Papers by Jamilu Abdullahi
Former investigations were about the familiarity advantage that people with the same language bac... more Former investigations were about the familiarity advantage that people with the same language backgrounds are more intelligible. Besides, particular English was most intelligible to participants with high certain English familiarity. This study investigated how Taiwanese listeners judge the English speech intelligibility of Taiwanese and Indonesian speakers. Thirty Indonesian speakers and thirty Taiwanese speakers participated in this study. Ninety Taiwanese listeners were recruited to judge speech intelligibility. The recording and judging process used the TOCS+ software (Hodge et al., 2009). The software provided 124 contrast items of minimal pairs for the recognition task, including contrast of syllable shape, vowels, and consonants. The listeners' judgments were then analyzed by the TOCS+ software automatically. It was found that Taiwanese English speaker is more intelligible to Taiwanese listeners. The variables that predict intelligibility for Indonesian speakers are syllable shape contrast item correct (SSIC) and consonant item correct (CIC), while Taiwanese speakers' SSIC and vowel item correct (VIC) did not predict intelligibility. Only CIC predicts intelligibility. Both groups made similar errors in consonant voicing. The study's findings contribute to the teaching materials for the English preparation of students who will study abroad.
This study examines the effect of native language on listeners’ perception of native and non-nati... more This study examines the effect of native language on listeners’ perception of native and non-native consonants. The study focuses on cross-language perception of selected stops and fricatives among Hausa speakers who have little exposure to Malay, and Malay speakers who have no exposure to Hausa. The primary goal of this study is to examine how Hausa and Malay speakers perceived non-native stops and fricatives that are absent in their native language. Hausa language has a combination of plosives and implosives which involves the use of different airstream mechanisms in their production. Malay speakers who do not have any experience of implosives may find it difficult to discriminate between implosives and plosives, and to produce implosives accurately. In contrast, Hausa speakers may have difficulty discriminating between labial stops and fricatives in Malay as this distinction is not present in Hausa. Forty-five Hausa native speakers and forty-five Malay native speakers were recru...
Objective To determine the current prevalence of subclinical mastitis (SCM) and associated risk f... more Objective To determine the current prevalence of subclinical mastitis (SCM) and associated risk factors on dairy farms in New South Wales. Methodology A survey was sent to 382 dairy farmers to acquire information on the relevant risk factors associated with SCM. Results The average herd prevalence of SCM among the 189 respondents (response rate 49.5%) was 29%. Farmers who had herds with a low prevalence (<20% cows with individual somatic cell count (ISCC) >2 ¥ 10 5 cells/mL) more frequently wore gloves during milking (26% vs 62%), used individual paper towels for udder preparation (16% vs 62%), fed cows directly after milking (47% vs 87%) and more frequently treated cows with high ISCC (69% vs 80%) than farmers who had herds with a high prevalence of SCM (>30% cows with ISCC >2 ¥ 10 5 cells/mL). The latter more often used selective dry cow therapy (52% vs 24%), compared with low prevalence herds. Conclusion The prevalence of SCM in this cross-sectional study is comparable or lower than reported in other studies from North America and the European Union. The outcome provides a benchmark for the current focus of the NSW dairy industry on the management practices associated with a low prevalence of SCM, such as wearing gloves, using paper towels and feeding cows directly after milking.
Drafts by Jamilu Abdullahi
Unpublished PhD Thesis, 2018
This thesis presents results of a collection of studies that focuses on the production and percep... more This thesis presents results of a collection of studies that focuses on the production and perception of plosives, implosives, and fricatives by native speakers of Hausa and Malay. Selections of stops and fricatives were chosen from these two languages as they provided controls for interpretations of the analysis. Implosives are found in Hausa but not in Malay, and likewise specific stops and fricatives are found in Malay but not in Hausa. The first objective focuses on the production of stops and acoustic analysis of plosives and implosives by two groups of native speakers. The acoustic comparison would bring a further understanding of acoustic cues that are related with voiced plosives and voiced implosives. This will help in investigating the perception and production difficulties of the plosives and implosives. A total number of 45 Hausa native speakers and 45 Malay native speakers were recruited to participate in the study. All the participants were given a set of words consisting of the different combination of the target sounds to produce. PRAAT (Boersma & Weenink, 2001) was used to acoustically analyse all the recordings. In particular, voice onset time (VOT) and closure duration (CD) was measured for all the target consonants. The findings also showed that VOT is a distinctive feature that distinguishes place of articulation for various classes of plosives but it does not discriminate plosives from implosives. Instead, CD is a more reliable acoustic cue to differentiate between voiced plosives and voiced implosives. The result also show that the universal VOT categories (i.e. prevoicing, short voicing lag, and v long voicing lag) are not refined enough to account for differences between plosives and implosives. viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I gratefully thank Merciful and Almighty Allah to be the source of all strength and patience to accomplish this work. Alhamdulillah, wish His blessing I have the ability to finish this thesis even though there are so many obstacles that I had to go through during the completion of this thesis. At the end of this rewarding process of preparing my thesis, it is my responsibility to duly appreciate those people who helped me reach my goal. First and foremost, I am indebted to the members of my supervisory committee. The first person I would like to thank is my supervisor, Associate Professor Dr Yap Ngee Thai, for her inspiring suggestions, guidance, encouragement, and great patience with my seemingly endless revisions. Professor Yap cares about her students so much that she is just like a mother and I am really glad that I have had the privilege of getting to know her in my life. Special thanks also go to my committee members, Dr Hj. Sabariah Md Rashid and Dr Vahid Nimehchisalem, not only for all the constructive comments to keep me ever focused on the principles of good research, but also for all the encouragement they have given me in the past years.
Vol. 6 (1) 2019 by Jamilu Abdullahi
JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION, 2019
This study examines the effect of native language on listeners' perception of native and nonnativ... more This study examines the effect of native language on listeners' perception of native and nonnative consonants. The study focuses on cross-language perception of selected stops and fricatives among Hausa speakers who have little exposure to Malay, and Malay speakers who have no exposure to Hausa. The primary goal of this study is to examine how Hausa and Malay speakers perceived non-native stops and fricatives that are absent in their native language. Hausa language has a combination of plosives and implosives which involves the use of different airstream mechanisms in their production. Malay speakers who do not have any experience of implosives may find it difficult to discriminate between implosives and plosives, and to produce implosives accurately. In contrast, Hausa speakers may have difficulty discriminating between labial stops and fricatives in Malay as this distinction is not present in Hausa. Forty-five Hausa native speakers and forty-five Malay native speakers were recruited for the study. Audio-recording of minimal pairs of Malay and Hausa words were used as stimuli in an AX discrimination task. Subjects had to indicate whether they heard two different words, or the same words presented twice by two different speakers. The results of the study show that the Malay and Hausa native speakers faced considerable difficulties and problems in perceiving most non-native sound contrasts. Native language influence was found to be a major factor influencing the perception of non-native sound contrasts. This study concluded that the Perception Assimilation Model was successful in the prediction and interpretation of most of the perceptual difficulties encountered by the Malay and Hausa native speakers in the perception of stops and fricatives.
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Papers by Jamilu Abdullahi
Drafts by Jamilu Abdullahi
Vol. 6 (1) 2019 by Jamilu Abdullahi