Frenetics and palatial plosives: first-year French phonetics

Douglas Jamieson, Department of French, University of Hull

Such distortions of basic terminology, which emerge from an end-of-course examination and to which may be added this year’s palatable stops (for eating your words, no doubt), are not cited to ridicule students. On the contrary. They should be taken seriously as indicators of the ever-present danger we all face of too readily forgetting the shock of the new, the sheer difficulty involved in coming to grips with what for a substantial number of learners is a totally new subject area. One of this year’s intake doubtless speaks for many in stating that all the topics covered

The specific context of the titular distortions and general difficulties is a first semester module for 70-80 year 1 students as an introduction to the phonetics of French: ten weekly sessions progressing along the traditional path from the phoneme inventory through syllables, stress, rhythmic groups and breath groups to end up with transcription of continuous written text and working through a sample examination paper, all that delivered in plenary sessions — readily acknowledged as far from the ideal forum but the consequence of limited resources, both human and technical.

Assessment takes the form of a ninety-minute written examination (again to some extent second best) consisting of: (i) matching phonetic symbols with definitions of the sounds and vice versa; (ii) identifying types of liaison; (iii) answering a mixed bag of fifteen questions relating to any aspect of the course (mostly true/false questions); and (iv) broad transcription in appropriate rhythmic groups of a sixty-word written text.

While the conditions of course-delivery and assessment are not ideal, the learning outcomes appear quite acceptable judging by the results, with 10% more candidates this year achieving marks of 80% and above and a drop of 5% in the failure rate.

The problem is that, even though the results in this way may be satisfactory, the actual student experience of the module as it unfolds seems more problematic. In the summative questionnaire it emerges that some 75% report finding the material difficult and, this year, an increased proportion (15% to 30% more) found particular difficulty with rhythmic groups, transcription, sounds and their definitions.

Obviously feedback of this kind raises many issues that extend beyond the scope of this paper into the complexities of anything from how the plenary sessions are delivered to type and detail of assessment, but the purpose of referring to it here is simply to sketch in the background to the development of the multimedia application to be demonstrated, Ça sonne français, a CD ROM introduction to the Phonetics of French.^* The main justification was to produce a self-access resource which would raise awareness in relation to the sound(s) of French by offering the opportunity to hear and record typical phenomena, to live longer with the material, as it were; and have more examples to work with than is possible in a conventional lecture situation.

It was also intended that, while not being a testing or training program as such, the basic replay and record facilities would help the learner not only develop the ability to discern significant features but also improve performance.

The target users are advanced students of French; in the first instance, typical first or second year British students who are studying for a degree in French which may or may not include Linguistics / Phonetics, and who may also not yet have had a prolonged period of residence in France. It is also hoped that, for Final year students who have returned from the year abroad, the application will assist in consolidating and refining their phonetic competence.

The base material is taken from an original business training videodisc in a series called Animez votre équipe (ã Longman), intended for native francophone companies wishing to improve team leadership skills in their personnel and therefore unconnected with learning of French as a foreign language. (It could be, however, that as a spin-off students will incidentally derive some stimulation in relation to the business situations featured.) Although the speakers are actors, the level of performance is such as to reproduce many of the ‘natural patterns’ one would expect in less scripted or spontaneous communication, including register variations.

While the focus of the original is a set of management skills, the linguistic content is not wholly determined by that context, and there are many words, phrases and even sentences which should strike the learner as having general utility and authenticity.

The first-time user is recommended to work through each of the three levels of detail in turn and to follow the recommended sequence where appropriate, with constant access to a Help file covering over thirty topics (including vocal tract diagrams) and the subsequent possibility of trying out the self-testing material occupying more than half the accompanying manual.

The Introduction (Level 1), mostly in English, begins by inviting the users to reflect on their motivation and their attitude to the usefulness of exploring phonetics in the first place. The idea is that they should not allow themselves to be discouraged by technical terms or unfamiliar symbols; that they should understand they will be developing their observation skills; and that, in their improved performances, they may become less exposed to ridicule because of anglicised speech habits. A second section recalls briefly the program aims before the third offers a ‘bird’s eye view’ of the ground that will be covered and the major labels used, such as Vowels, Liaison, Rhythmic Groups. Finally, some basic points about broad phonetic transcription using the International Phonetic Association alphabet.

Premiers Pas (Level 2), mostly in English, represents a six-part ‘taster’, with a progressively narrowing focus from the global context of the speakers utterances to individual sounds, concentrating on understanding the identity and situations of the speakers, and providing some illustrations of major phonetic features requiring the learner’s attention. Specifically, the first section introduces the characters, who are involved in various management situations relating to team-leadership. Valérie, in the office, has (i) to deal with a letter complaining about one of her staff and (ii) to integrate the newcomer, Sandra. Alice, in the department store, is having to bring her staff to understand and accept a new commission-based system and the necessary training to secure the efficiency gains. Sami, the foreman in the warehouse, has the problem of motivating employees who may not be as efficient as they could be. He has an impossible task with Pierrot — nothing ever works !

There follow two sections giving examples of declarative and interrogative utterances and illustrations of rhythmic groups. The remaining two sections illustrate basic points about syllables (especially group-final), liaison and some of the trickier vowels and consonants.

En Détail (Level 3), mostly in French, comprises a set of sections representing a more detailed exploration of what has preceded. The rationale here is the opposite of Level 2 in the sense of representing a more traditional progression for the first-time user from the segmental to the supra-segmental.

Specifically, the first section (Sons) contains an inventory of phonemes with examples for all except what the original corpus did not contain (the front rounded nasal), and always embedded in words, phrases, or sentences. It offers two routes. The first (En vitesse) concentrates on the individual sounds accessed by a menu ordered according to frequency of occurrence, with a couple of illustrations for each sound. The second route (Au ralenti), involves entry through phonetic categories, such as front vowels or nasal consonants. As well as giving more illustrations for each sound in context, this pathway provides a definition for each and highlights certain points that are important for comprehension and performance.

The second section (En Contact) focuses on aspects of sounds in combination.

Under Syllables there are examples of 1-5-syllable sequences and information about patterns of syllabic division, while Liaisons deals with the traditional categories and provides relevant sound illustration if contained in the original corpus.

The third section (Chaîne parlée) widens out onto matters of unemphatic and emphatic stress, breath groups, and rhythmic groups. It uses both text-only examples and others taken from the corpus, and it offers several routes: access to brief summaries of what characterises each of the three concepts; a presentation of their characteristics; and a more exploratory approach encouraging the user to make the appropriate deductions.

Section 4 on Intonation allows examples to be accessed either through four commonly distinguished basic ‘tunes’ (ton uni, montant, descendant, implicatif) or utterance types (phrase énonciative, interrogative, impérative).

The final section, on phonetic transcription, recaps the IPA symbols by a set of recognition tests before looking at the principles and model of the transcription used in this application. Some very frequent words (over 120) can be accessed through scrolling lists, moving either from a selected word to its transcription or vice versa.

General qualitative evaluation to date suggest that the targeted learners both like working with the program and think it achieves its aims. As far as the phonetic content is concerned, the picture is relatively clear and positive on such matters as the presentation and comprehensibility of the material and confidence gain in phonetic transcription but less so (perhaps surprisingly) on whether it is important to know the identity of the characters, whether individual performance is perceived as improved, and whether more opportunities for self-testing would have been desirable.

As the developer responsible for the content I readily recognise that, in the light of initiatives such as SIPhTrA and the successes, both technological and pedagogical, coming through from the field of interactive learning of speech sciences and multimedia methods for education in speech and language therapy, Ça sonne français represents a modest achievement. Still, as apparently the first of its kind in the UK, it arguably deserves honourable mention in what might be referred to as the continuing effort to find both engaging and effective means of presenting the teaching and learning of phonetics as we move ever further from the satirical image painted a century ago by Jerome K. Jerome in Three Men on the Bummel, with its reference to special phonetic habits which countries reserve for the sole use of foreigners and would not dream of using themselves, and phonetics as not much more than articulatory acrobatics perceived by learners as either nonsensical or impossible.

This is the sort of advice one receives:

"Press your tonsils against the underside of your larynx.

Try, with the convex part of the septum curved upwards so as almost — but not quite — to touch the uvula, try with the tip of your tongue to reach your thyroid.

Take a deep breath, and compress your glottis.

Now, without moving your lips, say ‘Garoo’."

And when you have done it they are still not satisfied.

e-mail: D.M.Jamieson@selc.hull.ac.uk