Relative Difficulty in the Acquisition of the Phonetic Parameters of Obstruent Coda Voicing: Evidence from Mandarin-Speaking Learners of French.
Matthew Patience, Jeffrey Steele
PMID 36062625WHAT IT FOUND
Mandarin learners of French matched native speakers on vowel duration cues but failed to produce correct consonant voicing.
Therapists should prioritize duration-based feedback for these patients, as voicing errors persist despite adequate length control.
Key findings
01Learners' vowel-consonant duration ratios were largely comparable to native speakers, with 96% of learner values for voiced fricatives falling within two standard deviations of the native control range.
02Learners significantly under-voiced final consonants compared to native speakers, with mean voicing of 52% for learners versus 89% for controls.
03There was no significant correlation between the learners' oral proficiency scores and their ability to correctly voice consonants, suggesting proficiency alone does not resolve this specific phonetic error.
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 nonce words, which may not reflect spontaneous speech patterns where co-articulation effects are stronger. The sample size of learners (n=18) is small, and while they had varying proficiency, the lack of correlation between proficiency and voicing may be influenced by the specific range of abilities in this group. The study focused on two specific phonetic parameters; other cues like burst duration or formant transitions were not analyzed in detail for this comparison.
Declared interests
Funding was provided by a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Standard Research Grant. No other conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a patient's difficulty with voicing is a sign of poor overall speech control or timing. This study shows that Mandarin learners can master the duration aspects of French phonology while still failing to produce correct voicing, indicating these are separate motor-perceptual challenges.