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Glottalization patterns in the L2 speech of Czech and Slovak speakers of English
Formanová, Aneta ; Šturm, Pavel (advisor) ; Lewis, Suzanne (referee)
The theme of this bachelor thesis is a research study of glottalization patterns in English as the second language (L2) of Czech and Slovak speakers. The thesis starts with a theoretical part, in which the phenomenon of glottalization and linking is described. Different possible types of linking and glottalization are represented, using different examples from various languages. Further on, the linking and glottalization are described separately in relation to the Czech language, the Slovak language, and lastly the English language. Various types of glottalization and linking of those languages are described. The languages are compared with each other, combined with the analysis of prosodic differences between the Czech and Slovak language. Speech production in English as L2 is then described. All of these findings are then applied to a practical study. The recording of 6 Czech and 8 Slovak speakers is analysed with respect to different aspects, that affect linking and glottalization. The results are then discussed, alongside with the suggestions for further study.
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Sonorant devoicing in plosive-sonorant clusters in Czech-accented and native British English
Přečková, Klára ; Šturm, Pavel (advisor) ; Lewis, Suzanne (referee)
The main aim of this BA thesis was to compare the realisation of sonorant devoicing in native English speakers and Czech-accented speakers of English. Our initial presumption was that Czech-accented speakers of English would show shorter devoicing duration in the analysed plosive-sonorant clusters, possibly due to the different phonological structure. We focused on the speech of average speakers to see whether there are differences in the voicing characteristics between the two languages. We analysed segments from a BBC news report and measured the following variables: local tempo, speaker's tempo, voice onset time (VOT) and, finally, devoicing duration. The post-hoc test of the descriptive analysis proved that stress, as one of the variables in our data, did not play an essential role for non-native speakers, unlike their native counterparts. The statistical analysis showed a difference in significance between the different plosive-sonorant clusters. More specifically, clusters with /r/ in non-native speakers reached the highest similarity with English speakers. Based on the results of descriptive and statistical analysis we have conducted, the devoicing duration of the target sonorants was found to be shorter in Czech-accented speakers than in native English speakers, although the Czech speakers...
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Melodic patterning in advanced Czech students of English
Hertlová, Adéla ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Lewis, Suzanne (referee)
This thesis is aiming to observe the process of acquisition of intonation in native Czech students of English on an advanced level, who were regularly and intensely exposed to English. The students were recorded reading a simple text at the beginning of their studies, and for the purpose of this thesis, they were re-recorded two years later, and compared to two native speakers of English. The theoretical part of this thesis first explains the key terminology of intonation together with its functions. The following part of the theoretical background focuses on the acquisition of intonation, the differences between Czech and English in regards to intonation, and is concluded with research questions. The following chapter consists of the methodology employed in this thesis: the particularities regarding the students, the text, and the recording process, together with how the analysis was performed and the data extracted. This is followed by the results and their interpretation, which is further elaborated in the following chapter as well. The data generally indicated a decrease in the melodic range of the students recorded two years later. Yet, some improvements were observed in the distribution of tones, where the later recordings indicated an increase in complex tones. A slight positive development...
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Lexical devices of British and American English in the language of Czech EFL learners
Kubánek, Vojtěch ; Vašků, Kateřina (advisor) ; Lewis, Suzanne (referee)
The thesis aims to provide new information on lexical dialectal variation amongst EFL students. The theoretical part focuses on the description of lexical dialectal variation alongside with the scrutiny of British and American English and their "language power" throughout the last century. The globalised world favours the use of American English whilst academic institutions still support the use of British English. The practical part consists of three questionnaires whose answers will shed light on the non-natives' use of English and their dialectal preference of English - the basis of the "Euro-English" dialect - through lexeme choice. The questionnaires also consist of sociological part which will be used to find the motives behind both the general level of lexical dialectal preference (the total number of lexemes of each dialect) and the specific level (the number of lexemes of each dialect in each individual sentence). The results have shown that there are three notions that have impact on students' lexical dialectal choices. Subjects who get most of their English input from school tend to prefer BrE lexical dialectal variants whilst subjects who rank internet and social media as the most impactful resource for their English tend to use more AmE lexical dialectal variants. The third notion that...
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Speech melody characteristics in Vietnamese English
Pham, Thu Tra ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Lewis, Suzanne (referee)
and key words The aim of this thesis is to describe the speech melody characteristics in Vietnamese English. Long-term distributional measures of fundamental frequency (F0) tracks for pitch level and pitch span were analyzed to determine whether Vietnamese English speakers exhibit narrower pitch range, one of the intonation errors made by language learners proposed in previous research. Another hypothesis was based on the idiosyncratic nature of intonation, and suggests that speakers show idiosyncrasies in their intonation. The data were obtained by extracting F0 tracks from recordings of eight Vietnamese English speakers. The results confirm that Vietnamese English speakers demonstrate narrower pitch range than British speakers. It also confirms the idiosyncratic nature of intonation in Vietnamese English speakers. Keywords: fundamental frequency, speech melody, foreign accent, prosodic phrase, nuclear pitch accent
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Effectiveness of teaching English prosodic features in Czech children
Vonzová, Veronika ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Lewis, Suzanne (referee)
and key words The main objective of this paper is to discover if children can acquire prosodic features of English after involving prosody-oriented instruction in the curriculum. The theoretical part of the work at first concentrates on description of prosody, its definition and significance for communication. It then introduces two of its main components: intonation and rhythm, which were also the target phenomena of the analysis in the empirical part. Both of these prosodic aspects are introduced not only in terms of their main characteristics but also in terms of their significance for reaching intelligibility and comprehensibility in the discourse. The work further elaborates upon the importance of involving prosody instruction in English lessons and emphasizes particularities of working with young learners. Since most of the research into the effectiveness of prosody instruction done so far has focused on adults, the empirical part presents a study carried out with two groups of primary school children, an experimental and a control group. The methodology part discusses the design of the lessons as well as the makeup of the recording sessions. The recordings were analysed to see if any progress was made with individual speakers in the course of the school year and then the results of both...
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Phonetic features of strong Czech accent in English
Rumlová, Jana ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Lewis, Suzanne (referee)
The main aim of this thesis is to analyse problematic phonetic features of Czech accent in English and to discover how they contribute to strong foreign accent. The theoretical part presents the concept of foreign accent and why it occurs. Individual segmental and supra-segmental features of language that are different in each language and can, therefore, cause problems while acquiring a foreign language are presented afterwards, along with the most influencing models of their acquisition. Social consequences of a non-native accent are also mentioned. The theoretical part also briefly compares the segmental and supra-segmental levels of Czech and English and then introduces research that has been performed so far on the topic of the Czech pronunciation of English. The empirical section presents the methodology of the research, the analysed features of the Czech English and the results of the study. The analysis of the ten speakers has shown which aspects are causing the biggest problems and which ones are individual. According to the results, the most problematic features are vowels /æ/, /ɒ/, /ə/ and consonants /ð/, /θ/ and /ŋ/ that tends to co-occur with the plosive /k/, and aspiration. On the prosodic level, linking, or glottalization, seems to cause the most significant problems, along with the...
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