The globalization and nativization processes of English resulted in the appearance of a large number of regional varieties of English. Concerning their accent between the single norm theory and the multiple norm diffe...The globalization and nativization processes of English resulted in the appearance of a large number of regional varieties of English. Concerning their accent between the single norm theory and the multiple norm differences, there has always been a debate theory. This paper argues against the ＇standard-nonstandard＇ classification of English accents upheld by the former, and revises the concept of ＇the three concentric circles of English＇ proposed by the latter, providing some helpful tips on the current instruction of listening and speaking in China＇s colleges and universities.展开更多
Since"it is impossible to speak English without an accent"(Wardhaugh 1998: 43), English accent has been attached first importance to both native and non-native speakers. This study aims to explore teenagers&...Since"it is impossible to speak English without an accent"(Wardhaugh 1998: 43), English accent has been attached first importance to both native and non-native speakers. This study aims to explore teenagers' understanding and attitudes toward differing English accents by investigating 19 international high school students' preferences toward five English audio samples(the same materials with different accents) in Chingmai International School, Thailand. On the basis of five audio samples and respondents' self-reported answers, the results show that British English, instead of"powerful"American English, emerges as the preferred accent. The results also indicate that the need to understand both accented and non-accented English is required for EFLs. Finally, teaching implications concerning pronunciation teaching in EFL classrooms are also put forward.展开更多
Perceptual Objective Listening Quality Assessment (POLQA) and Perceptual <span>Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) are commonly used objective standards for evaluating speech quality. These methods were develope...Perceptual Objective Listening Quality Assessment (POLQA) and Perceptual <span>Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) are commonly used objective standards for evaluating speech quality. These methods were developed and trained on native </span>speakers’ speech sequences of some western languages. One can then wonder how these methods perform if they are applied to other languages or if the<span> speaker is non-native. This paper deals with the evaluation of PESQ and POLQA </span>on languages that were not been considered when setting up these methods, with emphasis on Moore and Dioula, two local languages of Burkina Faso. <span>Another aspect is the evaluation of these two methods in the case of non-native speakers. For this purpose, in the one hand, the Mean Opinion Score-Listening Quality Objective (MOS-LQO) of PESQ and POLQA, computed for Moore and Dioula, are compared to those of French and English. On the second hand, the </span><span>MOS-LQO scores of French and English are compared for native and</span><span> non-native speakers, to evaluate the effect of the accent of speakers.</span>展开更多
The foreign accent syndrome(FAS) is a rare speech disorder, characterised by the appearance of a new accent, different from the speaker's native language and perceived as foreign by others. In the majority of pati...The foreign accent syndrome(FAS) is a rare speech disorder, characterised by the appearance of a new accent, different from the speaker's native language and perceived as foreign by others. In the majority of patients, FAS is secondary to focal brain damage caused by stroke or other neurological disorders. Infrequently, FAS has been reported in association with psychiatric disorders, including dissociative or conversion disorders. The case of a young woman with recurrent episodes of speaking with a foreign accent is described. Repeated neurological examinations, imaging and electroencephalography did not reveal any brain abnormality. However, there was a history of a difficult childhood, alcohol dependence in the father, parental discord, alleged sexual abuse in the past, interpersonal difficulties and parental death. Episodes were precipitated by stressful life circumstances and resolved spontaneously, or with supportive treatment. She had additional "suspect" symptoms such as non-epileptic seizures, aphonia and motor paralysis. All these features indicated that a dissociative disorder was involved in the genesis of her FAS. The influence of external factors such as the media was unclear. Generally biological factors have been implicated in the onset of FAS, but the presentation in this young woman suggests that psychological factors such as personality, trauma, stressful life events and psychiatric disorder; familial factors such as parental discord and parental death and family conflicts; and, social factors such the possible influence of the media may also be involved in the production of foreign accents by patients.展开更多
The effect of intensity accents on detection of temporal irregularities is investigated in a 3×3 behavior experiment with independent variables of inter-onset-interval （IOI） length and intensity. In a 5-beat is...The effect of intensity accents on detection of temporal irregularities is investigated in a 3×3 behavior experiment with independent variables of inter-onset-interval （IOI） length and intensity. In a 5-beat isochronous sequence, both the length of the third IOI and the intensity of succeeding beat are manipulated to three different levels separately （IOI length： longer Llo, shorter Lsh, or standard Lst. Intensity： louder Ilo, softer Iso, or standard Ist）. Subjects are required to discriminate the third IOI length with different responses respectively. The discrimination sensitivity index （d′） and response criterion （C） are assessed simultaneously for each stimulus condition. Statistical analysis reveals an asymmetric effect of intensity accents on detection of IOI deviations in an isochronous sequence, i.e. the loud accent mainly reduces the sensitivity for both shorter and standard IOIs, and the soft accent might introduce a disturbance into the temporal perception, especially in the detection of the short IOIs. Importantly, when preceding a louder accent, the short IOIs are significantly difficult to detect than the long ones, as consistent with the compensation hypothesis.展开更多
An algorithm involving Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) is provided to perform signal feature extraction for the task of speaker accent recognition. Then different classifiers are compared based on the MFCC...An algorithm involving Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) is provided to perform signal feature extraction for the task of speaker accent recognition. Then different classifiers are compared based on the MFCC feature. For each signal, the mean vector of MFCC matrix is used as an input vector for pattern recognition. A sample of 330 signals, containing 165 US voice and 165 non-US voice, is analyzed. By comparison, k-nearest neighbors yield the highest average test accuracy, after using a cross-validation of size 500, and least time being used in the computation.展开更多
Immensely intensive cross-border trade in China has brought English to an unprecedentedly crucial status for communication.As a result,great variety of English accents mushroomed,which often baffles English learners.T...Immensely intensive cross-border trade in China has brought English to an unprecedentedly crucial status for communication.As a result,great variety of English accents mushroomed,which often baffles English learners.The thesis analyzes the English accents issue,World Englishes,in China under the guidance of communicative approach from three perspectives to show the definite necessity of involving accents in English listening teaching for the sake of achieving communicative efficiency and increasing multicultural awareness.Besides,some possibles methods have been brought up for the practical teaching process.展开更多
There is a hot debate in linguistics and second language acquisition over the extent to which the ability to acquire a second language is naturally connected with age.This article explores whether one's age at whi...There is a hot debate in linguistics and second language acquisition over the extent to which the ability to acquire a second language is naturally connected with age.This article explores whether one's age at which he begins to learn a second language is a contributing factor in his accent.With contrastive analysis,the article comes to the conclusion that it is rare for late learners to have a native-like accent.展开更多
Chinese has many different languages,Speakers use standard Chinese,but sound differently. This paper discusses the negative transfer of Zhashui accent,so as to introduce the affect on English pronunciation for this st...Chinese has many different languages,Speakers use standard Chinese,but sound differently. This paper discusses the negative transfer of Zhashui accent,so as to introduce the affect on English pronunciation for this students in middle school.展开更多
Let＇s suppose we were in the early Twentieth Century, trying to answer the ques- tion： What will be the mostimportant things that will happen in this century？ You may think about the ＂rise of the United States,＂ ...Let＇s suppose we were in the early Twentieth Century, trying to answer the ques- tion： What will be the mostimportant things that will happen in this century？ You may think about the ＂rise of the United States,＂ or the long-lived British Empire. The development of new energy might have come to mind as well. However, you may neither have imagined the invention of nuclear weapons, nor the development of space technol- ogy. Few may have anticipated the establishment of communist regimes and the rise of democracy later.展开更多
To investigate how a low tone （tone-3, T3） syllable in Chinese can be perceived to be focal accented or not, a total of 156 sentences containing tone-3 words were synthesized and used as stimuli in a perceptual stud...To investigate how a low tone （tone-3, T3） syllable in Chinese can be perceived to be focal accented or not, a total of 156 sentences containing tone-3 words were synthesized and used as stimuli in a perceptual study. The sentences differed in the falling value between the two high pitches, and in the duration and phonation types of the T3 syllables. Thirty-nine subjects were asked to judge where the focus or accent was for each sentence. The results show that at least three degrees of pitch drop are involved in the focus recognition： a big sized drop of about 10 semitones; a middle sized drop of about 6 semitones; a small sized drop of about 2 semitones. The results suggest that the three sizes of pitch drop have different indications in Chinese intonation, depending on both the tone and the tone combination. In perception, there are various ways to realize tone-3 focus in the Tx-T3-Ty sentences series, but in production or for text-to-speech synthesis, the rule simply is making a middle sized pitch drop with a long and creaky T3 syllable. Similarly, to focus on the low tone syllable in the T3-Tx-Ty sentences, a creaky T3 syllable is essential. However, a long T3 syllable is a strong determinant for a low tone focus in the Tx-Ty-T3 sentences.展开更多
Articulatory features describe how articulators are involved in making sounds.Speakers often use a more exaggerated way to pronounce accented phonemes,so articulatory features can be helpful in pitch accent detection....Articulatory features describe how articulators are involved in making sounds.Speakers often use a more exaggerated way to pronounce accented phonemes,so articulatory features can be helpful in pitch accent detection.Instead of using the actual articulatory features obtained by direct measurement of articulators,we use the posterior probabilities produced by multi-layer perceptrons(MLPs) as articulatory features.The inputs of MLPs are frame-level acoustic features pre-processed using the split temporal context-2(STC-2) approach.The outputs are the posterior probabilities of a set of articulatory attributes.These posterior probabilities are averaged piecewise within the range of syllables and eventually act as syllable-level articulatory features.This work is the first to introduce articulatory features into pitch accent detection.Using the articulatory features extracted in this way,together with other traditional acoustic features,can improve the accuracy of pitch accent detection by about 2%.展开更多
文摘The globalization and nativization processes of English resulted in the appearance of a large number of regional varieties of English. Concerning their accent between the single norm theory and the multiple norm differences, there has always been a debate theory. This paper argues against the ＇standard-nonstandard＇ classification of English accents upheld by the former, and revises the concept of ＇the three concentric circles of English＇ proposed by the latter, providing some helpful tips on the current instruction of listening and speaking in China＇s colleges and universities.
文摘Since"it is impossible to speak English without an accent"(Wardhaugh 1998: 43), English accent has been attached first importance to both native and non-native speakers. This study aims to explore teenagers' understanding and attitudes toward differing English accents by investigating 19 international high school students' preferences toward five English audio samples(the same materials with different accents) in Chingmai International School, Thailand. On the basis of five audio samples and respondents' self-reported answers, the results show that British English, instead of"powerful"American English, emerges as the preferred accent. The results also indicate that the need to understand both accented and non-accented English is required for EFLs. Finally, teaching implications concerning pronunciation teaching in EFL classrooms are also put forward.
文摘Perceptual Objective Listening Quality Assessment (POLQA) and Perceptual <span>Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) are commonly used objective standards for evaluating speech quality. These methods were developed and trained on native </span>speakers’ speech sequences of some western languages. One can then wonder how these methods perform if they are applied to other languages or if the<span> speaker is non-native. This paper deals with the evaluation of PESQ and POLQA </span>on languages that were not been considered when setting up these methods, with emphasis on Moore and Dioula, two local languages of Burkina Faso. <span>Another aspect is the evaluation of these two methods in the case of non-native speakers. For this purpose, in the one hand, the Mean Opinion Score-Listening Quality Objective (MOS-LQO) of PESQ and POLQA, computed for Moore and Dioula, are compared to those of French and English. On the second hand, the </span><span>MOS-LQO scores of French and English are compared for native and</span><span> non-native speakers, to evaluate the effect of the accent of speakers.</span>
文摘The foreign accent syndrome(FAS) is a rare speech disorder, characterised by the appearance of a new accent, different from the speaker's native language and perceived as foreign by others. In the majority of patients, FAS is secondary to focal brain damage caused by stroke or other neurological disorders. Infrequently, FAS has been reported in association with psychiatric disorders, including dissociative or conversion disorders. The case of a young woman with recurrent episodes of speaking with a foreign accent is described. Repeated neurological examinations, imaging and electroencephalography did not reveal any brain abnormality. However, there was a history of a difficult childhood, alcohol dependence in the father, parental discord, alleged sexual abuse in the past, interpersonal difficulties and parental death. Episodes were precipitated by stressful life circumstances and resolved spontaneously, or with supportive treatment. She had additional "suspect" symptoms such as non-epileptic seizures, aphonia and motor paralysis. All these features indicated that a dissociative disorder was involved in the genesis of her FAS. The influence of external factors such as the media was unclear. Generally biological factors have been implicated in the onset of FAS, but the presentation in this young woman suggests that psychological factors such as personality, trauma, stressful life events and psychiatric disorder; familial factors such as parental discord and parental death and family conflicts; and, social factors such the possible influence of the media may also be involved in the production of foreign accents by patients.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.60736029,30870655, and 30525030
文摘The effect of intensity accents on detection of temporal irregularities is investigated in a 3×3 behavior experiment with independent variables of inter-onset-interval （IOI） length and intensity. In a 5-beat isochronous sequence, both the length of the third IOI and the intensity of succeeding beat are manipulated to three different levels separately （IOI length： longer Llo, shorter Lsh, or standard Lst. Intensity： louder Ilo, softer Iso, or standard Ist）. Subjects are required to discriminate the third IOI length with different responses respectively. The discrimination sensitivity index （d′） and response criterion （C） are assessed simultaneously for each stimulus condition. Statistical analysis reveals an asymmetric effect of intensity accents on detection of IOI deviations in an isochronous sequence, i.e. the loud accent mainly reduces the sensitivity for both shorter and standard IOIs, and the soft accent might introduce a disturbance into the temporal perception, especially in the detection of the short IOIs. Importantly, when preceding a louder accent, the short IOIs are significantly difficult to detect than the long ones, as consistent with the compensation hypothesis.
文摘An algorithm involving Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) is provided to perform signal feature extraction for the task of speaker accent recognition. Then different classifiers are compared based on the MFCC feature. For each signal, the mean vector of MFCC matrix is used as an input vector for pattern recognition. A sample of 330 signals, containing 165 US voice and 165 non-US voice, is analyzed. By comparison, k-nearest neighbors yield the highest average test accuracy, after using a cross-validation of size 500, and least time being used in the computation.
文摘Immensely intensive cross-border trade in China has brought English to an unprecedentedly crucial status for communication.As a result,great variety of English accents mushroomed,which often baffles English learners.The thesis analyzes the English accents issue,World Englishes,in China under the guidance of communicative approach from three perspectives to show the definite necessity of involving accents in English listening teaching for the sake of achieving communicative efficiency and increasing multicultural awareness.Besides,some possibles methods have been brought up for the practical teaching process.
文摘There is a hot debate in linguistics and second language acquisition over the extent to which the ability to acquire a second language is naturally connected with age.This article explores whether one's age at which he begins to learn a second language is a contributing factor in his accent.With contrastive analysis,the article comes to the conclusion that it is rare for late learners to have a native-like accent.
文摘Chinese has many different languages,Speakers use standard Chinese,but sound differently. This paper discusses the negative transfer of Zhashui accent,so as to introduce the affect on English pronunciation for this students in middle school.
文摘Let＇s suppose we were in the early Twentieth Century, trying to answer the ques- tion： What will be the mostimportant things that will happen in this century？ You may think about the ＂rise of the United States,＂ or the long-lived British Empire. The development of new energy might have come to mind as well. However, you may neither have imagined the invention of nuclear weapons, nor the development of space technol- ogy. Few may have anticipated the establishment of communist regimes and the rise of democracy later.
基金the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (No. HBK01-05/17)
文摘To investigate how a low tone （tone-3, T3） syllable in Chinese can be perceived to be focal accented or not, a total of 156 sentences containing tone-3 words were synthesized and used as stimuli in a perceptual study. The sentences differed in the falling value between the two high pitches, and in the duration and phonation types of the T3 syllables. Thirty-nine subjects were asked to judge where the focus or accent was for each sentence. The results show that at least three degrees of pitch drop are involved in the focus recognition： a big sized drop of about 10 semitones; a middle sized drop of about 6 semitones; a small sized drop of about 2 semitones. The results suggest that the three sizes of pitch drop have different indications in Chinese intonation, depending on both the tone and the tone combination. In perception, there are various ways to realize tone-3 focus in the Tx-T3-Ty sentences series, but in production or for text-to-speech synthesis, the rule simply is making a middle sized pitch drop with a long and creaky T3 syllable. Similarly, to focus on the low tone syllable in the T3-Tx-Ty sentences, a creaky T3 syllable is essential. However, a long T3 syllable is a strong determinant for a low tone focus in the Tx-Ty-T3 sentences.
基金Project(Nos.61370034,61273268,and 61005019) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
文摘Articulatory features describe how articulators are involved in making sounds.Speakers often use a more exaggerated way to pronounce accented phonemes,so articulatory features can be helpful in pitch accent detection.Instead of using the actual articulatory features obtained by direct measurement of articulators,we use the posterior probabilities produced by multi-layer perceptrons(MLPs) as articulatory features.The inputs of MLPs are frame-level acoustic features pre-processed using the split temporal context-2(STC-2) approach.The outputs are the posterior probabilities of a set of articulatory attributes.These posterior probabilities are averaged piecewise within the range of syllables and eventually act as syllable-level articulatory features.This work is the first to introduce articulatory features into pitch accent detection.Using the articulatory features extracted in this way,together with other traditional acoustic features,can improve the accuracy of pitch accent detection by about 2%.
