Alif Silpachai

Iowa State University | ISU · Department of English

Research on segmentals has suggested that a key component of High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) is high talker variability. However, the extent to which high talker variability improves perception of tones is unclear. This study examined the effects of high talker variability on the perception of Mandarin tones (Tones 1–4) by English-speakin...

The accurate identification of likely segmental pronunciation errors produced by nonnative speakers of English is a longstanding goal in pronunciation teaching. Most lists of pronunciation errors for speakers of a particular first language (L1) are based on the experience of expert linguists or teachers of English as a second language (ESL) and Eng...

The type of voice model used in Computer Assisted Pronunciation Instruction is a crucial factor in the quality of practice and the amount of uptake by language learners. As an example, prior research indicates that second-language learners are more likely to succeed when they imitate a speaker with a voice similar to their own, a so-called “golden...

The review was published in the CATESOL Journal 30.1 2018, 312-316.

Prominence is marking of particular syllables as salient in English speech. This marking is accomplished by the pitch, duration and intensity of the voice, and is multi-functional in English. Prominence is the target of increasing research both in regard to its form and its functions Prominence is also one of the most commonly taught suprasegmental...

This dissertation presents three studies that examined issues related to the production and the perception of pitch in a tone language. The first study examined linguistic contexts that may modulate consonant-induced pitch perturbations (CF0) in a tone language. Previous studies have produced mixed findings regarding the role of linguistic contexts...

Voice Onset Time (VOT) and consonant-induced fundamental frequency (CF0) may signal phonological laryngeal contrasts.This signaling may be modulated by prosodic structure and pitch context. However, such modulation in tonal languages is unclear. This study investigates the roles of prosodic structure and tonal context in the phonetic implementation...

Previous research suggests that repeated words in discourse are durationally shortened in comparison to the first mention, particularly when the words describe the same scene in a story. However, previous methods often relied on reading passages, which may be challenging to second language (L2) speakers or films, which require significant cultural...

This study investigates the relationship between fundamental frequency at the onset of voicing (onset f 0) and Voice Onset Time (VOT) in a tonal language with prevoiced, short-lag, and long-lag stops. Recent research on Thai and Vietnamese has suggested that higher f 0 in the following vowel is conditioned by long-lag stops, but this effect occurs...

In this paper, we introduce L2-ARCTIC, a speech corpus of non-native English that is intended for research in voice conversion, accent conversion, and mispronunciation detection. This initial release includes recordings from ten non-native speakers of English whose first languages (L1s) are Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, and Arabic, each L1 cont...

Previous research has not extensively investigated whether High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) is effective in training listeners with no musical background and no prior experience with a tone language in their identification of non-native lexical tones. In this study, it was investigated whether HVPT is applicable to the acquisition of non-n...

Research on the organization between segments and tones allows for a better understanding of the syllable structure of a tone language. This paper investigates how onset consonants and tones are organized within a syllable in a tone language. The findings have implications for speech production models.

How do tones get adapted into languages with registers? This study examined loanword adaptation in which a language with registers borrows words from a language with lexical tones. In particular, this study presents an acoustic analysis of Thai loanwords in Mon, a language with two registers-one with tense voice and high f0 and the other with lax v...

This study presents an acoustic analysis of narrow focus (early focus) and broad focus, each in emphatic context (tune) in Thai, with the goal of providing a basic characterization of their prosody. To investigate prosodic realizations, target words from each of the 5 lexical tones in Thai were placed in subject positions of sentences with SVO stru...

This study presents an acoustic analysis of three sentence types in Thai (declarative, interrogative, and emphatic) with the goal of providing a basic characterization of their prosody. To investigate prosodic realizations of sentence final syllables, we placed, in a sentence-final position, a target word which varied in one of the 5 lexical tones...