Phonetic training with acoustic cue manipulations: A comparison of methods for teaching English /r/-/l/ to Japanese adults

Paul Iverson · Valerie L. Hazan · Kerry Bannister

277 citations0/0 files storedThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Phonetics and Phonology Research EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Categorization, perception, and language

Abstract

Recent work [Iverson et al. (2003) Cognition, 87, B47-57] has suggested that Japanese adults have difficulty learning English /r/ and /l/ because they are overly sensitive to acoustic cues that are not reliable for /r/-/l/ categorization (e.g., F2 frequency). This study investigated whether cue weightings are altered by auditory training, and compared the effectiveness of different training techniques. Separate groups of subjects received High Variability Phonetic Training (natural words from multiple talkers), and 3 techniques in which the natural recordings were altered via signal processing (All Enhancement, with F3 contrast maximized and closure duration lengthened; Perceptual Fading, with F3 enhancement reduced during training; and Secondary Cue Variability, with variation in F2 and durations increased during training). The results demonstrated that all of the training techniques improved /r/-/l/ identification by Japanese listeners, but there were no differences between the techniques. Training also altered the use of secondary acoustic cues; listeners became biased to identify stimuli as English /l/ when the cues made them similar to the Japanese /r/ category, and reduced their use of secondary acoustic cues for stimuli that were dissimilar to Japanese /r/. The results suggest that both category assimilation and perceptual interference affect English /r/ and /l/ acquisition.

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References

1986Attention, similarity, and the identification-categorization relationship.1991Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/: A first report 1993Training Japanese listeners to identify English /r/ and /l/. II: The role of phonetic environment and talker variability in learning new perceptual categories 2000A new view of language acquisition 1975An effect of linguistic experience: The discrimination of [r] and [l] by native speakers of Japanese and English 2001Discrimination of non-native consonant contrasts varying in perceptual assimilation to the listener’s native phonological system 1988Examination of perceptual reorganization for nonnative speech contrasts: Zulu click discrimination by English-speaking adults and infants.2002A perceptual interference account of acquisition difficulties for non-native phonemes

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