# A Native-Reference Coordinate Geometry for L2 Pronunciation Deviation Using Self-Supervised Speech Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28060 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.28060/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 14 of its 28 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Sep 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [wav2vec 2.0: A Framework for Self-Supervised Learning of Speech Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11477/) (2020)
- [WavLM: Large-Scale Self-Supervised Pre-Training for Full Stack Speech Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.13900/) (2021)
- [SUPERB: Speech processing Universal PERformance Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.01051/) (2021)
- [Layer-wise Analysis of a Self-supervised Speech Representation Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.04734/) (2021)
- [Comparative layer-wise analysis of self-supervised speech models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.03929/) (2022)
- [What Do Self-Supervised Speech Models Know About Words?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.00162/) (2023)
- [Lhotse: a speech data representation library for the modern deep learning ecosystem](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.12561/) (2021)
- [Leveraging Allophony in Self-Supervised Speech Models for Atypical Pronunciation Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.07029/) (2025)
- [[b] = [d] - [t] + [p]: Self-supervised Speech Models Discover Phonological Vector Arithmetic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.18899/) (2026)
- [Loquacious Set: 25,000 Hours of Transcribed and Diverse English Speech Recognition Data for Research and Commercial Use](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21578/) (2025)
- [Automatic Pronunciation Assessment -- A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.13974/) (2023)
- [Investigating the Effect of Label Topology and Training Criterion on ASR Performance and Alignment Quality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.11641/) (2024)
- [Supplementary Resources and Analysis for Automatic Speech Recognition Systems Trained on the Loquacious Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.17915/) (2025)
- [Self-supervised Speech Comparison for L2 Phone, Rhythm, and Intonation Scoring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.13721/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [A Native-Reference Phone-Class Geometry for Second-Language Pronunciation Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.30075/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Self-supervised speech models encode rich phonetic information, but it remains unclear how to transform this information into interpretable metrics for second-language (L2) pronunciation assessment in spontaneous speech. We propose a native-reference coordinate geometry in which phone-class averages from native speech define a low-dimensional reference subspace, and L2 speech is evaluated by its distance to matching native phone-class coordinates. Unlike prior distance-based approaches, our method does not require parallel recordings with matched linguistic content or dedicated pronunciation labels. Across different self-supervised encoders and modeling choices, the resulting native-reference distances show negative Spearman correlations up to -0.5 with speaking proficiency, indicating that higher-proficiency speakers tend to lie closer to the native-reference space.