Prominence Contrasts in Czech English as a Predictor of Learner’s Proficiency

Weingartová, Lenka; Poesová, Kristýna; Volín, Jan

doi:10.21437/speechprosody.2014-35

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Our analysis did not reveal whether the different effect sizes can be attributed to language-specific tendencies or to the different proficiency distributions of the two L1 groups. However, our result supports the findings of Bilá and Zimmermann (1999) and Weingartová et al (2014) : proficiency levels could be predicted from how the speakers of these languages use duration to differentiate stressed and unstressed syllables in English.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Relatively few studies have been done on the production of English stress patterns by speakers of Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, and Polish ( Archibald, 1993 ; Bakti & Bóna, 2014 ; Bilá & Zimmermann, 1999 ; Weingartová et al, 2014 ). For Hungarian learners of English, studies have focused only on stress placement, explaining production errors with both fixed word stress and quantity-sensitivity ( Archibald, 1993 ; Bakti & Bóna, 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Archibald (1993) also found some evidence of L1 stress transfer in the speech of Polish learners of English, but a comprehensive study on the production of English stress by Hungarian and Polish speakers is still lacking. For Slovak and Czech learners of English, the use of duration in marking prominence has been under inspection ( Bilá & Zimmermann, 1999 ; Weingartová et al, 2014 ). Bilá and Zimmermann (1999) found evidence that Slovak speakers face difficulties in using duration to differentiate stressed and unstressed syllables in English.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bilá and Zimmermann (1999) found evidence that Slovak speakers face difficulties in using duration to differentiate stressed and unstressed syllables in English. Weingartová et al (2014) , in turn, investigated prominence patterns in Czech-accented English and found the duration ratio between stressed and unstressed syllables to be the most significant correlate of language learners’ proficiency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Fluency-related Temporal Features and Syllable Prominence as Prosodic Proficiency Predictors for Learners of English with Different Language Backgrounds

2021

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Prosodic features are important in achieving intelligibility, comprehensibility, and fluency in a second or foreign language (L2). However, research on the assessment of prosody as part of oral proficiency remains scarce. Moreover, the acoustic analysis of L2 prosody has often focused on fluency-related temporal measures, neglecting language-dependent stress features that can be quantified in terms of syllable prominence. Introducing the evaluation of prominence-related measures can be of use in developing both teaching and assessment of L2 speaking skills. In this study we compare temporal measures and syllable prominence estimates as predictors of prosodic proficiency in non-native speakers of English with respect to the speaker’s native language (L1). The predictive power of temporal and prominence measures was evaluated for utterance-sized samples produced by language learners from four different L1 backgrounds: Czech, Slovak, Polish, and Hungarian. Firstly, the speech samples were assessed using the revised Common European Framework of Reference scale for prosodic features. The assessed speech samples were then analyzed to derive articulation rate and three fluency measures. Syllable-level prominence was estimated by a continuous wavelet transform analysis using combinations of F0, energy, and syllable duration. The results show that the temporal measures serve as reliable predictors of prosodic proficiency in the L2, with prominence measures providing a small but significant improvement to prosodic proficiency predictions. The predictive power of the individual measures varies both quantitatively and qualitatively depending on the L1 of the speaker. We conclude that the possible effects of the speaker’s L1 on the production of L2 prosody in terms of temporal features as well as syllable prominence deserve more attention in applied research and developing teaching and assessment methods for spoken L2.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Fluency-related Temporal Features and Syllable Prominence as Prosodic Proficiency Predictors for Learners of English with Different Language Backgrounds

2021

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“…While the Czech speakers' formant values did not significantly differ from the native speakers' pronunciation (in other words, vowel quality was comparable to a schwa), the Czech-accented schwas were still too prominent, as reflected in narrower formant bandwidths and flatter spectral slopes. In a follow-up study, more advanced Czech speakers of English were shown to approximate native durational and spectral patterns more than less advanced speakers (Weingartová, Poesová & Volín, 2014). Similar results were reported by Poesová and Weingartová (2018).…”

Section: Lexical Stress In Czech Englishsupporting

confidence: 84%

Phonetic aspects of strongly-accented Czech speakers of English

Skarnitzl¹,

Rumlová²

2019

Auc Philologica

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This paper contributes to the study of Czech-accented English by examining multiple pronunciation features, both segmental and prosodic, typically associated with or previously studied in Czech English. We analyzed ten female speakers who had been evaluated as having a strong accent in their English, using auditory and acoustic approaches. In the segmental domain, most of the analyzed speakers used Czech equivalents of the English open vowels /ae ɒ/ and tended to pronounce a velar plosive after a velar nasal. In the domain of connected speech, linking was very rare in our speakers, and their pitch range tended to be very flat. The results underscore the fact that the label "strong Czech accent" may, in different speakers, refer to different constellations of pronunciation features.

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ERP Evidence for Slavic and German Word Stress Cue Sensitivity in English

Ivanova¹,

Neubert²,

Schmied³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Word stress is demanding for non-native learners of English, partly because speakers from different backgrounds weight perceptual cues to stress like pitch, intensity, and duration differently. Slavic learners of English and particularly those with a fixed stress language background like Czech and Polish have been shown to be less sensitive to stress in their native and non-native languages. In contrast, German English learners are rarely discussed in a word stress context. A comparison of these varieties can account for differences in the foreign language processing of speakers from two language families. We use electroencephalography (EEG) to explore group differences in word stress cue perception between Slavic and German learners of English. Slavic and German advanced English speakers were examined in passive multi-feature oddball experiments, where they were exposed to the word impact as an unstressed standard and as deviants stressed on the first or second syllable through higher pitch, intensity, or duration. The results revealed a robust Mismatch Negativity (MMN) component of the event-related potential (ERP) in both language groups in response to all conditions, demonstrating sensitivity to stress changes in a non-native language. While both groups showed higher MMN responses to stress changes to the second than the first syllable, this effect was more pronounced for German than for Slavic participants. Such group differences in non-native English word stress perception from the current and previous studies are argued to speak in favor of customizable language technologies and diversified English curricula compensating for non-native perceptual variation.

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Prominence Contrasts in Czech English as a Predictor of Learner’s Proficiency

Cited by 5 publications

References 2 publications

Fluency-related Temporal Features and Syllable Prominence as Prosodic Proficiency Predictors for Learners of English with Different Language Backgrounds

Fluency-related Temporal Features and Syllable Prominence as Prosodic Proficiency Predictors for Learners of English with Different Language Backgrounds

Phonetic aspects of strongly-accented Czech speakers of English

ERP Evidence for Slavic and German Word Stress Cue Sensitivity in English

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