Dr. Yunjung Kim, Associate Professor in the School of Communication Science and Disorders, and SCSD doctoral student Austin Thompson published a scholarly paper with colleague Hyunju Chung on the acoustic and articulatory characteristics of English semivowels produced by adult second language (L2) speakers.

“The primary contribution of the study is tongue movement data that explain acoustic characteristics of L2 speakers for semivowels,” said Kim. “Many non-native English speakers find these sounds challenging to produce and perceive, primarily because these sounds often do not exist in their native language. As a bilingual person who went through a challenge of learning a set of new sounds in my adulthood, this was a natural curiosity. I wanted to know the way L2 speakers move their tongue to produce the sounds, how the movement shapes acoustic signals, and, more importantly, how these articulatory and acoustic characteristics are perceived by native speakers of English.”

The study resulted in multilevel data on semivowel productions of L2 speakers, including data on tongue movement (kinematics), acoustics, and the consequence on the listener’s ears (perception). “The goal of our lab (FSU Motor Speech Laboratory) is to develop a data-driven speech management program for those who are in need, so we plan to incorporate the findings for the next step in the streamline, which is conducting a clinical trial targeting L2 speakers’ improved articulatory accuracy.”