A SOM-based analysis of early prosodic acquisition of English by Brazilian learners: preliminary results

Abstract

In this paper the SOM is used in an exploratory analysis of transfer phenomena from first language (L1) to the second language (L2) related to word/lexical stress. The basic hypothesis tested is whether the parameterization of the speech signal of the learner’s utterances by standard signal processing techniques, such as Linear Predictive Coding (LPC), used to encode the input of the network results in efficient categorization of speakers by the SOM. Preliminary results indicates that the combination LPC+SOM is indeed able to produce well-defined clusters of speakers that possess similarities regarding the transfer of stress patterns among Brazilian students in learning English as a foreign language.