This study investigated the role of word stress in the intelligibility of 11 non-native English speakers' speech. Native English listeners judged whether word pairs produced by the non-native speakers and a researcher were the same or different. Results showed that differences in stress use and word mispronunciations affected intelligibility. Tables 1 and 2 show the listeners' judgments for stress and mispronunciation. The study provides evidence that stress and mispronunciations influence non-native speaker intelligibility and could be targets in accent modification training.
Crossing Cultures in Research on International StudentsSherrie Lee
Presentation at Toi-Ohomai Institute of Technology (Rotorua, New Zealand) on 9 June 2017. I discuss the implications of cross-cultural research such as translating non-English data and using a reflexive approach to consider how a researcher’s cultural background influences the research.
Self- Efficacy, Word Reading, and Vocabulary Knowledge in English Language Le...NOR RUBA'YAH ABD RAHIM
Mase, T. F. (2011). Self- Efficacy, Word Reading and Vocabulary Knowledge in English Language Learners. UMI Dissertation Publishing. United States: ProQuest LLC.
How Advanced Is Advanced Is Advanced? Identifying the Top Five Errors in High...Robert Bushong
This presentation was given by Robert Bushong and Florin Mihai at the Sunshine State TESOL 34th Annual Convention in Orlando on May 12, 2012. It was based on a study in which the presenters identified errors common among advanced level ESL writers at the intensive English program at the University of Central Florida.
Crossing Cultures in Research on International StudentsSherrie Lee
Presentation at Toi-Ohomai Institute of Technology (Rotorua, New Zealand) on 9 June 2017. I discuss the implications of cross-cultural research such as translating non-English data and using a reflexive approach to consider how a researcher’s cultural background influences the research.
Self- Efficacy, Word Reading, and Vocabulary Knowledge in English Language Le...NOR RUBA'YAH ABD RAHIM
Mase, T. F. (2011). Self- Efficacy, Word Reading and Vocabulary Knowledge in English Language Learners. UMI Dissertation Publishing. United States: ProQuest LLC.
How Advanced Is Advanced Is Advanced? Identifying the Top Five Errors in High...Robert Bushong
This presentation was given by Robert Bushong and Florin Mihai at the Sunshine State TESOL 34th Annual Convention in Orlando on May 12, 2012. It was based on a study in which the presenters identified errors common among advanced level ESL writers at the intensive English program at the University of Central Florida.
Brokering practices among EAL international studentsSherrie Lee
Academic challenges of international students, particularly those with English as an additional language (EAL), have been mostly researched in the classroom context, with little attention paid to students’ informal learning practices. My research looks specifically at the brokering practices of EAL tertiary students in their understanding of academic literacy. Brokering refers to how students seek help from their peers about understanding academic knowledge and skills. I conducted semi-structured interviews and observations to find out who students approached for help, aspects of academic literacy they needed help with, and their perceptions of the experience. The research findings suggest that educators need to pay attention to how students seek peer support in academic learning in order to develop more effective ways of supporting students’ academic literacy needs.
This paper was presented at CLESOL 2016 on Saturday 16 July 2016.
CLESOL 2016 (Website: http://www.clesol.org.nz)
Learners in Context: Bridging the Gaps
Ākonga Reo: Aronga Āputa
Thursday 14 – Sunday 17 July 2016
The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
The 15th National Conference for Community Languages and ESOL, brought to you by TESOLANZ (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Aotearoa New Zealand) and CLANZ (Community Languages Association New Zealand).
Using focused ethnography to understand brokering practices among internation...Sherrie Lee
Brokering practices are help-seeking interactions that bridge gaps in the seekers' knowledge and understanding of new cultural practices thus enabling them to access resources they would find difficult to do so on their own. For EAL (English as an Additional Language) students, these help-seeking interactions may involve getting others to translate, interpret or explain particular aspects of the host academic environment. In this research, focused ethnography (Knoblauch 2005) is used to investigate the nature of brokering practices among ten international EAL tertiary students during their initial academic semester of fifteen weeks. Focused ethnography specifically addresses constraints in the research context (e.g. time and access to informants), as well as capitalizes on technological tools such as digital recording devices. In seeking to understand brokering interactions and relationships students have with their brokers, conventional ethnographic methods were adapted, for example, digital ethnographic methods (Pink et al. 2015) were used instead of participant observation. Digital ethnographic methods allows a large amount of data to be recorded and reviewed, a feature of focused ethnography known as data intensity. While this form of intensity has been argued to compensate for a short period of research activity, this research suggests that another form of intensity – relational intensity – is just as important in addressing research constraints. Relational intensity refers to the researcher's ongoing responsiveness to the needs of research participants. The paper concludes that future focused ethnographic research should consider both data-related and relational forms of intensity in addressing research constraints.
Using focused ethnography to understand brokering practices among international students. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312024097_Using_focused_ethnography_to_understand_brokering_practices_among_international_students
The impact of personality traits on the affective category of english languag...Dr. Seyed Hossein Fazeli
The present study aims at discovering the impact of personality traits in the prediction use of the Affective English Language Learning Strategies (AELLSs) for learners of English as a foreign language. Four instruments were used, which were Adapted Inventory for Affective English Language Learning Strategies based on Affective category of Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) of Rebecca L. Oxfords (1990), A Background
Questionnaire, NEO-Five Factors Inventory (NEO-FFI), and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Two hundred and thirteen Iranian female university level learners of English language as a university major in Iran, were volunteers to participate in this research work. The intact classes were chosen. The results show that although there is a significant relationship between each of the two traits of personality and use of the AELLSs, personality cannot be a strong predictor with high percentage of contribution to predict use of the AELLSs.
Social Communication Disorder encompasses problems with social interaction, social understanding and pragmatics. Pragmatics refers to using language in proper context.
A Study of the Influence of Gender on Second Language Acquisition A Field Bas...ijtsrd
Language acquisition has turned out to be a popular field of research. In this field the process of first language acquisition and second language acquisition are studied. Various factors have influenced the process of second language acquisition. The main purpose of the study is to evaluate the influence of gender difference in the process of second language acquisition. Data for this study has been collected through questionnaires and interviews. The sources of data is both primary and secondary. It is a Quantitative Study. The primary source of data has been acquired through questionnaires. The secondary source of data has been acquired from the journals, articles and the other works. The outcome of this study would help in the process of teaching of second languages. It would also help to nullify the effect of gender difference if there has been any in language teaching and learning process. Arnab Sarmah "A Study of the Influence of Gender on Second Language Acquisition (A Field Based Study on the Nepali Language)" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-3 , April 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30351.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/other/30351/a-study-of-the-influence-of-gender-on-second-language-acquisition-a-field-based-study-on-the-nepali-language/arnab-sarmah
Brokering practices among EAL international studentsSherrie Lee
Academic challenges of international students, particularly those with English as an additional language (EAL), have been mostly researched in the classroom context, with little attention paid to students’ informal learning practices. My research looks specifically at the brokering practices of EAL tertiary students in their understanding of academic literacy. Brokering refers to how students seek help from their peers about understanding academic knowledge and skills. I conducted semi-structured interviews and observations to find out who students approached for help, aspects of academic literacy they needed help with, and their perceptions of the experience. The research findings suggest that educators need to pay attention to how students seek peer support in academic learning in order to develop more effective ways of supporting students’ academic literacy needs.
This paper was presented at CLESOL 2016 on Saturday 16 July 2016.
CLESOL 2016 (Website: http://www.clesol.org.nz)
Learners in Context: Bridging the Gaps
Ākonga Reo: Aronga Āputa
Thursday 14 – Sunday 17 July 2016
The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
The 15th National Conference for Community Languages and ESOL, brought to you by TESOLANZ (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Aotearoa New Zealand) and CLANZ (Community Languages Association New Zealand).
Using focused ethnography to understand brokering practices among internation...Sherrie Lee
Brokering practices are help-seeking interactions that bridge gaps in the seekers' knowledge and understanding of new cultural practices thus enabling them to access resources they would find difficult to do so on their own. For EAL (English as an Additional Language) students, these help-seeking interactions may involve getting others to translate, interpret or explain particular aspects of the host academic environment. In this research, focused ethnography (Knoblauch 2005) is used to investigate the nature of brokering practices among ten international EAL tertiary students during their initial academic semester of fifteen weeks. Focused ethnography specifically addresses constraints in the research context (e.g. time and access to informants), as well as capitalizes on technological tools such as digital recording devices. In seeking to understand brokering interactions and relationships students have with their brokers, conventional ethnographic methods were adapted, for example, digital ethnographic methods (Pink et al. 2015) were used instead of participant observation. Digital ethnographic methods allows a large amount of data to be recorded and reviewed, a feature of focused ethnography known as data intensity. While this form of intensity has been argued to compensate for a short period of research activity, this research suggests that another form of intensity – relational intensity – is just as important in addressing research constraints. Relational intensity refers to the researcher's ongoing responsiveness to the needs of research participants. The paper concludes that future focused ethnographic research should consider both data-related and relational forms of intensity in addressing research constraints.
Using focused ethnography to understand brokering practices among international students. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312024097_Using_focused_ethnography_to_understand_brokering_practices_among_international_students
The impact of personality traits on the affective category of english languag...Dr. Seyed Hossein Fazeli
The present study aims at discovering the impact of personality traits in the prediction use of the Affective English Language Learning Strategies (AELLSs) for learners of English as a foreign language. Four instruments were used, which were Adapted Inventory for Affective English Language Learning Strategies based on Affective category of Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) of Rebecca L. Oxfords (1990), A Background
Questionnaire, NEO-Five Factors Inventory (NEO-FFI), and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Two hundred and thirteen Iranian female university level learners of English language as a university major in Iran, were volunteers to participate in this research work. The intact classes were chosen. The results show that although there is a significant relationship between each of the two traits of personality and use of the AELLSs, personality cannot be a strong predictor with high percentage of contribution to predict use of the AELLSs.
Social Communication Disorder encompasses problems with social interaction, social understanding and pragmatics. Pragmatics refers to using language in proper context.
A Study of the Influence of Gender on Second Language Acquisition A Field Bas...ijtsrd
Language acquisition has turned out to be a popular field of research. In this field the process of first language acquisition and second language acquisition are studied. Various factors have influenced the process of second language acquisition. The main purpose of the study is to evaluate the influence of gender difference in the process of second language acquisition. Data for this study has been collected through questionnaires and interviews. The sources of data is both primary and secondary. It is a Quantitative Study. The primary source of data has been acquired through questionnaires. The secondary source of data has been acquired from the journals, articles and the other works. The outcome of this study would help in the process of teaching of second languages. It would also help to nullify the effect of gender difference if there has been any in language teaching and learning process. Arnab Sarmah "A Study of the Influence of Gender on Second Language Acquisition (A Field Based Study on the Nepali Language)" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-3 , April 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30351.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/other/30351/a-study-of-the-influence-of-gender-on-second-language-acquisition-a-field-based-study-on-the-nepali-language/arnab-sarmah
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE APPROPRIATENESS OF ADVICE-GIVING AMONG IRANIAN EFL ...Yasser Al-Shboul
This study investigates the differences in the perceptions of the appropriateness in advice giving
in English between Iranian Persian English as a foreign language (EFL) male and female
learners. Data were collected through an adopted version of a Multiple Choice Questionnaire
(MCQ) by Hinkel (1997). The questionnaire involves a series of questions with regard to advice
giving or opting out to a peer acquaintance (equal status) and an instructor (higher status). The
result of the study illustrated that both groups perceived the social distance in the situations with
peer acquaintance (equal status) and instructor (higher status) differently. The learners also
differed in the types of advice they used as the appropriate choice. For Iranian Persian EFL male
learners, in both situations (peer acquaintance and instructor) they preferred indirect advice rather
than the other three options which are hedge advice, direct advice and opting out. On the other
hand, for Iranian Persian EFL female learners, they selected hedge advice in both peer
acquaintance and instructor situations as compared to the other three options (direct advice,
indirect advice and opting out). The study concluded that Iranian Persian EFL learners should be
provided with programs that improve the awareness on different appropriate conversational
strategies in English language. The findings of this study are expected to be beneficial in crosscultural
and cross-gender comparison studies.
The relationship between the neuroticism trait and use of the english languag...Dr. Seyed Hossein Fazeli
The present study aims to find out the relationship between the Neuroticism trait and English Language Learning Strategies (ELLSs) for learners of English as a foreign language. Four instruments were used, which were Persian adapted Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), A Background Questionnaire, NEO-Five Factors Inventory (NEO-FFI), and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Two hundred and thirteen Iranian female university level learners of English language as a university major in Iran, were volunteer to participate in this research work. The intact classes were chosen. The results show that there is significant relationship between the Neuroticism trait and use each of four of the six categories of ELLSs (Memory Strategies, Cognitive Strategies, Metacognitive Strategies, and Social Strategies).
Conversation Analysis: Directness in NNS's Dispreferred ResponsesRoberto Criollo
The present conversation analysis was performed with two groups: NS and NNS of English. NNSs' dispreferrred responses were found to be more direct than NSSs'.
Factors that Affects Language Learning StrategiesPN Ida Mohd Isa
The content of the presentation will give you information on the factors that affect the choice of language learning strategies among learners. The literature reviews are from various studies by prominent researchers.
The Appropriateness in Advice-Giving From a Cross-Cultural PerspectiveYasser Al-Shboul
This cross-cultural study investigates the differences in the perceptions of the appropriateness in advice giving in English between American English native speakers (AEL1) and Jordanian learners of English as a foreign language (JEFL). Data were collected using an adopted version of a Multiple Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) by Hinkel (1997). The questionnaire consists of eight situations that required advice giving or opting out to a peer acquaintance (equal status) and an instructor (higher status). Each situation was accompanied by three MC selections in random order: direct advice, hedge advice, and indirect comments. The fourth selection was an explicit choice for opting out that remained constant for all selections. Results revealed that both groups have the same perception of the social distance in the situations involving peer acquaintance and instructor. They, however, differed in the types of advice they showed as the appropriate choice. JEFL participants considered direct advice or hedge advice as appropriate option to be used with peer acquaintance and with instructors where in American culture the AEL1 participants found these strategies as least likely appropriate. The paper suggests EFL programs that promote awareness for JEFL on various appropriate conversational strategies in English. The results are expected to be useful information in cross-cultural comparison studies and other related areas.
The Appropriateness in Advice-Giving From a Cross-Cultural Perspective
Graduate Research Poster
1. Fort Hays State University
Hays, KS
Speech Intelligibility: Does Stress Play a Role in Detecting
Word Production Differences of Non-native Speakers?
Carol Ellis, Ph.D.
Valerie Van Roeyen, B.A.
Whitney Wietfeld, B.S.
Introduction
• The U.S. is more diverse today than it has ever been in the past.
• Due to increased growth of non-native English speakers within
the U.S. there is an increased growth of speakers trying to
produce understandable English speech (Derwing & Munro,
2005).
• Identifying small differences between word productions of native
and non-native speakers of English may play a part in the
intelligibility of speech.
Purpose
• The purpose of this study was to investigate and document the
role that word stress plays in understanding non-native speakers’
speech.
Methodology
Participants
• Eleven non-native speakers from the Accent Modification class at
Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas.
• Six spoke Arabic (males) and five spoke Chinese (one male and
four females). All speakers were between 21-28 years of age.
• Three native English-speaking listeners.
Procedures
• The eleven non-native speakers read a list of twenty multisyllabic
words into a recorder.
• A native English researcher read the same twenty multisyllabic
words into the recorder.
• Each non-native speakers’ words were matched with the
corresponding English researcher’s words.
• The three listeners then listened to the pairs of words and judged
them to be “same” or “different.”
• They were allowed to listen to the pair a second time if needed.
Analyses
• The data obtained from the listeners was tallied by the research
students and grouped for each of the eleven non-native
participants.
• Individual word pairs were grouped into three different
categories depending upon whether one, two or three listener(s)
heard differences between the pairs.
• Data were formally analyzed using PRAAT.
• Data were compared to the actual stress or mispronunciation
differences.
Results
Intelligibility differences were noted for both stress differences and
mispronunciations of words.
• Table 1 shows the number of word pairs that were judged to be the same or
different by listeners based on stress.
• Table 2 shows the number of word pairs that were judged to be the same or
different by listeners based on mispronunciations of words.
Figure 1. Example of acoustic waveform and spectrogram used in the analysis.
Conclusion
• The results of this study provide some evidence that stress used by non-native
speakers does affect their intelligibility, which agrees with a study by Shriberg
and Kwiatkowski (1982).
• These results also provide evidence that mispronunciations of words may also
play an important part in the intelligibility of accented speech, which agrees
with a study by Weston and Shriberg (1992).
Discussion
• Accent modification is a service available for individuals interested in
modifying their accent and its goal is to improve speech intelligibility.
• The results from this study may help identify factors that can be targeted to
help support the intelligibility of non-native speakers.
• The results of this study indicate that stress may be an appropriate target to
teach in an accent modification curriculum.
Limitations and Future Research
• Larger sample size
• More diverse sample size
• More listeners
• Does stress play a bigger role in one language versus another?
• Does vocabulary play a role in how intelligible non-native speakers are?
Selected References
• Behrman, A. (2013, November). How to conduct prosodic training for foreign accent management. Presented at
the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Chicago Illinois.
• Chen, S. H., & Wang. Y. R. (1990). Vector quantization of pitch information in Mandarin speech. IEE
Transactions on Communication, 38(9), 1317-1320. doi: 10.1109/26.61370
• Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (2005). Second language accent and pronunciation teaching: A research-based
appraoch. TESOL Quarterly, 39, 379-397.
• Shriberg, L.D., & Kwiatkowski, J. (1982). Phonological disorders III: A procedure for assessing severity of
involvement. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 47, 256-270.
• U.S. Census Bureau. (2013). American Community Survey Reports. Washington, D.C: Government Printing
Office. Retrieved from: www.census.gov/acs/Downloads/ACS_Accuracy_of_Data_2011.pdf
• Weston, A.D., & Shriberg, L.D. (1992). Contextual and linguistic correlates of intelligibility in children with
developmental phonological disorders. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 35, 1316-1332.
** For a complete list of references please contact Dr. Carol Ellis at cmellis2@fhsu.eduThe authors have no relevant financial or nonfinancial relationship with this study.
Table 1- Listener Judgements Related to Stress Use
Participants’ Decisions by Use of Stress
Decision Type Same Different
Stressed
Correctly
Yes 354 159
No 60 87
Table 2- Listener Judgements Related to Mispronunciation of Words
Participants’ Decisions by Mispronunciation
Decision Type Same Different
Pronounced
Correctly
Yes 47 169
No 367 77