DATE: Monday, December 3
TIME: 1:00 PM
PLACE: LIB 2020

TITLE: Acoustic Cues Used by Learners of English

Second language (L2) learners must acquire the ability to use word-boundary cues to segment continuous speech into meaningful words. Previous studies have used two types of s+stop clusters to test L2 English speakers on their ability to segment fluent English speech: cross-boundary clusters (this table) where allophonic aspiration is present and word-initial clusters (this stable) where allophonic aspiration is absent. These studies suggested that first language (L1) segmentation strategies influence L2 segmentation. The goal of this study was to test real-time processing of these cluster types by L2 learners from one language where cue adaptation was possible (Mandarin Chinese) and one where a new cue would have to be learned (French). Results suggest that despite being more unsure of their responses, in both accuracy and real-time processing, when segmentation strategies from an L1 line up with those in the L2, learners have an advantage in L2 speech perception.

CHAIR: Dr. Chung-hye Han

SENIOR SUPERVISOR: Dr. Ashley Farris-Trimble

SUPERVISOR: Dr. Henny Yeung

EXTERNAL EXAMINIER: Dr. Molly Babel (UBC)