20,023 research outputs found

    Language Experience and Phonetic Training as Factors Influencing Timing Organisation in Polish Learners of English

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    The paper investigates the dynamics of speech rhythm in Polish learners of English and, specifically, how rhythm measurements revealing durational characteristics of vocalic and consonantal intervals through the measures (%V, Ī”V, Ī”C, VarcoV, VarcoC and nPVI) change along the process of second language acquisition as a result of language experience and phonetic training, and influence rhythmic characteristics of L2 English. The data used for the analysis come from 30 Polish first-year students of the University of ÅĆ³dÅŗ recorded reading two texts (English and Polish) during two recording sessions separated by a 7-month period of language studies and compared to the data obtained from the recordings of native speakers of English. The experiment aims at verifying whether the participants achieve progress in the rhythm measure scores under the influence of language experience and phonetic training, as it has already been confirmed that general proficiency of non-native speakers of English is a key factor contributing to the successful production of rhythmic patterns in English (Waniek-Klimczak 2009, Roach 2002). The results have shown no substantial and consistent progress for the whole group and across all the measures. Statistical tests, however, have revealed significant changes in the subjects' performance with respect to the vocalic measures Ī”V and VarcoV. This may reflect the effect of the type of phonetic training the students are offered, which is segment-based with particular emphasis on vowels

    Empirical relationships between health literacy and treatment decision making : A scoping review of the literature

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    Copyright Ā© 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Acknowledgements This research was supported by a Joseph Armand Bombardier Doctoral Scholarship awarded to Leslie J. Malloy-Weir by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The authors would like to thank Maureen Rice for her help with the literature search strategy and Dr. Malcolm Weir for his help with the relevance screening.Peer reviewedPostprin

    Native Speaker Perceptions of Accented Speech: The English Pronunciation of Macedonian EFL Learners

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    The paper reports on the results of a study that aimed to describe the vocalic and consonantal features of the English pronunciation of Macedonian EFL learners as perceived by native speakers of English and to find out whether native speakers who speak different standard variants of English perceive the same segments as non-native. A specially designed computer web application was employed to gather two types of data: a) quantitative (frequency of segment variables and global foreign accent ratings on a 5-point scale), and b) qualitative (open-ended questions). The result analysis points out to three most frequent markers of foreign accent in the English speech of Macedonian EFL learners: final obstruent devoicing, vowel shortening and substitution of English dental fricatives with Macedonian dental plosives. It also reflects additional phonetic aspects poorly explained in the available reference literature such as allophonic distributional differences between the two languages and intonational mismatch

    Deconstructing comprehensibility: identifying the linguistic influences on listeners' L2 comprehensibility ratings

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    Comprehensibility, a major concept in second language (L2) pronunciation research that denotes listenersā€™ perceptions of how easily they understand L2 speech, is central to interlocutorsā€™ communicative success in real-world contexts. Although comprehensibility has been modeled in several L2 oral proficiency scalesā€”for example, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS)ā€”shortcomings of existing scales (e.g., vague descriptors) reflect limited empirical evidence as to which linguistic aspects influence listenersā€™ judgments of L2 comprehensibility at different ability levels. To address this gap, a mixed-methods approach was used in the present study to gain a deeper understanding of the linguistic aspects underlying listenersā€™ L2 comprehensibility ratings. First, speech samples of 40 native French learners of English were analyzed using 19 quantitative speech measures, including segmental, suprasegmental, fluency, lexical, grammatical, and discourse-level variables. These measures were then correlated with 60 native English listenersā€™ scalar judgments of the speakersā€™ comprehensibility. Next, three English as a second language (ESL) teachers provided introspective reports on the linguistic aspects of speech that they attended to when judging L2 comprehensibility. Following data triangulation, five speech measures were identified that clearly distinguished between L2 learners at different comprehensibility levels. Lexical richness and fluency measures differentiated between low-level learners; grammatical and discourse-level measures differentiated between high-level learners; and word stress errors discriminated between learners of all levels

    Narrative comprehension and production in children with SLI: An eye movement study

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    This study investigates narrative comprehension and production in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Twelve children with SLI (mean age 5; 8 years) and 12 typically developing children (mean age 5; 6 years) participated in an eye-tracking experiment designed to investigate online narrative comprehension and production in Catalan- and Spanish-speaking children with SLI. The comprehension task involved the recording of eye movements during the visual exploration of successive scenes in a story, while listening to the associated narrative. With regard to production, the children were asked to retell the story, while once again looking at the scenes, as their eye movements were monitored. During narrative production, children with SLI look at the most semantically relevant areas of the scenes fewer times than their age-matched controls, but no differences were found in narrative comprehension. Moreover, the analyses of speech productions revealed that children with SLI retained less information and made more semantic and syntactic errors during retelling. Implications for theories that characterize SLI are discussed
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