This paper is concerned with the least studied, but arguably most important, aspect of second and foreign language teaching - pronunciation (defined here to include all the 'speaking skills' not just segmental articulation). Rather than simply applying existing theory to teaching practice, the topic is approached by considering, from a teacher's point of view, 'what works and what doesn't'. In other words, it asks first 'What kinds of teaching really helps learners achieve competence and confidence in spoken communication?'. Building on a number of examples demonstrating rapid and highly effective pronunciation teaching, the paper then moves on to consider how this successful practice can be theorised. The theory of Cognitive Phonology, with its focus on categorisation in context, clearly provides a far better account than traditional derivational theories. However there are some respects in which even Cognitive theory forms an imperfect fit with the teaching data. For example, continued use of the traditional 'top down vs bottom up' dichotomy seems less than helpful in this context, limiting useful application of the otherwise extremely valuable model of phonology as a system of categories. Some suggestions are made for refining the Cognitive view of categorisation and category formation in light of the data. The goal of the paper is to encourage two way flow of knowledge between application and theory, and to promote a framework for collaborative research aimed at improving understanding and practice in this crucial area of language learning. SOME CONFERENCE PHOTOS
National origin is a crucial factor in the decision as to whether asylum seekers are granted the status of refugee, with associated legal and residency rights. Many asylum seekers however have no papers, so their national origin must be determined from various forms of evidence - a process often requiring legal argument. One form of evidence that has been used by governments around the world is so-called 'language analysis' in which the person's accent is used as evidence of their national origin. In 2002-3 a group of Australian linguists found that these analyses were sometimes questionable from a scientific linguistic point of view. Subsequently an international group of 19 linguists drafted a set of guidelines outlining the valid use of linguistic evidence in such cases. These guidelines, endorsed by the International Association of Forensic Linguists (IAFL) and published in the international journal Language Policy (2003), have been referred to widely in many countries, including Australia. This year, the International Association of Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics (IAFPA, sister organisation to IAFL) has produced an independent statement about national identity cases. This statement gives greater weight than the original guidelines to the judgment of native speakers as to whether features of an asylum seeker's spoken language support the claimed national origin. An IAFPA Working Group has been formed and is seeking input to help in considering this proposal, among other things. This workshop is an opportunity for discussion of the forensic phonetic issues, for example: How reliable are native speakers in identifying national origin from spoken language? How easy is it for speakers to fake a regional accent? How can the phonetic evidence be assessed in legal settings? Relevant documents are available at http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~hfraser/nativespeaker.htm
Most pronunciation lessons involve modeling, practice and feedback - but some help students make rapid progress, while others leave them dispirited and confused. Cognitive Phonology offers a framework for understanding what makes the difference. This paper introduces the theory and explores its usefulness through many practical examples from real teaching.
Most teachers have shared the frustration of students who are unable to accurately repeat even clearly pronounced words in the target language, or who can state rules of pronunciation but cannot apply them to their own speech, or who don't notice when they mix up obviously different sounds, or who fail to improve their speaking skills despite intensive practice. Cognitive Phonology offers a straightforward explanation for all these common observations. 'Cognitive' in Cognitive Phonology refers not to mental rules but to processes of conceptualisation and categorisation. Pronunciation is seen as a cognitive skill, involving not just physical activity but also application of phonological concepts. Problems of second language pronunciation can thus be attributed to learners' inappropriate conceptualisation of salient aspects of target language pronunciation. On this view, improving pronunciation involves learning new concepts, so teachers can help students with well known principles of concept formation. Recommendations include: provide contextualised practice, clearly contrast student productions considered correct with those considered errorful in the context (Critical Listening), ensure students understand teachers' explanations of the differences between correct and errorful production sufficiently to modify their pronunciation (Effective Metalinguistic Communication). The theory offers guidance in using these principles, in ways which can initially challenge preconceptions but are ultimately highly satisfying.
Cognitive Linguistics provides a theoretical framework well suited to application in any field involving concept formation, categorisation and symbolisation. This paper discusses its application in teaching second language pronunciation. The basic insight is that pronunciation, often thought of as purely physical articulation, is a cognitive skill, driven by concepts. On this view, changing pronunciation involves changing concepts. This suggests teaching methods based on well-known concept-formation techniques, including use of appropriate metalinguistic symbols, both verbal and visual. These methods prove to be simple but highly effective - a boon for an area of language teaching often neglected because considered very difficult. This insight is entirely in line with the fundamental principle of Cognitive Phonology (Langacker 1987:78-79) that, in a linguistic symbol, the signifier - the ‘sound image’ associated with a concept - is itself a concept. However, following the implications of this principle challenges some very basic assumptions of phonology, and raises a number of theoretical issues of relevance to Cognitive Linguistics generally. From observations of language and literacy learning it is argued that is the basic unit of phonology is the word (suggesting phonology is not autonomous, but interfaces closely with other branches of linguistics, especially semantics). Phonemes, allophones and other sublexical units are not constituents of words, but concepts of words, derived by processes of abstraction and concept formation in a well-defined sequence.
This paper showcases an electronic module that has been developed to help student teachers understand the phonological basis of literacy acquisition. It is the result of collaboration between the departments of Linguistics and English Education at the University of New England. The report of The National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (2005) points to the false dichotomy between the phonics and whole language approaches to teaching literacy, and recommends an integrated approach. This module addresses the Inquiry’s recommendation that student teachers be equipped with a sound knowledge of “phonemic awareness and phonics” as part of a range of teaching strategies upon which they can draw. The module has been specifically designed to show how an understanding of phonology can contribute to an informed and professional balanced approach to the teaching of reading and writing. The module contains four self-paced workshops: Spelling and Meaning, Phonemic Awareness, Towards Phonics, and Beyond Phonics. The information in each module is supplemented by quizzes, extension activities, and a test that can be marked automatically in webCT. It is suitable for trainee primary education students, trainee ESL teachers, and it would also benefit trainee secondary English teachers trying to understand the needs of literacy-challenged students. The presentation of the module will begin with a short account of the development of the module, some previews of each of the four topics and a discussion of the implementation and evaluation of the module in Primary Education courses at the University of New England.
This colloquium introduces Cognitive Phonology (CP), a theory with particular value as a framework for understanding how second language pronunciation is learned, and how teachers can facilitate this learning. It consists of three papers giving an overview of the theory, its application to pronunciation, and an example of its practical use in teaching. Read more ...
Since the ‘cognitive revolution’ of the 1950s, cognition has been equated with information processing. The analogy between human thought and computer symbol manipulation has proved fruitful for many projects. However it has severe limitations in relation to the role of meaning and context in human cognition. These limitations have led, in human applications such as language acquisition, to a division between ‘cognitive’ and ‘sociocultural’ approaches. Over the last twenty years, a quieter ‘cognitive revolution’ has seen a shift towards a broader view of human cognition. This puts aside the computer analogy in favour of direct study of human reasoning and interpretation. Reviving and updating pre-computer ideas about cognition and symbol use (especially Saussure’s view of the ‘sign’) it allows many skills intuitively known to be central to human cognition, such as categorisation, seeing analogies, concept formation, pattern recognition, and contextual interpretation, to be given central place in cognitive theory. This paper outlines some of the main tenets of the new cognitive theory, showing how it applies in language acquisition to allow a closer integration of sociocultural and individual factors, without preventing individual scholars from focusing on one aspect or the other. Read more ...
Because I do a lot of online teaching, I like to find useful tools to allow audio communication over the internet.
Increasingly, it is cross-disciplinary research which is innovative, productive - and funded. This is also true across the diverse disciplines that address human communication. However, these different disciplines obviously entertain different notions of communication, and of human communication in particular. This workshop aims to bring our differing notions of human communication out into the open, to examine their impact on patterns of research and theory-building, and to ask, are we ready for a new conceptualisation of communication that is oriented to cross-disciplinary research?
I have previously done some research on dictionary pronunciation guides and spelling aids. A recent pronunciation guide using my system was produced by Heinemann Australian Student Dictionary: 7th Edition
HANNAM, R., FRASER, H. & BYRNE, B. (2006) The sbelling of sdops: Preliterate Children’s Spelling of Stops After /s/. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal
Newly literate children have a tendency to spell s-stop sequences in words like spin, stop, sky with B, D, G (SBIN, SDOP, SGY), rather than with standard P, T, K. This observation potentially has implications for theories of English phonology as well as of language and literacy acquisition. Understanding these implications, however, requires data about the spelling preferences of preliterate children. In this study, a training-and-transfer design was used to test these spelling preferences in preliterate children. Results confirm that these children relate words with stops after /s/ to words with initial /b, d, g/ rather than to words with initial /p, t, k/. The paper outlines several possible interpretations: that preliterate children have a different phonemic analysis from adults, that they believe spelling represents archiphonemes that they believe spelling represents allophones, and that their early spelling attempts track the phonetic surface. The data suggest rejection of the second interpretation and in our view favour the last over the remaining interpretations. Several theoretical issues are raised that need to be resolved before a full account of the data can be offered.
FRASER, H. (2006) Helping teachers help students with pronunciation. Prospect: A journal of Australian TESOL, 21, 80-94. (prepublication version here)
This paper introduces a theoretical framework for understanding speech and pronunciation based on insights from Cognitive Phonology. In this framework, pronunciation is seen as a cognitive skill. In learning a cognitive skill, practice is essential, but its value depends on students having the right concept of what it is they are practising. Helping students form concepts appropriate to the new language is therefore a crucial part of a language teacher’s role. The paper starts with an informal overview of the role of concepts and concept formation in cognition. It then considers how well-known observations about pronunciation and pronunciation learning can be understood from this perspective, and suggests some principles which can account for and extend these observations. Finally it compares the cognitive approach with more familiar mainstream views of phonology, finding them not to be in conflict but to offer significantly and usefully different perspectives, appropriate to different applications.
FRASER, H. (2006) Phonological Concepts and Concept Formation: Metatheory, Theory and Application. International Journal of English Studies , 6, 55-75.
This paper presents an overview of Phenomenological Phonology (PP), including its metatheory, theory and application, for comparison with Cognitive Phonology (CP). While PP and CP are in close agreement at the theory level, there are some significant differences at the level of metatheory. PP considers phonological terms (such as phoneme and word) to be words like any others, and gives detailed consideration to the concepts behind such terms. It also considers pronunciation to be a form of behaviour, driven by concepts created through general concept-formation processes. This has important consequences for practical application in the areas of pronunciation and literacy teaching.