Geoffrey Schwartz

Word boundaries in L2 speech: Evidence from Polish learners of English

Acoustic and perceptual studies investgate B2-level Polish learners’ acquisition of second language (L2) English word-boundaries involving word-initial vowels. In production, participants were less likely to produce glottalization of phrase-medial initial vowels in L2 English than in first language (L1) Polish. Perception studies employing word monitoring and word counting tasks found that glottalization of word-initial vowels had a negligible impact on the processing of L2 word boundaries. Taken together, these experiments suggest that B2-level learners are relatively successful in acquiring word-boundary linking processes that are for the most part absent from L1 Polish, and challenge the notion of an L2 ‘Word Integrity’ constraint. The cross-language interactions observed in these experiments are compatible with the claim that the realization of word-initial vowels is governed by a representational parameter, which may be derived in the Onset Prominence framework.

Spectral Dynamics in L1 and L2 Vowel Perception

Abstract This paper presents a study of L1 and L2 vowel perception by Polish learners of English. Employing the Silent Center paradigm (e.g. Strange et al. 1983), by which listeners are presented with different portions of a vowel, a force choice identification task was carried out. Due to differences in the vowel systems of the two languages, it was hypothesized that stimulus type should have minimal effects for L1 Polish vowel perception since Polish vowels are relatively stable in quality. In L2 English, depending on proficiency level, listeners were expected to adopt a more dynamic approach to vowel identification and show higher accuracy rates on the SC tokens. That is, listeners were expected to attend more to dynamic formant cues, or vowel inherent spectral change (VISC; see e.g. Morrison and Assmann 2013) in vowel perception. Results for identification accuracy for the most part were consistent with these hypotheses. Implications of VISC for the notion of cross-language phonetic similarity, crucial to models of L2 speech acquisition, are also discussed.

Vowel Dynamics for Polish Learners of English

Vowels in most native varieties of English are characterized by dynamic changes in formant frequencies, an acoustic feature that has been found to be crucial for L1 listeners in vowel identification. By contrast, the acoustic realization of vowels in Polish is characterized by more stable formant patters. This paper presents an acoustic and perceptual study investigating the consequences of these differences for Polish learners of English. Acoustic data reveal that learners at a higher level of proficiency produce more robust formant dynamics. A listening test with L1 English listeners revealed that more dynamic vowel realizations are associated with higher ratings on a scale of foreign accentedness. The cross-language differences may be explained from the perspective of the Onset Prominence model, a theory of phonological representation in which certain ‘phonetic details’ may be attributed to phonological parameter settings.

Stop Release in Polish English — Implications for Prosodic Constituency

Abstract Although there is little consensus on the relevance of non-contrastive allophonic processes in L2 speech acquisition, EFL pronunciation textbooks cover the suppression of stop release in coda position. The tendency for held stops in English is in stark opposition to a number of other languages, including Polish, in which plosive release is obligatory. This paper presents phonetic data on the acquisition of English unreleased stops by Polish learners. Results show that in addition to showing a tendency for the target language pattern of unreleased plosives, advanced learners may acquire more native-like VC formant transitions. From the functional perspective, languages with unreleased stops may be expected to have robust formant patterns on the final portion of the preceding vowel, which allow listeners to identify the final consonant when it lacks an audible release burst (see e.g. Wright 2004). From the perspective of syllabic positions, it may be said that ‘coda’ stops are obligatorily released in Polish, yet may be unreleased in English. Thus, the traditional term ‘coda’ is insufficient to describe the prosodic properties of post-vocalic stops in Polish and English. These differences may be captured in the Onset Prominence framework (Schwartz 2013). In languages with unreleased stops, the mechanism of submersion places post-vocalic stops at the bottom of the representational hierarchy where they may be subject to weakening. Submersion produces larger prosodic constituents and thus has phonological consequences beyond ‘coda’ behavior.

Initial glottalization and final devoicing in polish English

Abstract This paper presents an acoustic study of the speech of Polish leaners of English. The experiment was concerned with English sequences of the type George often, in which a word-final voiced obstruent was followed by a word-initial vowel. Acoustic measurements indicated the degree to which learners transferred Polish-style glottalization on word-initial vowels into their L2 speech. Temporal parameters associated with the production of final voiced obstruents in English were also measured. The results suggest that initial glottalization may be a contributing factor to final devoicing errors. Adopting English-style ‘liaison’ in which the final obstruent is syllabified as an onset to the initial vowel is argued to be a useful goal for English pronunciation syllabi. The implications of the experiment for phonological theory are also discussed. A hierarchical view of syllabic structures proposed in the Onset Prominence environment allows for the non-arbitrary representation of word boundaries in both Polish and English.

Dynamic Targets in the Acquisition of L2 English Vowels

Abstract This paper presents acoustic data on the dynamic properties of the FLEECE and TRAP vowels in the speech of two groups of Polish users of English. Results reveal that the more proficient group users, made up of teachers and professors with professional-level proficiency in English, produce more dramatic patterns of formant movement, reminiscent of native productions, than first year students. It is argued that vowel inherent spectral change (VISC) is an inherent aspect of English phonology, originated in interactions between vowels and neighboring consonants, and later generalized to the vowel system as a whole. By contrast, Polish is a language with a minimal role of VISC. Consequently, successful acquisition of L2 English vowels involves not only the mastery of vowels in F1- F2 space, but also formant trajectories over time.

Monitoring English Sandhi Linking – A Study of Polish Listeners’ L2 Perception

Abstract This paper presents a set of word monitoring experiments with Polish learners of English. Listeners heard short recordings of native English speech, and were instructed to respond when they recognized an English target word that had been presented on a computer screen. Owing to phonological considerations, we compared reaction times to two types of vowel-initial words, which had been produced either with glottalization, or had been joined via sandhi linking processes to the preceding word. Results showed that the effects of the glottalization as a boundary cue were less robust than expected. Implications of these findings for models of L2 speech are discussed. It is suggested that the prevalence of glottalization in L1 production makes listeners less sensitive to its effects as a boundary cue in L2.

Polish listeners’ perception of vowel inherent spectral change in L2 English

Abstract This paper describes a perception experiment with Polish listeners involving vowel inherent spectral change (VISC) in L2 English. A forced-choice rhyming task employing the Silent Center (SC) paradigm revealed relatively uniform effects of stimulus type (SC, Initial, Middle, Final) on accuracy across two proficiency groups, despite greater overall accuracy on the part of the more proficient users. Analysis of individual vowel pairs used in the rhyming trials revealed some effects of proficiency on the degree to which formant movement in the stimuli affected identification accuracy. This research contributes to the relatively sparse literature on VISC in L2 acquisition. Phonological considerations underlying the degree of VISC in Polish and English are also discussed.

Perception of Allophonic Cues to English Word Boundaries by Polish Learners: Approximant Devoicing in English

Abstract The study investigates the perception of devoicing of English /w, r, j, l/ after /p, t, k/ as a word-boundary cue by Polish listeners. Polish does not devoice sonorants following voiceless stops in word-initial positions. As a result, Polish learners are not made sensitive to sonorant devoicing as a segmentation cue. Higher-proficiency and lower-proficiency Polish learners of English participated in the task in which they recognised phrases such as buy train vs. bite rain or pie plot vs. pipe lot. The analysis of accuracy scores revealed that successful segmentation was only above chance level, indicating that sonorant voicing/devoicing cue was largely unattended to in identifying the boundary location. Moreover, higher proficiency did not lead to more successful segmentation. The analysis of reaction times showed an unclear pattern in which higher-proficiency listeners segmented the test phrases faster but not more accurately than lower-proficiency listeners. Finally, #CS sequences were recognised more accurately than C#S sequences, which was taken to suggest that the listeners may have had some limited knowledge that devoiced sonorants appear only in word-initial positions, but they treated voiced sonorants as equal candidates for word-final and word-initial positions.

Phonological Factors Affecting L1 Phonetic Realization of Proficient Polish Users of English

Abstract Acoustic phonetic studies examine the L1 of Polish speakers with professional level proficiency in English. The studies include two tasks, a production task carried out entirely in Polish and a phonetic code-switching task in which speakers insert target Polish words or phrases into an English carrier. Additionally, two phonetic parameters are studied: the oft-investigated VOT, as well as glottalization vs. sandhi linking of word-initial vowels. In monolingual Polish mode, L2 interference was observed for the VOT parameter, but not for sandhi linking. It is suggested that this discrepancy may be related to the differing phonological status of the two phonetic parameters. In the code-switching tasks, VOTs were on the whole more English-like than in monolingual mode, but this appeared to be a matter of individual performance. An increase in the rate of sandhi linking in the code-switches, except for the case of one speaker, appeared to be a function of accelerated production of L1 target items.