Spoken Code Switches, Liam John Gleason

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Across three experiments, the current study explored how accented speech and coarticulation impact how bilingual listeners comprehend code-switches in speech. Eye-tracking methodology was used to compare responses to single-language and code-switched sentences. Experiment 1 observed how accented speech influenced the costs involved in comprehending code-switches by comparing responses to speakers that had North American English accents to speakers with Juarez/El Paso Spanish accents when speaking English. Experiment 2 compared responses to English speech produced by speakers with North American English, Flemish, and Bulgarian accented speakers. To examine coarticulation as a cue to an upcoming code-switch, Experiment 3 compared naturally produced …

Investigating The Production And Perception Of Lexical Stress In English As A Second Language: A Cue-Weighting Approach, Natalia Irene Minjarez Oppenheimer

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Cue-Weighting Transfer Hypothesis states that (a) listeners weight acoustic cues according to how informative they are in signaling a lexical contrast in their L1, and (b) that listeners transfer their cue weightings from the L1 to the L2, using those cues that are important in the L1 to perceive lexical stress in the L2 (Tremblay et al., 2021). Most of the Spanish-English bilinguals in our region are highly proficient in both languages, but differ in their language dominance spectrums. That is, they can handle both languages with ease, but are usually more dominant in one of them. Because of …

Salience Of Ascription In Italian Grammar: Linguistics, Science, And Art, Joseph C. M. Davis

Open Educational Resources

This is a meaning-based, discourse-based linguistic analysis of what, in traditional terms, might be thought of as adjective-noun versus noun-adjective order in Italian. That analysis lends itself to thoughts of how, generally, linguistics relates to science and art. A grammatical system of Salience of Ascription is posited. The analysis, which is complete and comprehensive, consists of twelve sections, or chapters. It is envisioned to be a "living document," so to speak, in the sense that interested readers are encouraged to offer suggestions for improvement, including corrections and criticisms.

Liminality And Knowledge Production In Egyptian Stand-Up Comedy: Reflecting Perspectives And Defying Restrictions, Nohayer Lotfy

English Language and Literature

This paper aimed to examine how Egyptian live stand-up performances act as a liminal space where comedians present their perspectives on issues of concern, offering a different source of knowledge other than mainstream views and ideas. Data collected for this study included selected excerpts from Egyptian live stand-up shows in addition to interviews with stand-up comedians to collect more in-depth information about how they perceive stand-up comedy as a form of art and how they select their topics and develop their stand-up material. For this paper, two analytical approaches were applied: 1) A thematic approach to closely investigate the range …

Sex And Self-Optimization: Stancetaking In Postfeminist Media, Stella Clymer

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Second Language Acquisition In The Era Of Technology And Artificial Intelligence: Exploring New Frontiers, Mimoun Akhiat

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This portfolio is the capstone project of the Master of Second Language Teaching program. It offers perspectives and insights into major themes of importance to the writer. It begins with a general introduction pertaining to the writer’s education and teaching background, his goals for joining the program and an overall reflection of this experience. Following this is the writer’s teaching philosophy comprised of a description of professional environment and a teaching philosophy statement centered on the principles of multimodality, authenticity, and collaboration. The second section of this portfolio is entitled hands-on teaching experience where the writer presents and reflects on …

Heritage Language Maintenance, Language Socialization, And Family Language Policy: An Ethnographic Case Study Of A Trilingual Family, Rosiane Barcelos De Oliveira

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Today, about 350 languages are spoken and signed in the United States, many of which are heritage languages (HL). A HL is a language to which a speaker has an ethnic, historical, or sentimental connection. This dissertation reports on an ethnographic case study on the language and literacy socialization practices of one trilingual family (English, Spanish, Portuguese) in their efforts to maintain Portuguese as their HL. The analysis of data focuses on three themes: (1) HLM activities during their religious practices; (2) the emotions connected to HLM; and (3) the family’s HLM practices when they travel to Brazil. Through a …

L2 Acquistion Of Korean: Phonology And Prosody, Angel M. Ray

2024 Spring Honors Capstone Projects

ABSTRACT

L2 ACQUISTION OF KOREAN:

PHONOLOGY AND PROSODY

Angel Ray, INTS

The University of Texas at Arlington, 2024

Faculty Mentor: Daniel Scarpace and Hyuna Choi

Learning Korean as a second language (L2) has many challenges for a native (L1) non-

native speaker. There is a new alphabet, word order, and new sounds that English does not

have. Additionally, pronunciation and prosody are among the hardest aspects of the

language to learn and master. Especially if one's native language is not tonal or does not

have similar sounds in their inventory. The new sounds that a new language introduces can

be …

California Speech-Language Pathology Programs’ Emphasis On Cultural And Linguistic Diversity: An Environmental Scan, Natalia Aguirre

McNair Research Journal SJSU

No abstract provided.

Batu Nisan Di Situs Binanga Sebagai Indikasi Pemukiman Muslim Kuno Di Pantai Barat Aceh, Amir Husni, Sanusi Ismail, Nasruddin As Nasruddin As, Bustami Abubakar, Reza Idria, Hermansyah Hermansyah, Ruhamah Ruhamah, Muhajir Al Fairusy

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This article aims to discuss the development of ancient Muslim settlements on the west coast of Aceh based on the findings of Islamic gravestones at the Binanga site in Subulussalam City, Aceh. This site is very unique, it is located inland and right on the banks of the Singkel River, which is connected to the highlands of Sumatra. There are 131 Islamic gravestones, and their shapes vary greatly. The results of the morphological analysis show that the gravestones were divided into two groups: Aceh gravestones (batu Aceh) and Barus gravestones (nisan Barus). There are no biographical inscriptions carved …

Kontestasi Kuasa Dalam Perdagangan Rempah Di Pantai Barat Dan Selatan Aceh Abad Ke 18 Hingga 19 M, Muhajir Al Fairusy Ma, Jovial Pally Taran Jpt, R. Michael Feener Mf, Haikal Haikal Hk

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

The spice route has become a national discourse in the context of strengthening the Indonesian nation's maritime cultural identity. As one of the big nations, the archipelago was once a cross-national melting pot in the context of hunting and trading spices on an international scale. After all, spices were the prima donna commodity of their time, which raised the name of the archipelago to the international trade stage. This research was conducted to find out the history of the spice route in one of the archipelago regions, especially in Aceh. After all, Islam and the spice trade have become a …

Tinjauan Kritis Konservasi Tekstil Koleksi Jubah Sultan Thaha Museum Kebangkitan Nasional, Zulfa Nurdina Fitri, Ali Akbar

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

A museum plays a central role in conserving cultural heritage. Hence, conserving museum collections is pivotal for preserving the values of the collection. The museum of National Awakening has a potential national collection that requires curative conservation due to its damaged condition, i.e., Sultan Thaha Robes. However, the conservation effort lacked written and visual documentation of the collection due to the collection's urgency, causing it difficult for conservators to access the conservation-related information. This paper presents a critical review of conservation stages performed on Sultan Thaha Robes while suggesting a complete, systematic conservation solution based on the theoretical collaboration of …

Persepsi Pemerintah Dan Masyarakat Dalam Pelestarian Cagar Budaya: Studi Kasus Kawasan Cagar Budaya Pusat Pemerintahan Kesultanan Siak Sri Indrapura, Agi Ginanjar

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This study discusses the interpretation of the importance of government versus community in the preservation and potential use of the Siak Sri Indrapura Cultural Heritage Area. Efforts for preservation in accordance with the law are not easy, since in practice various problems arise, especially those related to their use. The purpose of this study is to combine the interpretation of important values of government and society in the preservation of cultural heritage areas and their potential use by taking into account socio-cultural and economic values. This study was designed using a convergent qualitative and quantitative approach (convergent mixed methods approach), …

Rekonstruksi Nama Jember Dalam Lakon Babad Jember Ludruk Surya Utama, Fahmy H. Abdillah

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This study entitled “Reconstruction name of Jember in Babad Jember Play Ludruk Surya Utama”, is a study of ludruk play that are suspected of having participated in producing or distributing the origins name of Jember, through babad Jember play which performed with Madura, Java and Indonesia language. The reconstruction was based on a structural review; plot, theme, character and toponymy in babad Jember play by Surya Utama group. Examine the mixed use of language based on texture; the dialogue of the Jember babad play which consists of (a) external dialogue in the form of communication between actors, especially in conflicts …

Developing 240 Spanish Word Pair Stimuli For A Psycholinguistic Experiment, Francisco Villa

Student Research Symposium

Metaphors are linguistically interesting because they involve going beyond literal interpretation. For example, “night owl” can refer to an animal or a person who is active at night. Psycholinguistic researchers investigating metaphor comprehension must develop sets of stimuli (linguistic items used in experiments) that include metaphors and literal items as a baseline. One approach is to use metaphorical word pairs, because it lets researchers control several important variables, including how frequent words are within the language. For the first time, we have created a set of word pair stimuli in Spanish, which is particularly challenging because most metaphors consist of …

An Idiolectal “Voice Report” Analysis Of Single And Double Coda Devoicing In Minnesota English, Ettien Koffi, Nicolas Wollinski

Linguistic Portfolios

The Voice Report function in Praat makes it possible to calculate the amount of voicing that occurs dynamically within a segment. This function is used here to investigate how Author 2 produces voiced consonants that occur in the codas of 15 words in an elicitation paragraph read at a normal tempo. Some words end with a singleton coda, while others have double codas. When the measurements are interpreted in accordance with F0 and the 40/60 Just Noticeable Difference (JND) thresholds, we see that coda devoicing is pervasive in Author 2’s speech. When the evidence presented here is added to the …

An Acoustic Phonetic Investigation Of Lexical Stress Encoding In Vietnamese-Accented English, Ettien Koffi, David Mason

Linguistic Portfolios

A psychoacoustic methodology is used to investigate lexical stress encoding by 15 Vietnamese-Accented English (VAE) speakers. In this framework, Just Noticeable Difference (JND) thresholds in F0/pitch, intensity, and duration are used to investigate the strategy that speakers rely on to produce lexical stress. The key finding for VAE speakers is that they rank the three acoustic correlates as follows: F0 (67.61%) > Intensity (54.28%) > Duration (31.42%). According to Nguyen and Ingram (2005) and Nguyen (2017), this hierarchy mirrors the strategy that Vietnamese speakers rely on to encode tone in their native language. Transferring their native prosodic strategy into English affords them …

Accentedness And Intelligibility: The Typical Phonetic Story Of An Lx Couple In The Us, Mahdi Duris

Linguistic Portfolios

For the past 20 years, intelligibility research has paved the way in making pronunciation teaching and learning about individual competency rather than sounding like a native speaker. The body of research has empirically shown that language speakers of English (Lx) can be intelligible while sounding heavily accented. However, studies have yet to examine how first-generation immigrant couples from different cultural backgrounds interact with each other using an Lx. A phonetic analysis of an oral transcription is conducted to describe the segmental features of Dominican English (DomE) and Pakistani English (PakE), two Lx English spoken by Tabinda and Tariq, as they …

Klattgrid And Formant-Based Speech Synthesis: Demonstration With Betine, Hannah Loukusa, Jacob Haapoja

Linguistic Portfolios

In this paper, we describe a method for extracting speech segment features from an audio recording such that speech may be reconstructed while maintaining emphasis and stress with minimal annotation. We also present a script for the linguistic research tool, Praat, for performing this extraction and reconstruction via KlattGrid synthesis [1]. This technique contributes to the ongoing research efforts to preserve the Betine language (ISO 639-3:eot), one of 10 critically endangered languages spoken in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa.

Speech Synthesis By Syllable A Concatenation: Experimentation With Betine, Ettien Koffi, Daniel Fabres, Swathi R. Pingili, Gopikrishna K. Chava

Linguistic Portfolios

The endangerment of minority languages has reached pandemic proportions. No country or continent is spared. The editors of Ethnologue (2019:14-15) report that 2,923 of the world’s 7,111 languages are critically endangered. McWorther (2003:257-8) adds that, statistically speaking, “A language dies roughly every two weeks.” UNESCO (2010) projects that 90% of the world’s indigenous languages will be dead by the end of 2100. In Africa alone, Kandybowicz and Torrence (2017:3) note that 201 languages of the estimated 2000 languages have already died, and 308 others are on the brink of extinction. Minority languages worldwide are in such deplorable conditions that the …

The Acoustic Phonetic Properties Of Voiceless Fricatives In Anyi, Ettien Koffi

Linguistic Portfolios

African languages are well endowed with fricatives. Common ones /f, v, s, z, ʒ, ʃ, h /, less common ones /β, ɸ, s’, ç, ɣ, χ, ɦ/, and rare ones /ʃw, ɕ, ɕw , zɥ/ are all found in West African languages (Ladefoged 1968:45-66). Yet, surprisingly, there is a severe paucity of data on the acoustic phonetic properties of fricatives in these languages. This paper seeks to remedy this situation by providing a comprehensive overview of voiceless fricatives in Anyi, an Akan language spoken in Côte d’Ivoire. Twelve correlates, i.e., F0, F1, F2, F3, F4, Center of Gravity, intensity, duration, …

Synthesizers Demonstrated On Betine, Clare Miller, Isabella Randolph

Linguistic Portfolios

This paper provides basic information on developing speech synthesis to help preserve and revitalize critically endangered languages. It uses Betine, (ISO 639-3:eot), as a model. The death of minority languages is escalating globally, and 90% are predicted to die by 2100, which results in the loss of cultural heritage and knowledge. Synthesizing speech in dying and near-extinct languages can preserve and even revitalize them. The paper includes spectrographs and waveforms of the given Beti name transcribed phonetically as [aːɟo]. It also contains voice component measurements and the synthesizing programs used for comparison. The measurements taken from the data include F0/pitch, …

The Acoustic Phonetic Properties Of The Epenthetic Vowel In Spanish-Accented English, Luis Lopez

Linguistic Portfolios

The purpose of this research paper is to describe the acoustic phonetic features of the epenthetic vowel inserted by Spanish-accented speakers of English in sC syllable onsets. Numerous studies have examined this issue. Many have identified the epenthetic vowel as [ɛ]. However, its true acoustic phonetic identity has not been established. This is the first study of its kind that relies on acoustic phonetic measurements to examine the epenthetic vowel. Formant correlates (F0, F1, F2, F3, F4), intensity, and duration cues are used in revealing the true properties of this epenthetic vowel. The insights derived from this study also have …

Socio-Acoustic Survey Responses To Infant Cry Samples: Why Intensity In Dba Matters The Most, Ettien Koffi, Benjamin Witts

Linguistic Portfolios

Infant cry researchers, Fairbrother et al. (2019), Collardeau et al. (2019), Rahman et al. (2023), among others, have reported that crying alone triggers unwanted and intrusive thoughts in some postpartum parents, including thoughts of harming their babies. Barr (2014) states unambiguously that crying is the main trigger of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS), also referred to as Abusive Head Trauma (AHT). Yet so far, there is no consensus in academic circles as to which acoustic correlate is responsible for triggering these thoughts or actions. Most work to date is concentrated on F0/pitch, though findings about its influence are conflicting. Meanwhile Koffi …