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Previous Work:
As an undergraduate at Bryn Mawr College, I earned my AB in Linguistics and Languages. After graduating, I taught English in Andorra with a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, during which I enjoyed working with students and living in a multilingual environment. I then continued with my studies, completing an MSc in Brain and Cognition at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, where my research explored the universality in personality impressions from brief, novel voices. My PhD position at Radboud University is the perfect opportunity to continue with my interest in multilinguals and their speech patterns.
My Research:
On a daily basis, we communicate with each other in various settings: at train stations, at the supermarket, and at cafes with friends. Many settings contain background noise that require us to adapt our speech so that the listener can understand. Speaking in a second language (L2) has added challenges, making these same scenarios even more complicated. Not only do L2 speakers face a higher cognitive load but they additionally may need to use phonemes that are not present in their native language. This makes both speech production and speech perception more challenging for them.
Therefore, in this project, I am studying how L2 speakers adapt their speech production in noise, i.e. Lombard Speech, and how this may differ from speech produced in quiet settings, i.e. plain speech. Additionally, I examine Lombard and plain speech production by the L2 speakers in their native language (L1). For this, I have recorded native Dutch (in Dutch and English) and American-English speakers (in English) producing plain and Lombard speech. I am examining the plain and Lombard speech from two perspectives: production and perception.
For production, I have examined median pitch values, showing the expected increase when producing Lombard speech as compared to plain speech. Additionally for the Dutch speakers, we saw the slight influence of native language on non-native Lombard speech. I will further examine other acoustic measurements such as duration, intensity (loudness), spectral center of gravity, and voice onset time.
For perception, I have conducted an intelligibility study (with English stimuli) with the native (American-English) and non-native (L1 Dutch, L2 English) speakers and native and non-native listeners. We are examining the Lombard intelligibility benefit, Lombard speech is better understood in noise compared to plain speech heard in noise, for non-native speech with native and non-native listeners.