Presented by : Maha Ounis 2009 Testing English Prosody at Tunisian Universities:The Means,the Problems and the Implications Presented by : Maha Ounis 2009

Outline 1)Some definitions 2)The inception of«Prosody»as an area of investigation 3)Seeds of the research/Contextualization 4)Statement of the problem 5)Statement of the sub problems 6)The methodology 7)Implications

Some definitions Prosody: « In Linguistics, prosody is the rhythm, stress and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect the emotional state of a speaker,whether an utterance is a statement, a question or a command ,whether the speaker is being ironic or sarcastic,emphasis,contrast and focus, and other elements of language which may not be encoded by grammar” C.f:Wikipidia,the free encyclopedia

Better Accent tutor software: -A softaware that is meant to analyze English « intonation,stress and rhythm » -It allows to record voices -It enables its users to see their output i.e through oscillations -It contains a set of exercises about prosody.

The inception of«Prosody»as an area of investigation -There has been more investigation into the segmental features i.e phonemes than into the suprasegmental features « prosody » -Many writers insist on the importance of the prosodic aspect of any language →Prosody is not just ornamental -Phonemists vs prosodists -Testing prosody is a challanging task C.f L.Dow Hower. -The inception of Experimental Phonology . Rebecca Hinks « A Lively voice is described as one that varies in intonation,rhythm and loudness:Qualities that can be analyzed using speech analysis software »

Seeds of the research/Contextualization -The importance of the prosodic aspect of any speech did not come at random to my mind. -A discussion with my teacher of pronunciation has drawn my attention to the fact that many students are not aware of the necessity to practice English prosody -This observation pushed me to ask some teachers of pronunciation about the major problems that their students encounter as far as English prosody is concerned -Teachers told me that the problems do exist but they cannot show them concretely because of the absence of the technological devices that facilitate not only testing such a skill ,but also proving such lacks concretely ?

Statement of the problem To what extent can we say that the absence of technological devices i.e software from the method of testing prosody in Tunisia deepens the difficulties encountered by the testers and has implications for teaching and studying such a sophisticated skill? To deal with this problem, a comparison between the method of testing prosody in Tunisia and « a method » of testing with the use of software should be made. How?

Statement of the subproblems 1)What are the difficulties that face the testers when evaluating prosody? 2)What are the means that are available to test such a skill? 3)What are the differences between testing prosody in Tunisia and testing prosody using software? « Better Accant Tutor » as an example 4)What are the implications for teaching and studying prosody?

The methodology Quatitative data collection: -A cross sectional study -4 groups of students and 8 teachers of pronunciation from different universities will be subjects of this research Quatitative data collection: -Two questinnaires will be targeting the subjects 1°To detect the means that are available for the teachers 2°To grasp the major difficulties that encounter students in a test of pronunciation

→The comparison is maintained Qualitative data collection: 1°Classroom/test observation A description of tests conditions 2°Audio recording -a hypothetical test of prosody through the use of Better Accent Tutor software →The comparison is maintained

Implications Prosody is worth being investigated in our Tunisian academic context This research highlights the implications that a test of prosody can have for teaching such a skill →A test can be a starting point to deal with issues related to teaching and learning -The use of « Better Accent Tutor Software » is meant to reveal the importance of using technological devices in order to evaluate, teach and learn the suprasegmental features.

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