published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

No description available.

D. Litt. et Phil. / Evidence from several sociolinguistic studies suggests that second language speakers' pronunciation of their target language embodies several varieties of the target language pronunciation. These varieties have developed as a result of the particular social contexts of their language learning and language use. An acquaintance with the Tsongas who speak Afrikaans as a second language will confirm this suggestion- yet no in-depth study of any repute has been done among the Tsongas in this area. The only related study in this field was carried out by Nkatini (1978)...

No description available.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

Technological advancements in the recent past have provided new methods for learning to speak English as a second language (ESL). The majority of accent reduction training regimes nowadays involve the use of different media as teaching and learning cues such as video or audio signals. However, few such programs have been proven to actually provide efficient and useful feed back to ESL learners, and few offers evidence proving that such multisensory approach of accent reduction is superior to traditional unisensory (auditory-only) approach. The present study intended to design and assess the effectiveness and efficacy of a multisensory, acoustics-based accent reduction training system that is capable of training foreign speakers to correctly produce English vowels by providing instantaneous auditory and visual feedback to the users. The study also validated the system against traditional accent modification regimes by objectively comparing the efficacy of such system with traditional accent reduction training. Results indicate that multimedia-based training with instantaneous visual and auditory feedback yielded significant improvement in accent reduction. / published_or_final_version / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Following a review of the literature on French immersion, this thesis considers the implications of the systematic transcription of oral texts for linguistic analysis. In transcribing a corpus of spoken French by children attending a French immersion school and a corpus of children from Quebec (both from tape recordings and included in the appendice), the transcription conventions proposed by the Groupe Aixois de Recherche en Syntaxe were applied. In chapter III, some of the most common deviations from the norm that occur in the French immersion corpus are discussed, and for the most part these aberrations reflect the results of previous error analyses done on second language learners. In chapters IV and V, a study of "slip-ups" is undertaken. Slip-ups are repetitions or self-corrections, referred to as "rates" in this thesis. They occur frequently both in the Francophone and French immersion corpus. The purpose of this study is to analyse the intrinsic structure of these hesitations (that were previously brushed off as un-grammatical) and to discover whether the repetitions or self-corrections produced by the French immersion speakers share characteristics with or differ from the slip-ups identified in the Francophone corpus. Whereas an enumeration of grammatical errors will almost always show that the French spoken by French immersion pupils is not as "good" as that spoken by Francophone children, the analysis of slip-ups is a more objective endeavor. And indeed, the study reveals some unpredicted results. On certain parts of the sentence, such as the predicate, French native speakers surprisingly slip up more often than French immersion children, while the latter tend to hesitate more often on subjects and indirect objects. Further analysis reveals that native French speakers almost always repeat (or correct) entire word groups, or syntagms, although they don't always complete such groups. The French immersion children, on the other hand, do not always repeat the entire word group when they slip up, but they do seem to finish their construction (or sentence), once it has started. Finally, the situation (formal or informal) appeared to only affect the speakers in the Francophone corpus: they hesitated slightly more often in a formal setting, whereas the situation did not seem to affect the results for the French immersion speakers.

The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in the pronunciation and intelligibility of instructed and uninstructed second language (L2) learners over time, and to identify instructional, environmental, and methodological factors playing a role in pronunciation and intelligibility. / Seventeen L2 graduate students at an English-medium university recorded three personal anecdotes over five months. The students also regularly logged their exposure to and use of English. Nine of the students (instructed group) were concurrently taking an oral communication course focussing on suprasegmental pronunciation. Classroom instruction was regularly observed and recorded. All 17 students were interviewed at the end of the study. / L1 listeners heard anecdotes from three instructed and three uninstructed students, matched for length of residence and first language (L1). Listeners also heard anecdotes from four L1 English speakers. One group of listeners retold each anecdote after hearing it (discourse-level task). The other group paused the recording of each anecdote whenever a word was unclear (word-level task). Each group of listeners also rated excerpts for accentedness, comprehensibility, and fluency. / Results of quantitative and qualitative analyses showed that: (a) no unambiguous changes in the pronunciation or intelligibility of either L2 learner group occurred over time; (b) word-level intelligibility measures more consistently differentiated L1 and L2 groups, and the instructed and uninstructed L2 groups; (c) compared to the instructed group, the uninstructed group logged relatively more English exposure/use for academic activities and relatively less for interactive social activities; (d) many instructed L2 learners did not believe that their pronunciation had noticeably improved, but almost all expressed satisfaction with their ability to communicate in English; (e) at the end of the study, many uninstructed learners reported persistent difficulties in communicating in English. / The results suggest that instruction in suprasegmental aspects of pronunciation sometimes may not lead to improved intelligibility or pronunciation. In addition, some L2 learners can be as intelligible as L1 speakers, depending on the listening task. Finally, results suggest that L2 learners' perceptions of their communicative ability and their patterns of L2 exposure/use are related. Implications for university preparation and support programs for L2 graduate students are discussed.