A long Canadian tradition has promoted the rise of multicultural education. In this multicultural society, ways to deal with the cultural differences in the teaching of Chinese to students with various backgrounds and needs have always been a challenging task. A review of the literature revealed that little research has focused on Chinese pronunciation teaching in Canada. In order to understand the teaching of Chinese pronunciation in Canadian universities, this study examines Integrated Chinese (Liu, Yao, et al., 2016), a Chinese textbook widely used in Canada. The study also qualitatively analyses two teachers' self-evaluations and their teaching experiences, as gathered from surveys and interviews. The results of the study aim to inform both seasoned and novice teachers in their work in the Canadian post-secondary context and to offer practical pedagogical recommendations for consideration. / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to examine more deeply the relationship between pause location and duration and its connection to clause and phrase boundaries for native English speakers (NESs). Previous research has shown pauses produced by NESs to be located at clause boundaries (Brown & Miron, 1971; Hawkins, 1971; Tavakoli, 2011), but little empirical work has been done to probe this issue further. For this research, 80 speech samples, 40 male and 40 female, were randomly selected from the International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA) representing different regions in the United States. Oral data from the read-aloud portion of the samples were used for this research. The grammatical structures within the speech sample were tagged, and the filled and unfilled pauses were marked for location and duration. The utterances were analyzed for pauses occurring at grammatical boundaries and punctuation marks. The results showed that 91.5% of all pauses in the speech samples were found after clauses, phrases, or punctuation marks, leaving only 8.5% to occur within these structures. The number of pauses per boundary out of the potential pauses at those boundaries was also analyzed. The findings from this study indicate that NESs pause after 94.2% of the available periods, 69.4% of the clauses, 44.7% of the commas, and 5.7% of the phrases. In addition to these findings on pause location, pauses were found to be longest at clause and period boundaries with average pause lengths of 652 ms and 734 ms respectively and shortest at phrase and comma boundaries with average pause lengths of 471 ms and 511 ms respectively. The results also showed that these differences were statistically significant between clauses and phrases as well as periods and commas. Although filled pauses were marked, no meaningful findings can be reported due to there only being a total of 10 filled pauses in all 80 speech samples. Gender differences were also statistically significant when measuring pause duration with the average pause length of males being 659 ms and those of females being 550 ms. In addition to providing new empirical evidence describing NESs' use of pausing, these findings have potential implications to help non-native English speakers (NNESs) improve their use of pausing in English as a means of enhancing their fluency and intelligibility.

Over the past few decades, increasing research has examined the cognitions (knowledge and beliefs) of second language (L2) teachers. Such efforts have provided insight into what constitutes teachers' beliefs and knowledge about teaching, how these cognitions have developed and how they are reflected in classroom practice (see Borg, 2006). Although numerous studies have been conducted into the curricular areas of L2 grammar and, to a lesser extent, L2 literacy, far fewer have examined L2 teachers' cognitions concerning L2 pronunciation instruction. The purpose of the present study, therefore, was to explore some of the dynamic relationships that exist between L2 teachers’ cognitions and actual pedagogical practices, how these cognitions have developed over time, and what relationships exist between both students’ and teachers’ perceptions. In the study, the cognitions and practices - as they relate to the teaching of L2 pronunciation - of five experienced teachers in an Intensive English program were investigated. The teachers participated in three types of data collection procedures over one semester - three semi-structured interviews, five classroom observations, and two stimulated recall interviews. Also, their students completed questionnaires. Findings revealed that, in terms of the development of teachers' cognitions, a graduate course dedicated to pronunciation pedagogy had the greatest impact of the teachers’ cognitions. In addition, all teachers experienced some degree of insecurity about teaching pronunciation. This was especially true for teachers who had never taken a course in pronunciation pedagogy. Yet even those teacher with specific training in pronunciation pedagogy lacked confidence in certain areas, especially in how to diagnose and address problems with pronunciation. Furthermore, some of the teachers were hesitant to assess students' pronunciation, fearing that negative feedback might be damaging to the learners' identities. However, through viewing the results of the student questionnaires, the participant-teachers were surprised to learn that students favored receiving explicit feedback in class in front of their peers over other types of feedback. One final major finding was that the teachers predominantly employed controlled techniques when teaching pronunciation and that, of all the techniques used, guided techniques were used less frequently.

This diploma thesis deals with the crucial impact of the neutral vowel schwa on creating prominence contrasts in English pronunciation teaching, i.e. a schwa-centred approach. The theoretical part focuses on the complex description of the target sound with regard to the suprasegmental level, including Czech speakers' difficulties to recognise and pronounce this vowel and prominence patterns it participates in. Furthermore, it defines the essence of the schwa-centred approach. The practical part presents the implementation of the schwa-centred approach in teaching practice in the form of a set of activities aimed at perception, production and raising students' awareness of this phenomenon. The effectiveness of the activities is evaluated by means of the analysis of audio recordings made before and after the teaching and assessment of students' questionnaires. The thesis also contains all worksheets with task descriptions applying the schwa-centred approach. KEY WORDS schwa, full vowel, prominence contrasts, perception, production, raising awareness

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-70).

This diploma thesis deals with the role of rhoticity in English pronunciation teaching. The theoretical part focuses on the characterisation of rhoticity as a distinctive feature of English accents. It describes and compares approaches to pronunciation teaching and the factors which influence the choice of pronunciation models in English language teaching. It also introduces the development of English as a lingua franca and its impact on pronunciation. Finally, it characterises the processes of speech perception. The practical part describes the creation and implementation of research which aimed at the discovery of the degree of intelligibility and comprehensibility of rhotic and non-rhotic samples of speech. The results imply that Czech learners of English find non-rhotic speech less intelligible and more difficult to understand. Key words rhoticity, non-rhoticity, pronunciation teaching, speech perception, intelligibility, comprehensibility

No description available.

<p>Predmet istraživanja je utvrđivanje efikasnosti kori&scaron;ćenja britanskih humorističkih serija u nastavi engleskog kao stranog jezika, radi usavr&scaron;avanja britanskog izgovora učenika osnovno&scaron;kolskog uzrasta. Cilj ove disertacije je sticanje naučnog saznanja o efikasnosti primene britanskih humorističkih serija u nastavi engleskog kao stranog jezika, prevashodno saznanja o mogućnostima usavr&scaron;avanja izgovora onih engleskih fonema kojih nema u fonolo&scaron;kom sistemu srpskog jezika, kao i fonema koje su karakteristične za izgovorne razlike između britanske i američke varijante engleskog jezika</p> / <p>The object of this research is to determine the efficiency of the use of British sitcoms in teaching English as a foreign language, in order to improve the British English pronunciation of primary school students. The aim of this thesis is to acquire scientific knowledge about the effectiveness of the implementation of British sitcoms in teaching English as a foreign language, primarily the knowledge about the potentials of improving the pronunciation of those English phonemes that are not in the phonological system of the Serbian language and those phonemes that represent the pronunciation differences between British and American varieties of the English language.</p>

The diploma thesis deals with the major accents of English used by Northern Irish speakers and their application in teaching English as a foreign language. In the theoretical part of the text, the fundamental information concerning the language development in the given area is put forward. Furthermore, it concentrates on the division of particular accents and attempts for their characterisation in comparison to Received Pronunciation. In the following practical part, the text concentrates on the application of the theoretical findings in lessons for English language students at a Czech grammar school. It describes the preparation of the teaching materials and of the lesson plan, and their subsequent application in sample lessons. The evaluation of the activities is based on the student feedback which is discussed in the final chapter.

對以英語為外語學習的台灣學生而言，傳統的發音輔助系統在國中階段是以K.K.音標為主，而目前國小階段的發音輔助系統是藉由字母拼讀法，本研究旨在探討字母拼讀法與K.K.音標對台灣六年級學生在單字發音效益比較之研究。 研究對象為台北市一所公立小學六年級二個班共62位學生，兩班隨機分成實驗組與控制組，實驗組施予K.K.音標教學，而控制組則施以字母拼讀法教學。實驗研究共進行一學期，實驗前給予兩組學生單字發音的口試測驗，實驗後再進行同一份口試測驗，並採用三種統計方法進行資料分析:敘述性統計、獨立樣本T 檢定與卡方檢定。資料分析結果顯示K.K.音標與字母拼讀法教學在單字發音上有顯著差異，受試者對於K.K.音標教學在整體單字發音的表現較有成效；在單音節與多音節以及規則與不規則字的發音上也較字母拼讀法教學有成效。此外，二組受試者在子音、母音、重音與音節的錯誤率比較上，僅在母音上呈現顯著差異，受試者輔以字母拼讀法教學在母音的錯誤率較K.K.音標教學高，而錯誤似乎是受到字母拼讀法規則類化的影響。 最後，由此研究結果提出對國小六年級學生在單字發音教學的建議，期盼對國小六年級英語教師與學生在單字發音的教與學上有所助益。 / To facilitate word pronunciation for EFL students in Taiwan, K.K. phonetic symbols have been used in junior high schools for decades whereas phonics has been introduced in elementary schools. The purpose of the study is to examine which method, phonics or K.K. phonetic symbols, is more effective in teaching word pronunciation for sixth graders who have had three years of formal English education at public schools. The participants in this study were two classes of 62 sixth graders in Taipei city. Two classes were randomly assigned to the experimental group who received the instruction of K.K. phonetic symbols for a semester while the control group who received the instruction of phonics. The oral task of students’ production abilities on word pronunciation designed by the researcher was used as the instrument to collect the data. The data collected was analyzed by three statistical methods, including descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test and chi-square. The results showed that students receiving K.K. phonetic symbols instruction outperformed those who received phonics instruction on overall, monosyllabic, polysyllabic, regular and irregular word pronunciation. Additionally, it is found that students with the instruction of phonics made more vowel errors. The segmental errors in the phonics group may result from the effect of phonics generalization. Based on the findings, this study proposes some pedagogical implications for sixth grade English teachers to better facilitate students’ learning on English word pronunciation.