Various kinds of L1 transfer are found in L2 speech, which often influence transmission of both linguistic and para-linguistic information. In this study, we focus on how adequately Japanese learners of English can transmit para-linguistic expressions in the task of storytelling. For this aim, we analyze 1) how learners control the prosodic features to express specified emotions and 2) what kind of impressions native listeners perceive from the learners' expressions. For the first analysis, the learners' prosodic control is compared with the corresponding native control. For the second analysis, with speech emotion recognition technology, L2 speech is converted to its emotion posteriorgram. Then, the intended emotions are compared with the perceived emotions. Experiments show the learners have difficulty in imitating the native intensity control, especially when expressing sadness, and distinction among perceived emotions is remarkably reduced.
@inproceedings{shoda23_slate, title = {Learners' Prosodic Control in the Task of Expressive Storytelling and Predicted Native Listeners' Impressions of the Learners' Speech}, author = {Chihiro Shoda and Yingxiang Gao and Yurun He and Nobuaki Minematsu and Noriko Nakanishi and Daisuke Saito}, year = {2023}, booktitle = {9th Workshop on Speech and Language Technology in Education (SLaTE)}, pages = {46--50}, doi = {10.21437/SLaTE.2023-10}, issn = {2311-4975},}Cite as:Shoda, C., Gao, Y., He, Y., Minematsu, N., Nakanishi, N., Saito, D. (2023) Learners' Prosodic Control in the Task of Expressive Storytelling and Predicted Native Listeners' Impressions of the Learners' Speech. Proc. 9th Workshop on Speech and Language Technology in Education (SLaTE), 46-50, doi: 10.21437/SLaTE.2023-10