The inability to focus on the rhythmic pattern as a whole is one of the main deficiencies in the teaching of English rhythm, and it is partly responsible for syllabic rhythm in the speech of learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). A technique is proposed that isolates the segmental phones and sequences so that EFL learners recognize them.…

Examined the intonation of second-language speakers of English from three language groups--Spanish, Japanese, and Thai--focusing on how native nonnative speakers use intonation to signal meaning in the structure of their discourse. Results revealed that nonnative speakers did not consistently use pitch to signal meaningful contrasts in many…

Pronunciation is reexamined from a "top-down" perspective that shifts the focus of attention in language instruction from individual phonemes to suprasegmentals and other features of the larger context of utterances, including prosody, phonological fluency, voice quality, and gestures. (57 references) (Author/LB)

Reviews literature dealing with International Teaching Assistants and provides a rationale for teaching them pronunciation using cognitive-based field-specific methods. An account of the application of such a teaching method to instruct Chinese and Korean chemistry teaching assistants at a North American University is also given. (55 references)…

Describes activities that have been used to teach pronunciation to English-as-a-Second/Foreign Language students<-song and video<-and provides a template that can be adapted and revised for different populations and settings. Shows one way of using song recordings and short video segments from popular television programs to practice intonation of…

Discusses the difficulties Egyptian students of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) have in learning English pronunciation. Some of these problems are related to stress, while others are related to intonation. Most, however, are related to the differences between English and Arabic. (Author/VWL)

This study is an investigation of the degree to which preschool children enrolled in Cantonese-immersion preschools in three areas of the United States differed from their monolingual counterparts in pitch-matching accuracy. In a 2003 study, the author found that in monolingual American English-speaking children, pitch-matching accuracy was most…

This study examines how teachers' use of affective strategies (voice intonation, dramatization, personal involvement comments) during the reading and discussion of books influence young children's affective reactions (dramatization, personal engagement, language play comments). Twenty kindergarten teachers read four books, two fiction and two…

Purpose: This study examined 2nd-grade teachers' perceptions of the academic, social, and behavioral competence of students with speech sound disorders (SSDs). Method: Forty-eight 2nd-grade teachers listened to 2 groups of sentences differing by intelligibility and pitch but spoken by a single 2nd grader. For each sentence group, teachers rated…

Modal and falsetto registers are the basic vocal qualities used in female speaking voices. The purpose of this study was to identify the frequency at which modal register changed to falsetto register and the frequency range of each modal and falsetto register produced under three loudness levels: soft, comfortable and loud phonations in normal and…

This paper compares the production and perception of the rise-fall contour of contrastive statements and the final rise-fall part of polar questions in Greek. The results show that these superficially similar rise-falls exhibit fine phonetic differences in the alignment of tonal targets with the segmental string, and that these differences can be…

It is acknowledged that contrast plays an important role in understanding discourse and information structure. While it is commonly assumed that contrast can be marked by intonation only, our understanding of the intonational realization of contrast is limited. For German there is mainly introspective evidence that the rising theme accent (or…

In a study of the differences in male and female descriptions of nine photographs, picture type was found to be an important variable. Twelve male and 8 female college students were asked to describe each of the photographs. Picture type was rated as high in interest to males, high in interest to females, or high in interest to both. Responses…

Analysis of an intonational contour generally used to convey uncertainty about the appropriateness of some evoked scale or scalar value (as in "Anna may marry Manny") is extended to accommodate both uncertainty and incredulity interpretations. This paper proposes a more general account of L*+HLH%, based on an acoustic and pragmatic…

African Wolof society is divided into a number of ranked status groups or castes, the largest of which is the high-ranking noble caste. Wolof conceive of two styles of speaking, the restrained or noble-like and the elaborated or "griot"-like, and the two styles are connected by the presence or absence of "kerse," honor and self-control. The…