Programme and Abstracts for PTLC99

The effect of interactive visual feedback on the improvement of English intonation of Japanese EFL learners.

Evelyn Abberton (UCL), Masaki Taniguchi (Chikushi Jogakuen University)

This presentation is based on research dedicated to helping to improve the teaching and learning of English intonation (prosody) for Japanese EFL learners.  It attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of real time interactive visual feedback on the learners' approximation of their fundamental frequency contours to native speakers'.  It also attempts to investigate characteristic features of Japanese EFL learners' English intonation and how their Japanese accents are affecting their English intonation.

Teaching vowels in practical phonetics: the auditory or articulatory route?

Martin J. Ball

University of Ulster

It is usual in the teaching of vowel production and recognition on practical phonetics courses in the UK to use the Cardinal Vowel System developed by Daniel Jones. This uses an auditory (or perceptual) approach to acquiring control over vowel sounds. Students hear the cardinal vowels of the system from the instructor and/or from prerecorded examples, and are expected to memorize the vowel qualities so that they can match them to any vowel they encounter in normal or disordered speech. The drawbacks to this approach include the fact that vowels are thus taught in quite a different manner from consonants (where articulation is the main point of departure). Perceptual or auditory learning also depends on how accurately the instructor reproduces the vowel qualities, and how good at copying these the student is (considering the student may only be at the beginning of developing phonetic listening skills). The strengths of an articulatory approach include the fact that consonants and vowels would be learnt in a similar fashion, and that vowel production will not depend on the perceptual abilities of the student. In this paper we review an alternative to the Cardinal Vowel System, using traditional articulatory labels, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of such an approach.

Practical phonetics for the education and training of speech & language therapists: a first look at standards.

J. Beck (Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh) G. Docherty (University of  Newcastle upon Tyne) B. Heselwood (Leeds Metropolitan University) S. Howard (University of  Sheffield) J. House (UCL).

This paper reports on a recent exercise (to the best of the authors' knowledge, the first of its kind) which examined the aims, objectives and assessment of teaching and learning within the area of practical phonetics across a number of different UK HEIs. The authors all have a responsibility for teaching practical skills to students on vocational speech and language therapy programmes. A one-day workshop was held during which the authors studied the aims, objectives and assessment procedures of one another's provision in this area, with a view to comparing not only the methods used in teaching and assessing this area of study, but also the standards of competence which are required of students at different stages of progression through undergraduate and postgraduate vocational programmes. This paper presents the principal findings of this exercise and discusses the question of whether a 'threshold' standard could apply to the teaching of practical phonetics skills on vocational programmes.

Primary school learning of EFL through phono-metaphonological training.

Mercedes Blanco, Marisol Carrillo, Encarna Gayoso

University of Murcia (Spain)

We would like to present the first year's results of a long term study involving children in their second year of primary education who have not previously been exposed to English. The aim is to analyse the relationship between metaphonological training and the acquisition of pronunciation, reading and writing skills in EFL. During the first year the children were introduced to English phonology through rhymes, songs and games for a period of two months before their reading abilities and pronunciation were evaluated. After this initial evaluation two homogeneous groups were formed, one of which was taught reading following a "whole word" method while the other was taught to read through training based on the analysis of words at syllabic, intrasyllabic and phoneme level. Both training periods lasted three and a half months (2 hours per week), after which the same skills as those analysed in the initial evaluation were tested. The results showed that the experimental group performed better at reading, writing and the segmentation of onsets and rhymes, thus demon strating their higher analytical capacity.

Teaching English intonation at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Mercedes Cabrera Abreu

University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

It is widely agreed that intonation classes for any language should be directed to relatively small groups of students: the ideal number is somewhere between 7 and 10.  Unfortunately, the situation at the University of Las Palmas is far from an ideal one. No limit is imposed on the number of students who can register for the optional course on English Intonation. Thus, during the first year it was offered (session 96-97), 96 students registered for this course. In the current session, 38 students have registered.  Although the number has decreased considerably, the ideal number of 10 students still remains an unrealistic target.  The scenario becomes even bleaker if the following circumstances are also taken into consideration: due to the shortage of staff (1 lecturer), and to the impossibility of increasing the lecturer's teaching load, the alternative of splitting up the group into a set of smaller groups is not feasible. In such adverse circumstances, teaching methods have varied considerably as a function of the number of students. Class types have varied from being pure lectures, to a mixture of lectures and practical sessions. The main advantage of this methodology has been the students' balanced in-take oftheory and practice. Unfortunately, however, within the practicalcomponent, the amount of time dedicated to the enhancement of students' performance is still too little. In the present paper, I describe in greater detail the situation outlinedhere, and offer some solutions to the problems.

Using multimedia techniques to research and learn from spontaneous speech.

Richard Cauldwell

University of Birmingham

I use Multimedia technology to research into fast speech,to lecture in phonology,  and to teach listening. In my presentation I will demonstrate how software I have developed can help observe, analyse, and learn from recorded speech. Using a speech recorded on CD Audio controlled by a laptop computer, I will give a demonstration of how such software can help demolish one of the many myths we have about speech - in this case the link between  attitude and intonation. I shall then explain how the software works: how intonation transcription is input, how transcription is associated with the recording, how we get an automatic compution of the speed of speech, how the recorded data can then be searched and accessed so that we can inspect a wide range of data, and bring forward examples of similar kinds of phenomena.The possiibilities of this software are exciting and have revolutionised the way I teach and do my research - and it has allowed me to evaluate, and get my students to evaluate, long-held beliefs about speech: stress timing, question intonation, and the relationship between attitude and intonation.

Learners' views on the acquisition of an L2 phonetic system.

Jasone Cenoz & Maria Luisa García Lecumberri

University of the Basque Country

In this paper we report on a research study on L2 English learners' views on the acquisition of the English phonetic system. Students awareness of the difficulty and importance of English pronunciation, their beliefs about which factors may influence acquisition and their attitudes towards English accents were investigated. Participants were students at the University of the Basque Country and they were either bilingual (Basque and Spanish) or monolingual (Spanish). All of them completed several questionnaires including a background questionnaire and a specific questionnaire on beliefs and attitudes about the English sound system and its teaching. The results indicate that pronunciation is a difficult and important area for all learners. It was also found that learners consider contact with native speakers as the most influential factor in the acquisition of the phonetic component and that this contact also exerts some influence on their attitude towards English accents. Finally some differences between monolingual and bilingual learners are described.

The effectiveness of phonemic transcription education in speech and language therapy: a preliminary investigation

Ian Crookston

Leeds Metropolitan University

A survey will be carried out of a sample of recent graduates in Speech & Language Therapy. They will be asked to phonemically transcribe into an RP or south-eastern accent a list of English words. These transcriptions will be compared with transcriptions by the same students of the same words in the same accent at their final formal assessment in phonemic transcription. Evidence of the following factors will be looked for: (a) The difference between transcription from live dictation and from a written form (b) The difference between transcription of a word in a dictation context and in isolation (c) Effects of the training in narrow transcription which followed this assessment in phonemic transcription (d) Deterioration and/or spontaneous improvement of the transcriber's skill in phonemic transcription Evidence of factor (a) would include discrepancies which can be attributed to additional intrusion of the transcriber's own accent. Factor (b) will be minimised by selecting as far as possible words which were not affected in the original dictation by connected speech phenomena. One obvious sign of factor (c) would be the use of diacritics. Factor (d) if found will lead to further analysis seeking any suggestion of independant change in separate facets of the skill, such as symbol knowledge and recognition of particular classes of sounds.

Teaching English phonetics at the School of English, AMU, Poznan, Poland.

Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kolaczyk, Jaroslaw Weckwerth, Justyna Zborowska

Adam Mickiewicz University

This paper aims to present the curriculum of the course entitled "Descriptive Grammar of English, Part 1: Phonetics and Elements of Phonology" as taught at the School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland. The paper presents the course as part of the Descriptive Grammar curriculum, which includes all major areas of linguistics, as well as in connection to the teaching of pronunciation within the Practical English course of our School. The course is also placed in the broader framework of the current organization of the curriculum at the School of English, especially with reference to proseminars and seminars in phonology and other related subjects. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that the course is targeted at first year students of English, rather than linguistics or speech pathology students. Additionally, the students are native-speakers of Polish, although their proficiency in English is very high. Therefore, the course concentrates on those aspects of phonetics that are essential in the phonetics of English, especially from the point of view of a native speaker of Polish. Understandably, the students are provided with major theoretical foundations and tools of general phonetics and a necessary minimum of phonological knowledge. The role of the course as a introduction to some fourther, more advanced courses for the students who are particularly interested in linguistics will also be mentioned, as will examination procedures.

Non-native intonation in acting.

Anastasia Georgountzou

Deree College, Athens

The significance of enhancing intonation skills in EFL has been greatly ackowledged and extensively discussed by previous relevant literature. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of intonation in role play situation (acting). Data consist of tape - recorded material of one native American and two native Greek speakers (College students of the Drama Club) who performed a one - act play in English. Intonational analysis was realized according to O'Connor and Arnold's (1973) pedagogical model and focused on tonicity and (nuclear) tone choice. The comparison between non - native and native American intonational patterns revealed differences in the intonational system of Modern Greek and American English which were - to a great extent - responsible for a number of interlanguage errors committed by native Greek speakers. Alternatively, the results showed that some intonational errors were attributed to intralanguage factors, such as psychological tension, stage fright and generalization of rules.

Optical Logo Therapy (OLT) : visual displays in practical auditory phonetics teaching.

A Hatzis, P Green, S Howard

University of Sheffield

In this paper we present OLT (Optical Logo Therapy), a computer acoustically based speech training aid that supplies on-line, real time audio and visual feedback of articulation and 'maps' sounds according to their acoustic similarity to topological proximity on a two dimensional plane a 'phonetic map'. We explain the features of the program and how these can be used in auditory phonetics teaching, particularly for the place and manner attributes of phonemes. OLT combines classical visual methods in phonetics teaching such as spectrography and waveforms with state of the art techniques in building two dimensional phonetic maps and other visual displays for frame by frame comparison and evaluation of speech. Finally we present examples that demonstrate the potential of OLT in practical auditory phonetics teaching.

*Frenetics and *palatial plosives: first year French phonetics.

Douglas Jamieson

University of Hull

This is a demonstration of Ça sonne français, a recent CD-ROM-based introduction to the phonetics of French produced under the aegis of the Computers in Teaching Initiative’s TELL programme [Technology Enhanced Language Learning].  The general context is the background of perceived decline and /or gaps in the phonetic competence of the average incoming degree-level student; the specific context is a semester-long module with 70-80 First-Year students. The module description and assessment results will be used to highlight some of the problems and issues raised by this effort to improve awareness and performance, especially in relation to major aspects which students perceive as difficult and which may also raise assessment issues: the classification of sounds, the corresponding symbols, rhythmic groups, and phonemic transcription.

The influence of systematic ear-training upon the perception of RP tones in Slovene students of English.

Smiljana Komar

University of Ljubljana

This paper examines the influence of systematic ear-training upon perception of RP tones in Slovene students of English. The standard Slovene distinguishes among three simple tones: the fall, the rise and the level. There are no complex tones like the fall-rise or the rise-fall in RP. In order to teach Slovene students of English these two tones, ear-training exercises are used. Examining the issue from the standpoint of a teacher of English pronunciation and prosody I tried to find out how useful such 'drills' really are. Different perception tests were carried out with the first, second and fourth year students of English whose knowledge of RP intonation varied from beginners to those who have already mastered it to some extent. Two general conclusions can be drawn from the experiments: first, ear-training exercises improve perception of  all tones with most students, and second, perception of the fall-rise tone improves only when the students are told how the tone is realised.

Practical auditory phonetics teaching in Singapore.

Lisa Li Su Lim

National University of Singapore

The traditional teaching of phonetics in Singapore in past decades has mainly limited itself to the teaching of phonetics (and phonology) of English, using Received Pronunciation as a model. A significant aspect of phonetics teaching nowadays - where English is concerned - is that it does not end here, but also concerns itself with highlighting the phonetic aspects of the local variety of English, Singapore English, with particular emphasis on the more colloquial variety, making comparisons with RP. Students, for example, not only learn to phonetically transcribe English dictated in a standard (near-RP) accent, they additionally have to transcribe themselves in spontaneous conversation. In spite of this being a vastly more challenging task than the former, feedback to it has been very positive, with students eventually showing a finer sensitivity to their own colloquial SE speech, and consequently expressing a greater appreciation for this new awareness. The practical problems particularly in the analysis of intonation - and theoretical issues that emerge from this will be highlighted in this paper. One of the tasks that lie ahead, for example, includes fixing a standard phonetic transcription - and subsequently establishing a phonological system - for Singapore English, particularly Colloquial Singapore English.

The SIPhTrA Project

John Maidment, Eva Estebas

UCL

The SIPhTrA project was the major impetus for the organisation of PTLC99. It is a three-year project which started in October 1997 and is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Department of Education for Northern Ireland under the scheme known as the Fund for Development of Teaching and Learning. SIPhTrA stands for System for Interactive Phonetics Training and Assessment and is a major initiative in developing materials and methods for teaching and learning of phonetics and speech sciences and in fostering debate and collaboration in this area. SIPhTrA is based at UCL, but has collaborators at Cambridge, Newcastle, Ulster, Westminster and York This paper will outline the main aims of the project, will report on achievements and products already available. Future plans will also be described.

The integration of speech communication sciences in speech and language therapy curriculum at the University of Ljubljana.

Bojan Petek

University of Ljubljana

University of Ljubljana offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) at the Faculty of Education, Department of Defectology . The undergraduate program also includes a course entitled Speech Analysis and Phonetics (Racunalniska analiza govora s fonetiko) that is given in the second year of study . This paper presents work underway that aims to integrate relevant areas of Human Language Technologies (HLT) in the SLT studies, and teaching methodology with information technology that are envisioned to be used in the future. Specifically, the SLT/HLT integration for this course is discussed from the point of view of recent proposals in the SLT studies outlined in the book »The Landscape of Future Education in Speech Communication Sciences 2. Proposals« [Bloothooft at al., 1998].

Replacing the tutor: multimedia enhancement of articulatory phonetics training.

Ian Smith

York University, Canada

Widespread cuts to funding of tertiary education have led to pedagogical innovations aimed at more economical course delivery. Cheaper may not be better, but often the alternatives are teaching more cheaply or not at all. In particular, labour-intensive training in practical phonetics has become prohibitively expensive. This paper describes a multimedia software solution to the problem of underfunding of phonetics courses. Higgins the phonetics tutor presents high-quality (mpeg) video demonstrations of the articulation of 226 consonants, 70 vowels and diphthongs, and various prosodic phenomena. Sounds are organized into approximately 400 small articulatorily-based groups, with each sound appearing in various overlapping groups. Students may view demonstrations of the sounds of a group in any order and give themselves a recognition quiz. Provision is also made for self-recording and playback. The program can successfully replace a tutor for discrimination practice, but a human teacher is still necessary for production training. The program has been used in articulatory phonetics courses at York University, where it was developed. Student reaction has been positive and the replacement of tutorial hours with laboratory time does not appear to have affected results adversely.

The role of the mother tongue in teaching English pronunciation.

Rastislav Sustarsic

University of Ljubljana

The paper examines the role of  the students' mother tongue (Slovene in our case)  in relation to English pronunciation training at university level. The standard Slovene and English (RP) sound systems are compared (including some features of connected speech, such as assimilation and elision) and a set of the main differences is established in order to predict the most likely areas of errors in the pronunciation of Slovene students of English. The set of  expected divergences from the expected pronunciation features is then compared with the students' actual performance both on the basis of their reading/speaking activities and their (phonemic) transcription assignments in the course of English pronunciation training. It has been observed that (apart from the differences between the two language systems), a number of errors result from the notorious unpredictability of English pronunciation, as well as from the exposure of Slovene students to different English accents (in particular General American in addition to RP). Following these observations of the most problematic areas, some
generalizations and practical activities are proposed with the aim of increasing the students' awareness of these areas and the final goal of helping them to improve their perception and performance relating to English pronunciation.