scholarly journals Teaching prosody awareness in spontaneous speech for non-linguistic students

Author(s):  
Natalya G. Lavrentyeva ◽  
Eugeniya V. Orlova

The paper reports on the findings of the study of prosody in teaching spontaneous speech production. Insufficient development of a scientifically based methodology for building oral language skills, taking into account its prosodic characteristics, determines the relevance of the study. The main goal of the research is to correct the methodology of teaching spontaneous learner talk, based on the results of experimental phonetic research. The research methodology is based on an integrated approach using linguistic methods of experimental phonetic research, as well as methods of psychological and pedagogic research. The results of phonetic experiment of 97 monolingual utterances of undergraduate students, non-English majors (total running 190 minutes) show a summary of commonly occurring problems that lead to non-native intonation. These problems are mostly related to improper segmentation, wrong distribution of the utterance stress, incorrect rhythmic organisation of speech, break of intonation continuum, inappropriate intonation patterns and melodic contour. The proposed prosodic focus on teaching spontaneous monologue speech includes the following stages: sensitisation, imitation, reading with prosody and practice activities. Methodological recommendations contain specific proposals for teaching sentence stress, syntagmatic division, pausing, intonation and rhythmics of spontaneous speech.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-42
Author(s):  
Galina Levitskaya ◽  
Elizaveta Levitskaya

Today Russian undergraduate students of non-linguistic specializations aspiring to careers in different spheres succeed in acquiring Certificates in Advanced English. Nevertheless, the candidates state that they experience the most serious difficulties while sitting the Speaking Test of the CAE exam as they lack oral language skills. The researched literature does not consider Russian students’ predicaments purposely and gives a broad overview of the main students’ concerns. This study is an attempt to explore the particular Russian students’ problems of forming oral language skills arising in the process of their training for the Speaking Test and to work out the ways of their remedies. Qualitative methods have allowed finding out the highly specific nature of individual experience. The methods used in the study also included an open-ended language learning questionnaire and a survey to support the assessment of the received data. The results indicate that there are quite a number of pedagogical and educational variables that should be permanently trained and developed as they can influence students’ success.


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry W. Larson

1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEBORAH L. SPEECE ◽  
FROMA P. ROTH ◽  
DAVID H. COOPER ◽  
SUSAN DE LA PAZ

This study examined relationships between oral language and literacy in a two-year, multivariate design. Through empirical cluster analysis of a sample of 88 kindergarten children, four oral language subtypes were identified based on measures of semantics, syntax, metalinguistics, and oral narration. Validation efforts included (a) concurrent and predictive analyses of subtype differences on reading, spelling, and listening comprehension measures based on a priori hypotheses and (b) a comparison of the teacher classification of the children with the empirical classification. The subtypes represented high average, low average, high narrative, and low overall patterns of oral language skill. The high average subtype received the most consistent evidence for validation. The pattern of validation results indicates that the relationship between oral language and literacy is not uniform and suggests a modification of the assumption that oral language skills have a direct role in reading acquisition.


1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 455-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara D. Debaryshe

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to explore the relation between joint picture-book-reading experiences provided in the home and children's early oral language skills. Subjects were 41 two-year-old children and their mothers. Measures included maternal report of the age at which she began to read to the child, the frequency of home reading sessions, the number of stories read per week, and the frequency of visits by the child to the local library. Measures of language skill used were the child's receptive and expressive scores on the revised Reynell Developmental Language Scales. Multiple regression analyses indicated that picture-book reading exposure was more strongly related to receptive than to expressive language. Age of onset of home reading routines was the most important predictor of oral language skills. Directions of effect, the importance of parental beliefs as determinants of home reading practices, and the possible existence of a threshold level for reading frequency are discussed.


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