Huang Becky H, Jun Sun-Ah
Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, USA.
Lang Speech. 2011 Sep;54(Pt 3):387-414. doi: 10.1177/0023830911402599.
This study reports an exploratory analysis of the age of arrival (AoA) effect on the production of second language (L2) prosody. Three groups of Mandarin-speaking immigrants (N=10 in each group) with varying AoA in the United States and ten native speakers of English as controls participated in the study. All participants read a paragraph of English, and their speech samples were subjected to three prosodic analyses: speech and articulation rates, native speakers' judgment of the prosody based on segment-filtered speech, and analyses of tones and prosodic groupings using the Mainstream American English Tones and Break Indices (MAE_ToBI) transcription conventions. The L2 groups also filled out a survey providing information about their demographic background, English input, and socio-psychological aspects of language learning. The results revealed that the AoA factor impacted different aspects of prosody to varying degrees. Group differences were statistically significant for speech rate, degree of foreign prosody, the frequency of pitch accents, and the frequency of high boundary tones (H-H%). However,group differences were not significant for articulation rate, prosodic groupings, and the rest of the ToBI-labeled phonological categories. Multiple regression analyses further confirmed the AoA effect on degree of foreign prosody, the frequency of pitch accents, and high boundary tones (H-H%); AoA remained a significant predictor controlling for the effects of other variables. However, speech rate was predicted by English media exposure and motivation variable but not by AoA.
本研究报告了一项关于到达年龄（AoA）对第二语言（L2）韵律产出影响的探索性分析。三组在美国到达年龄各异的说普通话的移民（每组N = 10）以及十名以英语为母语的人作为对照组参与了该研究。所有参与者朗读一段英语，他们的语音样本接受了三项韵律分析：语速和发音速率、以基于音段过滤语音的母语者对韵律的判断，以及使用美国主流英语语调与停顿指数（MAE_ToBI）转录惯例对语调及韵律分组的分析。第二语言组还填写了一份调查问卷，提供有关其人口统计学背景、英语输入以及语言学习的社会心理方面的信息。结果显示，到达年龄因素在不同程度上影响了韵律的不同方面。在语速、外国韵律程度、音高重音频率和高边界语调频率（H - H%）方面，组间差异具有统计学意义。然而，在发音速率、韵律分组以及ToBI标记的其他语音类别方面，组间差异不显著。多元回归分析进一步证实了到达年龄对外国韵律程度、音高重音频率和高边界语调（H - H%）的影响；在控制其他变量影响的情况下，到达年龄仍然是一个显著的预测因素。然而，语速是由英语媒体接触和动机变量预测的，而非到达年龄。
