Browsing by Author "Balas, Anna"
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Item English vowel perception by Polish advanced learners of English(Cambridge University Press, 2018) Balas, AnnaThis article examines English vowel perception by advanced Polish learners of English in a formal classroom setting (i.e., they learnt English as a foreign language in school while living in Poland). The stimuli included 11 English noncewords in bilabial (/bVb/), alveolar (/dVd/) and velar (/gVg/) contexts. The participants, 35 first-year English majors, were examined during the performance of three tasks with English vowels: a categorial discrimination oddity task, an L1 assimilation task (categorization and goodness rating) and a task involving rating the (dis-)similarities between pairs of English vowels. The results showed a variety of assimilation types according to the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) and the expected performance in a discrimination task. The more difficult it was to discriminate between two given vowels, the more similar these vowels were judged to be. Vowel contrasts involving height distinctions were easier to discriminate than vowel contrasts with tongue advancement distinctions. The results also revealed that the place of articulation of neighboring consonants had little effect on the perceptibility of the tested English vowels, unlike in the case of lower-proficiency learners. Unlike previous results for naïve listeners, the present results for advanced learners showed no adherence to the principles of the Natural Referent Vowel framework. Generally, the perception of English vowels by these Polish advanced learners of English conformed with PAM's predictions, but differed from vowel perception by naïve listeners and lower-proficiency learners.Item NATURAL PHONOLOGY AS A FUNCTIONAL THEORY(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2009) Balas, AnnaThis paper presents Natural Phonology as a functional theory. Natural Phonology is shown to be functional in two senses: as focusing on explanation and thus increasing our understanding of how language works, and as having practical applications, especially to second language acquisi- tion and speech therapy. The contribution argues that crucial as formalism is in computational linguistics and speech technology, Natural Phonology, with less rigid and less formalized claims, has important applications in the areas where language and not totally predictable human factors are involved. The paper discusses approaches to autonomy in language, explanation and hy- pothesis in Natural Phonology, and applications of Natural Phonology.Item Natural Phonology as Functional Theory(Versita, 2009) Balas, AnnaThis paper presents Natural Phonology as a functional theory. Natural Phonology is shown to be functional in two senses: as focusing on explanation and thus increasing our understanding of how language works, and as having practical applications, especially to second language acquisition and speech therapy. The contribution argues that crucial as formalism is in computational linguistics and speech technology, Natural Phonology, with less rigid and less formalized claims, has important applications in the areas where language and not totally predictable human factors are involved. The paper discusses approaches to autonomy in language, explanation and hy- pothesis in Natural Phonology, and applications of Natural Phonology.Item Non-native vowel perception: The interplay of categories and features(Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2018) Balas, AnnaThe book Non-native vowel perception: The interplay of categories and features is devoted to vowel perception in the second, third and foreign language by Polish advanced learners English, French or Dutch as the second and third language in a formal classroom instruction setting. So far it has been assumed that non-native sound perception is based on assimilation to the first language categories or new category formation. The present book hypothesizes that also individual phonetic features, which the learner is familiar with, and the lack of reaction to unknown features play a role in speech perception. The first study is a longitudinal English vowel perception study which examines which features ease perception development. Studies two and three examine whether and, if so, to what extent, the phonetic features known from the L2 and L3 influence non-native perception. It is tested how the learners of English, French and Dutch perceive Dutch and Turkish vowels. The studies have confirmed the main impact of categories, which act as magnets, but they have also shown the role and the hierarchy of phonetic features in non-native vowel perception.Item Teaching to suppress L1 processes in L2. PTLC 2013(Przedlacka, Joanna; Maidment, John; Ashby, Michael (eds.) Proceedings of the Phonetics Teaching and Learning Conference UCL, London, 8-10 August 2013. London: PHONETICS TEACHING AND LEARNING CONFERENCE, 2013) Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, Katarzyna; Balas, Anna; Rojczyk, Arkadiusz; Schwartz, GeoffreyAdvanced second language learners in a formal setting can suppress many L1) processes in L2 pronunciation when provided with sufficient exposure to L2 and metacompetence. This paper shows how imitation in L2 teaching can be enhanced on the basis of current phonetic research and how complex allophonic processes such as nasal vocali zation and glottal stop insertion can be suppressed using “repair” – a method of providing learners with adequate input, so that they can use the L1 processes to improve L2 pronunciatioItem Teaching to suppress Polglish processes(Springer, 2015) Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, Katarzyna; Balas, Anna; Schwartz, Geoffrey; Rojczyk, Arkadiusz; Wrembel, MagdalenaAdvanced second language (henceforth L2) learners in a formal setting can suppress many first language (henceforth L1) processes in L2 pronunciation when provided with sufficient exposure to L2 and meta competence (see Sect. 4 for a definition of this term). This paper shows how imitation in L2 teaching can be enhanced on the basis of current phonetic research and how complex allophonic processes such as nasal vocalization and glottal stop insertion can be suppressed using “repair”—a method of providing learners with adequate input, so that they can use the L1 processes to improve L2 pronunciation.Item The influence of second language vowels on foreign language vowel perception(Linguistic Society of America, 2017) Balas, AnnaThis paper examines the limits of feature abstraction and the influence of second language vowels on foreign vowel perception (cf. Pajak and Levy 2014). Perception of Dutch vowels by Polish students of English and French and Dutch was assessed using categorization tasks with goodness ratings. Dutch front rounded vowels were identified predominantly as front vowels by learners of French and Dutch and as back vowels by learners of English.The results suggest that the hypothesis about selective attention to features should incorporate markedness and that experience with second language front rounded vowels is enough to trigger disentangling rounding from backness.