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Perception of the English Vowel Schwa by Czech Learners
Fajtová, Zdeňka ; Červinková Poesová, Kristýna (advisor) ; Matuchová, Klára (referee)
This thesis deals with the perception of English vowels by Czech listeners with special focus on the mid-central vowel schwa. The theoretical part presents the current research findings in the area of cross-language speech perception as well as it explores the differences between Czech and English vocalic systems. Further, it focuses on the negative transfer from the mother tongue. The aim of the practical part is to examine the impact of the Czech sound system on the discrimination of the neutral vowel schwa in different positions using a perception test devised specifically for the purposes of this research. The results indicate that the students' perception is influenced quite strongly by their native language as successful schwa identification occurred in approximately fifty per cent of all examined cases.
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Production of weak forms of prepositions by non-native speakers of English
Kozáková, Tereza ; Červinková Poesová, Kristýna (advisor) ; Malá, Markéta (referee)
This bachelor thesis aims to reveal and describe to which extent non-native speakers of English from different L1 backgrounds employ weak forms when producing prepositions. The theoretical part focuses on vowel reduction and its importance for the natural rhythm of English. This concept is further explored from the Lingua Franca Core perspective and its approach to teaching vowel reduction. In the practical part, the analysis of a series of recordings is carried out. The recordings were taken from the L2-ARCTIC speech corpus of non-native English (Arabic, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, and Vietnamese). The purpose of the analysis is to explore whether and how speakers with different L1s reduce vowels in canonically weak forms of prepositions. The focus is placed on the quality and quantity of vowels in said prepositions and their duration with regard to their occurrence in either initial or medial positions. The average vowel duration is then compared to the referential vowel duration in General British. KEY WORDS ELF, prepositions, vowel duration, schwa, vowel reduction, weak forms
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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.
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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
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Perception of the English Vowel Schwa by Czech Learners
Fajtová, Zdeňka ; Červinková Poesová, Kristýna (advisor) ; Matuchová, Klára (referee)
This thesis deals with the perception of English vowels by Czech listeners with special focus on the mid-central vowel schwa. The theoretical part presents the current research findings in the area of cross-language speech perception as well as it explores the differences between Czech and English vocalic systems. Further, it focuses on the negative transfer from the mother tongue. The aim of the practical part is to examine the impact of the Czech sound system on the discrimination of the neutral vowel schwa in different positions using a perception test devised specifically for the purposes of this research. The results indicate that the students' perception is influenced quite strongly by their native language as successful schwa identification occurred in approximately fifty per cent of all examined cases.
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Production and perception of schwa (E caduc) in French and Czech. A contrastive study with pedagogical application
Nováková, Sylva ; Bořek - Dohalská, Marie (advisor) ; Radimská, Jitka (referee) ; Wioland, Francois (referee)
This thesis is a French-Czech contrastive study which deals with schwa (mute E) in the two languages. It is conducted in a pedagogical perspective. After comparing the principal phonetic/phonological characteristics of the two languages, the topic of the theoretical part is schwa in spoken French. One of the chapters concerns the treatment of mute E in French songs and its treatment in poetry. The second part consists in an experimental study ; it contains the description and the results of three experiments concerning the two languages. The acoustic realization of schwa (or a "schwa-like" vocalic segment) is observed through production tasks and perception tests of syllabicity in French and Czech words. The acoustic analyses seem to support the well-known hypotheses that it is not just the effect of the phonological cribble, but also a mental representation of the graphical form that is operating in the process of the perception of a foreign language. Furthermore, the representation of the graphical form seems to play a role for French listeners when hearing their own language. The articulatory habits of native speakers can considerably influence not only the production of a foreign language being studied, but also its perception. In the case of our first two perception tests the French listeners were...
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