Fluency-related Temporal Features and Syllable Prominence as Prosodic Proficiency Predictors for Learners of English with Different Language Backgrounds.
Heini Kallio, Antti Suni, Juraj Šimko
PMID 34479458WHAT IT FOUND
Articulation rate predicted prosodic proficiency better than syllable prominence for learners from four language backgrounds.
Adding prominence measures improved prediction slightly, but the benefit varied by native language. Duration was a key cue for Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian speakers, while pitch was best for Polish speakers.
Key findings
01Articulation rate had stronger predictive power for prosodic proficiency than syllable-level prominence measures.
02Statistical models combining temporal measures with prominence-based measures explained assessment results significantly better than models using temporal measures alone.
03Duration was the best predictive prominence feature for Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian speakers, whereas pitch (F0) was best for Polish speakers.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used read speech, which may not reflect the prosodic challenges present in spontaneous conversation. The number of native English speakers used as a reference was small (seven). Proficiency levels were not balanced across the different language groups, with Slovak speakers skewing lower and higher-level (C) assessments being rare overall. The assessors were students, not professional speech-language pathologists or certified raters, although they received training.
Declared interests
The authors declared no funding or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that syllable prominence measures are as strong a predictor of proficiency as articulation rate. The study found that prominence measures only added a small amount of explanatory power to the models. Furthermore, do not apply the same acoustic cue (duration vs. pitch) to all learners, as the best predictor varied significantly by native language.