ESL Phonology

description7 papers

group15 followers

lightbulbAbout this topic

ESL Phonology is the study of the sound systems and patterns of English as a Second Language, focusing on how non-native speakers perceive, produce, and utilize phonetic elements. It examines the influence of learners' first languages on their English pronunciation and the implications for teaching and learning English phonetics.

lightbulbAbout this topic

FORENSIC SPEAKER PROFILING FROM THE SAMPLE IN ЕNGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE -VOWEL DURATION ANALYSIS

by Kristina Tomić

2021, Nasleđe, Kragujevac

Forensic speaker profiling is a procedure employed in criminal cases where there is a voice recording of the criminal, but there is no suspect. It encompasses determining the age, gender, origin or socioeconomic status of the recorded... more

Figure 1 Kernel Density Plot of Duration of Vowels /z/ and /e/ in English

Figure 2 Kernel Density Plot of Duration of Vowels /i:/ and /1/ in English Looking at Figure 1, we can note that the speakers from Ni’ exhibit bimodal distribution of both /z/ and /e/. Due to the small number of partic- ipants in this study, the reason behind the bimodal distribution may be the inter-speaker variability in pronunciation. On the other hand, the speakers from Novi Sad tend to pronounce both vowels consistently. Vowel /e/ is pro- nounced as shorter than /z/, and there is less variability in its realization.

Figure 3 Kernel Density Plot of Duration of Vowels /u:/ and /o / in English For the speakers from Ni’, durations of vowels /i:/ and /1/ largely overlap (Figure 2). Therefore, we can say that these speakers do not use distinctive duration for the two vowels. In Novi Sad speech, the long vowel pronunciation appears to be more homogenous than that of the short vowel, which exhibits bimodal distribution. The reason may be because some speakers have adopted the pronunciation of certain words incorrectly, substituting the short vowel with the long one, which is closer in duration to their native language.

In the Serbian sub-corpus, there are no statistica between speakers from Nis and Novi Sad for vowels the IU. A statistically significant difference in vowel d in the medial position in the IU for vowels /e/ and /u/ in long syllables a: well as vowel /i/ in short sy the speech of Novi Sad, however, rather unexpected are significantly shorter for his group of speakers. TI ly significant differences in the initial position ir uration can be observec lables. As expected, /u/ is produced as longer ir y; long /e/ and short /i; his phenomenon may be explained by the fact that vowel /e/ in long syllables in the speech of Novi Sac is a rather close vowel, there shorter than more open /e/ in the speech of Ni’. The the speakers from Novi Sad pronounce /a/ in long sy. fore, it is physiologically bound to be produced as raw values indicate tha lables as longer than the speakers from Ni’, however, due to a small sample, the statistical significance was not proved.

Observing Table 2, we may note that due to the strict criteria in the selec- tion of token words, most of the vowels cannot be found in the initial position in the IU in the corpus. According to the Welch t-test, speakers from Ni8 pro- nounce vowel /i;/ in medial position as longer than speakers from Novi Sad. The raw values indicate that these speakers also pronounce vowels /e/, /ze/, /v/, and /u:/ as longer, however, the statistical test has not confirmed the difference. Table 2 Average duration of English vowels in seconds for speakers from Nis (NI) and Novi Sad (NS), Welch t-test; significant for p < 0.05

Table 3 Difference in Serbian and English vowel duration for speakers from Ni8 anc Novi Sad, respectively; Welch t-test; significant for p < 0.05 4.2. Comparison across Languages

The statistical analysis has confirmed that speakers from Ni§ do not make a distinction between short and long vowels either when speaking Serbian or English. In addition, vowel /z/ was not produced as longer than /e/, which is not in accordance with the results from previous research (Paunovi¢ 2011: 365-366; Markovic 2009b: 161; Markovic¢, Jakovljevi¢ 2016: 223). Table 4 Short and long‘ vowel duration for speakers from Ni’ and Novi Sad when speaking Serbian and English, respectively; Welch t-test; significant for p < 0.05 Table 4 Short and long‘ vowel duration for speakers from Ni’ and Novi Sad when

descriptionView Paper arrow_downwardDownload

ESL Phonology

Related Topics