Abstract
The aim of this research is to investigate the relation between musical aptitude and the acquisition of L2 rhythm by Polish advanced learners of English. A longitudinal study was conducted among 50 Polish students of English reading the “Please Call Stella” passage before and after an intensive two-semester accent training course supplemented by an extensive practical course in English phonetics and phonology. Participants also completed two musical hearing tests (Mandell 2009) and a survey on musical experience. Automated alignment was performed in DARLA (Reddy and Stanford 2015) and reviewed in Praat (Boersma and Weenink 2019). We compared the rhythm metrics calculated in Correlatore (Mairano and Romano 2010) before and after training and juxtaposed them against the pronunciation teachers’ results. We reported a significant difference between the scores for vocalic intervals across all rhythm metrics, indicating that participants’ produced higher vocalic variation after training, more similar to their teachers. However, we observed no significant relationship between the participants’ rhythm metric scores and their musical hearing test scores or musical experience, suggesting that musical aptitude might not play a crucial role in the L2 rhythm production in a formal academic learning environment.
5 Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Science Centre in Poland, grant number 2014/15/N/HS2/03865.
References
Abercrombie, D. 1967. Elements of general phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Adams, C. 1979. English Speech Rhythm and the Foreign Learner. The Hague: Moulton.10.1515/9783110879247Search in Google Scholar
Arvaniti. A. 2009. “Rhythm, timing and the timing of rhythm”. Phonetica 66(1-2). 46–63.10.1159/000208930Search in Google Scholar
Arvaniti, A. 2012. “The usefulness of metrics in the quantification of speech rhythm”. Journal of Phonetics, 40(3). 351–373.10.1016/j.wocn.2012.02.003Search in Google Scholar
Avery, P. and S. Ehrlich. 1992. Teaching American English Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Barry, W. J. 2007. “Rhythm as an L2 problem. How prosodic is it?”. In: Trouvain, J. and U. Gut (eds.) Non-native Prosody: Bridging the Gap between Research and Teaching. 97–120.10.1515/9783110198751.1.97Search in Google Scholar
Bella, D., Farrugia, N., Benoit, C., Begel, V., Verga, L., Harding, E., Kotz, S. 2017. “BAASTA: Battery for the Assessment of Auditory Sensorimotor and Timing Abilities”. Behavior Research Methods 49. 1128–1145.10.3758/s13428-016-0773-6Search in Google Scholar
Bertinetto, P.M. and C. Bertini. 2008. On modeling the rhythm of natural languages. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2008, Campinas, Brazil. 427–430.Search in Google Scholar
Boersma, P. and D. Weenink. 2019. Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version 6.1.03, retrieved 1 September 2019 from http://www.praat.org/Search in Google Scholar
Chobert, J. and M. Besson. 2013. “Musical Expertise and Second Language Learning”. Brain Sciences, 3(2). 923–940.10.3390/brainsci3020923Search in Google Scholar
Cumming R.E. (2011). “The language-specific interdependence of tonal and durational cues in perceived rhythmicality”. Phonetica 68. 1–25.10.1159/000327223Search in Google Scholar
Llanes-Coromina, J., P. Prieto and P.L. Rohrer. 2018. “Brief training with rhythmic beat gestures helps L2 pronunciation in a reading aloud task.”. 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2018. 498–502.10.21437/SpeechProsody.2018-101Search in Google Scholar
Coumel, M., M. Christiner and S.M. Reiterer. 2019. “Second Language Accent Faking Ability Depends on Musical Abilities, Not on Working Memory”. Frontiers in psychology 10(257).10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00257Search in Google Scholar
Culp, M.E. 2017. “The Relationship Between Phonological Awareness and Music Aptitude”. Journal of Research in Music Education 65(3). 328–346.10.1177/0022429417729655Search in Google Scholar
Dauer R.M. 1983. “Stress-timing and syllable-timing reanalyzed”. Journal of Phonetics 11. 51–62.10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30776-4Search in Google Scholar
Dellwo, V. and P. Wagner. 2003. “Relations between language rhythm and speech rate”. In: Solé, M., D. Recasens and J. Romero (eds.). Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 3–9 August, Barcelona, Spain. 471–474.Search in Google Scholar
Dellwo, V. 2006. “Rhythm and speech rate: A variation coefficient for deltaC”. In: Karnowski, P. and I. Szigeti (eds.). Language and language processing: Proceedings of the 38th linguistic Colloquium. Piliscsaba 2003. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. 231–241.Search in Google Scholar
Fabricius, A., D. Watt and D. Johnson. 2009. “A comparison of three speaker-intrinsic vowel formant frequency normalization algorithms for sociophonetics”. Language Variation and Change 21(3). 413–435.10.1017/S0954394509990160Search in Google Scholar
Fadiga L., L. Craighero and A. D'Ausillo. 2009. “Broca's area in language, action, and music”. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1169. 44–458.10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04582.xSearch in Google Scholar
Fenk-Oczlon, G. and A. Fenk. 2009. “Some parallels between language and music from a cognitive and evolutionary perspective”. Musicae Scientiae 13(2). 201–226.10.1177/1029864909013002101Search in Google Scholar
Field, J. 2005. “Intelligibility and the Listener: the Role of Lexical Stress”. TESOL Quarterly 39. 399–423.10.2307/3588487Search in Google Scholar
Franklin, M., K. Moore, C. Yip and J. Jonides. 2008. “The effects of musical training on verbal memory”. Psychology of Music 36. 353–365.10.1177/0305735607086044Search in Google Scholar
Fuchs, R. 2019. “Integrating variability in loudness and duration in a multidimensional model of speech rhythm: Evidence from Indian English and British English”. Speech Prosody 7. 290–294.10.21437/SpeechProsody.2014-46Search in Google Scholar
Gabriel, B. 2007. Learning English Through Songs. Singapore: Bettyland Publications.Search in Google Scholar
Galves, A., J. Garcia, D. Duarte and C. Galves. 2002. “Sonority as a basis for rhythmic class discrimination”. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2002. 323–326.10.21437/SpeechProsody.2002-66Search in Google Scholar
Gibbon, D. 2003. “Computational modelling of rhythm as alternation, iteration and hierarchy”. In: Solé, M., D. Recasens and J. Romero (eds.). Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 3–9 August, Barcelona, Spain. 2489–2492.Search in Google Scholar
Gordon, E.E. 1989. Learning sequences in music: Skill, content, and patterns. Chicago: G. I. A. Publications.Search in Google Scholar
Grabe, E. and E. Low. 2002. “Durational variability in speech and the rhythm class hypothesis”. Laboratory Phonology 7. 515–546.10.1515/9783110197105.515Search in Google Scholar
Gralińska-Brawata, A. 2014. “Language Experience and Phonetic Training as Factors Influencing Timing Organisation in Polish Learners of English”. Research in Language 12. 185–198.10.2478/rela-2014-0018Search in Google Scholar
Grenon, I. and L. White. 2008. “Acquiring Rhythm: a Comparison of Canadian English and Japanese”. In: Chan, H., H. Jacob and E. Kapia (eds.), BUCLD, Proceedings of the 32nd annual Boston University Conference on Language development. Somerville, Massachusetts: Cascadilla Press 32. 155–166.Search in Google Scholar
Guilbault, C. 2002. The Acquisition of French Rhythm by Second Language Learners. PhD thesis, University of Alberta.Search in Google Scholar
Gussmann, E. 2007. The Phonology of Polish. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780199267477.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Gut, U. 2009. Non-native Speech: a Corpus-based Analysis of Phonological and Phonetic Properties of L2 English and German. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.10.3726/978-3-653-01155-5Search in Google Scholar
Gut, U. 2012. “Rhythm in L2 speech”. In: Gibbon, D., D. Hirst and N. Campbell (eds.), Rhythm, Melody and Harmony in Speech: Studies in Honour of Wiktor Jassem, Special edition of Speech and Language Technology 14/15. Poznań: Polskie Towarzystwo Fonetyczne. 83–94.Search in Google Scholar
Hayes, B. 1995. Metrical stress theory: principles and case studies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Jang, T.Y. 2008. “Speech Rhythm Metrics for Automatic Scoring of English Speech by Korean EFL Learners”. Malsori Speech Sounds. The Korean Society of Phonetic Sciences and Speech Technology 66. 41–59.Search in Google Scholar
Jassem, W. 2003. “Polish”. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33(1), 103–107. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002510030300119110.1017/S0025100303001191Search in Google Scholar
Jusczyk, P.W. 1999. “Narrowing the distance to language: one step at a time”. Journal of Communication Disorders 32. 207–222.10.1016/S0021-9924(99)00014-3Search in Google Scholar
Koelsch, S., T.C. Gunter, D.Y. von Cramon, S. Zysset, G. Lohmann and A.D. Friederici. 2002. “Bach speaks: a cortical ‘language-network’ serves the processing of music”. Neuroimage 17. 956–966.10.1006/nimg.2002.1154Search in Google Scholar
Lemhöfer, K. and M. Broersma. 2012. “Introducing LexTALE: A quick and valid Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of English”. Behavior Research Methods 44. 325–343.10.3758/s13428-011-0146-0Search in Google Scholar
Lin, H. and Q. Wang. 2005. “Vowel quantity and consonant variance: A comparison between Chinese and English”. Paper presented at the Conference Between Stress and Tone, Leiden.Search in Google Scholar
London, J. and K. Jones. 2011. “Rhythmic Refinements to the nPVI Measure: A Reanalysis of Patel & Daniele (2003a)”. Music Perception 29. 115–120.10.1525/mp.2011.29.1.115Search in Google Scholar
Low, E.L., E. Grabe and F. Nolan 2000. “Quantitative characterization of speech rhythm: Syllable-timing in Singapore English”. Language and Speech 43. 377–401.10.1177/00238309000430040301Search in Google Scholar
Magne, C., D. Schön and M. Besson. 2006. “Musician children detect pitch violations in both music and language better than nonmusician children: behavioral and electrophysiological approaches”. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 18. 199–211.10.1162/jocn.2006.18.2.199Search in Google Scholar
Magne, C., D.K. Jordan and R.L. Gordon. 2016. “Speech rhythm sensitivity and musical aptitude: ERPs and individual differences”. Brain and Language 153/154. 13–19.10.1016/j.bandl.2016.01.001Search in Google Scholar
Mandell, J. 2009. Electronic Music and Medical Education. http://jakemandell.com (date of access: 21 September 2019).Search in Google Scholar
Mairano, P. and A. Romano. 2010. Un confronto tra diverse metriche ritmiche usando Correlatore. In: Schmid, S., Schwarzenbach, M. and D. Studer (eds.). La dimensione temporale del parlato, (Proc. of the V National AISV Congress, University of Zurich, Collegiengebaude, 4-6 February 2009), Torriana (RN): EDK, 79–100.Search in Google Scholar
Mairano P. and A. Romano. 2011. “Rhythm metrics for 21 languages”. In: Proceedings. of the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Hong Kong, China. 1318–1321.Search in Google Scholar
McAuliffe, M., M. Socolof, S. Mihuc, M. Wagner and M. Sonderegger. 2017. “Montreal Forced Aligner: trainable text-speech alignment using Kaldi”. In: Proceedings of the 18th Conference of the International Speech Communication Association10.21437/Interspeech.2017-1386Search in Google Scholar
Milovanov, R., M. Tervaniemi and M. Gustafsson. 2004. “The impact of musical aptitude in foreign language acquisition”. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Music Perception and CognitionSearch in Google Scholar
Milovanov, R., M. Huotilainen, V. Välimäki, P.A. Esquef and M. Tervaniemi. 2008. “Musical aptitude and second language pronunciation skills in school-aged children: neural and behavioral evidence”. Brain Research 1194. 81–89.10.1016/j.brainres.2007.11.042Search in Google Scholar
Milovanov, R., P. Pietilä, M. Tervaniemi and P.A. Esquef. 2010. “Foreign language pronunciation skills and musical aptitude: a study of Finnish adults with higher education”. Learning and Individual Differences 20. 56–60.10.1016/j.lindif.2009.11.003Search in Google Scholar
Moritz, C., S. Yampolsky, G. Papadelis, J. Thomson and M. Wolf. 2013. “Links between early rhythm skills, musical training, and phonological awareness”. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 26(5). 739–769.10.1007/s11145-012-9389-0Search in Google Scholar
Nazzi T., J. Bertoncini and J. Mehler. 1998. “Language discrimination by newborns: toward an understanding of the role of rhythm”. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 24. 756–766.10.1037/0096-1523.24.3.756Search in Google Scholar
Nespor, M. 1990. “On the rhythm parameter in phonology”. In: Roca, I. M. (ed.). Logical Issues in Language Acquisition, Dordrecht: Foris: 157–175.10.1515/9783110870374-009Search in Google Scholar
Nettl, B. 2000. “An ethnomusicologist contemplates universals in musical sound and musical culture”. In: Wallin, N.L., B. Merker and S. Brown (eds.), The Origins of Music. Cambridge. MA: MIT Press. 463–472.Search in Google Scholar
Ordin, M. and L. Polyanskaya. 2015. “Perception of speech rhythm in second language: The case of rhythmically similar L1 and L2”. Frontiers in Psychology 6. 1–15.10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00316Search in Google Scholar
Pastuszek-Lipińska, B. 2008. "Musicians outperform nonmusicians in speech imitation". Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4969. 56–73.10.1007/978-3-540-85035-9_4Search in Google Scholar
Patel, A. and J.R. Daniele. 2003. “An empirical comparison of rhythm in language and music”. Cognition 87(1). 35–45.10.1016/S0010-0277(02)00187-7Search in Google Scholar
Patel, A. 2008. Music, Language, and the Brain. New York: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Pickering, L. and C. Wiltshire. 2000. “Pitch accent in indian-english teaching discourse”. World Englishes 19(2). 173–183.10.1111/1467-971X.00167Search in Google Scholar
Pike, K.L. 1945. The intonation of American English. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Search in Google Scholar
Ramus F., M. Nespor and J. Mehler. 1999. “Correlates of linguistic rhythm in the speech signal”. Cognition 73. 265–292.10.1016/S0010-0277(99)00058-XSearch in Google Scholar
Ramus, F. 2002. “Acoustic correlates of linguistic rhythm: Perspectives”. Proceedings of Speech Prosody. 115–120.10.21437/SpeechProsody.2002-16Search in Google Scholar
Ramus, F., E. Dupoux and J. Mehler. 2003. “The psychological reality of rhythm classes: Perceptual studies”. In: Solé, M., D. Recasens and J. Romero (eds.). Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 3–9 August, Barcelona, Spain. 337–342.Search in Google Scholar
Reddy, S. and J. Stanford. 2015. “A Web Application for Automated Dialect Analysis”. Proceedings of NAACL-HLT 201510.3115/v1/N15-3015Search in Google Scholar
Roach, P. 1982. “On the distinction between ‘stress-timed’ and ‘syllable-timed’ languages”, in: Crystal, D. (ed.). Linguistic Controversies: Essays in Linguistic Theory and Practice in Honour of F.R. Palmer. London. 73–79.Search in Google Scholar
Roach, P. 2002. “Studying rhythm and timing in English speech: Scientific curiosity, or a classroom necessity?”. In: Waniek-Klimczak, E. and P. J. Melia (eds.). Accents and Speech in Teaching English Phonetics and Phonology. Łódź Studies in Language Vol.5. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. 199–206.Search in Google Scholar
Roncaglia-Denissen, M.P, D.A. Roor, A. Chen and M. Sadakata. 2016. “The Enhanced Musical Rhythmic Perception in Second Language Learners”. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 10.10.3389/fnhum.2016.00288Search in Google Scholar
Rosenfelder, I., J. Fruehwald, K. Evanini, S. Seyfarth, K. Gorman, H. Prichard and J. Yuan. 2014. FAVE (Forced Alignment and Vowel Extraction) Program Suite v1.2.2 10.5281/zenodo.22281Search in Google Scholar
Rubach, J. and G.E. Booij, 1985. “A grid theory of stress in Polish”. Lingua 66. 281–319.10.1016/0024-3841(85)90032-4Search in Google Scholar
Schön, D., Magne, C., and M. Besson. 2004. “The music of speech: Music training facilitates pitch processing in both music and language”. Psychophysiology 41(3). 341–349.10.1111/1469-8986.00172.xSearch in Google Scholar
Slevc, L. and A. Miyake. 2006. “Individual differences in second language proficiency: Does musical ability matter?”. Psychological Science 17. 675–681.10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01765.xSearch in Google Scholar
Smit, U. 2006. “The interaction of motivation and achievement in advanced EFL pronunciation learners”. IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 40(2). 89–116.10.1515/iral.2002.009Search in Google Scholar
Sobkowiak, W. 2004. English phonetics for Poles. (3rd edition.) Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie.Search in Google Scholar
Tortel, A. and D. Hirst. 2010. "Rhythm metrics and the production of English L1/L2". Speech Prosody 201010.21437/SpeechProsody.2010-49Search in Google Scholar
Wallentin, M., A.H. Nielsen, M. Friis-Olivarius, C. Vuust and P. Vuust. 2010. “The musical ear test, a new reliable test for measuring musical competence”. Learning and Individual Differences. 20. 188–196.10.1016/j.lindif.2010.02.004Search in Google Scholar
White L. and S.L. Mattys. 2007. “Calibrating rhythm: first language and second language studies”. Journal of Phonetics 35. 501–522.10.1016/j.wocn.2007.02.003Search in Google Scholar
White D. and P. Mok. 2018. “L2 Speech Rhythm Development in New Immigrants”. 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2018. 838–842.10.21437/SpeechProsody.2018-169Search in Google Scholar
Wong, P., E. Skoe, N. Russo, T. Dees and N. Kraus. 2007. “Musical experience shapes human brainstem encoding of linguistic pitch patterns”. Nature Neuroscience 10. 420–422.10.1038/nn1872Search in Google Scholar
Zatorre, R. J., and S.R. Baum. 2012). “Musical Melody and Speech Intonation: Singing a Different Tune”. PLoS Biology 10(7). e1001372.10.1371/journal.pbio.1001372Search in Google Scholar
© 2022 Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
Articles in the same Issue
- Table of contents
- Construction-specific effects of phonological similarity avoidance
- Can L2 learners acquire native-like typicality representation in categorization?
- The interpretation of urbanonyms in discourse: Reconciling theoretical accounts with experimental results
- Are Polish “DLA” and “KU” really synonymic purposive prepositions?
- Polgem – The recorded corpus of Polish geminate consonants
- ‘I would never…’: Deictic shift and moralizing in anti-immigration reader comments
- L2 rhythm production and musical rhythm perception in advanced learners of English
- The Cambridge handbook of systemic functional linguistics
Articles in the same Issue
- Table of contents
- Construction-specific effects of phonological similarity avoidance
- Can L2 learners acquire native-like typicality representation in categorization?
- The interpretation of urbanonyms in discourse: Reconciling theoretical accounts with experimental results
- Are Polish “DLA” and “KU” really synonymic purposive prepositions?
- Polgem – The recorded corpus of Polish geminate consonants
- ‘I would never…’: Deictic shift and moralizing in anti-immigration reader comments
- L2 rhythm production and musical rhythm perception in advanced learners of English
- The Cambridge handbook of systemic functional linguistics