In this dissertation, I investigated how cognitive resources as well as formal, and informal language experience impact language learning in two studies. In the first study (Chapter 2), I examined the learning of Spanish grammatical gender by Chinese international students who were studying abroad in the US. The goal of that study was to uncover…

Pronunciation is reexamined from a "top-down" perspective that shifts the focus of attention in language instruction from individual phonemes to suprasegmentals and other features of the larger context of utterances, including prosody, phonological fluency, voice quality, and gestures. (57 references) (Author/LB)

This paper lays out techniques for investing different types of phonation from acoustic data. Nearly all the world's languages distinguish between voiced and voiceless phonation. Many languages use other phonation types, such as the breathy voice--also described as speaking while sighing. Another kind of voice quality, one frequently found in…

The sounds of Standard Indonesian, or Bahasa Indonesian, used in official government and private communication, are presented here. The place and manner of articulation and the distinctive features of consonants, vowels, diphthongs, and vocalic combinations are thoroughly explained through text, illustrations, and charts. Variants of…

The sound system of English is described in all its complexity, from the relationship between spelling and pronunciation to the rules of connected speech, focusing on the methods and rationale of teaching pronunciation of English, particularly to English as a second language learners. (CB)