XXXV Aedean Conference (Universidad Autónoma Barcelona 2011)
PANEL PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY (Coordinator: Lucrecia Rallo Fabra)
SESSION 1
Articulatory adjustments in initial voiced stops in English, Spanish and French
María José Solé Sabater (University Autonoma Barcelona)
Email:mariajosep.sole@uab.cat
Perceptual epenthesis in word-initial [sC]/[sCr/l] clusters by L1 [e]speakers of [e]Spanish
Mark Gibson (University of Navarra)
Email: m.a.gibson@hotmail.com
SESSION 2
Audiovisual perception of native and non-native sounds by native and non-native speakers
Juli Cebrián Puyuelo and Angelica Carlet (University Autonoma Barcelona)
Email: juli.cebrian@uab.es
Acoustic and Phonological Memory in L2 Vowel Perception
Elena Safronova and Joan Carles Mora (University of Barcelona)
Email: esafrosa@alumnes.ub.edu, mora@ub.edu
SESSION 3 (ROUND TABLE)
Phonetic training for L2 learners: Findings, challenges and implications
Juli Cebrián Puyuelo (University Autonoma Barcelona)
Email: juli.cebrian@uab.es
Participants : Juli Cebrián Puyuelo (University Autonoma Barcelona), Chair, Cristina Aliaga-García
(University of Barcelona), Esther Gómez Lacabex and Mª Luisa García Lecumberri (University Pais
Vasco), Teresa López Soto (University of Sevilla), Joan Carles Mora (University of Barcelona)
ABSTRACTS
Articulatory adjustments in initial voiced stops in English, Spanish and French
María José Solé Sabater (University Autonoma Barcelona)
This work reports cross-languages differences in the voicing of initial voiced stops, and in the use of
active maneuvers to achieve closure voicing, using multiparametric aero dynamic data. Oral
pressure, oral and nasal flow, and acoustic data were obtained for utterance-initial /b d p t m/ for
10 speakers of Spanish, 6 speakers of French and 5 speakers of English. The qualitative analysis of
the data reflects different articulatory adjustments, used singly or in combination, directed to
lower the oral pressure and achieve the pressure difference for voicing initiation. In French and
Spanish, where voicing is typically present and maintained throughout the stop closure, maneuvers
such as cavity enlargement and nasal or oral leakage have a significantly greater rate of occurrence
than in English where they rarely occur. The type of adjustment is often speaker- or even phonemespecific (e.g., spirantizatio n in apicals). The quantitative analysis of the data reveal that nasal
leakage is commonly used in Spanish and French utterance-initial stops to promote transglottal
airflow for voicing. The results show that voiced stops with a delayed nasal closure (or a nasal burst)
are more likely to have prevoicing than those with an early velic closure (which tend to be
devoiced), and that voiceless stops tend to have an earlier nasal closure than voiced stops. The
different timing of velum closure in voiced and voiceless stops indicates that Spanish and French
speakers utilize nasal leakage as a voice-initiating gesture.
Keywords: voiced stops, aerodynamics, prenasalization, English, Spanish, French
Perceptual epenthesis in word-initial [sC]/[sCr/l] clusters by L1 [e]speakers of [e]Spanish
Mark Gibson (University of Navarra)
A hypothesis is proposed which claims that vowel prosthesis before [sC]/[sCr/l] clusters by L1
Spanish learners of English is a perceptual phenomenon conditioned by dynamically emerging L1
biases referencing in-phase coupling in complex onsets. Data from a series of off-line perception
tests involving fifty L1 Spanish-speaking children confirm the erroneous perception of an extra
syllable in a majority of nonce tokens containing the target stimuli. It is argued that an L1 bias
referencing intergestural timing relations prompts the perception of an illusory [e] before lexical
storage occurs. The findings are of interest since they bear directly on contemporary research in the
acquisition of L1 phasing relations and how this information affects L2 phonological acquisition.
Keywords: L1 biases, relative timing patterns, perceptual epenthesis, Spanish
Audiovisual perception of native and non-native sounds by native and non-native speakers
Juli Cebrián Puyuelo and Angelica Carlet (University Autonoma Barcelona)
This study examined the contribution of both auditory and visual cues in native and non-native
speech perception. Three groups of listeners, a group of native speakers of English and two groups
of EFL learners (elementary and advanced), were tested on their perception of auditory-only,
visual-only and audiovisual English stimuli. The audiovisual stimuli included a congruent (matched
auditory-visual stimuli) condition and an incongruent (mismatched auditory-visual stimuli)
condition. The stimuli included consonant sounds that were common to both languages (/b, g/),
non-L1 sounds (/v/) and sounds with a different status in the L1 and the L2 (/d, dh/). The results
indicated that whereas visual salience tends to play a role in native speakers’ perception, nonnative speakers’ performance is more strongly influenced by the status of native vs. L2 sounds. A
comparison of the two learner groups revealed a positive effect of L2 experience on the ability to
perceive in a more native-like manner both auditorily and visually.
Keywords: audiovisual perception, foreign language learning, second language acquisition, English
consonants
Acoustic and Phonological Memory in L2 Vowel Perception
Elena Safronovan and Joan Carles Mora (University of Barcelona)
This study examined the role of acoustic memory (AM) and phonological short-term memory (PSTM)
in the perception of English /i?/ and /?/ by Spanish/Catalan L2 learners. A sub-goal was to explore
whether PSTM is related to AM. To assess participants’ AM capacity a novel serial nonword
recognition task using rotated speech was designed. The findings of the study were consistent with
previous research regarding Spanish/Catalan learners of English overreliance on temporal cues when
perceiving the target contrast. The main hypotheses were not supported, as participants’ L2 vowel
perception was not significantly affected by individual differences in AM and PSTM. Nonetheless, AM
and PSTM scores were found to be unrelated to one another, suggesting that measures of memory
storage for speech-like nonwords and rotated-speech nonwords tapped on two different cognitive
skills.
Phonetic training for L2 learners: Findings, challenges and implications
Juli Cebrián Puyuelo (University Autonoma Barcelona)
Email: juli.cebrian@uab.es
Participants : Juli Cebrián Puyuelo (University Autonoma Barcelona), Chair, Cristina Aliaga-García
(University of Barcelona), Esther Gómez Lacabex and Mª Luisa García Lecumberri (University Pais
Vasco), Teresa López Soto (University of Sevilla), Joan Carles Mora (University of Barcelona)
The acquisition of a second language (L2) after childhood is a challenging task, especially regarding
the pronunciation of the new language. This is particularly evident in an instructional or classroom
setting, where the amount of exposure to the target language is generally limited, and the type of
input is often non-native. A way of making up for this absence of continuous native input is the
implementation of specific phonetic training. Phonetic training involves continuous training with
specifically designed activities and/or stimuli simulating native input and directed at raising the
learners’ sensitivities to specific aspects of the L2 pronunciation, particularly those that are at the
root of L2 pronunciation difficulty. A number of studies have found positive results of phonetic
training. Still, differences among the studies in the methods used, the target sounds examined and
the populations tested raise questions about the implementation and the general benefits of
phonetic training. This round table will address some of these questions drawing from the findings
of a number of researchers working on the acquisition of English as a foreign language. One set of
questions involves the nature of the training methods. Some methods focus on articulatory
information while others exploit auditory or audiovisual cues. Current research evaluates if these
approaches are equally effective or if their efficiency varies depending on the characteristics of the
target structures. A crucial issue concerns the impact of training beyond the ‘trained’ structures.
For instance, does gain resulting from training with specific stimuli and on specific structures in a
given context generalize to new stimuli (i.e., new input, new talkers), new structures, and new
contexts? Similarly, can perceptually based training have an impact on the production of the trained
structures? A related question is whether the potential benefit of training, or gain, lasts beyond the
training period itself and, if so, how long for and what does that depend on? Finally, FL learning is
characterized by a certain degree of interlearner variability, which brings up the question of
whether some learners are more prone to benefit from training than others, and, in that case, what
individual characteristics and abilities may have a bearing on this difference. Each contribution to
this round table will focus on a specific aspect of phonetic training and will consider the challenges
faced by this line of research and its implications for L2 pronunciation teaching and learning.
Keywords: second language speech, phonetic training, training methods, individual factors