Unstressed Vowels in German Learner English: An Instrumental Study

This study investigates the production of vowels in unstressed syllables by advanced German learners of English in comparison with native speakers of Standard Southern British English. Two acoustic properties were measured: duration and formant structure. The results indicate that duration of unstressed vowels is similar in the two groups, though there is some variation depending on the phonetic context. In terms of formant structure, learners produce slightly higher F1 and considerably lower F2, the difference in F2 being statistically significant for each learner. Formant values varied as a function of context and orthographic representation of the vowel

Perception of Fa by non-native listeners in a study abroad context

The present study aims at exploring the under-investigated interface between SA and L2 phonological development by assessing the impact of a 3-month SA programme on the pronunciation of a group of 23 Catalan/Spanish learners of English (NNSs) by means of phonetic measures and perceived FA measures. 6 native speakers (NS) in an exchange programme in Spain provided baseline data for comparison purposes. The participants were recorded performing a reading aloud task before (pre-test) and immediately after (post-test) the SA. Another group of 37 proficient non-native listeners, also bilingual in Catalan/Spanish and trained in English phonetics, assessed the NNS' speech samples for degree of FA. Phonetic measures consisted of pronunciation accuracy scores computed by counting pronunciation errors (phonemic deletions, insertions and substitutions, and stress misplacement). Measures of perceived FA were obtained with two experiments. In experiment 1, the listeners heard a random presentation of the sentences produced by the NSs and by the NNSs at pre-test and post-test and rated them on a 7-point Likert scale for degree of FA (1 = “native” , 7 = “heavy foreign accent”). In experiment 2, they heard paired pre-test/post-test sentences (i.e. produced by the same NNS at pre-test and posttest) and indicated which of the two sounded more native-like. Then, they stated their judgment confidence level on a 7-point scale (1 = “unsure”, 7 = “sure”). Results indicated a slight, non-significant improvement in perceived FA after SA. However, a significant decrease was found in pronunciation accuracy scores after SA. Measures of pronunciation accuracy and FA ratings were also found to be strongly correlated. These findings are discussed in light of the often reported mixed results as regards pronunciation improvement during short-term immersion

English read by Japanese phonetic corpus: an interim report

The primary purpose of this paper is to explain the procedure of developing the English Read by Japanese Phonetic Corpus. A series of preliminary studies (Makino 2007, 2008, 2009) made it clear that a phonetically-transcribed computerized corpus of Japanese speakers’ English speech was worth making. Because corpus studies on L2 pronunciation have been very rare, we intend to fill this gap. For the corpus building, the 1,902 sentence files in the English Read by Japanese speech database scored for their individual sounds by American English teachers trained in phonetics in Minematsu, et al. (2002b) have been chosen. The files were pre-processed with the Penn Phonetics Lab Forced Aligner to generate Praat TextGrids where target English words and phonemes were forced-aligned to the speech files. Two additional tiers (actual phones and substitutions) were added to those TextGrids, the actual phones were manually transcribed and the other tiers were aligned to that tier. Then the TextGrids were imported to ELAN, which has a much better searching functionality. So far, fewer than 10% of the files have been completed and the corpus-building is still in its initial stage. The secondary purpose of this paper is to report on some findings from the small part of the corpus that has been completed. Although it is still premature to talk of any tendency in the corpus, it is worth noting that we have found evidence of phenomena which are not readily predicted from L1 phonological transfer, such as the spirantization of voiceless plosives, which is not considered normal in the pronunciation of Japanese

The Influence of Attention to Language Form on the Production of Weak Forms by Polish Learners of English

The paper discusses a study whose aim was to examine the impact of attention to language form and task type on the realisation of English function words by Polish learners of English. An additional goal was to investigate whether style-induced pronunciation shifts may depend on the degree of foreign accent. A large part of the paper concentrates on the issue of defining ‘weakness’ in English weak forms and considers priorities in English pronunciation teaching as far as the realisation of function words is concerned. The participants in the study were 12 advanced Polish learners of English, who were divided into two groups: 6 who were judged to speak with a slight degree of foreign accent and 6 who were judged to speak with a high degree of foreign accent. The subjects’ pronunciation was analysed in three situations in which we assume their attention was increasingly paid to speech form (spontaneous speech, prepared speech, reading). The results of the study suggest that increased attention to language form caused the participants to realise more function words as unstressed, although the effect was small. It was also found that one of the characteristics of English weak forms, the lack of stress, was realised correctly by the participants in the majority of cases. Finally, the results of the study imply that, in the case under investigation, the effect of attention to language form is weakly or not at all related to the degree of foreign accent

The relation between pitch and gestures in a story-telling task

Anecdotal evidence suggests that both pitch range and gestures contribute to the perception of speakers\u2019 liveliness in speech. However, the relation between speakers\u2019 pitch range and gestures has received little attention. It is possible that variations in pitch range might be accompanied by variations in gestures, and vice versa. In second language speech, the relation between pitch range and gestures might also be affected by speakers\u2019 difficulty in speaking the L2. In this pilot study we compare global pitch range and gesture rate in the speech of 3 native Italian speakers, telling the same story once in Italian and twice in English as part of an in-class oral presentation task. The hypothesis tested is that contextual factors, such as speakers\u2019 nervousness with the task, cause speakers to use narrow pitch range and limited gestures; a greater ease with the task, due to its repetition, cause speakers to use a wider pitch range and more gestures. This experimental hypothesis is partially confirmed by the results of this study

The Bold and the Beautiful: How Aspects of Personality Affect Foreign Language Pronunciation

In the main study, a group of Polish learners of English completed a number of mimicry tasks in three languages: Italian, Dutch and Chinese, as well as a narration task in English. Mimicry performance and English pronunciation were then assessed by native speakers and compared. Participants also completed a questionnaire concerning their feelings about the languages they were to mimic and a second questionnaire designed to detect affective factors such as language learning anxiety, as well as attitudes towards the pronunciation of Polish and English. The pilot study suggested that the perceived attractiveness of the foreign language to be mimicked did not affect the performance of most participants, and that mimicry skill was fairly constant across languages. However, those who were particularly concerned about their personal appearance showed greater fluctuation in their ability to mimic and their performance appeared to be influenced by their attitude towards the language. This is referred to by the author as the Cecily effect. That study also confirmed the results of my previous experimental work showing that mimicry skill is correlated to some degree with English language pronunciation and that both pronunciation and mimicry are negatively affected by high levels of anxiety. The main study sets out to investigate whether or not these conclusions hold true for a larger sample population and also seeks to determine the effect of confidence and willingness to take risks on scores for both foreign language pronunciation and mimicry exercises

Pitch ability as an aptitude for tone learning

Tone languages such as Mandarin use voice pitch to signal lexical contrasts, presenting a challenge for second/foreign language (L2) learners whose native languages do not use pitch in this manner. The present study examined components of an aptitude for mastering L2 lexical tone. Native English speakers with no previous tone language experience completed a Mandarin word learning task, as well as tests of pitch ability, musicality, L2 aptitude, and general cognitive ability. Pitch ability measures improved predictions of learning performance beyond musicality, L2 aptitude, and general cognitive ability and also predicted transfer of learning to new talkers. In sum, although certain nontonal measures help predict successful tone learning, the central components of tonal aptitude are pitch-specific perceptual measures

Can pronunciation be taught? Teaching English speech rhythm to Greek students

This study investigates the production of features of the English rhythm by Greek learners of 10, 13 and 16 years old before and after 25 pronunciation lessons. Rhythm is approached with the PVI measure which examines vocalic and consonantal variability in a long stretch of speech. The results show a positive effect of pronunciation instruction with the 13-year-old speakers exhibiting a greater improvement than the 10-year-old ones. The comparison of these age groups with the 16-year-old students is not straightforward: the latter seem to have had a different starting point, as their consonantal variability was close to L1 English before the teaching intervention