不同方言背景下中国学生对英语双元音的感知研究

二语语音习得研究表明母语(方言)对二语语音习得影响很大,二语学习者在习得二语语音时会把母语中的音素、声调等迁移到二语当中。基于此,利用母语迁移理论,对不同方言背景下中国学习者的英语双元音感知进行数据采集和分析,发现学习者在英语双元音学习中因母语干扰而形成了语音感知盲点,并据此提出,在教学中,教师应结合本地方言与英语音系进行对比分析,有针对性地帮助学生尽快建构较稳定的二语音系。     

Referential Labeling Can Facilitate Phonetic Learning in Infancy

All languages employ certain phonetic contrasts when distinguishing words. Infant speech perception is rapidly attuned to these contrasts before many words are learned, thus phonetic attunement is thought to proceed independently of lexical and referential knowledge. Here, evidence to the contrary is provided. Ninety‐eight 9‐month‐old English‐learning infants were trained to perceive a non‐native Cantonese tone contrast. Two object–tone audiovisual pairings were consistently presented, which highlighted the target contrast (Object A with Tone X; Object B with Tone Y). Tone discrimination was then assessed. Results showed improved tone discrimination if object–tone pairings were perceived as being referential word labels, although this effect was modulated by vocabulary size. Results suggest how lexical and referential knowledge could play a role in phonetic attunement.     

Language specific speech perception and the onset of reading

In two studies the relationship between theonset of reading and language specific speechperception, the degree to which native speechperception is superior to non-native speechperception, was investigated. In Experiment 1with children of 4, 6, and 8 years, languagespecific speech perception occurred maximallyat 6 years and was positively related toreading ability for age and languagecomprehension level. In Experiment 2, with anexpanded range of ages and various stimulus andtask changes, the relationship between readingand language specific speech perception stillheld, and maximal language specific speechperception occurred around the onset of readinginstruction for three different sets of speechcontrasts, but not for a control set ofnon-speech contrasts. The results show thatlanguage specific speech perception is alinguistic rather than an acoustic phenomenon.Results are discussed in terms of early speechperception abilities, experience with oralcommunication, cognitive ability, readingability, alphabetic versus logographiclanguages, phonics versus whole word readinginstruction, and the effect of age versusinstruction.     

Reading fluency and speech perception speed of beginning readers with persistent reading problems: the perception of initial stop consonants and consonant clusters

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, suggesting less distinct phonemic categories. In addition, after controlling for phonetic similarity Tallal’s (Brain Lang 9:182–198, 1980) fast transitions account of RD children’s speech perception problems was contrasted with Studdert-Kennedy’s (Read Writ Interdiscip J 15:5–14, 2002) similarity explanation. Results showed no specific RD deficit in perceiving fast transitions. Both phonetic similarity and fast transitions influenced accurate speech perception for RD children as well as CA controls.     

Cognitive and Linguistic Precursors to Early Literacy Achievement in Children With Specific Language Impairment

This study investigated the role of cognitive and language skills as predictors of early literacy skills in children with Specific Language Impairment. A range of cognitive and linguistic skills were assessed in a sample of 137 eight-year-old children with SLI at the beginning of the school year, and 6 months later on word decoding and reading comprehension. The cognitive and linguistic measures revealed four factors that were called language, speech, short-term memory, and phonological awareness. Structural equation modeling showed word decoding to be predicted by speech, short-term memory, and phonological awareness, whereas reading comprehension was predicted by word decoding skills and short-term memory. It can be concluded that in children with SLI variations in early word decoding are mostly determined by speech abilities and short-term memory, and to a lesser extent by phonological awareness. Moreover, reading comprehension turns out to be highly dependent on word decoding and short-term memory.     

Perception of suprasegmental features of speech by children with cochlear implants and children with hearing AIDS

This study assessed perception of suprasegmental features of speech by 30 prelingual children with sensorineural hearing loss. Ten children had cochlear implants (CIs), and 20 children wore hearing aids (HA): 10 with severe hearing loss and 10 with profound hearing loss. Perception of intonation, syllable stress, word emphasis, and word pattern was assessed. Results revealed that the two HA groups significantly outperformed the CI group in perceiving both intonation and stress. Within each group, word pattern was perceived best, and then intonation and emphasis, with syllable stress perceived poorest. No significant correlation emerged between age at implantation and perception of the various suprasegmental features, possibly due to participants' relatively late age at implantation. Results indicated that CI use did not show an advantage over HA use in the perception of suprasegmental features of speech. Future research should continue to explore variables that might improve this perception.     

Individual differences in late bilinguals' L2 phonological processes: From acoustic-phonetic analysis to lexical access

The extent to which the phonetic system of a second language is mastered varies across individuals. The present study evaluates the pattern of individual differences in late bilinguals across different phonological processes. Fifty-five late Dutch-English bilinguals were tested on their ability to perceive a difficult L2 speech contrast (the English /æ/-/ε/ contrast) in three different tasks: A categorization task, a word identification task and a lexical decision task. As a group, L2 listeners were less accurate than native listeners. However, at the individual level, almost half of the L2 listeners scored within the native range in the categorization task whereas a small percentage scored within the native range in the identification and lexical decision tasks. These results show that L2 listeners' performance crucially depends on the nature of the task, with higher L2 listener accuracy on an acoustic-phonetic analysis task than on tasks involving lexical processes. These findings parallel previous results for early bilinguals, where the pattern of performance was consistent with the processing hierarchy proposed by different models of speech perception. The results indicate that the analysis of patterns of non-native performance can provide important insights concerning the architecture of the speech perception system and the issue of language learnability.     

言语感知中词汇识别的句子语境效应研究

言语感知遵循音不离词,词不离句的原则。除了语音特征、音位和单词三个感知单元外,句子单元也参与了言语感知的过程。在这一感知过程中,句子语境分别从句法和语义两方面对词汇的识别发生影响。在句法方面,句子层依据句法规则对词汇层产生自上而下的反馈作用,通过词类限制和曲折形态特征核查等方式实现对词汇层上备选单词的筛选;在语义方面,句子层根据语义限制条件对备选单词产生激活或抑制作用。     

General auditory processing,speech perception and phonological awareness skills in Chinese–English biliteracy

This study focused on the associations of general auditory processing, speech perception, phonological awareness and word reading in Cantonese‐speaking children from Hong Kong learning to read both Chinese (first language [L1]) and English (second language [L2]). Children in Grades 2–4 (N=133) participated and were administered measures of IQ, word reading, phonological awareness, speech perception and auditory processing in both L1 and L2. Auditory processing uniquely explained both L1 and L2 word reading. While L1 speech perception accounted for unique variance in L1 word reading, L2 phonological awareness explained unique variance in L2 word reading. In cross‐language comparisons, L1 phonological awareness and speech perception were uniquely associated with L2 word reading, suggesting cross‐language transfer from L1 to L2 only. Results underscore the importance of auditory processing for reading across variable learning contexts.     

Locus and nature of perceptual phonological deficit in Spanish children with reading disabilities

The aims of this study were (a) to determine whether Spanish children with reading disabilities (RD) show a speech perception deficit and (b) to explore the locus and nature of this perceptive deficit. A group of 29 children with RD, 41 chronological age-matched controls, and 27 reading ability-matched younger controls were tested on tasks of speech perception. The effect of linguistic unit (word vs. syllable) and type of phonetic contrast (voicing, place and manner of articulation) were analyzed in terms of the number of errors and the response time. The results revealed a speech perception deficit in Spanish children with RD that was independent of the type of phonetic contrast and of linguistic unit.     

Learning to Match Auditory and Visual Speech Cues: Social Influences on Acquisition of Phonological Categories

Infants' language exposure largely involves face‐to‐face interactions providing acoustic and visual speech cues but also social cues that might foster language learning. Yet, both audiovisual speech information and social information have so far received little attention in research on infants' early language development. Using a preferential looking paradigm, 44 German 6‐month olds' ability to detect mismatches between concurrently presented auditory and visual native vowels was tested. Outcomes were related to mothers' speech style and interactive behavior assessed during free play with their infant, and to infant‐specific factors assessed through a questionnaire. Results show that mothers' and infants' social behavior modulated infants' preference for matching audiovisual speech. Moreover, infants' audiovisual speech perception correlated with later vocabulary size, suggesting a lasting effect on language development.     

Auditory processing,linguistic prosody awareness,and word reading in Mandarin-speaking children learning English

This study examined language-specific links among auditory processing, linguistic prosody awareness, and Mandarin (L1) and English (L2) word reading in 61 Mandarin-speaking, English-learning children. Three auditory discrimination abilities were measured: pitch contour, pitch interval, and rise time (rate of intensity change at tone onset). Linguistic prosody awareness was measured three ways: Mandarin tone perception, English stress perception, and English stress production. A Chinese character recognition task was the Mandarin L1 reading metric. English L2 word reading was assessed by English real word reading and nonword decoding tasks. The importance of the auditory processing measures to reading was different in the two languages. Pitch contour discrimination predicted Mandarin L1 word reading and rise time discrimination predicted English L2 word reading, after controlling for age and nonverbal IQ. For the prosodic and phonological measures, Mandarin tone perception, but not rhyme awareness, predicted Chinese character recognition after controlling for age and nonverbal IQ. In contrast, English rhyme awareness predicted more unique variance in English real word reading and nonword decoding than did English stress perception and production. Linguistic prosody awareness appears to play a more important role in L1 word reading than phonological awareness; while the reverse seems true for English L2 word reading in Mandarin-speaking children. Taken together, auditory processing, language-specific linguistic prosody awareness, and phonological awareness play different roles in L1/L2 reading, reflecting different prosodic and segmental structures between Mandarin and English.     

论模糊限制词在女性言语中的语用功能

模糊限制词是模糊语言中的常见形式,它在人们的言语交际过程中起着重要作用。通过分析模糊限制词在女性言语中的运用及其语用功能,发现女性常常更多地使用模糊限制词,模糊限制词在女性言语中具有疑惑功能、礼貌功能和探索功能。     

口吃发生位置预测研究中的语言因素

对于口吃发病机制和口吃者言语行为表现的研究,有助于揭示语言和脑的关系,了解言语输出过程,并对口吃矫正治疗具有重要意义。本文从起始音、重音、词类和句法等方面介绍了国外学者在预测口吃发生位置的研究中对于语言因素的分析。希望籍此引起国内口吃治疗者和语言研究者对这一领域的关注。     

Early cognitive and behavioral predictors of later performance: a follow-up study of ELBW children from ages 2 to 4

The aim of this study was to examine whether behavioral style and cognitive performance predict cognitive development in ELBW children. The children were assessed at age 2 (40 girls, 41 boys) with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. At age 4 they were assessed with the WPPSI-R, and with the word fluency, visual attention and recognition of incomplete figures subsets of the Finnish Neuropsychological Investigation for Children (NEPSY-R; Korkman et al. 1997). The results indicated that there was stability in cognitive performance from 2 to 4 years of age. Along with cognitive performance, behavioral style, especially orientation-engagement at age 2, was an important predictor of subsequent cognitive performance (WPPSI-R). Significant gender differences were also found. For boys, orientation-engagement factor at time one was the best predictor of subsequent nonverbal cognitive performance, arithmetical abilities and word fluency at time two. In contrast, girls’ cognitive performance measured at the 2-year assessment was the most powerful predictor of nonverbal performance and word fluency at 4 years. As a whole, it seems that behavioral factors merit more consideration in understanding cognitive development than has been thought before.     

When half a word is enough: infants can recognize spoken words using partial phonetic information

Adults process speech incrementally, rapidly identifying spoken words on the basis of initial phonetic information sufficient to distinguish them from alternatives. In this study, infants in the second year also made use of word-initial information to understand fluent speech. The time course of comprehension was examined by tracking infants' eye movements as they looked at pictures in response to familiar spoken words, presented both as whole words in intact form and as partial words in which only the first 300 ms of the word was heard. In Experiment 1, 21-month-old infants (N = 32) recognized partial words as quickly and reliably as they recognized whole words; in Experiment 2, these findings were replicated with 18-month-old infants (N = 32). Combining the data from both experiments, efficiency in spoken word recognition was examined in relation to level of lexical development. Infants with more than 100 words in their productive vocabulary were more accurate in identifying familiar words than were infants with less than 60 words. Grouped by response speed, infants with faster mean reaction times were more accurate in word recognition and also had larger productive vocabularies than infants with slower response latencies. These results show that infants in the second year are capable of incremental speech processing even before entering the vocabulary spurt, and that lexical growth is associated with increased speed and efficiency in understanding spoken language.     

对外汉语词汇教学的文化性和导人

对外汉语教学以词汇教学为要,在词汇教学中又概括了文化、语用等教学要素.如何培养汉语作为第二语言学习者的汉语思维能力,准确地运用汉语进行交际,是本文所要探讨的重点.提高词汇量并掌握组词、构句,是第二语言学习者提高汉语综合能力的根本途径.本文着重阐述词汇语音和语义的教学问题.     

Longitudinal predictors of developmental status and social interaction in premature and full-term infants at age two

This investigation involved the longitudinal assessment of 30 mother-preterm and 40 mother-full-term dyads from birth to 2 years of age. Measures of maternal attitudes, maternal perception of the infant, and parental functioning were obtained at 1 and 8 months of infant age. Mother-infant interactions were observed at 4, 8, 12, and 24 months. Infant cognitive, motor, and language development was assessed at 4, 12, and 24 months. Results indicated that by age 2 years, no group differences were apparent on any child development, mother-child interaction, or maternal attitudinal measures; the lone exception was that preterms were significantly poorer in motor skills. This similarity in functioning at age 2 years was in marked contrast to earlier findings of major group differences at 12 months. Correlational and regression analyses indicated that the developmental and social interaction outcomes were predicted by different factors in the two groups; moreover, whereas 40%-60% of the variance in preterm infants' social and cognitive outcomes could be accounted for, only 15%-30% was accounted for in the full-term group. These results are discussed in terms of compensatory mechanisms that may characterize the parenting of high-risk infants, and of the applicability of transactional models of development.     

Early language development and kindergarten phonological awareness as predictors of reading problems: from 3 to 11 years of age

At the end of Grade 4, 481 children on the Danish island of Bornholm were screened using group tests for sentence reading. For 205 of these children, language and speech data from the speech therapist's screening at age 3 were available, as well as language comprehension and linguistic awareness data from the kindergarten year (age 6) and word decoding measures in Grades 2 and 3. A path analysis revealed significant paths from early language abilities at age 3 through expressive and receptive language in kindergarten via language awareness in kindergarten and word decoding in Grade 2 to sentence reading in Grades 3 and 4. The subgroup of children with parents who had reported a history of reading problems at school entry scored significantly below average on sentence reading in Grade 4. The subgroup of children that were reported to show a very low interest in books and story reading before age 5 also scored low on sentence reading in Grade 4. Statistically significant but weak relationships were also found between parents' educational background, parents' library visits, and number of books at home and the child's reading ability in Grade 4.     

Early literacy and comprehension skills in children learning English as an additional language and monolingual children with language weaknesses

Many children learning English as an additional language (EAL) show reading comprehension difficulties despite adequate decoding. However, the relationship between early language and reading comprehension in this group is not fully understood. The language and literacy skills of 80 children learning English from diverse language backgrounds and 80 monolingual English-speaking peers with language weaknesses were assessed at school entry (mean age = 4 years, 7 months) and after 2 years of schooling in the UK (mean age = 6 years, 3 months). The EAL group showed weaker language skills and stronger word reading than the monolingual group but no difference in reading comprehension. Individual differences in reading comprehension were predicted by variations in decoding and language comprehension in both groups to a similar degree.