"Il parle normal, il parle comme nous”: self-reported usage and attitudes in a banlieue

We report on a survey of language attitudes carried out as part of a project comparing youth language in Paris and London. As in similar studies carried out in London (Cheshire et al. 2008), Berlin (Wiese 2009) and elsewhere (Boyd et al. 2015), the focus was on features considered typical of ‘contemporary urban vernaculars’ (Rampton 2015). The respondents were pupils aged 15-18 in two secondary schools in a working-class northern suburb of Paris. The survey included (1) a written questionnaire containing examples of features potentially undergoing change in contemporary French; (2) an analysis of reactions to extracts from the project data: participants were asked to comment on the speakers and the features identified. Quantitative analysis had shown that some of these features are more widespread than others and are used by certain categories of speaker more than others (Gardner-Chloros and Secova, 2018). This study provides a qualitative dimension, showing that different features have different degrees of perceptual salience and acceptability. It demonstrates that youth varieties do not involve characteristic features being used as a ‘package’, and that such changes interact in a complex manner with attitudinal factors. The study also provides material for reflection on the role of attitude studies within sociolinguistic surveys

Teaching Pronunciation from the Top Down

In this paper, a theoretical and pedagogical foundation for research efforts is provided. Pronunciation is examined from a contextual, "top-down" perspective from which segmental articulation assumes less importance than more general properties of speech such as rhythm and voice quality. Pronunciation is described as conveying many different types of messages to a hearer related to the information structure of a discourse, the speaker's attitude and mood, and other social and psychological features of the speaker or of the relationship between the speaker and hearer. Moreover, various aspects of pronunciation are shown to relate to specific gestures. The aim is to present a more descriptively enlightening and pedagogically useful characterization of second language phonology than traditional treatments, in which phonology was identified with discrete articulations and in which suprasegmental features were relegated to the periphery of language per se, i.e., to the paralinguistic and in some cases the extralinguistic domains of communication. Suggestions for teaching pronunciation are set in a context of research and theory, and a focus on the non-segmental characteristics of speech is advocated. This discussion makes reference to the use of video and computer media in pronunciation training (see Pennington forthcoming for further discussion), as well as to the use of more traditional types of audiovisual aids. The paper concludes with a set of research questions on pronunciation instruction derived from this investigation

The Role of Accent in Popular Music: An Interdisciplinary Approach

In the thirty years that have passed since Peter Trudgill first published his study of British pop-song pronunciation, and fifteen years since Paul Simpson published his follow-up study of accents in pop and rock singing (1999), there have been several changes in the way linguists approach the sociolinguistics of singing. These changes include Franz Andres Morissey's introduction of sonority as a factor behind choosing particular phonological features, and the ongoing and evolving criticism of Trudgill's original assertion that singers were (and possibly still are) trying to 'imitate' Americans. The present study argues that existing theories are insufficient, and proposes a new framework for dealing with phonological choice in song, centred around three separate but unavoidably interrelated values that influence style choice – aesthetic, sonority, and indexicality. Unlike many related studies, it places emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, drawing upon the work of musicologists, philosophers and linguists, in an attempt to bring a fresh perspective on the phenomenon. Special attention is given to the notion that singers use accents to create (or be appropriate to) a particular aesthetic. The view is taken that music scenes act as unique speech communities that possess both socially and musically derived linguistic norms that all members accept (both performers and audience), but only few actively utilise in their language use (the singers)

Modal density in structuring segments containing organizational metadiscourse versus content sequences

Organizational metadiscourse in lectures helps to facilitate comprehension and is frequently found in structuring segments placed in between content sequences. In contrast, content sequences are those parts of the discourse which carry the main ideas to be developed in the lecture. Although there is ample literature that explores the use of metadiscourse in lectures, to the best of our knowledge, no previous research has compared both parts of the monological classroom discourse with regard to the semiotic resources used by lecturers. Thus, this paper aims to compare and contrast structuring segments and content sequences with a focus on the use of multimodal resources. In order to do so, six structuring segments with a high number of organizational metadiscourse instances and six content sequences from six different lectures have been selected. These lectures are face-to-face recorded sessions that belong to Humanities courses at Yale University OpenCourseWare. Through the observation of short clips and multimodal transcriptions using the software Multimodal Analysis Video, I present quantitative and qualitative data that provides evidence that organizational metadiscourse is most often co-expressed with non-verbal resources in structuring segments, which contributes to emphasizing the connections across the contents, and to engaging the audience. In other words, structuring segments appear to be more modally dense than content sequences

Towards a declamatory performance in Schubert Lieder

This study reconsiders declamation in Schubert lieder performance in light of emerging historical evidence. Johann Michael Vogl’s reputedly declamatory approach has arguably been captured in surviving Diabelli editions that document his rhetorically motivated alterations and ornamentations. Similarly, Gustav Anton von Seckendorff has detailed song-like spoken declamation that manipulates pitch, rhythm and accentuation. Recordings of five modern German speakers were transcribed, analysed and used to model effective declamation in the recitation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poems ‘Erster Verlust’ and ‘Geistes Gruß.’ PRAAT speech analysis software was used to analyse the recordings. The participants’ use of stress, emphasis and rubato was extrapolated and used (in combination with the historical evidence) to speculatively recreate several declamatory performances of Schubert lieder

Re-examining Phonological and Lexical Correlates of Second Language Comprehensibility:The Role of Rater Experience

Few researchers and teachers would disagree that some linguistic aspects of second language (L2) speech are more crucial than others for successful communication. Underlying this idea is the assumption that communicative success can be broadly defined in terms of speakers’ ability to convey the intended meaning to the interlocutor, which is frequently captured through a listener-based rating of comprehensibility or ease of understanding (e.g. Derwing & Munro, 2009; Levis, 2005). Previous research has shown that communicative success – for example, as defined through comprehensible L2 speech – depends on several linguistic dimensions of L2 output, including its segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation, fluency-based characteristics, lexical and grammatical content, as well as discourse structure (e.g. Field, 2005; Hahn, 2004; Kang et al., 2010; Trofimovich & Isaacs, 2012). Our chief objective in the current study was to explore the L2 comprehensibility construct from a language assessment perspective (e.g. Isaacs & Thomson, 2013), by targeting rater experience as a possible source of variance influencing the degree to which raters use various characteristics of speech in judging L2 comprehensibility. In keeping with this objective, we asked the following question: What is the extent to which linguistic aspects of L2 speech contributing to comprehensibility ratings depend on raters’ experience

Listen Carefully! Fallacious Auditory Arguments

In some cases, prosodic features (or other forms of sound) which accompany verbal message might be an essential part of an argument. The same as verbal, auditory arguments can also be fallacious. Prosodic features (e.g., word emphasis, pause) may contribute to making an auditory straw man fallacy or by manipulating voice quality, pitch or intonation one can make an auditory ad hominem. Also there are many potentially fallacious appeals to emotion

Preaching in the \u27Hear\u27 and Now: Justification, Development, and Assessment of \u27Parabolic Engagement\u27 Pedogogy in French-Speaking Missionary Settings

This thesis argues the utility of ‘parabolic engagement’ method for preachers and listeners in the French Antillean context. The opening chapter defines key terms and clarifies how this imaged sermonic style addresses the listening habits of targeted audiences. It explains that figured delivery is often context-interpretive, involving a more personal, experiential decoding by the listener. Engagement technique increases auditor involvement and creates unique communicative rapport. The chapter points out that the entire experimental process validates the usefulness of the pedagogy. Part One addresses the theological rationale for ‘parabolic engagement’ method. Chapter Two reviews appropriate literature with respect to engagement. Chapter Three argues the biblical basis for creating a method of figured preaching. Chapter Four discusses how precise homiletic situations demand a circumstantial approach to engaging delivery. Part Two attempts to synthesize a broad range of image-creation methodologies and make them suitable for teaching among oral peoples. Chapter Five shows the necessity of a grammar for figured proclamation pedagogy. Chapter Six develops simplified classical methods for finding the illustrative crux of an idea or text. Chapter Seven shows the need to then engage the listener by means of analogous correspondence with the concrete world. Chapter Eight explores how circumstantial factors encourage the transformation of engaging analogies into extended narratives. Part Three validates the thesis within the missionary setting. Chapter Nine describes the suitability of ‘parabolic engagement’ method among Creoles and European French on the island of Martinique. Chapter Ten establishes an experimental design by specifying components, clarifying how the hypotheses were tested, justifying data collection methods, and explaining the use of participatory action research and educational ethnography. Chapter Eleven details the implementation, measurement, and success of engagement strategies. Lastly, Chapter Twelve argues for the utility of ‘parabolic engagement’ and posits generalizations by summarizing the merits, conclusions, and limitations of the model