Second language vowel perception.

Raters’ Perception and Expertise in Evaluating Second Language Compositions

The consideration of rater training is very important in construct validation of a writing test because it is through training that raters are adapted to the use of students’ writing ability instead of their own criteria for assessing compositions (Charney, 1984). However, although training has been discussed in the literature of writing assessment, there is little research regarding raters’ pe...

Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training: Target- ing Second Language Vowel Perception Improves Pronunciation

This paper first provides an overview of factors that constrain ultimate attainment in adult second language (L2) pronunciation, finding that first language influence and the quantity and quality of L2 phonetic input account for much of the variation in the degree of foreign accent found across adult L2 learners. The author then evaluates current approaches to computer assisted pronunciation tr...

The Perception-Production Relationship in the Acquisition of Second Language Vowel Contrasts

Auditory and categorical effects on cross-language vowel perception.

English monolinguals and native Spanish speakers of English rated the dissimilarity of tokens of two Spanish vowel categories, two English vowel categories, or one Spanish and one English vowel category. The dissimilarity ratings of experienced and inexperienced Spanish subjects did not differ significantly. For both the native Spanish and English subjects, perceived dissimilarity increased as ...

Say 'aaaaa' - Interactive vowel practice for second language learning

This paper reports on a system created to help language students learn the vowel inventory of Swedish. Formants are tracked, and a 3D ball moves over a vowel-chart canvas in real time. Target spheres are placed at the target values of vowels, and the students’ task is to get the target spheres. A calibration process of capturing data from three cardinal vowels is used to normalize the effects o...