Production of L3 Vowels: Is it Possible to Separate them from L1 and L2 Sounds?

It is incontrovertible that acquisition of a sound system of a second language is always a complex phenomenon and presents a great challenge for L2 learners (e.g. Rojczyk, 2010a). There are numerous studies (e.g. Nowacka, 2010; Flege, 1991) which show that L2 learners whose first language has a scarce number of sounds, have problems to distinguish L2 sound categories and tend to apply their L1 segments to new contexts. It may be easily detectable in the case of vowels. There is abundance of studies examining L2 learners’ successes and failures in production of L1 and L2 vowels (e.g. Flege, 1992; Nowacka, 2010; Rojczyk, 2010a). Usually such projects show how difficult it is for L2 learners to separate “old” and “new” vowel categories. However, the situation becomes much more complicated when we think of third language (L3) production. While in the case of L2 segmental production the number of factors affecting L2 sounds is rather limited (either interference from learners’ L1 or some kind of L2 intralingual influence), in the case of L3 segmental production we may encounter L1→L3, L2→L3 or L3 intralingual interference. This makes separation of L3 sounds a much more complex process. The aim of this study is to examine whether speakers of L1 Polish, L2 English and L3 German are able to separate new, L3 vowel categories from their native and L2 categories. Being a part of a larger project, this time the focus is on German /œ/. This vowel was chosen since it is regarded as especially difficult for Polish learners of German and it is frequently substituted with some other sounds. A group of English philology (Polish-English-German translation and interpretation programme) students was chosen to participate in this project. They were advanced speakers of English who did not encounter any difficulties in communication with native speakers of this language and upper-intermediate users of German. They had been taught both English and German pronunciation/practical phonetics during their studies at the University of Silesia. The subjects were asked to produce words containing analysed vowels, namely: P /u/, P /ɔ/, P /ɛ/, E /u/, E /ɔ / and G /œ/. All examined vowels were embedded in a /bVt/ context. The target /bVt/ words were then embedded in carrier sentences I said /bVt/ this time in English, Ich sag’ /bVt/ diesmal in German and Mówię /bVt/ teraz in Polish, in a non-final position. The sentences were presented to subjects on a computer screen and the produced chunks were stored in a notebook’s memory as .wav files ready for inspection. The Praat 5.3.12 speech-analysis software package (Boersma, 2001) was used to scroll through the audio files in order to locate an onset and offset of target vowels, measure the F1 and F2 frequencies and plot vowels on the plane. All analyses were also performed using Praat. The obtained results shed new light on L3 segmental production and L1 and L2 interference

When Technology Is Too Hot, Too Cold Or Just Right

Many instructors acknowledge the importance of quantitative literacy in non-STEM fields and may themselves use advanced tools for data analysis, statistics and visualization. But how, if at all, does an instructor introduce quantitative methods into the classroom without overwhelming and disengaging students who may have been drawn to the field precisely because it has not traditionally required any skill or interest in science, technology, engineering or math? I present a model of iterative assignment design illustrated by the evolution of a phonetic exercise in which students are asked to measure vowels from their own speech and to plot their measurements on a graph in order to re-create the standard organization of vowel sounds found in linguistics textbooks. The different iterations involved varying degrees of technology (from low-tech pencil-and-paper to high-tech computing environment) and technological support and are evaluated with respect to NICHE best practices. The most recent iteration finds a compromise in a simple web app driven by the powerful R statistical computing environment

Too hot, cold or just righ: Technology for numeracy in the non-STEM class

Concurrent Session

Re-Viewing the Mass Communication Education Curriculum. Case for Language/Linguistics, Communication Synergy.

Curriculum review of any academic curriculum is one way of demonstrating the dynamism of such discipline. Mass Communication as a dynamic discipline is one such beneficiary of curriculum review. In line with Iwuchukwu’s (2010) earlier submission that no graduate of any academic level or discipline worth’s more than the curriculum that produces him/her, it was an observed inability of some practicing journalists, especially, those in the print. To handle ethical issues, which was traced to a lacuna in the curriculum that led to the introduction of the course, ethics. This paper seeks to unveil another obvious lapse among mass communication practitioners cutting across, print, broadcast and electronic media. It further highlights that such lapses as incompetence in language use, both at the phonetic, phonological semantic. Syntactic stylistic and even psycholinguistic to be a direct fall out of a perceived lacuna in the present mass communication education curriculum especially in Nigeria. We contend that a review of the present curriculum is glaringly imperative recommending not only the inclusion of more language/linguistic courses but also a stronger synergy between language/linguistics and mass communication. This is our opinion could be boosted with a course "Language and Communication not only though to all mass communication students at all levels, but it being recognized as another Sub-field of specialization by mass communication graduates who wish to further their stadium at the postgraduates levels as in the case in the University of Calabar

Linguistics 2016 APR Self-Study & Documents

UNM Linguistics APR self-study report, review team report, response report, and initial action plan for Fall 2016, fulfilling requirements of the Higher Learning Commission

Research-led teaching of state-of-the-art laboratory phonology: Intonation atlases

At the end of this talk you… • have an idea of how undergraduate students of linguistics experience learning through research and inquiry into laboratory phonology in my university classes • got to know a definition of research-led teaching • know the goals and method(s) behind the Interactive Atlas of (Spanish) Intonation, on which I based my research-led teaching projects • know the different steps of how I implemented my research-led teaching project in advanced linguistics classes • know how the scientific results of these projects were made accessible to the international linguistic community and how they are taken up by the community • will have some answers to the central questions of this satellite worksho

Speech Training and Speech Activities in Institutions of Higher Education in Taiwan

An M.A. thesis in speech on the status of speech training in Taiwan, China, is proposed. From personal experience, this author has discovered some difficulties which Chinese students meet when they take up speech in American universities. The chief reason for this might be that the Chinese students who study speech in American universities and colleges have a somewhat limited knowledge of the speech areas and an. inadequate background of speech training. Since speech courses are elective in most of the universities in Taiwan, the students\u27 interest in participating in speech activities, such as speech contest and ·dramatic performance, has never been highly aroused. The lack of specifically trained speech teachers also hinders the development of speech training and speech activities. This author has talked with many Chinese students on American campuses whose major .subjects are other than speech and found that they experience considerable trouble speaking in public. ·This is due not only to their level of understanding of English but also appears to reflect their insufficient training in speech. There is, therefore, an urgent need for the universities and other educational organizations in Taiwan to emphasize speech and to provide more opportunity for developing the speaking ability of the students. Since the Chinese Government moved its seat to Taiwan in 1949, the Ministry of Education, civic organizations and institutions of higher education have sponsored a number of speech activities in the form of oratory, discussion, debate, and drama. The students involved in these activities have been gradually increasing in number. Unfortunately, no previous studies have-been made dealing with the degree of development of speech training and speech activities in the colleges and universities in Taiwan. The information and materials concerning speech instruction in Taiwan have never been arranged in a systematic compilation. Such a study would help to foster and develop speech training and speech activities in institutions of higher education in Taiwan. This study represents an attempt to assess the status of speech training and ·speech activities in the universities and colleges of Taiwan

Strengthening the ties that exist: Reexploring charted territory

published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe