Loss of Rhoticity in South-West England

Wydział AnglistykiPoniższa praca opisuje obecny stan adaptacji rotyzacji w hrabstwach: Kornwalia, Devon, Dorset. Pokazuje jak wymowa /r/ w pozycjach nieprzedsamogłoskowych jest zależna od zmiennych socjo-ekonomicznych, np. pochodzenia, stopnia zamożności, płci czy wieku.The following work describes the current state od adaptation of rhoticity in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. It focuses on how the presence of nonprevocalic /r/ correlates with socio-economic variables such as class, material status, gender or age

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

The STRUT vowel in urban and rural accents of the West Midlands

This pilot study investigates the speech of three West Midlands communities: a city (Birmingham), a town (Stratford-upon-Avon) and two villages (Alderminster and Wimpstone). We focus on the STRUT vowel, an important criterion for separating the linguistic South from the linguistic North (Wells 1982: 349). We provide more evidence for the phonemic distinction between /ʊ/ and /ʌ/ in the West Midlands, and show that phonetically the STRUT vowel is neither typically northern nor southern. Through vowel instrumental analysis, we establish to what extent the southern innovation of the STRUT vowel has been developed in each community

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

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

Loss of Rhoticity in South-West England

Wydział AnglistykiPoniższa praca opisuje obecny stan adaptacji rotyzacji w hrabstwach: Kornwalia, Devon, Dorset. Pokazuje jak wymowa /r/ w pozycjach nieprzedsamogłoskowych jest zależna od zmiennych socjo-ekonomicznych, np. pochodzenia, stopnia zamożności, płci czy wieku.The following work describes the current state od adaptation of rhoticity in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. It focuses on how the presence of nonprevocalic /r/ correlates with socio-economic variables such as class, material status, gender or age

The STRUT vowel in urban and rural accents of the West Midlands

This pilot study investigates the speech of three West Midlands communities: a city (Birmingham), a town (Stratford-upon-Avon) and two villages (Alderminster and Wimpstone). We focus on the STRUT vowel, an important criterion for separating the linguistic South from the linguistic North (Wells 1982: 349). We provide more evidence for the phonemic distinction between /ʊ/ and /ʌ/ in the West Midlands, and show that phonetically the STRUT vowel is neither typically northern nor southern. Through vowel instrumental analysis, we establish to what extent the southern innovation of the STRUT vowel has been developed in each community

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