This paper reports data from a pilot project that is part of an ongoing study investigating the second-language (L2) acquisition of phonemic contrasts. Our focus will be on the acquisition of the English /s/ /š/ contrast by native speakers of Japanese and Korean. These native language backgrounds were chosen because Japanese and Korean employ the sounds in question as allophones of the same pho...

Abstract Our study proposes the use of a free classification task for investigating dimensions used by listeners in their perception nonnative sounds and predicting perceptual discriminability contrasts. In task, participants freely group auditory stimuli based on perceived similarity. The results can be to predict compared various acoustic or phonological determine relevant cues listeners. via...

In this study, we used magnetoencephalography and a mismatch paradigm to investigate speech processing in stroke patients with auditory comprehension deficits and age-matched control subjects. We probed connectivity within and between the two temporal lobes in response to phonemic (different word) and acoustic (same word) oddballs using dynamic causal modelling. We found stronger modulation of ...

Perceptual discrimination between speech sounds belonging to different phoneme categories is better than that between sounds falling within the same category. This property, known as "categorical perception," is weaker in children affected by dyslexia. Categorical perception develops from the predispositions of newborns for discriminating all potential phoneme categories in the world's language...

The voice less a f fricate/ fricate distinction has figured prominently in current theorizing about speech perception. Two classes of perceptual theory have drawn support from it. First are the natural auditory sensitivities theories in which phonemic categories are thought to be based on simple acoustic properties the rise time of the frication noise in the case of voiceless affricate/fricativ...

This paper describes two studies of 19 young-adult speakers of American English in which measures were made of: (a) phoneme contrast – articulatory distance between vowels in each of two vowel pairs and acoustic distance between the sibilants /s/ and //, (b) auditory discrimination of tokens from synthetic vowel and sibilant continua, and (c) contact of the tongue tip with the lower incisors f...

We examine how native lexical-tone experience influences identification of novel tone. Cantonese, Thai, Mandarin, and Yoruba listeners identified CV syllables bearing the six phonemic Cantonese tones. Overall tone accuracy scores and tone-error patterns were assessed. Consistent with previous reports, native listeners’ perception reflected effects of ongoing tonal mergers and acoustic similarit...

objectives: phonemic awareness skills have a significant impact on children speech and language. the purpose of this study was investigating the phonemic awareness skills of children with cochlear implant and normal hearing peers in primary school. methods: phonemic awareness subscales of phonological awareness test were administered to 30 children with cochlear implantation at the first to six...

This study investigated the role of speech perception accuracy and speed in fluent word decoding of reading disabled (RD) children. A same-different phoneme discrimination task with natural speech tested the perception of single consonants and consonant clusters by young but persistent RD children. RD children were slower than chronological age (CA) controls in recognizing identical sounds, sug...