Present diploma thesis deals with perceptively noticeable deviations in realization of consonants in Czech of Vietnamese native speakers. The aim of the thesis is identification, characterization, categorization and quantification of the deviations from common Czech pronunciation according to specific ways of realization. In the theoretical part the consonant systems of both the languages and their syllabic structures are compared contrastively. The following chapter is dedicated to a short analysis of the pronunciation exercises and their didactic contribution in the most frequently used textbooks of Czech as a foreign language. Moreover, a textbook designated for Vietnamese speakers and an English textbook were analyzed for a better comparison. The research itself is based on an analysis of 16 records of Vietnamese native speakers by a method of careful listening in Praat program. The results have shown that the most frequent deviations in the speech of Vietnamese speakers were caused by interference from their mother tongue, especially because of the different consonant systems of Czech and Vietnamese and their different phonotactic rules. Keywords: Czech as a foreign language, Vietnamese, pronunciation, consonants, phonetics, didactics

This thesis is a French-Czech contrastive study which deals with schwa (mute E) in the two languages. It is conducted in a pedagogical perspective. After comparing the principal phonetic/phonological characteristics of the two languages, the topic of the theoretical part is schwa in spoken French. One of the chapters concerns the treatment of mute E in French songs and its treatment in poetry. The second part consists in an experimental study ; it contains the description and the results of three experiments concerning the two languages. The acoustic realization of schwa (or a "schwa-like" vocalic segment) is observed through production tasks and perception tests of syllabicity in French and Czech words. The acoustic analyses seem to support the well-known hypotheses that it is not just the effect of the phonological cribble, but also a mental representation of the graphical form that is operating in the process of the perception of a foreign language. Furthermore, the representation of the graphical form seems to play a role for French listeners when hearing their own language. The articulatory habits of native speakers can considerably influence not only the production of a foreign language being studied, but also its perception. In the case of our first two perception tests the French listeners were...

The thesis investigates speech sound characteristics of three different television talk show hosts. Using the experimental analysis it tries to inspect all their typical attributes, especially the suprasegmental features of their speeches. The selected television hosts are both from public and commercial television stations. The first part of the theoretical section introduces the talk show television programming genre and specifies its broadcasting share among the observed television channels, next the diversity of Czech talk shows is introduced together with the individual hosts whose utterances will be analyzed, also the role of communication in mass media as well as the host journalist figure is presented, and the features of publicly spoken speeches are described. Within the part devoted to languages and speeches the linguistic discipline of phonetics is introduced followed by the individual continuous speech sound properties and their specific attributes. The practical section researches performance of the particular hosts and it specifically tries to deal with their sound aspects in order to evaluate whether some typical attributes can be found (primarily within the areas of intonation, pauzation and tempo). Further it observes whether some same sound attributes are shared among the talk...

<p>Razvojna disleksija je specifičan deficit čitanja uprkos prosečnoj inteligenciji, &scaron;kolovanju i obrazovnom okruženju, a u odsustvu senzornih ili psihijatrijskih poremećaja. Disortografija predstavlja otežano učenje pravopisa maternjeg jezika u vreme kada su deca istog uzrasta, sposobnosti i obuke već savladala pravopisna pravila. Deficit fonolo&scaron;ke obrade obja&scaron;njava disleksiju i disortografiju kao posledicu individualnih smetnji u fonolo&scaron;kom procesiranju koja se ispoljava kao slabost u sposobnosti stvaranja veze između fonema i grafema. Ciljevi ovog istraživanja bili su da se utvrdi nivo razvijenosti fonolo&scaron;ke svesnosti kod dece sa disleksijom i disortografijom, zatim u kojoj meri govorno jezički poremećaji utiču na ispoljavanje disleksije i disortografije, kao i da se utvrdi da li postoji razlika u ispoljavanju ovih smetnji u odnosu na pol dece. Istraživanje je obuhvatilo 689 dece, od prvog do trećeg razreda osnovne &scaron;kole čiji je maternji jezik srpski. Deca su podeljena u grupe u odnosu na razred koji pohađaju. Za procenu fonolo&scaron;ke svesnosti primenjen je test FONT koji obuhvata osam tipova zadataka:spajanje slogova, slogovna segmentacija, identifikovanje početnog fonema, prepoznavanje rime, fonemska segmentacija, identifikovanje zavr&scaron;nog fonema, eliminacija fonema, fonemska supstitucija i spajanje slogova. Brzina, tačnost, fluentnost čitanja i razumevanje sadržaja pročitanog procenjena je testom čitanja The Gray Oral Reading Tests-GORT 5. Za potrebe ovog istraživanja urađena je kros-kulturalna adaptacija testa, prema vodiču za adaptaciju u odnosu na jezičke i kulturalne različitosti. Za procenu razvijenosti govora i poznavanje reči, apstraktne inteligencije, faktora distraktibilnosti i koncentracije, kao i procene vizuomotorne koordinacije, kori&scaron;ćeni su subtestovi Revisk-revidirane skale za merenje inteligencije. Skalom za procenu pravopisnog nivoa rukopisa procenjeno je prepoznavanje semantičkih oblika i njihovo kori&scaron;ćenje u kontekstu saop&scaron;tavanja misaonih sadržaja. Rezultati pokazuju da najveći broj dece, od prvog do trećeg razreda, ima razvijeno čitanje u kategoriji proseka. U drugom i trećem razredu 61 dete (13.7%) ispoljava disleksiju, a 82 (18,4%) dece disortografične smetnje. Deca sa disleksijom i disortografijom če&scaron;će imaju deficit fonolo&scaron;ke svesnosti u odnosu na decu tipičnog razvoja. Deca sa disleksijom i disortografijom ispoljavaju deficit svih elemenata koji čine fonolo&scaron;ku svesnost. Elementi fonolo&scaron;ke svesnosti kod dece mlađeg &scaron;kolskog uzrasta čiji je maternji jezik srpski, predstavljaju značajne prediktore za sticanje čitanja i pravopisa. Govorno jezički poremećaji zastupljeni su kod 137 dece (19.9%), od prvog do trećeg razreda. Kod dece sa govorno jezičkim poremećajima se če&scaron;će ispoljava disleksija i disortografija u odnosu na decu tipičnog razvoja. Najveći broj dece sa disleksijom i disortografijom ima podprosečne rezultate na subtestu Rečnik. Disleksija i disortografija, kao i deficit fonolo&scaron;ke svesnosti su če&scaron;će zastupljeni kod dečaka, ali ta razlika nije značajna. U odnosu na rezultate istraživanja napravljen je Protokol za detekciju, procenu i korekciju disleksije i disortografije.</p> / <p>Developmental dyslexia is a specific reading deficit occurring in spite of average intelligence, appropriate schooling and educational environment, in the absence of any sensory or psychiatric disorders. Dysorthography represents a child`s impaired acquisition of the orthography of his/her mother tongue at the age when children of equal abilities and schooling have already mastered orthographic rules. A deficit in phonological awareness explains both dyslexia and dysorthography as a consequence of individual difficulties in phonological processing displayed as impairment in creating associations between phonemes and graphemes. The aims of this research were to establish the level of development of phonological awareness in children with dyslexia and dysorthography, the extent to which speech disorders affect dyslexia and dysorthography, and if there is a difference in their frequency with regard to gender. The study included 689 children, attending 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade of primary school, whose mother tongue was Serbian. Children were divided into groups according to school grade. For the assessment of phonological awareness the FONT test was used which entails eight types of tasks: syllable blending, syllable segmentation, identifying the initial phoneme, recognizing rime, phoneme segmentation, identifying the ending phoneme, phoneme deletion, and phoneme substitution. Reading accuracy, fluency and comprehension were assessed by The Gray Oral Reading Tests &ndash; GORT 5. For the purposes of this study, a cross-cultural adaptation was performed, in accordance with the guidelines provided in the guide for adaptation regarding linguistic and cultural differences. Subtests of the REVISK &ndash; revised scale for the assessment of intelligence were used to assess the developmental level of speech and vocabulary, attention and distractibility, as well as visual-motor coordination. A scale for the assessment of the orthographic level of handwriting was used to recognize semantic forms and their application in the context of conveying thought content. The results show that the majority of children, attending 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade have an average reading ability. 61 children (13.7%) attending 2nd and 3rd grade have dyslexia, while 82 (18.4%) have difficulties with the orthography. These children more often have a phonological awareness deficit compared to typically developing children. Children with dyslexia and dysorthography display a deficit in all the elements of phonological awareness. The elements of phonological awareness have proven to be significant predictors of mastering reading and writing in children attending lower grades of primary school, whose mother tongue is Serbian. Speaking disorders were found to be present in 137 (19.9%) children attending 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade. These children more often have dyslexia and dysorthography compared to typically developing children. The majority of children with dyslexia and dysorthography have below average results on the Vocabulary subtest. Dyslexia and dysorthography, as well as the phonological awareness deficit are more present in boys but the gender difference is not significant. In accordance with our results, a protocol was developed to detect, assess and correct dyslexia and dysorthography.</p>

The analysis of long-time formant distribution is relatively young but promising discipline of speaker identification. It is a method of mapping the long-term behavior of formants in speech of individual speakers. Frequently encountered problems in practice are bad acoustic quality and very short duration of analyzed recordings. This work aims to present the historical development of forensic phonetics and currently used methods. In the practical part, it deals with the usability of LTF method in forensic practice, especially in recordings containing background noise. It was shown that the noise appreciably affects extracted LTF values and unfortunately the change is not systematic. Therefore, we proposed several methods to compensate the noise in recordings, in order to be able to compare recordings with and without noise. We also investigated the minimum duration of recording, which is necessary for statistical reliability of the resulting values. This boundary is not exact and for each speaker, it is substantially individual. But it is apparent that recordings (vocalic streams) shorter than 15 s often provide incomplete information, wherefore they cannot be recommended for analysis. Keywords: LTF, long-time formant distribution, speaker identification, forensic phonetics, acoustic quality of...

The diploma thesis deals with culture of spoken language among pupils at second stage of elementary school. The theoretical part is focused on rhetoric, phonetics, syntax or stylistics. The thesis also includes a part about division of vocabulary. The last two chapters of the theoretical part deals with nonverbal communication and it also includes some specific features of spoken language. The research part contains analyses of speeches that were done by six pupils of ninth grade of elementary school. Prepared an unprepared speeches were analysed from phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactic point of view. Nonverbal communication was also evaluated.

The diploma thesis entitled Phonetics in the teaching of FLE according to the action- oriented approach deals with the concept of phonetics in teaching French as a foreign language according to the new action-oriented approach. The thesis is focused on the diachronic development of teaching methods in the teaching of French as a foreign language (FLE). Further, the thesis focuses on the theoretical definition of basic phonetic terms, which we work in the practical part of the thesis with. The terms are briefly characterized from the theoretical point of view, from the point of view of the didactic, and subsequently the work defines the contents that should be included in the FLE teaching on level A1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. There are defined phonetic exercises and recommended practices in the teaching of phonetics of FLE. The following part is devoted to the diachronic development in the field of FLE phonetics evaluation, the definition of criteria for evaluation and the determination of the main types of evaluation. The practical part analyses the concept of phonetics in modern textbooks of FLE, which are conceived according to the action-oriented approach. Based on the theoretical knowledge in the theoretical part of the thesis, the criteria for...

This master thesis extends the main topic of the bachelor thesis Speech of the Computer Games Players (also by Eliška Schönbauerová) and it will further research a new type of sociolect; the speech of computer games players. This sociolect has been researched just on the basic level, and so the author seeks to focus on other, yet unexplored linguistic levels of said sociolect: morphology, word-formation, phonetics, lexicology, syntax and stylistics. The goal is to deeply explore and research gamers' sociolect and to better understand the process of adapting Anglicisms in the system of contemporary Czech language. The theoretical part is based on available professional literature. This thesis also contains materials gathered by the author from gamers or they are available online.

This diploma thesis deals with pronunciation of English speakers in Czech, especially with assimilation of voicing. The theoretical part describes Czech and English consonants, speech processes in both languages, factors influencing foreign accent and textbook analysis focusing on the practice of assimilation of voicing. The following part presents a research with 12 English native speakers. From these analyses, conclusions were drawn about the correctness of pronunciation and also about the correctness of assimilation of voices in general and for individual speakers. On the basis of the obtained data, a didactic plan for this phenomenon was created. Key words: English, Czech as a foreign language, assimilation of voicing, pronunciation, consonants, voicing, phonetics

This thesis examines the differences between the Czech and Cuban phonological inventory. It aims to give a theoretical overview of both systems, to define phonemes, which do not exist in Cuban Spanish, and based on recordings of Cuban speakers living in Prague to give evidence of how they pronounce these phonemes. The paper is divided into two parts: in the theoretical part, the inventory of vowels and consonants in both Czech and Cuban language is thoroughly described, consequently the differences between those two inventories, and then the phonemes problematic for Cuban speakers are identified. In the experimental part, all the realizations of Czech phonemes appearing in the recordings are described. The paper looks at the realizations of Czech vowels and consonants in light of four main variables (level of Czech language, length of stay in Czechia, language used at home, and language used at work). Finally, the results of the research are summarized. Even though, there are quite a few different variations of the pronunciation, as the level of language goes up (also because of other variables), the number of variations is decreasing, in certain cases to only one variation that is corresponding with the pronunciation of the Czech speakers. Keywords Contrastive Phonetics; Czech; Cuban Spanish;...