The role of musical aptitude in the pronunciation of English vowels among Polish learners of English

It has long been held that people who have musical training or talent acquire L2 pronunciation more successfully than those that do not. Indeed, there have been empirical studies to support this hypothesis (Pastuszek-Lipińska 2003, Fonseca-Mora et al. 2011, Zatorre and Baum 2012). However, in many of such studies, musical abilities in subjects were mostly verified through questionnaires rather than tested in a reliable, empirical manner. Therefore, we run three different musical hearing tests, i.e. pitch perception test, musical memory test, and rhythm perception test (Mandell 2009) to measure the actual musical aptitude in our subjects. The main research question is whether a better musical ear correlates with a higher rate of acquisition of English vowels in Polish EFL learners. Our group consists of 40 Polish university students studying English as their major who learn the British pronunciation model during an intense pronunciation course. 10 male and 30 female subjects with mean age of 20.1 were recorded in a recording studio. The procedure comprised spontaneous conversations, reading passages and reading words in isolation. Vowel measurements were conducted in Praat in all three speech styles and several consonantal contexts. The assumption was that participants who performed better in musical tests would produce vowels that are closer to the Southern British English model. We plotted them onto vowel charts and calculated the Euclidean distances. Preliminary results show that there is potential correlation between specific aspects of musical hearing and different elements of pronunciation. The study is a longitudinal project and will encompass two more years, during which we will repeat the recording procedure twice to measure the participants’ progress in mastering the English pronunciation and comparing it with their musical aptitude.Fonseca-Mora, M., Toscano-Fuentes, C. and K. Wermke. 2011. "Melodies that help: The Relation between Language Aptitude and Musical Intelligence", Anglistik International Journal of English Studies 22, 1: 101-118.Mandell, J. 2009. Electronic Music and Medical Education. (http://jakemandell.com) (date of access: 9 November 2014).Pastuszek-Lipińska, B. 2008. "Musicians outperform nonmusicians in speech imitation", Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4969: 56-73.Zatorre, R. and S. Baum. 2012. "Musical melody and speech intonation: singing a different tune", PLoS Biology 10, 7: e1001372

Musical hearing and the acquisition of foreign-language intonation

The present study seeks to determine whether superior musical hearing is correlated with successful production of second language (L2) intonation patterns. Fifty Polish speakers of English at the university level were recorded before and after an extensive two-semester accent training course in English. Participants were asked to read aloud a series of short dialogues containing different intonation patterns, complete two musical hearing tests measuring tone deafness and melody discrimination, and a survey regarding musical experience. We visually analyzed and assessed participants’ intonation by comparing their F0 contours with the model provided by their accent training teachers following ToBI (Tones and Break Indices) guidelines and compared the results with the musical hearing test scores and the survey responses. The results suggest that more accurate pitch perception can be related to more correct production of L2 intonation patterns as participants with superior musical ear produced more native-like speech contours after training, similar to those of their teachers. After dividing participants into four categories based on their musical hearing test scores and musical experience, we also observed that some students with better musical hearing test scores were able to produce more correct L2 intonation patterns. However, students with poor musical hearing test scores and no musical background also improved, suggesting that the acquisition of L2 intonation in a formal classroom setting can be successful regardless of one’s musical hearing skills

Musical Hearing and Musical Experience in Second Language English Vowel Acquisition

Purpose: Former studies suggested that music perception can help produce certain accentual features in the first and second language (L2), such as intonational contours. What was missing in many of these studies was the identification of the exact relationship between specific music perception skills and the production of different accentual features in a foreign language. Our aim was to verify whether empirically tested musical hearing skills can be related to the acquisition of English vowels by learners of English as an L2 before and after a formal accent training course. Method: Fifty adult Polish speakers of L2 English were tested before and after a two-semester accent training in order to observe the effect of musical hearing on the acquisition of English vowels. Their L2 English vowel formant contours produced in consonant–vowel–consonant context were compared with the target General British vowels produced by their pronunciation teachers. We juxtaposed these results with their musical hearing test scores and self-reported musical experience to observe a possible relationship between successful L2 vowel acquisition and musical aptitude. Results: Preexisting rhythmic memory was reported as a significant predictor before training, while musical experience was reported as a significant factor in the production of more native-like L2 vowels after training. We also observed that not all vowels were equally acquired or affected by musical hearing or musical experience. The strongest estimate we observed was the closeness to model before training, suggesting that learners who already managed to acquire some features of a native-like accent were also more successful after training. Conclusions: Our results are revealing in two aspects. First, the learners' former proficiency in L2 pronunciation is the most robust predictor in acquiring a native-like accent. Second, there is a potential relationship between rhythmic memory and L2 vowel acquisition before training, as well as years of musical experience after training, suggesting that specific musical skills and music practice can be an asset in learning a foreign language accent.This research was supported by the National Science Centre in Poland, Grant 2014/15/N/HS2/03865.64516661682Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Researc

Dynamic information for Polish and English vowels in syllable onsets and offsets

According to the simple target model, vowel targets can be described as “a unifying concept among articulatory, acoustic and perceptual characterizations of vowels” (Strange 1989). Moreover, the model states that the first two oral formants (F1/F2) give sufficient information for vowel identification and the problems with vowel perception derive from variations in their production. Although there is a great deal of acoustic variability for a speaker producing a vowel in different consonantal contexts, the relationship between the vowel targets and the produced vowels still remains, as the listeners can recognise the intended vowels despite the variations. A study by Lindblom and Studdert-Kennedy (1967) argues that listeners compensate for the production undershoot by a perceptual overshoot. Further research in the dynamic specification model proved that vowels in consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) contexts are identified more accurately then in isolation (Verbrugge et al. 1976), syllable onsets and offsets carry useful information for vowel identification (Strange et at. 1983) and a combination of both syllable onsets and offsets provides a “complex dynamic signal that is highly informative” for vowel identification (Jenkins and Strange 1999: 1208). As this paper deals with Polish learners of English, another key study is by Iverson and Evans (2007), showing that L2 learners with a simple vowel system are less successful in identifying English vowels and use different cues than learners with a complex vowel system. The experiment, based on the paper by Jenkins and Strange (1999), was carried out at the School of English at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. A set of Polish and English vowels in CVC contexts was recorded and modified in Praat according to five different conditions: silent-centre (three initial pitch periods, four final pitch periods), one initial pitch period, five initial pitch periods, four final pitch periods and eight final pitch periods, attenuating the remaining vowel components to silence. The participants of the experiment, five students of AMU School of English (proficiency level) and five students from non-linguistic studies (intermediate level), were asked to identify the vowel they heard by marking the key word on an answer sheet that contained the same vowel. The purpose of the experiment was to establish the adequate amount of dynamic information in syllable onsets and offsets needed for correct vowel identification, to compare Polish and English vowel perception and to see to what extent the dynamic specification model describes Polish speakers' vowel perception. The results showed that (1) both groups had difficulties in identifying English vowels, (2) proficiency-level students had better results from their intermediate-level counterparts (80% in silent-centre condition vs. 48%) and (3) both groups had exceptional results in identifying Polish vowels (over 90% in all conditions). Firstly, the difference between a simple L1 (Polish) and a complex L2 (English) vowel system seems to have a bearing on correct vowel identification. Secondly, it seems possible for EFL students to use the dynamic information for English vowels, as the group’s results correlated with the one’s from Jenkins and Strange (1999). Lastly, the results show a difference between Polish and English vowel perception, as the dynamic information in syllable onsets and offsets seems rather futile for the correct identification of Polish vowels

Comparing rhythm in speech and music: the case of English and Polish

Although linguistic and musical rhythm have been widely studied by linguists and musicologists alike, there is still a scarcity of quantitative studies that would examine the extent of the relationship between those two domains. A study by Patel et al. (2006) suggests that some characteristic features of a culture’s language are reflected in its instrumental music. The method applied in the study used the normalised pairwise variability index (nPVI), a measure of temporal patterning in speech, introduced by Low (1998) and used primarily for comparing stress­timed and syllable­timed languages (Grabe and Low 2002). By comparing the variability of vocalic duration in recorded speech with nPVI values computed from music notation, Patel et al. concluded that the language rhythm of English and French is mirrored in the music of corresponding English and French classical composers of the 19th c. Although this interdisciplinary approach has been investigated in recent studies (e.g. McGowan and Levitt 2011), it still brings more questions than answers. Firstly, it is difficult to ascertain whether the method can be applicable to all musical forms, as classical music from the 19th c., a period identified as the age of musical nationalism, limits the scope of the studies. Secondly, relying solely on musical notation means omitting recorded live performances that might carry different rhythmic information. Finally, while English and French represent a stressed­time and a syllable­timed language respectively, the differences found in the study by Patel et al. might not be so evident for other languages or dialects. The aim of this study is to attest the method used in Patel et al. (2006) by examining a different set of data, focusing on English and Polish rhythm in speech and music. The speech corpus consisted of 20 English and Polish recorded sentences. The music corpus was divided into two categories and consisted of recordings of live performances and musical notation: (1) the classical music category comprised of a selection of 19th c. themes of English and Polish composers (e.g. Elgar’s and Chopin’s), while (2) the folk music category comprised of a set of traditional English and Polish folk songs (Luboff and Stracke 1969). It can be predicted that there will be a similar discrepancy between the nPVI values for Polish and English language and musical rhythm as in the study by Patel et al.. However, the interrelationship between those results is difficult to foresee and might vary from the original experiment. The outcomes of this study will hopefully shed more light on the relationship between language rhythm and musical rhythm and open new paths for future interdisciplinary studies

Spectral Dynamics in L1 and L2 Vowel Perception

This paper presents a study of L1 and L2 vowel perception by Polish learners of English. Employing the Silent Center paradigm (e.g. Strange et al. 1983), by which listeners are presented with different portions of a vowel, a force choice identification task was carried out. Due to differences in the vowel systems of the two languages, it was hypothesized that stimulus type should have minimal effects for L1 Polish vowel perception since Polish vowels are relatively stable in quality. In L2 English, depending on proficiency level, listeners were expected to adopt a more dynamic approach to vowel identification and show higher accuracy rates on the SC tokens. That is, listeners were expected to attend more to dynamic formant cues, or vowel inherent spectral change (VISC; see e.g. Morrison and Assmann 2013) in vowel perception. Results for identification accuracy for the most part were consistent with these hypotheses. Implications of VISC for the notion of cross-language phonetic similarity, crucial to models of L2 speech acquisition, are also discussed

Measuring the effect of metacompetence in EFL pronunciation learning

Paper presented at the Accents 2013 conference.Reportedly, metacompetence (i.e. phonetic and phonological awareness) provides the learner with reflective feedback that boosts L2 pronunciation learning (Dziubalska-Kołaczyk 2002, Schwartz 2005, Wrembel 2005, Wrembel 2011). However, there is still little quantitative data to confirm this hypothesis. More importantly, there are no studies that would measure how the specific elements of theoretical metacompetence training impact the learner’s success in practical pronunciation training. The primary aim of this pilot study is to test the hypothesis that the knowledge of English phonetics and phonology helps Polish undergraduate EFL learners of English in mastering English pronunciation. The study will be conducted on 1BA English philology students who take a theoretical course in English phonetics and phonology and a practical course in English pronunciation. To verify the hypothesis, we will: (1) measure the intended learning outcomes for learners in the theoretical course in phonetics and phonology, (2) measure the performance of those learners in the practical pronunciation course, (3) investigate the correlation between the performance in the theoretical course and the practical course. Previous studies relied on class observation or qualitative data (e.g. questionnaires, as in Lechowska 2005). While such data can be a part of a broader analysis, relying solely on learners’ impressions may not be sufficient. This is why our study will rely predominantly on quantitative data that most objectively reflects learner behaviour. To collect this data, the theoretical phonetics and phonology course will heavily rely on online components: interactive quizzes, transcription exercises and video lectures (as in previous pilots by Łodzikowski 2014, and Łodzikowski and Aperliński 2013). Data will be collected on Moodle 2.6 with the Piwik plug-in to measure learner online behaviour (frequency, times and duration of visits on Moodle; number of attempts at tasks and time spent on them, etc.). Although the data for this pilot study will be collected throughout the entire academic year (between October 2014 and June 2015), this paper will only report on the first two months of the pilot

Using Web 2.0 technologies and collaborative work in teaching academic writing

Paper presented at YLMP 2014Teaching academic writing to ESL learners can be a difficult task: students are usually unfamiliar with academic style, have difficulties in producing a structured piece of writing and get easily discouraged by an exam­oriented approach, having to use old school pen and paper with no access to technology. Indeed, the gap between everyday writing tasks and the exam is significant: access to online dictionaries, linguistic corpora and academic articles, as well as being able to work in groups using Web 2.0 technologies (e.g. Google Docs) is a standard in today's professional writing. However, most students are less tech­savvy than it is presumed: they are generally unaware of practical web tools, use Google search ineffectively and obtain information from unreliable sources. Hence, the implementation of a more practical approach with the use of web technologies and collaborative assignments in the writing classroom should be considered by ESL teachers. Incorporating collaborative practices in higher education can be beneficial on many levels: students become more conscious of their work, profit from peer correction and compose better works in terms of language and structure (Storch 2005). Moreover, using Web 2.0 tools can be especially advantageous, as it promotes cooperation skills, provides a user­friendly environment for peer reviewing and prepares students for future careers in networking (Brodahl et al. 2011, Kessler et al. 2012). In the following preliminary research, I compared individual pen and paper compositions with collaborative online works written on the same topic by two groups of 20 students on a comparable level of language proficiency (CAE). One of the groups practiced in class how to use Google Docs and search for reliable information online. The results show that students working in groups via Web 2.0 tools 1) generate more complex ideas, 2) learn from each other, 3) compose better texts in terms of language and content, 4) raise their awareness of plagiarism, and 5) develop a positive attitude to collaborative work. Therefore, collaborative exercises and web­based tools should be subject to more academic research and become a part of the writing course for ESL students

The acquisition of non-rhoticity in musical and non-musical advanced Polish students of English

Polish is a rhotic language. Therefore, in the process of learning General British (Cruttenden 2014) pronunciation, Polish students find it difficult not to produce non-prevocalic /r/s. The following study aims at assessing to what extent musical hearing is helpful in acquiring non-rhoticity among Polish advanced students of English. So far, it has been shown that music has an effect on language in many domains, such as neurolinguistics (Zatorre et al. 2002, Patel et al. 2008), L1 acquisition (Wermke and Mende 2009, Brandt et al. 2012) and L2 acquisition (Lee and Hung 2008). Moreover, the findings in Pastuszek-Lipińska (2008) point to musical hearing as a predisposition for effective speech imitation. Based on these assumptions, we hypothesize that musical hearing has an effect on how fast students of English adapt to non-rhotic pronunciation. Our subjects are 36 Polish speakers (18 female, 18 male) studying English as their major at 1BA level. They took part in two recording sessions, i.e. before and after a two-semester intensive accent training course they have to complete as part of their curriculum, where they are taught the General British pronunciation model. The stimulus comprised of 1) a reading passage, 2) a set of dialogues eliciting rhoticity/non-rhoticity and 3) a wordlist eliciting START and NORTH vowels before non-prevocalic /r/. Next, the participants took part in a musical hearing test, measuring pitch perception, musical memory and rhythm perception. Finally, the speakers were also asked to complete an online survey regarding their listening to music habits and musical experiences (i.e. playing musical instruments, singing, attending music lessons, etc.). The preliminary analysis shows that across all speakers over 60% of all variants were pronounced as rhotic in the first recording session. With time, all our participants improved and produced fewer rhotic variants. It seems that students with better musical hearing had better results for non-rhoticity in both recording sessions. The results suggest that learners with a better musical ear are able to acquire non-rhoticity at an earlier stage