Intro to speech analysis for practical phonetics teachers

Geoff Schwartz
School of English, AMU
Poznań, Poland

ABSTRACT

As language instructors we generally use a set of universally accepted standards for the languages we teach. We strive to achieve these norms in vocabulary, spelling, grammar, as well as pronunciation. This is only natural, since comparing student performance to these standards is the only way for non-native instructors to assess the proficiency of their students. In the case of grammar and vocabulary, this is a fairly straightforward undertaking, with results that are more or less binary - a given grammatical construction or vocabulary item can be used correctly or incorrectly. There is little room in between.

In the case of pronunciation, however, assessment is not based on such clear-cut and objective phenomena. At first glance it may seem so, since as phonetics instructors we introduce the L2 phonological system in terms of discrete units, phonemes and allophones, and a set of rules governing their interaction and realization. Although phonetic assessment is generally based on how well students master this discrete system, to judge student phonetic performance, instructors must rely on their own perceptual systems. This fact complicates the business of teaching pronunciation.

It has long been known to experimental phoneticians that human speech perception is subject to bias. We often hear what we think we should hear, based on any number of both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. In the case of non-native teachers of practical phonetics, bias can derive from the instructor's knowledge of both the L2 phonological system, and L1 phonological interference. As a consequence, instructors concentrating on certain phonological contrasts may overlook important phonetic phenomena common to the language they teach. Basic speech analysis techniques may help open the eyes and ears of phonetics instructors and students alike, allowing them to concentrate on the phonetic cues that may be lacking in difficult L2 contrasts.

This workshop will address the benefits that practical phonetics teachers may reap by means of experimental phonetic study and basic speech analysis techniques. A general introduction to acoustic phonetics and speech analysis will be followed by a detailed look at several challenges facing Polish learners of English. Finally, I will outline a set of experimental studies (to be carried out in the summer of 2003) to evaluate the perceptual salience for native listeners of various phonetic features associated with "Polish" English.


26.3.2003