Disentangling accent from comprehensibility

The goal of this study was to determine which linguistic aspects of second language speech are related to accent and which to comprehensibility. To address this goal, 19 different speech measures in the oral productions of 40 native French speakers of English were examined in relation to accent and comprehensibility, as rated by 60 novice raters and three experienced teachers. Results showed that both constructs were associated with many speech measures, but that accent was uniquely related to aspects of phonology, including rhythm and segmental and syllable structure accuracy, while comprehensibility was chiefly linked to grammatical accuracy and lexical richness

Phonetics Learning Anxiety – Results of a Preliminary Study

The Phonetics Learning Anxiety Scale, a 44-item questionnaire based on a 6-point Likert scale, designed for the purpose of the research sheds light on the nature of this peculiar type of apprehension experienced by advanced FL learners in a specific educational context (i.e. a traditional classroom, rather than a language or computer laboratory), in which the major focus is on pronunciation practice. The obtained quantitative data imply that such factors as fear of negative evaluation (represented by general oral performance apprehension and concern over pronunciation mistakes, pronunciation self-image, pronunciation self-efficacy and self-assessment) and beliefs about the nature of FL pronunciation learning are significant sources of PhLA. Anxiety about the transcription test (IPA Test Anxiety) - one of the other hypothetical determinants of PhLA - did not prove to be correlated with the general level of Phonetics Learning Anxiet

An infrastructure for Turkish prosody generation in text-to-speech synthesis

Text-to-speech engines benefit from natural language processing while generating the appropriate prosody. In this study, we investigate the natural language processing infrastructure for Turkish prosody generation in three steps as pronunciation disambiguation, phonological phrase detection and intonation level assignment. We focus on phrase boundary detection and intonation assignment. We propose a phonological phrase detection scheme based on syntactic analysis for Turkish and assign one of three intonation levels to words in detected phrases. Empirical observations on 100 sentences show that the proposed scheme works with approximately 85% accuracy

Putting Prosody First – Some Practical Solutions to a Perennial Problem: The Innovalangues Project

This paper presents some of the difficulties of teaching languages, in particular English, in the context of LSP/LAP2 programmes in French universities. The main focus of this paper will be the importance of prosody, especially in English, as an area where these difficulties may be addressed. We will outline the various solutions that are currently being put into place as part of the Innovalangues project, a six-year international language teaching and research project headed by Université Stendhal (Grenoble 3), France. The project has substantial funding from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and its mission is to develop innovative tools and measures to help LSP/LAP learners reach B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL). The languages concerned are English, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and possibly French as a foreign language. Initially the project will be focusing on the needs of Grenoble’s students, but the objective is to make the tools and resources developed freely available to the wider community. Oral production and reception are at the heart of Innovalangues. We believe, along with many other researchers, that prosody is key to comprehension and to intelligibility (Kjellin 1999a, Kjellin 1999b, Munro and Derwing 2011, Saito 2012), particularly given the important differences between English and French prosody (Delattre 1965; Hirst and Di Cristo 1998; Frost 2011). In this paper, we will present the particular difficulties inherent in teaching English (and other foreign languages) in the context of ESP/EAP3 in French universities and some of the solutions that we are implementing through this project (Picavet et al., 2012; Picavet et al 2013; Picavet and Frost 2014). These include an e-learning platform for which various tools are being developed, teacher training seminars focusing on prosody and the collection of data for research

Early predictors of phonological and morphological awareness and the link with reading : evidence from children with different patterns of early deficit

This study examines the contribution of early phonological processing (PP) and language skills on later phonological awareness (PA) and morphological awareness (MA), as well as the links among PA, MA, and reading. Children 4–6 years of age with poor PP at the start of school showed weaker PA and MA 3 years later (age 7–9), regardless of their language skills. PA and phonological and morphological strategies predict reading accuracy, whereas MA predicts reading comprehension. Our findings suggest that children with poor early PP are more at risk of developing deficits in MA and PA than children with poor language. They also suggest that there is a direct link between PA and reading accuracy and between MA and reading comprehension that cannot be accounted for by strategy use at the word level

IMPLEMENTING GROUP PRESENTATION USING POWERPOINT ( GPPPt ) TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING COMPETENCE ( A Classroom Action Research at the Tenth Grade ( X-C ) , the Second Semester Students of SMA Negeri 1 Ngawi in 2009/2010 Academic Year )

Implementing Group Presentation Using PowerPoint ( GPPPt ) to Improve the Students’ Speaking Competence ( A Classroom Action Research at the Tenth Grade ( X-C ) , the Second Semester Students of SMA Negeri 1 Ngawi in 2009/2010 Academic Year ) . A Thesis: English Education Department, Graduate School, Sebelas Maret University, 2010. The objectives of this research are to: ( 1 ) identify whether or not and to what extent the use of “GPPPt” is able to improve the students’ speaking competence; and ( 2 ) describe the situations when GPPPt is being applied in the speaking class. In this research, the problem refers to the learning English, especially their speaking competence which is still low. The research methodology applied in this research is action research with two cycles in which each cycle starts from planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The data collected are the qualitative data and the quantitative data. The qualitative data are collected from observation, interview, questionnaire, and document. The quantitative data are collected from the pre test in pre research and the post test in Cycle 1 and Cycle 2. The qualitative data are analyzed by Constant Comparative Method and the quantitative data are analyzed by descriptive statistics. The implementation of GPPPt has succeeded in improving and enhancing the students’ English speaking competence. It could be seen from these indicators: 1 ) it is able to: ( a ) help the students to express their mind and ideas quickly; ( b ) help the students make sentence ( s ) fluently; ( c ) improve the students’ pronunciation to be relatively accepted; ( d ) influence the students to use correct grammar to make sentence ( s ) ; and ( e ) increase the students’ achievement in speaking evaluation; and 2 ) it enables to: ( a ) reduce the students’ temptation to have a chat with their desk mates; ( b ) respond the teacher’s questions actively; ( c ) influence the students to avoid doing non academic activities; and ( d ) motivate the students to use either their dictionaries or grammar books in English class. Besides, from the collected data, the students had obtained better score from Cycle 1 to Cycle 2. For instance, the mean of pre test score of the pre research was 66.76, while the mean of the post test score in Cycle 1 was 74.00 and that of Cycle 2 was 77.64. That the implementation of GPPPt has succeeded in improving and enhancing the students’ English speaking competence, I would like to propose some suggestions for the English teachers, especially those who teach in senior high school to: ( 1 ) apply GPPPt to conduct the teaching learning process in the speaking class; ( 2 ) improve their acquisition of knowledge about GPPPt; and ( 3 ) provide more chance for the students to practice their English orally through GPPPt