scholarly journals Erroneous Word-Stress Patterns Used by EFL Yemeni Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
Asmaa Adel Abdulrahman ◽  
Ramamoorthy L
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Word ◽  
Primary Stress ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
The One ◽  
Received Pronunciation ◽  
Stress Patterns ◽  
Target Words

This experimental study aims at investigating the English word-stress patterns used by Yemenis, learning English as a foreign language, and the erroneous stress patterns used by them. Accent or stress is a feature of high significance in English speech. At the level of a word, one syllable gets accentuated with primary stress.  To achieve the purpose of this study, and to find out to what extent word stress of Received Pronunciation English poses difficulty on Yemeni Arabic speakers using English as a foreign language, 120 subjects of various scientific disciplines, were chosen for data collection. They were recorded and their utterances went through deep analysis based on the auditory impression of the researcher and on the spectrographic evidence resulting from the speech analysis of the software program PRAAT. The most significant findings reached by the researcher were that word-stress in the four-syllable target words were the most problematic for the speakers in which 53.2% of them put the stress, randomly, on the wrong syllables in words. Three-syllable target words appeared to be less problematic as 44.4% of the participants placed the stress inaccurately in words. The least difficulties encountered by the speakers were with the two-syllable target words where 70.6% of the speakers managed to pronounce the words with correct stress placement. It is noteworthy to mention that there was a tendency among the speakers who produced wrong stress patterns, to accent either the first syllable or the one including a long vowel or a diphthong in the words.

scholarly journals The Impact of Visual Aids on the Retention of English Word Stress Patterns

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farid Ghaemi ◽  
Fahimeh Rafi
Keyword(s):  
English Word ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
Visual Aids ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Group A ◽  
Group B ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Stress Patterns

The present study aimed at comparing the effectiveness of three different techniques on learners’ long term memorization of English word stress patterns. After administering a quick placement test, 67 Iranian EFL elementary learners at language institutes were selected to participate in the study. Then they were divided into three groups. Before starting the instruction, a pretest was conducted to classify the participants’ abilities on word stress patterns. Then the new techniques were used to teach English word stress patterns. In all three groups, words were printed largely on a piece of paper and the syllables were clearly specified by dots. In group ‘A’, pronunciation and stress pattern of new words were taught aurally through the repetition of the words. In group ‘B’, all the procedure was exactly similar to that of group ‘A’, the only difference was that the stressed syllables were printed in bold. In group ‘C’, all the procedure was exactly similar to that of group ‘B’,  except that the stressed syllables were not only printed in bold, but also introduced by teacher’s hand gesture. After two weeks, a delayed posttest was conducted to check long term memorization of the word stress patterns. The results of the study indicated that there was a significant difference between pretest and delayed posttest in all three groups. But the most meaningful difference belonged to group ‘C’. That is, the participants in the third group (gesture group) outperformed those in the other groups. Finally, some implications and suggestions provided for further research.   

English Word Stress: A Theory of Word-Stress Patterns in English

Language ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Charles W. Kreidler ◽  
Ivan Poldauf ◽  
W. R. Lee
Keyword(s):  
English Word ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Stress Patterns

Native Thai Speakers’ Acquisition of English Word Stress Patterns

2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ratree Wayland ◽  
David Landfair ◽  
Bin Li ◽  
Susan G. Guion
Keyword(s):  
English Word ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Stress Patterns

How much Artistic Freedom is permitted when it comes to Language? - Analysis of a Crime Novel

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-60
Author(s):  
Manuela Svoboda ◽  
Petra Zagar-Sostaric
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
German Language ◽  
Direct Speech ◽  
Small Talk ◽  
Language Analysis ◽  
Crime Novel ◽  
Blood Relative ◽  
German Origin ◽  
Artistic Freedom ◽  
The One

Abstract In this article a closer look will be taken at the issue of inaccurately using a foreign language, i.e. German in this particular case, in a crime novel or thriller. Of course, in fiction the author has complete artistic freedom to invent and present things as he/she intends and it doesn`t necessarily have to be realistic or legitimate. But what happens when it comes to an existing language being quoted in fiction? For this purpose David Thomas’ thriller “Blood Relative - How well do you know the one you love?” is analysed regarding parts in which German quotes are used. As the plot is located partly in England and partly in former East Germany (GDR) and the protagonist’s wife is of German origin, direct speech, titles and names are used in German. Subsequently, they are translated into English by the author in order to be understood by the English reader. However, there are many grammar, spelling and semantic mistakes in these German expressions and common small talk quotes. This begs the question, is it justified to disregard linguistic correctness with regards to artistic freedom given the fact that we are dealing with a fictional thriller, or is it nevertheless necessary to be precise concerning foreign language usage? How far may one “test” their artistic freedom in this particular case? In order to answer these questions a detailed analysis of the thriller is performed, concerning artistic freedom and modern literature/light fiction as well as the German language used in quotes and direct speech.

Relationship between the target word form and children’s productions: place of articulation in Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (C1VC2) words in American English

Phonetica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-94
Author(s):  
Katsura Aoyama ◽  
Barbara L. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Target Word ◽  
American English ◽  
English Word ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
Target Words

Abstract The aim of the present study was to investigate relationships between characteristics of children’s target words and their actual productions during the single-word period in American English. Word productions in spontaneous and functional speech from 18 children acquiring American English were analyzed. Consonant sequences in 3,328 consonant-vowel-consonant (C1VC2) target words were analyzed in terms of global place of articulation (labials, coronals, and dorsals). Children’s actual productions of place sequences were compared between target words containing repeated place sequences (e.g., mom, map, dad, not) and target words containing variegated place sequences (e.g., mat, dog, cat, nap). Overall, when the target word contained two consonants at the same global place of articulation (e.g., labial-labial, map; coronal-coronal, not), approximately 50% of children’s actual productions matched consonant place characteristics. Conversely, when the target word consisted of variegated place sequences (e.g., mat, dog, cat, nap), only about 20% of the productions matched the target consonant sequences. These results suggest that children’s actual productions are influenced by their own production abilities as well as by the phonetic forms of target words.

scholarly journals The Small and Efficient Language Network of Polyglots and Hyper-polyglots

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-76
Author(s):  
Olessia Jouravlev ◽  
Zachary Mineroff ◽  
Idan A Blank ◽  
Evelina Fedorenko
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Neural Architecture ◽  
Initial Characterization ◽  
The One ◽  
Multiple Languages ◽  
Language Network

Abstract Acquiring a foreign language is challenging for many adults. Yet certain individuals choose to acquire sometimes dozens of languages and often just for fun. Is there something special about the minds and brains of such polyglots? Using robust individual-level markers of language activity, measured with fMRI, we compared native language processing in polyglots versus matched controls. Polyglots (n = 17, including nine “hyper-polyglots” with proficiency in 10–55 languages) used fewer neural resources to process language: Their activations were smaller in both magnitude and extent. This difference was spatially and functionally selective: The groups were similar in their activation of two other brain networks—the multiple demand network and the default mode network. We hypothesize that the activation reduction in the language network is experientially driven, such that the acquisition and use of multiple languages makes language processing generally more efficient. However, genetic and longitudinal studies will be critical to distinguish this hypothesis from the one whereby polyglots’ brains already differ at birth or early in development. This initial characterization of polyglots’ language network opens the door to future investigations of the cognitive and neural architecture of individuals who gain mastery of multiple languages, including changes in this architecture with linguistic experiences.

Russian iambic pentameter

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 187-203
Author(s):  
Emily Klenin
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Line Length ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
Word Stress ◽  
Russian Poetry ◽  
Iambic Pentameter ◽  
Stress Patterns

The Russian pentameter is historically associated with the English and German traditions, but typologically it has with some justice been compared to the French decasyllable. The present article analyzes the structure and cultural context of Russian pentameter and examines in detail the use of caesura in a small corpus of iambic pentameter poems by Afanasy Fet. It is shown that the use of caesura correlates with patterns of word stress. In particular, the appearance of caesuraed lines in poems in which caesura is relatively weak correlates with the stress patterns of the lines in question: caesuraed lines are less heavily stressed than uncaesuraed ones, a correlation that theoretically should promote equalization of line length across the text. Russian poetry has a general tendency to promote equality of line length, and the intrusion of occasional I6 lines into I5 texts, a phenomenon known in many Russian I5 poems, can be viewed as a related strategy for handling ragged I5 lines.

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