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The influence of L1 Czech speech rate on L2 English
Martincová, Karolína ; Luef, Eva Maria (advisor) ; Hubáčková, Iva (referee)
The influence of L1 Czech speech rate on L2 English Karolína Martincová Abstract: Considering speech rate varies from language to language, a speaker's native language naturally influences their speech in English as a second language. Past research has shown that L1 has great influence on L2 English in all aspects of the language including the pace of speech as different native languages influence English speech rate in various ways. This paper attempts to analyze the correlation of speech rate of native Czech speakers in both Czech and English. The effect of L1 Czech speech rate on L2 English will be examined based on short, recorded monologues in both Czech and English. Phrases having similar grammatical and semantic structures in the two languages will be examined by measuring their duration and comparing them. This will provide detailed numbers on the speakers' speech rate in both languages. In total, five different non-native English speakers will be recorded, and their production will be analyzed and cross-referenced. The findings of this research will be then contrasted with the correlation of L1 and L2 articulation rate. These recordings are part of a Czech teachers of English corpus project lead by PhD. Gráf and will serve further to explore the fluency and common mistakes of Czech teachers of...
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Acoustic properties of schwa in Czech English and its relation to spelling
Hrabánek, Patrik ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Hubáčková, Iva (referee)
and key words The aim of this thesis is to explore the acoustic features of the schwa vowel in the speech of Czech speakers of English and its relation to spelling. The theoretical part introduces the schwa vowel and describes its phonetic and phonemic features in English. The main differences between the word-medial and the word-final schwa are then explained. Topics of word stress, speech rhythm and vowel reduction are discussed in order to show the systematic appearance of schwa in connected speech. In the empirical section the methodology and the results with discussion of the study can be found. The analysis of eight female speakers, six of which were native speakers of Czech, shows that Czech schwas generally display higher variation in formant values of the first two formants in all environments when compared to native speakers of English. The greatest difference in formant variation between the two groups was found in word-initial schwas, suggesting that Czech speakers tend to overgeneralize English pronunciation rules. When it comes to semantic function, both lexical and grammatical words showed higher variation in the Czech group. In terms of spelling, the greatest difference between the two groups was found in words in which the grapheme o is canonically realized as a schwa. The results...
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Use of discourse markers in the speech of advanced learners of English before and after a study stay in an English-speaking country
Millerová, Barbora ; Gráf, Tomáš (advisor) ; Hubáčková, Iva (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to determine whether study abroad has an effect on the frequency of discourse markers in speech of advanced learners of English. The data used for the analysis are interviews with ten advanced learners of English conducted before and after studying abroad in an English-speaking country for one or two semesters. 1,228 discourse markers were identified and tagged. The research revealed that nine out of ten speakers increased their use of discourse markers post-SA, although this increase was only significant for four of them. The most frequently used discourse markers both before and after the SA were like and so. Apart from these two markers, you know has experienced the highest increase in frequency post-SA. The thesis also examined locational distribution of markers well and so within an utterance, but did not find any significant changes post-SA. The analysis of individual speakers' recordings proved that apart from changes in frequency, variety of the DMs also changed for most of the students, which suggests their speech was influenced by the study stay abroad. Keywords: discourse markers, learner language, study abroad
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Teaching English to Learners with Special Educational Needs at Higher Elementary Schools
Hubáčková, Iva ; Gráf, Tomáš (advisor) ; Cilibrasi, Luca (referee)
The thesis focuses on the knowledge, opinions and teaching strategies of Czech higher elementary school teachers in relation to learners who have special educational needs (SEN); more specifically to students with ADHD and specific learning difficulties (SpLD). The data were drawn from interviews with two less experienced and two experienced teachers, and an anonymous online survey. The interviews were coded, emergent themes for each teacher were identified and broad thematic categories were developed; the categories were then further refined. Next, the themes for the two pairs of teachers - experienced and less experienced - were compared and contrasted in order to find shared patterns. Lastly, the four teachers were analysed jointly to find out whether the themes for the younger and the more experienced teachers differed. As for the survey, the data were analysed using qualitative, as well as quantitative methods. The qualitative methods included coding of the responses to the open- ended questions. The quantitative analysis was performed using several statistical tests. The findings show that most teachers seem to possess at least some degree of knowledge about the problems SEN students experience, and the strategies they can use to facilitate the learning process for them. Especially teachers...
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Errors in the usage of article in advanced EFL learners with Spanish as L1
Hubáčková, Iva ; Gráf, Tomáš (advisor) ; Čermák, Jan (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to find out in which contexts advanced EFL learners with Spanish as L1 tend to use articles incorrectly, and to what extent these errors can be ascribed to L1 transfer. For this purpose, a selection of 30 speakers from the Spanish part of the spoken learner corpus LINDSEI was examined. The errors were tagged using a modified version of the Louvain error- tagging manual. They were then classified according to the article forms and the types of reference. Lastly, the excerpts were compared with their Spanish counterparts. The research revealed that the most-error prone area is non-referring uses of the indefinite article. However, the majority of these errors were caused by factors, other than L1-transfer. In fact, the fact that there were few errors in expressing definiteness suggests that the positive role of transfer prevails. Also, the number of "transfer errors" in individual speakers' performances was not always proportional to the total number of errors. And last but not least, in many cases, the role of transfer is questionable as in Spanish, there are cases where more than one form is considered correct. The findings of this thesis should thus serve as starting point for further research, which would provide answer to questions this study could not answer. Key...
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The operational programs of the cross-border cooperation at the Czech - German border: Czech Republic - Saxony, Czech Republic - Bavaria
Hubáčková, Iva ; Žid, Josef (advisor) ; Horáček, Jiří (referee)
The thesis deals with the operational programs of cross-border cooperation in the Czech -- German border, Czech Republic -- Saxony operational program and Czech Republic -- Bavaria operational program. The theoretical part is generally described the issue of cross-border cooperation and are characterized and compared the Czech -- German operational programs in terms of their grant-making territory, published documents, the implementation structure, including the priority axes and areas of support in the current programming period 2007 -- 2013. The practical part is focused on projects approved by both the operational programs, both at present and in the previous programming 2004-2006. The last part is an analysis of views on practical cross-border cooperation on a sample of applicants for Czech-German operational programs.
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