•The proposed sentence stress feedback system consists of stress prediction, detection and feedback provision models.•The accuracy of the stress prediction and detection models was 96.6% and 84.1% ...respectively.•The stress feedback provision model provides non-native learners with sentence stress errors.•Any sentence can be used for practice in the proposed system.•Students trained with this system improved their accentedness and rhythm significantly more than those in the control group.
This paper proposes a sentence stress feedback system in which sentence stress prediction, detection, and feedback provision models are combined. This system provides non-native learners with feedback on sentence stress errors so that they can improve their English rhythm and fluency in a self-study setting. The sentence stress feedback system was devised to predict and detect the sentence stress of any practice sentence. The accuracy of the prediction and detection models was 96.6% and 84.1%, respectively. The stress feedback provision model offers positive or negative stress feedback for each spoken word by comparing the probability of the predicted stress pattern with that of the detected stress pattern. In an experiment that evaluated the educational effect of the proposed system incorporated in our CALL system, significant improvements in accentedness and rhythm were seen with the students who trained with our system but not with those in the control group.
This study investigated how English suprasegmentals contribute to two aspects of pronunciation proficiency—comprehensibility and foreign-accentedness. Further, it discussed their implications for ...teaching English as a foreign language. The read speech of 35 volunteers, who were second language (L2) English speakers in Korea, was analyzed in terms of the following seven variables concerning English suprasegmentals: the number of pauses, total duration of pauses, articulation rate, mean length of run, pitch range, prominence frequency, and sentence stress appropriacy. The results of a multiple regression analysis showed that the number of pauses, the sentence stress appropriacy, and the articulation rate were significant predictors of L2 speech comprehensibility. Speech rate factors and prominence frequency were the strongest predictors of foreign-accentedness. In addition, these results suggest that better understanding in communicative contexts requires teaching learners about the placement of sentence stress without overemphasizing the mere rhythmic pattern of spoken English. The discussion explains how discourse-level pronunciation practice and information structures can be integrated into L2 speaking and listening to improve student benefits. KCI Citation Count: 4
This study investigates the role of sentence stress on the comprehension of sentences with clitic pronouns (unstressed morphemes and a typical feature of Romance languages) by children with cochlear ...implants (CIs).
Thirteen children (seven girls) with CIs and 15 children (seven girls) with NH between eight and 12 years who are monolingual speakers of Brazilian Portuguese participated on a computerized sentence comprehension task that involved manipulation of stress placement of possible antecedent words to clitic pronouns.
Children with CIs were significantly less accurate than children with NH in comprehending sentences with clitics, regardless of sentence stress. For children with NH, stress on the correct antecedent significantly increased sentence comprehension accuracy. For children with CI, there was no significant effect of sentence stress on selecting the correct antecedent for clitic pronouns.
Comprehension of sentences with clitic pronouns is challenging for children with CIs and this challenge holds cross-linguistically. Furthermore, children with CIs do not use prosodic information to support comprehension of sentences with clitics similarly to NH children.
Language-specific syntactic, morphosyntactic, and prosodic contrasts affecting sentence comprehension need to be assessed in children with CIs to plan an effective intervention.
In this article we explore the process and product of languaging as it concerns the learning of the grammatical concept of voice (active, passive, and middle) in French. We examine and analyze the ...amount and type of languaging produced by a small sample of university students as they struggle to understand the concept of voice. Students who are high languagers learn about the grammatical concept of voice in French with greater depth of understanding than low languagers. We demonstrate that there is a relationship between the quality and quantity of languaging and performance as measured by immediate and delayed posttest stages. These findings suggest that languaging is a key component in the internalization process of second language grammatical concepts. Implications of our research for pedagogy are briefly considered.
Phonological research has demonstrated that English intonation, variably referred to as prosody, is a multidimensional and multilayered system situated at the interface of information structure, ...morphosyntactic structure, phonological phenomena, and pragmatic functions. The structural and functional complexity of the intonational system, however, is largely under-addressed in L2 pronunciation teaching, leading to a lack of spontaneous use of intonation despite successful imitation in classrooms. Focusing on contrastive and implicational sentence stress, this study explored the complexity of the English intonation system by investigating how L1 English and Mandarin-English L2 speakers use multiple acoustic features (i.e., pitch range, pitch level, duration, and intensity) in signaling contrastive and implicational information and how one acoustic feature (maximum pitch level) is affected by information structure (contrast), morphosyntactic structure (phrasal boundary), and a phonological phenomenon (declination) in L1 English and Mandarin-English L2 speakers' speech. Using eye-tracking technology, we also investigated (1) L1 English and Mandarin-English L2 speakers' real-time processing of lexical items that carry information structure (i.e., contrast) and typically receive stress in L1 speakers' speech; (2) the influence of visual enhancement (italics and bold) on L1 English and Mandarin-English L2 speakers' processing of contrastive information; and (3) L1 English and Mandarin-English L2 speakers' processing of pictures with contrastive information. Statistical analysis using linear mixed-effects models showed that L1 English speakers and Mandarin-English L2 speakers differed in their use of acoustic cues in signaling contrastive and implicational information. They also differed in the use of maximum pitch level in signaling sentence stress influenced by contrast, phrasal boundary, and declination. We did not find differences in L1 English and Mandarin-English L2 speakers' processing of contrastive and implicational information at the sentence level, but the two groups of participants differ in their processing of contrastive information in passages and pictures. These results suggest that processing limitations may be the reason why L2 speakers did not use English intonation spontaneously. The findings of this study also suggest that Complexity Theory (CT), which emphasizes the complex and dynamic nature of intonation, is a theoretical framework that has the potential of bridging the gap between L2 phonology and L2 pronunciation teaching.
The article deals with the question of varying the word order and sentence stress in English. Special attention is paid to the functioning of the language. It is emphasized that the main function of ...language is communicative. Segmental and suprasegmental elements of the language are discussed. It is noted that word order and sentence stress are suprasegmental units that affect the change in the meaning of identical English utterances. In the article, based on the consideration of proposals from the work of M. Hannay, the results of the influence of varying word order on the meaning of statements consisting of identical words are shown. It is stated that the fixed word order in English speech is compensated by the possibilities of sentence stress. The components of intonation are described. The definition of sentence stress is given. The research is conducted by looking at issues such as why English sentence stress in a sentence is important for pronunciation. The criteria for stressing words with sentence stress are set. The article describes the degrees of sentence stress. It is noted that the main sentence stress, highlighting the information center of syntagma, makes a great contribution to the formation of the meaning of the statement. Acoustic correlates of sentence stress are shown. Using identical statements, the author describes the effect of sentence stress. The meanings of identical sentences with different sentence stresses are considered and revealed. Based on the phonetic analysis of examples, the article presents the author’s development of the melodic contour of several sentences and shows the different melodic structure of identical utterances. The main attention is paid to the meanings of identical utterances under the influence of English sentence stress. The paper also analyses examples of identical utterances with different sentence stresses given by various leading linguists-phoneticians. The melodic contour of these utterances is revealed and the meanings of these utterances are considered in detail. The paper reflects the development of the problem of the meaning of sentence stress for pronunciation. In conclusion, the article states that the meaning of a statement in speech is a product of both what is said and how it is said. Speakers implement their own changes to the parameters of the same sentence to convey their specific intentions.
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