This paper discusses appropriate application areas for a Natural Language Interface (NLI) to a database. This requires comparing an NLI with competing approaches to interfaces, including (a) other types of user-friendly interfaces, such as icon, menu, or Query By Example (QBE) systems, and (b) training of users so that they become comfortable with less user-friendly interfaces. Also, since NLI ...

PURPOSE To investigate the effect of listener's native language (L1) and the types of noise on English vowel identification in noise. METHOD Identification of 12 English vowels was measured in quiet and in long-term speech-shaped noise and multi-talker babble (MTB) noise for English- (EN), Chinese- (CN) and Korean-native (KN) listeners at various signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). RESULTS Compa...

Bilinguals are better able to perceive speech-in-noise in their native compared to their non-native language. This benefit is thought to be due to greater use of higher-level, linguistic context in the native language. Previous studies showing this have used sentences and do not allow us to determine which level of language contributes to this context benefit. Here, we used a new paradigm that ...

Every language manifests casual speech processes, and hence every second language too. This study examined how listeners deal with second-language casual speech processes, as a function of the processes in their native language. We compared a match case, where a second-language process (/t/-reduction) is also operative in native speech, with a mismatch case, where a second-language process (/r/...

Audiovisual devices such as satellite and conventional televisions can offer easy access to authentic programs which are considered to be a rich source of language input for SLA (Second Language Acquisition). The immediacy of various audiovisual programs ensures that language learners’ exposure is up-to-date and embedded in the real world of native speakers. In the same line, in the present pap...

Foreign-accented speech is generally harder to understand than native-accented speech. This difficulty is reduced for non-native listeners who share their first language with the non-native speaker. It is currently unclear, however, how non-native listeners deal with foreign-accented speech produced by speakers of a different language. We show that the process of (second) language acquisition i...

The significance of error analysis for the learner, the teacher and the researcher is now widely recognized. Earlier studies of error analysis concentrated on intersystematic comparison of the “native language” and the “target language” and drew the required data largely from intuitions and impressionistic observations. This study was conducted on the basis of the following observations: (1) to...

We ask whether an adult learner's knowledge of their native language impedes statistical learning in a new language beyond just word segmentation (as previously shown). In particular, we examine the impact of native-language word-form phonotactics on learners' ability to segment words into their component morphemes and learn phonologically triggered variation of morphemes. We find that learning...

in this study, we investigated the errors native speakers of farsi commit when rating the esl essays, using a many-facet rasch measurement approach. to that end, two native speakers of farsi rated 56 essays which 28 male and female advanced language learners learning farsi as a second language at persian language centre at imam khomeini international university in qazvin, iran wrote on two topi...