Speech errors have been utilized since the beginning of the last century to learn more about how speech is produced, both physically and cognitively. Collection of speech errors has progressed from writing down naturally occurring speech errors to recording experimentally induced speech errors to current studies, which are using instrumentation to record acoustic and kinematic information about experimentally induced speech errors. One type of instrumentation being used in articulatory research is ultrasound. Ultrasound is gaining popularity for use by those interested in learning how speech is physically produced because of its portability and noninvasiveness. Ultrasound of the tongue during speech provides visual access to the articulatory movements of the tongue. This study utilizes ultrasound recordings of speech errors in two ways. In Experiment 1, ultrasound images of participants’ tongues were recorded while they read tongue twisters designed to elicit speech errors. The tongue twisters were CVC words or CV syllables with onset velar or alveolar stops. Within the ultrasound video, the angle of the tongue blade and elevation of the tongue dorsum were measured during the onset stop closure. Measurements of tongue twisters were compared to baseline production measures to examine the ways in which erroneous productions differ from normal productions. It was found that an error could create normal productions of the other category (i.e., categorical errors) or abnormal productions that fell outside the normal categories (i.e., gradient errors). Consonant productions extracted from ultrasound video were presented auditory only to naïve listeners in Experiment 2. Listeners heard a variety of normal, gradient error, and categorical error productions. Participants were asked to judge what they heard as the onset sound. Overwhelmingly, the participants heard normal productions as well as gradient error productions as the target sound. Categorical error productions were judged to be different from the target (e.g., velar for alveolar). The only effect of erroneous production appears to be a slight increase in reaction time to respond with a choice of percept, which may suggest that error tokens are abnormal in some way not measured in this study.

anglicky : Title of the thesis : Humour during the French classes Keywords : Comic, irony, humour, laughter, Henri Bergson, Louis Cazamian, gelotology, gélothérapie, sense of humour, French as a foreign language, school class, word play, joke, riddle, tongue twister, didactical sheet. Abstract : The thesis aims to provide a comprehensive description of possible use of humour in teaching the French language. In the theoretical section, it defines humour as a form of comic, deals with the influence of humour and laughter on health and describes the advantages and difficulties of integrating humour into school teaching. In the practical part, it analyses the humour in French textbooks, proposes a typology of humour in teaching materials and presents finally didactical sheets to teach French at all language levels. These exercises and activities are dedicated to all speech and language skills. They are focused on different themes to captivate the target age category and meet the requirements to be fun for students. The thesis should become aid and inspiration for those teachers, who decide to incorporate humour and laughter in the teaching of French.