Prosodic Position in Cross Language Perception and Production

Indiana University, Bloomington IN

Investigators

Abstract

Most people have the remarkable ability to produce speech sounds at a very high rate of speed, and also to be able to identify the speech sound others are making and to relate them to the complex system of a language. Even more astounding, the majority of speakers in the world can do this in two different languages; they can flexibly talk and listen using often very different linguistic systems. To understand how this is accomplished, Dr. Kenneth de Jong and a research team will examine how Koreans produce and perceive consonants in English and how their developing skills relate to other skills having to do with language structure. These tasks require them to identify and produce the sounds, and to be able to break up English utterances into syllables and to determine where stress lies. Their abilities in doing these tasks will tell us how tightly connected the various perception, motor, and classification skills are related to each other. The research group will also determine how their English perception skills rely on their Korean perception skills by having them classify the English sounds with Korean labels. Put together, these studies will show how the various skills of speaking, listening, and generalizing fit together in the learning of a second language. The research project will make a significant contribution to the fields of second language acquisition and of phonetics by examining a number of different perception and production abilities in a good sampling of the English consonant system. Most previous studies examine small numbers of different segments and rarely examine production and perception skills in the same individuals. This project will particularly determine how systematic effects found for one set of sounds are across the larger system. It will also systematically determine the effect of prosodic organization on both production and perception skills. The second language acquirers, since they are in the process of rapid change, give a window into the structure of speaking and perception skills, and how they relate to each other.