M. Litt. (Afrikaans en Nederlands) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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The main objective of this thesis is to establish whether or not there is a relationship between (foreign) language aptitude, pronunciation learning strategies (PLSs), and pronunciation performance. Also, embedded in the major objective is the aim of uncovering which PLSs are most frequently used and which PLSs have been used for the longest period of time. Following a positivistic approach to research, through a correlational and statistically descriptive methodology, all participants were asked to take three tests, each of which was intended to gather data for the three major variables under consideration, namely an adapted version of the Strategic Pronunciation Learning Survey (SPLS), the first two sections of the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT), and a Pronunciation Test (PT), developed by the researcher. The study was conducted at a teacher education university in Chile, with a sample of 43 students, 24 of whom were Year 2 students and 19 were Year 3 students at the time of data collection. The results suggest that there is a good deal of coincidence between those PLSs that are used with the highest frequency and those used with the greatest duration. The results also indicate that the PLSs that are more frequently used and that have been used for the longest period of time by the participants seem to be of a cognitive type, following Oxford’s (1990) broad classification of learning strategies. Finally, the Spearman correlation tests and the diverse statistical models applied reveal that no major correlations were found between PLS frequency/duration and pronunciation accuracy; nor was a major correlation found between language aptitude and pronunciation accuracy. Nonetheless, the application of a statistical model comprising the most frequently used PLSs and those with the longest duration yielded a positive correlation between these PLSs and pronunciation intelligibility levels. Future studies incorporating motivational elements are required to establish how they correlate with pronunciation accuracy in particular. Similarly, research seeking to establish correlations between (a new version of) PLSs, grouped into factors through factor analysis, and pronunciation accuracy is recommended. Lastly, language aptitude – viewed, conceptualised, and quite possibly measured differently, considering differentiating elements (Robinson, 2007; Winke, 2013), is to be further examined to establish whether it can explain pronunciation accuracy in a larger sample of participants.

This study explores the weight of pronunciation in a speaking proficiency test at an English as a Second Language (ESL) Intensive English Program (IEP) in America. As an integral part of speaking, beliefs, practices, and research of pronunciation teaching have experienced shifts over the decades (Morley, 1991). Most studies concerning speaking have focused on intelligibility, comprehensibility, and accentedness of speaking, with attempting to address the role of pronunciation in oral communication. However, the degree to which pronunciation is weighed in determining speaking proficiency levels is unclear (Higgs & Clifford, 1982, Kang, 2013). In an effort to contribute to the understanding of this issue, the current study investigates the relationship between pronunciation and speaking proficiency ratings. The speaking proficiency ratings and pronunciation ratings in vowels, consonants, word stress, sentence stress, intonation, and rhythm of 226 speaking samples from English learners were collected at Brigham Young University's (BYU) English Language Center (ELC). The study confirms that suprasegmentals explain more variance than segmentals in English proficiency, and among those suprasegmental features, only the ratings of sentence stress increase incrementally with the proficiency levels without overlapping among proficiency levels.

Pronunciation instruction in the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom often focuses exclusively on production and fails to address students’ perception problems. This report attempts to explain why L2 learners struggle to perceive and produce segments accurately in their L2 and what can be done to help L2 learners overcome these problems. Accordingly, the report explores how L1 experience and segmental differences between Vietnamese and English contribute to these English language learners’ perception and production problems. The report also considers instructional methods that can be used to help ESL learners overcome their perception and production challenges and recommends several approaches for addressing segments that are often difficult for Vietnamese learners. / text

<p>Titel: British, American or Mid-Atlantic English: What accent do Swedish learners use and where do they get their influences from?</p><p>Författare: Jessica Pettersson</p><p>Engelska C, terminsuppsats 2008</p><p>Antal sidor: 38</p><p>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.</p><p>Nyckelord: British English, American English, Mid-Atlantic English, pronunciation, accents, influences.</p>

Since the late 1980s, pronunciation has played a prominent role in the foreign/ second language classroom. Recently, under the influence of the growing attention to language learning strategies and instruction, pronunciation instructors have devoted more attention to teaching learners the strategies that can contribute to their improvement in pronunciation. The purpose of this Report is to examine the literature on language learning strategies and strategy training, with a specific focus on pronunciation. This Report concludes with a pedagogical lesson grounded on the literature reviewed. The main goal of the lesson is to facilitate students’ pronunciation learning through strategy training and practice. / text

Recent research has shifted the focus of pronunciation instruction from achieving native-like speech in learners to correcting issues that affect the intelligibility of the learners’ speech. Research also suggests that suprasegmental features of pronunciation, such as intonation, rhythm, and stress, have a considerable influence on intelligibility. By using Dickerson’s (1989) Covert Rehearsal Model, which includes predictive strategies that encourage learner autonomy, instructors have the tools necessary to effectively help learners improve their intelligibility. However, the question as to which instructional targets should be taught in the classroom still remains. This report outlines one way in which instructors can use a diagnostic assessment in order to discover which instructional targets are most appropriate for their learners. / text

This dissertation, which takes the form of a creative project as is sanctioned by the Doctor of Arts Curricular Program, is a self-instructional course in solo singers' English diction. It is designed for Freshman-level voice majors and no prior knowledge of diction is assumed. The course attempts to achieve three basic goals: to serve as an introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), to alleviate the often overburdened Sophomore-level diction course, and to raise the concerns of English diction to a level comparable with those of Italian, German and French.The course falls naturally into three main divisions:Chapters III-VIan introduction to the IPA, the identification of allvowel and consonant sounds in English, the correctIPA symbols for those sounds, and simple transcriptionof English words into IPA;Chapters VII-Xa detailed analysis of the rules of English dictionand the IPA, including linkage, poetical and musicalstress, and declamation;Chapter XIthe preparation of complete song texts, applyingall the knowledge and skills learned in the course.Each chapter has accompanying exercises which require the student to use information contained in that particular chapter; self-tests for each chapter are provided at the end of the course. Answers for all accompanying exercises and all self-tests are included in the Appendixes. The Appendixes also include a listing of the sources for the extensive musical examples, a pitch nomenclature chart, and a quick-reference guide to the IPA symbols as well as the vocabulary introduced in the course. / School of Music

In this thesis, I set out to investigate whether the use of songs can help L2 speakers learn to better perceive and produce suprasegmental phenomena. Effective pronunciation skills are necessary for successful communication and as such can greatly impact one’s personal, social, and professional life. Studying the use of songs for teaching pronunciation is interesting because as a linguistically rich material, songs can enhance learning due to their positive affective, social, and cognitive influence in the L2 classroom. Using songs to teach pronunciation within a Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) framework constitutes a novel approach to an underexplored area of classroom research. In order to learn how using songs might help native Spanish speakers learn English suprasegmentals, I conducted a mixed methods exploratory short-term case study of Chilean university students studying English Language and Literature at the Universidad Católica de Chile. Using three groups: a control, songs, and no-songs group, the pre- to post-course progress was measured first with the two treatment groups combined and then with them separated. In this way we were able to measure the effectiveness of songs compared to other materials as well as to no intervention whatsoever. After two weeks of instruction, we found that using songs can significantly help in the production of the schwa when reading a text and of thought groups when speaking freely. Results obtained in listening tests were not statistically significant. However, closer examination of the performance of individual songs- group participants showed not only a greater than average progress in different suprasegmental areas in both listening and speaking, but also an appreciation of songs as an effective and enjoyable means of learning pronunciation. It would be advantageous for future research to explore the effects of teaching the pronunciation areas using the same methodology but for longer periods of time with delayed post-course testing to determine whether the effects are long-term. In addition, further exploration into the relationship between pronunciation perception and production could provide insight for the development of more effective teaching techniques.