Prosodic features of European students of English during PowerPoint presentations

1. Prosodic features of European students of English during PowerPoint presentations Mike Cribb Coventry University with HEA Funding

2. Contents • Introduction to project • Pilot Project – European students of English • Full project next term – what I will do

3. HEA Project Details

4. Text-structuring Metadiscourse Devices and Intonation Cues in Academic Spoken Monologues • Thompson (2003) has suggested that lengthy monologues require control over the use of text-structuring metadiscourse devices and intonation cues in order for the listener to understand the larger-scale ‘hierarchical organisation’ of the discourse. … For international students who are not native speakers of English, the lack of control over the use of these organisational devices means that their monologues are often perceived as flat and undifferentiated (Tyler & Bro, 1992) by the audience.

5. Aims of Project • This project will investigate the text-structuring metadiscourse and intonation cues in academic monologues delivered by non-native speakers of English. The monologues will be drawn from a cohort of third-year international students studying at undergraduate level in Business and Engineering management. The project will investigate how miscues in their monologues lead to a lack of organisational clarity and coherence as perceived by a panel of ‘expert’ judges who will rate each monologue. These ratings will be correlated with the identified features to determine the mechanisms that lead to this loss in clarity and coherence.

6. Oral presentations • Value & significance for students • Elicits monologic discourse • Less support from interlocutor • NNSs often stigmatised

7. Pilot Study

8. Nationalities • French - 16 • Polish - 5 • German - 2

9. Flat, undifferentiated discourse • Students of English often do not have the pitch range to signal the organization of their discourse • Compare ROM4 with ELC1 lecturer • (but also see FEL2)

10. ROM4

11. ELC1

12. FEL2

13. Paratones – ‘spoken paragraph’ • At end of paratone: • fall in pitch • lengthening of speech and insertion of pauses • laryngealisation (creaking voice) and /or loss of amplitude • At start of new paratone • marked pause • first tone unit raised in key • high key evident in subsequent tone units creating declination Thompson (2003); (McAlear, 2008)

14. ROM1

17. Actual structure is… • Globalisation • Cultural • Example: Americanisation • Music • Movies • Export of brands • Technology • (but the prosody does not signal this well >> ‘flat, undifferentiated discourse’)

18. 2 PIE

19. Signposting (a little overdone but more overt. 2 PIE1)

21. 16 ALE1

22. 16 ALE3 – listing items • //the solution dePENDof the senior manager ↗STRATegy (0.5) // • // and →oPINion (0.8)// • // ↗VALues (1.6) // • //so as we have // • //as we mm mentioned before with the boat example …// • (16 ALE3)

23. A more native-like rendition? • the solution dePEND of the senior manager ↗STRATegy ↗oPINion and ↘values//

24. 16 ALE vs 17 LEO • Good contrast here between hesitant, weak prosodic delivery (16 ALE) and fluent delivery (17 LEO) • 16 ALE2 cf 17 LEO

25. Methods

26. The Task • 1. Pre-task Interview (one-week before) • 2. Task – oral presentation in-class. Recorded and transcribed. • 3. Post-task Retrospective Interview (one-week after)

27. Nationalities • Hopefully I will obtain data for the following: • Chinese • French • Spanish • German • Italian • (others…)

28. Panel of Experts • Holistic judgment of • organisation clarity, • sequencing and • coherence • Feedback on • metadiscoursesignalling cues • prosodic features

29. Dissemination – conferences & papers • IVACS Conference • Leeds Met. 21st & 22nd June 2012 • BAAL Conference • 6 - 8 September 2012, University of the Southampton • HEA Conference • 03-04 July 2012, The University of Manchester • Papers: JEAP, TESOL Quarterly…

30. Dissemination – online resources • Priority areas for oral presentations showcasing ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly’ • Free of charge • HumBox

31. References • Jordan, R.R. (1997) English for academic purposes: a guide and resource book for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  • McAlear, S (2008) Unpublished MA Dissertation. Univ of Nottingham • Pickering, L. (2004) The structure and function of intonational paragraphs in native and nonnative speaker instructional discourse. English for Specific Purposes; Jan2004, Vol. 23 Issue 1, p19, 25p • Thompson, S.E. (2003) Text-structuring metadiscourse, intonation and the signalling of organisation in academic lectures. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2, pp. 5-20.  • Tyler, A. & Bro, J. (1992) Discourse Structure in Nonnative English Discourse: The effect of ordering and interpretive cues on perceptions of comprehensibility. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14(1), 71-86.