The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 23, No. 0, pp.1094-1110
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 30 Jan 2023
Received 23 Sep 2023 Revised 04 Nov 2023 Accepted 25 Nov 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.23..202311.1094

Prosodic Manifestations of L2 English Read Speech and Pronunciation Proficiency: Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice

In Young Yang
Assistant Professor, Dept. of English Education, Catholic Kwandong University, Tel: 033-649-7762 inyoung@cku.ac.kr


© 2023 KASELL All rights reserved
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study aims to explore ways of bridging the gap between pronunciation research and teaching practices by evaluating learners’ pronunciation proficiency through the assessment of the efficacy of two established pronunciation rating dimensions: nativelikeness and comprehensibility, with the goal of applying these dimensions in language classrooms. Speech samples from 35 Korean speakers of English were rated by 10 native English listeners in terms of pronunciation nativelikeness and comprehensibility. These samples were then analyzed for various prosodic speech characteristics, including prominence occurrence, pitch variation, pause occurrence, speech planning size, and speech rate. Subsequently, the speakers were clustered using k-means, and statistical tests were conducted using R to reveal the adequacy of evaluating learners’ pronunciation proficiency based on the two pronunciation rating dimensions. The results showed that each speech factor correlated with pronunciation ratings to varying degrees, with pitch variation being statistically insignificant. Speech planning size demonstrated a stronger correlation with comprehensibility than with pronunciation nativelikeness. Pronunciation proficiency levels clustered based on the two rating dimensions revealed distinctive speech characteristics among the clusters, suggesting the effective implementation of these dimensions in pronunciation teaching practice.

Keywords:

second language pronunciation, L2 prosody, comprehensibility, nativelikeness, pronunciation proficiency

References

  • Baker, R. E. 2010. The Acquisition of English Focus Marking by Non-native Speakers. Doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
  • Boersma, P. and D. Weenink. 2014. Praat: doing phonetics by computer (version 5.3.82) [Computer software]. Available online at http://www.praat.org
  • Celce-Murcia, M., D. M. Brinton and J. M. Goodwin. 1996. Teaching Pronunciation: A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Derwing, T. M. 2017. L2 fluency development. In L. Shawn and S. Masatoshi, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Instructed Second Language Acquisition, 246-259. NY: Routledge. [https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315676968-14]
  • Field, J. 2009. Listening in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511575945]
  • Hahn, L. D. 2004. Primary stress and intelligibility: Research to motivate the teaching of suprasegmentals. TESOL Quarterly 38(2), 201-223. [https://doi.org/10.2307/3588378]
  • Hahn, L. D. and W. B. Dickerson. 1999. Speech Craft: Discourse Pronunciation for Advanced Learners. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. [https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.8396]
  • IELTS. 2023. Scoring in detail. Available online at https://www.ielts.org/for-organisations/ielts-scoring-in-detail
  • Isaacs, T. and P. Trofimovich. 2012. Deconstructing comprehensibility. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 34(3), 475-505. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263112000150]
  • Kahng, J. 2018. The effect of pause location on perceived fluency. Applied Psycholinguistics 39(3), 569-591. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716417000534]
  • Kang, O. 2010. Relative salience of suprasegmental features on judgments of L2 comprehensibility and accentedness. System 38(2), 301-315. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2010.01.005]
  • Kang, S., S. Guion-Anderson, S.-C., Rhee and H. Ahn. 2012. The effect of language immersion on the acquisition of second language suprasegmentals. Korean Journal of Applied Linguistics 28(1), 179-207. [https://doi.org/10.17154/kjal.2012.03.28.1.179]
  • Kennedy, S. and P. Trofimovich. 2017. Pronunciation acquisition. In M. Sato and S. Loewen, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Instructed Second Language Acquisition, 260-279. NY: Taylor & Francis. [https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315676968-15]
  • Levis, J. M. 2022. Teaching pronunciation: Truths and lies. In: C. Bardel, C. Hedman, K. Rejman, and E. Zetterholm, eds., Exploring Language Education: Global and local perspectives, 39-72. Stockholm: Stockholm University Press. [https://doi.org/10.16993/bbz.c]
  • Liberman, M. 2008. HVPT. [Blog post]. Available online at http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=328
  • Mennen, I. and E. de Leeuw. 2014. Beyond segments: Prosody in SLA. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 36(2), 183-194. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263114000138]
  • Miller, J. 2018. Bridging the gap between pronunciation research and proficiency-based teaching. Proceedings of the 9th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching conference, 111-119.
  • Munro, M. J. and T. M. Derwing. 1995. Foreign accent, comprehensibility, and intelligibility in the speech of second language learners. Language Learning 45(1), 73-97. [https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1995.tb00963.x]
  • R Core Team. 2023. R: A language and environment for statistical computing (version 4.3.1) [Computer software]. Available online at https://www.R-project.org
  • Saito, K., P. Trofimovich and T. Isaacs. 2017. Using listener judgments to investigate linguistic influences on L2 comprehensibility and accentedness: A validation and generalization study. Applied Linguistics 38(4), 439-462.
  • Trofimovich, P. and W. Baker. 2006. Learning second language suprasegmentals: Effect of L2 experience on prosody and fluency characteristics of L2 speech. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 28(1), 1-30. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263106060013]
  • Trofimovich, P. and W. Baker. 2007. Learning prosody and fluency characteristics of second language speech: The effect of experience on child learners' acquisition of five suprasegmentals. Applied Psycholinguistics 28(2), 251-276. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716407070130]
  • Trofimovich, P. and T. Isaacs. 2012. Disentangling accent from comprehensibility. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 15(4), 905-916. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728912000168]
  • Tseng, C. Y., Z. Y. Su, C. F. Huang and T. Visceglia. 2010. An initial investigation of L1 and L2 discourse speech planning in English. 2010 7th International Symposium on Chinese Spoken Language Processing, 55-59. [https://doi.org/10.1109/ISCSLP.2010.5684851]
  • Vanderplank, R. 1993. ‘Pacing’ and ‘spacing’ as predictors of difficulty in speaking and understanding English. ELT Journal 47(2), 117-125. [https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/47.2.117]
  • Wennerstrom, A. 1994. Intonational meaning in English discourse: A study of non-native speakers. Applied Linguistics 15(4), 399-420. [https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/15.4.399]
  • Wennerstrom, A. 1998. Intonation as cohesion in academic discourse. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 20(1), 1-25. [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263198001016]
  • Yang, I. Y. 2021. Differential contribution of English suprasegmentals to L2 foreign-accentedness and speech comprehensibility: Implications for teaching EFL pronunciation, speaking, and listening. Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics 21, 818-836.
  • Yates, L., B. Zielinski and E. Pryor. 2011. The assessment of pronunciation and the new IELTS Pronunciation Scale. IELTS Research Reports 12, 1-46.