Traditional and Phonological Treatment for Teaching English Fricatives and Affricates to Koreans

1995 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 828-838 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Marie Schmidt ◽  
Kelly A. Meyers
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Speech Language Pathology ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Language Pathology ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Korean Speakers ◽  
Native Korean Speakers ◽  
Phonological Treatment ◽  
Accent Reduction

Non-native speakers of English are being seen for accent reduction in speech-language pathology clinics although there is little evidence that treatment is effective. Two types of treatment were evaluated. Traditional articulation-based treatment was successful for 2 native Korean speakers in improving English fricatives and affricate production. A second treatment using phonologically based contrasts was also successful for the same sounds with 2 other Korean speakers. Some issues in foreign accent reduction are discussed.

scholarly journals Teaching English in India —The Use of Technologically Enhanced Realia in the Classroom

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Priya K. Nair
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Job Market ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Listening And Speaking ◽  
Speaking Skills

In India acquisition of English language is imperative if one wants to sell oneself in the increasingly competitive job market. With a booming population the nation is filled with educated, technologically literate youth. English is not merely a foreign language in India. As India is separated by a plethora of languages knowledge of English is imperative. As the teachers in India are not native speakers of English the language they teach is not free from errors. The articulation is quite problematic as the mother tongue influence is quite pronounced. Technology helps to reduce these errors. Movies as a tool can enhance the listening and speaking skills of our students. It is quite boring to work with disembodied voices and the recorded conversations available in language labs do not sustain the learner’s interest. However learners are often forced to listen to recorded conversations of people they never see, the conversation is often stilted and contemporary idiom is hardly used. However, a completely new dimension to aural practice can be added in the classroom by using movies. <br /><p><strong> </strong></p>

scholarly journals A influência da idade na inteligibilidade e no grau de sotaque estrangeiro de alunos brasileiros de inglês de nível avançado

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronaldo Mangueira Lima Jr
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Phonological Acquisition ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Exceptional Learners

Resumo Este estudo investigou a influência que a idade com a qual brasileiros começam a estudar inglês no Brasil pode ter na sua pronúncia ao final do curso avançado de inglês, mais especificamente na inteligibilidade e no grau de sotaque estrangeiro. Alunos que estavam cursando o último semestre de seus cursos e haviam começado o curso em diferentes idades foram gravados lendo um parágrafo e falando espontaneamente. Um grupo controle de falantes nativos de inglês também foi gravado desempenhando as mesmas tarefas. Os níveis de inteligibilidade e de grau de sotaque estrangeiro dos participantes foram avaliados por um painel de nove juízes, e os resultados mostram uma tendência de declínio na pronúncia com o aumento da idade de início do curso, com um grande declínio mesmo entre o grupo controle e os aprendizes mais novos. Alguns aprendizes excepcionais, com níveis de inteligibilidade e de grau de sotaque estrangeiro próximos aos dos falantes nativos, foram encontrados. Os resultados estão alinhados ao conceito de aquisição de segunda língua como sistema dinâmico, sob a qual os dados foram analisados. Palavras-chave: Aquisição de segunda língua. Aquisição fonológica. Pronúncia. Inglês-L2. Inteligibilidade.   The influence of age on intelligibility and rate of foreign accent of Brazilian advanced learners of English  Abstract This study has investigated the influence that the age in which Brazilian learners begin to study English in Brazil may have on their pronunciation at the end of their advanced English courses, especially on their intelligibility and rate of foreign accent. Learners who were in the last semester of their courses and who had begun studying at different ages were recorded reading a paragraph and speaking spontaneously. A control group of native speakers of English was also recorded performing the same tasks. Participants’ levels of intelligibility and of rate of foreign accent were assessed by a panel of nine judges and the results show a tendency of decline in their pronunciation as the age in which they began studying increases; with a sharp decline even between the control group and the earliest starters. A few exceptional learners, with intelligibility and rate of foreign accent levels close to those of the native speakers, were found. The results are aligned with the concept of second language acquisition as a dynamic system, under which the data were analyzed. Keywords: Second language acquisition. Phonological acquisition. Pronunciation. English as a foreign language. Intelligibility.

scholarly journals English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in ESP contexts. Students' attitudes towards non-native speech and analysis of teaching materials

2017 ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Yolanda Joy Calvo-Benzies
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Teaching Materials ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Native Speech ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Analysis Of Teaching

This paper focuses on non-native accents in ESP classrooms. In particular it looks at native and non-native speakers of English accents used in the audio material accompanying six ESP textbooks. In a second study, a group of undergraduate ESP students of Law and Tourism were asked to assess some of the non-native speakers accents found in these materials, focussing on aspects such as fluency, pronunciation, intelligibility and foreign accent. More specifically, they were asked to rate the following non-native accents of speakers in English: French, German, Polish, Chinese and Spanish. Results from the first part of the study show that native speaker models continue to be present in ESP textbooks to a far higher degree than non-native ones. In the second part, the non-native accents that students rated most positively were those of German and Polish speakers, and those seen in the most negative terms were French and Spanish. In general, the Law students tended to value native accents more than non-native ones, whereas students of Tourism broadly accept both native and non-native accents.

Non-native attitudes towards teaching English as a lingua franca in Europe

English Today ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloe Groom
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
First Languages ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a means of communication in English between speakers who have different first languages. While some definitions (e.g. House, 2003) exclude native speakers of English (NSs) from ELF interactions, others allow NSs to take part in ELF interactions as long as they defer to ELF norms (Jenkins, 2009b). In order for an interaction to be classified as ELF, however, NS contributions are always expected to be minimal (Jenkins, 2009b: 41). ELF is therefore mainly, if not exclusively, used between non-native speakers of English (NNSs).

scholarly journals Native Speaker Perceptions of Accented Speech: The English Pronunciation of Macedonian EFL Learners

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 41-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastazija Kirkova-Naskova
Keyword(s):  
Web Application ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
English Pronunciation ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Result Analysis

The paper reports on the results of a study that aimed to describe the vocalic and consonantal features of the English pronunciation of Macedonian EFL learners as perceived by native speakers of English and to find out whether native speakers who speak different standard variants of English perceive the same segments as non-native. A specially designed computer web application was employed to gather two types of data: a) quantitative (frequency of segment variables and global foreign accent ratings on a 5-point scale), and b) qualitative (open-ended questions). The result analysis points out to three most frequent markers of foreign accent in the English speech of Macedonian EFL learners: final obstruent devoicing, vowel shortening and substitution of English dental fricatives with Macedonian dental plosives. It also reflects additional phonetic aspects poorly explained in the available reference literature such as allophonic distributional differences between the two languages and intonational mismatch.

scholarly journals Interpretation of Korean Null Pronouns in subject and object position: Comparing native and non-native speakers

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 981
Author(s):  
Silvia Kim ◽  
Elsi Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Object Position ◽  
Null Pronouns ◽  
Coherence Relations ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Korean Speakers ◽  
Native Korean Speakers

We report an experiment that investigates how native and non-native Korean speakers’ interpretation of null pronouns in subject and object position is influenced by structural and discourse-level factors. We compare native Korean speakers to L2 Korean learners whose L1, Spanish, only has null pronouns in subject position. We find that native Korean speakers’ interpretation of subject and object null pronouns is guided by structural factors as well as discourse-level coherence relations, with subject nulls being more sensitive to coherence relations than object nulls. In contrast, our results suggest that L2 speakers’ interpretation of null pronouns in Korean is less influenced by coherence relations. Our results support claims that interface phenomena are challenging in L2 acquisition and provide new evidence that this occurs with null pronouns in L2 even when the L1 has null pronouns.

Foreign accent in advanced learners

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 171-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Muñoz ◽  
David Singleton
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Oral Retelling ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Research has generally found age of learning (AOL) (i.e., age of initial significant L2 exposure) to predict degree of foreign accent (FA), while length of residence (LOR) has sometimes been seen as simply a corollary of AOL. The subjects in the present study were twelve late L2 learners of English with an average AOL of 22.5 and an average LOR of 10, plus a native-speaker control group. All the English-L2 subjects had Spanish and/or Catalan as L1. Short extracts were taken from their oral retelling of a film narrative and judged for FA by four native speakers of English. Language background data were elicited by questionnaire and interview. A significant difference overall emerged between native speakers and non-natives in terms of FA ratings. However, two of the learners scored within the native-speaker range. The discussion examines the possible influence of an array of factors on degree of FA, and explores what might underlie the native-like performance of the two most successful learners.

scholarly journals Relative Salience of Speech Rhythm and Speech Rate on Perceived Foreign Accent in a Second Language

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leona Polyanskaya ◽  
Mikhail Ordin ◽  
Maria Grazia Busa
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Speech Rhythm ◽  
Independent Contribution ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Perceptual Salience ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Relative Salience

We investigated the independent contribution of speech rate and speech rhythm to perceived foreign accent. To address this issue we used a resynthesis technique that allows neutralizing segmental and tonal idiosyncrasies between identical sentences produced by French learners of English at different proficiency levels and maintaining the idiosyncrasies pertaining to prosodic timing patterns. We created stimuli that (1) preserved the idiosyncrasies in speech rhythm while controlling for the differences in speech rate between the utterances; (2) preserved the idiosyncrasies in speech rate while controlling for the differences in speech rhythm between the utterances; and (3) preserved the idiosyncrasies both in speech rate and speech rhythm. All the stimuli were created in intoned (with imposed intonational contour) and flat (with monotonized, constant F0) conditions. The original and the resynthesized sentences were rated by native speakers of English for degree of foreign accent. We found that both speech rate and speech rhythm influence the degree of perceived foreign accent, but the effect of speech rhythm is larger than that of speech rate. We also found that intonation enhances the perception of fine differences in rhythmic patterns but reduces the perceptual salience of fine differences in speech rate.

scholarly journals An Introduction to Teaching English Compound Nouns in EFL

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 125-132
Author(s):  
E. M. Zakhtser
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Teaching Materials ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Compound Nouns ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Native speakers of English accept and use noun + noun compound nouns so readily and naturally, that they fail to notice the grammatical incongruity of using one noun to describe another. Learners of English whose native languages have a stricter grammatical basis than English find these constructions not merely difficult to use — but puzzling, and apparently ‘wrong’. This paper aims to correct this position by providing extensive illustrations from everyday English speech to describe how commonplace, such constructions are (and how, in many cases, there is no alternative to using them) — alongside a methodological guide to forming and using compound nouns, with particular reference to their use in the banking, financial and insurance industries in which many learners hope to make their careers. Teaching this topic is currently poorly supported in standard teaching materials — even excellent, and widely-used EFL textbooks make no mention at all of this very commonly-used structure. Compound nouns stand in dire need of an academic pedigree to support them. The paper reviews the two primary kinds of compound nouns found in English (Attributive, and Contextual), with working examples illustrating their varying usages.

scholarly journals Rethinking Privilege in Teaching English in Japanese Higher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 100-114
Author(s):  
Khatereh Hosseininasab
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Japanese Higher Education ◽  
Qualitative Thematic Analysis ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Hiring Policies

This article addresses the issue of native-speakerism in teaching English in the context of Japanese higher education and the privilege arising from it. Previous research has shown that native speakers are often regarded as highly skilled and qualified teachers in teaching their mother tongue. This has often led to the marginalization of teachers who speak the language they teach as an additional language. In the case of Japan, however, there is doubt about the existence of such a privilege for native-speaker teachers and some studies have shown that native speakers of English do not receive preferential treatment in this context as they are often perceived as replaceable and temporary. The present study aimed to further explore this issue by focusing on the varieties of English Japanese universities expect their teachers to speak. In so doing, the study has investigated hiring policies of Japanese universities with reference to the job advertisements they post on a designated portal. The results of the qualitative thematic analysis indicated that the majority of the advertisements demanded prospective candidates to be native speakers of English, which also meant that this subgroup of teachers has a privilege in landing academic jobs by token of the variety of English they speak. The article suggests that the critical pedagogical approach of teaching English as an international language (TEIL) can mitigate such privilege by raising awareness towards the validity and appropriateness of different varieties of English spoken in the world.

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