Language Phonetics Research Articles

Arabic Language Literacy as an All-Important Aid in English Language Teaching to Arabic-Speaking Students

Current research points to the importance of native language literacy in the development of second language literacy. Knowledge and skills transfer across languages from the mother tongue to the second language. But such knowledge and skills will only transfer if they have been thoroughly learned. Due to the low standard of Arabic proficiency among both English teachers and learners, literacy in Arabic is not made use of in developing literacy in English. In particular, the teaching of English could greatly benefit from the use of Arabic grammatical and phonetic concepts that are not sufficiently developed in English grammar and language. Only a select number of such concepts are reviewed in this paper to serve as indicators of the advantages to be gained by a deeper study and knowledge of Arabic language phonetics and grammar.

Formation of Ukrainian phonetics and its teaching methods in educational institutions

The article analyzes the genesis of the phonetic system of the Ukrainian language, the methods of its teaching, substantiates the significance of the historical processes of the formation of phonetics in the formation of professional competences of future teachers of Ukrainian literature. It was found that the more productive stages of the study of the phonetics of the Ukrainian language, the methods of its teaching in educational institutions were: the borderlands of the 19th-20th centuries; 20s-30s of the 20th century; times of independence of Ukraine. Approaches, methods, technologies of teaching phonetics are traced. The periods of the origin of the language, which are hypothetically oriented by linguists on chronological aspects, are visualized. The approaches and principles on the basis of which the formation of phonetics and phonetic linguistic didactics of the Ukrainian language took place were studied: retrospective, historical, sustainable development, dynamic, "membership of the body of knowledge" (according to K. Tyshchenko). The oldest sound changes described by M. Zhovtobryukh in the monograph "History of the Ukrainian language" were analyzed and summarized. Phonetics". The results of the analysis are presented as a phonetic case "Facts from the history of native language phonetics: the oldest sound changes, their national uniqueness."

Проект письменности для исчезающего бесписьменного алюторского языка

The purpose of the article is to organize the graphic and orthographic patterns found in Alutor language publications, establish fundamental rules for Alutor writing, and provide a theoretical rationale for them. The text examined in the analysis comprised a series of books written in Alutor. The Alutor script was created under the influence of the dominant Russian and Koryak writing systems. A fundamental aspect involves phonemic representation utilizing the Cyrillic alphabet alongside specific national characters and graphical combinations B’, Г’, Ӄ, and Ӈ. Following the syllabic principle, the letters E, Ё, Ю, and Я, as well as hard and soft signs, are utilized. The challenge is how to depict the super-short vowel sound [ǝ] in writing through the use of the letter Ы. The representation of glottal [ʔ] and epiglottal [ʕ] consonants in written form poses challenges as well. Until the start of the 21st century, these consonants were a defining element of monolingual speech. Nonetheless, the impact of Russian language phonetics caused a reduction in glottal and epiglottal consonants. The morphological principle, concerning the duplication of consonants at morpheme boundaries, is significant in the context of the Alutor script. The analysis revealed the unification of the author's variants of the Alutor script by the 1820s of the 19th century. The graphical and orthographic system of the Alutor language was developed without normative guidelines by editors of national texts and linguists.

Скороговорка как средство совершенствования иноязычных фонетических навыков на уроках иностранного языка в начальной школе

The study aims to provide a theoretical justification of the expediency of using tongue twisters to teach English phonetics to grade schoolers. The paper considers the stages of phonetics training, types of exercises, describes the stages of working with tongue twisters when teaching phonetics in foreign language classes in elementary grades, the features of foreign language phonetics teaching in elementary school, describes the main difficulties of grade schoolers in the formation of auditory skills. The scientific novelty of the work lies in determining the criteria for the selection of tongue twisters at an early stage of training and highlighting the requirements for the content of tongue twisters as educational material. As a result of the study, a methodology for working on tongue twisters for improving phonetic skills in grade schoolers involving the material of the English language has been developed.

Matched-accent processing: Bulgarian-English bilinguals do not have a processing advantage with Bulgarian-accented English over native English speech

The Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB) hypothesis for Talkers suggests that there is a potential benefit when listening to one’s second language when it is produced in the accent of one’s first language (matched-accent processing). This study explores ISIB, considering listener proficiency. According to second language learning theories, the listener’s second language proficiency determines the extent to which they rely on their first language phonetics, hence the magnitude of ISIB may be affected by listener proficiency. The accuracy and reaction times of Bulgarian-English bilinguals living in the UK were recorded in a lexical decision task. The English stimuli were produced by native English speakers and Bulgarian-English bilinguals. Listeners responded more slowly and less accurately to the matched-accent stimuli than the native English stimuli. In addition, they adapted their reaction times faster to new speakers with a native English accent compared to a Bulgarian accent. However, the listeners with the lowest English proficiency had no advantage in reaction times and accuracy for either accent. The results offer mixed support for ISIB for Talkers, and are consistent with second language learning theories according to which listeners rely less on their native language phonology when their proficiency in the second language has increased.

Формирование иноязычных ритмико-интонационных навыков у студентов направления «Лингвистика» с использованием стихотворного материала

The article focuses on the problem of implementing poems into the process of developing rhythm and intonation skills in linguistic students as one of the most important goals of professional training. Rhythm and intonation skills are part of phonetic competence which in its turn forms linguistic competence. Linguistic competence constitutes the basis of communicative competence. The formation of a foreign language communicative competence is one of the fundamental requirements of our time. The aim of the article is to present a model for the rhythm and intonation skills formation in linguistic students and the results of its verification. The research methods include the literature observation of the problem, experimental verification, quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results. The article firstly makes a theoretical overview of the student books which are used by linguistic students while studying foreign language phonetics. The authors learned that poems are not used to the full extent in the formation of phonetic competence despite their rich linguistic potential. The article secondly hypothesizes the effectiveness of introducing poems into the process of rhythm and intonation skills formation. The authors develop a model of a six-stage implementation of developing rhythm and intonation skills through poems. As a result of the purposeful selection of poems using specific criteria, the six-stage implementation of poems in developing rhythm and intonation skills, with the help of the system of exercises and with specific recommendations, the model achieves the expected results. At the first four stages of the rhythm and intonation skills formation, the receptive type of exercises is presented, while the next two stages tend to implement exercises of productive type, in which foreign language learners majoring in Linguistics produce speech phonetically formed in a perfect way. Students use a variety of English scales; determine the stressed and unstressed syllables along with identifying authentic pauses and diverse forms of nuclear tones. An evaluating test for diagnosing the level of rhythm and intonation skills formation as part of phonetic competence is created. The process and results of experimental verification are made for determining the effectiveness of the chosen model for developing rhythm and intonation skills in a specifically selected informational educational environment. The results of the research have proved the efficiency of the selected methods.

Callenges for teaching Georgian language Phonetics in high schools

Significant and important details should be taken into account when planning a Phonetics training course. As you know, the Morphology and Syntax of the Georgian language are taught in small doses at school, and thus, these subjects are somewhat familiar to the entrants. But we can not say the same about "Phonetics". This scientific discipline is a completely new fruit for first-year students of the Philology contingent, which puts lecturers in front of great responsibilities and serious difficulties. Thus, when working out a Phonetics lecture course, we must carefully select the issues that we will provide to students seeking new knowledge, not in terms of learning and mastery, but in terms of assessment and cognition. We hope that the model we have developed will give the freshman the opportunity to think rationally, to choose and to formulate his own position, even to identify/develop a new theory/point of view, and to create his scientific skills.

Phonetics teaching in terms of ethnic oriented education of "Russian as a foreign language" classes

The article raises the question of Russian language phonetics teaching in “Russian as a Foreign Language” (referred to as “RFL”) classes for an individual language student group. This study falls into the category of researches dedicated to the analysis of different approaches to ethnic oriented teaching of foreign languages. In particular, typical mistakes of Chinese students made at Russian phonetics lessons are analyzed. They exist not only due to the interference of two unrelated languages (Chinese and Russian), but also due to the features of various students’ Chinese dialects. The main analysis of the current research is the comparative method of unrelated languages analysis, which is set to describe features of phonological systems of Russian and Chinese languages, as well as to uncover typical articulation errors. This article defines the classification of typical pronunciation errors of all Chinese students, which is divided by the article’s authors into two types: interference and dialect errors. Authors come to the conclusion that ethnic oriented approach to the teaching of Russian language phonetics is quite productive, since it creates the possibility to analyze phonetic errors and problematic moments to the students who study foreign language by comparing them to the specific articulative and prosodic features of their native language. The framework of the current article and the given classification of typical errors can be quite helpful to the teachers of “RFL” classes in their pedagogic practices while preparing the classes with Chinese students, and it can attract the attention of expertise who are developing Russian phonetics courses and creating handbooks based on ethnic oriented approach.

Repetition Preferences in Two-Handed Balanced Signs: Vestigial Locomotor Central Pattern Generators Shape Sign Language Phonetics and Phonology

Language is produced by bodies that evolved to fulfill a variety of functions, most of them non-communicative. Vestigial influences of adaptation for quadrupedal locomotion are still affecting bimanual actions, and have consequences on manual communication systems such as sign languages of the deaf. We discuss how central pattern generators (CPGs), networks of nerve cells in the spinal cord that drive locomotion, influence bimanual actions with alternating movements to be produced with repeated motion. We demonstrate this influence with data from three unrelated sign languages, American Sign Language, British Sign Language, and Hong Kong Sign Language: in all three sign languages two-handed balanced signs produced with alternating movements have a tendency to be repeated, whereas other types of two-handed balanced signs show the opposite tendency for single movements. These tendencies cannot be fully explained by factors such as iconicity. We propose a motoric account for these results: as alternating bimanual movements are influenced by locomotor patterns, they favor repeated movements.

The phenomenon of the singing style of J. Kaufmann: theoretical aspect

The phenomenon of the singing style of J. Kaufmann: theoretical aspect

The influence of language background and second language phonetics training on the perception of lexical stress in a second language

Language background and second language (L2) training both have been found to contribute to L2 lexical stress perception. To explore their relative contributions, a lexical stress perception task was administered to a total of 129 university students of different language backgrounds. A group of 62 monolingual English-speaking students in the U.S.A. and 67 English-as-a-foreign-language students in Chile were asked to identify lexical stress in trochees and iambs. Chileans with previous phonetics training performed better than Chileans without the training and performed as well as their U.S. peers. U.S. participants and those Chileans without previous phonetics training performed better with trochees than iambs, but those Chileans with L2 phonetics training performed similarly with both stress patterns. Spanish (L1) ability and English (L2) phonetics training explained variance, but English (L2) ability did not. Results suggest that participants with previous L2 phonetics training developed a general skill to detect lexical stress, while those without such training merely transferred Spanish stress perception to English, which was beneficial because Spanish and English stress patterns are similar for disyllabic words. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

СИНОНИМИЯ ТЕРМИНОЛОГИИ ФОНЕТИКИ ВО ФРАНЦУЗСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

The article is devoted to studying terminological synonymy in the terminological system of the French language phonetics. The existing viewpoints on this semantic process are presented. The paper suggests differentiating variability and synonymy, which are considered as autonomous processes. The author sticks to the opinion that synonymy of terms is a natural phenomenon with its own peculiarities. The analysis has allowed identifying the following basic types of synonyms: synonyms which describe certain features of one and the same invariant significate and terms-doublets (full synonyms). Structural peculiarities of synonymous phonetic terms in the French language are examined.

The Phonemic Value of Pashto Language Special Letters

This academic paper assists its readers in the field of Pashto Language phonetics insight that in the future study it can be used as a source for its users. Phonetic is one branch of linguistics because phonetics studies the human’s practical sound scientifically. Phonetics provides some approaches for description of classification and writing of sounds. This paper is regarding the rules of Pashto Language productive phonetics in order to prove whether there is such grapheme and phonemes in other world languages or not? Therefore, the diversity of Afghanistan language, particularly Pashto Language is counted as the cultural heir and rich wealth for current globe. Hence, in this academic paper Pashto Language phonemics rules are studied and linguistic study of it opens a door for Afghan users. For this reason, phonetic is the basic study of linguistics and literature is depended on grammar and grammar is relied on morphology and morphology is depended on phonology and phonology is the base and important element of phonetics. The other spot of this paper is the similarity of some phonetics letters of Pashto Language alphabet with Indo-European because Pashto Language is on branch of Indo-European family and has its own alphabet with special features that the speakers use it. The phonemic rules of aforementioned language is like other Indo-European languages.

Media and Second Dialect Acquisition

AbstractThis article addresses the role that different types of media might play in second dialect acquisition. While many scholars agree that broadcast media such as television have little effect on individual speakers’ language use, research across fields (sociolinguistics, second language learning, laboratory phonology, and phonetics) suggests that high levels of engagement could facilitate dialect learning via mediated speech. I will briefly describe the mechanisms underlying acquisition of new dialect features, discuss how these mechanisms might operate when speakers are exposed to speech via specific types of media, and sketch some avenues for future research.

A Brief Talk on Scientific Management and Routine Maintenance of Foreign Language Phonetics Room Taking Anhui Sanlian University as an Example

The new period development of foreign language teaching in universities, the application of foreign language phonetics room in language teaching is becoming more and more popular and plays an extremely important role, in order to serve the foreign language teaching better, to make full use of the functions of the foreign language phonetics room and guarantee teaching. How to conduct scientific management and routine maintenance of foreign language phonetics room, this is also the main task of foreign language teaching in universities. This paper discusses the problems in the management and maintenance of the current foreign language phonetics room, some suggestions on strengthening the management and maintenance of foreign language phonetics room are put forward.

An Exploratory Study of Heritage Spanish Rhotics

When speaking their heritage language, heritage speakers typically sound much like other “native speakers.” However, recent studies have found that heritage speakers (HSs) are highly variable and produce a range of more and less “native-like” phonetic features. In an effort to stimulate productive new research in this area, this article addresses some of the methodological challenges of heritage language phonetics research, namely dealing with high variability and identifying the best predictors of that variability. A study on heritage Spanish rhotics is presented to elucidate those methodological challenges. The study took an exploratory, bottom-up approach to analyzing the rhotics produced by speakers of central Mexican and Salvadoran Spanish with different language profiles: HSs, traditional native speakers, long-term immigrants, and second language learners. The results suggested that overall between-group comparisons of means based on isolated acoustic features could be insufficiently informative. The study also evaluated the contribution of various linguistic (e.g., proficiency and use) and extralinguistic (e.g., cultural and ethnic identity) factors for identifying more homogeneous subgroups of HSs and found that the latter were useful for predicting phonetic variation.

HISTORICAL AND LINGUISTIC COMMENTARY IN THE CONTEXT OF TEACHING THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AT SCHOOL

Introduction: the article substantiates the necessity of studying the grammatical structure of the modern Russian language in terms of its history, considers methods of explaining difficult spelling cases using elements of historical and linguistic commenting, as well as data of historical Phonetics and historical lexicology. Materials and methods: materials for commenting were selected from Russian studies approved by the Ministry of education and science of the Russian Federation. In the course of working on the article the following methods were used – analysis of scientific sources, comparative analysis, methods of comparison and generalization. Research results: the article substantiates the role of knowledge of the history of the language in the scientific study of the language. The necessity of addressing to the history of the Russian language is also connected with the increased interest in the characteristics and roots of the Russian mentality, and the language is considered to be its custodian. Therefore, the history and linguistic approach at the lessons of the Russian language at school is so important. The authors determine the particular importance of lexicology in etymological analysis of words, as well as historical phonetics - in the study of spelling of full-voice and corresponding non-consonant combinations, as well as in the presentation of rules related to fluency of vowel sounds. The study is accompanied by specific examples from the school curriculum of Russian language studies. Discussion and conclusion: the appeal to the considered aspects of the history of the native language (phonetics, lexicology) in close unity with the studied material, reflected in the school curriculum, allows students to penetrate deep into the native language, to feel its various nuances, it promotes the development of various forms of logical and associative thinking, awareness of national identity.

PHONETIC DIFFICULTIES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FOR STUDENTS OF NON-LINGUISTIC SPECIALTIES

TSVIETAIEVA Olena – PhD of Social Communication Studies , associate professor of Foreign Languages for Engineering , Technical and Natural Specialities Department, Dnipro Oles Honchar National University , Prospekt Haharina, 72, Dnipro, 49000, Ukraine ( lenatsv@ukr.net ) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8072-6578 ResearcherID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/D-2692-2016 ZNANETSKA Olena – PhD of Psychological Sciences, associate professor of Foreign Languages for Engineering , Technical and Natural Specialities Department, Dnipro Oles Honchar National University, Prospekt Haharina, 72, Dnipro, 49000, Ukraine ( znanetska@i.ua ) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6075-6537 ResearcherID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/D-4023-2016 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24919/2313-2094.6/38.121463 To cite this article: Tsvietaieva, O., Znanetska, O. (2018). Fonetychni skladnosti anhliiskoi movy u studentiv nemovnykh spetsialnostei [Phonetic difficulties of the English language for students of non-linguistic specialties]. Liudynoznavchi studii. Seriia «Pedahohika» – Human Studies. Series of «Pedagogy» , 6/38, 340–351. doi: 10.24919/2313-2094.6/38.121463 [in Ukrainian]. Article history Received: 9 October 2017 Received in revised form: 7 December 2017 Accepted: 15 February 2018 Available online: 5 April 2018 Abstract. When learning a foreign language, including English, the issue of correct pronunciation should have a clear statement from the start. Without the correct pronunciation, the manifestation of the language communicative function is impossible. The initial stage of training is especially important, because at this period students often imitate sounds, which, at the subconscious level, helps them to get the necessary skills of articulation. The purpose of the article is to stress the importance of studying the phonetic features of the Ukrainian and English languages sound systems based on the experience of the authors of this article and certain theoretical conclusions. Teaching foreign language pronunciation is a difficult task in itself that does not only require good knowledge of the phonetic system of the language taught but also of the mother tongue, since their comparison allows to predict the typical mistakes of those who study a foreign language and to overcome possible difficulties encountered in the learning process more effectively. When choosing the pronunciation option, it is necessary to take into account the purpose of foreign language teaching, the students’ needs and their personal and social identity. Due to the fact that the number of hours allocated to studying a foreign language at non-linguistic faculties of higher educational establishments in Ukraine is not sufficient for the qualitative mastering of all the competences of the English language (lexical, grammatical etc.), the issue of pronunciation is often receded into the background. Much work of considerable interest has been completed aimed to optimize the foreign language teaching process on the basis of the comparative analysis of the native and learned languages. In order to determine the level of pronunciation skills of the first-year students of Geology and Geography Faculty, the English language phonetics level test was held in the first semester of 2017. The students were asked to read certain words aloud, paying attention to intonation and articulation. The test results showed that 100 % of the students made pronunciation mistakes. Therefore, when learning a foreign language, we should comprehensively take into account students’ opportunities and the problems connected with their acquired knowledge and skills to prevent unconscious learning, and at the same time, trying to ensure that the operational side of the language learning is worked out quite clearly, which can allow the practical aspects of language proficiency to be actualized. Thus, both the students and the teachers will feel more confident when the process of training is productive. Declaration of Conflicting Interests . The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Acknowledgments. Sincere thanks to pedagogical staff at Dnipro Oles Honchar National University, in particular Prof. Mykola Viktorovych. Funding . The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Funding from Dnipro Oles Honchar National University permitted this research completion.

TASK-BASED PRONUNCIATION TEACHING AND RESEARCH

AbstractThis article synthesizes the conclusions of the empirical studies in this special issue and outlines key questions in future research. The research reported in this volume has identified several fundamental issues in pronunciation-focused task design that are discussed in detail and on which suggestions for further research are outlined. One crucial issue is how attention to pronunciation resulting in language-related episodes effectively leads to robust gains in accuracy. Another important aspect discussed is the need to adapt task design features to the phonological domain under focus and how to incorporate systematic patterns of first language interference into the task structure. Finally, we propose that future research in task-based pronunciation teaching and second language phonetics and phonology should systematically examine learner factors known to affect task performance and task features established in the research domains of lexical and grammatical development.

Формирование навыков самоорганизации при изучении иноязычной фонетики

The problem of development of skills of self-organization in practice of teaching foreign language which will eventually lead to the formation of student’s autonomy is considered. Different points of view on the components of self-organization are analyzed. The article summarizes the experience of use of skills of self-study in learning foreign languages. The article describes the experience of 1st year students of the linguistic profession, mastering self-learning skills as a way of organization of independent learning of foreign language phonetics beyond the classroom with the goal of improving pronunciation skills. The novelty of the study is the innovative methods of teaching pronunciation, allowing to master foreign language pronunciation by oneself on the authentic material in contrast to the traditional, classical approach, where phonetics was based only on simulation models and learning conversations. The author’s development of self-study of pronunciation is presented using the maintaining diaries of audioactivity and independent listening to podcasts on the BBC, that contain a demonstration of how using a permanent teaching guide introduced aspects of self-organization, and students develop their phonetic skills successfully. The resulting experimental test data allow to conclude that this technique has a positive effect on students’ learning the characteristics of foreign language pronunciation.