|
|
Impact of Intersonorant Voicing on the Perception of Foreing Accent in the Speech of Advanced Czech Learners of English
Dvořáková, Martina ; Červinková Poesová, Kristýna (advisor) ; Matuchová, Klára (referee)
This thesis aims at exploring the impact of intersonorant voicing (/ˈbeɪzɪk/ instead of /beɪsɪk/) that frequently occurs in the speech of Czech learners of English on the degree of foreign accentedness. To evaluate this phenomenon, the method of a perception test was used. The sample phrases with and without the aforementioned mistake were evaluated by native speakers of the English language. The result of their observation, the level of foreign accentedness, was marked on a seven point scale and analysed by the author with the aim of either confirming or rejecting two original hypotheses concerning the relationship between the intersonorant voicing and foreign accentedness when featured in various positions.
|
|
|
Relationship between the strength of Czech accent and the duration of vowels before obstruents
Fejlová, Dita ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Tichý, Ondřej (referee)
This bachelor thesis aims to inspect the presence or absence of a feature called pre- fortis shortening in English spoken by Czechs. The term denotes the shortening of a vowel preceding a voiceless obstruent. This feature is known to appear in various languages like Russian, French, Italian; indeed, Matthew Chen even suggests it is language-universal. In English the feature is very prominent and because it affects speech perception, it is even considered a primary indicator of the voicing of the following obstruent. A study included in this thesis examines the extent to which 12 female speakers of Czech English, sorted into 3 categories according to their proficiency in pronunciation, mark the distinction between words like "bet" and "bed" by vowel shortening. The study does not exploit minimal pairs like these, but vowel-obstruent sequences taken from long read passages of BBC news. The the fortis/lenis character of the final obstruent contained in these sequences is a discerning parameter which always separates the data into two groups, the vowel durations of which are then compared. Statistical analysis of the data showed that contrary to the expectations, speakers with native-like pronunciation were not the ones who displayed the most massive usage of pre-fortis shortening. Possible reasons for...
|
|
|
Phone durations in multi-syllable words with Czech analogues in Czech English
Růžek, Jan ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Skarnitzl, Radek (referee)
This diploma thesis examines the foreign accent of Czech speakers in English. We focus on the factor of phone duration, which relates to both segmental and prosodic levels of phonetic description and is one of the correlates of prosodic prominence and speech rhythm. 84 words were selected from the texts avaible in the Prague Phonetic Corpus that have analogues in the loanword lexicon of Czech. Pronunciations of these words by native speakers (professional radio reporters) were compared with productions by Czech university students. The students were recorded prior to atteding a course in English phonetics. Based on our observations of durational patterns, we infer some plausible tendencies to be expected in Czech production of English. As durational interference from Czech into English has up to this date been a relatively unresearch domain, the present study adopts a qualitative research methodology. Keywords: Duration, Foreign Accent, Czech English, Interference 6
|
|
|
Acoustic properties of word stress in read Czech English
Liska, Jan ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Skarnitzl, Radek (referee)
key words: Czech English, foreign accent, word stress, word accent, stressed syllable, duration, f0, acoustic cues. This study investigates the acoustic properties of word stress in Czech English. The notion of foreign accent is introduced and its drawbacks are presented. Further on the various influences on the perceived degree, or strength, of foreign accent are discussed. Faulty realization of word stress is identified as one of the factors that contribute to unintelligibility of non-native speech (Benrabah, 1997; Hahn, 2004; Cutler, 1984). In Chapter 2 we compare the results of studies that used speakers of a variety of languages and form a basic theory on the acquisition of acoustic cues to word stress. We are mostly interested in f0 and duration. This theory, based on the feature hypothesis (McAllister et al., 2002 in Lee, Guion & Harada, 2006), states that languages that have a similar stress system to that of English (Dutch, Arabic) use their native cues to signal word stress, while non-contrastive languages (Vietnamese, Czech) prefer cue/s that are phonologically active on segmental level in their native language. Speakers of Vietnamese, a tone language, were found to prefer f0 over duration (Nguyen, 2003), so for Czech, a language that uses phonological vowel duration, it is expected that...
|
|
|
The nuclear accent instantiation in English texts read by Czech speakers
Vavryčuk, Václav ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Studenovský, David (referee)
The thesis is concerned with Czech accent in English in the intonation domain, specifically the differences between nuclear melodic patterns in read speech of Czech speakers with a heavy accent and native British speakers. It is aiming to contribute to the study of "Czech" English with a later possibility of using the results in language teaching. The first part focuses on foreign accent in general together with its connection to comprehensibility and the influence of the first language. We then go through some theoretical concepts in studying intonation and their application in Czech and English intonology. In the experimental part we compare the melodic patterns of Czech and British speakers using cluster analysis. The main differences are evident in non-final utterances, where Czech speakers use mostly rising contours while British speakers more often use falling contours.
|
|
|
The ability of Czech speakers to imitate the temporal structure of English words with and without Czech analogues
Jakšič, Jan ; Šturm, Pavel (advisor) ; Gráf, Tomáš (referee)
The aim of the current thesis is to ascertain whether there is an effect of Czech analogues on the temporal structures of English words in realization of Czech speakers. The theoretical part of the thesis introduces three major areas of our focus: foreign accent, word stress, and duration. Definitions of relevant terms are presented and existing findings about the areas are summarized in this part. The empirical part consists of a research; the Czech speakers imitate English words with and without analogues after listening to a native speaker's realization. The temporal structures in realizations of the Czech speakers are compared to those in the native realizations. Apart from examining the temporal structures with respect to analogues, we also try to determine the possible effect of Czech stress placement on the durations of the English words and their segments in Czech realizations. The acquired data are analysed with regard to their significance and the results are subject to a discussion. Key words: Foreign Accent, Duration, Lexical Stress, the English of Czech Speakers, Analogues
|
|
|
Důvěryhodnost rodilých a nerodilých mluvčích angličtiny podle nerodilých posluchačů
Hanzlíková, Dagmar ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Šturm, Pavel (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the influence of foreign accent on credibility of non- native speakers of English. The study was inspired by Lev-Ari and Keysar (2010), who observed that native speakers of English are less likely to believe non-native speakers. In our research we used the same set of statements and similar settings of the experiment to find out whether foreign accent will have the same negative effect on credibility of non- native speakers as perceived by non-native listeners. 6 native speakers from Britain and the USA, and 6 non-native speakers recorded the set of trivia statements for the test and 45 non-native listeners rated on a scale whether they thought the statement they hear is true or not. The results were analysed from multiple points of view such as the influence of accent on credibility, the influence of gender on credibility, and we have also analysed the individual speakers and items in the test to see if the results could be influenced by the behaviour of one individual speaker or an item. The results of the experiment revealed that foreign accent has a negative effect on the credibility of non-native speakers as perceived by non-native listeners. Czech respondents rated British accent of English to be the most credible, while people who spoke with a foreign...
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
Consonantal and vocalic differences in Czech English with reduced and enhanced foreignness
Pojarová, Veronika ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Weingartová, Lenka (referee)
The objective of this thesis is to identify those features of the Czech accent in English that are the most salient in the perception of the Czech listener and that may disturb the communication process. The purpose of the introductory chapter is to familiarize the reader with the subject of the foreign accent, to provide a brief summary of the current state of research and to introduce a series of empirical studies. The research part of the thesis analyzes the individual realizations of the selected speech sounds /θ, ð, ŋ, r, w, æ, ɜː/ and ventures to draw meaningful conclusions from the results. The material analyzed consists of a total of 3568 speech sound tokens, recorded by 9 male and 19 female speakers. Each respondent produced two recordings, one in the British standard mode and another where the speaker imitated the Czech foreign accent. The 3568 tokens were individually rated and the two modes were then compared for each speaker. The results showed /r/ to be favoured by the largest number of speakers as an indicator of the Czech accent, while /θ, ð, ŋ/ often had the same rating in both modes. However, additional factors such as speaker proficiency and number of tokens from individual speech sounds must be taken into consideration before any final conclusions can be drawn from the raw data....
|
guest ::
