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The interaction of visual exploration and auditory processing is central to early cognitive development, supporting object discrimination, categorization, and word learning. Research has shown visual-auditory interactions to be complex, created from multiple processes and changing over multiple timescales. To better understand these interactions, we generalize a formal neural process model of early word learning to two studies examining how words impact 9- to 22-month-olds' attention to novelty. These simulations clarify the origin and nature of previously demonstrated effects of labels on visual exploration and the basis of mutual exclusivity effects in word learning. We use our findings to discuss key questions for this special section: what makes a good theory and how should formal theories interface with empirical paradigms and findings?

The number of children with partial or total hearing loss is increasing every day, and most of them are undergoing cochlear implant surgery. The paper aims to assess the teaching competence of parents of children with cochlear implants. The study took one year (2022) in 1 [Almaty, Kazakhstan] kindergarten and 1 specialized school. Twenty-four parents of children (mean age 3.5 [plus or minus] 0.5 years) and 20 parents of children of primary school age (10.0 [plus or minus] 0.5 years) who underwent surgery at the age of 1-2 and 6-9 years were included in the study. A minimal number of parents had a high level of competence; sufficient competence was noticed among the two times larger number of parents; however, most of the parents had insufficient competence. The indicators of children were as follows: 3 children had a high level of listening perception; twice as many of them had a sufficient level; the same number had an insufficient level. There were more children with a low level, 3 times more than with a high level. A high level of pedagogical competence of parents correlated with a high level of children's auditory verbal abilities (on the scale of auditory ability integration). There was also a direct relationship with the level of speech development (on the scale of speech use) for children who had the surgery a year earlier. The obtained data can apply to the educational process for children with cochlear implants to improve their auditory and speech skills as quickly as possible. The involvement of parents in the education and rehabilitation of children with cochlear implants is crucial for the successful adaptation and development of the child. Parents can become irreplaceable partners of specialists and educational institutions, providing their children with optimal support and assistance on their way to the development of auditory and communication skills. To enhance parental competence in the area of auditory development of children with cochlear implants, it is recommended to participate in specialized educational programs designed for parents, offered by professionals and organizations. Additionally, actively engaging with educational resources, online materials, and informational communities is beneficial for acquiring up-to-date knowledge and receiving support from other parents, specialists, and experts.

Purpose: ?he lexical stress pattern (trochaic vs. iambic) may affect various aspects of word learning and word production in children with cochlear implants (CIs). This study aimed to investigate lexical stress effects in word learning by Greek-speaking children with CIs. Method: A word learning paradigm, consisting of a word production and a word identification task, was used. A test list of eight pairs of disyllabic nonwords with identical phonological composition and contrasting lexical stress (eight trochaic and eight iambic), along with their referent pictured objects, was constructed and administered to 22 Greek-speaking children with CIs (ages 4;6-12;3 [years;months]) with normal nonverbal IQ and to 22 age-matched controls with normal hearing (NH) and no other difficulties. Results: Overall, children with CIs exhibited lower performance than their hearing peers in all word-learning tasks, regardless of lexical stress pattern. Specifically, they identified significantly fewer words and exhibited significantly lower accuracy in word production than those of the controls. In the group with CIs, lexical stress pattern affected their production of words but not their word identification. Children with CIs showed more accurate production of iambic than trochaic words, a fact attributed to better vowel production. Yet, production of stress was less accurate for iambic than for trochaic words. ?oreover, stress assignment of iambic words was highly correlated with speech and language tests in children with CIs. Conclusions: Greek children with CIs exhibited lower performance in the word-learning task administered than children with NH did. In addition, the performance of children with CIs indicated a dissociation between the perception and production mechanisms and revealed complex relations between the segmental and prosodic aspects of words. Preliminary findings suggest that stress assignment in iambic words can serve as an indicator of speech and language growth.

Purpose: Developmental dyslexia is a specific learning disorder that affects 5-17% children, and persists into adulthood. Speech perception in noise (SPIN) ability in dyslexia has been largely examined in previous studies. However, the available literature remains controversial and it is unclear under which conditions the deficits occur. The present meta-analysis explored the reliability of the SPIN deficit in dyslexia and examined possible moderators of the variability across studies. Method: A robust variation estimation model was used based on 19 studies comprising 69 effect sizes. Results: Individuals with dyslexia showed a reliable SPIN deficit (Hedges' g = 0.64, 95% CI [0.41, 0.87], p < 0.001) compared to chronological age-matched controls, with the presence of moderate inter-study variability. Moderation analyses showed that the SPIN deficit in dyslexia was moderated by performance measure, manifesting a larger effect size measured by accuracy than by speech reception threshold. Nevertheless, comparable medium SPIN effect sizes were found for background noises inducing energetic masking and informational masking, as well as for children and adults with dyslexia. Conclusion: The present meta-analysis for the first time provides a comprehensive understanding of the SPIN deficit and its underlying cognitive mechanisms in individuals with dyslexia.

This descriptive study attempted to explore teaching styles by eliciting beliefs of a group of English language teachers through Peacock's (Int J Appl Linguist 11:1-20, 2001) Perceptual Teaching Style Preference Questionnaire and interviews based on Reid's hypotheses (TESOL Q 21:87-111, 1987; Learning styles in the ESL/EFL classroom. Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 1995) on learning styles and Doyle and Rutherford's (Theory Pract 23:20-25, 1984) suggestions on matched instructional designs. The mixed methods research design was adopted in the current study, and concurrent triangulation was used to corroborate the findings. Study findings indicated that the participants reportedly applied the group teaching style more frequently than the other styles and favored a repertoire of the visual and auditory perceptual teaching styles. Although participants were mostly positive about the importance of learning styles, effects of perceptual teaching styles on learning, and the matched instructional design, they did not believe that their students were aware of their own learning styles and noted various curricular and administrative constraints in relation to implementation of the matched instruction. Consequently, the current study suggested that the language teachers and their line managers should consider effective planning and implementation of the entire teaching operation in relation to the matched instructional design in their classrooms. Also, it is recommended that as part of their professional development, the classroom practitioners are encouraged to explore their students' "voices" and raise their learners' awareness regarding their learning styles for more effective teaching-learning processes.

The objective of the study was to develop a prototype for an accessible, high quality, cost and time-effective 'Development Profiling Tool' for use in reception classes. This would build a unique picture of every individual child's developmental at the beginning of their educational journey, meaning that interventions for any comparable areas of difficulty could be started early in the child's schooling. In this study, a prototype of the tool was developed and tested for reliability, validity and usability. Through content analysis of a range of screeners and the merging of targeted expertise, a single 54 question observational questionnaire was constructed that incorporated the five developmental domains considered to impact on learning and emotional well-being: auditory skills; internal senses (proprioception and vestibular input); external senses (auditory, visual and tactile responsivity); fine motor skills and gross motor skills. Thus, the Development Profiling Tool was created.

Background: Phonetic transcription of disordered speech samples is especially crucial for the assessment and treatment of functional or organic speech-sound disorders. Previous studies show that students who struggle with the identification and segmentation of speech sounds are more likely to encounter difficulties with clinical phonetic transcription. Aims: To clarify the connection between phonemic awareness and phonetic transcription in Mandarin-speaking undergraduate students, as well as the improvement of these skills after phonetic transcription training. Methods & Procedures: A pretest--post-test design was adopted for this study. The experimental group (n = 38) consisted of students majoring in audiology and speech-language pathology who were given 12 weeks of transcription training. The control group (n = 33) consisted of audiology and speech--language pathology majors who completed the same module a year earlier without undergoing the transcription training. Two instruments were used to assess their skills: (1) the Phonemic Awareness Skill Test (PA test) and (2) the Phonetic Transcription Skill Test (PT test) designed for the purposes of the present study. Outcomes & Results: Performance on most subtests of the PT and PA tests improved significantly at post-test for the experiment group, although only PT training was provided. After phonetic transcription training, the relationship between phonemic addition abilities and phonetic transcription strengthened. Phonemic identification was found to be a predictor of undergraduate students' PT skills of disordered speech samples. Conclusions & Implications: Results from this study provide insights into the role of phonetic transcription training in improving phonemic awareness and phonetic transcription skills.

This research was a quasi-pretest-posttest design experimental study with experimental and control classes. The experimental class applied the VAK model and the control class applied the guided inquiry model. The research was conducted on fifth-grade students of primary schools in Surakarta in the academic year 2018/2019 with a sample of 114 students selected by random sampling technique. The research data was obtained by a narrative writing test instrument that had been validated by linguists and evaluation experts before tested. The results showed the mean score of narrative writing skills gained in the experimental class was 0.44 compared to the control class of -0.30. The results of the independent sample t-test showed a significant difference between the experimental class and the control class with a t-value of 25.155 and a sig. (2- tailed) value of 0.000<0.05. The effect-size calculation showed that the VAK model had a high effectiveness in learning narrative writing skills, with a value of d=7.58. Based on the theory, related to learning style (visualization, auditory, kinesthetic) could enhance the increase in linguistic intelligence as an internal factor affecting narrative writing skills. Based on research findings and theories, it can be synthesized that in terms of linguistic intelligence, the VAK model is effective in improving narrative writing skills.

The advent of various interactive multimedia networks in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classroom (Grabe & Grabe, 2007) has led to the emergence of new learning methodologies (Ming-Hung et al., 2017). Accordingly, new ways of learning are present in a multimodal environment , and have caused an effect on students' degree of motivation, as well as on their learning styles (e.g., 'multimodal' and 'perceptual' learning styles). The present study aims to analyse the degree of motivation of ESP learners with a 'Multimodal' learning style in contrast to those with 'Multiple' learning styles. In particular, this study addresses three research questions: (1) Has 'Digital' learning created a recent 'perceptual' learning style (i.e., 'Multimodal' learning style)? (2) To what extent does 'digital' learning increase ESP students' motivation in comparison to 'traditional' learning? (3) Does the 'Multimodal' learning style heighten the degree of motivation in contrast to 'Multiple' learning style? The study used a sample of 62 first-year ESP students taking the subject 'Professional English for Communicators' at a Spanish university. Data for this study were collected using 'Wix', as the main research tool, and two questionnaires which focused on students' 'Multimodal' learning style and motivation: (a) 'Multimodal Learning Styles Questionnaire', designed to help students identify their preferences towards their learning process, and (b) 'Motivation Questionnaire', in order to get information regarding students' perceptions for the enhancement of engagement. Results suggest that the implementation of 'Wix' in the classroom increases students' engagement in their learning process and fosters a new perceptual learning style (i.e., 'multimodal' learning style). These findings may help to identify to what extent digital resources affect students' engagement and perceptual learning styles' preferences. The results obtained from this research may be used to derive conclusions on how to approach the 'Multimodal' learning style in further student performances with digital tools that promote the training of digital literacies (Girón-García, 2013).

The use of digital video has gained a prominent position in enhancing not only aural reception but also active production skills in the language classroom. The present paper seeks to share a set of three lessons plans based on the use of educational mini-videos that enhance the development of students' oral skills through an active learning methodology. Though implemented as a part of the ESP undergraduate course for engineering students at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), these lesson plans can be easily adapted to other ESP/EFL/ESL situations. We aim at encouraging language teachers to use innovative ways to integrate educational videos into their teaching practice around the globe.

Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) refers to difficulties in perceptual processing of auditory information. It is a difficulty experienced by a person whose pure tone hearing, intelligence, and language abilities are within the appropriate age norms. In children with CAPD, difficulty in spelling and reading loudly can also be observed. Symptom scales (or questionnaires) are required to determine the presence of CAPD-like symptoms. If risks are found in the scales, the children are referred for diagnosis. The study reported on here aimed to investigate whether CAPD symptoms were underlying to reading and writing difficulty. Eight state schools were randomly selected. The questionnaire evaluating the presence of the CAPD symptoms was answered by 32 teachers for 328 children in total. While the children without reading and writing difficulty did not have CAPD indications, the probability of having CAPD was significantly higher in the children with reading and writing difficulties (p < 0.001). When gender effect was examined, a higher CAPD symptom score was found in males. As a result of the 18-item questionnaire, it was detected that children with CAPD symptoms had a significant disadvantage in reading and writing compared to children who did not have these symptoms. Children with CAPD symptoms should be referred for diagnosis if the CAPD indications are identified.

Learning style has been considered as one of determining factors for learning processes. This study aimed at observing the correlation between students' learning style and performance of Nigerian students in biology. The sample of this study consisted of 100 students which were randomly selected from the secondary schools in Ifelodun LGA, Kwara State, Nigeria. The two validated instrument used for data collection were Grasha & Reichmann's Student Learning Scale and VAK/VARK Learning Style. The data gained were analyzed using percentage, Pearson correlation, and Chi-Square test. The study findings indicated that: (i) there was a negative correlation between students' academic performance and visual (0.061) and kinesthetic learning style (0.50), as well as positive correlation between the performance and auditory learning style (0.108). (ii) There were no significant differences between the study of learning styles, either visual (t(99) = 1.60, p = 0.11), auditory (t(99) = 1.33, p = 0.18), or kinesthetic (t(99) = 0.59, p = 0.55), of male and female biology students' performance. Thus, it is suggested that teachers choose the most proper learning methods which accommodate the students' need based on their learning styles.

The study aimed to investigate the effect of a training program on improving working memory for students with learning difficulties in reading Arabic. The study sample consisted of (10) students with learning disabilities from Basic Education students from the fifth and sixth grades, and those between the ages (10-11) years as a pilot group and (10) students from the same stage and of the same age as a control group. The researcher used a working memory battery, Raven Test, and a training program he prepared to achieve the study goal. The results showed that there are statistically significant differences in the fields of working memory scale between the members of the experimental and control groups in the dimensional measurement, and in favor of the experimental group to which the training program was applied, by applying the measure of working memory in its three fields. The results also showed that there are statistically significant differences between the pre and post measurements of the areas of the working memory scale in favor of the post application, and for the benefit of the experimental group. This confirms the effectiveness of the training program used. Some recommendations were suggested.

Perceptual assimilation is a well-known task; however, there is no study on the assimilation pattern of the English monophthongs by L2 Thai learners. The aims of this study are to explore the perceptual assimilation patterns of the British English monophthongs to Thai monophthongs by L2 Thai learners and to examine the effect of L2 experience on this perception. The target British English sounds were /i:, I, e, ae, [upside down a], a?, [backwards c], [near-close back rounded vowel], u:, [upside down v], 3;/ in /bVt/ context. The Thai listeners performed an assimilation task by matching these British English monophthongs with their L1 Thai monophthongs. The results showed no difference in the assimilation patterns between the high-experienced and low-experienced groups in the perception of the English /I, e, a:, [backwards c], [near-close back rounded vowel], u:, [upside down v], 3:/. The degree of the perceived similarity in the matching of these vowels to the Thai sound categories between these two groups was not significantly different from one another either. However, English /e/ was mostly perceived as Thai /e/ in the high-experienced group to a greater degree than the low-experienced group. The findings also showed the difference in the assimilation patterns between these two groups, i.e. for English ae, i:, u:, [upside down a]/ suggesting the importance of the L2 experience in the exploration of the L2 speech learning research. The implication for L2 sound learning of this study is that having higher number of phonemes in the L1 phonological system than that in the L2 one is less important than the L2 experience.

Diphthongs are double vowel sounds made by combining two vowels in the same syllable. During their articulation in the oral cavity, the first vowel sound glides onto the next vowel from one position of the mouth to another within the same syllable. That's why they are heard as single-vowel phonemes by listeners. Because of a gliding movement in their articulation, most learners find them difficult to articulate and understand them at first. Hence, they can be tricky sounds to master for non-native speakers. The aim of this research is to explore the perceptibility of North American English diphthongs (NAE), which are /a[near-close back rounded vowel], o[near-close back rounded vowel], e[near-close near-front unrounded vowel], [open-mid back rounded vowel][near-close near-front unrounded vowel], a[near-close near-front unrounded vowel]/ by Turkish English language teachers. A pre-test will be used to measure the perception of them in vocabulary items, which will be given to 30 Turkish English language teachers in a five scale multiple choice tests. The participants will be asked to choose the correct option. Then, a three-hour implicit and explicit teaching will be conducted by doing practices in a variety of exercises in the classroom. After the elapse of two weeks, the same pre-test will be administrated to the participants as a post-test. A comparison and contrast of the two tests results will be made to find out the existence and degrees of the perceptibility of the diphthongs in vocabulary items by Turkish English language teachers.

In the present research we look into the mechanisms which facilitate integrated functioning of speech and music components within a song. To understand the underlying mechanisms of such interaction we investigate poems set to music, analyzing the components of both speech and music intonation. The study is performed within the scope of Speech Energetic Theory and employs its idea of the emotional-and-pragmatic potential, which is believed to precisely convey the idea of a poem and therefore further facilitate successful speech-music interaction within a song. During the experiment the levels of emotional-and-pragmatic potential in poems and songs were firstly determined perceptively by the informants and afterwards verified instrumentally by using specifically developed formula for the evaluation of emotional-and-pragmatic potential. The values of the intonation components were obtained with the help of PRAAT software. Overall, the results demonstrated that that speech and music profoundly correlate on the prosodic level, possessing some common auditive and acoustic features.

Adult Japanese speakers often experience difficulty learning English /r/-/l/. Previous research has reported the effectiveness of using perception-based high-variability identification training with natural speech stimuli on improving Japanese speakers' perception and production of /r/-/l/. Recent studies have also shown the effectiveness of using production-based multipronged pronunciation training with explicit instruction on articulatory movements and visualized spectrograms showing F3 frequencies of English /r/-/l/. The proposed study will compare the effects of identification training and pronunciation training on Japanese speakers' English /r/-/l/ learning, as well as the generalization of learning gains to novel phonetic environments. Further, the proposed study will contribute to speech perception and production research by exploring the relationship between perceptual learning and production learning.

This research analyzes the acoustic characteristics and conducts a perception test of Thai tones produced by Chinese learners learning Thai through the "Thai Tone Application". A comparison of Thai tones pronounced by 40 Chinese learners learning Thai at Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University with 40 Thai native speakers was also conducted. The acoustic characteristics studied in this research were the fundamental frequencies analyzed with the Praat program version 6.0.9. The F0 values were then converted to semitone values. Statistical analysis was used. The perception test was conducted before and after using the application. The results showed that the Thai Tone Application promoted better tone pronunciation and perception in Chinese learners learning Thai as a foreign language. After utilizing the Thai Tone Application with the Chinese learners, they could clearly pronounce the mid and the low tones, which is linguistically classified as the problematic level tones for Chinese learners. The application helped expedite contour tones such as the high tone and the rising tone, but not the falling tone. The minimal pair approach used to create the application was discussed.

Speech, reading, and writing are the basic forms of linguistic communication. Therefore, it is very important to diagnose any problems with them as early and completely as possible, particularly in children with special needs. One of the methods that focuses primarily on the diagnosis and therapy of such learning difficulties is the one developed by Fred Warnke. The diagnostic solutions of the method were motivated by the following assumptions: (a) Automation of hearing, vision, and motor functions can be improved based on the level of brain activity; (b) the development and automation of phonological analysis and synthesis are based on cooperation between the two brain hemispheres. The main purpose of this paper is to present and discuss some research results that show the usefulness of diagnosis of the first stage of the Warnke method, as well as the training determined by it, in improving the phonological memory, language, and reading and writing skills of a group of four Polish children with special needs. The range of automation of each function was estimated on the basis of the values obtained in the diagnoses (initial and final). The final diagnosis showed an improvement in the levels of speech, reading, and writing. Thus, the research has confirmed that the Warnke method diagnosis may help to broaden and complement the standard evaluation methods of phonological competence for Polish children with special needs. The outcomes were so encouraging that we decided to present them to a wider audience.

Background: Literacy achievement of learners is a concern in many developing countries, particularly for English second language (EL2) learners with inadequate language development. It is important to investigate foundational phonological awareness (PA), as well as speech perception skills to guide the development of effective intervention for EL2 learners to facilitate optimal literacy acquisition. Objectives: The study aimed to describe the PA and speech perception in noise skills of South African Grade 1, EL2 participants, learning in an English first language (EL1) context, to inform evidence-based support during literacy acquisition for EL2 learners. Method: A cross-sectional, descriptive design was employed. Twenty-five EL1 participants provided normative results for the Phonological Awareness Test -- 2 and "South African English Digits-in-Noise Test," enabling between-group comparisons with 25 matched EL2 participants for quantitative data analysis. Demographic and background information was obtained using parental questionnaires. Results: The EL2 learners presented with PA skills below those of EL1 learners in all subtests. Though the speech perception in noise skills of EL2 learners were within the normative range for their age, their skills are also lower in comparison to EL1 learners. Conclusion: The findings support the inclusion of explicit PA instruction for rhyming, segmentation, isolation, deletion, substitution, and blending for EL2 literacy acquisition. Developing speech perception in noise skills is necessary to facilitate PA and phonemegrapheme knowledge. This can enable decoding for early EL2 literacy acquisition.

The ability to listen to fifth-grade students at SD Negeri Cigugur is still less than 68. This study aims to determine the characteristics of gender-based auditory learning modality, supporting aspects of listening ability, and gender-based listening abilities. This study used a qualitative approach with a case study design. The research subjects were the fifth-grade students of Cigugur State Elementary School. Data was collected through literature studies, observations, interviews, documentation, and field notes. The validity of the data is checked by data credibility and data dependability. Data is analyzed by data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion or verification. The results of the study showed 85% of students showed the characteristics of auditory learning modality, but there are 15% of students who have visual learning modalities. The characteristics of students' stereotypes are different, the characteristics of students' stereotypes tend to be independent, strong personalities, and ambitious. The characteristics of female students are more cheerful, spoiled, and obedient to teachers. Supporting aspects of listening ability are physical aspects, psychological aspects, aspects of students based on gender, and learning media. The ability to listen to female students in class V of SD Cigugur is superior. Male students are only able to summarize the contents of the conversation and only 20% can respond to the results of the conversation. Female students can respond to the results of the conversation, assess the results of the conversation, summarize the contents of the conversation, and respect the people who are talking in front of the class. [Note: The page range (17-23) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range for this article is p102-108.]

This paper investigates the phonology of L2 speech and its impact on intelligibility in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) contexts. Many studies have considered speaker-related characteristics, such as speech styles and pronunciation features, that influence the intelligibility of L2 speech for both nonnative speakers (NNS) and native speakers (NS). However, only a handful of studies have considered what impact listener-related conditions, such as a shared first language (L1) background or L1 typology between NNSs, may have on the intelligibility of their speech. Therefore, an online survey was used to study the intelligibility of Mandarin-English, French-English, Japanese-English, and German-English from the perspective of 100 NNSs. It was hypothesized that a shared L1 or shared L1 typology between two NNSs will enhance the intelligibility of their speech. However, the findings did not support this supposition. For example, the Mandarin speakers did not find Mandarin-English to be more intelligible than Japanese-English or any of the other two accent types. Similarly, the results indicated that a shared L1 typology between two NNSs does not improve the intelligibility of their speech. The data did suggest however that a listeners' familiarity to one accent type may improve the intelligibility of a typologically related novel L2 accent. The limitations of the findings are discussed along with their implications for future research directions.

The use of new digital formats in language learning and testing improves both the learning and acquisition skills development process of language tests. The process of listening comprehension is considered one of the most complex in the field of Computer Aided Learning Language (CALL) because it relates to multimodal learning channels and brain sound perception in an unfamiliar communication environment (the foreign language) for the learner. This article stresses the possibilities of using binaural sound in the design and implementation of tests as well as the cognitive issues that might be involved in the process of learning and assessment of a foreign language.

Research on native Arabic speakers' perception of non-native English phonemic contrasts has manifested various conclusions. Some studies have revealed that native Arabic speakers experience difficulty in the perception of non-native English phonemic contrasts, where others have concluded that they largely do not experience such difficulty. Due to this discrepancy, the current study aimed to examine the overall perceptual accuracy of only the English labial categories /p, b, f, and v/ in onset positions performed by native Arabic speakers. The study also examined the potential effects of the phonetic contexts and the familiarity of the stimuli being tested on the participants' perceptual performance. Twenty-four Saudi male participants completed consonantal phoneme identification and discrimination tasks. The findings revealed that the participants experienced difficulty in the perception of the categories /p/ and /v/, confusing them with their counterparts /b/ and /f/. The findings also revealed that neither phonetic context nor familiarity had any effect on the participants' perceptual accuracy of all of the categories in question, except in the context in which the category /v/ was followed by back vowels. In this specific context, the participants' performance tended to be lower, which could be attributed to the influence of lip rounding, which results in coarticulation with the fricative noise associated with this category (/v/). Lastly, the results obtained in this study provide additional crucial insights into auditory phonetics and present additional explanation on how the human auditory system recognizes speech sounds.

Research has suggested that the type and frequency of learning strategies employed by successful listeners is greater than their less successful counterparts. Based on evidence that metacognitive strategies (e.g. listening-for-gist; inferring meaning) are more effective than cognitive ones (e.g. word-for-word translation), this study sought to measure the effect that rhymical training had on the listening comprehension acuity of 313 Japanese university students. The theoretical basis was that rhythmical priming assists learners parse the input based on prosody and identify salient words by stress. Small but significant increases were observed among students who were rhythmically trained, compared to a comparison group that received explicit instruction but no rhythm training, and a "true" control group that received no treatment. These results extend the feasibility of input enhancement, rhythmic priming, and perception-based instruction beyond the traditional grammar and pronunciation instruction domains.

Scholars have extensively investigated the effectiveness of high variability phonetic training (HVPT), that is, identification and discrimination of second language speech sounds produced by multiple speakers followed by trial-by-trial feedback. Building on the notion of incidental and multimodal learning in cognitive psychology (e.g., Lim & Holt, 2011), we developed a new, HVPT-based videogame paradigm in which participants aimed to shoot clay targets as fast as possible while being guided to learn sound cues as a by-product of planned learning. Focusing on the speech acquisition of 58 Japanese English-as-a-foreign-language learners, the current study set out to test the pedagogical potential and limits of the incidental HVPT approach. According to the results of statistical analyses, the effectiveness of incidental HVPT can be more clearly observed if it focuses on more learnable targets (e.g., acquisition of English [ae]-[open-mid back unrounded vowel] rather than [r]-[l] contrasts) with gains being more generalizable from trained to new speakers' voices and from perception to production dimensions.

Over the past 50 years, scientists have made amazing discoveries about the origins of human language acquisition. Central to this field of study is the process by which infants' perceptual sensitivities gradually align with native language structure, known as "perceptual narrowing." Perceptual narrowing offers a theoretical account of how infants draw on environmental experience to induce underlying linguistic structure, providing an important pathway to word learning. Researchers have advanced perceptual narrowing theory as a universal developmental theory that applies broadly across language learners. In this article, we examine diversity and representation of empirical evidence for perceptual narrowing of speech in infancy. As demonstrated, cumulative evidence draws from limited types of learners, languages, and locations, so current accounts of perceptual narrowing must be viewed in terms of sampling patterns. We suggest actions to diversify and broaden empirical investigations of perceptual narrowing to address core issues of validity, replicability, and generalizability.

Though several studies have been undertaken to explore the correlates of academic achievement, there is a dearth of studies relating to the cognitive profiles of children who show marked discrepancies between their cognitive potential and actual academic achievement. The present study was undertaken in this context. The study was conducted on a sample of 308 students in the age range of 12-16 years, drawn from different schools in Kerala, India. The participants belonged to four groups, that is, Underachievers, Normal achievers, Overachievers, and those with Specific Learning Disorders (SLD). WISC-IV India and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) were used for assessing cognitive functions. Results indicated that the SLD group could be discriminated from the other three groups in terms of Digit span, Letter-Number sequencing, Working Memory Index, and Processing Speed Index. Further, a retention score obtained from RAVLT could discriminate between the SLD and UA groups. Discriminant analysis of the variables resulted in the extraction of two significant functions composed of three variables of WISC and two variables of RAVLT. The results indicated that the different groups of scholastically backward children, though similar in their overall IQ, had distinct and characteristic cognitive profiles.

Recent work has shown significant sublexical effects of long-term memory in nonword repetition (NWR) using a dichotomous consonant age of acquisition (CAoA) variable (Moore, 2018; Moore, Fiez, and Tompkins, 2017). Performance consistently decreased when stimuli comprised consonants acquired later versus earlier in speech development. To address potential confounds related to stimulus design and linearity, the purpose of this study was to test whether performance decreases as the CAoA value of stimuli increases in various linguistic tasks using a continuous CAoA variable. Thirty-one college students completed NWR and other linguistic tasks in which the stimuli varied in average CAoA values. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. After accounting for phonotactic probability, CAoA was a statistically significant predictor of performance across the models reported. The relationship was more complex in some of the models in which CAoA showed a statistically significant nonlinear relationship with the outcome measure. Results from this study support previous work showing that CAoA affects performance on NWR and other linguistic tasks that vary in their memory, auditory perceptual, and articulatory demands. Importantly, this line of work was extended here by demonstrating that the CAoA effect is robust across novel stimulus sets and study designs, and may be more complex than previously understood when using a dichotomous CAoA variable. Quadratic results suggest that the CAoA variable has a differential effect on performance for low to moderate CAoA values, but for higher CAoA values the effect is similarly negative. The nonlinear relationship between CAoA and measures of speed and accuracy on some of the tasks warrants further study into the complex relationship between various predictive factors that contribute to language performance.

Longer free time between presentation of verbal list items often leads to better immediate serial recall. The present series of three experiments demonstrates that this beneficial effect of time is more general than has been known: It is found for verbal items presented visually and auditorily (Experiments 1 and 2), and also when people engage in concurrent articulation during presentation, thereby preventing rehearsal (Experiment 3). The effect of time is to improve memory most strongly for the later part of the list, contrary to what is predicted from the assumption that time between items is used to bolster memory traces of already encoded items through rehearsal, refreshing, or elaboration. The data are compatible with a ballistic form of short-term consolidation, and with the assumption that encoding an item into working memory partially depletes a limited resource, which is replenished over time.

Purpose: Effects related to literacy acquisition have been observed at different levels of speech processing. This study investigated the link between orthographic knowledge and children's perception and production of specific speech sounds. Method: Sixty Spanish-speaking second graders, differing in their phonological decoding skills, completed a speech perception and a production task. In the perception task, a behavioral adaptation of the oddball paradigm was used. Children had to detect orthographically consistent /t/, which has a unique orthographic representation ((t)), and inconsistent /k/, which maps onto three different graphemes ((ci), (qu), and (k)), both appearing infrequently within a repetitive auditory sequence. In the production task, children produced these same sounds in meaningless syllables. Results: Perception results show that all children were faster at detecting consistent than inconsistent sounds regardless of their decoding skills. In the production task, however, the same facilitation for consistent sounds was linked to better decoding skills. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate differences in speech sound processing related to literacy acquisition. Literacy acquisition may therefore affect already-formed speech sound representations. Crucially, the strength of this link in production is modulated by individual decoding skills.

Purpose: This study aimed to (a) relate temporal patterning of articulation to functional speech outcomes in neurologically healthy and impaired speakers, (b) identify changes in temporal patterning of articulation in neurologically impaired speakers, and (c) evaluate how these changes can be modulated by speaking rate manipulation. Method: Thirteen individuals with (ALS) and 10 neurologically healthy controls read a sentence 3 times, first at their habitual rate and then at a voluntarily slowed rate. Temporal patterning of articulation was assessed by 24 features characterizing the modulation patterns within (intra) and between (inter) four articulators (tongue tip, tongue body, lower lip, and jaw) at three linguistically relevant, hierarchically nested timescales corresponding to stress, syllable, and onset-rime/phoneme. For Aim 1, the features for the habitual rate condition were factorized and correlated with two functional speech outcomes--speech intelligibility and intelligible speaking rate. For Aims 2 and 3, the features were compared between groups and rate conditions, respectively. Results: For Aim 1, the modulation features combined were moderately to strongly correlated with intelligibility (R[superscript 2] = 0.51-0.53) and intelligible speaking rate (R[superscript 2] = 0.63-0.73). For Aim 2, intra-articulator modulation was impaired in ALS, manifested by moderate-to-large decreases in modulation depth at all timescales and cross-timescale phase synchronization. Interarticulator modulation was relatively unaffected. For Aim 3, voluntary rate reduction improved several intra-articulator modulation features identified as being susceptible to the disease effect in individuals with ALS. Conclusions: Disrupted temporal patterning of articulation, presumably reflecting impaired articulatory entrainment to linguistic rhythms, may contribute to functional speech declines in ALS. These impairments tend to be improved through voluntary rate reduction, possibly by reshaping the temporal template of motor plans to better accommodate the disease-related neuromechanical constraints in the articulatory system. These findings shed light on a novel perspective toward global timing-based motor speech assessment and rehabilitation.

Purpose: The Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) is a standardized instrument used in voice assessment to assess voice quality. It has been translated and culturally adapted in several languages. This study aimed at developing and validating a Tamil version of CAPE-V through auditory perceptual evaluation of remotely recorded voice samples. Method: The Tamil version was adapted with permission from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association to match the rationale in English CAPEV. The sentences were constructed by the first author and validated for content by two panels of experts. Forty-five participants (15 cases and 30 controls) were included in the study. Data recording was conducted online (Zoom Video Communications, Inc., app) for all samples. Three raters participated in the auditory evaluation and scored all samples using Grade, Roughness, Breathiness, Asthenia, and Strain (GRBAS) scale followed by CAPE-V with a week gap in between. Twenty percent of samples were repeated to assess intrarater reliability. The intrarater and interrater reliability measures for Tamil CAPE-V were established using intraclass coefficients (ICCs). To ensure construct validity, group differences were determined between the cases and controls. The concurrent validity was established by correlating Tamil CAPE-V with the GRBAS scale. Results: The intrarater reliability for Tamil CAPE-V ranged from moderate to excellent (ICC: 0.610--0.998). The Tamil CAPE-V obtained moderate to good interrater reliability for all parameters (ICC: 0.525--0.790) except pitch (ICC: 0.405). The differences between the cases and controls were statistically significant (p < 0.01). The correlation between CAPE-V and GRBAS was strong for overall severity, breathiness, and strain (r[subscript s] = 0.725--0.861) and moderate for roughness (r[subscript s = 0.678). Conclusion: The Tamil CAPE-V is a reliable and valid tool for auditory perceptual evaluation in Tamil-speaking populations.

Purpose: Pitch plays an important role in auditory perception of music and language. This study provides a systematic review with meta-analysis to investigate whether individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have enhanced pitch processing ability and to identify the potential factors associated with processing differences between ASD and neurotypicals. Method: We conducted a systematic search through six major electronic databases focusing on the studies that used nonspeech stimuli to provide a qualitative and quantitative assessment across existing studies on pitch perception in autism. We identified potential participant- and methodology-related moderators and conducted metaregression analyses using mixed-effects models. Results: On the basis of 22 studies with a total of 464 participants with ASD, we obtained a small-to-medium positive effect size (g = 0.26) in support of enhanced pitch perception in ASD. Moreover, the mean age and nonverbal IQ of participants were found to significantly moderate the between-studies heterogeneity. Conclusions: Our study provides the first meta-analysis on auditory pitch perception in ASD and demonstrates the existence of different developmental trajectories between autistic individuals and neurotypicals. In addition to age, nonverbal ability is found to be a significant contributor to the lower level/local processing bias in ASD. We highlight the need for further investigation of pitch perception in ASD under challenging listening conditions. Future neurophysiological and brain imaging studies with a longitudinal design are also needed to better understand the underlying neural mechanisms of atypical pitch processing in ASD and to help guide auditory-based interventions for improving language and social functioning.

Purpose: An extra moment after a sentence is spoken may be important for listeners with hearing loss to mentally repair misperceptions during listening. The current audiologic test battery cannot distinguish between a listener who repaired a misperception versus a listener who heard the speech accurately with no need for repair. This study aims to develop a behavioral method to identify individuals who are at risk for relying on a quiet moment after a sentence. Method: Forty-three individuals with hearing loss (32 cochlear implant users, 11 hearing aid users) heard sentences that were followed by either 2 s of silence or 2 s of babble noise. Both high- and low-context sentences were used in the task. Results: Some individuals showed notable benefit in accuracy scores (particularly for high-context sentences) when given an extra moment of silent time following the sentence. This benefit was highly variable across individuals and sometimes absent altogether. However, the group-level patterns of results were mainly explained by the use of context and successful perception of the words preceding sentence-final words. Conclusions: These results suggest that some but not all individuals improve their speech recognition score by relying on a quiet moment after a sentence, and that this fragility of speech recognition cannot be assessed using one isolated utterance at a time. Reliance on a quiet moment to repair perceptions would potentially impede the perception of an upcoming utterance, making continuous communication in real-world scenarios difficult especially for individuals with hearing loss. The methods used in this study--along with some simple modifications if necessary--could potentially identify patients with hearing loss who retroactively repair mistakes by using clinically feasible methods that can ultimately lead to better patient-centered hearing health care.

Purpose: Mixed historical data on how listening effort is affected by reverberation and listener-to-speaker distance challenge existing models of listening effort. This study investigated the effects of reverberation and listener-to-speaker distance on behavioral and subjective measures of listening effort: (a) when listening at a fixed signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and (b) at SNRs that were manipulated so that word recognition would be comparable across different reverberation times and listening distances. It was expected that increased reverberation would increase listening effort but only when listening outside critical distance. Method: Nineteen adults (21-40 years) with no hearing loss completed a dual-task paradigm. The primary task was word recognition and the secondary task was timed word categorization; response times indexed behavioral listening effort. Additionally, participants provided subjective ratings in each condition. Testing was completed at two reverberation levels (moderate and high, RT[subscript 30] = 469 and 1,223 ms, respectively) and at two listener-to-speaker distances (inside and outside critical distance for the test room, 1.25 and 4 m, respectively). Results: Increased reverberation and listening distances worsened word recognition performance and both behavioral and subjective listening effort. The effect of reverberation was exacerbated when listeners were outside critical distance. Subjective experience of listening effort persisted even when word recognition was comparable across conditions. Conclusions: Longer reverberation times or listening outside the room's critical distance negatively affected behavioral and subjective listening effort. This study extends understanding of listening effort in reverberant rooms by highlighting the effect of listener's position relative to the room's critical distance.

This study mainly examined the role of the combination of three senses (i.e., auditory, visual, and tactile) and five senses (i.e., auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory) in the correlation between electrophysiological and electrodermal responses underlying second language (L2) sentence comprehension. Forty subjects did two acceptability judgment tasks, encompassing congruent and semantically/pragmatically incongruent sentences. The event-related potential (ERP) and galvanic skin response (GSR) data for both the target and final words of the sentences were collected and analyzed. The results revealed that there is an interaction between cognitive and emotional responses in both semantically and pragmatically incongruent sentences, yet the timing of the interaction is longer in sentences with pragmatic incongruity due to their complexity. Based on the ERP and GSR correlation results, it was further found that the five-sense combination approach improves L2 sentence comprehension and interest in learning materials yet reduces the level of excitement or arousal. While this approach might be beneficial for some learners, it might be detrimental for those in favor of stimulating learning environments.