Foreign Language Learners Show a Kinematic Accent in Their Co-Speech Hand Movements

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Speech Science
• Movement Science

Background:

• Humans synchronize speech and gestures, aligning hand movements with vocal emphasis.
• Foreign language learners often misplace vocal stress, contributing to a foreign accent.
• The relationship between native language, vocalization, and co-speech gestures in learners is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if a foreign accent is present in the timing of co-speech manual movements.
• To determine if native language influences the timing of gestures in foreign language learners.
• To explore the interplay between vocal and manual timing in second language acquisition.

Main Methods:

• A pre-registered kinematic-acoustic study was conducted.
• Dutch learners of Spanish produced Spanish cognates.
• Co-speech manual movements and acoustic prominence were analyzed for timing deviations.

Main Results:

• Dutch learners of Spanish displayed a 'kinematic accent'.
• Hand movement peaks were timed closer to the native Dutch stress syllable, not the acoustically correct Spanish stress syllable.
• Conversely, incorrect vocal stress attracted movement peaks to the target Spanish syllable.

Conclusions:

• Foreign language learners exhibit competing timing processes between their vocal and manual systems.
• Native language influences not only spoken accent but also co-speech manual kinematics.
• Kinematic accent provides an additional cue to a speaker's native language.