Contemporary research in minoritized and diaspora languages of Europe

Synopsis: This volume provides a collection of research reports on multilingualism and language contact ranging from Romance, to Germanic, Greco and Slavic languages in situations of contact and diaspora. Most of the contributions are empirically-oriented studies presenting first-hand data based on original fieldwork, and a few focus directly on the methodological issues in such research. Owing to the multifaceted nature of contact and diaspora phenomena (e.g. the intrinsic transnational essence of contact and diaspora, and the associated interplay between majority and minoritized languages and multilingual practices in different contact settings, contact-induced language change, and issues relating to convergence) the disciplinary scope is broad, and includes ethnography, qualitative and quantitative sociolinguistics, formal linguistics, descriptive linguistics, contact linguistics, historical linguistics, and language acquisition. Case studies are drawn from Italo-Romance varieties in the Americas, Spanish-Nahuatl contact, Castellano Andino, Greko/Griko in Southern Italy, Yiddish in Anglophone communities, Frisian in the Netherlands, Wymysiöryś in Poland, Sorbian in Germany, and Pomeranian and Zeelandic Flemish in Brazil

Employability and Communication Skills : Triangulating Views of Employers, Lecturers and Undergraduates

Employability skills are known as soft skills and transferrable skills. Employability refers to skills, understandings, and personal attributes that increase graduates’ chances of employment and success in their chosen occupations (Yorke, 2004). Some of the skills listed under employability skills are resourcefulness, adaptability, and flexibility which are not only needed for adapting to work situations (Curtis & McKenzie, 2002). In a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) environment, there is a limit to what universities can equip graduates with, and they need to be able to continue learning to adjust to new situations and demands. According to the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) in the USA (1992), employability skills can be divided into four clusters of basic skills, thinking skills, personal qualities, and workplace competence. These skills would give them an edge during interviews and increase their chances of getting employed. Malaysia has been experiencing graduate unemployability. Approximately 60% of graduates remain unemployed for minimum of a year after graduation (“Graduate Employability”, 2020). There are many factors that contribute to graduate unemployability such as lack of experience, language proficiency, communication skills, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking skills (Hanapi & Nordin, 2014; Lim et al., 2016; Nooriah & Zakiah, 2017; Ooi & Ting, 2017). Employers often specify good communication skills and interpersonal skills as top requirements in job advertisements (Bakar et al., 2007; Ooi & Ting, 2017). However, graduates lack problem solving skills, communication skills (Hanapi & Nordin, 2014) and technical knowledge (Lim et al., 2016). In a knowledge-based economy, employees need to be independent and self-motivated (Menand, 2014) to acquire the necessary knowledge, information and high skill levels to cope with the fast pace of technological change. There is currently scarcity of findings on whether universities and students are preparing themselves appropriately to meet the expectations of employers. The study investigated importance of employability and communication skills based on the views of employers, lecturers and students. The research questions were: (1) how good are university students in their employability and communication skills? and (2) do employers and lecturers agree on the most important skills an effective employee should have? The descriptive study involved the use of a questionnaire on employability skills and language skills (listening and speaking, reading and writing). The items were formulated using a five-point rating scale of (1) not at all, (2) to some extent, (3) just enough, (4) to a reasonable extent, and (5) to a great extent. In addition, the questionnaire required lecturers and employers to select the top 10 skills out of the 25 skills listed. The data were collected from 123 students, 26 lecturers from a public university, and 26 employers in Sarawak, East Malaysia. The students were mostly female (74.80% female, 25.20% male) and had weak to moderate language proficiency, measured using the Malaysian University English Test (MUET). There were slightly more males among lecturers (12 female, 14 male) and employers (11 female, 15 male). The average years of work experience for lecturers was 8.7 (range: 1-25) and for employers, the average was 5.6 (range: 1-15). For the analysis, means and frequencies were calculated for comparison of the three perspectives on the importance of communication and employability skills. The results showed that there was a difference among employers, lecturers, and students in their ratings of how good university students are in their employability and communication skills. The students overrated themselves in all three set of skills. Based on the mean scores, the students rated themselves as having a moderate level of employability (M=3.74), reading and writing skills (M=3.75), and listening and speaking skills (M=3.61). The lecturers rated the university students as having a moderate level of skills as well, but the mean scores were slightly lower than the students’ (employability, M= 3.54; reading and writing skills, M=3.49; listening and speaking skills, M=3.29). To the employers, only the fresh graduates’ listening and speaking skills were moderate but on the weak side (M=3.15). The employers found the fresh graduates’ reading and writing skills (M=2.97) and listening and speaking skills (M=2.92) to be slightly weak. Interestingly, the students and lecturers rated the graduates’ employability skills to be moderate but the employers considered them to be weak. Another contrast was the students’ listening and speaking skills, which the students and lecturers considered to be the lowest level, compared to employability and reading and writing skills. However, the employers considered the fresh graduates’ listening and speaking skills to be better than the other two skills. This comparison shows that there is a mismatch in the ratings of university students’ employability and communication skills given by employers, lecturers, and students. The employers’ expectation was higher than the lecturers’. In other words, most employers expect students to be ready to handle the demands of the workforce upon graduation but sadly, most graduates fell short of their expectations. The employers may feel that they have to spoon feed the graduates on various matters upon graduation and they prefer employees who have a strong set of communication and employability skills. Next, the results on the ranking of the important skills an effective employee should have also showed a mismatch in the perspectives of employers and lecturers. To the employers, the top two skills were time management and problem-solving aptitude, both of which were employability skills. To the lecturers, the top two skills were leadership qualities and teamwork spirit, which were also employability skills. The employers prioritised skills for efficient handling of work situations to meet deadlines but the lecturers focussed on skills for the completion of group work. The mismatch shows that lecturers and universities may have overlooked the need to train students to be versatile to solve problems and complete projects on time. Indeed, students often submit work late and are not independent enough to resolve questions concerning their projects on their own, and constantly have to consult lecturers. To increase graduate employability, universities need to collaborate strategically with the industry to resolve the mismatch of expectations, as other Malaysian studies have also found a mismatch (Nadarajah, 2021; Nesaratnam et al., 2020). However, because of the fast-changing work environment, students need to develop lifelong learning skills so that they can develop their expertise, knowledge base, and a lifelong learning mindset to stay relevant. References Bakar, A. R., Mohamed, S., & Hanafi, I. (2007). Employability skills: Malaysian employers perspectives. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 2(1), 263-274. Curtis, D. D., & McKenzie, P. (2002). Employability skills for Australian industry: Literature review and framework development. http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv33428 Graduate employability: A priority of the Education Ministry. (2020, February 18). News Straits Times. https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/02/566731/graduate-employability-priority-education-ministry Hanapi, Z., & Nordin, M. S. (2014). Unemployment among Malaysia graduates: Graduates’ attributes, lecturers’ competency and quality of education. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 112, 1056-1063. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.1269 Lim, Y. M, Teck, H. L., Ching, S. Y., & Chui, C. L. (2016). Employability skills, personal qualities, and early employment problems of entry-level auditors: Perspectives from employers, lecturers, auditors, and students. Journal of Education for Business, 91(4), 185-192. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2016.1153998 Menand, H. (2014). Critical instruction, student achievement, and nurturing of global citizens: Global and comparative education in context. In S. A. Lawrence (Ed.), Critical practice in P-12 education (pp. 1-23). Hershey: Information Science Reference. Nadarajah, J. (2021). Measuring the gap in employability skills among Malaysian graduates. International Journal of Modern Trends in Social Sciences, 4(15), 81-87. https://doi.org/10.35631/IJMTSS.415007 Nesaratnam, S., Salleh, W. H. W., Foo, Y. V., Hisham, W. M. W. S. W. (2020). Enhancing English proficiency and communication skills among Malaysian graduates through training and coaching. International Journal of Learning and Development, 10(4), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijld.v10i4.17875 Nooriah, Y., & Zakiah, J. (2017). Development of graduates employability: The role of university and challenges. Jurnal Personalia Pelajar, 20, 15-32. Ooi, K. B., & Ting, S. H. (2015). Employers’ emphasis on technical skills and soft skills in job advertisements. The English Teacher, 44(1), 1-12. Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) (1992). Learning a living: a blueprint for high performance. A SCANS report for America 2000. Washington: U.S. Department of Labour. Yorke, M. (2004). Employability in higher education: what it is – what it is not. York: The Higher Education Academy/ESECT

The phonetics of speech breathing : pauses, physiology, acoustics, and perception

Speech is made up of a continuous stream of speech sounds that is interrupted by pauses and breathing. As phoneticians are primarily interested in describing the segments of the speech stream, pauses and breathing are often neglected in phonetic studies, even though they are vital for speech. The present work adds to a more detailed view of both pausing and speech breathing with a special focus on the latter and the resulting breath noises, investigating their acoustic, physiological, and perceptual aspects. We present an overview of how a selection of corpora annotate pauses and pause-internal particles, as well as a recording setup that can be used for further studies on speech breathing. For pauses, this work emphasized their optionality and variability under different tempos, as well as the temporal composition of silence and breath noise in breath pauses. For breath noises, we first focused on acoustic and physiological characteristics: We explored alignment between the onsets and offsets of audible breath noises with the start and end of expansion of both rib cage and abdomen. Further, we found similarities between speech breath noises and aspiration phases of /k/, as well as that breath noises may be produced with a more open and slightly more front place of articulation than realizations of schwa. We found positive correlations between acoustic and physiological parameters, suggesting that when speakers inhale faster, the resulting breath noises were more intense and produced more anterior in the mouth. Inspecting the entire spectrum of speech breath noises, we showed relatively flat spectra and several weak peaks. These peaks largely overlapped with resonances reported for inhalations produced with a central vocal tract configuration. We used 3D-printed vocal tract models representing four vowels and four fricatives to simulate in- and exhalations by reversing airflow direction. We found the direction to not have a general effect for all models, but only for those with high-tongue configurations, as opposed to those that were more open. Then, we compared inhalations produced with the schwa-model to human inhalations in an attempt to approach the vocal tract configuration in speech breathing. There were some similarities, however, several complexities of human speech breathing not captured in the models complicated comparisons. In two perception studies, we investigated how much information listeners could auditorily extract from breath noises. First, we tested categorizing different breath noises into six different types, based on airflow direction and airway usage, e.g. oral inhalation. Around two thirds of all answers were correct. Second, we investigated how well breath noises could be used to discriminate between speakers and to extract coarse information on speaker characteristics, such as age (old/young) and sex (female/male). We found that listeners were able to distinguish between two breath noises coming from the same or different speakers in around two thirds of all cases. Hearing one breath noise, classification of sex was successful in around 64%, while for age it was 50%, suggesting that sex was more perceivable than age in breath noises.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – Projektnummer 418659027: "Pause-internal phonetic particles in speech communication

Phonetic convergence in the speech of Polish learners of English

This dissertation examines variability in the phonetic performance of L2 users of English and concentrates on speech convergence as a result of exposure to native and non-native pronunciation. The term speech convergence refers to a process during which speakers adapt their linguistic behaviour according to who they are talking or listening to. Previous studies show that the phenomenon may take place both in a speaker’s L1 (e.g. Giles, 1973; Coupland, 1984; Gregory and Webster, 1996; Pardo, 2006; Babel; 2010) and L2 (e.g. Beebe, 1977; Berkowitz, 1986; Lewandowski, 2012; Rojczyk, 2013; Trofimovich and Kennedy, 2014). Speech convergence can be subdivided into three types of linguistic behaviour: convergence (the process of making one’s speech more similar to that of another person), divergence (the process of moving away from the speech of another person) and maintenance (the process of maintaining one’s default linguistic behaviour in spite of exposure to the speech of another person). The dissertation consists of four chapters; the first two provide theoretical background, the next two describe the study and its findings. Chapter One is concerned with previous research on speech convergence. The chapter reviews the methodology and approaches used in previous work and discusses the range of factors that may affect convergence strategies. Chapter Two provides an overview of relevant studies in the field of L2 phonetics. It describes the structure and formation of the L2 sound system and the numerous socialpsychological, linguistic and psycholinguistic variables that may influence L2 phonetic performance. Chapter Three describes the study on speech convergence in the pronunciation of Polish learners of English, i.e. the aims, hypotheses, methodology and results. In Chapter Four, the results of the study on phonetic convergence in the speech of Polish learners of English are analysed and discussed. The phenomenon of speech convergence has been explored under different names and with the use of various frameworks and methodological procedures. Some researchers refer to the process as accommodation and investigate it by analysing spontaneous conversational data (e.g. Giles, 1973; Bourhis and Giles, 1977; Coupland, 1984; Gregory and Webster, 1996). Other researches use the term imitation and examine the phenomenon in socially minimal, laboratory-based settings (e.g. Goldinger, 1998; Schokley et al., 2004; Delvaux and Soquet, 2007; Nielsen, 2011). Irrespective of terminological and methodological differences, the results of previous studies on phonetic convergence indicate that the process is conditioned by 171 a variety of linguistic (e.g. Mitterer and Ernestus, 2008; Babel, 2009; Brouwer et al., 2010; Nielsen, 2011) and social-psychological factors (Giles, 1973; Bilous i Krauss, 1988; Gregory and Webster, 1996; Pardo, 2006; Babel, 2009, Yu et al., 2013) Research on L2 acquisition and non-native pronunciation shows that the development of the L2 sound system is a complex and dynamic process. It has been argued that the productions of L2 users are generated by interlanguage (IL), an independent linguistic system that encompasses elements of the learner’s L1 and L2 but does not correspond exactly to either the NL or the TL (e.g. Selinker, 1972; 1992). Importantly, previous findings indicate that the phonetic performance of non-native speakers is influenced not only by their L1 and L2 sound systems but also by a range of various psycholinguistic (e.g. Flege, 1987; Flege et al., 2003) and social-psychological factors (e.g. Taylor et al., 1971; Zuengler, 1982; Gatbonton et al., 2011). The process of adapting one’s pronunciation as a result of exposure to another person’s speech has been detected in the productions of L2 users (e.g. Beebe, 1977; Berkowitz, 1986; Lewandowski, 2012; Rojczyk, 2013; Trofimovich and Kennedy, 2014). Similarly as in the case of L1 speech convergence, previous studies show that the magnitude of L2 speech convergence may depend upon a variety of social-psychological and linguistic variables. An interesting aspect of L2 phonetic convergence that has not yet been thoroughly explored is the comparison of pronunciation shifts upon exposure to the speech of native speakers of the TL as compared with pronunciation shifts upon exposure to the speech of other learners. The aim of the study was to address this issue by investigating and comparing L2 convergence strategies upon exposure to native and non-native pronunciation. The study concentrated on the phonetic performance of advanced Polish learners of English, who were exposed to two pronunciation varieties: Polish-accented English and native English. The participants were 38 native speakers of Polish, majoring in English Studies and recruited from the University of Lodz. The subjects listened to pre-recorded productions provided by two model talkers/interlocutors: a native speaker of Standard Southern British English and a native speaker of Polish (a qualified phonetician imitating a heavy Polish accent in English). The phonetic variables under investigation were the following: aspiration in word-initial /p t k/, pre-voicing in word-initial /b d g/, vowel duration as a cue for consonant voicing in English /æ e ɪ iː/. The experimental procedure consisted of several phases. First, the informants were instructed to identify the target words in an auditory naming task (baseline condition). Next, they were asked to listen to pre-recorded English words provided by the two 172 model talkers/interlocutors and to identify the words by saying them out loud (imitation condition). Finally, the subjects were required to read the target words for the two model talkers/interlocutors to listen to at a later time (accommodation condition). Following the production stage of the experiment, the participants completed a questionnaire whose purpose was to gauge attitudes towards native and foreign-accented English. Three hypotheses were formulated to be tested in the course of the study. Hypothesis 1 predicted that convergence strategies following exposure to native and non-native English will vary as a function of model talker/interlocutor. Hypothesis 2 predicted that convergence strategies following exposure to native and non-native English will be affected by the subjects’ attitudes towards native and Polish-accented English. Hypothesis 3 predicted that convergence strategies following exposure to native and non-native English will differ as a function of phonetic context (place of articulation and vowel category). Acoustic and statistical analysis of the data revealed that the subjects modified their linguistic behaviour following exposure to the speech of the model talkers/interlocutors, which corroborates the claim that L2 speech convergence phenomena are present in nonnative pronunciation. Hypothesis 1 was partially supported by the results of the study. It was found that speech behaviour following exposure to native and non-native English varied as a function of model talker/interlocutor in all but two instances (accommodation on pre-voicing and imitation of vowel duration). The results suggests that when using a second language, speakers may use different convergence strategies depending on the native/non-native status of the model talker or interlocutor. Hypothesis 2 was partially supported by the data. The results indicate that a strong preference for target-like pronunciation may prompt learners to converge towards native speech and diverge from foreign-accented speech. However, the factor does not seem to operate if a learner has not succeeded in mastering a given TL pronunciation feature, i.e. the impact of attitudinal factors on the magnitude of convergence in non-native pronunciation appears to be conditioned by the stage of acquisition of a given TL phonetic feature. Hypothesis 3 was not borne out the results obtained in the study. It was found that convergence strategies following exposure to native and non-native English did not vary depending on phonetic context. Overall, the findings of the study provide support for the claim that the process of speech convergence operates in L2 pronunciation and imply that certain social-psychological and psycholinguistic factors may have an impact on learners’ convergence strategies

Cognitive and social factors in explaining language acquisition: a study of the spoken English of the Hong Kong Cantonese adolescents in London

A thesis submitted to the University of Luton in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.Through combining the traditional Chomskyan approach as well as the sociolinguistic approach to language learning, the present research explores the production of 12 English linguistic features by 12 Hong Kong Cantonese adolescent informants living in London. An analysis of their social practices is also undertaken and linked to their production of these linguistic features. The research relies on participant observation and data elicited from interviews with the 12 informants. These informants were born in Hong Kong and arrived in London at age 5, 8, and 10. The findings suggest that cognitive and social factors play an important part in language learning. These factors include the critical period, social network, and other social practices like reading, taking part in school-organised extracurricular activities. The research underscores the importance of social factors in the explanation of language behaviour in migrant communities

Acquisition of Catalan and Spanish Morphosyntax in the Catalan-Spanish Bilingual Context

This dissertation investigated the acquisition of Catalan and Spanish morphosyntax by early Catalan-Spanish bilinguals living in Catalunya, a province of Spain with widespread societal bilingualism. Specifically, it focused on the acquisition of six clitic pronouns in Catalan that have different representations in Spanish. Of the six, partitive en, oblique en, locative hi, and oblique hi do not have direct counterparts in Spanish, and correspond to ellipsis in the adult grammar. The accusative neuter clitic ho and masculine clitic l constitute a distinction based on specificity and gender not made in Spanish and both correspond to Spanish lo. With the help of a background questionnaire, participants (N=296) in this study were divided by language dominance and age of onset of acquisition into three groups: Catalan-Dominant (CD), Balanced Bilinguals (BB), and Spanish-Dominant (SD). In turn, participants were subdivided into five age groups, ages 4-8. Bi-directional data from an oral production task revealed significant differences with respect to clitic production in Catalan and clitic production and argument ellipsis in Spanish across both dominance groups and age groups. In Catalan, the CDs are the first to completely acquire these clitics (when acquisition takes place within the ages tested), with BBs and SDs lagging behind and often failing to converge with CDs by age 8. In Spanish the BBs perform like SDs from the first stages with respect to the ellipses and production of lo. The CDs converge with these two groups from age 4 with the exception of clitic lo and the ellipsis of the partitive argument. In contexts that would elicit partitive en and neuter ho in Catalan, CDs often recycle the Catalan clitics in Spanish. Implications in terms of the role that 1) markedness of the target structure, 2) age of onset of acquisition, and 3) input quantity and quality play in cases of 2L1 and cL2 acquisition are discussed

Pan European Voice Conference - PEVOC 11

The Pan European VOice Conference (PEVOC) was born in 1995 and therefore in 2015 it celebrates the 20th anniversary of its establishment: an important milestone that clearly expresses the strength and interest of the scientific community for the topics of this conference. The most significant themes of PEVOC are singing pedagogy and art, but also occupational voice disorders, neurology, rehabilitation, image and video analysis. PEVOC takes place in different European cities every two years (www.pevoc.org). The PEVOC 11 conference includes a symposium of the Collegium Medicorum Theatri (www.comet collegium.com