CASL: Computer-Assisted Sound Learning for Greek learners of English: Effects on perception and articulation of conversational speech

Grant period: March 2012-March 2015
Grant award: 115,000€
Principal Investigator: Angelos Lengeris
Scientific advisor: Katerina Nicolaidis

Overview

Adults often have difficulty acquiring second language (L2) sounds. Research has shown that a short period of computer-based perceptual training using the High-Variability Phonetic Training approach (identification training with feedback using natural stimuli spoken by multiple talkers) can improve the perception of L2 sounds and that perceptual learning not only generalizes beyond stimuli and talkers heard in training but also transfers to the domain of production (e.g. Lambacher et al., 2005 for vowels; Bradlow et al., 1997 for consonants). Previous training studies have mostly assessed perception using isolated syllables/words and we are still lacking studies showing the effect of training on L2 speech produced in communicative situations.

The CASL project will train one group of Greek speakers on English vowels and another on English consonants using the same training stimuli. Our goal is to test whether the two groups (vowel-attending group and consonant-attending group) will improve not only in the type of sounds they attend to (vowels and consonants respectively) but also in the type of sounds they listen but not attend to (consonants and vowels respectively). Further, we will examine whether any improvement transfers to English vowel and consonant production in sentence and spontaneous speech materials. The research findings will explore the role of attention in phonetic learning and provide new insights into the relationship between L2 speech perception and production.

Objectives and methods

Study 1
Study 1 will identify those English consonants that pose difficulties for Greek learners of English and will be appropriate for the computer-based training since, apart from impressionistic data and general predictions based on a phonemic comparison of the two consonant systems (e.g. English has both alveolar and postalveolar fricatives while Greek has only alveolar ones which makes it difficult for Greek speakers to differentiate and produce the two places of articulation), there are no experimental studies in the literature examining the identification and production of the full set of English consonants by Greek speakers. In addition, our participants will complete a battery of perception tasks (e.g. frequency discrimination, Phonological Short-term Memory, perceptual assimilation to L1 categories) in an attempt to explore sources of individual differences in their performance.

Study 2
Study 2 will train Greek speakers on English vowels and consonants using the High-Variability Phonetic Training approach. Pre- and post-training tasks will examine the perception and production of English consonants and vowels. L2 perception will be tested using an identification task with English sentences containing the target vowels and consonants. L2 production will be tested by recording participants (a) reading sentences containing the target vowels and consonants and (b) producing spontaneous speech containing the target vowels and consonants. To elicit spontaneous speech, we will use a variant of a recently-developed method for obtaining spontaneous laboratory-quality speech containing specific words of interest whereby participants perform a ‘spot the difference task’ (Van Engen et al., 2010; Baker and Hazan, 2009). Participants’ production will be assessed using acoustic, perceptual and articulatory (EPG) measures.

Project News

2014
Dr Angelos Lengeris will give a talk as part of a two-day seminar on “Acoustic, articulatory and phonological analyses” to be held on the 19th and 20th of June at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The seminar is organized for the research purposes of the THALIS project "VOCALECT Vowels of Greek dialects: phonetic and phonological analysis, dialect index construction, and diffusion of results through educational material" (PI: Mary Baltatzani, University of Ioannina).

Angelos Lengeris will present a paper entitled “English consonant confusions by Greek listeners in quiet and noise and the role of phonological short-term memory” at the 15th Interspeech to be held in Singapore in September 14-18 2014.

Angelos Lengeris will present a paper entitled “Phonological short-term memory and perception of L2 English consonants in quiet and noise by Greek listeners” at the 24th EUROSLA to be held in York in September 3-6 2014.

2013
Angelos Lengeris presented a paper entitled “Greek consonant confusions by native listeners in quiet and noise” at the 11th International Conference on Greek Linguistics to be held in Rhodes in September 26-29 2013.

Angelos Lengeris presented a paper entitled “The identification of English consonants by Greek listeners in quiet and noise” at the 21st International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics to be held in Thessaloniki in April 5-7 2013.

Conference presentations and publications

Lengeris, A. and Nicolaidis, K. (accepted). English consonant confusions by Greek listeners in quiet and noise and the role of phonological short-term memory. Proceedings of Interspeech 2014, Singapore.

Lengeris, A. and Nicolaidis, K. (submitted). The identification of English consonants by Greek listeners in quiet and noise. Proceedings of the 21st International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Lengeris, A. and Nicolaidis, K. (submitted). Greek consonant confusions by native listeners in quiet and noise. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Greek Linguistics, Rhodes, Greece.

Lengeris, A. and Nicolaidis, K. Phonological short-term memory and perception of L2 English consonants in quiet and noise by Greek listeners. Oral presentation to be given at the EUROSLA 2014, York.

The research project is implemented within the framework of the Action «Supporting Postdoctoral Researchers» of the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" (Action’s Beneficiary: General Secretariat for Research and Technology), and is co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Greek State.