Sounds of Englishes

Sounds of Englishes: An interactive pronunciation website

for varieties of English

Noriko Nakanishi

Faculty of Global Communication

Kobe Gakuin University

Asia TEFL 2019 June 29, The Ambassador Hotel, Bangkok

Outline

1. World Englishes, EIL, ELF

2. Sounds of Englishes

3. Invitation to a project If any of you are interested, please let me know.

1. World Englishes, EIL, ELF

World Englishes, EIL, ELF

Kachru, 1992:356

Because of the dearth of research on English used among its non-native speakers, the majority of published materials on pronunciation, […] tend to focus exclusively on intelligibility for the native rather than the non-native receiver.

Jenkins, 1998:121

More than 10 years since then

Wells (2008).

More than 10 years since then

Wells, 2008: “garage”

Almost 20 years since Kachru (1992)

Jones (2011)

Almost 20 years since Kachru (1992)

Jones, 2011: “garage”

We cannot blame them, because …

• […] there is no doubt that the choice of a native speaker model advantages the American and British English language teaching industries. They can sell materials, provide training and courses, place native speaker teachers and develop international examination and testing systems. All this is financially beneficial for the parties concerned. (Kirkpatrick, 2007:185)

• Native speakers will remain the source of 'correctness' and this greatly disadvantages both local students and local teachers. (Kirkpatrick, 2007:191)

• Principles of the Lingua Franca Approach (#4 )

Lingua franca environments provide excellent learning environments for lingua franca speakers.

... sending students to learn English in native speaking countries may not be the most effective way of developing English proficiency among the learners. […] this may well lead them to remain silent observers rather than active participants.

(Kirkpatrick, 2014:30)

The situation with my students is even worse.

• Principles of the Lingua Franca Approach (#4 )

Lingua franca environments […] -> All the 120 students’ L1 is Japanese. -> Katakana-accented English is most intelligible. -> No chance to experience misunderstandings caused by L1-accented speech.

[…] sending students to learn English in native speaking countries […] -> We DO send them to UK, US, Canada, Australia and NZ for a semester study-abroad program. -> Some of them get overwhelmed and intimidated.

The situation with my students is even worse.

What can be done to help them?

Ownership Intelligibility

Let them collect the ELF data!

2. Sounds of Englishes

Overview

Freely accessible from https://noriko-nakanishi.com/sounds or Google “Sounds of Englishes Nakanishi”

Works best in Google Chrome

https://noriko-nakanishi.com/sounds



Purposes

• For international communication

As a speaker: Be aware that different people speak differently. -> Confidence, self-esteem, self-correction if necessary

As a listener: Be accustomed to different accents. -> Tolerance, flexibility, comprehension

• For education and research

As a teacher: -> Show evidence of World Englishes.

As a researcher: -> Ss can collect data while studying abroad. -> Analyze the sound data of different accents. -> In the future, update the descriptions shown in dictionaries.

The data

• Over 26,000 sound files (as of June 2019) 1,444 words read by 241 participants from 21 countries; 878 words (23,258 sound files) for reference,

taken from Wells (2008) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, and synthesized using Amazon Polly and HOYA Global Voice English.

• What you can do: Listen to the pronunciation of the words and compare them

by region, gender, and generation. Download the sound file(s) in mp3 format. Coming soon: View and download the picture file(s) in jpeg

format. See the spectrum, pitch, intensity, and formant of each sound.

How it works

How it works

How it works

Longman Pronunciation Dictionary




• Word stress AmE: gaRAGE 100 % BrE: GArage 94%

• Consonants (Within AmE) /-ˈrɑːʒ / 52% /-ˈrɑːdʒ /48%

• Vowels (Within BrE) /ˈɡær ɑːdʒ / 56% /ˈɡær ɪdʒ / 38% /ɡə ˈrɑːdʒ / 6%

• Generation (Within BrE) /ˈɡær ɑːdʒ / Older > Younger /ˈɡær ɪdʒ / Younger > Older


• Wait a minute …

The LPD data is based on the pronunciation poll conducted in the 1990’s.

-> YOUNGER generation at that time is OLDER now.

<Research Questions>

• How do the younger ones in 2019 pronounce “garage”?

• Do the younger ones in the 1990s still keep their pronunciation?

Sounds of Englishes can contribute to the research on language change.

How it works

How it works

How it works

The file name indicates

• Country code

• Gender

• Birth year

• Date of recording

• Researcher #

• # of recording

• Word

How we acquire the data

The students spend 4 months in UK, Canada, US, Australia, NZ, or China.

During the stay, besides taking English lessons, they conduct a survey on World Englishes.

How we acquire the data

<Pilot study in 2019> 9 students were engaged in the project. So far, they got the recorded data from 93 participants from 21 countries, including Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Great Britain, Georgia, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yemen.

Sounds of Englishes can give Ss (as researchers) a reason to be engaged in ELF communication;

chances to be aware of the variety of English accent; a feeling of ownership of the English language.

3. Invitation to the project

Sounds of Englishes: An interactive pronunciation website

for varieties of English

Noriko Nakanishi

Faculty of Global Communication

Kobe Gakuin University

In the near future…

Post your Pronunciation

How to collect data

A website for recording (+ saving text data) -> English version now in progress.

How to collect data Consent form

How to collect data Consent form

How to collect data Power Point slides

address

the place where you live

Pay attention to the stressed syllable.

(If you do not know the word, say “I don’t know.”)

adieu

a goodbye

Pay attention to the sound of the letter(s) indicated in red.

(If you do not know the word, say “I don’t know.”)

Invitation to Sounds-of-Englishes project

• 100 words in one package. -> Currently 10 packages available.

• Approximately 10-15 minutes to complete the survey.

• Please contact Prof. Noriko Nakanishi at [email protected]

Acknowledgements

This website was developed with support from JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) 17K02914 .

The reference sound files (indicated with “xxxx” for the birth year) were taken from Wells (2008) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, and synthesized using Amazon Polly and HOYA Global Voice English.

The system developer would like to thank anonymous contributors for providing sound data. The data was acquired in collaboration with T. Kametake; M. Kanzaki; R. Koga; Y. Koreyasu; A. Matsuo; K. Mukai; N. Sakaguchi; H. Takubo; and K. Tomino. The sound files were processed using Praat.

References Jenkins, J. (1998). Which pronunciation norms and models for English as an

International Language. ELT journal, 52(2), 119-126. Jenkins, J. (2000). The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford. Jones, D. (2011). Cambridge English pronouncing dictionary. Cambridge University

Press. Kachru, B. B., ed. (1992). The other tongue: English across cultures. University of

Illinois Press. Kirkpatrick, A. (2007). World Englishes paperback with audio CD: Implications for

international communication and English language teaching. Cambridge University Press.

Kirkpatrick, A. (2014). Teaching English in Asia in Non-Anglo Cultural Contexts: Principles of the ‘Lingua Franca Approach’. The Pedagogy of English as an International Language: Perspectives from Scholars, Teachers, and Students, 1, 23.

Nakanishi, N. (2019). Sounds of Englishes (Ver 1.0) [Computer software]. Kobe, Japan: Kobe Gakuin University.

Wells, J. C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. 3rd ed. Longman.

Documents

Sounds of Englishes