ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2024
ISCA Archive SpeechProsody 2024

Language Proficiency and F0 Entrainment: A Study of L2 English Imitation in Italian, French, and Slovak Speakers

Zheng Yuan, Štefan Beňuš, Alessandro D'Ausilio

This study explores F0 entrainment in second-language (L2) English speech imitation during an alternating reading task (ART). Participants with Italian, French, and Slovak native languages imitated English sentences, and their F0 (dis-)entrainment was quantified using the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) distance between the parameterized F0 contours of the imitated sentence and those of the models. Results indicate a nuanced relationship between L2 English proficiency and entrainment: speakers with higher proficiency generally exhibit less entrainment in pitch variation and declination. However, within dyads, the more proficient speakers demonstrate a greater ability to mimic pitch range, leading to increased entrainment. This suggests that proficiency influences entrainment differently at individual and dyadic levels, highlighting the complex interplay between language skill and prosodic adaptation.