|
|
Role of Schwa in Word Stress Perception
Juránková, Martina ; Červinková Poesová, Kristýna (advisor) ; Bojarová, Marie (referee)
The aim of this bachelor thesis is to assess the role of schwa as the main representative of vowel reduction in the perception of English word stress. The research tool will be a perception test consisting of three groups of three to five syllable words. The individual categories will be differentiated from each other by the position of the sound schwa placed either before or after the syllable carrying the primary stress or it will not occur near the stressed syllable at all. Three groups of participants (Czech primary-school, secondary-school and university students) will be asked to mark the main stress in selected items. We hypothesize that the identification of stressed parts will be facilitated by the presence of schwa in the immediate vicinity of stressed syllables.
|
|
|
English Orthography in Relation to Common Misspelling Tendecies
Matoušek, Lukáš ; Farrell, Mark Robert (advisor) ; Červinková Poesová, Kristýna (referee)
The main aim of this thesis is to outline three major fields that are closely connected to language, writing and speech: 'writing systems', 'English orthography' and 'English spelling'. These parts are fully theoretical and serve as an introduction and source of basic information for the supplementary research on 'common misspelling tendencies' in the English language. The primary part of this research is composed of a comparison of individual commonly misspelled words and their further analysis in relation to the English orthography. Each major part uses linguistic terms and phrases which are briefly explained in the 'keywords' section at the end of the thesis.
|
|
|
Stress shift in Czech English
Farana, Michal ; Červinková Poesová, Kristýna (advisor) ; Matuchová, Klára (referee)
The purpose of the bachelor thesis is to explore how Czech speakers of English are able to predict and apply stress shift in their speech. The theoretical part gives a brief description of the English stress system and focuses primarily on a detailed exploration of the stress shift phenomenon and its function in relation to the rhythmic structure of English. The practical part aims at examining the ability of Czech speakers to produce stress shift in selected contexts. The respondents were recorded reading a text with items that typically undergo stress shift. The data obtained from these recordings were perceptually analysed and subsequently used to either prove or disprove the hypotheses formulated at the beginning of the research. Key Words lexical stress, sentence stress, rhythm, stress shift, Czech English
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
Common Pronunciation Mistakes among Spanish Speakers of English with the Focus on Vowels
Pýcha, Jaroslav ; Červinková Poesová, Kristýna (advisor) ; Bojarová, Marie (referee)
This thesis is focused on vowels and describes them as to their articulatory, auditory, and acoustic properties. The following chapter presents a phonological description of two specific languages - English and Spanish. The aforementioned languages are then compared in their vocalic systems, phonotactical patterns and orthographical representation of vowels. Based on the knowledge gained from the comparison of English and Spanish, several hypotheses regarding Spanish pronunciation of English were formed. The validity of these hypotheses was investigated through the use of an experiment. 15 recording of native Spanish speakers reading an original English text are perceptually analysed in the empirical part. The aim is to prove that the wide variety of English vowels causes pronunciation difficulties to Spanish speakers, who are used to differentiating only 5 pure vowels. The socio-cultural background and the language competencies of the respondents are considered when interpreting the amassed data. The results of the experiment, which confirm the majority of the hypotheses, are presented in the final part of the thesis.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
Schwa-centred Approach towards Pronunciation Teaching
Brožová, Jana ; Červinková Poesová, Kristýna (advisor) ; Müller Dočkalová, Barbora (referee)
This diploma thesis deals with the crucial impact of the neutral vowel schwa on creating prominence contrasts in English pronunciation teaching, i.e. a schwa-centred approach. The theoretical part focuses on the complex description of the target sound with regard to the suprasegmental level, including Czech speakers' difficulties to recognise and pronounce this vowel and prominence patterns it participates in. Furthermore, it defines the essence of the schwa-centred approach. The practical part presents the implementation of the schwa-centred approach in teaching practice in the form of a set of activities aimed at perception, production and raising students' awareness of this phenomenon. The effectiveness of the activities is evaluated by means of the analysis of audio recordings made before and after the teaching and assessment of students' questionnaires. The thesis also contains all worksheets with task descriptions applying the schwa-centred approach. KEY WORDS schwa, full vowel, prominence contrasts, perception, production, raising awareness
|
|
| |
guest ::
