Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:42:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1055577 bytes, checksum: cf26150bea8bf64b9adbdc4408047a83 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The present paper takes into account the Variation Theory, proposed in the 60 s by the linguist William Labov, to explain the palatalization phenomenon on /S/ fricative in coda position in the speech community of Macapá-AP. Recognizing the language variability, many studies have been carried out in order to identify, describe and explain the linguistics phenomena which occur in Brazilian Portuguese. The /S/ palatalization phenomenon, for example, is a process which had been object of study in speeches of diferent regions in Brazil: Rio de Janeiro-RJ (CALLOU & MARQUES, 1975); Natal-RN (PESSOA,1986); Recife-PE, Salvador-BA e Rio de Janeiro-RJ (CALLOU & MORAES, 1996); Corumbá-MS (SILVA, 1996); João Pessoa-PB (HORA, 2000); Salvador-BA (CANOVAS, 1996); Rio de Janeiro-RJ (SCHERRE & MACEDO, 2000); Cordeiro-RJ (GRYNER & MACEDO, 2000); Florianópolis-SC (BRESCANCINI, 2002); Recife-PE (MACEDO, 2004), demonstrating that this is a recurrent phenomenon in Brazilian Portuguese. Thus, from the supposition that the heterogeneity of spoken language can be systematized, and considering the coronal anterior fricative palatalization in sylable endings as a phenomenon that can be explained from a Variationist perspective, we intend, through this research, to trace the linguistic profile of a speaker from Macapá-AP, in relation to the studied phenomenon, taking into account the social factors (exterior factors) and the structural factors (interior factors) which are involved in that process. In order to accomplish our main goal, we attempt to present in a descriptive way the phenomenon; to verify which factors are the conditioning and which are the preventing ones; to make a quantitative analysis of data using the computer program GOLDVARB 3.0 (SANKOFF, TAGLIAMONTE e SMITH, 2005), checking the occurrence of palato-alveolar realizations in contrast with the production of the alveolar /S/; to compare the results with others from previous researches; and based on the preliminary conclusions, to raise other hypotheses to be developed in future academic investigations or even in an extention of the present study. / O presente estudo busca, à luz da Teoria Variacionista, proposta na década de 60 pelo lingüista William Labov, explicar o fenômeno da palatalização de /S/ em posição de coda, no falar da comunidade lingüística da cidade de Macapá-AP. Reconhecendo a variabilidade da língua, muitos estudos têm sido realizados a fim de identificar, descrever e explicar os fenômenos lingüísticos ocorrentes no Português Brasileiro. O fenômeno da palatalização de /S/, por exemplo, é um processo que já foi objeto de estudo de falares de diversas regiões no país: Rio de Janeiro-RJ (CALLOU & MARQUES, 1975); Natal-RN (PESSOA,1986); Recife- PE, Salvador-BA e Rio de Janeiro-RJ (CALLOU & MORAES, 1996); Corumbá-MS (SILVA, 1996); João Pessoa-PB (HORA, 2000); Salvador-BA (CANOVAS, 1996); Rio de Janeiro-RJ (SCHERRE & MACEDO, 2000); Cordeiro-RJ (GRYNER & MACEDO, 2000); Florianópolis-SC (BRESCANCINI, 2002); Recife-PE (MACEDO, 2004), demonstrando que este é um fenômeno recorrente no português do Brasil. Partindo, pois, do pressuposto de que a heterogeneidade da língua falada é passível de sistematização e, sendo a produção palatoalveolar da fricativa coronal anterior em final de sílabas um fenômeno que busca explicação à luz da análise variacionista, buscamos, por meio desta pesquisa, traçar o perfil lingüístico do falante macapaense em relação ao fenômeno estudado, considerando os fatores sociais (externos) e estruturais (internos) que estão envolvidos neste processo. A fim de alcançarmos nosso objetivo principal, buscamos também apresentar descritivamente o fenômeno; verificar quais são os fatores condicionantes e os inibidores do processo de palatalização de /S/; fazer uma análise quantitativa dos dados utilizando o programa computacional GOLDVARB 3.0 (SANKOFF, TAGLIAMONTE e SMITH, 2005), verificando a ocorrência de realizações palato-alveolares da fricativa coronal em contraste com a produção da sibilante; comparar os resultados obtidos com outros estudos já desenvolvidos; e levantar novas hipóteses com base nas primeiras constatações para serem desenvolvidas em futuras investigações acadêmicas ou como extensão desse mesmo estudo

This study set out to investigate the relationship between perception and production of English / tʃ, dʒ/ and / ʒ / by native speakers of Swedish learning English in secondary school. The aim was to find out if Flege’s Speech Learning Model (SLM) (1995) and Major’s Ontogeny Phylogeny Model (OPM) (2001) are suitable to describe young learners’ L2 phonological attainment. To test perception, an identification task containing Nonwords with target sounds in initial, medial, and final position was constructed and tested on 17 school students. Three speaking tasks were carried out to test the participants’ production of the phonemes in initial, medial and final position. All participants also completed a questionnaire with questions regarding exposure and motivation. Six students were chosen for deeper analysis. The results show that both the SLM and the OPM can be used to describe young learners L2 phonology acquisition. Similar sounds were found to be harder to produce and more affected by L1 transfer, which corroborates both the SLM and the OPM. Marked sounds were affected more by universals, which was suggested by the OPM. Desire to have a native accent and reported use of the L2 seems to have effect on L2 phonology acquisition, as well. However, the relationship between all these factors is complex and the results from this study are merely suggestive.

No description available.

It is a general belief in Japan that the English /s/ and /ʃ/ before high front vowels (as in "see" and "she") are problematic for Japanese ESL (English-as-a-second-language) learners. Some research has also reported the /s/ and /ʃ/ confusion by Japanese ESL learners. Their pronunciation errors are often explained based on phonetics, but there are reasons to believe that the learners’ knowledge of the phonemes of the target words is at fault. This study examines 1) whether monolingual Japanese speakers distinguish the [si] and [ʃi] syllables in both perception and production in the Japanese contexts and 2) what would be the sources of Japanese speakers’ challenges in mastering the distinction between [si] and [ʃi] in their English production if Japanese speakers can produce and perceive the difference between these syllables. This study conducted two experiments. In the first experiment, 93 monolingual Japanese speakers between the ages of 17 and 89 in and around Tôkyô read aloud the written stimuli that had [si] and [ʃi] in the Japanese contexts, repeated the sound stimuli that had [si] and [ʃi] in the Japanese contexts, and listened to the [si:] and [ʃi:] syllables in isolation recorded by a native speaker of Canadian English. The results showed that the participants all distinguished [si] and [ʃi] in both perception and production regardless of their ages. Based on these results, I hypothesized that the [s] and [ʃ] confusion by Japanese ESL learners is caused by misunderstanding, rather than an inability to articulate these sounds. In the second experiment, 27 Japanese ESL students were recorded reading an English passage. The passage contains /s/ (7 times) and /ʃ/ (11 times) before high front vowels. After the reading, the participants were taught the basic English phonological system and the symbol-sound correspondence rules such as “s”-/s/ and “sh”-/ʃ/. The lesson lasted 40 minutes during which the participants were also interviewed to find out their awareness of the symbol-sound correspondence. No articulation explanations were given during the lesson. After the lesson, the participants read the same passage. The results showed that /s/ and /ʃ/ were mispronounced 39 and 67 times respectively in total by the 27 participants before the lesson, but only 7 and 19 times after the lesson. These changes are statistically significant. Moreover, the interview during the lesson revealed that the participants lacked phonological awareness in English as well as the knowledge of the symbol-sound correspondence rules. This study concluded that many of the mispronunciations by Japanese ESL learners, including /s/ and /ʃ/, can be solved by teaching the English phonics rules and some basic phonological rules without teaching the articulation of these sounds.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T18:24:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fabiola Dagostini Peleias.pdf: 3457328 bytes, checksum: 7dd5e2d586af21d038754992b5d71372 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-11-06 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This work is part of the sound acquisition area in second language (L2), specifically in English, and it aimed to investigate whether there was a relationship between production and perception of the voiceless interdental fricative pronunciation [θ] or not in a group of Brazilian native speakers (BNS), based on acoustic and phonetic analysis. It was stated that there is such a relationship on account of the BNS in the sample. According to the literature, Brazilian learners of English tend to produce the voiceless interdental fricative [θ] as [s], [f] and [t] ((LIEFF & NUNES, 1993). This is because they consider such sound to be similar to [s], [f] and [t], and as stated by Flege (1999) and Meador, Flege and MacKay (2000), similar sounds of L1 (native language, in this case, Brazilian Portuguese - BP) and L2 may cause difficulties for the learner. Three studies have been made: an analysis of the production of the 3 BNS as well as of the AMS (American Native speaker) concerning the sound [θ]; an analysis of the perception of the sound [θ] by the 3 BNS and, finally, an evaluation of the 3 BNS productions of the sound [θ] by 31 American Native judges. The results of the three analyses have been crossed, and it can be posed that they conform to the literature about the link between production and perception and the assimilation of sounds from L2 to L1. Moreover, with such results, it was possible to achieve the goal of this work. It was verified that, regarding the perception analysis, the three BNS tend to perceive the sound [θ] as [θ] or [t]. Regarding the production analysis, one of the BNS approached the ANS. Therefore, it can be stated that there is a relationship between this BNS perception and production. The two remaining BNS did not approach the ANS. Most of the time, those speakers perceived the sound [θ] as [t], and the same happened with their productions of the sound [θ]. Taking into account those figures, it can be stated that there is a relationship among their production and perception, even if they have not perceived the sound [θ] as it should have been done. The perception and production analyses results were compared with the evaluation of the 31 judges, and the same can be said concerning all BNS: one of the BNS approached the ANS concerning the sound [θ], and the two remaining ones did not approach the ANS. To sum up, it was observed that, in this particular sample, there is a relationship between their production and perception, and that two out of the three BNS assimilated the sound [θ] as [t] / Este trabalho situa-se na área de aquisição de sons de L2 (segunda língua), mais especificamente língua inglesa, e seu objetivo foi investigar se existe uma relação entre a produção e a percepção da pronúncia da fricativa interdental surda [θ] em um grupo de sujeitos nativos brasileiros, a partir da análise fonético-acústica. Defendia-se que há uma relação entre a percepção e a produção da pronúncia da fricativa interdental surda pelos sujeitos nativos brasileiros da amostra. Segundo a literatura, aprendizes brasileiros de inglês tendem a produzir a fricativa interdental surda da língua inglesa [θ] como [s], [f] e [t] (LIEFF e NUNES, 1993). Isso porque consideram que esse som é similar aos citados e, de acordo com Flege (1999) e Meador, Flege e MacKay (2000), sons similares de L1 (língua materna Português Brasileiro - PB)e L2 causam dificuldades para o aprendiz. Foram feitos três estudos: uma análise das produções dos 3 SNB (sujeitos nativos do PB) e do SNA (sujeito nativo americano) envolvendo a [θ]; uma análise de percepção do [θ] pelos 3 SNB e uma avaliação, por juízes nativo-americanos, das produções dos 3 SNB e do SNA envolvendo o [θ]. Os resultados dos estudos foram cruzados, e constatou-se que estão em consonância com a literatura sobre o vínculo entre produção e percepção e assimilação de sons em L2 para a L1, atingiram o objetivo e validaram a hipótese defendida. Os 3 SNB, no teste de percepção, tendem a perceber o som [θ], em sua maioria, como [θ] ou como [t]. No teste de produção, a SNB1 aproximou-se do SNA; para esse sujeito, há relação entre sua percepção e sua produção. Os SNB2 e SNB3 se distanciaram do SNA. Em sua maioria, perceberam os estímulos como plosiva alveolar surda [t], comportamento que também se refletiu em sua produção. Portanto, pode-se afirmar que há relação entre produção-percepção, mesmo não tendo percebido e produzido o som [θ], em sua maioria, de maneira correta. Os testes foram comparados às avaliações dos juízes norte-americanos, e o mesmo pode ser afirmado para todos os sujeitos: os estímulos do SNB1, em sua maioria, foram avaliados como fricativa interdental surda [θ], do SNB2 como plosiva alveolar surda [t] e do SNB3 também como plosiva alveolar surda [t]. Observou-se, nesta amostra, que houve a relação entre produção e percepção e que 2 entre 3 dos SNB assimilaram [θ] como [t]

本論文觀察台灣地區國語閩南口音，也就是俗稱的「台灣國語」中展現的單元音化以及擦音卸解現象，建立「台灣國語語料庫」作為本論文分析的基礎，並且從優選理論的觀點探討這些台灣國語音韻現象。 根據「台灣國語語料庫」的數據顯示，韻核後介音 /j/ 以及 /w/ 容易被語者刪除，韻核前介音 /j/ 以及 /w/ 則傾向被語者保留。輕擦音 /f/ 在台灣國語中常被卸解為 /hw/。 本文的分析認為，國語閩南口音是一種方言的變異，反映了閩南語以及國語的部份制約排序。當語者表現出明顯的閩南語口音時，反映出閩南語的部份制約排序；而語者的閩南語口音較不明顯時，則反映了國語的部份制約排序。 / This thesis investigates monophthongization and fricative reconfiguration in the Taiwanese Accent of Mandarin (TM), and establishes the TM corpus as the base of phonological analysis. The Optimality Theory approach is adopted to account for the phonological phenomenon of TM. As indicated by the TM corpus, the postnuclear glides /j/ and /w/ tend to be deleted in TM; the prenuclear glides /j/ and /w/ tend to be preserved in TM; and the fricative /f/ tend to reconfigurate as /hw/ in TM. Our analysis considers that TM is a dialectal variation which reflects the subgrammars of Taiwanese and Mandarin. When the speaker shows a clear Taiwanese accent, the partially ordered ranking of Taiwanese is reflected; and when the speaker shows no obvious Taiwanese accent, the partially ordered ranking of Mandarin is reflected.

<p>The question of whether second languages (L2s) are best learned implicitly or explicitly has been a topic of much empirical discourse, with the majority of studies pointing to the benefits of explicit instruction when learning L2 grammar rules. However, given the focus on grammar, it is unclear how generalizable these findings are to other linguistic domains, such as L2 speech and L2 vocabulary. The previous focus on laboratory-based settings, and the language bias in the literature, also make it unclear how ecologically valid and applicable these findings are to the real world. To address these macro research questions, two experiments were carried out on English-speaking L2 learners of German.</p> <p>Experiment I (ExI) investigated the effects of implicit and explicit learning on the acquisition of Final Obstruent Devoicing and Dorsal Fricative Assimilation. The effect of the two learning conditions on L2 perception was also measured using a perceptual discrimination task and a perceptual identification task. Experiment II (ExII) investigated the effects of explicit historical instruction on the learning of English-German cognates, which were compared to the effects of a non-explicit learning condition. To examine whether declarative knowledge of relevant historical changes can aid in vocabulary learning, an explicit condition received instruction on the Second Germanic Sound Shift, Ingvæonic Palatalization, and relevant historical semantic changes. Both experiments followed a pre-/post-/delayed-post-test design.</p> <p>Results indicate that the two explicit conditions significantly outperformed the non-explicit conditions, suggesting that explicit learning and explicit instruction can be beneficial when learning L2 speech and L2 vocabulary. In ExI, acoustic analyses of learner speech samples indicate that the explicit condition was more successful in the learning of the two phonological rules. In ExII, the explicit condition was more successful in the identification and learning of cognates, suggesting that knowledge of language history, and instruction on applied historical linguistics, can be beneficial when learning a language that is historically related to a language that learners already speak. The results from this dissertation are discussed in the context of implicit and explicit learning and instruction, the role of attention, and the role of declarative knowledge, with concluding remarks pointing to the importance of metacognitive and metalinguistic awareness in adult or university-level language courses.</p>