A quantitative analysis 0f word-final /r/-deletion in Brazilian Portugese

This study provides a quantitative analysis for the process of word-final /r/-deletion in the dialect of Portuguese spoken in the city of Belem, in northern Brazil. Two linguistic and four extralinguistic factors are considered in the investigation, all of which have a significant effect on the outcome of the process. Within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince & Smolensky 1993), I propose an analysis for the general variation patterns found in /r/-deletion, along the lines of Reynolds (1994) and Anttila (1997)

The Domain of Gliding in French: an Optimality Theoretic Approach

Gliding is a domain-sensitive phonological process of European French in which the high vowels /i/, /y/, /u/ become their corresponding glides [j], [y], [w] in the presence of a following vowel, within the domain of the Prosodic Word. Previous studies have either ignored the fact that the phenomenon is sensitive to prosodic domains, or have established an unnecessary prosodic domain, i.e., the Clitic Group, in order to account for the behavior observed in prefix plus root sequences. A more updated study, conducted by Noske (1996), proposes an Optimality Theoretic account for the phenomenon without any consideration to prosodic domains. As a result, illicit forms are predicted. The purpose of this article is to provide an analysis for Gliding in French in which prosodic domains serve as loci for phonological processes. Accordingly, the study complements the work of Noske for Gliding in French, within the same theoretic framework

Activate space rats! Fluency development in a mobile game-assisted environment

Activities that promote fluency development or the automatization of speech are often ignored in second language classes because they do not teach new things; instead, they focus on speeding up language use (Nation & Newton, 2008). Anxiety also decreases chances for fluency development, as learners are less willing to produce output (Gregersen & MacIntyre, 2014), consequently hindering language development (Swain, 2000). One way of minimizing the impact of these limitations is to motivate students to speak intelligibly and fluently, preferably beyond the constraints of the language classroom. In this study, we investigated the pedagogical use of Spaceteam ESL, a mobile game that requires intelligible and fluent computer-mediated oral exchanges among players. Participants (N = 20) were low-intermediate English as a second language (ESL) students divided into two groups: the treatment group, which played Spaceteam ESL as a 15-minute warm-up activity for six weeks, and the control group, which engaged in comparable non-gaming activities. Pre-tests, post-tests, and delayed post-tests measured changes in oral fluency (i.e., syllables produced per minute and judges’ ratings) and interviews addressed factors related to anxiety and willingness to communicate (WTC). Findings indicated that learners who played Spaceteam ESL outperformed the control group in judges’ ratings for oral fluency and that the gameplay might positively influence anxiety and WTC

Synthetic voices in the foreign language context

This study evaluated the voice of a modern English text-to-speech (TTS) system in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context in terms of its speech quality, ability to be understood by L2 users, and potential for focus on specific language forms. Twenty-nine Brazilian EFL learners listened to stories and sentences, produced by a TTS voice and a human voice, and rated them on a 6-point Likert scale according to holistic criteria for evaluating pronunciation: Comprehensibility, naturalness, and accuracy. In addition, they were asked to answer a set of comprehension questions (to assess understanding), to complete a dictation/transcription task to measure intelligibility, and to identify whether the target past -ed form was present or not in decontextualized sentences. Results indicate that the performance of both the TTS and human voices were perceived similarly in terms of comprehensibility, while ratings for naturalness were unfavorable for the synthesized voice. For text comprehension, dictation, and aural identification tasks, participants performed relatively similarly in response to both voices. These findings suggest that TTS systems have the potential to be used as pedagogical tools for L2 learning, particularly in EFL settings, where natural occurrence of the target language is limited or non-existent

Clickers in foreign language teaching: a case study

Clickers (or Classroom Response Systems) are becoming increasingly commonplace in educational settings, especially in science classrooms and academic lecture settings (e.g., Fies & Marshall, 2006). Surprisingly,the use of clickers is not as widespread in foreign and second language (L2) education (Tabak & Cardoso, 2009) and the number of studies that address the pedagogical potential of the technology in L2 settings is still scarce (Cutrim Schmid, 2007). One of the goals of this study is to address this gap in the literature by investigating English as a foreign language learners' perception of clickers and the apparent effect that this technology can have on learning outcomes. Overall, the results are consistent with the consensus that students perceive these devices as a positive addition to their classes, as their use increases participation and the general enjoyment of classes (Caldwell, 2007), contributes to learning (Bruff, 2009), fosters interaction (Mazur, 1997), and allows learners to self-asses and compare their performance with that of their peers (Bruff, 2009)

LONGITUDINAL CHANGES IN THE USE OF PARATONES IN L2 ENGLISH SPEECH BY MANDARIN SPEAKERS

First language (L1) English speakers have been observed to organize their oral discourse into macro-units analogous to paragraphs in writing. These units, called paratones (BROWN, 1977) or phonological paragraphs (TENCH, 1996; THOMPSON, 2003), are characterized by extra high pitch at the beginning of a new discourse topic (YULE, 1980). The present study investigated how seven second language (L2) graduate students’ use of paratones developed naturalistically during their first six months immersed in an L2 environment. The participants, all L1 speakers of Mandarin, were recorded delivering four short academic presentations at approximately two-month intervals. Presentations given by two native English speakers were also analyzed for comparison. Overall, the L2 participants’ pitch peaks at topic shifts were considerably less prominent than those observed in the native-speaker data. Only one participant’s use of paratones seemed to change over time, showing improvement from the beginning to the end of the study

Vocalic [e] Epenthesis and Variation in Farsi-English Interlanguage Speech

Abstract This study investigates the variable production of English /s/ + consonant onset clusters in the speech of 30 adult native Farsi speakers learning English as a second language (L2). In particular, the study examines the development of the homorganic /st/, /sn/ and /sl/ sequences (sC clusters), which are realized variably either via e-epenthesis (e.g., [est]op) or via its target L2 pronunciation (e.g., [st]op). The sentence reading task as well as the picture-based interview utilized in this investigation followed sociolinguistic procedures for data collection and analyses, and included a set of linguistic (e.g., preceding phonological environment, sonority profile of the cluster) and extra-linguistic factors (e.g., level of formality, proficiency in English) whose effects were measured statistically via GoldVarb X. The results reveal that: (1) the proportion of [e]-epenthesis is higher after a word-final consonant or pause than after a vowel (in which case the sC cluster is resyllabified as two separate syllables, i.e. [Vs.CV]); (2) over time (hence with increased L2 proficiency) and in formal situations, the amount of epenthesis decreases, conforming with Major's (2001) Ontogeny Phylogeny Model; and (3) as observed in several studies of L1 acquisition, markedness on continuancy -rather than markedness on sonority -is better able to capture the variable patterns of e-epenthesis in the Farsi-English interlanguage data (i.e., the more marked structures /st/ and /sn/, in which the continuancy feature varies (from [+continuant] /s/ to [-continuant