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The Intelligibility and Comprehensibility of Learner Speech in Russian: a Study in the Salience of Pronunciation, Lexicon, Grammar and Syntax

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The Intelligibility and Comprehensibility of Learner Speech in Russian: a Study in the Salience of Pronunciation, Lexicon, Grammar and Syntax Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses 2010 The nI telligibility and Comprehensibility of Learner Speech in Russian: A Study in the Salience of Pronunciation, Lexicon, Grammar and Syntax Jill A. Neuendorf Bryn Mawr College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/dissertations Part of the Linguistics Commons Custom Citation Neuendorf, Jill A. "The nI telligibility and Comprehensibility of Learner Speech in Russian: A Study in the Salience of Pronunciation, Lexicon, Grammar and Syntax." PhD diss., Bryn Mawr College, 2010. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/dissertations/43 For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Intelligibility and Comprehensibility of Learner Speech in Russian: A Study in the Salience of Pronunciation, Lexicon, Grammar and Syntax by Jill A. Neuendorf May 12, 2010 Submitted to the Faculty of Bryn Mawr College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Abstract This study of L-2 Russian interlanguage production examined the salience of phonetic, lexical and syntactical features for L-1 listener intelligibility, based on L-2 recitation of written scripts (Part I) and also unrehearsed speech (Part II). Part III of the study investigated strategies used by native-speaking teachers of Russian as a Second Language and experienced Russian host families to facilitate comprehensibility of L-2 Russian speech. The respondent group consisted of 51 native-Russian speakers plus a 20-member ethnic Russian control group, whose speech samples were also rated by the informant group. The 51 respondents comprised four sub-groups based on residency (Russia/US), profession (teacher/non-teacher of Russian as a Second Language), experience with Americans and knowledge of English. Part I participants listened to eight L-2 American speakers of Russian of beginning, intermediate, advanced and superior proficiency levels read a text in Russian and noted which aspect(s) of L-2 speech affected intelligibility. In Part II, participants listened to the same L-2 speakers spontaneously speak in Russian about their families, and then recorded which non-nativelike productions in grammar, pronunciation, lexicon and syntax were salient. In Part III, 18 L-2 Russian Teachers and 8 Russian home-stay family hosts were surveyed regarding both effective and ineffective strategies used to facilitate comprehensibility with American speakers of Russian. The results of Part I revealed the salience of L-2 pronunciation (especially of paired consonants) by speakers of all proficiency levels for L-1 listener intelligibility. However, data revealed that native Russian listeners rated “lack of emotional expression” 2 [intonational contours] as having most interfered with the intelligibility of speakers in the control group. Part II findings confirmed that, although ratings across different respondent groups varied regarding L-2 proficiency levels and degree of incomprehensibility, non- nativelike pronunciation by L-2 speakers of all levels resulted in the greatest incomprehensibility for L-1 listeners. Six of the eight respondent groups determined that incorrect word choice by Level 1, 2 and 4 L-2 speakers resulted in incomprehension. Four of the eight respondent groups identified non-normative productions in L-2 syntax by Level 1 and 2 speakers as salient. Hesitation devices and fillers used by L-2 speakers also resulted in L-1 listener incomprehension. The results of Part III showed that inter-active strategies used to clarify or improve poor L-2 pronunciation or grammar knowledge are most effective when students are highly motivated, have low inhibition, and make a concerted effort to communicate with their teachers, as well as with home-stay hosts. 3 Vita I, Jill Ann Neuendorf, was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin on December 17, 1971. I graduated from Beaver Dam Senior High School in the spring of 1990. In the fall of that year I entered the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UWGB) where I double- majored in German and Humanistic Studies. While in college, I studied in Kassel, Germany, through a university exchange program and received a one year scholarship to study Chinese at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan. Although UWGB does not have a Russian department, the university did offer an exchange with Kharkov State University in Kharkov, Ukraine. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to learn Russian and went to Kharkov in 1994 for six months for individualized Russian grammar and conversation classes. After graduating from UWGB in the spring of 1995 I returned to Kharkov after receiving an offer to teach English at Kharkov Polytechnical University. For the next school year I not only taught English for Specialized Purposes, but also continued taking private Russian classes with a tutor. Following the completion of my teaching assignment, I applied to the Peace Corps and was accepted. I was sent to Russia and, thanks to my teaching experience in Ukraine, was chosen for a teaching position in Moscow at the Russian Teacher Training Institute where I conducted English language and culture classes for teachers from all over Russia from 1996-1998. On the invitation of one teacher who attended my classes, I moved to Izhevsk, Russia to teach English culture classes at the Izhevsk Teacher Training Institute, Udmurt State University, Teacher Training College and three specialized English schools. I lived in Izhevsk from 1998-1999. While there, I continued taking private Russian classes with a tutor. I entered the Graduate School of Language Education at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in Monterey, California in the fall of 1999. While enrolled at MIIS, I also completed courses in translation and interpretation between Russian and English. In the summers of 2000 and 2001 I worked as a Russian translator and English- language editor at Tver’ InterContact Group in Tver’, Russia. I graduated from MIIS in 2001 with an MA in Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language. My thesis was entitled, “An Examination of Factors Necessary for Students to Become More Successful Foreign Language Learners.” In the fall of 2001 I received a position at American Councils for International Education in Washington DC where I worked on the Partners in Education (PiE) program. The main goal of this program was to bring history and civics teachers from the former Soviet Union to the US for eight-week internships. While employed with PiE, I organized orientation sessions for participants in Washington DC and conducted sight visits to their internship locations throughout the US. I was offered a position in the fall of 2003 through American Councils for International Education as Resident Director in Vladimir, Russia. In this capacity I was a liaison between the teaching staff at the Center for Russian Studies “KORA” and the American students who were studying there. I also regularly attended Russian language classes together with my students and took private Russian classes. 4 After working in Vladimir for two years I entered the Department of Russian and Second Language Acquisition at Bryn Mawr College in the fall of 2005. From 2005-2006 I taught first- and third-year Russian classes at the University of Maryland. From 2006- 2008 I was a Teaching Assistant at Bryn Mawr College where I taught first- and second- year Russian Conversation and classes in the Flagship Program. In 2007 I began teaching first- and second-year Russian, Introduction to Russian Culture and Russian Conversation at Swarthmore College. In the summers of 2006 and 2007 I taught Russian at the Russian Language Institute at Bryn Mawr College, and was the group leader for American Councils for International Education’s Golden Ring Program, which provides high school students with Russian language study in Vladimir, Russia. I was accepted for PhD candidacy after passing my preliminary exams in the spring of 2008. In the summer of that year I received the Kline Fellowship through Bryn Mawr College to conduct eight weeks of research for my dissertation in Vladimir, Russia. In February 2010 I was hired as a Russian language instructor at Georgetown University in Washington DC where I will begin teaching in September 2010. 5 Acknowledgments I would like to thank my dissertation advisor, Dr. Dan Davidson, for his time, insight and advice. I am grateful to him for all of the suggestions he made on ways I could improve the content of my dissertation. I thank American Councils for International Education for arranging my trip to Russia in the summer of 2008 so that I could conduct interviews for my research. Special thanks are extended to Dr. Phil Everson of Swarthmore College for patiently explaining which statistical procedures would be appropriate for my study and helping me to interpret them correctly. To Dr. Sibelan Forrester of Swarthmore College I owe a debt of gratitude for arranging my teaching schedule so that I had as much time as possible to work on my dissertation each semester. I am grateful to Natasha Dombrovskaya and Yulia Kashutina for helping me develop my test design, my 51 Russian participants in Russia and the US for agreeing to participate in my study, and my eight American Russian speakers who provided me with speech samples. I would also like to thank my first Russian instructors, Nataliya Dotsenko and Alisa Strel’nikova of Kharkov, Ukraine for their patience, encouragement and empathy when I began to learn Russian. Additionally, I want to thank Tatyana Denisenko and Lyudmila Tomashevskaya of Vladimir, Russia for not only being delightful teachers, but wonderful role models as well. It is also important for me to thank all of my Russian friends in the former Soviet Union and the US not only for the endless hours they spent explaining different elements of Russian grammar and culture to me, but for always treating me like one of their own.
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