Acquisition Of Pronunciation Research Articles

Principales obstáculos en la adquisición de la pronunciación entre los aprendices surcoreanos de ELE: causas, consecuencias y propuestas

Principales obstáculos en la adquisición de la pronunciación entre los aprendices surcoreanos de ELE: causas, consecuencias y propuestas

한국인 국제 결혼 이주 여성의 일본어 발음 습득 종단 분석 - ACTFL-OPI형식의 자연발화를 대상으로 -

한국인 국제 결혼 이주 여성의 일본어 발음 습득 종단 분석 - ACTFL-OPI형식의 자연발화를 대상으로 -

Phonological Development: Acquisition of Hausa Secondary Consonants Pronunciation by the Hausa Children

Phonological development refers to the stages that children pass before they can correctly use and understand the sound system of their language. Inspired by Stampe’s (1969) Natural Phonology Theory, this paper examines the acquisition of Hausa secondary consonants pronunciation by the Hausa children. The paper seeks to achieve the following objectives (a) to identify the phonological processes that are operating in the production of the Hausa secondary consonants by the Hausa 2-5 years children (b) to discover the units that are more affected if certain changes occur in the production of the Hausa secondary consonants (c) to explain whether a parental behavior influence the children’s production of the Hausa secondary consonants. Four children aged between 2-5 years were purposely selected. The data were collected using a Pictorial Stimulus-Driven Elicitation. The study found that reduction, simplification, and substitution phonological processes operate in some of the children’s speech production. It also revealed that regardless of the glottal stop, the second unit of the secondary consonants is more affected and that parental behavior affects children’s speech production. The implication of this result is that it can be used by speech pathology to draw a conclusion about the Hausa children’s phonological development.

Sistema de faltas de pronunciación y corrección fonética en un corpus oral FLE

<p>In this article we will discuss the description, organization and operation of the first oral corpus available online on the audiovisual productions of Spanish students of French as a foreign language. This set of sound sequences has allowed us to identify and compile the system of pronunciation errors of the Spanish speakers that was not available until today. The didactic consequences of this system of errors can be decisive for the practice of phonetic correction. For an efficient acquisition of pronunciation it is necessary to attend to the main difficulties and errors of the students and at the same time proceed to a simplification of the normative vowel system of French which had already been suggested by some authors. Numerous examples are proposed, accompanied by the sound files that allow us to understand the context and the process of phonetic correction that characterize the oral productions of the students. Several important improvement factors are noted (vocal warm-up, reinforcement and articulatory effort, autocorrection, collaborative corrections). The pedagogical potential of this corpus is open to the scientific and academic community for its future applications to the teaching and learning of the pronunciation of French.</p>

A historical consideration on Korean phonemic alternation by Korean learners

In this paper, I attempted to historical investigate the existing study on the applied aspect of Korean phonemic alternation. The discussion on the applied aspect of Korean phonemic alternation is hard to be based on the second language pronunciation acquisition study focused on English. Therefore, the research methodology on the applied aspect of Korean phonemic alternation should be confirmed through existing studies. In this paper, first of all, the list of Korean phonemic alternation, the experimental data, and the selection of subjects were critically examined in terms of research methodology. For the list of Korean phonemic alternation, I examined whether the “n -insertion is valid for inclusion in the study. As for the experimental data, I argued that it is difficult to judge whether the phonemic alternation is learned or not, even though the phonemic alternation is applied within the word. As for the subject of the experiment, I examined the validity of subject focused on the correlation between the Korean proficiency and the timing of learning phonemic alternation. Second, I examined the results of previous studies in relation to the difficulty setting of phonemic alternation. The difficulty of phonemic alternation, I divided into studies on korean learner who is chinese native speaker and other language native speaker and examined it. And then I confirmed that the difficulty of phonemic alternation has a certain tendency irrespective of the learner’s native language.

Pronunciation Acquisition of the Inflectional Morpheme –ed in English by Nicaraguan Spanish Speakers

This descriptive non-experimental quantitative study investigated if the pronunciation of the –ed morphemeim proves as the English proficiency level develops. A random sampling design was used to recruit research participants. A target sample of 48 Nicaraguan English as a foreign language students were chosen from an accessible population (N= 91) to participate in this research. The participants’ age ranged from 18 to 24, with a mean age of 21 years. They belonged to three English proficiency levels: high beginners, intermediate, and high intermediate. Findings showed that more advanced English as a Foreign Language learners had a significantly higher pronunciation accuracy on the production of the allomorphs, /t/ and /d/. Their error rate on these two allomorphs was as low as 9% and 8%, respectively. Concerning the /əd, ɪd/ allomorph, no significant differences were found among proficiency levels. These results were interpreted in view of the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman, 1977) and the Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis (Major & Kim, 1996). The trends in the data definitely suggested support for the Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis which postulates that markedness by itself cannot explain the development of L2 learners as they improve their L2 proficiency level. This study offers implications for the teaching of the three phonological realizations of the -ed past tense inflection.

Note-Taking Assisted with Computers—A Practical Method to Build a Connection between Chinese Pinyin & Characters

Chinese beginners often find themselves in struggling for learning complicated Chinese characters (also known as Hanzi), after the acquisition of Chinese pronunciation (Chinese Phonetic Alphabets, also called Pinyin). Actual experience of living and studying in China exposes a fact that people on daily basis are not using Pinyin to assist pronunciation. All means of social media only have Hanzi for people to recognize. The connection between Pinyin and Hanzi is a difficult part to accomplish for Chinese language beginners. Based on several years of teaching experience of Chinese language to speakers of other languages and working memory drill in English-Chinese interpretation, the author explores a practical way to build this connection between Pinyin and Hanzi by taking-notes using computers and mobile phones in class. In alliance with fun language teaching methodologies, i.e., the Audiolingual method, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) to reassure the memory rehearsal drill in association with imaginary situations. The research experiment results show that this method can stimulate beginners’ learning enthusiasm and arouse their confidence and initiative in the long-run Chinese language learning process and it can facilitate Chinese beginners to better communicate in the fast-changing social media.

Developing a Pronunciation Computer Program for the Acquisition of English Phonemes and Word Stress

This study devised a pronunciation computer program to examine whether mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) could facilitate college students’ acquisition of English phonemes and word stress. Thirty-eight participants enrolled in the remedial English class offered at the language center of a national technological university in central Taiwan. Before the class, they were asked to read a word list. In the following six weeks, they were taught to distinguish and articulate English phonemes and to predict word stress locations using the designed computer program. They were also instructed to review the learning materials using the smart-phone version of the devised program. After the teaching session, each participant was asked again to read the same word list and fill out an assessment questionnaire. The sound analyses show that their readings of English minimal pairs and word stress placement were more accurate than their performances before the instruction. Their responses to the questionnaire indicate that both the given instruction and the designed computer program were satisfactory. In the open-ended questions, some of them said that they have built up a better understanding of phonemes and word stress, and that they would try to predict polysyllabic word stress when reading English articles. The present findings can be further applied to research on MALL-based English pronunciation acquisition.

Comparative analysis of American English and Mexican Spanish consonants for Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training

The objective of this work is two-fold. Firstly, we aim at detecting similarities and differences between the consonant systems of two languages, namely, American English and Mexican Spanish. To achieve this, we perform a theoretic comparative analysis of consonants of the two languages at the level of both phonemes and allophones. Secondly, a possible practical usage of our results is considered; therefore, as an example of an application, we consider computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) for teaching American English pronunciation to Mexican Spanish speakers. In particular, we took advantage of the results of our analysis to define some hypothetic error patterns which can be used as a starting point for diagnosing possible mispronunciations, their posterior verification, and adjustment taking into account the principles of phonotactics and empirical phonetic analysis of the English learners’ speech. The latter will result in error rules to be applied in a CAPT system for error identification and generation of appropriate corrective feedback. An adequate choice of correcting techniques will improve English pronunciation acquisition and help learners to develop less accented speech. Also, similarities found between the two consonant systems make it possible to organize and present the pronunciation teaching material using a stress-free method of helping learners to adjust their speech organs to new sounds building on the phonetic habits of their first language.

Status Quo and Prospective of WeChat in Improving Chinese English Learners’ Pronunciation

With the ubiquitous usage of wireless, portable, and handheld devices gaining popularity in 21st century, the revolutionary mobile technology introduces digital new media to educational settings, which has changed the way of traditional teaching and learning. WeChat is one of the most popular social networking applications in China featured by its interactivity and real-time communication that has attracted attention of educators to its pedagogical value. This study evaluates the utilization of WeChat in mobile learning and, in particular, its potential for improving English pronunciation among English learners in China. It probes into the perennial problems of Chinese students in English pronunciation acquisition and oral practice, discusses WeChat’s support functions in mobile learning, demonstrates the relevant empirical studies of WeChat in teaching and learning, and analyses the potential value of using WeChat in improving English pronunciation. Examinations in this paper enable one to reflect on the strengths of mobile learning by WeChat and to explore how this social media tool is likely to solve the pronunciation difficulties of Chinese English learners. It is found that applying WeChat to English pronunciation teaching and practicing helps create better self-directed learning environment, enhance learning flexibility and improve oral learning effectiveness. It is hopefully that insights gained from examining how WeChat helps improve English pronunciation learning will shed light on further innovations of teaching designs in this area.

POLYTECHNIC LEARNERS’ PERCEPTION ON PRONUNCIATION ACQUISITION VIA QUESTIONNAIRE ADMINISTRATION TODAY

his study examines perceptions of learners on pronunciation acquisition, learning phonetic transcriptions and their sounds associations amongst Polytechnic Kuala Terengganu Learners. This study was carried-out amongst semester one diploma of Electronics and Electrical Engineering learners in Kuala Terengganu Polytechnic, Terengganu, Malaysia. This study also hopes to show that by learning to recognise and read phonetic symbols learners will be able to overcome any pronunciation disability using the dictionary. This research follows the quasi- experimental design of a control-group A and treatment group B selected randomly doing a pre-test and post-test. The treatment of explicit instruction of phonetic transcriptions for 45 hours was given only to the experimental group. This study focuses on the analysis of oral test answers by learners. Some of the challenges identified in the acquisition of pronunciation are mother tongue interference, mispronunciation because spelling does not reflect pronunciation, unintelligibility and miscommunication and the lack of confidence to speak the English Language. Whilst factors that affect pronunciation acquisition are mother tongue, exposure, motivation, students’ perception, ways of learning, which English to speak and others. However, it was discovered that phonetic instruction of transcriptions and their sounds’ association improves pronunciation competence. Some of the implications of this study are aimed at ELT academicians and practitioners to apply the method used in this study to up-grade the standard of pronunciation proficiency and a suggestion that the learning of pronunciation using phonetic symbols should be taught earlier in their education.

Cross󰠏sectional Study on the Acquisition of Pronunciation of Loanwords in Japanese by Korean Learners

Cross󰠏sectional Study on the Acquisition of Pronunciation of Loanwords in Japanese by Korean Learners

Acoustic characteristics of English liquids produced by Korean learners of English

This paper investigates acoustic characteristics of English liquids produced by Korean EFL learners. Features of liquids such as F2, F3 and duration were extracted from target sounds produced by Koreans and native speakers. Then, normalization processes were applied to the features in order to eliminate minor factors such as speaker variability and speaking rate. Through statistical analyses, it was found that the way Korean EFL learners utilize major features to pronounce English liquids is different from native speakers. Also, it was confirmed that the learners’ L1 interferes with their pronunciation of English liquids. For instance, when EFL learners produced the English lateral incorrectly, acoustic characteristics of Korean [l], which are significantly different from those of English [l], were included in their production. Based on the analysis, a discussion follows as to whether the current results are in line with traditional theoretical models of nonnative pronunciation acquisition.

Motor learning theory-based approach for teaching English as a second language

This study examined the effectiveness of a motor learning theory-based protocol in which feedback that was reduced in frequency, with a four-second delay, coupled with practice, was provided for adult Korean-speaking learners of English. Twelve learners participated in a study composed of a pre-test, an intervention of 12 weekly sessions with a native-speaking experimenter, and a post-test. Seven also participated in a delayed post-test 6 months after the completion of the intervention sessions. The learner output was judged by a panel of 10 native speakers in terms of intelligibility, naturalness, and precision, revealing a significant increase between the pre-test and post-test, and between the pre-test and delayed post-test, indicating the benefits of this intervention for the learners’ acquisition of English pronunciation. The difference between the post-test and delayed post-test, however, was not significant, demonstrating the beneficial effects of this intervention on the long-term retention of English pronunciation.

Effect of Attitude on Foreign Language Acquisition: Arabic Pronunciation as Case Study

This study aims at investigating how attitude influences foreign language acquisition. In fact, the present study focuses on the relationship between the pronunciation proficiency of some of the American students learning Arabic at the Georgetown University, and their attitude toward Arabic speakers. The study also reveals and points out some fundamentally related elements, such as the exposure to Arabic Language and Arabic environment, to eliminate, or at least to reduce, the students' negative attitudes that may hinder the process of pronunciation acquisition. The sample of the study consisted of 6 students (4 females and 2 males) randomly chosen from Georgetown University. A five-point likert scale attitude questionnaire and an achievement test were used to collect data from the students who participated in this research. Results showed that the students who have good attitudes towards Arabic speakers, and have visited or stayed in an Arabic-speaking country, have the best pronunciation performance, while those who have neither good attitudes nor stayed a long time in an Arabic-speaking country, have the poorest performance.

Psycholinguistic peculiarities of future teachers’ interlanguage pronunciation acquisition in subordinative multilingualism environment

Introduction. Understanding the psychological premises of future teachers’ phonetic competence formation contributes to its effectiveness. So far researchers have revealed the mechanisms of their acquiring thepronunciation of English as the first foreign language whereas those that characterize studying English as the second foreign language have been paid little attention to. Purpose. To determine the psycholinguistic peculiaritiesof future teachers’ pronunciation acquisition while their studying English after German. Methods. Reviewing the works on psychological and psycholinguistic problems of foreign language learning with the aim to outline thepsycholinguistic aspects of acquiring the second foreign language pronunciation. Results. The research revealed that future teachers learning English in a subordinate multilingualism environment rely on their former experience in the acquisition of other languages. As a result, they createtheir own interlanguage phonetic system consisting of elements of four languages (Ukrainian, Russian, German and English) and some absolutely new forms. The major psycholinguistic processes that ensure this systemformation and development are language transfer from the native and German languages, intralanguage interference and students’ overgeneralization of rules. The analysis of the causes and consequences of language transfer, the influence of universals and markedness serves the ground for identifying the phonetic phenomena most difficult for acquiring. The study also highlights that pronunciation mistakes can be viewed as a product of certain systematicity. Hence, their correction requires a systematic approach. Conclusion. It is necessary to mind the revealedpsycholinguistic peculiarities for amending the structure of future teachers’ interlanguage phonetic system, correcting their pronunciation mistakes and forming the foundation for their further correct speech acts. The prospects of the further elaboration of the research may involve working out the techniques for future teachers’ phonetic competence formation based on the revealed peculiarities.

Effect of Attitude on Foreign Language Acquisition: Arabic Pronunciation as Case Study

This study aims at investigating how attitude influences foreign language acquisition. In fact, the present study focuses on the relationship between the pronunciation proficiency of some of the American students learning Arabic at the Georgetown University, and their attitude toward Arabic speakers. The study also reveals and points out some fundamentally related elements, such as the exposure to Arabic Language and Arabic environment, to eliminate, or at least to reduce, the students' negative attitudes that may hinder the process of pronunciation acquisition. The sample of the study consisted of 6 students (4 females and 2 males) randomly chosen from Georgetown University. A five-point likert scale attitude questionnaire and an achievement test were used to collect data from the students who participated in this research. Results showed that the students who have good attitudes towards Arabic speakers, and have visited or stayed in an Arabic-speaking country, have the best pronunciation performance, while those who have neither good attitudes nor stayed a long time in an Arabic-speaking country, have the poorest performance.

The acquisition of Spanish pronunciation by Welsh learners: transfer from a regional variety of English into SpanishThe acquisition of Spanish pronunciation by Welsh learners: transfer from a regional variety of English into Spanish

Language teachers agree that the phonetic/phonological distance between a learner’s L1 and L2 is of vital importance in mastering the sounds of the L2; however, no attention is given to the phonetic/phonological distance between the regional variety of the speaker’s L1 and the L2. After comparing linguistic peculiarities of English, and of Welsh English in particular, with Castilian Spanish, the author proceeds to study the interlanguage of advanced students of Spanish from Wales. This helps to explain positive and negative transfer from this variety of English into Spanish and assists in producing a catalogue of the interferences to be corrected. Finally, using coarticulatory processes, the author presents a list of exercises to eliminate some of the interferences found in Welsh learners of Spanish. A descriptive analysis of the learners’ interlanguage shows that the phonetic/phonological distance between the regional variety of the speaker’s L1 and the L2 is what will influence this learning process the most.

The Correlation between the Usage of Phonetic Learning Strategies and the Acquisition of Japanese Pronunciation under JFL Environment: An Analysis of Japanese Learners Studying at Chinese Universities

The Correlation between the Usage of Phonetic Learning Strategies and the Acquisition of Japanese Pronunciation under JFL Environment: An Analysis of Japanese Learners Studying at Chinese Universities

Pronunciation Acquisition Patterns of Learners with Different Starting Levels

This study described the results of an investigation into the effect of an intensive 12-week pronunciation course in British English which 30 Dutch female 1st-year university students of English took. They read out the same text before and after the course. Each student’s ‘before’ and ‘after’ tests were recorded. Before analysis of their results, students were split up into three groups on the basis of their general starting level: high, intermediate and low. The analysis involved a before- and after comparison of the pronunciation of eleven different phonemes: /æ, ɒ, ɔː, ʌ, ʊ, d, θ/, medial /t/, coda /r/, and syllable-final /d, v/.The analysis was done by means of both auditory and acoustic analysis. Four degrees of success (or lack thereof) were defined. The results show that the consonants required the least effort, as they were already relatively acceptable before the course started. This was true of students in general, regardless of initial starting level. The three levels of students are most distinguishable on the basis of the development of the consonants during the course. The weaker students’ consonants in particular benefitted from the course.The research revealed that initial level can be used to predict the trajectory of improvement. A general conclusion is that teachers may recognise types of students before the course starts and subject them to different types of teaching.