Apprendimento dell'intonazione tedesca e annotazione GTOBI

La percezione dell'accento straniero da parte di madrelingua tedeschi in parlanti del tedesco come lingua seconda, sembra legato in maniera decisiva alla presenza di errati andamenti intonativi, nel caso in cui a parlare tedesco lingua seconda siano studenti di quarto anno. Questo è il risultato di verifiche sperimentali compiute a Venezia sulla base di dati registrati per il tedesco nel Laboratorio di Fonetica dell'Università di Monaco, e per il tedesco L2 presso il laboratorio di LInguistica Computazionale dell'Università Ca' Foscari, per la cui descrizione abbiamo utilizzato la notazione suggerita da GToBI

New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation

pp.165-18

La Linguistica Computazionale a Venezia

Questo saggio ha come argomento lo sviluppo della Linguistica Computazionale a Venezia con l’intenzione di mettere in luce le interrelazioni con gli altri componenti del Dipartimento di Linguistica, quelli di glottodidattica e quellidella linguistica teorica con le quali ha interagito nel tempo. Lo sviluppo temporale permette anche di legare gli eventi locali all'avanzamento della tecnologia e della scienza linguistica sperimentale in ambito internazionale

Feedback generation and linguistic knowledge in ‘SLIM’ automatic tutor

SLIM is a prototype interactive multimedia self-learning linguistic software for foreign language stu- dents at beginner-false beginner level. It allows students to work both in an autonomous self-direct- ed mode or in a way of programmed learning in which the process of self-instruction is pre-pro- grammed and monitored. In this latter mode it incorporates assessment and evaluation tools in order to behave as an automatic tutor. It is organized into three basic components: audiovisual materials; a linguistic database recording all language material in text format; the supervisor. Audiovisual mate- rials are partially taken from commercially available courses; the linguistic database is a highly sophisticated classification of all words and utterances of the course, both in written and spoken form, from all possible linguistic aspects. The supervisor is both an attractive, enjoyable and strong- ly pedagogically based software that allows the user to work on language materials. The most out- standing feature of SLIM is the use of speech analysis and recognition which is a fundamental aspect of all second language learning programmes. We also assume that a learning model can be repre- sented by a finite state automaton made up by a fixed number of possible states – corresponding to the macro and microlevels at which the student’s competence may be modelled – each one being internally constituted by the actual linguistic objects of knowledge of the language that make it up

Exploring Speech Technologies for Language Learning

The teaching of the pronunciation of any foreign language must encompass both segmental and suprasegmental aspects of speech. In computational terms, the two levels of language learning activities can be decomposed at least into phonemic aspects, which include the correct pronunciation of single phonemes and the co-articulation of phonemes into higher phonological units; as well as prosodic aspects which include  the correct position of stress at word level;  the alternation of stress and unstressed syllables in terms of compensation and vowel reduction;  the correct position of sentence accent;  the generation of the adequate rhymth from the interleaving of stress, accent, and phonological rules;  the generation of adequate intonational pattern for each utterance related to communicative functions; As appears from above, for a student to communicate intelligibly and as close as possible to native-speaker's pronunciation, prosody is very important [3]. We also assume that an incorrect prosody may hamper communication from taking place and this may be regarded a strong motivation for having the teaching of Prosody as an integral part of any language course. From our point of view it is much more important to stress the achievement of successful communication as the main objective of a second language learner rather than the overcoming of what has been termed “foreign accent”, which can be deemed as a secondary goal. In any case, the two goals are certainly not coincident even though they may be overlapping in some cases. We will discuss about these matter in the following sections. All prosodic questions related to “rhythm” will be discussed in the first section of this chapter. In [4] the author argues in favour of prosodic aids, in particular because a strong placement of word stress may impair understanding from the listener’s point of view of the word being pronounced. He also argues in favour of acquiring correct timing of phonological units to overcome the impression of “foreign accent” which may ensue from an incorrect distribution of stressed vs. unstressed stretches of linguistic units such as syllables or metric feet. Timing is not to be confused with speaking rate which need not be increased forcefully to give the impression of a good fluency: trying to increase speaking rate may result in lower intelligibility. The question of “foreign accent” is also discussed at length in (Jilka M., 1999). This work is particularly relevant as far as intonational features of a learner of a second language which we will address in the second section of this chapter. Correcting the Intonational Foreign Accent (hence IFA) is an important component of a Prosodic Module for self-learning activities, as categorical aspects of the intonation of the two languages in contact, L1 and L2 are far apart and thus neatly distinguishable. Choice of the two languages in contact is determined mainly by the fact that the distance in prosodic terms between English and Italian is maximal, according to (Ramus, F. and J. Mehler, 1999; Ramus F., et al., 1999)

Transposing Meaning into Immanence: The Poetry of Francis Webb

This article will be focussing on Webb’s poetic style, and in particular on the use of words and the creation of metaphors. In the preface to his first Collected Poems, by the famous literary critic Herbert Read, we are told that “There is a remarkable coherence in this substantial body of work – published over sixteen years – a steady development of technical virtuosity and a deepening of intellectual and emotional content.”(ibid.,v) There are comparisons that are made with Rilke, (“bot not essential, for its stillness and intensity are quite unique”), for “A Death at Winson Green”, and at end of the preface this is his comment: Browning and Hopkins are perhaps obvious influences, but we need not seek further for the sources of his prosody, which is not “modern” except in its psychological and metaphysical intensity. From the Beginning Webb has been concerned with the same tragic problems as Rilke, Eliot, Pasternak, and to mention a contemporary who presents a close parallel, Robert Lowell. I cannot, after long meditation on his verse, place his achievements on a level lower than that suggested by these names.”(ibid.,ix

SLIM prosodic automatic tools for self-learning instruction

We present the Prosodic Module of a courseware for computer-assisted foreign language learning called SLIM ± an acronym for Multimedia Interactive Linguistic Software, developed at the University of Venice (see Delmonte et al., 1999a,b). The Prosodic Module has been created in order to deal with the problem of improving a student's performance both in the perception and production of prosodic aspects of spoken language activities. It is composed of two di erent sets of Learning Activities, the ®rst one dealing with phonetic and prosodic problems at word level and at segmental level ± where segmental refers to syllable-sized segments; the second one dealing with prosodic aspects at phonological phrase and utterance suprasegmental level. The main goal of Prosodic Activities is to ensure consistent and pedagogically sound feedback to the student intending to improve his/her pronunciation in a foreign language. We argue that the use of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) as Teaching Aid should be under-utilized and should be targeted to narrowly focussed spoken exercises, disallowing open-ended dialogues, in order to ensure consistency of evaluation. In addition, we argue that ASR alone cannot be used to gauge Goodness of Pronunciation (GOP), being inherently inadequate for that goal. On the contrary, we support the conjoined use of ASR technology and prosodic tools to produce GOP useable for linguistically consistent and adequate feedback to the student

Seminario di Linguistica e Didattica delle Lingue. Scritti in onore degli ottant’anni di Giovanni Freddi

Include, di Balboni: “La glottodidattica veneziana: una ‘scuola’?”, pp. 19-54