1. 1. Rethinking Fluency (Week 2) ORAL I V (HE281) Prof. Dr. Ron Martinez drronmartinez@gmail.com
2. 2. SIT NEXT TO SOMEONE NEW TODAY!
3. 3. Summary from Week 1 It is important to define what fluency in spoken language means. Fluency is not related to native-ness. Fluency is (minimally) broken down into cognitive fluency, utterance fluency, and perceived fluency. Each of these, in turn, may be influenced by a great number of variables. Fluency can be thought of as readiness, on different levels: mentally/emotionally prepared, knowing what to say and how to say it (prepared utterances), and having what to say at the ready (i.e. automaticity).
4. 4. FORMULATION ARTICULATION Cognitive Fluency Utterance Fluency Perceived Fluency
5. 5. COGNITIVE FLUENCY UTTERANCE FLUENCY PERCEIVED FLUENCY
6. 6. Goals for the week Reconsider concepts of intelligibility Look ahead to coming weeks...
7. 7. Todays agenda Introduction / Course overview Introduction to course website Discussion of issues around fluency Your homework
8. 8. Accent: What do you think? 1. Take poll (online). 2. Explain the answer you gave to your group. 3. What is perfect pronunciation? 4. Would you choose to sound like a native speaker if you had that option? 5. Do you think identity has anything to do with accent? In what way?
9. 9. Rajadurai on Intelligibility 1. According to Joanne Rajadurai, how is 'intelligibility' defined? 2. What are the related concepts, as advocated by Smith and Nelson (1985)? 3. How and why is 'intelligibility' researched? 4. What criticisms does Rajadurai raise of intelligibility studies? 5. What common misconceptions and myths are there around 'intelligibility', according to Rajadurai?
10. 10. A definition
11. 11. 3 Components of Intelligibility according to Smith and Nelson (1985) Intelligibility Comprehensibility Interpretability
12. 12. Wheres the problem? Watch the short video and decide where the intelligibility problem is: intelligibility, comprehensibility, or interpretability?
13. 13. How and why is intelligibility researched?
14. 14. How and why is intelligibility researched? Elicitation Even in studies that attempt to elicit natural speech as the stimulus material, the laboratory-like conditions under which the experiments are conducted negate such attempts. These techniques produce artificial and inauthentic data, and consequently place severe limitations on the findings of the research. (p. 90) With a few notable exceptions, the vast majority of studies seem to ignore the fact that speech is context- specific and highly dependent on the topic, participants, and situation. (p. 90)
15. 15. Other issues? It is also fairly obvious that intelligibility is strongly influenced by the listeners biases and preconceived ideas about speakers and accents. (p. 90) Example: Rubin (1992)
16. 16. 4 Groups: same lecture audio, different images CAUCASIAN ASIAN HUMANITIES (Group 1) SCIENCE (Group 2) HUMANITIES (Group 3) SCIENCE (Group 4)
17. 17. SAME AUDIO!!!
18. 18. COGNITIVE FLUENCY UTTERANCE FLUENCY PERCEIVED FLUENCY
19. 19. (I)ntelligibility may be as much in the mind of the listener as in the mouth of the speaker (Morley, 1991: 499).
20. 20. Jackie Chan 1. How 'native-like' is Jackie Chan's English? 2. Would you say that Jackie Chan speaks fluent English? Why (not)? 3. To what extent is Jackie Chan's English 'intelligible'? 4. What about other associated elements (accentedness, comprehensibility, interpretability)? 5. All in all, was Jackie Chan's interview a successful one? 6. What variables (personal, interpersonal, contextual, etc.) may influence the extent to which Jackie Chan's interview can be perceived as successful?
21. 21. Other misconceptions and myths Misconception 1: Only non-native speech is accented. Misconception 2: Non-native speech lacks intelligibility. Misconception 3: The non-native speaker is responsible for communication problems. Myth 1: The native variety should constitute the norm. Myth 2: The native speaker is always the best judge of what is intelligible. Myth 3: The native speaker is always the best representative of what is intelligible.
22. 22. Homework 1. Take survey online about spoken vs. written language? 2. Read Carter & McCarthy (2015) article on spoken grammar (online), answer questions about the article (online), and bring your answers to class on Monday.