Nana Tanaka
Phonology 260
11/11/13
Pronunciation Doctor: Speech Analysis
Introduction
Pronunciation doctor focuses on identifying differences on segmentals, suprasegmentals,
and measure intelligibility to help improve international participants’ pronunciations. Having
accents is not a bad thing as an international language because accents are considered to be their
identity; however, if accents cannot be understood by people, and it brings difficulties in
communicating with each other, that would be a problem. It is interesting to hear and distinguish
each accent according to countries where the participants are from. Our group in phonology 260
had four non-English speaking participants who are from Japan, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. For
analyzing each participant speech, we rated it on a scale of 1 to 10 for intelligibility, segmental,
and suprasegmentals. I will give some information on their background, native language, and test
types used for recording. Also I will provide rates for each categories and recommended
pedagogy at the end.
Diagnostic Test Description
Diagnostic test is composed of three parts. The first part is an open speech which the
participant was given some time prior to recording, so that the participant could describe four
pictures and think about her own story. The participant was supposed to use her imagination and
tell how the story ends. The second part is reading the Prator Passage from Prator and Robinett,
1985, pp. 236-237. This short passage was designed to identify areas for improvement in
university students’ pronunciation of the English segmental and suprasegmental phonemes. The
participant was given some time to practice passages before recording. The third part is about
accent analysis sentences. The participant read eight sentences specifically focused on accents.
She did not have much practice before recording this last diagnostic test.
Participant #1
Background Information
Yuki is from Japan and her native language is Japanese. She was a transfer student from a
Japanese university. She began EIL program from intermediate 2 before her mission in Japan,
and she came back to school and started from EIL Advanced 1. During her mission, she had a
couple companions from America, so she had some opportunities to speak English, but not much
comparing to the time when she was studying here at BYUH.
Segmental Issues: 7 out of 10
<Vowels>
Mostly she makes good vowel sounds in sentences. For example, she says “but” /bʌt/
with putting a stress on /ʌ/ clearly. However, there are a few errors; for example, from the Prator
diagnostic passage, when she pronounces “casual”, she says /kaʒəl/ instead of /kæʒuəl/. Her
vowel /æ/ is weak because /æ/ sound does not exist in Japanese. For the story telling part, she
pronounces “Grocery” as /gɹauʃɹi/ instead of /gɹouʃɹi/. This happens to many Japanese people
who speak English as the second lanugage because there is no distinction in vowel sounds in
Japanese.
<Consonant>
She is good at making a sound of /p/ and very clear with end of words. For example,
when she says “coffee shop”, she makes a plosive sound well. However, when she pronounces
“bag”, she said /bæg/. I think this is because a word “bag” in Japanese is /bak/. It is interesting to
notice that some English is now distributed to Japanese language, and Japanese people use them
as Japanese English. The Japanese English makes both Japanese and English speakers confused
because Japanese think Japanese English is English. When she makes past tense in regular verbs,
she forgets to put /t/ at the end of the word “walked”. For example, about a sentence “She walked
on the street”, she says “si wɔːk on ða stɹit”. Many English speakers drop the ends when they
talk in open speech, so this is not a big problem. She is weak on pronouncing /ɹ/ when she
pronounces “weather”. She pronounces room as /luːm/ instead of /ɹuːm/.
Suprasegmental Issues: 6 out of 10
<Intonation>
When she creates her own story by looking at pictures, her intonation goes up a lot, even
if the sentences are supposed to be down. This happens because she is thinking and speaking at
the same time, she does not pay attention to intonation much. On the other hand, when she reads
Prator diagnostic passage, her intonation was much better. For example, her voice rises up when
it is yes/no questions, and her voice falls with information questions such as “where should he
live?” in sentences. However, when she was listing “casual in dress, informal in manner, and
confident in speech”, she does not go up her intonation on the first two items, and fall on the last
item. As a result, it sounds a little bit awkward.
<Stress-Timing>
Her stress-timing is very good. Even though her native language is Japanese which
requires syllable-timed, her English samples are isochronous and sound very smooth when she
describes pictures. However, on reading passages, her stress-timing is not as smooth as she could
be because she did not have enough time to practice the passages. In addition, the styles of
writing are different from hers.
<Word Stress>
When she pronounces “weather”, she puts stress on the second syllable which is “ther”;
therefore, I could not understand what word she said at first. “Weather” is a core vocabulary
which has two-syllable length and is stressed on the first syllable. Instead of stressing the second
syllable, she should stress on the first syllable, WEAther to make it sound intelligible. About
Prator diagnostic passage, she does not put any stress on a word “another”, because Japanese
language is understandable without putting stress on words.
Intelligibility: 9 out of 10
Our team rated her intelligibility is 9 out of 10. Her total intelligibility is high because we
could understand what she is talking about clearly. However, she makes a couple mistakes on
pronouns. For example, while she is describing pictures she states “he” instead of “she”. This is a
common mistake for Japanese because Japanese language allows communicating without
mentioning subjects in sentences. Therefore, it is hard for her to think both grammar rules of
subjects and which pronouns she should use and stories at the same time. She misread some
vocabulary because she did not have enough time to practice or the letters on a paper was too
small to read for her.
Pedagogical Suggestions
I would choose a pronunciation issue of /ɹ/ and /l/ to teach her. This is a major
pronunciation problem for Japanese speakers, because there is not much difference between /ɹ/
and /l/ in Japanese language. I would like to use her recordings and listen to her /ɹ/ and /l/ and
help her to recognize differences. Also I would like to teach the pronunciation with placement of
tongue with drawing a picture of mouth. Also I help her to show the difference by using many
minimal pairs.
Participant #2
Background Information
Holly is from Hong Kong, she has studied English for 18 years in her life. She started
EIL program from intermediate 2. She has been a student at BYUH for 2 years and half. She is
studying social work. She has worked as a waitress and an usher at PCC, so she uses English a
lot during the past 2 years.
Segmental Issues: 6 out of 10
<Vowels>
When she says “family”, she says /fəmɪli/ instead of /fæməli/. When she puts stress on
vowels, she is very good at; for example, she emphasizes “but” very well with /ʌ/. Even though
she drops many endings of words, she mostly has good pronunciations on vowels. Her “better”
and “beautiful” is /betaɹ/ instead of /betəɹ/ and /butəfl/ instead of /bjutəfl/. Also “casually”
sounds /kɔːʒəli/ instead of / kæʒəli/. From analysing her vowels, she can improve /æ/ sounds.
<Consonant>
She drops /t/ and /d/ many times especially in ending words with those pronunciations
when she is using past tense for verbs during open speech. For example, when Holly mentions
“she went inside the coffee shop”, she pronounces “went” as /wen/. Also when she pronounces
“bought”, she says /bɔː/. Again, she drops /t/ sound. She totally loses the ending /t/ sounds. As I
analyzed her pronunciation, I notice that she often drops her endings. One of the examples is
“order”, when she says “ordered”, she does not pronounce /d/ which is the ending of the word.
Other samples are “shop” and “but”. She says /ʃɔ/ and does not pronounce /p/ at the end. For “but”
she says //This is happened because she pays attention to thinking what she is going to say. When
I listened to another participant’s sample from Hong Kong, he drops his ending sounds
sometimes, so it is their native language effect. In addition, her “break” sounds /bəːɹθ/.
Therefore, she is not good at making sounds of plosive which is /p/, /t/, /d/, and /k/. I think this
issues are influenced by her native language as well. However, when she read the Prator Passage,
she is much better to pronounce the endings including plural nouns such as “questions” and
“problems”. It was clear that she can pronounce it if she pays attentions to them in speech.
Suprasegmental Issues: 7 out of 10
<Intonation>
When she is describing pictures, she raises the ends of both sentences even though the
sentences are not questions or listing. For example, “she ordered one coffee, and then to enjoy
her break time”. These endings should be fallen. I think this is because she is thinking and not
sure about her story. Her less confident feeling about her story appears in her intonation. Also
this happens because her native language affects her English. Cantonese is a tone-language, and
it has more intonations than English. It contains 8 tones. On the other hand, when she is reading
passages, her intonation is mostly consistent. She goes up and down when she is supposed to,
except “casual in dress” in the Prator Passage. She was supposed to rise the phrase up because it
is the first list in sentences. She does rise the second item and fall the last item. About accent
analysis sentences, her intonation is very good because she uses linking consonants. For instanse,
when she states phrases “good to eat” and “eat them”, she pronounces /gʊ tə it/ and /i ðəm/.
<Stress-Timing>
Her stress-timing is consistent. She does not have problems on stress-timing when she is
reading passages. One thing that I noticed was “one coffee”. While she is making her story, she
does not enough length to pronounce “one” and “coffee”. It was a little bit short on stress-timing.
<Word Stress>
When she is creating her story, she keeps saying “MARket” as marKET. She puts her
stress on the second syllable. This is influenced by her native language because Cantonese has 8
tones.
Intelligibility: 8 out of 10
When she is making her own story by looking at the pictures, she makes errors of
pronouns such as “he” instead of “she”. In Cantonese, gender is neutral, so there is no distinction
between “he” and “she” in speech. This is a reason that Holly made some mistakes of pronouns.
This issue happened to Yuki whose native language is Japanese. Therefore, pronoun errors are
common among Asian students. She has good distinguished word phrases, while she is talking in
English. Being based on her good length of word phrases, her English sounds more intelligent
even though she has segmantal problems. She makes mistakes on unamiliar vocaburary such as
giraffes, bats, and Pluto. These big words are not usually used in conversation.
Pedagogical Suggestions
I would teach her about plusive sounds and tell her to make sure she pronounces ending
of the words clearly. For teaching materials, I would use this speech samples and listen to the
samples together. I would ask her to pay attention to her endings while listening to it.
Participant #3
Background Information
Stanly is from Hong Kong, and he started study English since kindergaren in Hong Kong.
He learned most of subjects in English in secondly school. He started his EIL program three
semesters ago. He is an international freshman and has not served his mission yet. He had not
studied abroad other countires until he came to BYUH.
Segmental Issues: 8 ou of 10
<Vowels>
He pronounces “lady” as /lɪdi/, but it should be /leɪdi/. He pronounces “trainer” /tɹɪnɚ/
instead of /tɹeɪnɚ/. When he pronounces some words especially /eɪ/sounds, he goes very fast and
does not pronounce /e/sounds.
<Consonant>
He sometimes drops the end sound of words. For example, when he describes his future
career, he says “something” as /sʌmθɪ/. This time, he drops /ŋ/. He drops /s/ sound for plural
nouns; for example, “clothes” he says /kloθ/. I wonder it happens because he did not have
enough time to practice reading passages, or his native language is influenced. When he says
“she was so relax with coffee”, he says “relax” as /ɪlas/ instead of /ɹɪlæks/. I think he makes
mistakes on plosive sounds like Holly does. “three” sounds /fɹi/. He says “shoes” as /suz/ instead
of /ʃuz/. About “should” he says /sud/ instead of /ʃʊd/. He switches /ɹ/ and /l/ sometimes in
reading passages. For example, “physical training” he says /fɪzɪkɹ tɹɪnɪn/. Even though he had a
paper to read passages, he drops endings more than Holly who speaks the same native language.
These issues would be problems for his intelligibility.
Suprasegmental Issues: 7 out of 10
<Intonation>
While he is reading a passage about my exercise program, his intonation gets more
Cantonese. I think that is because he reads passages without thinking and reads faster, his native
accents appear strongly. On the other hand, he has to slow his speech speed as he is thinking at
the same time during story telling.
<Stress-Timing>
He needs to have some linking consonant to consonant. For example, when he says, “I
used to love” he pronounces / aɪ just tə lʌv/. However, he would sound very smooth if he says /aɪ
jus tə lʌv /. As he is reading passages, his stress-timing is more consistent than his open speech.
<Word Stress>
“exercising” should be EXERcising, but he stresses on exerCISING in reading my
exercise program. He also does not stress each syllable of “physically”. He goes PHY-SI-CA-lly.
This happens because he is not sure the vocabulary, so it shows his unconfident feeling. Again he
does not put any stress in a word “potato”. He puts a same length to each syllable like PO-TATO. It sounds like a voice from a machine because there is no clear word stress.
Intelligibility: 7 out of 10
He has a good pronunciations on most of his speech, but his content does not have
enough information for people to be understood. Therefore, our team rated his intelligibility as 7
out of 10. His verb tense structures are not consistent, and he makes errors like “she have” and
mixes up with present and past tenses. Therefore it is confusing to listen to his open speech about
story telling. While he is describing pictures, he makes errors about pronouns which are “he” and
“she”. This happens becasue he speaks while he is thinkin and this is such a common mistake for
Hong Kong and Japanese speakers.
Pedagogical Suggestions
I would teach him about consonant /ʃ/ with drawing pictures of mouth. I would make sure
the sounds is unvoiced and if his breath comes from his throat. Teaching linking words might be
helpful for him too. Most of his speech is good and has linking phrases, so it is understandable,
but there is some non-smoothly flow because of lack of linking phrases.
Participant #4
Background Information
Natalie is form Indonesia, she has worked at PCC. She constantly uses her English to
communicate with customers. She has been a student at BYUH for about 2 years.
Segmental Issues: 9 out of 10
<Vowels>
I have listened her samples many times to find some errors on vowels, but I could find
ones. She has clear and distinguished vowels.
<Consonant>
She pronounces “three” as /tɹi/, but it should be /θɹi/. She needs to put her tongue between
upper and down teeth to make a voiceless sound. She almost drops every /t/ sounds for only
regular past forms. For example, when she says “workd”, she says /wəɹk/, but she has no
problems with irregular past forms like “was” “saw”, and “sat”. When she says “sold” /so/, she
does not say ending. She says “first started” in a sentence, her consonents sounds of /st/ connects
together. So putting “firST” and “STarted” together produces /fɚ stɑːɹtɪd / sounds. This sounds
very natural and smooth, and I think many American do this in informal situations.
Suprasegmental Issues: 10 out of 10
<Intonation>
Her intonation is very good. It seems that she speaks kind of dramatically, but it is very
clear and understandable for others.
<Stress-Timing>
Her stress-timing is very consistent on both open speech and reading passages. It was
difficult to find problems. She even puts great stress-timing on long listings phrases in passages.
<Word Stress>
Because she put stress the second syllable of the word “sixty”, it sounds like “sixteen”.
Intelligibility: 10 out of 10
When she talks about her part time job experience, she gives good explanation of what
kind of things she does for her work and reasons why she has worked there. Therefore our team
rated her intelligibility is 10. Not only her pronunciations, but also her contents produces high
intelligibility. She does not have problems on communication. It seems that her native language
does not influence her English speech at all.
Pedagogical Suggestions
For her teaching, I would work on her ending of a word. Sometimes, she makes a little bit
short sounds when they are supposed to be long enough to pronounce. For the material, I would
use reading passages to read together and make sure if she can pronounce the endings.
Conclusion
This papers gives opportunities to observe differences in accents from several different
countries. It was interesting to see how their native languages are influenced on speaking in
English and each category. I learned that their intelligibility does not measure according to only
their pronunciations but their English proficiency levels about the content. Intelligibility depends
on what kind of vocabulary speakers choose and other issues including pronunciations aspects.