Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-53).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 115).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University of Pennsylvania. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 61 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-61).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 241-288). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Emergence of accuracy is a first step toward acquiring adult-like phonological abilities. Mandarin Chinese is a tone language where speakers employ both tonal and segmental properties to code lexical meanings. Study of this dual-level complexity of tone and segment enables a broader view of how phonology is acquired than the view afforded by study of Indo-European languages. Understanding the interaction between phonatory properties for tone and articulatory adjustments for segments in emergence of early words helps to understand more generally the first steps toward the complex system embodied in phonology. The present study investigated tone acquisition in relation to segmental and lexical development in Mandarin-speaking children in the earliest word stages. Spontaneous speech samples were collected longitudinally from 12 to 24 months from four Mandarin-speaking children. The relationships between tone accuracy, segmental accuracy, and word-level variables were examined quantitatively over time. Results indicated that tone accuracy is not always higher than segmental accuracy. The relationship between these two seems to be influenced by the physiological complexity of tonal shapes and children’s developmental age. Autonomy of control over phonatory adjustments for tone and articulatory adjustments for segments was already apparent. Children were not sensitive to the contrastivity (characterized by Productive Tone Neighborhood Density) involved in tonal categories with a vocabulary of less than 50 words. Associations between production accuracy and word-level variables (articulatory complexity, neighborhood density and word frequency) established based on later developmental periods were not found in younger Mandarin-speaking children. Findings suggest that tonal acquisition at the onset of speech development is not a passive process where innate phonological knowledge is revealed solely through children’s maturation. Rather, phonological knowledge is established on the basis of children’s pre-linguistic motor capacities in concert with cognitive learning occurring via the expansion of their lexicon. Tones and segments may be produced as holistic entities in early words. Tone acquisition at the onset of word learning is more child-centered in that availability of tonal forms to the child’s production system underlies accuracy. Influences from lexical properties of word would only be apparent when phonological knowledge of tonal categories is established with vocabulary expansion. / text

The study investigated relative roles of production and perception mechanisms in early speech acquisition in Korean. Previous studies investigating this issue have been based on Indo-European languages. Data from a non Indo-European language such as Korean, which has different phonemes from English, can confirm the presence of universal production patterns as well as potential perceptual influences from the ambient language. Speech of six Korean-learning infants (KI) was studied longitudinally (8-24 months). These data were compared with English-learning infant (EI) data for the babbling period as well as with Korean infant-directed speech (IDS). In addition, IDS was compared with Korean adult-directed speech (ADS) to explore whether the two types of speech styles show similar characteristics in Korean. Similar patterns for segments and utterances were found between KI and EI, supporting the assertion that early infant speech is primarily based on production system factors. However, KI showed more frequent language specific consonants such as fortis and long medial consonants as well as low central vowels and VCV utterances than EI, indicating that characteristics of the Korean language also influenced the speech patterns of KI. IDS was found to be different from ADS in most aspects, while being similar to KI infant speech, suggesting that Korean IDS may be adjusted to the needs of infant learners. Inter-syllabic patterns were observed in all speech types, supporting the claim that they are fundamental aspects of the production system. However, intra-syllabic patterns were only present in both groups of infants’ babbling, suggesting that this aspect of frame dominance is strongly present in infants’ pre-speech babbling, but may not be predominant in adult languages. Intra-syllabic patterns in infants’ words could be also influenced by the ambient language patterns. Results of this study suggest that infants’ early speech is primarily determined by production factors, but their production patterns are influenced by the characteristics of their ambient language in some aspects during babbling. IDS may facilitate infant acquisition by producing input that is matched to the infant production system and is also perceptually distinctive. / text

This study investigated the relationship between anxiety and the noticing and integration of language forms in the learning of a less commonly taught language: Arabic. The study was motivated by the need to understand why some learners notice and integrate language forms in their second language speech better than others. Simultaneously, the study sought to understand the mechanisms through which anxiety interferes with second language speech processes. The study included a sample of 80 beginning-level learners of Arabic. The participants were assigned to two treatment conditions, Input and Output. The participants’ language anxiety was measured by the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986), and their state anxiety during the noticing and production tasks was measured by the Cognitive Interference Questionnaire (Sarason, 1978). In the treatment session, the Output group participants provided an oral description of a picture story, listened to, read, and underlined an Arabic speaker’s description, and re-described the pictures. The Input group participants answered pre-text exposure questions, listened to, read, and underlined the description, and answered post-text exposure questions. An immediate oral production posttest was administered at the end of the treatment session, and a delayed posttest was administered two weeks later. Interviews were conducted following the delayed posttest. The results showed that the noticing and integration of language forms were influenced by the type of anxiety and the nature of the forms. While language anxiety positively predicted learner noticing and integration of the language forms, state anxiety negatively predicted them. Syntactic and discourse level forms deemed more salient and of higher communicative value were more amenable to anxiety effects. No differential anxiety influences on learner noticing were detected across the Input and Output conditions. Pedagogical implications are offered in light of these findings.