Rhythm instruction to improve ESP students’ fluency: a study of pausing
Abstract
The present work is aimed at examining how efficient it is to teach language rhythm to enhance English for Specific Purposes (ESP) learners’ fluency. 298 Spanish/Catalan speakers participated in the experiment, among which 42 students fulfilled treatment and were examined as subjects of the study. For ten weeks, participants took pronunciation instruction within their regular lessons. The pronunciation sessions lasted thirty minutes and followed a communicative framework. Students were divided into an experimental group, with explicit rhythm training, and a control group, without it. The total number of pauses and unfilled pauses were counted and compared to assess their frequency performing ANOVAs and t-tests. Descriptive analysis shows that the experimental group tends to pause less and make fewer unfilled pauses after training. However, statistical significance is only reached for the independent-samples t-test of the effect sizes of the number of unfilled pauses. Therefore, these findings suggest a greater command over pausing when rhythm is explicitly taught, and a consequent improvement of fluency in the second language, despite statistical results not always being significant.
References
Anderson-Hsieh, J. (1990). Teaching suprasegmentals to international teaching assistants using field-specific materials. English for Specific Purposes, 9(3), 195-214. https://doi. org/10.1016/0889-4906(90)90013-3
Caudwell, R. (2008). Defining fluency for air traffic control. Speech in Action, 3, 1-5. https://www.speechinaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Defining-Fluency.pdf
Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M., & Goodwin, J. M. (1996). Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. Cambrige University Press.
Chela-Flores, B. (1997). Rhythmic patterns as basic units in pronunciation teaching. Onomázein, (2), 111-134.
Chela-Flores, B. (2003). Optimizing the teaching of English suprasegmentals to Spanish speakers. Lenguas Modernas, (28–29), 255-273.
Chela de Rodríguez, B. (1976). Teaching English suprasegmentals to Spanish speakers. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, 1, 63-82.
Couper, G. (2006). The short and long-term effects of pronunciation instruction. Prospect, 21(1), 46-66.
Dauer, R. M. (1987). Phonetic and phonological components of language rhythm. In T. Gamkrelidze (Ed.), Paper presented at the 11th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS) (pp. 447-450). Academy of Sciences of the Estonian S.S.R.
Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (2015). Pronunciation fundamentals: Evidence-based perspectives for L2 teaching and research. John Benjamins.
Derwing, T. M., Rossiter, M. J., Munro, M. J., & Thomson, R. I. (2004). Second language fluency: Judgments on different tasks. Language Learning, 54(4), 655-679.
Douglas, D. (2000). Assessing language for specific purposes. Cambridge University Press.
Dudley-Evans, T., & St John, M. J. (1998). Developments in English for specific purposes. A multi-disciplinary approach. Cambridge University Press.
Frost, D., & Picavet, F. (2014). Putting prosody first – Some practical solutions to a perennial problem: The Innovalangues project. Research in Language, 12(3), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.2478/rela-2014-0002
Gilbert, J. B. (2008). Teaching pronunciation: using the prosody pyramid. Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, J. (2013). Pronunciation teaching methods and techniques. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi. org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0970
Hahn, L. D. (2004). Primary stress and intelligibility: Research to motivate the teaching of suprasegmentals. TESOL Quarterly, 38(2), 201-223.
Lennon, P. (1990). Investigating fluency in EFL: A quantitative approach. Language Learning, 40(3), 387-417.
Levis, J. M. (2018). Intelligibility, oral communication, and the teaching of pronunciation. Cambrige University Press.
Olive, J. P., Greenwod, A., & Coleman, J. (1993). Acoustics of American English speech: A dynamic approach. Springer-Verlag.
Ordin, M., & Polyanskaya, L. (2014). Development of timing patterns in first and second languages. System, 42, 244-257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2013.12.004
Ordin, M., & Polyanskaya, L. (2015). Acquisition of speech rhythm in a second language by learners with rhythmically different native languages. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 138(2), 533-544. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4923359
Patel, A. D. (2007). Music, language, and the brain. Oxford University Press USA.
Quené, H., & Van Delft, L. E. (2010). Non-native durational patterns decrease speech intelligibility. Speech Communication, 52 (11-12), 911-918. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. specom.2010.03.005
Quesada Vázquez, L., & Romero, J. (2020). ESP within ESP: the design and implementation of a pronunciation module in a technical English course. Onomázein, (NE VI), 209–228. https://doi.org/10.7764/onomazein.ne6.11
Räisäenen, C., & Fortanet-Gómez, I. (2008). The state of ESP teaching and learning in Western European higher education after Bologna. In I. Fortanet-Gómez, & C. Räisänen (Eds.), ESP in European higher education. Integrating language and content (pp. 11-51). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.4.03rai
Riggenbach, H. (1991). Toward an understanding of fluency: A microanalysis of nonnative speaker conversations. Discourse Processes, 14(4), 423-441. https://doi. org/10.1080/01638539109544795
Tajima, K., Port, R., & Dalby, J. (1997). Effects of temporal correction on intelligibility of foreign-accented English. Journal of Phonetics, 25(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1006/ jpho.1996.0031
Tsiartsioni, E. (2011). Can pronunciation be taught? Teaching English speech rhythm to Greek students. In E. Kitis, N. Lavidas, N. Tpointzi, & T. Tsangalidis (Eds.), Selected Papers from the 19th International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Thessaloniki 3-5 April 2009 (pp. 447-458). Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. https://doi.org/10.26262/istal.v19i0.5522
Tuan, L. T., & An, V. T. P. (2010). Teaching English rhythm by using songs. Studies in Literature and Language, 1(2), 13-29.
White, L., & Mattys, S. L. (2007a). Calibrating rhythm: First language and second language studies. Journal of Phonetics, 35(4), 501-522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. wocn.2007.02.003
White, L., & Mattys, S. L. (2007b). Rhythmic typology and variation in first and second languages. In P. Prieto, J. Mascaro, & M.-J. Sole (Eds.), Segmental and prosodic issues in romance phonology (Current issues in linguistic theory series) (pp. 237-257). John Benjamins.
Wong, R. (1987). Teaching pronunciation: Focus on English rhythm and intonation. Regents Prentice Hall.
Wood, D. (2010). Formulaic language and second language speech fluency: Background, evidence and classroom applications. Continuum.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Linguística: Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Universidade do Porto
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
