Pub Date : 2022-12-30DOI: 10.18778/1731-7533.20.4.03
Maciej Grabski
The article is a systematic, corpus-based account of Latin’s influence on the position of Old English (OE) adnominal adjectives. While multiple studies on phrase-level syntax suggest that source-text interference may have been partly responsible for placing the adjective after the head noun, this observation has so far received little quantitative underpinning. The present article offers a detailed comparison of OE target noun phrases containing postnominal adjectives with their Latin counterparts to determine the exact extent to which this arrangement may have been a syntactic calque from a foreign language. The study has found that while a fair number of OE postposed adjectives did copy their Latin originals, their placement could be accounted for through reference to tendencies characteristic of OE (i.e. the adjective displays different degrees of “verbalness” or is part of a heavy phrase). Therefore, it appears that translated texts do not have to be excluded or treated with particular suspicion in studies concerned with the position of adnominal adjectives.
{"title":"The influence of Latin on Old English adjectival postposition","authors":"Maciej Grabski","doi":"10.18778/1731-7533.20.4.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18778/1731-7533.20.4.03","url":null,"abstract":"The article is a systematic, corpus-based account of Latin’s influence on the position of Old English (OE) adnominal adjectives. While multiple studies on phrase-level syntax suggest that source-text interference may have been partly responsible for placing the adjective after the head noun, this observation has so far received little quantitative underpinning. The present article offers a detailed comparison of OE target noun phrases containing postnominal adjectives with their Latin counterparts to determine the exact extent to which this arrangement may have been a syntactic calque from a foreign language. The study has found that while a fair number of OE postposed adjectives did copy their Latin originals, their placement could be accounted for through reference to tendencies characteristic of OE (i.e. the adjective displays different degrees of “verbalness” or is part of a heavy phrase). Therefore, it appears that translated texts do not have to be excluded or treated with particular suspicion in studies concerned with the position of adnominal adjectives.","PeriodicalId":38985,"journal":{"name":"Research in Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48140081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-30DOI: 10.18778/1731-7533.20.4.02
M. Platonova
In the dynamically changing scientific and academic environment it is rather difficult to imagine efficient communication among professionals in any field and across domains unless terminological deficiencies are properly addressed and solved. Bridging the existing terminological gap implies considering the issues of availability of terms, terminological work, acceptability of terms, responsibility of the respective authorities, degree of erudition of the actors, the performed needs analysis, term elaboration mechanisms, sensitivity and tolerance of the stakeholders, and last but not least, a well-defined scientific approach to term creation, harmonization and alignment across the languages. Therefore, raising terminological awareness is an essential part of curriculum at all levels of tertiary education, fundamental and/or applied research as well as vocational traineeship. It especially concerns the design of the contemporary technical translator profile, developing terminological competence and addressing the issues of cultural sensitivity and domain knowledge. The present paper aims at discussing the notion of terminological awareness and testing it against the number of the relevant terminological sub-competences a user should possess.
{"title":"Decoding Terminological AWARENESS: Developing Terminological Competence","authors":"M. Platonova","doi":"10.18778/1731-7533.20.4.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18778/1731-7533.20.4.02","url":null,"abstract":"In the dynamically changing scientific and academic environment it is rather difficult to imagine efficient communication among professionals in any field and across domains unless terminological deficiencies are properly addressed and solved. Bridging the existing terminological gap implies considering the issues of availability of terms, terminological work, acceptability of terms, responsibility of the respective authorities, degree of erudition of the actors, the performed needs analysis, term elaboration mechanisms, sensitivity and tolerance of the stakeholders, and last but not least, a well-defined scientific approach to term creation, harmonization and alignment across the languages. \u0000Therefore, raising terminological awareness is an essential part of curriculum at all levels of tertiary education, fundamental and/or applied research as well as vocational traineeship. It especially concerns the design of the contemporary technical translator profile, developing terminological competence and addressing the issues of cultural sensitivity and domain knowledge. \u0000The present paper aims at discussing the notion of terminological awareness and testing it against the number of the relevant terminological sub-competences a user should possess.","PeriodicalId":38985,"journal":{"name":"Research in Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47236246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-30DOI: 10.18778/1731-7533.20.4.04
Aleksandra Matysiak
Migration to a foreign country can be a complex process involving the adjustment to a new culture and the acquisition of a second language (L2). Acculturation, the process by which an individual integrates their native values and behaviours with those of the host culture, is an integral part of this process. It has been suggested that the choice of acculturation strategy can either facilitate or hinder L2 acquisition (Schumann, 1986; Berry, 1997). Pronunciation is a vital aspect of L2 proficiency and is often seen as mediating an individual's identity in the host culture (Piske et al., 2001). This study focuses on the pronunciation patterns of ten adult Polish immigrants living in Welshpool, Wales, and attempts to examine the potential relationship between a chosen acculturation strategy (adaptation or preservation) and the use of rhoticity in English. Rhoticity, a salient feature of British English pronunciation that varies in use and quality depending on the region (Wells, 1982), has been previously studied in relation to the use of rhoticity by Polish speakers (Jaworski, 2010; Jaworski & Gillian, 2011; Stolarski, 2013, 2015; Zając, 2016; Rojczyk & Zając, 2017; Matysiak, 2020), with a notable emphasis on the use of taps in intervocalic and post-vocalic positions. The present study found some inconsistencies in the use of rhoticity in English.
{"title":"Acculturation Strategy and its Influence on the use of Rhoticity by Polish Adult Immigrants to Wales","authors":"Aleksandra Matysiak","doi":"10.18778/1731-7533.20.4.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18778/1731-7533.20.4.04","url":null,"abstract":"Migration to a foreign country can be a complex process involving the adjustment to a new culture and the acquisition of a second language (L2). Acculturation, the process by which an individual integrates their native values and behaviours with those of the host culture, is an integral part of this process. It has been suggested that the choice of acculturation strategy can either facilitate or hinder L2 acquisition (Schumann, 1986; Berry, 1997). Pronunciation is a vital aspect of L2 proficiency and is often seen as mediating an individual's identity in the host culture (Piske et al., 2001). This study focuses on the pronunciation patterns of ten adult Polish immigrants living in Welshpool, Wales, and attempts to examine the potential relationship between a chosen acculturation strategy (adaptation or preservation) and the use of rhoticity in English. Rhoticity, a salient feature of British English pronunciation that varies in use and quality depending on the region (Wells, 1982), has been previously studied in relation to the use of rhoticity by Polish speakers (Jaworski, 2010; Jaworski & Gillian, 2011; Stolarski, 2013, 2015; Zając, 2016; Rojczyk & Zając, 2017; Matysiak, 2020), with a notable emphasis on the use of taps in intervocalic and post-vocalic positions. The present study found some inconsistencies in the use of rhoticity in English.","PeriodicalId":38985,"journal":{"name":"Research in Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46886920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.18778/1731-7533.20.1.02
Magdalena Szyszka
Accentedness is associated with listeners’ evaluative judgements, which might affect an L2 speaker’s construction of an image about linguistic self-worth and competence, described as language (L2) self-esteem. This line of inquiry is pursued in the study presented in this paper, which investigates the relationship between L2 self-esteem and the extent to which a learner’s L2 pronunciation differs from a listener’s representation of it – accentedness. The results show that the level of L2 self-esteem correlates with accentedness, and the direction of this correlation is negative (r = -.51). The findings also reveal that the L2 self-esteem levels of the participants whose accentedness is closer to native-like are significantly higher than those of the individuals with strongly accented speech.
{"title":"L2 Accentedness and Language Self-Esteem in Foreign Language Learning","authors":"Magdalena Szyszka","doi":"10.18778/1731-7533.20.1.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18778/1731-7533.20.1.02","url":null,"abstract":"Accentedness is associated with listeners’ evaluative judgements, which might affect an L2 speaker’s construction of an image about linguistic self-worth and competence, described as language (L2) self-esteem. This line of inquiry is pursued in the study presented in this paper, which investigates the relationship between L2 self-esteem and the extent to which a learner’s L2 pronunciation differs from a listener’s representation of it – accentedness. The results show that the level of L2 self-esteem correlates with accentedness, and the direction of this correlation is negative (r = -.51). The findings also reveal that the L2 self-esteem levels of the participants whose accentedness is closer to native-like are significantly higher than those of the individuals with strongly accented speech.","PeriodicalId":38985,"journal":{"name":"Research in Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43269940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.03
Łukasz Stolarski
The major aim of this paper is to establish possible correlations between continuous sentiment scores and four basic acoustic characteristics of voice. In order to achieve this objective, the text of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens was tokenized at the sentence level. Next, each of the resulting text units was assessed in terms of sentiment polarity and aligned with the corresponding fragment in an audiobook. The results indicate weak but statistically significant correlations between sentiment scores and three acoustic features: the mean F0, the standard deviation of F0 and the mean intensity. These findings may be useful in selecting optimal acoustic features for model training in multimodal sentiment analysis. Also, they are essential from a linguistic point of view and could be applied in studies on such language phenomena as irony.
{"title":"Correlations Between Positive or Negative Utterances and Basic Acoustic Features of Voice: a Preliminary Analysis","authors":"Łukasz Stolarski","doi":"10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.03","url":null,"abstract":"The major aim of this paper is to establish possible correlations between continuous sentiment scores and four basic acoustic characteristics of voice. In order to achieve this objective, the text of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens was tokenized at the sentence level. Next, each of the resulting text units was assessed in terms of sentiment polarity and aligned with the corresponding fragment in an audiobook. The results indicate weak but statistically significant correlations between sentiment scores and three acoustic features: the mean F0, the standard deviation of F0 and the mean intensity. These findings may be useful in selecting optimal acoustic features for model training in multimodal sentiment analysis. Also, they are essential from a linguistic point of view and could be applied in studies on such language phenomena as irony.","PeriodicalId":38985,"journal":{"name":"Research in Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42509126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.06
E. Kusz, Judyta Pawliczko
The present study describes the level of effectiveness of both traditional and computer-assisted second language pronunciation techniques from the students’ perspectives. By traditional techniques we mean those activities which make use of phonetic alphabet, including transcription practice, detailed description of the articulatory systems, drills (e.g. minimal pair drills), reading aloud, tongue twisters, rhymes, etc. (Hismanoglu and Hismanoglu 2010: 985). On the other hand, computer-assisted techniques include activities based on listening and imitating tasks, which use technology, such as self-imitation practice, recordings of L2 learner’s, visual aids, and automatic speech recognition tools. The main aim of this study does not aim to classify L2 pronunciation methods by allocating them to previously mentioned categories but rather attempts to examine the intricate relationship between students’ knowledge, perceptions, attitudes and their most preferable practices which, in their opinion, result in improvement of their L2 pronunciation. 118 study subjects were asked to complete four main questions, within which tasks based on the Likert-scale items gathered data about the students’ most preferable L2 pronunciation teaching and learning techniques. The students were asked to create their own list, starting from the most useful to the least beneficial techniques. The last task was an open-ended question about other techniques than mentioned in the questionnaire. The analysis of the obtained data involved a two-stage process: a) data segmentation; and b) techniques categorisation. The first step was to select pronunciation learning techniques in terms of their frequency and use and to adjust them to the research group. The second stage, techniques categorisation, was based on a careful analysis of the answers given by the students in the questionnaire. Following that, five categories were distinguished: (1) traditional and used only in the classroom, (2) traditional but also used in distance learning, (3) computer-assisted but used only in the classroom, (4) computer-assisted and also used in distance learning, (5) innovative: combining students’ needs and available online.Highlighting the prominence of pronunciation in acquiring communicative competence, the authors propose their own, innovative suggestions for the future creation of teaching materials.
本研究从学生的角度描述了传统和计算机辅助第二语言发音技巧的有效性水平。我们所说的传统技巧是指那些利用音标的活动,包括抄写练习、发音系统的详细描述、练习(如最小配对练习)、大声朗读、绕口令、押韵等(Hismanoglu and Hismanoglu 2010: 985)。另一方面,计算机辅助技术包括基于听力和模仿任务的活动,这些活动使用技术,如自我模仿练习、二语学习者的录音、视觉辅助和自动语音识别工具。本研究的主要目的不是通过将二语发音方法分配到前面提到的类别来对二语发音方法进行分类,而是试图检查学生的知识,观念,态度和他们认为最可取的做法之间的复杂关系,这些做法导致了他们的二语发音的改善。118名研究对象被要求完成四个主要问题,其中基于李克特量表的任务收集了关于学生最喜欢的第二语言发音教学和学习技巧的数据。学生们被要求列出自己的清单,从最有用的技术到最无益的技术。最后一个任务是关于问卷中提到的其他技巧的开放式问题。获得的数据的分析涉及两个阶段的过程:a)数据分割;b)技术分类。第一步是根据频率和使用情况选择发音学习技巧,并根据研究小组的情况进行调整。第二阶段,技术分类,是基于对学生在问卷中给出的答案的仔细分析。在此之后,划分了五个类别:(1)传统且仅用于课堂,(2)传统但也用于远程学习,(3)计算机辅助但仅用于课堂,(4)计算机辅助且也用于远程学习,(5)创新:结合学生需求并在线提供。强调语音在交际能力习得中的重要地位,并对今后教材的创作提出了自己的创新建议。
{"title":"Use of L2 Pronunciation Techniques in and Outside Classes: Students’ Preferences","authors":"E. Kusz, Judyta Pawliczko","doi":"10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.06","url":null,"abstract":"The present study describes the level of effectiveness of both traditional and computer-assisted second language pronunciation techniques from the students’ perspectives. By traditional techniques we mean those activities which make use of phonetic alphabet, including transcription practice, detailed description of the articulatory systems, drills (e.g. minimal pair drills), reading aloud, tongue twisters, rhymes, etc. (Hismanoglu and Hismanoglu 2010: 985). On the other hand, computer-assisted techniques include activities based on listening and imitating tasks, which use technology, such as self-imitation practice, recordings of L2 learner’s, visual aids, and automatic speech recognition tools. The main aim of this study does not aim to classify L2 pronunciation methods by allocating them to previously mentioned categories but rather attempts to examine the intricate relationship between students’ knowledge, perceptions, attitudes and their most preferable practices which, in their opinion, result in improvement of their L2 pronunciation. 118 study subjects were asked to complete four main questions, within which tasks based on the Likert-scale items gathered data about the students’ most preferable L2 pronunciation teaching and learning techniques. The students were asked to create their own list, starting from the most useful to the least beneficial techniques. The last task was an open-ended question about other techniques than mentioned in the questionnaire. The analysis of the obtained data involved a two-stage process: a) data segmentation; and b) techniques categorisation. The first step was to select pronunciation learning techniques in terms of their frequency and use and to adjust them to the research group. The second stage, techniques categorisation, was based on a careful analysis of the answers given by the students in the questionnaire. Following that, five categories were distinguished: (1) traditional and used only in the classroom, (2) traditional but also used in distance learning, (3) computer-assisted but used only in the classroom, (4) computer-assisted and also used in distance learning, (5) innovative: combining students’ needs and available online.Highlighting the prominence of pronunciation in acquiring communicative competence, the authors propose their own, innovative suggestions for the future creation of teaching materials.","PeriodicalId":38985,"journal":{"name":"Research in Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45213898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.04
Kizzi Edensor Costille
Research has shown that prosody plays an important role in the intelligibility, comprehensibility and accentedness of non-native discourse (Munro and Derwing, 1995, 1998). Yet prosody is deemed difficult to teach (Setter et al., 2010). Previous studies have used software such as PRAAT (Setter et al., 2010, Olson, 2014, Imber et al., 2017,) but they can be complex to use (Setter et al., 2010; Setter and Jenkins, 2005). Could a more comprehensive tool be useful to L2 learners? Englishville is a website where it is possible for the learner to see a real-time 3D spectrogram. An experiment was set up to determine whether multi-sensorial input, available via Englishville can help learners of English. Eight French students enrolled in a BA in English took part in this initial trial experiment (2 per group). They were divided into four groups. The corpus is divided into 2 parts. The first focuses on lexical word stress (72 words) and the second on intonation in 30 short sentences. The corpus was recorded by a female native British speaker. All participants had one trial at the beginning of the experiment to familiarise themselves with the tool and they all read and recorded the words and phrases as they appeared on the screen. The first group only had access to this text (no input) before recording their own productions whereas the other 3 groups received supplementary input. Group 2 read the text and heard the corresponding audio (audio input), group 3 read the text and saw the corresponding 3D spectrogram (visual input) and group 4 read the text, heard the audio and saw the corresponding 3D spectrogram (multi-sensorial input). An auditive analysis leads us to believe that both hearing speech and seeing the corresponding spectrogram is beneficial, especially for intonation. Positive results came from the students’ feedback; they generally found the tool useful, easy to use, fun and interesting.
研究表明,韵律在非母语话语的可理解性、可理解性和重音性中发挥着重要作用(Munro和Derwing,19951998)。然而韵律被认为很难教授(Setter等人,2010)。先前的研究使用了PRAT等软件(Setter et al.,2010,Olson,2014,Imber et al.,2017),但使用起来可能很复杂(Setter等人,2010;Setter和Jenkins,2005)。一个更全面的工具对二语学习者有用吗?Englishville是一个网站,学习者可以在这里看到实时的3D声谱图。建立了一个实验来确定通过Englishville提供的多感官输入是否可以帮助英语学习者。八名就读于英语学士学位的法国学生参加了这个初步的试验(每组2名)。他们被分成四组。语料库分为两部分。第一个是词汇重音(72个单词),第二个是30个短句的语调。语料库由一位以英国为母语的女性录制。所有参与者在实验开始时都进行了一次试验,以熟悉该工具,当单词和短语出现在屏幕上时,他们都会阅读并记录下来。第一组在录制自己的作品之前只能访问该文本(没有输入),而其他三组则接受补充输入。组2阅读文本并听到相应的音频(音频输入),组3阅读文本并看到相应的3D声谱图(视觉输入),而组4阅读文本,听到音频并看到相应3D声谱表(多感官输入)。听觉分析使我们相信,听到语音和看到相应的声谱图都是有益的,尤其是对语调。积极的结果来自于学生的反馈;他们普遍认为该工具有用、易用、有趣。
{"title":"Englishville: a Multi-Sensorial Tool for Prosody","authors":"Kizzi Edensor Costille","doi":"10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.04","url":null,"abstract":"Research has shown that prosody plays an important role in the intelligibility, comprehensibility and accentedness of non-native discourse (Munro and Derwing, 1995, 1998). Yet prosody is deemed difficult to teach (Setter et al., 2010). Previous studies have used software such as PRAAT (Setter et al., 2010, Olson, 2014, Imber et al., 2017,) but they can be complex to use (Setter et al., 2010; Setter and Jenkins, 2005). Could a more comprehensive tool be useful to L2 learners? Englishville is a website where it is possible for the learner to see a real-time 3D spectrogram. An experiment was set up to determine whether multi-sensorial input, available via Englishville can help learners of English. Eight French students enrolled in a BA in English took part in this initial trial experiment (2 per group). They were divided into four groups. The corpus is divided into 2 parts. The first focuses on lexical word stress (72 words) and the second on intonation in 30 short sentences. The corpus was recorded by a female native British speaker. All participants had one trial at the beginning of the experiment to familiarise themselves with the tool and they all read and recorded the words and phrases as they appeared on the screen. The first group only had access to this text (no input) before recording their own productions whereas the other 3 groups received supplementary input. Group 2 read the text and heard the corresponding audio (audio input), group 3 read the text and saw the corresponding 3D spectrogram (visual input) and group 4 read the text, heard the audio and saw the corresponding 3D spectrogram (multi-sensorial input). An auditive analysis leads us to believe that both hearing speech and seeing the corresponding spectrogram is beneficial, especially for intonation. Positive results came from the students’ feedback; they generally found the tool useful, easy to use, fun and interesting.","PeriodicalId":38985,"journal":{"name":"Research in Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45452521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.01
V. Sardegna
Student-teacher conferences are considered an effective pedagogical tool for individualized writing instruction. Yet, little is known about the goals, characteristics and perceptions of student-teacher conferences for individualized English as a second language (ESL) pronunciation instruction. This article presents an exploratory study on student and instructor perceptions of mandatory student-teacher conferences in a semester-long ESL pronunciation course. Data were gathered from 24 college ESL students and five experienced ESL instructors via pre-/post-instruction read-aloud tests, four questionnaires and a focus group discussion. The results indicated pronunciation improvement during the course and participants’ overall satisfaction with the learning outcomes, goals, format and characteristics of the conferences. Participants’ views on benefits, drawbacks, and recommendations for these one-on-one meetings revealed valuable insights for pronunciation instructors.
{"title":"Student-Teacher Conferences in an English Pronunciation Course: Goals, Characteristics and Views","authors":"V. Sardegna","doi":"10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.01","url":null,"abstract":"Student-teacher conferences are considered an effective pedagogical tool for individualized writing instruction. Yet, little is known about the goals, characteristics and perceptions of student-teacher conferences for individualized English as a second language (ESL) pronunciation instruction. This article presents an exploratory study on student and instructor perceptions of mandatory student-teacher conferences in a semester-long ESL pronunciation course. Data were gathered from 24 college ESL students and five experienced ESL instructors via pre-/post-instruction read-aloud tests, four questionnaires and a focus group discussion. The results indicated pronunciation improvement during the course and participants’ overall satisfaction with the learning outcomes, goals, format and characteristics of the conferences. Participants’ views on benefits, drawbacks, and recommendations for these one-on-one meetings revealed valuable insights for pronunciation instructors.","PeriodicalId":38985,"journal":{"name":"Research in Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45185043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.18778/1731-7533.20.1.04
Vincenzo Verbeni
The study investigates the dynamics of speech rhythm in early sequential bilingual children who have access to Italian-English immersion programs. The research focused on the Italian and English semi-spontaneous narrative productions of 9 students, aged between 6;7 and 10;11 and distributed across three different classes (Year 1, Year 3, Year 5). Their speech was recorded and subject to an interval-based analysis via computation of %V/ΔC, PVI and Varco metrics. The retrieved metrics underwent within-group and between-group one-way ANOVAs in order to identify valuable cross-linguistic variations among children of the same age and statistically significant differences between different age groups (Y1, Y3, Y5). The results appear to support a stress-centered interpretation of speech rhythm: according to this view, all languages could be arranged on a stress-timed continuum in which “syllable-timing” is marked by sparser occurrences of (regular) prominence due to the relative absence of vocalic elision and consonantal complexity. Indeed, the comparative analysis drawn between the normalized vocalic indexes of Y1, Y3 and Y5 students revealed a statistically relevant increase in vocalic variation phenomena both in Italian and in English. Moreover, Y1 and Y3 consonantal scores were comparatively higher in the Italian sample: it will be discussed how unpredictable stress-timed patterns can arise as a function of proficiency, speech-rate and age-related disfluencies.
{"title":"Speech Rhythm in English and Italian: an Experimental Study on Early Sequential Bilingualism","authors":"Vincenzo Verbeni","doi":"10.18778/1731-7533.20.1.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18778/1731-7533.20.1.04","url":null,"abstract":"The study investigates the dynamics of speech rhythm in early sequential bilingual children who have access to Italian-English immersion programs. The research focused on the Italian and English semi-spontaneous narrative productions of 9 students, aged between 6;7 and 10;11 and distributed across three different classes (Year 1, Year 3, Year 5). Their speech was recorded and subject to an interval-based analysis via computation of %V/ΔC, PVI and Varco metrics. The retrieved metrics underwent within-group and between-group one-way ANOVAs in order to identify valuable cross-linguistic variations among children of the same age and statistically significant differences between different age groups (Y1, Y3, Y5). The results appear to support a stress-centered interpretation of speech rhythm: according to this view, all languages could be arranged on a stress-timed continuum in which “syllable-timing” is marked by sparser occurrences of (regular) prominence due to the relative absence of vocalic elision and consonantal complexity. Indeed, the comparative analysis drawn between the normalized vocalic indexes of Y1, Y3 and Y5 students revealed a statistically relevant increase in vocalic variation phenomena both in Italian and in English. Moreover, Y1 and Y3 consonantal scores were comparatively higher in the Italian sample: it will be discussed how unpredictable stress-timed patterns can arise as a function of proficiency, speech-rate and age-related disfluencies.","PeriodicalId":38985,"journal":{"name":"Research in Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45812072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.05
M. Molenda, Izabela Grabarczyk
The paper explores the accuracy of feedback provided to non-native learners of English by a pronunciation module included in Microsoft Reading Progress. We compared pronunciation assessment offered by Reading Progress against two university pronunciation teachers. Recordings from students of English who aim for native-like pronunciation were assessed independently by Reading Progress and the human raters. The output was standardized as negative binary feedback assigned to orthographic words, which matches the Microsoft format. Our results indicate that Reading Progress is not yet ready to be used as a CAPT tool. Inter-rater reliability analysis showed a moderate level of agreement for all raters and a good level of agreement upon eliminating feedback from Reading Progress. Meanwhile, the qualitative analysis revealed certain problems, notably false positives, i.e., words pronounced within the boundaries of academic pronunciation standards, but still marked as incorrect by the digital rater. We recommend that EFL teachers and researchers approach the current version of Reading Progress with caution, especially as regards automated feedback. However, its design may still be useful for manual feedback. Given Microsoft declarations that Reading Progress would be developed to include more accents, it has the potential to evolve into a fully-functional CAPT tool for EFL pedagogy and research.
{"title":"Microsoft Reading Progress as Capt Tool","authors":"M. Molenda, Izabela Grabarczyk","doi":"10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.05","url":null,"abstract":"The paper explores the accuracy of feedback provided to non-native learners of English by a pronunciation module included in Microsoft Reading Progress. We compared pronunciation assessment offered by Reading Progress against two university pronunciation teachers. Recordings from students of English who aim for native-like pronunciation were assessed independently by Reading Progress and the human raters. The output was standardized as negative binary feedback assigned to orthographic words, which matches the Microsoft format. Our results indicate that Reading Progress is not yet ready to be used as a CAPT tool. Inter-rater reliability analysis showed a moderate level of agreement for all raters and a good level of agreement upon eliminating feedback from Reading Progress. Meanwhile, the qualitative analysis revealed certain problems, notably false positives, i.e., words pronounced within the boundaries of academic pronunciation standards, but still marked as incorrect by the digital rater. We recommend that EFL teachers and researchers approach the current version of Reading Progress with caution, especially as regards automated feedback. However, its design may still be useful for manual feedback. Given Microsoft declarations that Reading Progress would be developed to include more accents, it has the potential to evolve into a fully-functional CAPT tool for EFL pedagogy and research.","PeriodicalId":38985,"journal":{"name":"Research in Language","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41345527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}