Abstract

A common approach in the study of speech motor learning is to have speakers learn to produce clusters of consonants that do not occur in their native language. This study investigated the relationship between auditory or speech perceptual abilities and the initial acquisition of non-native stop-stop consonant clusters. Sixty young adult participants (56 female, four male) were administered a gap detection test and a speech-in-noise test to assess their innate perceptual skills. The participants then performed a nonsense-word repetition task featuring non-native consonant clusters in the initial position. The participants' spoken productions of the nonwords were recorded and analyzed acoustically using spectrograms and waveforms to measure the stop-stop durations. Correlation analysis revealed that better (lower) thresholds for gap detection and understanding speech in noise were associated with shorter durations (better performance) for stop-stop clusters in initial productions. The results did not suggest that auditory and speech perceptual abilities improved participants' learning curves, as measured by the slope coefficient. Further, auditory perceptual skills (gap detection) were correlated with better speech perception (understanding speech in noise) abilities. This study suggests that individuals with better innate perceptual skills have an initial advantage at producing non-native consonant clusters.

Degree

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/