Stress Placement Research Articles

The effects of implicit corrective feedback on production of lexical stress in L2 English

The interactionist approach to second language acquisition has yielded a plethora of studies confirming the positive impact of interaction and corrective feedback on second language (L2) development. Nevertheless, only a few studies have attempted to investigate the development of L2 prosody using the interactionist approach. The current study contributes to this line of research by investigating the relationship between recasts and the production of primary stress in L2 English. Following a pretest-posttest design, 68 L1 Arabic speakers were randomly assigned to control and intervention groups. The pre- and posttest comprised sentence-completion and information-exchange tasks, whereas the intervention was a role-play task that dyads carried out with the researcher. The intervention group received a recast upon producing target words with misplaced primary stress, whereas the control group did not receive any corrective feedback. The results of acoustic analyses, which focused on syllable duration, intensity, and pitch, indicated a positive relationship between recasts and development of primary stress placement. The results were also supported by expert listener judgments. The findings suggest that interaction and implicit corrective feedback play a positive role in the development of lexical stress.

A Review of the Influence of Wu Dialect on English Pronunciation Acquisition

The Wu dialect is widely spoken in Wu-speaking regions of China, which covers a considerable number of English learners. However, the phonetic system of the Wu dialect differs significantly from that of English, which greatly affects the English learning process of Wu-speaking learners, thus attracting numerous researchers to conduct related studies. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of research on the influence of Wu dialect on English phonological learning over the past two decades and presents a selection of twenty-seven papers to explore the theoretical framework, the research methodology, and the specific impacts encountered by English language learners who speak Wu dialect. Among them, the theoretical discussion centered on language transfer theory, Fleges Speech Learning Model and Bests Perceptual Assimilation Model; the research methodology consisted of qualitative analysis and empirical study; and the focus was placed on positive and negative transfer effects, i.e., the challenges posed by the absence or presence of phonological differences in the Wu dialect to the learners of English. The findings reveal significant segmental and suprasegmental influences in English pronunciation acquisition, with segmental challenges including differentiation of consonants and incomplete articulation of vowels, and suprasegmental challenges including stress placement, intonation patterns, and phonological rhythm. In addition, the discussion highlights the need for more empirical studies to supplement qualitative analyses, the consideration of regional variations within Wu dialect, and the exploration of teaching strategies informed by research findings. Therefore, the paper advocates for future research focusing on regional differences, deeper exploration of suprasegmental influences, integration of research into teaching practices, and diversified research methods.

Unlocking potential: Integrating pronunciation into business instruction to inspire students and strengthen content teachers

Integrating content and language instruction has gained popularity worldwide because it allows students to improve their content knowledge while concurrently honing their language skills. Although this approach seems beneficial in principle, it can be quite demanding, particularly on the content teachers’ part in practice. This study aims to examine the effect of language instruction integrated into a content class at a university in Thailand. Based on a content teacher’s voluntary participation, a class of business students (N = 52) were exposed to 5-8 minutes of English word stress instruction in eight business lessons spanning over the entire course. A similar 40 business words for the pretest and post-test were administered at the beginning and toward the end of the course. Subsequently, a focus group discussion of six students was conducted to elicit the students’ attitudes toward such integrated instruction. The analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data shows that integrating pronunciation instruction with content instruction can be beneficial. Cognitively, the students’ word stress placement skills have substantially improved, as determined by a high value of the t-test. Psychologically, the students had positive attitudes, greater motivation to learn English, higher engagement in the lessons, and more confidence in speaking English. Overall, the study demonstrates that pronunciation instruction minimally integrated with content instruction could lead to immense pronunciation success. The study has important implications for English language educators who seek to effectively integrate pronunciation instruction into their content instruction programs, benefiting both students and content teachers.

The Indo-Iranian background of the Ossetic future

Abstract The Ossetic future is generally believed to originate in compounds with Proto-Iranian *čana(h)- ‘desiring’, but the morphological and phonological details have never been explored. Examination of the Indo-Iranian evidence confirms that since the root *kanH- ‘take pleasure in’ occurs almost exclusively as a stative perfect, the only plausible source is possessive (bahuvrīhi) compounds with the derived noun *čanah- ‘desire’, which were restricted to this usage already in Old Iranian (cf. Avestan šaētō.cinah- ‘whose desire is possessions’). From denominative bases and thematic verbal nouns, *X-čanāh ‘whose desire is XN, desiring XN’ was reinterpreted as deverbal ‘(be) wanting to XV’ > ‘XV-fut’ and generalized to all verbal stems. The phonological evolution to Ossetic -ʒæn- is regular; the distribution of the allomorphs -ʒæn- and -ʒin- in the Digor dialect provides indirect evidence for the placement of stress in Proto-Ossetic, which in turn permits the resolution of an old problem, the double reflex of Proto-Iranian *pati- in compounds.

Discussing some Phonological Aaspects of Kurdish Through the Words befr and berf ”snow”

”befr” and ”berf” are variants of the same word. They are used in different Kurmanji-speaking areas. Although the sequencing of [f] and [r] is the main difference between them, this variation leads us to investigate some aspects of Kurdish phonology. It also works as a sample for testing some phonological theories. In this study, the sounds of befr and berf are described in phonetics terms and in the frame of distinctive features. Since one of the key questions of this study is why these two forms exist in Kurmanji, the phonotactics of their sounds within the frame of the Sonority Hiearchy and the Sonority Sequencing Principle is presented. When befr is pronounced in isolation, an epenthetic [i] is inserted between [f] and [r]. This epenthesis changes the monosyllabic [befr] to a disyllabic [be.fir]. Therefore, syllabe types and stress placement in Kurmanji are also discussed here by presenting the theory of Metrical phonology and the moraic theory.The study ends with answering the key question. The last section demonstrates why both forms of Kurdish ”snow” are acceptable by adopting Optimaltiy Theory.

On Arab EFL learners’ production of words with “-ate”

Abstract Arab EFL learners encounter difficulty stressing English words, particularly those with -ate, e.g. ‘ˈpercolate’, ‘ˈgerminate’, ‘ˈimpregnate’. They often stress the rightmost syllable. However, earlier studies included a limited sample of such items. The present study further explores and verifies these preliminary findings. It aims at revealing any coherent pattern in learners’ word stress strategies and tracing stress strategies associated with the stimuli’s word class or length. Furthermore, it investigates the effect of specific instruction on the production of the stimuli. To estimate the impact of training in stress placement on subjects’ accurate stress production, the subjects were enrolled in a nine-hour stress-training course that extended over three weeks. Ninety infrequent words ending in -ate were used in pretest and posttest pronunciation tasks with 102 third- and fourth-year Jordanian English majors. They had problems accurately producing the stimuli and tended to place stress on the ultimate syllables. Stress was often assigned to the right syllable as the subjects were prolonging the last vowel, i.e. the -ate syllable, and accentuating it in most stimuli. No significant association existed between the subjects’ performance and word length or word classes of the stimuli. The posttest scores far exceeded the pretests, proving explicit instruction’s benefits.

Decoding the Suprasegmental Aspect: A Deep Dive into Word Stress Errors in English Pronunciation

In pronunciation, students encounter significant challenges when it comes to stress. The majority of students often struggle with the accurate placement of stress in words. This research project seeks to identify the key aspects: the specific word categories that pose the most significant difficulty for students regarding stress placement, the syllable position where students commonly struggle with pronunciation, and the predominant types of errors made when attempting to pronounce stress in English. This research takes a quantitative descriptive approach to gather information about these three aspects. The study's target population consists of 250 students from Tadulako University, with a sample of 35 students chosen through purposive sampling. Data collection was carried out through tests and mobile phones as research instruments, and the data were subsequently analyzed using basic statistical methods within the Excel application. The findings reveal that verbs are the most challenging for students to pronounce among various word categories, with 53 errors observed. Regarding syllable position, the ultimate position is the most difficult for students regarding placing stress on pronunciation, with 20 errors recorded. In line with the linguistic category, the error was identified in verb (48%), noun (25 %), and adjective (27%) errors produced by students.

Prominence effects in vocal iconicity: Implications for lexical access and language changea).

This paper explores how three cognitive and perceptual cues, vocal iconicity, resemblance-based mappings between form and meaning, and segment position and lexical stress, interact to affect word formation and language processing. The study combines an analysis of the word-internal positions that iconic segments occur in based on data from 245 language families with an experimental study in which participants representing more than 30 languages rated iconic and non-iconic pseudowords. The pseudowords were designed to systematically vary segment and stress placement across syllables. The results for study 1 indicate that segments used iconically appear approximately 0.26 segment positions closer toward the beginning of words compared to non-iconic segments. In study 2, it was found that iconic segments occurring in stressed syllables and non-iconic segments occurring in the second syllable were rated as significantly more fitting. These findings suggest that the interplay between vocal iconicity and prominence effects increases the predictive function of iconic segments by foregrounding sounds, which intrinsically carry semantic information. Consequently, these results contribute to the understanding of the widespread occurrence of vocal iconicity in human languages.

Judgements of EFL Students on English Stress Placement

The purposes of the study were to investigate the knowledge related to the stress in English at the word level and the sentence level gained by 2nd – 4th year Thai students majoring in English and to compare the scores of the knowledge test obtained by the students with different years of their study and different faculties of their affiliations. The randomly selected sample consisted of 190 participants out of 321 volunteers, the 2nd - 4th year English majors. The research instrument was a Test to Measure the Knowledge of English Stress (TMKES) at the word and sentence levels used to collect the data, and the statistics that were utilized to analyze the data included frequency, mean, standard deviations, and One-Way ANOVA. The findings of the study showed that students who took the test were able to score over half of the total on average. The students’ competence in English stress was not significantly different due to their different years of study. However, the students who were affiliated with different faculties had the significantly different competence in English word stress excluding English sentence stress. Additionally, when the scores of both the word stress and the sentence stress were combined, there was a statistically significant difference owing to the distinguishable affiliations.

Influence of first language on English word stress assignment by bahdini Kurdish learners of English

Studies on learning second language (L2) phonology agree that first language (L1) has a key role in the production of learners L2. This study was carried out on Bahdini Kurdish (henceforth, BK) learners of English in order to investigate how phonological characteristics of Kurdish word stress affect the production of English word stress as far as the two languages have different stress placement rules. It was hypothesized that BK learners will face challenges in learning English stress and they will, more frequently, place stress on the final syllable of the English words, similar to their L1. Thirty students from the English Language Department at University of Zakho participated in this study. The participants completed a production test of reading 48 English words with different grammatical categories, stress positions and morphological structures. The learners’ production was recorded and listened to by the researcher and two phonologists to indicate the correct stress placement in their performance. The results show that BK learners were not able to place stress on the correct syllable of all types of words in English: simple, complex and compound. Furthermore, language transfer was not clear in the learners’ performance of the test words, that is, they did not place stress on the final syllable of the words. The learners were unaware of English stress rules and English pronunciation in general and did not properly acquire them. Mispronunciation of words and parts of the words and lack of knowledge about English stress rules, therefore, were clearly the factor of stress misplacement in all types of words.

Exploring the Impact of Age and Proficiency: English Word Stress Placement in Indonesian EFL Learners

The use of stress is perceived as the most influence factor in communication. The reason is not merely aware on the stress rule in a language but more on how to avoid the conflict of misunderstanding among the speakers. When every language has different rule on stress placement such as Indonesian language and English, this researh is inspired to conduct the investigation on the awareness and the use of English stress on Indonesian students in Cirebon, Indonesia. There are 14 selected English words which is loan in Indonesian vocabularies. It will help to know whether the participants can differentiate both tones and stress in the test. The result of this study shows the age and English competence of Indonesian students influences the accuracy of English word stress placement. The implication of this research is to build an awareness on English teaching learning on young learners.

An Acoustic Analysis of Word Stress Production by Indonesian Learners of English

: Although word stress is a crucial aspect of English speaking, it is not given much emphasis in Indonesia's EFL instruction. Students, consequently, lack the theoretical understanding of how to properly stress syllables in English words. This study uses a program named Praat to examine the acoustic parameters of word stress produced by EFL students in terms of its intensity level. These parameters can indicate whether the students pronounce two-syllable words of nouns and verbs accurately. The subjects of this research were the third-year students of English Education Department who were selected purposively based on the students’ results of EF SET (Standardized English Test). The findings revealed that the students produced more inaccurate word stress when pronouncing nouns than they did when pronouncing verbs. Moreover, the inaccurate word stress produced by the students was divided into three categories: equation stress, no-stress placement, and reverse stress. Among the three categories, equation stress is the most common error found in this study. This study provides insight into the features of word stress and the acoustic measurement of word stress produced by Indonesian learners of English. It implies that there is a need to integrate explicit instruction on word stress. This could involve dedicated lessons on stress placement, incorporating practical exercises and feedback mechanisms to help students develop a theoretical understanding and practical skills in pronouncing English words accurately. The study also encourages future research in related areas, suggesting a focus on other pronunciation problems like intonation. This broader approach to research can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges Indonesian learners face in mastering English pronunciation that can provide a foundation for curriculum development and instructional strategies aimed at enhancing English language proficiency in Indonesia.

Comprehension of clitic pronouns by children with cochlear implants: the role of sentence stress

Objectives This study investigates the role of sentence stress on the comprehension of sentences with clitic pronouns (unstressed morphemes and a typical feature of Romance languages) by children with cochlear implants (CIs). Methods Thirteen children (seven girls) with CIs and 15 children (seven girls) with NH between eight and 12 years who are monolingual speakers of Brazilian Portuguese participated on a computerized sentence comprehension task that involved manipulation of stress placement of possible antecedent words to clitic pronouns. Results Children with CIs were significantly less accurate than children with NH in comprehending sentences with clitics, regardless of sentence stress. For children with NH, stress on the correct antecedent significantly increased sentence comprehension accuracy. For children with CI, there was no significant effect of sentence stress on selecting the correct antecedent for clitic pronouns. Discussion Comprehension of sentences with clitic pronouns is challenging for children with CIs and this challenge holds cross-linguistically. Furthermore, children with CIs do not use prosodic information to support comprehension of sentences with clitics similarly to NH children. Conclusion Language-specific syntactic, morphosyntactic, and prosodic contrasts affecting sentence comprehension need to be assessed in children with CIs to plan an effective intervention.

Homogeneity and heterogeneity in lexical stress placement among Ugandan speakers of English as an L2: a view from usage-based perspective

Abstract The study delineates divergences that set apart the Ugandan accent from RP with respect to primary lexical stress placement, as well as divergences that evince variability among Ugandans. For example, differences from RP were (almost) homogenously observed in the words effect, cassava, agreement, arrest, alarm, with stress placed on the first syllable of all these nouns, while inter-speaker variability was substantially observed in words such as bursar, further, with some speakers placing stress on both syllables of the words, while others had the stress on the first syllable only. Analogy and underlying substrate influence account for the divergences, with substrate influence considered along the lines of what Wells (1982) refers to as ‘lexical distribution.

An Analysis of Pronunciation in Word Stress Towards Students of Sixth Semester of English Education at UIN Raden Intan Lampung

Stress placement in English words is conduct with complicated rules. Hence, assigning stress correctly in English words is still a challenge for learners. This research explored the production of English word stress by 23 students of the sixth semester at Islam State University Raden Intan Bandar Lampung. This research used a qualitative approach, and the data were recorded by giving a task to pronounce 15 words. PRAAT software was utilized to analyze the recordings, including measuring the pitch, intensity, and duration as indicators. The result illustrated that the students word stress pronunciation was avarage. Almost all the students were able to distinguish the placement of stress correctly, with a percentage of 82% on two syllables, 51% on three syllables, and 67% on four syllables. Mother tongue influence, local accent and lack of exposure in utilized word stress also contribute the problem

Two grammars of A’ingae glottalization: A case for Cophonologies by Phase

AbstractThis paper describes and analyzes phonological processes pertinent to the glottal stop in A’ingae (or Cofán, iso 639-3: ). The operations which the glottal stops undergo and trigger reveal an interaction of two morphophonological parameters: stratum and stress dominance. First, verbal suffixes are organized in two morphophonological domains, or strata. Within the inner domain, glottal stops affect stress placement, which I analyze as an interaction with foot structure. In the outer domain, glottal stops do not have any effects on stress. Second, some verbal suffixes delete stress (i. e. they are dominant). Dominance is unpredictable and independent of the suffix’s morphophonological domain, but dominance and the phonological domain interact in a non-trivial way: only inner dominant suffixes delete glottalization. To account for the A’ingae data, I adopt Cophonologies by Phase (Sande et al. 2020), which (i) models phonological stratification while (ii) allowing for morpheme-specific phonological idiosyncrasies, which (iii) interact with the phonological grammar of their stratum. Stress deletion triggered by the dominant suffixes is modeled with AntiFaithfulness (Alderete 1999, 2001). Antifaithfulness to a metrical foot entails antifaithfulness to its features (glottalization). This captures the fact that only the inner dominant suffixes delete glottal stops.

L1 influence on stress placement by English language teachers in Anambra State (Nigeria)

Despite the availability of a number of studies on stress in Nigerian English, scant attention has been paid to patterns of stress placement in connected speech by Anambra State English language teachers, especially insights that are supported with acoustic evidence. Bearing in mind this gap as well as their training in the language and its expected standardising role, this study describes the patterns that characterise stress assignment to words in the context of connected speech by Anambra State English language teachers, while tracking possible L1 influence. A short passage which was read by 50 Anambra State teachers and audio-recorded, in addition to naturally occurring classroom speech, constitute the data. The analysis, which was done perceptually and acoustically, shows that when placed against the constitutionally mandated patterns of Standard British English (SBE), the teachers have variable and unstable stress placement patterns on words in connected speech. They produced stressed syllables with higher F0, intensity and duration than SBE. Out of the 50 participants, only 21% had patterns that are close to SBE, while L1 influence was evident in 79% of the participants. This evidence does not support the continuous exonormative role of SBE for Nigerian English.

Examining the Influence of Stress on Speech

This article explores English suprasegmental features, specifically stress placement and pronunciation in both single and compound words, using Roach's (2009) framework. Stress is crucial for conveying meaning in spoken language. Challenges faced by English learners, such as accurate stress, intonation, and pronunciation, are discussed. The article delves into stress placement in single words, illustrating its role in differentiating similar-sounding words and conveying nuances in questions, commands, and exclamations. It also covers stress hierarchy, including primary stress, secondary stress, and unstressed syllables. Complex words, involving affixes and compounds, are examined. Affixes' impact on stress in root words is discussed, as is the varied stress in compound words. In summary, mastering stress and pronunciation is vital for effective English communication. This article provides insights into stress principles, aiding learners and educators. Roach's (2009) research informs this critical aspect of language acquisition.

Misplacement of stress by Sophomore and Junior Jordanian Students Case Study: The University of Jordan/ Aqaba

Stress is considered one of the most essential speech tools used by English speakers to communicate meaning. Some English speakers, especially non-native speakers of English encounter difficulties in assigning stress accurately. Therefore, this study purports to explore the effect of native language (L1) stress properties on the second language, i.e., EFL, which is the study of English by persons who reside in regions where it is not the primary language of communication. To gather the data of the study a descriptive qualitative method is used. The study's population is the second and third-year English department students for the academic year 2022_2023.The sample of the study included 30 male and female students. The researchers designed an oral test to collect the data of the study through asking the student to pronounce words to observe where the students place stress on the words. The findings showed that there were statistically significant disparities among the students in placing stress on words, due to their gender, and their level of university study experience. One of the most important findings that the students transfer the stress rules from their mother tongue language. This study also showed that it is possible to predict Arabic word stress placement from the word's syllabic structure. Additionally, the findings showed Jordanian students have difficulty placing word stress on the right syllable. The misplacement in assigning stress to the correct place in words is attributed to the influence of the mother tongue and students' lack of awareness of the importance of stress in the English language. This study is distinguished study because it developed a model in the importance of assigning stress in English words. The findings of this study suggest that further studies in the reasons of misplacement of stress could be conducted to clarify the main reasons for misplacement of stress among non-native speakers of English.

Pronunciation challenges faced by Brazilian EFL learners

The present study aims to identify the most prominent pronunciation challenges faced by Brazilian learners in a language course affiliated with Universidade Federal do Pará, and discuss which errors seemed to pose the greatest issues for communication. This study proposes to describe the articulation features of English sounds in association with pronunciation, as well as present the importance of teaching the speaking skill with an attention to pronunciation. In order to reach its main objective, it was necessary to gather sufficient data by observing these students during their classes. Furthermore, the study goes on to confirm that the errors presented by the authors Mascherpe (1970), Lessa (1985), Lieff (1993), Nunes (1993) and Baptista (2001), also occur in the group of learners who were the object of this investigation, and the results suggest that the most prominent issues were caused by errors related to stress placement, vowel insertion and consonants. However, the errors which caused the most problems for communication happened on the suprasegmental features of language, which in this case is represented by the category of stress placement.