2016 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Improving English speaking with parsing training
| Project/Area Number |
15K16799
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| Research Institution | The University of Aizu |
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Principal Investigator |
Heo Younghyon 会津大学, コンピュータ理工学部, 准教授 (10631476)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
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| Keywords | English speaking / parsing / intonation |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
PIST (Pause, Intonation and Stress Training) was implemented in two sections of Listening and Speaking class at our university. For each training set, students were asked to record themselves repeating after native speaker reading of target sentences. For each sentence, students were primed with native production of it while presented with visuals; pitch contour drawn based on PRAAT analysis was used for intonation, and pause patterns in the most careful reading were visually presented by listing phrase chucks in different lines. To test their improvement in prosodic awareness in production, I compared their reading of sentences in the pre-test and the post-test. R is used to analyze the difference in the pre-test and post-test in terms of intonation and pause patterns (how close they are to the native pattern). Logistic regression analysis (analyzing the binary choice of whether the student improved the intonation pattern in the desired direction) was used, and there was a significant improvement in the post-treatment intonation patterns (β = 3.14, SE = 0.31, p < 0.01). I could confirm that shadowing with visually marked intonation/pause patterns can help L2 learners improve their performance in terms of prosody. I also confirmed that using all three components－visual (PRAAT intonation marking), audio (native reading) and text (written sentences with pause breaks)－to be the most effective training method. The findings of this research were reported at the NeuroELT meeting of JALT (Japan Association for Language Teaching).
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
PIST (Pause, Intonation and Stress Training) was well incorporated in the curriculum of English Listening and Speaking class at a university level. At the beginning of the training where students only had audio source to do the training, they seemed less confident and had a difficulty completing the task. But when they were introduced with visual and text materials, they became more confident and seemed to enjoy the training. In their recordings, which they had to upload every week, I could see that their voices are getting louder as they gradually built confidence in producing English sentences. The results were reported at the NeuroELT meeting of JALT (Japan Association for Language Teaching) under the title "Developing L2 Prosodic Awareness: Shadowing with Visuals."
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Since it was confirmed that using all three components (audio, visual and text) in the PIST (Pause, Intonation and Stress Training) is the most effective method, I will incorporate all three components in all training sessions, including more English sentences. In 2017, the parsing training will be implemented not only in my English classes (Listening and Speaking) but also in the elective course titled "Presentation Skills." In learning English presentation, it is important to prepare good presentations but it is equally important to do a good performance (delivery of speech). In learning English speech, correct intonation and pause are important. Training sets with sentences used for English presentation will be prepared and used in this class.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Originally I was planning to visit an L2 instructor/phonetician in Toronto, Canada. I was hoping to have a research meeting on data analysis (especially on how to analyze the pause breaks) and in-class parsing trainings. I also wanted to observe the L2 speaking classes at her university. But when we talked about the timing of my visit, we could not come up with a good time frame in a given situation. So we concluded that 2017 works better than 2016 and had to reschedule our meeting to 2017.
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| Expenditure Plan for Carryover Budget |
I will have a research meeting with that L2 instructor/phonetician in Canada and talk about the following. First, we will discuss how we can effectively identify pause breaks in student recordings. We will also discuss how I can implement in-class parsing activity more effectively. During the project in 2016, I found it more difficult to monitor/control in-class parsing trainings than the trainings that they did for homework. Due to the large class size, it is not easy to control the process of the training. Finally, I also want to observe her L2 speaking class and the ESL speaking classes at her university.
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Research Products
(1 results)
