Thesis (Ph.D.)(Electronic Engineering)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Summaries in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Consonant gemination as a phonological feature plays a major role in the Sinhala language. The absence of true gemination in English causes perception problems for native English speakers when attempting to distinguish minimal pairs in Sinhala created by gemination. This study examined whether native English learners' difficulties in perceiving consonant gemination in Sinhala could be reduced by creating phonological awareness of it through formal training. Four native Sinhala speakers were asked to record thirty-two Sinhala minimal pairs. These recordings were used to set up the audio test instruments. Twenty-four native English speakers participated in the pre-test, a teaching/training session, and the post-test. The pre-test consisted of an AX discrimination task, where the subjects heard two stimuli (A and X) and had to decide if those two stimuli were the same or not. The 20-minute teaching/training session, which was the study's primary independent variable, was given to educate the participants about the gemination contrast in Sinhala. The same audio test was repeated as the post-test. The data analysis included descriptive statistics and a t-test for dependent samples through SPSS statistics version 20. The findings of the study showed a significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test. The data also revealed the teaching/training session to have a high level of effectiveness regarding gemination contrast. Perception of the gemination contrast had increased in the post-test, while perception of words without this contrast had decreased in accuracy, possibly as a result of hypercorrection.

Titel: British, American or Mid-Atlantic English: What accent do Swedish learners use and where do they get their influences from? Författare: Jessica Pettersson Engelska C, terminsuppsats 2008 Antal sidor: 38 Abstract: The main purpose of this paper was to determine whether learners in lower secondary school used the British English accent, the American English accent, or if they perhaps mixed the two accents. I also wanted to find out from where the students got their influences. It is no longer prohibited in the Swedish curriculum to use other accents than the British one, and due to that it was interesting to see if the learners began to get their influences from somewhere else but their teacher. Teachers are also free to choose what accent they want to use. It often seems to be the case that learners take after their teacher’s pronunciation, but it is widely believed that they are also influenced by the English they hear in their spare time. Most of the learners in this investigation said in the survey that they preferred watching TV-shows and movies from the USA and therefore appeared to prefer an American accent. My informant study shows that most of the learners who took part in the test spoke with a British accent when reading single words, but when it came to reading sentences a mix of the two major varieties became noticeable. The results indicate that learners are first and foremost influenced by their teacher and what accent he or she uses and to a somewhat lesser extent by the English they come across when they are not in school. Nyckelord: British English, American English, Mid-Atlantic English, pronunciation, accents, influences.

M.A. (African Languages) / Correct pronunciation of a language is essential since deviations in pronunciation may change the meaning of a word or render it meaningless. This study investigates the pronunciation of Zulu, as second language, by English speaking learners. Similar deviations have been studied with reference to other languages and resulted in theories such as 'Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis', 'Markedness Differential Hypothesis', 'The Error Analysis', 'Autonomous System Analysis' and 'Inter language'. A brief discussion of this research creates the theoretical framework for this study. Differences in the orthography of Zulu and English seem to be problematic. In certain instances, English utilises a variety of letters to represent identical sounds in written form, whilst Zulu is phonetic. When comparing the pronunciation of vowels and consonants of Zulu and English, it is clear that learners find sounds with a similar pronunciation especially confusing. In addition to this, sounds foreign to English often cause problems. Possible reasons for replacement of Zulu sounds by that of English sounds are indicated by this dissertation. The conclusion of this dissertation is that second language Zulu educators should be aware of these possible pitfalls and affords it special attention in order to improve the quality of pronunciation amongst second language learners.

The present study investigates the perceivability of coartic-ulated lip rounding in French. Nine utterances containing the clusters /kstr/,/rstr/, and /rskr/ followed by one of the vowels /i/, /y/, or /u/ in all possible combinations, were truncated at 4 different points before the vowel. Test items in each of the 4 groups therefore contained different amounts of information regarding the nature of the following vowel, due to coarticulatory influences of the vowel on the preceding consonants. Subjects were asked to predict the identity of the missing vowel on hearing the truncated utterances. Subjects were native speakers of either French or English; some of them had a knowledge of phonetics. Results show that when segments up to and including at least half of the final consonant of the cluster are present, subjects correctly identify the missing vowel well above chance levels. Several individuals were able to identify the vowel even when presented with shorter versions of the utterances. No significant difference in performance was found between French and English subjects, nor between subjects with and without phonetic training. Perceivability of individual features of the missing vowel is discussed. It is concluded that coarticulatory effects due to lip rounding (as well as to horizontal tongue position) provide perceivable information at a level significantly above chance, and that this information may be used by the perceptual mechanism as an aid in speech sound identification. / Medicine, Faculty of / Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of / Graduate

The primary object of this thesis is the analysis of responses to the phonological section of the Linguistic Survey of B.C.: Postal Questionnaire (PQ3) which was designed by James Poison and Dr. R. J. Gregg at the University of B.C. In analysing the responses to the questionnaire, major emphasis has been placed on the distribution of variants in the province as a whole, on the shifting distribution of variants from older to younger generation speakers and on the isolation of dialect areas within the province. With regard to the isolation of dialect areas, the overall area distribution is the focus of attention; discussion of regional age variations is of necessity brief since sample sizes in age/area categories are for the most part too small to allow a definitive analysis. In addition to the analysis of PQ3 data, correlations have been made with data from other B.C. dialect surveys at both provincial and regional levels. Responses to other surveys at the provincial level are for the most part in agreement with those of PQ3> however, for some items significant variations occur. Comparison of responses at the regional level is difficult due to small and/or disparate sample sizes. The analysis of PQ3 data and the comparison of the results of this survey with those of other B.C. surveys indicates the necessity of a more concentrated study of B.C. speech. To this end, some alternative approaches to the study of British Columbia dialect have been suggested. / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

The field of pronunciation instruction has long been a neglected area. In recent years, however, researchers have found a renewed interest in the subject. For example, research has been conducted to investigate the views on pronunciation instruction held by teachers and learners. In light of this, the present study seeks to explore the field of research in pronunciation instruction to answer the question of whether pronunciation instruction is important and beneficial for learners of English as a foreign language. The results of the present study show that teachers and learners alike consider pronunciation instruction an integral part of language teaching. Furthermore, the results show that pronunciation affects comprehension and that pronunciation teaching has positive effects on pronunciation development. In the present study, these results are connected to the Swedish school context, where we draw the conclusion that pronunciation should be included in the English language classroom to a greater extent than is the case at the time of writing this thesis.

Syftet med denna litteraturstudie är att ta reda på vad den senaste forskningen säger om lärares korrigering av uttal hos elever i engelskundervisningen. Detta är viktigt då eleverna behöver ett funktionellt tal för att göra sig förstådda på målspråket och vissa uttalsfel kan försvåra begripligheten. Studien är baserad på sju artiklar som valts ut genom sökning i databaser. Artiklarna har systematiskt analyserats genom att ett kategoriseringsschema skapats med olika begrepp för att kunna identifiera mönster. Förr i tiden skulle alla fel alltid korrigeras eftersom målet var att uppnå ett modersmålsliknande uttal. På grund av alla olika modersmål och dialekter är detta i stort sett omöjligt och därför har man kommit fram till att det viktigaste är att eleverna förvärvar ett begripligt, funktionellt tal. Det ställs höga krav på lärare då de ofta ställs inför svåra dilemman. Lärare måste många gånger fatta snabba beslut angående vilken typ av feedback de ska ge sina elever vid uttalsfel i engelska. Det kan vara svårt att veta hur mycket och när lärare ska korrigera elevernas fel och vad är det egentligen som ska korrigeras. Resultatet påvisade många strategier för korrigering men att alla inte är så effektiva. Det bästa för eleverna är en trygg lärmiljö och att försöka framkalla självkorrigering genom att läraren ställer frågor och uppmanar eleverna till att tänka själva och komma fram till rätt svar. Detta kräver att eleverna har goda kunskaper om språkregler vilket även ställer krav på lärare att introducera dessa i de tidiga åldrarna. Lärare måste också analysera vilka fel eleverna gör för att kunna korrigera dem så effektivt som möjligt. Eleverna kan göra fel men också misstag. Fel ska hanteras direkt när de uppstår, det krävs även då en förklaring för att eleverna ska förstå språkreglerna. Misstag kan ignoreras då det oftast handlar om felsägningar. Det framkom även i studien att många lärare känner en osäkerhet om intonation och betoning men som är mycket viktigt för att ord ska få rätt betydelse. Att ge feedback och korrigera elevernas uttal är inte enkelt och kan vara väldigt känsligt. Därför är det viktigt att lärare är medvetna om hur effektiva deras korrigeringstekniker är och hur dessa tas emot av eleverna.

This thesis is focused on dynamic assessment (DA), an instructional approach based on Vygotskian sociocultural theory, applied to French pronunciation instruction, which can be neglected or inconsistent in the foreign language curriculum. DA aims to combine instruction and assessment into a cooperative, mediated approach in which the mediator works with the learner to identify and develop emergent abilities. These emergent abilities can appear in what is often referred to as the zone of proximal development (ZPD), or the difference between what a learner can do independently and what he/she can do with mediation, which in the present study was the difference between what the participant could pronounce correctly with or without mediation. In carrying out an individual DA session with a learner, the author aimed to find suggestions of potential benefits by applying DA to French pronunciation instruction and gain a more detailed understanding of the learner's performance than is generally possible from a traditional assessment, which is totally devoid of mediation for the sake of validity and reliability. The study includes a discussion of some potential benefits and limitations related to the use of DA for teaching French pronunciation to intermediate L2 learners based on what was observed in the DA session, for example suggestions of increased awareness of pronunciation, suggestions of increased independent performance, and suggestions of decreased errors in specific problem areas.

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