Teachiog Connected Speech Rules to Japanese Speakers of English so ris to Avoid a Staccato Speech Rhythm Marie A. MeIenca A Thesis in The Centre for Teaching English as a Second Language Presented in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at Concordia University Montréal (Québec) Canada March 200 1 O Marie Melenca, 200 1 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. me Wellington Ottawa ON KiA ON4 Ottawa ON KI A ON4 Canada Canada Your Ne Votre rélërenCe Our fi& Notre rë!drnce The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract Teaching Connected Speech Rutes to Japanese Speakers of English so as to Avoid a Staccato Speech Rhythm Marie Melenca This study explores the effectiveness of teaching Japanese speakers of English how to connect speech so as to avoid a robotic speech rhythm. A control and an experimental group were each given three one-hour classes in English. The control group read poetry aloud without any explicit instructions. The experimental group were instructed in how to link words with three dserent sound boundaries: (1) consonant to vowel, (2) vowel to vowel, and, (3) consonant to consonant. The ability to link word pairs was rated for both the control and expenmentai groups in pre- and post-treatment situations, and this was compared to a native-speaker baseline of connected word pairs. This research focussed on whether instruction in connected speech mles would assist in reducing the syncopated rhythm which ofien characterises the speech of Japanese speakers of English. Although this study was an exploratory one, with a very small sample size, the results were heartening: directly teaching these rules seemed to heighten the awareness of the need to link word pairs. However, the results indicate several problem areas on which researchers and teachers need to focus in order to optimise time spent in pronunciation training. That is, a longer period of instruction with practice may enable a more successfil output. Furthemore, it would be necessary to control expenmental variables more carefùlly and use a larger sample size in order to obtain more definitive support for the clah that teaching comected speech deswould, indeed, generally improve the speech rhythm of Japanese leamers of English. Acknowledgements This project was given its initial stimulus, and then received unswerving support eom David Levy, the English Director in the Department of Continuing Education at McGilI University. The researcher i s indebt ed to Gregory Glidden and Marie-Claude Barrette for their help in judging the speech samples for the study. The researcher is also gratefiil for the kind and helpful assistance of Elaine Shatenstein and RoseLyn SmalI for their assistance in proof-reading severd drafts of the thesis in progress. The author is also thankfirl for the generosity of the Concordia English Language Institute (CELI) of Concordia University for providing volunteer Japanese Learners of English, as well as for Concordia University's TESL Centre for providing classroom space in which to conduct the experiment. Dr. Beth Gatbonton and Carolyn Cronk were both excellent thesis readers and gave timely advice and encouragement; 1 am eternally groteful for their support. 1 am very gratefül to Dr. Palmer Acheson, who agreed to take on the position of thesis supervisor after the experiment had been conducted; his enthusiasrn for rny research brought a most welcome breath of fresh air. 1 am also grateful to Dr. Lori Moms who was the first thesis supervisor; her suggestions were helpful- 1 dedicate this research to my late father, Mikhail Melenca, whose unshakeable belief in me kept me to the task. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..............................................IV LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................... VIII LIST OF TABLES ............................................................IX LIST OF INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET SYMBOLS ........................................................................ X CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................... 1 CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW ............................3 Research on Linking .................................................................................... -3 Cotzsonan2 to Vowel - CV ........................................................................................... -3 Vowel to ?/owel- VV ................................................................................................... 4 Consottarat to Comonartr - CC................. ,. ...............................................................5 Resyllabrfication and Szmpl1~7cafion ........................................................................... 7 Terminology ................................................................................................ 8 Research on Disconnected Speech .............................................................. 11 Research on the Pronunciation Problems of JSsE ........................................ 13 Reasons for Teaching Linking ................................................................... -19 Summary and Conclusions .......................................................................... 22 Research Question ..................................................................................... -23 CHAPTER 3: DESIGN .................................................... 24 Overall Design ........................................................................................... -24 Participants: Roles and Materials ................................................................ 24 v Procedures and Measures ............................................................................ 28 Design of Pedzgogical Acrivity ........~........................................................................ -28 Recording mtd Anabsis of JSE Speech Samples..................... .. .......................... 29 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS .................................................. 31 CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY. DISCUSSION. REC OMMENDAT1 ON S .................................................. 40 Research Questions .................................................................................... -40 Nalive Langriage Trmsfer ....................................................................................... 41 hredm~guageStratem ..... .. ....................................................................................... 43 MaCommon Areas of Discotmecriori .................................................................. 34 Do RernediaC Teachirlg Activities .He@?.................................................................... -45 WhaI lo Teach artd met?........................................................................................... 45 Measuring Learner Performance ................................................................ -46 Disamion of "ReadingA hd'' Resrrlts ............. ... ................................................ 48 Discussion of Free-Speech Monologzre Remlts .......................................................... 50 Transcription Discoveries .......................................................................... -52 Dismssion of Experimer~ialCot~di~ioris ................................................................... 54 Dis~~tssiotrof Experimenter Bias .............................................................................. -54 Disncssiotz of Limitations ......................................................................................... 5.5 Recommendations ...................................................................................... -56 REFERENCE S ................................................................. 59 APPENDICES .................................................................. 64 Appendix A: Request for Teachers' Assistance in Recruiting Japanese Speakers of English..................................................................................... 64 Appendix B: Participant Recruitment Letter ..................... ...... .......... -65 Appendix C: Consent Form to Participate in Research (JSsE) ..................... 66 Appendix D: Consent Form to Participate in Research (NSsE) ................... 68 Appendix E : Pre- and Post-Experiment Questions (JSsE) ........................... 70 Appendix F: Pre-Experiment Questions CNSsE) ......................................... -71 Appendix G:Clear Speaking Test ..........-............................................. .......72 Appendix H: Experimental Teaching Unit 1 - CV ...................................... 73 - Appendix 1: Experimental Teaching Unie 2