Prominent in English Teaching for Taiwan EFL Learning

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Chapter One IntroductionStatement of the Problem

1. Teaching of pronunciation be integrated : drillings of individual sounds use of discourse intonation in contexts.

2. Previous studies shown the contradictory results : a)No apparent relationship to pronunciation ability (Suter, 1976) b) Not really have beneficial effects of gaining the mimicry ability of L2 utterances (Neufeld, 1988)

3. Very little evidence exists : Specific topic of sentence prominence might be beneficial for nonnative speakers from distant tone-language background

What prosody features characterize the Chinese EFL learners sentence prominence in English connected speech? Would the Chinese EFL learners, with informed practice, be able to improve their production of English sentence prominence?

3.What difficulties might the Chinese EFL learners have in approximation of target-like sentence prominence in English connected speech? Research Question

-this study can provide an empirically-derived basis for a refinement of pedagogical and methodological approach to pronunciation and prosody instruction and research. Purpose of the Study

Definition of terms

Stress and Prominence (from A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics)

Stress : the degree of force used in producing a syllable Prominence: the degree to which a sound or syllable stands out from others in its ENVIRONMENT (Crystal, 2003)

Sentence Stress =tonic stress or unmarked cases (Katamba,1997) Tonic stress goes on the syllable which carries primary word stress in the last lexical item of the tone unit. (eg. noun, adjective ,verb)

Stress placement new information speaker wishes to highlight

Contrastive/Emphatic Stress =marked cases (Katamba,1997) In marked cases, the speaker places prominence to fall on grammatical (function) words, (eg. pronoun, preposition, conjunction)

contrastive stress non-final lexical items the speaker wishes to draw attention on such word

Example 1 Q: Is Joan studying FRENCH or GERMAN? A: Joan is studying French AND German. Example 2 Q: Did you speak to Mr. BROWN? A: No, I spoke to MRS. Brown

4. Thought Group/Intonation Unit (Celce-Murcia, 1996)

To segment the speech into smaller units to locate the prominence. This small unit is called thought group/intonation unit. It not only forms a semantically and grammatically coherent segment of discourse, but also has its own intonation contour or pitch pattern

Unit boundary a.) punctuation mark (eg. comma, period, dashect) b.) a pause ( speakers produce fewer break )

get the audiences better attention

Chapter Two Literature Review Prosodic feature = intonation + rhythm

a) Intonation= melodic movement the rise and fall in pitch

b) rhythm = beat of the language gives it an organization in time

English = intonation language + stress-timed rhythm

2. Syntactically (Ladefoged ,2001) a.) Completion of a grammatical unit or non- interrogative sentences FALLING pitch b.) Incomplete utterances or interrogative sentences RISING pitch

3. Semantically The tonic syllable of an intonation phrase or contour has significant influence on the meaning of the utterance. (to emphasis information)

4. Four different factors are important: loudness, length, pitch, vowel quality. (Roach ,2004), Prosodic System in English

Prosodic System in Chinese1. Chinese = tone language + syllable-timed rhythm 2. Structure = CV sequence (Ladefoged, 2001) + Four tones (Chao, 1948).

1. Transfer (+,-) (Odlin, 1989) -the influence resulting from the similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previous acquired

2. Age of acquisition (Han, 2005) -Whether adults can ever acquire native-like competence in a second language or for children who start learning at a relatively early age. (p.219)

-Proficiency of the earlier L2 learner > the later L2 learner (e.g. Dekeyse, 2000; Johnson and Newport, 1989; Patkowski, 1980). Factors Influencing Prosody Acquisition

Factors Influencing Classroom Pronunciation LearningCelce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin (1996)

(1) the learner: age, exposure to the target language, the amount and type of prior pronunciation instruction, and aptitude, attitude and motivation

(2) the role of the native language.

Pronunciation and Prosody Teaching ResearchFew focused specifically on suprasegmental, such as Hahns study (2002) of the primary phrase stress, suggesting the need of classroom research in this area.

Major research designs were experimental, quantitative approach. Very few qualitative studies were reported, such as Changs (2006) case study.

Chapter Three Method

3.1 Setting and Participants

Table 3.1 Profiles of the eight subjectsSubject(N=8)SexAOL aKSP bNEI cEB dLiuM4 yrsNoYesApplied Foreign LanguagesZhangM5 yrsNoYesInformation ScienceHsiehM10 yrsNoNoEngineeringJianM10 yrsNoNoChemistryLiM12 yrsNoNoPrivate High SchoolGuoM12 yrsNoNoEngineeringChenM13 yrsNoNoTechnology ControlLinM13 yrsNoNoTechnology Controla Subject self-reported onset age of learning English (AOL; in years)b Subject self-reported knowledge of English sentence prominence (KSP; yes or no)c Subject self-reported experience with native English instructor (NEI)d Subject self-reported high school education background

3.2.1 The Training Materials-1Developed by the investigator or taken from pronunciation textbooks.

Some single sentences and short passages for reading aloud form the local standard test: General English Proficiency Test.

On-line materials with MP3 audio increase students exposure to the real English and served as critical listening tasks.

3.2 Equipment and Materials3.2.1 The Training Materials

3.2.2 The Assessment Materials

3.2.3 Training Design and Procedures

3.2.1 The Training Materials-2The Special English of Voice of America (VOA) was one of the beneficial supplements as ear-training, self-monitor and correction. http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish

Pronunciation computer software called Connected Speech practice phases from time to time.

3.2.2 The Assessment MaterialsA short story (Pronunciation Pre- and Post- Test)

The Pre-test questionnaire was designed to learn subjects background and experience with pronunciation and intonation learning and their knowledge of sentence focus (prominence).

The Post-test questionnaire asked students responses to the prominence training

Pronunciation Pre- and Post- TestClass:___________ No:_________ Name:______________I. Story Reading Aloud ( & ) Direction: Tell the story as naturally as you can. Please read silently and practice several times before recording. When you are ready, try to finish it in ONE minute. You can make as many recordings as you want. Submit ONE best copy to your instructor.

Two friends went for a walk. On the road they saw a purse. There were a cell phone, some credit cards, and a lot of money in it. One of the girls picked it up. Look! I got a purse full of money, she said and put it in her pocket. Dont say I, say We, said her friend. It is our purse, not yours. No, said her friend. I saw it first, so it is my purse and I am going to keep it. Shortly afterwards the people who had lost the purse came up with them, and the girl who found it, said Oh, dear! What shall we do? Dont say we, say I, said her friend. You picked up the purse, didnt you? (adapted from Howe, 2000)

II. Story and Word Lists Reading Aloud in Chinese ()(1) (2) 1.The genre of text was narrative story2.Monosyllabic, Bi-syllabic, Tri-syllabic3.All of the sentences were of falling intonation contours, including one WH-question.

Pre-Treatment Questionnaire

Class: _______ No:______Name:____________Sex: Male FemaleAge: __________________ years oldWhat is your native language/mother tongue? _______________

MY Background: I began to study English when I was __________ years old at(put a check ) Kindergarten Cram school before going to the elementary school Elementary Grades 1-4 Elementary Grades 5-6 Junior high Grade 7

MY English language experience: Please tell me about your experience in learning SPOKEN English. (You may answer these questions in Chinese if you like.)

a. What is the most difficult part when it comes to speaking English? Pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary, grammar or some personal problems like being too shy to talk?

b. When did you start learning speaking skill in English? How did you learn it? (For example, talking or listening to native English speakers/teachers?)

c. When did you first become aware that English had prominence (focus) and intonation (pitch ups and downs) differences with Chinese? Do you think your L1 (Chinese) has an effect on your L2 (English) pronunciation and intonation?

d. Did any English teacher ever help you learn the correction pronunciation (vowels and consonants) and appropriate intonation (smooth pitch changes) of English? In what ways do you think your pronunciation has been improved over the past semester? What else do you need to work on? [NOTE: we learned vowels/some consonants; chunking skills, and rising/falling intonation patterns, and reading aloud skills]

Post-Treatment QuestionnaireClass:______No:_______ Name:____________Please answer the following questions, telling your experience in learning FOCUS words. Put a check on the box that show your experience before and after taking Focus training.

QuestionsBeforeAfter1. I know how to highlight important words in sentences to help the listener better understand what I said. Which strategies do you use most? 2. I always listen to native speakers speaking English (e.g. Audio CDs, radio programs, online VOA special English, etc.)3. Reading aloud is one way I use to improve my spoken English. 4. I have ever recorded my own voice to monitor speech accuracy.5. I think marking the stress words before listening helps me become aware of how Americans say the most important words.6. I can find the stress words by myself before reading aloud tasks.Yes No :Pitch height ___ Loudness ___ Lengthening ___Others:____________Yes No If yes, how often? _________hours per week.Yes No If yes, how often?_________hours per week.Yes No If yes, how often?_________hours per week.----------Yes No :Pitch height ___ Loudness ___ Lengthening ___Others:____________Yes No If yes, how often?_________hours per week.Yes No If yes, how often?_________hours per week.Yes No If yes, how often?_________hours per week.Yes No Yes No If yes, what is your correct marking rate? About ______ % correct7. (i) Do you like to record your own voice and monitor your speech? Is recording a new experience for you? Do you think its helpful for you to improve your pronunciation?(ii) Do you feel more confident in speaking English because of having better pronunciation?

3.3 Training Design and ProceduresThree phases: pre-test, training, and post-test.

8-week training for students

(1) to comprehend and produce the sentence stress and contrastive/emphatic stress in English

(2) to perform the prosody of prominence associated with the sentence stress and contrastive/emphatic stress

(3) to empower the ability to monitor ones own speech when focusing on phonological form.

[1].Weekly schedules and training course outline In the first part of the semester (week 1 to week 8), the students learned word stress, pausing in longer sentences and short stories, and pitch change in simple rising and falling intonation patterns

SessionTopicContent and Prosody Strategies1Orientation; Stress-timed vs.Syllable-timedLanguagesExplain the 8-week training sessions and goals

Prosody strategy:

Rhythm in English and in Chinese; review chunking (intonation unit/thought group/pauses), oral reading rate, and pitch range

Topic 1: Syllable-timed vs. Stress-timed LanguagesPro-nun-ci-a-tion- i-sim-por-tant (Chen, C., Fan, C., & Lin, H., 1997, p.190)To explain the different rhythmic features of English (stress-timed) with Chinese, which is generally referred to as syllable-timed language

Chinese version was represented by a line of soldiers following one another at rather regular intervals.

English version was represented by a series of family members, The underlined boldfaced syllables a- and -por- were adults in the sentence, representing the two primary stressed syllables

[1].Weekly schedules and training course outline

SessionTopicContent and Prosody Strategies2Content Wordsvs. Function WordsGeneral Stress Rule Predicting stressed and unstressed words

Prosody strategy: Perform word stress in content words and schwa in high-frequency function words

General Stress RuleContent words Stressed (emphasized) by adding extra length to their stressed syllables Function words are left unstressed (de-emphasized) by always reducing the vowel of the unstressed words.

Schwa sound [] in high-frequency function wordsa, an, and, of, or, the, to, and forStudents worked on critical listening skills, practiced and produced stressed words and weak forms in controlled mode.

Topic 2: Content vs. Function Words(Prator,1986, pp.31-32; Celce-Murcia,1996, p.153) HOWEVER, they are stressedWhen they come at the end of a sentence: I thought he was smarter than he is.(ii) When they are used in tag questions: All movies arent made in Hollywood, are they?

[1].Weekly schedules and training course outline

SessionTopicContent and Prosody Strategies3Sentence Stress and Weak Forms Sentence Stress Rule (last content word)Critical listening to English rhythm

Prosody strategy: Perform phrase-final vowel-lengthening; common expressions; schwa in high-frequency function words

Sentence Stress RuleStress the last content word in each thought group. The stressed word should sound longer and have higher pitch than the other words in the utterance.

For example, the paragraph looked like this (the hyphens were the pause marks):

Let me tell you about - my experience as a house father - when my children were very small - I stayed at home - while their mother - went to the university - during this time -I learned a lot of new skill.

A pause was marked between the subject and predicate, and to segment the speech into smaller unites which was called intonation unit / thought group.

Topic 3: Sentence Stress and Weak Forms-1Students tap the desk in 4 beats for each stressed word as they say the first sentence. In order to get a good rhythm, students had to learn to squeeze some words, in this case, and, then and its.

Topic 3: Sentence Stress and Weak Forms-2Students were asked to add some familiar expressions to the list and to record.

[1].Weekly schedules and training course outline

SessionTopicContent and Prosody Strategies4Sentence Stress and Tonic Syllables Sentence Stress Rule (stress shift)Sentence stress and utterance meanings

Prosody strategy: Review word stress; perform high pitch accent on tonic syllable; schwa in high-frequency function words

Topic 4: Sentence Stress and Tonic SyllablesWhile listening, the students filled out a Prominence Strategy Self-Evaluation Form.

Stress shift: the use of stress timing could help communicate different meaning.

Topic 4: Prominence Strategy Self-Evaluation Form()

[1].Weekly schedules and training course outline

SessionTopicContent and Prosody Strategies5Contrast and Emphasis (1) Contrastive/Emphatic Stress Rule (correction)

Prosody strategy: Perform extra high pitch accent and stress some structure words

Contrastive/Emphatic Stress RuleStress the word to make correction, show contrast or emphasize new information. The stressed word should sound longer and have extra higher pitch than the other words in the utterance.

One simple exercise to demonstrate the contrastive/emphatic stress A: WHAT do you DO? B: Im a STUDENT. WHAT do YOU DO? A: I WORK in a POST OFFICE.

Topic 5: Contrast and Emphasis (1)

Topic 5: Contrast and Emphasis (1)

[1].Weekly schedules and training course outline

SessionTopicContent and Prosody Strategies6Contrast and Emphasis (2) Contrastive/Emphatic Stress Rule (short sentences & passages)

Prosody strategy: Perform extra high pitch accent and stress contrast words

Topic 5: Contrast and Emphasis (2) Students need to think where the placement of prominence would be before reading aloud.

Topic 5: Contrast and Emphasis (2)

[1].Weekly schedules and training course outline

SessionTopicContent and Prosody Strategies7SentenceProminenceand Intonation Using sentence stress, contrastive/emphatic stress, compound nouns and list intonation

Prosody strategy: Expand pitch range and use attitudinal and emotional intonation

Topic 6: Sentence Prominence and Intonation

[1].Weekly schedules and training course outline

SessionTopicContent and Prosody Strategies8ReviewDiscussionReflections Review on the four topics

Problems and Solutions Sharing

Post-test Recording; Survey Questionnaires

3.4 Data Collection and AnalysisT1 data: Eight male Chinese speakers did the oral reading task in English before instruction T2 data: the same story reading right after the instruction.

Two male English-speaking models recorded for target-likeness comparison.

The qualitative data including questionnaires, weekly learning logs, and observation analysis of their prominence perception and production in practice and production phases.

Thanks for your listening.