Fluency-related Temporal Features and Syllable Prominence as Prosodic Proficiency Predictors for Learners of English with Different Language Backgrounds

Abstract

Prosodic features are important in achieving intelligibility, comprehensibility, and fluency in a second or foreign language (L2). However, research on the assessment of prosody as part of oral proficiency remains scarce. Moreover, the acoustic analysis of L2 prosody has often focused on fluency-related temporal measures, neglecting language-dependent stress features that can be quantified in terms of syllable prominence. Introducing the evaluation of prominence-related measures can be of use in developing both teaching and assessment of L2 speaking skills. In this study we compare temporal measures and syllable prominence estimates as predictors of prosodic proficiency in non-native speakers of English with respect to the speaker’s native language (L1). The predictive power of temporal and prominence measures was evaluated for utterance-sized samples produced by language learners from four different L1 backgrounds: Czech, Slovak, Polish, and Hungarian. Firstly, the speech samples were assessed using the revised Common European Framework of Reference scale for prosodic features. The assessed speech samples were then analyzed to derive articulation rate and three fluency measures. Syllable-level prominence was estimated by a continuous wavelet transform analysis using combinations of F0, energy, and syllable duration. The results show that the temporal measures serve as reliable predictors of prosodic proficiency in the L2, with prominence measures providing a small but significant improvement to prosodic proficiency predictions. The predictive power of the individual measures varies both quantitatively and qualitatively depending on the L1 of the speaker. We conclude that the possible effects of the speaker’s L1 on the production of L2 prosody in terms of temporal features as well as syllable prominence deserve more attention in applied research and developing teaching and assessment methods for spoken L2.

Creaky voice and utterance fluency measures in predicting fluency and oral proficiency of spontaneous L2 Finnish

“…It should be noted, however, that in the current study the location of the pauses was not acknowledged. Yet, for the purposes of automatic assessment, such general measures have proved to be of use [23,3,10,11].…”

“…Fluency is a frequently used term in language pedagogy and testing, but it has several definitions: in its broad sense, L2 fluency is often synonymous with general L2 proficiency, while the narrow definition, also examined as utterance fluency [1], refers to the fluidity or temporal features of speech [2]. Researchers have found temporal fluency measures to be strong predictors of human assessments of fluency [2,3,4,5,6,7] as well as oral proficiency [8,9,10,11], and similar features have also been incorporated in automatic assessment systems [12].…”

The English Fricative Consonant /z/ as a Challenge to Norwegian L1 EFL Learners: An Error Analysis of Phonemic Transcriptions

“…Successful foreign language (FL) learners should master pronunciation in an FL and foster their awareness of individual sounds of the FL they study (Bjelaković, Čubrović 2021;Huensch, Thompson 2017;Verschik 2017). However, an FL learner's success in mastering pronunciation may be hampered by a host of variables (Szyszka 2017;Waniek-Klimczak, Klimczak 2005), such as individual sounds (also referred to as "segmentals") that pose significant problems to the learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) whose first languages differ significantly from English (Bjekić, Čubrović 2021;Kallio et al 2021;Kanokpermpoon 2007;Roa et al 2021;Waniek-Klimczak 2011;Zhang et al 2021). For instance, English fricative consonants, e.g.…”

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English fricatives, such as /z/, are thought to pose substantial challenges to the students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) whose first languages (L1s) are characterised by phonetic repertoires that are dissimilar to that of English as far as fricatives are concerned (Kallio et al 2021;Kanokpermpoon 2007). The absence of the fricative /z/ in the phonetic inventory of Norwegian is reported to impact negatively on the Norwegian L1 EFL learners' speech production in English (Rugesaeter 2014).

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“…Inglise keele frikatiivid, näiteks /z/, põhjustavad arvatavalt raskusi inglise keele kui võõrkeele õppijatele, kelle esimesed keeled (K1) on frikatiivide poolest inglise keelest teistsuguse foneetilise repertuaariga (Kallio, Suni, Šimko 2021;Kanokpermpoon 2007). Kuna norra keele foneetilises süsteemis ei ole frikatiivi /z/, mõjutab selle puudumine uurimuste kohaselt negatiivselt norra emakeelega inglise keele õppijate kõneproduktsiooni (Rugesaeter 2014).…”