Learning the Hindi dental-retroflex contrast through sound-to-meaning associations and sound discrimination tasks.
Studies have shown that perceiving contrasts which do not occur in one’s native language is difficult. Native English speakers, for example, have trouble discriminating between Hindi dental and retroflex consonants as both tend to be heard as instances of English alveolar stops. This study investiga...
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| Format: | Final Year Project (FYP) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52194 |
| _version_ | 1811692847820177408 |
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| author | Teo, Gerielle Ern Ai. |
| author2 | Fabrizio Galli |
| author_facet | Fabrizio Galli Teo, Gerielle Ern Ai. |
| author_sort | Teo, Gerielle Ern Ai. |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Studies have shown that perceiving contrasts which do not occur in one’s native language is difficult. Native English speakers, for example, have trouble discriminating between Hindi dental and retroflex consonants as both tend to be heard as instances of English alveolar stops. This study investigated native English speakers’ learning of the Hindi dental-retroflex contrast through a sound-to-meaning training paradigm involving word identification, comparing pre- and post-training performance using a same-different (AX) discrimination task. It also examined if increased exposure to non-native sounds without feedback could improve discrimination, by observing the progress of subjects who underwent multiple AX tasks before training. The role of interstimulus interval (ISI) was also considered, given past research which has shown its effect on working memory. The sound-to-meaning training paradigm was found effective for improving discrimination of not only the Hindi dental-retroflex contrast, but also of sounds already contrasted in subjects’ native language, suggesting the role that incorporation of meaning plays in creating long-term memory representations of sounds. Undergoing multiple pre-training AX tasks without feedback seemed to benefit word identification by the end of training, although it did not improve discrimination before, after and at the start of training. The effect of ISI was only significant before training, with discrimination being better when ISI was shorter. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T06:42:18Z |
| format | Final Year Project (FYP) |
| id | ntu-10356/52194 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T06:42:18Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/521942021-12-20T03:42:24Z Learning the Hindi dental-retroflex contrast through sound-to-meaning associations and sound discrimination tasks. Teo, Gerielle Ern Ai. Fabrizio Galli School of Humanities and Social Sciences Francis C. K. Wong DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Psycholinguistics Studies have shown that perceiving contrasts which do not occur in one’s native language is difficult. Native English speakers, for example, have trouble discriminating between Hindi dental and retroflex consonants as both tend to be heard as instances of English alveolar stops. This study investigated native English speakers’ learning of the Hindi dental-retroflex contrast through a sound-to-meaning training paradigm involving word identification, comparing pre- and post-training performance using a same-different (AX) discrimination task. It also examined if increased exposure to non-native sounds without feedback could improve discrimination, by observing the progress of subjects who underwent multiple AX tasks before training. The role of interstimulus interval (ISI) was also considered, given past research which has shown its effect on working memory. The sound-to-meaning training paradigm was found effective for improving discrimination of not only the Hindi dental-retroflex contrast, but also of sounds already contrasted in subjects’ native language, suggesting the role that incorporation of meaning plays in creating long-term memory representations of sounds. Undergoing multiple pre-training AX tasks without feedback seemed to benefit word identification by the end of training, although it did not improve discrimination before, after and at the start of training. The effect of ISI was only significant before training, with discrimination being better when ISI was shorter. Bachelor of Arts 2013-04-25T02:18:44Z 2013-04-25T02:18:44Z 2013 2013 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52194 en Nanyang Technological University 46 p. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Psycholinguistics Teo, Gerielle Ern Ai. Learning the Hindi dental-retroflex contrast through sound-to-meaning associations and sound discrimination tasks. |
| title | Learning the Hindi dental-retroflex contrast through sound-to-meaning associations and sound discrimination tasks. |
| title_full | Learning the Hindi dental-retroflex contrast through sound-to-meaning associations and sound discrimination tasks. |
| title_fullStr | Learning the Hindi dental-retroflex contrast through sound-to-meaning associations and sound discrimination tasks. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Learning the Hindi dental-retroflex contrast through sound-to-meaning associations and sound discrimination tasks. |
| title_short | Learning the Hindi dental-retroflex contrast through sound-to-meaning associations and sound discrimination tasks. |
| title_sort | learning the hindi dental retroflex contrast through sound to meaning associations and sound discrimination tasks |
| topic | DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics::Psycholinguistics |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52194 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT teogerielleernai learningthehindidentalretroflexcontrastthroughsoundtomeaningassociationsandsounddiscriminationtasks |