SPEECH SOUND ACQUISITION AND PHONOLOGICAL ERROR PATTERNS IN CHILD SPEAKERS OF SYRIAN ARABIC: A NORMATIVE STUDY By Husen OWAIDA Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of doctor of philosophy in Communication sciences and disorders School of Health Sciences Division of Language & Communication Science City University London April 2015 THE FOLLOWING PARTS OF THIS THESIS HAVE BEEN REDACTED FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS: p. 78 Map of Syria. pp. 248-265 Appendix 1 – Articulation Test. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................................. V LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................. VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ VIII ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................................... X CHAPTER 1: AIMS OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 RESEARCH AIMS ............................................................................................................................. 11 1.3 RATIONALE ........................................................................................................................................ 13 CHAPTER 2: SPEECH SOUND ACQUISITION IN PERSPECTIVE ...................................... 17 2.1 THE STUDY OF SPEECH SOUND ACQUISITION IN ENGLISH ..................................... 17 2.1.1 TIMING STUDIES .............................................................................................................................. 17 2.1.2 PHONOLOGICAL ERROR STUDIES........................................................................................... 22 2.1.3 PHONOLOGICAL AND TIMING STUDIES ........................................................................... 29 2.2 STUDIES OF PHONOLOGICAL ACQUISITION IN OTHER LANGUAGES ................... 33 2.2.1 XHOSA ............................................................................................................................................... 33 2.2.2 ZULU ................................................................................................................................................. 34 2.2.3 GERMAN ........................................................................................................................................... 35 2.2.4 MODERN STANDARD CHINESE ............................................................................................ 36 2.3 IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE STUDIES OF PHONOLOGICAL ACQUISITION ........... 38 2.3.1 TASK-RELATED CONSIDERATIONS........................................................................................ 38 2.3.2 THE CRITERION OF ACQUISITION .......................................................................................... 43 2.3.3 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................................. 46 2.4 ARTICULATION TESTS .................................................................................................................. 50 2.4.1 THE DIAGNOSTIC EVALUATION OF ARTICULATION ANDPHONOLOGY (DEAP) .............................................................................................................................................................................. 51 2.4.2 THE ARIZONA ARTICULATION PROFICIENCY SCALE ................................................... 54 2.4.3 ASSESSMENT LINK BETWEEN PHONOLOGY & ARTICULATION ............................. 56 2.4.4 THE GOLDMAN-FRISTOE TEST OF ARTICULATION ................................................... 58 2.4.5 PRESENTATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE TEST ....................................................................... 62 2.4.6 METHODS OF SCORING AN ARTICULATION TEST .......................................................... 65 2.5 SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................................... 71 CHAPTER 3: THE PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY OF ARABIC ....................................... 73 3.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 73 3.2 PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY OF SYRIAN STANDARD ARABIC ............................ 76 3.2.1 THE CONSONANTS ...................................................................................................................... 78 ii 3.2.2 THE VOWELS IN SYRIAN ARABIC............................................................................................. 85 3.2.3 SYLLABLE STRUCTURE ................................................................................................................. 89 3.3 TESTING ARABIC PRONUNCIATION ........................................................................................ 92 3.3.1 AMAYREH ARTICULATION TEST .............................................................................................. 92 3.3.2 MANSOURA ARTICULATION TEST ........................................................................................... 93 3.4 SPEECH SOUND ACQUISITION IN ARABIC STUDIES ..................................................... 95 3.5 CONCLUSIONS................................................................................................................................ 101 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................. 103 4.1 OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY ............................................................................................... 103 4.2 OVERALL APPROACH ............................................................................................................. 106 4.3 ASSESSMENT ............................................................................................................................. 108 4.4 PRINCIPLES AND CRITERIA FOR TEST DESIGN .............................................................. 113 4.4.1 FAMILIARITY AND IMAGEABILTY ....................................................................................... 113 4.4.2 WORD APPEARANCE .................................................................................................................. 113 4.4.3 PHONETIC COMPLEXITY .......................................................................................................... 114 4.4.4 SPEECH SOUND FREQUENCY ................................................................................................. 118 4.5 PICTURES .......................................................................................................................................... 120 4.6 SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES AND CRITERIA FOR DESIGNING THIS ARTICULATION TEST ......................................................................................................................... 121 4.7 PARTICIPANTS .......................................................................................................................... 123 4.8 PROCEDURE ................................................................................................................................... 125 4.9 PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION .................................................................................................... 126 CHAPTER 5: AGE OF SPEECH SOUND ACQUISITION ....................................................... 128 5.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 128 5.2 TEST VALIDITY............................................................................................................................... 129 5.3 TEST RELIABILITY ........................................................................................................................ 131 5.4 TRANSCRIPTION RELIABILITY .............................................................................................. 132 5.5 VOWEL PRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 132 5.6 CONSONANT PRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 134 5.7. PRONUNCIATION ACCURACY AND WORD POSITION................................................... 135 5.8 GENDER DIFFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 136 5.9 THE AGES OF CONSONANT ACQUISITION .......................................................................... 137 5.9.1 THE ACQUISITION OF PLOSIVES ........................................................................................... 139 5.9.2 THE ACQUISITION OF NASALS ............................................................................................... 145 5.9.3 THE ACQUISITION OF THE TRILL ........................................................................................ 146 5.9.4 THE ACQUISITION OF THE FRICATIVES ..........................................................................