CASL
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/22
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Item Revisiting the phonological deficit in dyslexia: are implicit non-orthographic representations impaired?(Cambridge University Press, 2013-07) Dickie, Catherine; Ota, Mitsuhiko; Clark, AnnThis study investigates whether developmental dyslexia involves an impairment in implicit phonological representations, as distinct from orthographic representations and metaphonological skills. A group of adults with dyslexia was matched with a group with no history of speech/language/literacy impairment. Tasks varied in the demands made on (implicit) phonological representations versus metalinguistic analysis/manipulation, and controlled the contribution of phonological versus orthographic representations by including both a segmental and an equivalent suprasegmental (non-orthographic) version of each task. The findings show a dissociation between metaphonological skills and implicit phonological representations, with the dyslexic group impaired in metaphonological manipulation skills in both segmental and suprasegmental tasks, but not in implicit knowledge of phonological contrasts.Item Second language acquisition of pitch range in German learners of English(2014-05-20) Mennen, Ineke; Schaeffler, Felix; Dickie, CatherineThis study examines pitch range production in the read speech of female German second language (L2) learners of English of moderate to advanced proficiency. The study set out to identify to what extent the learners deviated from or adopted the language-appropriate pitch range values of the target language. Two potential ways in which the learners could deviate from or approximate the target were recognized: (a) by globally expanding their pitch range or (b) by adjusting their pitch range in a position-sensitive way that is linked to the phonetic realization patterns of underlying high and low tones at different points in intonation contours. Results showed that the L2 speakers produced pitch range values that were often language appropriate or approximated the target, although some deviations from the target were also identified. Deviations and target approximation were found to be position sensitive; that is, L2 learners were found to adjust their pitch range differently at the beginning as compared to later parts of intonational phrases. Cambridge University Press 2014.Item Recording speech articulation in dialogue: Evaluating a synchronized double Electromagnetic Articulography setup(Elsevier, 2013-08-28) Geng, Christian C.; Turk, Alice; Scobbie, James M.; Macmartin, Cedric; Hoole, Philip; Richmond, Korin; Wrench, Alan A.; Pouplier, Marianne; Bard, Ellen Gurman; Campbell, Ziggy; Dickie, Catherine; Dubourg, Eddie; Hardcastle, William J.; Kainada, Evia; King, Simon; Lickley, Robin; Nakai, Satsuki; Renals, Steve; White, Kevin; Wiegand, Ronny; EPSRCWe demonstrate the workability of an experimental facility that is geared towards the acquisition of articulatory data from a variety of speech styles common in language use, by means of two synchronized electromagnetic articulography (EMA) devices. This approach synthesizes the advantages of real dialogue settings for speech research with a detailed description of the physiological reality of speech production. We describe the facility's method for acquiring synchronized audio streams of two speakers and the system that enables communication among control room technicians, experimenters and participants. Further, we demonstrate the feasibility of the approach by evaluating problems inherent to this specific setup: The first problem is the accuracy of temporal synchronization of the two EMA machines, the second is the severity of electromagnetic interference between the two machines. Our results suggest that the synchronization method used yields an accuracy of approximately 1 ms. Electromagnetic interference was derived from the complex-valued signal amplitudes. This dependent variable was analyzed as a function of the recording status - i.e. on/off - of the interfering machine's transmitters. The intermachine distance was varied between 1 m and 8.5 m. Results suggest that a distance of approximately 6.5 m is appropriate to achieve data quality comparable to that of single speaker recordings.Item Speech recordings via the internet: An overview of the VOYS project in Scotland(International Speech Communication Association (ISCA), 2009) Dickie, Catherine; Schaeffler, Felix; Draxler, Christoph; J_nsch, KlausThe VOYS (Voices of Young Scots) project aims to establish a speech database of adolescent Scottish speakers. This database will serve for speech recognition technology and sociophonetic research. 300 pupils will ultimately be recorded at secondary schools in 10 locations in Scotland. Recordings are performed via the Internet using two microphones (closetalk and desktop) in 22,05 kHz 16 bit linear stereo signal quality. VOYS is the first large-scale and cross-boundary speech data collection based on the WikiSpeech content management system for speech resources. In VOYS, schools receive a kit containing the microphones and A/D interface and they organise the recordings themselves. The recorded data is immediately uploaded to the server in Munich, alleviating the schools from all data-handling tasks. This paper outlines the corpus specification, describes the technical issues, summarises the signal quality and gives a status report.Item The phonological deficit in developmental dyslexia : is there a suprasegmental component?(2007-08) Dickie, Catherine; Ota, Mitsuhiko; Clark, AnnAdult dyslexics were tested on a range of tasks which were presented in two closely matched versions: a segmental version and a suprasegmental version. The tasks targeted phonological contrasts on one hand and the metalinguistic ability to manipulate phonological units on the other hand. The dyslexic group showed a deficit in suprasegmentals as well as segmentals but only when the tasks involved manipulation. We found no evidence that the representations of suprasegmental contrasts are impaired in the dyslexic participants. Keywords: developmental dyslexia