The purpose of this project is to address the need from helping English learners to improve their oral expression. The research mainly focuses on oral expression stategies with which students can overcome their fear of speaking in public and be better understood in society. Sample curriculum/lesson plans included.

Title of the thesis: Developing pronunciation through musical activities in French lessons Keywords: communicative approach, phonetics, phonology, pronunciation, prosody, activity, music, rhythm, rhythmisation, melody, tempo, intonation, accent, song, rap, facial expressions Abstract: This thesis deals with the teaching of French phonetics, considers the status of phonetics in communicatively oriented teaching, and comes to the fact that the teaching of phonetics and phonology is not a priority in the communicative approach. The work demonstrates the importance of such teaching, and therefore explores how the teaching of pronunciation or some of its components could be made more attractive. Based on the proven relationship of music and language, both as auditory phenomena, this thesis approaches the interwoven elements of these two areas. The aim is to explore how the musical elements, such as: rhythm, melody, tempo, phrasing, etc., could be used in the teaching of French pronunciation - especially at the suprasegmental level. The work offers a basic inventory of exercises which benefit from this characteristic and which has been verified in practice, and in the final analysis summarises their effectiveness in foreign language teaching.

MA, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2012 / This research-report presents a theoretical exploration of musical encoding which has its basis in general semiotic theory. By examining what this reveals about the problematic and mysterious issue of music’s meaning, I argue that the most visceral and direct form of it is found in the manner in which the composer shapes a certain kind of temporal experience (erlebnis) which is engendered by the music itself. This reveals that sensations of goal-directed movement, closure, tension and release are shaped in a phenomenological way against a background of continuity that is established by metrical cyclicity and phrasal periodisation. As a result, the interpretation of certain kinds of accumulative structural effects generated by the gestural (rhythmic and melodic/harmonic) inflections of the temporal and intonational planes become meaningful in a rhetorical, affective (affekten) and topical sense. A study of Ngqoko (Xhosa) overtone-music, as a case study into African indigenous music (as opposed to the examples cited of Western art music), shows that an intensification of the relationships between pitch and rhythm that exist in speech-tone results in the formation of melody and a culturally embedded vocabulary of intonations. I argue that this resultant edifice exists in the music of most cultures and that this ultimately serves as the basis of musical encoding. Therefore musical meaning develops in ways that are completely intrinsic to music.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:23:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 sergio.pdf: 2431367 bytes, checksum: 49d6c74ea903d9d0c045da08226f295b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-02-11 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This dissertation aims at investigating the prosodic patterns in the speech of bilingual American and Brazilian speakers. By means of acoustic phonetic analysis, the manner by which speakers structure the prosodic groups was investigated in light of models that underscore the discoursal and attitudinal functions of intonation. Analyses were carried out on various strands: pitch configurations in idioms, distribution of pitch accents within an utterance whether it be for contrastive or emphatic reasons, and loss of accentual prominence in words that are no longer part of the common ground between speaker and listener. The study involved 4 female subjects, two Brazilians and two Americans, in the 20-40 age group. The corpus is comprised of 7 sentences in English and in Portuguese, four of which were uttered in the declarative modality, one in the exclamative modality and two in the interrogative modality. The sentences were extracted from a dialogue so constructed as to allow for the expression of attitudes and emotions. The dialogue was read and interpreted in three repetitions. The recordings of the readings were carried out at PUC-SP´s Radio and TV studio. The acoustic analysis of the data was done by means of the PRAAT software program, whereby utterances were segmented into units of varying sizes: GIPC, vowels, syllables and consonants. Results point to the use of language-specific strategies by Brazilian and American speakers: (a) Brazilians seem to favor a greater number of prosodic groups in order to maintain sentence focus at terminals; (b) speakers of both languages are heavily influenced by L1 intonational patterns in YES/N0 questions; (c) idioms as produced by non-natives present pitch configurations which convey attitudes incongruent with their meanings in the target language; (d) there are major distributional differences in the two languages as regards nucleus focus; (e) shared information is not a strong enough reason for deaccenting in Portuguese / Esta dissertação tem como objetivo investigar os padrões entoacionais de produções de falantes bilíngües norte-americanos e brasileiros. Por meio de instrumentais de análise fonético-acústica, foi investigado o modo pelo qual os falantes estruturam os grupos prosódicos, à luz de modelos de descrição da entoação que privilegiem o discurso e as atitudes. Foram analisadas as configurações de pitch em expressões idiomáticas, a distribuição do acento principal de pitch em enunciados em que ocorra contrastividade ou ênfase, e a perda (ou não) de proeminência acentual de palavras que já façam parte do conhecimento mútuo entre falante e ouvinte. O trabalho envolveu quatro sujeitos do sexo feminino na faixa etária entre 20 e 40 anos, sendo duas brasileiras e duas norte-americanas. O corpus é composto de 7 sentenças em inglês e em português, sendo 4 na modalidade declarativa, uma na exclamativa e 2 na interrogativa. As sentenças foram extraídas de um diálogo construído de modo a contemplar a expressão de atitudes e emoções. O diálogo foi lido e interpretado em três repetições. A gravação das leituras foi feita no Estúdio de Rádio e TV da PUC-SP. A análise acústica dos dados foi feita por meio do programa PRAAT, a partir da segmentação dos enunciados em unidades de tamanhos variados: unidades V-V, vogais, sílabas e consoantes. Os resultados obtidos apontam para o uso de estratégias diferenciadas por parte dos falantes brasileiros e norte-americanos: (a) falantes brasileiros tendem a fazer um maior número de fronteiras prosódicas, de modo a manter o acento frasal em fronteira final; (b) falantes de ambas as línguas tendem a sofrer influência dos padrões entoacionais de L1 nas questões totais; (c) A produção de expressões idiomáticas por falantes não nativos apresenta configurações de pitch que carreiam atitudes incompatíveis com seu significado em L2; (d) há diferenças nas duas línguas em relação à posição do acento frasal; (e) nem sempre informação já compartilhada pelos participantes do discurso perde a proeminência acentual no português

A proposta deste trabalho é a de discutir aspectos do som da trompa, que está profundamente enraizado no instrumento histórico, anterior ao século XIX. É o som da trompa que inspira os músicos, atrai os ouvintes e estimula os compositores. É seu som que mantém o músico estudando por horas para adquirir as habilidades necessárias para tocar bem. Nos ouvintes, o som da trompa evoca heroísmo e nobreza, saudosismo e romantismo e, por décadas, foi a voz básica destes sentimentos em filmes e trilhas sonoras. Os compositores têm mantido uma relação sempre cambiante com este instrumento que, por sua vez, continua a se modificar, e as inovações que eles propuseram afetaram diretamente o som do instrumento. Esta pesquisa irá explorar as técnicas que os trompistas têm à disposição para dar colorido ao som do instrumento. A maioria destas tem suas raízes na execução da trompa natural e esta é a justificativa para a abordagem utilizada neste trabalho: aplicar as técnicas da trompa natural na execução da trompa de válvulas. O timbre da trompa natural é bastante afetado pela posição da mão. A sonoridade resultante pode ficar abafada, emudecida, metálica, cálida e rica ou aberta e brilhante. A ornamentação em forma de trinados labiais, grupetos e mordentes é um resultado da habilidade do executante, assim como arpejar fácil e fluentemente ao longo da extensão do instrumento, é também um exemplo de habilidade técnica. Esta fluência apresenta-se como um aspecto da cor da tonalidade. A afinação, seja ela diatônica, justa, em quartos de tom ou seguindo a série harmônica naturais, também enfeita a cor do som. Na trompa, a afinação seguindo a série harmônica é obtida simplesmente tocando-se as notas naturais do instrumento. Como músico de orquestra, acredito que o posicionamento correta da mão e o treinamento da flexibilidade na trompa natural beneficiaram-me na obtenção das cores e no balanço desejados na música tocada em meu instrumento de válvulas. Enquanto solista e músico de câmara, os benefícios e novos usos dessas técnicas foram ainda mais evidentes. Este trabalho pretende então demonstrar, pela provisão de exemplos da literatura e da prática profissional, como as técnicas da trompa natural podem melhorar a performance da trompa de válvulas moderna. / The purpose of this document is to discuss aspects of horn sound deeply rooted in the pre-19th-century historical instrument. It is the sound of the horn that inspires players, draws listeners, and stimulates composers. Sound keeps the performer practicing for hours to learn the skills required to play well. To listeners, the horns sound evokes heroism and nobility, wistfulness and romance; for decades it has been an essential voice for such qualities in motion picture sound tracks. Composers have maintained an ever-changing relationship with an instrument that continues to evolve; their innovations directly affect the sound of the horn. This inquiry will explore techniques that horn players could use to color the horns sound. Most of these techniques have their roots in natural horn performance, thus the reason for the manner of my approach: applying natural horn techniques to modern valved horn performance practice. Sound colors are not only characterized by timbre, but also through facility and intonation. Natural horn timbres are largely affected by hand position. The resulting sonority can be muffled, muted, brassy, warm and rich, or open and bright. The players ability to provide ornamentation through lip trills, turns, and mordents is a result of his or her facility. The ability to arpeggiate fluently and easily throughout the range of the instrument is another example of facile technique. This fluency exhibits itself as aspects of tone color. Intonation, whether it be diatonic, just, quartertone or natural harmonic, also colors sound. For the horn, natural harmonic intonation is simply achieved by playing the unadjusted notes of the harmonic series. As an orchestral player, I find that the right hand and flexibility training on my natural horn has been of great benefit in creating, on my valved horn, the colors and balance desired in the music. As a soloist, orchestral and chamber player, the benefits and new uses of these techniques are even more pronounced. This document is designed to demonstrate, by providing examples from the literature and professional practice, how natural horn skills can enhance modern valved horn performance.

A proposta deste trabalho é a de discutir aspectos do som da trompa, que está profundamente enraizado no instrumento histórico, anterior ao século XIX. É o som da trompa que inspira os músicos, atrai os ouvintes e estimula os compositores. É seu som que mantém o músico estudando por horas para adquirir as habilidades necessárias para tocar bem. Nos ouvintes, o som da trompa evoca heroísmo e nobreza, saudosismo e romantismo e, por décadas, foi a voz básica destes sentimentos em filmes e trilhas sonoras. Os compositores têm mantido uma relação sempre cambiante com este instrumento que, por sua vez, continua a se modificar, e as inovações que eles propuseram afetaram diretamente o som do instrumento. Esta pesquisa irá explorar as técnicas que os trompistas têm à disposição para dar colorido ao som do instrumento. A maioria destas tem suas raízes na execução da trompa natural e esta é a justificativa para a abordagem utilizada neste trabalho: aplicar as técnicas da trompa natural na execução da trompa de válvulas. O timbre da trompa natural é bastante afetado pela posição da mão. A sonoridade resultante pode ficar abafada, emudecida, metálica, cálida e rica ou aberta e brilhante. A ornamentação em forma de trinados labiais, grupetos e mordentes é um resultado da habilidade do executante, assim como arpejar fácil e fluentemente ao longo da extensão do instrumento, é também um exemplo de habilidade técnica. Esta fluência apresenta-se como um aspecto da cor da tonalidade. A afinação, seja ela diatônica, justa, em quartos de tom ou seguindo a série harmônica naturais, também enfeita a cor do som. Na trompa, a afinação seguindo a série harmônica é obtida simplesmente tocando-se as notas naturais do instrumento. Como músico de orquestra, acredito que o posicionamento correta da mão e o treinamento da flexibilidade na trompa natural beneficiaram-me na obtenção das cores e no balanço desejados na música tocada em meu instrumento de válvulas. Enquanto solista e músico de câmara, os benefícios e novos usos dessas técnicas foram ainda mais evidentes. Este trabalho pretende então demonstrar, pela provisão de exemplos da literatura e da prática profissional, como as técnicas da trompa natural podem melhorar a performance da trompa de válvulas moderna. / The purpose of this document is to discuss aspects of horn sound deeply rooted in the pre-19th-century historical instrument. It is the sound of the horn that inspires players, draws listeners, and stimulates composers. Sound keeps the performer practicing for hours to learn the skills required to play well. To listeners, the horns sound evokes heroism and nobility, wistfulness and romance; for decades it has been an essential voice for such qualities in motion picture sound tracks. Composers have maintained an ever-changing relationship with an instrument that continues to evolve; their innovations directly affect the sound of the horn. This inquiry will explore techniques that horn players could use to color the horns sound. Most of these techniques have their roots in natural horn performance, thus the reason for the manner of my approach: applying natural horn techniques to modern valved horn performance practice. Sound colors are not only characterized by timbre, but also through facility and intonation. Natural horn timbres are largely affected by hand position. The resulting sonority can be muffled, muted, brassy, warm and rich, or open and bright. The players ability to provide ornamentation through lip trills, turns, and mordents is a result of his or her facility. The ability to arpeggiate fluently and easily throughout the range of the instrument is another example of facile technique. This fluency exhibits itself as aspects of tone color. Intonation, whether it be diatonic, just, quartertone or natural harmonic, also colors sound. For the horn, natural harmonic intonation is simply achieved by playing the unadjusted notes of the harmonic series. As an orchestral player, I find that the right hand and flexibility training on my natural horn has been of great benefit in creating, on my valved horn, the colors and balance desired in the music. As a soloist, orchestral and chamber player, the benefits and new uses of these techniques are even more pronounced. This document is designed to demonstrate, by providing examples from the literature and professional practice, how natural horn skills can enhance modern valved horn performance.

This thesis investigates the development of intonation in questions and L1 influence. It is a longitudinal study using data from classroom interaction over six ten-week terms. The data was from video recordings at the National Labsite for Adult ESOL at Portland State University.Yes-no/and wh-/questions from one Russian speaking learner of English were analyzed over time and by language support level. Both acoustic and perceptual analysis was done. The yes-no/questions showed a clear pattern of target-like boundary tones more often without language support than with language support. A much smaller percentage of wh-/questions were target-like. The influence of L1 on L2 intonation was evident in both the yes-no/and wh-questions, although more so in the wh-questions. There were some aspects of interlanguage observed and there was no change in intonation patterns over time to become more target-like. Implications for this study include the importance in teaching intonation explicitly and how classroom exercises may or may not facilitate the development of L2 intonation.

Plusieurs changements de nature phonétique et phonologique ont récemment été recensés dans la plupart des variétés de l'anglais britannique contemporain. Au cours des dernières décennies, ce phénomène semble s'être précipité en raison de la mobilité sociale et géographique accrue des locuteurs de ces variétés. À partir d'un corpus oral de plusieurs heures, essentiellement composé d'interactions spontanées entre locuteurs natifs du NW Yorkshire répartis en plusieurs tranches d'âge, on recense et analyse en temps apparent un certain nombre d'innovations segmentales et suprasegmentales affectant un ensemble d'accents associés à une zone déterminée. On aborde les motivations qui se trouvent à l'origine du changement accentuel dans le NW Yorkshire. On s'interroge aussi quant à l'identité des facteurs qui opèrent sur le plan suprasegmental (particulièrement dans les domaines de l'intonation et celui de la qualité de voix) et sur le plan segmental, au niveau phonétique autant que phonologique. On se penche sur la nature et sur le statut de certaines innovations intonatives en cours de diffusion, telles que le recours à des schémas ascendants en fin d'énoncés déclaratifs. On examine enfin la valeur sémantique et/ou pragmatique de ces schémas intonatifs et celle de certains ajustements articulatoires et phonatoires associés à la production orale des adolescents. Tout au long de ce travail, on suggère qu'il convient de prendre en compte simultanément plusieurs dimensions de la variation diachronique et synchronique pour appréhender le changement accentuel. On tente également de dégager quelques applications potentielles de ces observations à d'autres domaines de recherche, ainsi qu'à l'enseignement de l'anglais en tant que langue étrangère.

Plusieurs changements de nature phonétique et phonologique ont récemment été recensés dans la plupart des variétés de l’anglais britannique contemporain. Au cours des dernières décennies, ce phénomène semble s’être précipité en raison de la mobilité sociale et géographique accrue des locuteurs de ces variétés. À partir d’un corpus oral de plusieurs heures, essentiellement composé d’interactions spontanées entre locuteurs natifs du NW Yorkshire répartis en plusieurs tranches d’âge, on recense et analyse en temps apparent un certain nombre d’innovations segmentales et suprasegmentales affectant un ensemble d’accents associés à une zone déterminée. On aborde les motivations qui se trouvent à l’origine du changement accentuel dans le NW Yorkshire. On s’interroge aussi quant à l’identité des facteurs qui opèrent sur le plan suprasegmental (particulièrement dans les domaines de l’intonation et celui de la qualité de voix) et sur le plan segmental, au niveau phonétique autant que phonologique. On se penche sur la nature et sur le statut de certaines innovations intonatives en cours de diffusion, telles que le recours à des schémas ascendants en fin d’énoncés déclaratifs. On examine enfin la valeur sémantique et/ou pragmatique de ces schémas intonatifs et celle de certains ajustements articulatoires et phonatoires associés à la production orale des adolescents. Tout au long de ce travail, on suggère qu’il convient de prendre en compte simultanément plusieurs dimensions de la variation diachronique et synchronique pour appréhender le changement accentuel. On tente également de dégager quelques applications potentielles de ces observations à d’autres domaines de recherche, ainsi qu’à l’enseignement de l’anglais en tant que langue étrangère. / A number of phonetic and phonological changes have lately been observed in most geographical varieties of British English. This phenomenon seems to have been accelerated by increasing social and geographical mobility in the past decades. Based on a corpus mainly consisting of several hours of spontaneous interaction between a number of native NW Yorkshire speakers divided into different age groups, this research identifies and analyses several segmental and suprasegmental innovations observed in apparent time in a set of accents associated with a circumscribed geographical area. This thesis discusses the motivation behind some of these changes and addresses the question of whether the same factors and principles operate in suprasegmental change – especially in the fields of intonation and voice quality – as in the diffusion of non-traditional segmental phonetic/phonological features. It also explores the nature and status of some diffusing intonational patterns, such as the innovative use of rising tones in association with statements. The semantic/pragmatic value of these patterns is taken into consideration as well as that of a number of articulatory and phonatory adjustments characterising adolescent speech. Throughout this study, it is argued that an analytical model simultaneously taking into account several dimensions of diachronic and synchronic variation is necessary to provide an adequate account of accent change. Some of the findings have been examined as to their possible application to other research domains and to the field of EFL teaching.

Автор представляемого исследования изучает одно из самых значимых произведений Вилла-Лобоса – 16 Cirandas (Сирандас). Он предлагает анализ и различные интерпретационные концепции каждой музыкальной пьесы цикла. При поиске принципов, которые лежат в основе семантики и синтаксиса музыкального произведения, автор опирался в своем анализе на выдающиеся работы Б. Асафьева «Теория интонации» и «Музыкальная форма как процесс», критически представленные в этом исследовании в контексте других созданных в 20 веке музыкальных теорий. В анализе каждой из музыкальных пьес, называемом в работе «Интонационный анализ», как единый комплекс рассматривались следующие элементы: структурирование музыкального материала; звуковой поток в единицу времени в свете теории энергетики искусства Асафьева, импульсы музыкального движения, музыкальное движение, функции синхронных и последовательных звуковых элементов и их сочетаний; присущие музыкальной структуре семантические и синтаксические аспекты; пианистический язык Вилла-Лобоса; такие вопросы исполнительского искусства как аппликатура, туше, движения рук и плеч. Музыкальное исполнение, с точки зрения «Теории интонации», понимается как интонирование музыкального произведения, таким образом, звуковое воплощение происходит в руках и голосе интерпретатора, который передает свое психологическое/ интеллектуальное/эмоциональное/смысловое состояние в данном историческом и культурном контексте. В соответствии с пониманием Б. Асафьева, музыка – это «искусство интонируемого смысла». Вилла-Лобос, будучи неотъемлемой частью своего времени, интонирует в Сирандас культурные универсалии через исторически кристаллизованные интонации бразильского социального сознания. / Este trabalho investiga parte significativa da obra para piano de Villa-Lobos, as 16 Cirandas, com objetivo de apresentar concepções analíticas e interpretativas para a execução de cada uma das peças. Partindo da busca por um conhecimento que abordasse as questões semânticas e sintáticas, expressas no ato da execução musical, foram adotados, para as análises, os trabalhos de B. Asafiev, Teoria da Entonação e Forma Musical como Processo apresentados e contextualizados frente às teorias analíticas do século XX. Em cada concepção analítica das peças, neste trabalho, com o título de análises entonacionais, os itens a seguir foram tratados: a estruturação do material musical; o fluxo sonoro no tempo manifestado por intermédio dos conceitos “asafianos” de energia, impulso ao movimento musical, movimento musical e seu término, funções dos elementos e conjuntos sonoros simultâneos e sucessivos; os aspectos semânticos e sintáticos, imanentes e emanantes das estruturas musicais; a linguagem pianística de Villa-Lobos; aspectos do processo de execução, como dedilhados, movimentos de dedos, mãos e braços. Integrada à Teoria da Entonação, a execução musical é entendida como entonação de uma obra musical, ou seja, manifestação sonora originada das mãos e voz dos intérpretes, que comunica seu estado psicológico intelectual/emocional/semântico em um contexto cultural e histórico. Por sua vez, a música é entendida por Asafiev como “a arte do sentido entonado”. Conectado à sua contemporaneidade, Villa-Lobos entoa, nas Cirandas, um universo cultural por meio de entonações historicamente cristalizadas no consciente social brasileiro. / This work investigates a substantial part of Villa-Lobos’ work for piano, the 16 Cirandas. It proposes analytical and interpretive conceptions to the performance of each musical piece. Searching for principles that would encompass the semantics and syntax expressed in the act of musical performance, B. Asafiev’s Intonation Theory and Musical Form as Process was used as the basis for analysis, being presented and contextualized with the analytical theories of the 20th century. In each analytical conception of the pieces, entitled here as intonation analyses, the following items were treated as a complex: structuring of the musical material; sound flow within time manifested through the Asafie’s concepts of energy, impulse to the musical movement, musical movement and its conclusion; functions of simultaneous and successive sound elements and sets; semantic and syntactic aspects immanent and emanating of musical structures; pianistic language of Villa-Lobos; aspects of the performing process such as fingering, finger, hand and arm movements. Musical performance, integrated to the Theory of Intonation, is understood as intonation of a work of music, thus, manifestation of sound originated in the hands and voice of the interpreters, which communicates their psychological/intellectual/emotional/semantic state in a historical and cultural context. According to Asafiev’s understanding, music is the “art of intoned meaning”. Villa-Lobos, in touch with his contemporaneity, intones in his Cirandas a cultural universe through historically crystallized intonations of the Brazilian social consciousness.