Previous work has suggested that learners are sensitive to phonetic similarity when learning phonological patterns (e.g., Steriade, 2001/2008; White, 2014). We tested 12-month-old infants to see if their willingness to generalize newly learned phonological alternations depended on the phonetic similarity of the sounds involved. Infants were exposed to words in an artificial language whose distr...

Non-lexical speech sounds (conversational grunts), such as uh-huh, un-hn, mm, and oh, are common in English. In human dialogs these sounds are important in conversation control and for conveying attitudes. Spoken dialog systems may make use of these sounds to achieve concise, smooth, relaxed interactions. Doing so is, however, a challenge, because most algorithms used in spoken language process...

Mispronunciation is still among the frailties of language learners the world over. The present study reports an all-out investigation into pronunciation training for the Persian-speaking EFL learners at the intermediate level of language proficiency. More specifically, the present study investigated (a) the underlying causes of mispronunciation at the level of segmental features, (b) the crucia...

Previous work has suggested that learners are sensitive to phonetic similarity when learning phonological patterns (e.g., Steriade, 2001/2008; White, 2014). We tested 12-month-old infants to see if their willingness to generalize newly learned phonological alternations depended on the phonetic similarity of the sounds involved. Infants were exposed to words in an artificial language whose distr...

Abstract In his study of Arabic phonetics, Asbāb ḥudūṯ al-ḥurūf (The Causes the Genesis Consonants), Ibn Sīnā briefly surveys some speech sounds found in languages other than Arabic, among them one particular to Khwarizmian, an Iranian language attested primarily glosses manuscripts 13th century. This attempts elucidate sound describes both through reference own system phonetic terminology and ...

Unattended learning of speech components 1 ! Short title: Unattended learning of speech components Unattended exposure to components of speech sounds yields same benefits as explicit auditory training Unattended learning of speech components 2 ! Abstract Learning a second language as an adult is particularly effortful when new phonetic representations must be formed. Therefore the processes tha...

In the study of language acquisition, a key question involves the representations that infants use while processing speech and learning phonology. Precise representations for specific sounds are crucial when the infant starts putting together a lexicon, since minimal distinctions can cue differences in meaning. In the process of language acquisition, infants must also learn constraints on the p...

Theoretical models argue that listeners’ perception of second language sounds is heavily influenced by their native language phonology, a prediction borne out by behavioural studies. However, we lack quantitative models capable of making more precise predictions of the way in which the first and second language sound systems interact. The current study introduces a computational modelling frame...