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Culture shapes pupils' mathematical learning, their performances and life trajectories of participation (César, 2013a, 2013b). It also contributes to the senses they attribute to mathematical learning (Bakhtin, 1929/1981). Using collaborative work and interempowerment mechanisms facilitates knowledge appropriation (César, 2009). This is particularly important for pupils participating in minority cultures, socially undervalued and whose L1 is not the instruction language. Bi-univocal culture mediation (César, 2017b) is important regarding empowerment. We used an instrument to evaluate pupils' abilities and competencies (IACC), conceived by the "Interaction and Knowlwdge" (IK) team (Machado, 2014), and other mathematical tasks. The goal we address is to trace the differences between their approaches to problems, mathematical reasoning and solving strategies used by pupils whose L1 is ideographic (Creole, Cape Verde) or phonetic (Portuguese). We developed an intrinsic case study (Stake, 1995). The main participants are the pupils from almost 600 classes (all over Portugal and Cape Verde) who participated in the IK. The analysis of some examples illustrates that L1 shapes pupils' approaches to problems, mathematical reasoning and solving strategies. This evidence plays an important role in their access to school achievement and in teachers' understanding about how they can promote pupils' mathematical learning.

Language reflects how people think and behave in their culture. To have successful conversations, both language use and cultural awareness should be taken into consideration. Undeniably, Japanese grammar is different from Thai making it even harder for Thai learners to have fluent and appropriate conversations in the Japanese language. In the classroom, typically teachers often focus on grammar, leaving less time for students to practice conversation. Consequently, beginner learners often miss cultural details in conversations and are unable to communicate effectively. Thus, it is important for teachers to immerse students in the Japanese culture to improve their speaking skills and cultural understanding. In so doing, Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) and Reader's Theater (RT) were integrated and used to aid beginners in understanding language contexts in order to help users grasp conversational contexts and interlocutors, and use scripted practices to simulate real-life scenarios. This study aims to investigate the impact of an instructional model based on CMM and RT on improving oral communication skills in Thai beginner-level Japanese learners. The study employed an experimental design with 11th-grade Japanese-major students from a secondary school in Bangkok, involving 48 classes over 16 weeks. Instruments included a Japanese oral communication skills test and video-recorded classroom observations. Descriptive statistics, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to analyze quantitative data, and thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. The results showed a significant improvement in post-test scores compared to pre-tests. Moreover, the model has raised students' phonetics awareness. Phonetic features like short and long sounds, pauses, and flapping received more attention. Interestingly, they adapted Japanese pronunciation for Thai or English words enhancing communication with native speakers and avoided using personal pronouns like "anata" opting to address interlocutors by name, adhering to Japanese cultural norms. This instructional model effectively improved both linguistic and cultural competences in Japanese language learners.

Acknowledged as a far-reaching pedagogical method, Project-Based Learning is nationally imperative in Indonesian education despite the disinclination of its execution. This paper scrutinizes the phonetics and phonology-based English pronunciation dimensions and scaffolding traits as the bases to devise the scaffolding assignments for PBL execution, explores the process of PBL with scaffolding assignment adoption, and examines whether the exertion of the PBL enhances the academic achievement of English pronunciation and autodidacticism as Self-Directed Learning skills. The study exploits design-based research through repetitive actions of analysing, designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating. The result exhibit that the scaffolding assignments are designed by decomposing the phonetics and phonology pronunciation-related conceptions into smaller tasks of English pronunciation learnings and trainings based on instructional scaffolding fundamentals. The scaffolding assignments infused PBL is applied through orientation, action, reflection, and presentation stages which cover the learning activities of launching the project as the entry event marked with the driving question disclosure; building knowledge, understanding, and skills to answer the driving question; developing the project products and answers to the driving question; and presenting the products and answers to the driving question. The exertion of the PBL with scaffolding assignments is proven influential in promoting the students' English pronunciation and SelfDirected Learning skills.

In linguistics, onomastics is the science that studies the history and origin of toponyms, along with their structural aspects. This study aimed to determine the origin of toponyms by comparing their linguistic and ethnocultural, as well as mythical, information. A qualitative research design guided this study. A few toponyms were identified through random sampling method including Yrgyz (Irgiz), Burkanbulak, Esik (Yssyk), Auliesu, Zhaiyk (Ural) and Zher-Su, which were collected from etymological, explanatory and mythological dictionaries and collections of mythical texts. The etymological and component analysis methods were applied to study these names. The criteria to select these toponyms were that all should be names of rivers or hydronyms, since river-water was a mythological symbol (the source of life, death and disorder); and that they should occur not only in one language, but in several related languages. The findings revealed that the archetype of each word conformed to phonetic changes. There were also structural connections between these words. Besides, each word had symbolic connotations. This study would provide useful insights about ethnocultural and mythical information of these words and help in broader understanding of the cultural characteristics.

High-Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) has demonstrated effectiveness in second language (L2) acquisition. This study utilizes a meta-analysis to explore the influence of high variability on learning L2 pronunciation and identifies the factors that moderate this impact. The studies were collected using a keyword search in the SCOPUS database. In total, our meta-analysis incorporated 18 primary studies that presented results obtained from experimental and control group designs, encompassing a total of 22 effect sizes. The results of our meta-analysis revealed that the overall effect size of HVPT on L2 pronunciation was medium (g = 0.77). Specifically, the effect size was large for consonant sounds and lexical tones, particularly pronounced when utilized by advanced learners. For beginners, the effect size was medium. The context in which the training was conducted also played a role, with a medium effect size observed when sentences were used. Additionally, the number of talkers involved in the study influenced the effect size, with a medium effect size found when 5 to 8 talkers were included. In other cases, the reported effect sizes were either small or non-significant.

The use of phonetic symbols in language teaching classrooms, as a bottom-up approach to pronunciation instruction, has been debated. This study investigates the perspectives of Turkish instructors of English as a foreign language on their use of phonetic symbols for teaching pronunciation at tertiary-level institutions. To explore this issue, semistructured interviews were conducted with six instructors of English as a foreign language from a higher education institution. The qualitative findings reveal that while most instructors recognize the importance of phonetic symbols, they express various teacher-related and student-related concerns that lead to their avoidance and offer recommendations for improvement. The participants also emphasize the importance of teacher training, student self-monitoring as an assessment tool, and technology integration, as essential components for effective pronunciation instruction using phonetic symbols.

The study described in this article evaluates the effectiveness of methods of improving phonetic, grammatical, and syntactic skills in children with general speech underdevelopment in a bilingual environment. The method is based on a theoretical study of severe speech disorders, a structural analysis of linguistic samples, and a comparative study of the results of research by various scientists in an interdisciplinary discourse. An experimental study was carried out concerning the assessment of the effectiveness of speech therapy exercises for forming linguistic skills (phonetic-phonemic, morphological, word-formation, lexical, and syntactic) at different language levels in preschoolers with a general speech disorder in the context of bilingualism (Kazakh was considered the main language, and Russian was considered an additional language). The materials presented in this paper can be used to develop linguistic skills for various speech defects.

An introductory phonetics course provides foundational content for future clinical practice and may serve as a student's first experience within the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders. The Students as Partners framework (Cook-Sather et al., 2014) offers a model for valuing student assets and experiences in co-creating learning materials to enhance active learning and deepen understanding. Incorporating positive affective feelings around learning complex material, integrating technology, and building a mutually respectful learning community can foster inclusive practices. In this manuscript, the authors share how redesigning an introductory Phonetics and Acoustics course at a large, urban, commuter, public university led to increased student engagement, increased practice, increased collaboration, and increased generalization. This was achieved through personalized content and activities, warm-up activities that fostered success and integration, and co-created active learning activities, such as phonetic memes, spectrogram cards, phonetic pun activities, and sociolinguistic discussions of personal experiences. Thematic analysis of course evaluation data for the redesigned course revealed themes related to: student-instructor partnerships; practice opportunities and clinical application; and sense of belonging within the learning community.

Correct pronunciation significantly increases the intelligibility of communication. However, it is uncertain whether acquiring the pronunciation of the words enhances word retention capability. Therefore, the major purpose of this research is to evaluate whether vocabulary acquisition with the aid of pronouncing with artificial intelligence leads to a longer memory. In this research, a full experimental pattern, and a pre-test and post-test control group design were applied. Furthermore, a total of 56 high school students aged between 14-15 were asked to memorize unknown vocabulary with two pronunciation teaching methods. Prior to the experimental process, the pre-test was applied to both groups, and then, the artificial intelligence-based speech recognition pronunciation teaching process was to the experimental group while the phonetic alphabet pronunciation process was to the control group on the 4th, 8th, and 12th weeks. According to the findings, it was obtained that pronunciation practice via artificial intelligence-enabled the words to remain in memory longer. Additionally, the participants' views were gathered at the end of the research. For further research, this study will benefit other research with a variety of accessible tools to meet objectives by utilizing a new artificial intelligence-supported pronunciation model, through recording and reacting to learners' pronouncing practices in different languages.

The present study seeks to determine whether superior musical hearing is correlated with successful production of second language (L2) intonation patterns. Fifty Polish speakers of English at the university level were recorded before and after an extensive two-semester accent training course in English. Participants were asked to read aloud a series of short dialogues containing different intonation patterns, complete two musical hearing tests measuring tone deafness and melody discrimination, and a survey regarding musical experience. We visually analyzed and assessed participants' intonation by comparing their F[subscript 0] contours with the model provided by their accent training teachers following ToBI (Tones and Break Indices) guidelines and compared the results with the musical hearing test scores and the survey responses. The results suggest that more accurate pitch perception can be related to more correct production of L2 intonation patterns as participants with superior musical ear produced more native-like speech contours after training, similar to those of their teachers. After dividing participants into four categories based on their musical hearing test scores and musical experience, we also observed that some students with better musical hearing test scores were able to produce more correct L2 intonation patterns. However, students with poor musical hearing test scores and no musical background also improved, suggesting that the acquisition of L2 intonation in a formal classroom setting can be successful regardless of one's musical hearing skills.

A learning crisis across Arabic-speaking countries is leading to human capital deficits, undermining efforts to reduce poverty and putting achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals at risk. The World Bank has introduced the concept of learning poverty to highlight this crisis -- measured as the percentage of 10- year-old children who are unable to read and understand a simple text. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, this affects around 6 in 10 children, and likely more, because of the COVID-19-related school disruptions. The World Bank has proposed a path to reduce learning poverty through advancing Arabic language teaching and learning. The proposed path comprises a set of purposeful actions that governments and stakeholders can take to reorient education systems so that they can best achieve essential core Arabic language skills and learning for all. This includes, for example, setting literacy goals, aligning instructional resources to follow a systematic phonetic approach with a focus on reading comprehension in a literature-rich environment, ensuring high-quality instruction, and identifying and intervening early with struggling readers. As the largest external financier of education in the developing world, the World Bank has a significant role to play in helping countries to recognize these key challenges and to mobilize resources to address them effectively and efficiently. This paper outlines the World Bank's approach and explores how it is taking shape in the World Bank's support to countries' education programs across the MENA region.

The fundamental skills in language teaching are reading, listening, speaking and writing. It is important to establish links with other language skill areas in the development of writing skills. In this study, it was aimed to analyze the writing skills of Kyrgyz students studying distance learning at A1 level during the pandemic. 28 Kyrgyz students participated in the study. In this context, it was desired to determine the most common mistakes in written expression in order to evaluate the students' habits of using Turkey's Turkish language structures at A1 level. The data in the study were generated by having the students write a self-introductory article. In this framework, descriptive analysis was used in this study designed with qualitative research model. The data were collected through the writings uploaded on the web interface of Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University. The instructor took the data from the E-Course Distance Education Portal tool and analyzed them in order. Based on the writing assignments in the study, errors originating from the students were evaluated and interpreted. These errors were categorized as phonetics, morphology and spelling. As a result of the research, it was determined that students made negative transfers with the influence of their mother tongue. However, it was supported that the instructor should keep the motivation of the student high with the role of a guide in the language teaching process and the materials that attract the student's interest in the distance education process should be more involved in the learning-teaching environment. In this context, it is assumed that the results of the study will contribute to teaching Turkey's Turkish to Kyrgyz.

This study examined how Korean EFL learners in different proficiency levels attest contrasts of L2 phonology. To this end, twenty Korean EFL learners in high and low levels of English proficiency produced words with word-final contrasts of /[esh]/ vs. /[esh]i/, /t[esh]/ vs. /t[esh]i/, and /d[ezh]/ vs. /d[ezh]i/. Acoustic analyses of lexical vs. epenthetic vowels and lexically vs. derivationally final sibilants were conducted. The results of the acoustic analyses revealed that Korean learners differentiated them at the acoustic level by employing different vowel ratios or F1 for the produced forms with a final lexical or epenthetic vowel which did not differ at the segmental level. On the other hand, the low group did not acoustically differentiate the two types of vowels after /d[ezh]/ at all. With the production of a final sibilant either lexical or derivational, Korean learners also made distinctions in terms of different frication ratios. The results of the study found L2 learners distinguish segmental contrasts acoustically, which is different from L1 speakers, and the proficiency level partially mediates this. The results implicate the existence of interlanguage phonology with its independent system.

Previous research has established that phonetics has been marginalized within language teaching, proving to be particularly challenging for learners in EFL contexts. This paper presents EPSSML (https://www.usc.gal/multimlab/), an e-learning platform designed within Mayer's (2008, 2009) Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning to instruct English phonetics and phonology in an EFL context. Inspired by prior work (e.g., Clark, 2009; Godwin-Jones, 2009; Hansen Edwards et al., 2021), we examined the efficiency of EPSSML as a Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) resource alongside the students' perceptions of it including gender differences. The scores obtained by 504 Spanish EFL learners in an English phonetics undergraduate course were analyzed comparing performance before and after EPSSML-assisted instruction. The analysis of rated results shows that there is a significant difference between the means of scores of those learners that used and those that did not use the platform, as well as between male and female students. Additionally, 127 students that used EPSSML responded to an online questionnaire on the tool and course methodology. Responses reveal that 91.3% of the learners enjoyed and were very interested in EPSSML and web-mediated phonetic training. The findings demonstrate the importance of CAPT-based instruction and suggestions are also made for additional resources and approaches for its implementation, thereby contributing to the educational shift from traditional, teacher-centered learning methods to blended instructional methodologies in formal and informal settings.

This study explored the production of 11 English vowels by Acehnese Indonesian EFL students. Ten undergraduates (five males and five females) from the Pidie District, Aceh, participated, with Acehnese and Bahasa Indonesia as their first languages, and English learned formally at school since the 7th grade. Using PRAAT, recordings of vowel elicitations were measured and analyzed, revealing distinctions in vowel pairs. Statistical tests were employed to compare vowel productions between the males and females. The results showed that the females produced many of the vowel pairs similarly: /i:/-/[near-close near-front unrounded vowel]/, /[open-mid front unrounded vowel]/-/[near-open front unrounded vowel]/, /u:/-/[near-close back rounded vowel]/, /[open-mid back unrounded vowel]/-/[open back unrounded vowel]?/, and /[open back unrounded vowel]?/-/[open back rounded vowel]/. The pairs they differentiated were /[open-mid central unrounded vowel]:/-/[open-mid back unrounded vowel]/ and /[open-mid back rounded vowel]:/-/[open back rounded vowel]/. However, the female students could not discriminate between the long and short vowel pairs. Meanwhile, the male students could distinguish the following pairs: /i:/-/[near-close near-front unrounded vowel]/, /[open-mid central unrounded vowel]:/-/[open-mid back unrounded vowel]/, /[open-mid back unrounded vowel]/-/[open back unrounded vowel]?/, and /[open-mid back rounded vowel]:/-/[open back rounded vowel]/. The others, /[open-mid front unrounded vowel]/-/[near-open front unrounded vowel]/, /u:/-/[near-close back rounded vowel],/ and /[open back unrounded vowel]?/-/[open back rounded vowel]/, were produced similarly. Additionally, they could distinguish the long and short vowels in the /[open-mid central unrounded vowel]:/-/[open-mid back unrounded vowel]/, /u:/-/[near-close back rounded vowel]/, /[open-mid back unrounded vowel]/-/[open back unrounded vowel]?/, and /[open back unrounded vowel]?/-/[open back rounded vowel]/ pairs, but not /i:/-/[near-close near-front unrounded vowel]/, /[open-mid front unrounded vowel]/-/[near-open front unrounded vowel]/ and /[open-mid back rounded vowel]:/-/[open back rounded vowel]/. This study has shown complex distinctions in the production of English vowels by Acehnese Indonesian EFL students. These findings underscore the importance of considering gender-specific phonetic patterns in English language acquisition, providing valuable insights for language educators and researchers.

The expansion of the English language produced by non-native speakers has, in recent decades, been discussed by applied linguists from various theoretical perspectives. The discussion has highlighted evidence showing that the multiplicity and diversity of English uses have given rise to an acceleration in the rate of inter-variety contacts where pronunciation, as it is claimed, is the principle factor in international intelligibility. Further, it has been demonstrated that difficulty in intelligibility increases with the typological distance between interlocutors' first languages, referring to the distinct way that English pronunciation is strongly shaped by the phonetics of speakers' first language. Consequently, a careful examination of the typological distance between speakers' L1 and the target language--English--is compelling for the underpinning of the teaching and learning of pronunciation. Unfortunately, in English language teaching pedagogy, variations in pronunciation may be neglected in favor of other factors. In addition, pronunciation teaching experts stress that the study of pronunciation should be developed by locally-based educators, researchers, and authorities who are exposed to the relevant socio-cultural context, rather than being dominated by native speaker scholars based in Anglophone countries. Thai English pronunciation is considered to be one of the minor accents in World Englishes, and some local English language educators in Thailand may have insufficient in-depth knowledge of the linguistic characteristics of this accent. Presented here is a systematic review of Thai-accented English phonology, analyzed and synthesized via a review of relevant literature: the characteristics of Thai-accented English are clearly displayed, providing a reference for future researchers aiming to explore further Thai-accented English. The review can also be applied to other L1-influenced Englishes in the Southeast Asian region which possess similar phonological and phonetic characteristics.

In this study, we designed a class model using the Evernote application for the pronunciation learning of special moras, and applied it to a class to verify the learner's recognition of special moras and the effectiveness of pronunciation duration. This study consisted of 30 students who took an intermediate Japanese language class, which started in the first semester of 2019, and Japanese literature majors who had not yet been in Japan for more than 6 months. We conducted special mora pre- and post-tests and surveyed them. Positive results were obtained based on the research question of whether the application affects the self-awareness of special moras, which represented a significant academic achievement in terms of pronunciation duration. In addition, it was observed that learning using Evernote enabled a significant change in lecture satisfaction through one-to-one feedback work with learners. Although the research results were limited by the small size of the group, it was possible to suggest a method of special moras learning using Evernote, and it is believed that it will help in-class learning in the future.

This research aimed to (1) develop and measure the efficiency of a set of reading and pronunciation skills in Chinese phonetics via Seesaw online classroom; (2) examine the effectiveness of the set; and (3) evaluate students' satisfaction with practice packages on Chinese pronunciation via Seesaw online classroom. Thirty-six undergraduate students majoring in Chinese language teaching at a university in Thailand were the participants of this study. This study used descriptive statistics (mean and S.D.) and dependent samples t-test. The results of this research indicated a substantial increase in students' learning achievement due to the Seesaw online classroom. Additionally, the Development of Practice Packages for Chinese Pronunciation Skill Acquisition via Seesaw Online Classroom was greater ([x-bar]=4.84, S.D.=0.37) than the researcher's standard of 3.50, and achieved the efficiency standard criteria of 82.50/84.97, which was greater than the 80/80 efficiency standard criterion chosen. Students' satisfaction with learning was high when they utilized Seesaw's Chinese pronunciation practice packages ([x-bar]= 4.50, S.D.= 0.54).

This study aims to investigate the improvement of EFL students' English pronunciation skills by using English phonetic alphabet drills. The samples of this study were 35 first-year students of English for International Communication major, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-ok. They all registered for the English Pronunciation subject in the second semester. The instruments used for collecting data were English phonetic alphabet drills, English phonetic alphabet collecting forms, observation and focus group interview questions. The data were analyzed both statistically and descriptively. The results showed that all students were able to pronounce English consonant and vowel sounds more accurately after applying English phonetic alphabet drills. However, Nasal /m, n, [eng]/in the final position, and /l/ in the initial and medial position were still the problematic consonant sounds including central vowels, /[lambda]/ and /[schwa]/, and the back vowels, /[open back unrounded vowel]/, /[near-close back rounded vowel]/, /u/ and /[schwa][near-close back rounded vowel]/. Students also had difficulties pronouncing voiced sounds. The causes of pronunciation errors were due to differences in the phonological system of the languages, mother tongue interference, and English spelling and pronunciation. From the findings, it was clear that the English phonetic alphabet knowledge could help student improve their English pronunciation.

This study aims to find the impact of the abrupt transition from traditional teaching to remote teaching of the phonology courses and how stakeholders dealt with such a shift. To this end, a descriptive approach was used, and data were collected using a questionnaire. The sample included students at English language programs (ELP) in some Saudi universities at levels 5 and 6 since they took the phonetics and phonology course at the beginning of the pandemic. There was an educational challenge during the coronavirus that compelled the conventional system of education to accept the status quo where educators found themselves obliged to shift abruptly from a traditional, face-to-face educational environment to fully online instruction. However, most of our Saudi academic institutions were not prepared for such a sudden and quick change. During the COVID-19 lockdown, language teachers in English Departments at Saudi Universities (ELP) resorted to the different type of teaching which depended mostly on technology where internet-wired personal computers or tablets played a significant role, and which expanded the scope of the teaching process and practically increased orientation on the teachers' part. Moreover, students' independence and self-teaching seemed to have increased, which could have influenced their cognition and skills. This study discussed the way language teachers in ELP dealt with the challenging content of the phonology course during COVID-19. The findings show that there were some problems at the beginning moving from traditional to virtual classes, where the students depended upon themselves and adapted to the change. The findings also showed that the teaching aids were not satisfactory enough to suit the purpose of the course.

Dyslexia is a reading disability affecting a large number of people worldwide. People with dyslexia have at least normal levels of intelligence, yet they nevertheless have significant difficulties with reading. Dyslexia is known to have genetic causes; however, some researchers believe that there are also environmental factors at play. Specifically, the way in which a child is taught to read can possibly influence whether or not that child ultimately ends up with dyslexia or other reading difficulties. This paper presents the hypothesis that the way a child is taught to read can be a major factor in the development of dyslexia. There has been speculation about this idea in previous literature, but that speculation has been based only on anecdotes and case studies; empirical research is added in this paper. This hypothesis is based on research showing that certain approaches to teaching reading can induce difficulties with phonetic skills (in other words, difficulty associating written letters with spoken sounds in a language that uses an alphabetic writing system) and fMRI-measurable brain patterns matching those of people with dyslexia. Additionally relevant is that those approaches are widespread in the English-speaking world--most specifically in the United States. Reading difficulties not related to phonetic skills would not be implicated in this hypothesis. The literature justifying this hypothesis is discussed, as well as the challenges to the hypothesis and a way that it can be tested. The importance of proposing this hypothesis is that if flawed reading instruction is indeed one primary cause of dyslexia, then reform in elementary schools is vital.

This research was undertaken with the aim of evaluating, classifying, and detecting mistakes made by Tunisian students learning Turkish as a foreign language at the A1 level. The study is descriptive and was performed using document and content analysis methods. Forty Tunisian university students participating in the study were asked to write about their emotions, ideas, and plans after being given a topic in the classroom at a specific time. Afterwards, their incidences of miswriting were determined while analyzing the texts. Their mistakes were classified under the headings of spelling mistakes, morphemic mistakes, phonetic mistakes, syntactic mistakes, and semantic mistakes. The writing errors grouped within these categories were subsequently re-evaluated according to their specific features and presented again under more narrow subheadings. It was determined that the students made 206 spelling mistakes, equaling 39.84% of the total, followed by 119 morphemic mistakes equaling 23.01%, 95 phonetic mistakes equaling 18.37%, 52 syntactic mistakes equaling 10.05%, and 45 semantic mistakes equaling 8.70%, for a total of 517 writing errors. The majority of these incidences of miswriting happened due to factors such as negative transfer, the distinctive structure of the Turkish language, and the students' lack of knowledge and experience. It is emphasized that writing-oriented error analysis studies in the teaching of Turkish as a foreign language should be increased and continued at all levels.

Variability in the form of article (i.e., a and the) omissions and stressing has been attributed to a mismatch between first (L1) and second language (L2) prosodic and syntactic structures. An overlap between the L1 and L2 systems, on the other hand, is expected to contribute to native-like article productions. This case study aims to explore the role of L1 prosodic structure (Turkish, Spanish and English) and syntactic environment (nouns with and without adjectives) on article productions of two end-state L2 speakers and one Australian-English native speaker. The data consisted of a sentence imitation task and spontaneous speech recordings of these three speakers. Article use patterns in the data were coded as supplied and omitted, and indefinite article durations were excised and measured using PRAAT. The findings suggest that the presence of an adjective in the noun clause increases cognitive demand, since irrespective of the L1 background, all the speakers had longer indefinite article durations in contexts with an adjective. Second, the Turkish speaker, whose L1 has a different prosodic and syntactic structure from Spanish and English for encoding definiteness, had higher rates of article stressing and omissions in contexts with an adjective. Third, L1 prosodic constraints can be responsible for article stressing and omissions in end-state L2 speech since only the prosodic transfer hypothesis predicts a difference in article durations between the two syntactic environments within the interlanguage of the same speaker. Despite long years of exposure to and frequent daily use of the L2, the persistent difficulty in article productions, as reported in this paper, may imply the importance of age of acquisition in overriding certain L1 prosodic effects in acquiring an L2.

Previous research in L2 perception has shown limited and diverge findings for final stop voicing contrasts by learners with different L1 backgrounds in comparison to natives of the target language. This paper aimed to investigate L2 learners' perceptual identification of voicing in English final stops based on the duration of succeeding vowel, and the impact of prior linguistic expertise in establishing L2 phonetic category as learners' level of proficiency develop. The subjects were adult Arabic L2 learners (N = 9) with different proficiency levels (advance, intermediate, & beginners). The subjects' performance was later compared to controlled native English group (N=3). Data were elicited through listening to stimuli in one task that contained three controlled conditions and one test condition. The analysis employed descriptive statistics, and one-way ANOVA. The findings showed that as the subjects' proficiency level developed, their accuracy in identifying final stops voicing increase. It also showed the possibility of establishing L2 phonetic category that seemed developed in correspond to the development of L2 proficiency level. The results illustrate the systematic processing of L2 sounds which have implications for theories in L2 perception.

The effects of international phonetic alphabet (IPA) instruction on English as a foreign language (EFL) adult learners' pronunciation have been well-recognized. However, not many studies on the topic were conducted in the Vietnamese context. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate (1) the impact of IPA learning on Vietnamese EFL adult learners' pronunciation and (2) adult learners' perceptions of the effects of learning the IPA system on their pronunciation. The study was designed as an experimental study, following a mixed-methods approach, using the pre- and post-tests, questionnaires, and interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Thirty-eight adult learners took part in this investigation; they were divided into two groups, nineteen in the control and nineteen in the experimental group. The experimental study lasted ten weeks before the questionnaires and interviews were administered with the participants in the experimental group. The results demonstrated a significant improvement in adult learners' pronunciation in the experimental group. The participants in the experimental group also highly perceived the positive effects of learning the IPA system on their pronunciation. Pedagogical implications and suggestions were presented at the end of the paper.

The objective of this study was to identify, describe and classify errors in the Russian and English speech of the native Kazakh speakers working in the oil industry as well as to give a possible explanation of the reasons for their occurrence. The cross-linguistic interference characteristics of the Kazakhs' speech were investigated with the involvement of 30 Kazakh oil workers. Based on the contrastive linguistic analysis of the Kazakh, Russian and English languages, typical errors in the oil workers' speech were established. After gathering the data, the numbers and percentages were employed. The data was then grouped and categorized as per the problems of the study, the characteristics of the items, and the objectives before analyzing it on the basis of frequency of responses. The study has shown that in the speech of oil workers, there were interferences like under-differentiation, over-differentiation, reinterpretation, substitution. These interferences in the speech of trilingual (represented phonetically, lexically, and grammatically) were more complex than in bilingualism. Kazakhs' Russian speech was also found as close as possible to the norms of the Russian language, and with trilingualism. There was a two-component unidirectional influence seen on the acquisition of a third language (English). The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of applying these results in order to draw up a methodological and practical basis for teaching English, taking into account the peculiarities of the differences in language systems.

The aims of this study were 1) to examine the effectiveness of the World Englishes instructional model in enabling students to improve their listening comprehension towards varieties of English, and 2) to investigate students' attitudes towards the use of the World Englishes instructional model. The methodology of this study followed a mixed-method research design by combining both quantitative and qualitative methods based on the evaluation of test results and interview data. The research findings revealed improvement in students' ability to understand when listening to different speakers of English as a result of implementing the World Englishes instructional model. The test results showed that the post-test scores were higher than the pre-test scores. There were statistically significant differences in the mean scores of intelligibility and comprehensibility between pre-test and post-test. Moreover, students were satisfied and had more positive attitudes towards teaching and learning based on the World Englishes instructional model.

The objectives of this study are to investigate verbal and visual semiotic resources employed as well as the cultural aspects embedded in the online soft drink advertisements. The data of this study was selected from the U.S. official soft drink brand Coca-Cola Instagram account (@cocacola), and a total of 58 advertisements were analyzed. Three analytical frameworks were employed to analyze the data. First, Nilsen (1979)'s phonetic devices framework was used for verbal resources analysis. Second, Kress & van Leeuwen (2006)'s and Harrison (2008)'s social semiotics frameworks were adapted for analyzing visual resources. Third, Hofstede et al. (2010)'s cultural dimensional model was employed to discuss the cultural aspects in the advertisements. The analysis of the verbal resources in the advertisements reveal two types of phonetic devices: alliteration and assonance. For the visual analysis, the advertisements tend to use the brand's color, red, instead of a logo to make the brand memorable. The representative participants (RP)' positions and gazes also give the sense of equality between the viewers and the brand. Most of the advertisements use visual resources that complement the verbal resources in order for the advertisements to be coherent as well as being able to convey the embedded cultural aspects. Two cultural aspects out of six were found: masculinity and indulgence. In addition, the study also found religious aspects embedded in the data.

Using multimedia inside the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom has been anticipated by several researchers and educators recently as a new necessary component of language learning. This is ascribed on the one hand to the continuous advancements in the new technological devices that might be used in presenting the various types of multimedia inside the classroom, and, on the other hand, to the fact that learners have started to acquire new modes of cognitive learning preferences due to their excessive daily use of these devices. This study investigates the appropriateness and practicality of using some animated or dynamic graphs and YouTube movies in teaching the pronunciation of English to Iraqi-Arabic learners of English as a foreign language. The two groups of the subjects who participated in this case study were taught using two different methods of teaching with and without using multimedia. Unlike those who were part of the control group, subjects belonging to the experimental group performed much better in their posttest results (62.31% of the experimental group average percentage and 47.09% of the control group average percentage).

The National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages has provided training in archive-based linguistic research for revitalization since 2011 (Baldwin et al. 2018). Four two-week workshops held biennially through 2017 provided training in phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax; on accessing archival documentation; and on applied uses of archive-based research for language revitalization. These workshops served 117 Community Researchers from fifty-five Native North American communities. Overtime, it became important to determine the impact of the workshops on community efforts. Thus, a third-party program assessment and evaluation was carried out, supported by the National Science Foundation Documenting Endangered Languages program (NSF-DEL BCS #1561167, PI D. Baldwin). In this paper, we outline the principles upon which the assessment and evaluation were designed, delve into the quantitative and qualitative methods implemented, and provide ample discussion of the assessment findings. We engage in a discussion on the importance and value of assessment and evaluation to any program akin to National Breath of Life. We close by showing how the assessment and evaluation have given validity to the development of new tools and workshops that address the needs of advanced phases of archive-based research for revitalization, and have also provided a foundation for the design of a Native American philology model. This was especially important considering that the workshops had remained mostly unchanged since they were first developed in the mid-1990s.

In the first year of life, infants' speech perception becomes attuned to the sounds of their native language. This process of early phonetic learning has traditionally been framed as phonetic category acquisition. However, recent studies have hypothesized that the attunement may instead reflect a perceptual space learning process that does not involve categories. In this article, we explore the idea of perceptual space learning by implementing five different perceptual space learning models and testing them on three phonetic contrasts that have been tested in the infant speech perception literature. We reproduce and extend previous results showing that a perceptual space learning model that uses only distributional information about the acoustics of short time slices of speech can account for at least some crosslinguistic differences in infant perception. Moreover, we find that a second perceptual space learning model, which benefits from word-level guidance. performs equally well in capturing crosslinguistic differences in infant speech perception. These results provide support for the general idea of perceptual space learning as a theory of early phonetic learning but suggest that more fine-grained data are needed to distinguish between different formal accounts. Finally, we provide testable empirical predictions of the two most promising models and show that these are not identical, making it possible to independently evaluate each model in experiments with infants in future research.

The the article proves the crucial role of principles of comparative/contrastive teaching Russian. The author proves that Russian methodologists understand the need to take into consideration students' mother tongue when teaching Russian as a foreign language. The article contains general characteristics of Swahili and comparative analysis of Russian and Swahili lexical and grammatical systems as the basis for the system of teaching Russian as a foreign language.

Mandarin has been added to the list of second additional languages (SAL) that South African learners can choose from. The researchers proactively conducted research pertaining to SAL (Mandarin) since it is a dynamic phenomenon in South Africa. The research question was formulated as follows: "Do factors such as 1) phonemic differences between learners' mother tongue and Chinese, 2) learners' cognitive styles and 3) learners' abilities of singing and tone imitation, influence non-native learners of Mandarin (as a SAL) in South Africa to learn Chinese phonetics?" We foresee that our findings will contribute to the learning and teaching of Mandarin (SAL) in South African schools. This article serves as the second in a series of three articles, as a mixed method (quan-qual) design was called for. Hypotheses were formulated and statistics presented to either accept/reject them. We gleaned the conclusions of the quantitative part of the research as a springboard and focused on the qualitative findings derived from interviews, observations and a literature review, which enabled us to identify and arrange the (quan-qual) data according to categories and themes. The quantitative data revealed that there was no significant correlation between learners' learning preferences and Chinese phonetics performances; singing and tone imitation abilities contributed to initial consonant pronunciation and tone 3 pronunciation; learners with musical abilities performed better at reading the Pinyin phonics table; identified initial consonants, multi-vowels and whole syllables were challenging to read; tone 3 was the most challenging, tone 1 was the easiest and tones 2, 3 and 4 were mispronounced as tone 1. From the qualitative data two themes emerged, namely the challenges of learning and teaching Chinese phonetics, and aspects to consider when learning Chinese phonetics. Based on the integrated quan-qual findings, we were able to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on this topic.

This paper addresses the techniques of treating patients with functional disorders of pronouncing sibilants in Arabic. The sounds under question are /s/, /z/, /?/. The main disorders that are studied here are: substitution and distortion. A descriptive analytical approach was followed; patients from different ages of functional pronunciation disorders of sibilants were observed. The researchers collected data from a questionnaire which was distributed to 46 speech therapists. The questionnaire focused on the techniques these therapists use with patients who have sibilant production disorders. The research first reviews the techniques used to treat the /s/ sound as a main sibilant and then builds on these techniques to treat /z/ and /?/ sounds. The research found that the treatment techniques depend on the type and form of the speech disorder, and the transitional arrangement for treating hissing sounds in Arabic starts with treating /s/ which is the easiest to pronounce -- then /z/ and finally /?/. The findings also emphasize that while treating the patient, it is important to increase his/her mental and auditory awareness of the problem. Finally, it was found that the number of treatment sessions varies according to the patient's motivation and ability to correct the sound after hearing it, in addition to his/her follow-up treatment outside the treatment sessions.

Information transfer occurs between societies for various reasons, mostly political and social relations such as migration, war and trade. Instead of giving a name to the innovations learned during this transfer, sometimes the source language's words are borrowed in the target language. Language is one of the most critical factors influenced by Turkish-Arab relations, which have a history of nearly fourteen centuries. During this period, word translations occurred in many fields, from Turkish to Arabic and from Arabic to Turkish. One of these fields is medicine, where the Arabic language has been dominant for a long time in Islamic civilization. It is seen that many Arabic medical terms are used in Turkish, as they have been influenced by the works and practices of many medical scholars in the Arab world. In this study, medical words that passed from Arabic to Turkish were determined. These words were examined in terms of phonetic events and semantic, and the effect of Arabic on Turkish medical terminology was revealed.

Speech discourse is the communication between people, that is, the speaker seeks to influence the recipient in a conversation, using deep thoughts and meaningful words, expecting to receive a response from the addressee. In modern Kazakh linguistics, speech discourse is being explored in various ways as a reflection of people's relationships and actions. This research aims to study intonation of the text in the form of official radio interview and to reveal pragmalinguistic peculiarities of it. We used methods of audit, experimental and electro-acoustic analysis for this research. In the article, speech discourse is analyzed pragmalinguistically and its intonation features are investigated by experimental research. Consequently, we took unprepared speech for experimental research, where the participant of interview was informed about the topic of the conversation. However, despite the fact that the theme of the issue was given, the discourse in the form of a previously unprepared radio interview is provided as the subject of research. Among other findings, the results of the study showed that it is advisable to use appropriate pauses, especially the pauses of hesitation, while speaking.

A significant barrier to effective communication in a second language is the awareness and accurate reproduction of phonetic sounds absent in the mother tongue. This study investigated whether the automated evaluation of phonetic accuracy using speech recognition technology could improve the pronunciation skills of 105 (88 female, 17 male) Thai undergraduate students studying English in Thailand. A pre-test, post-test design was employed using treatment and control sample groups, reversed over two six-week periods. Treatment group students were given access to an online platform on which they could record and submit their speech for automated evaluation and feedback via SpeechAce, a speech recognition interface designed to evaluate pronunciation and fluency. Independent samples t-test analysis of the results showed statistically significant improvement in pronunciation accuracy of students in the treatment group when compared to those in the control group (t (89) = 2.086, p = 0.040, 95% CI [0.083, 3.423]), (t (89) = -4.692, p < 0.001, 95% CI [-5.157, -2.089]). Pearson's correlation analysis indicated a weak to moderate, but statistically significant correlation between frequency of practise and pronunciation test score (r =0.508, p < 0.001), (r = 0.384, p = 0.021). The study has limitations as the sample group was predominantly female, and time constraints limited students' use of the software. Future studies should investigate possible gender differences and experiment with different forms of visual feedback.

This paper discussed Cross-Linguistic Transfer (CLT) and Language Proficiency in multilingual education in general and highlighted samples of CLT in Burundi as the existing literature reveals. As there exist CLT on all linguistic levels, this discussion has provided examples of phonological (including phonetics), lexical and semantic, and syntactic transfer. It has been realized that there exist a limited number of publications related to CLT among languages studied in the multilingual education system of Burundi. Yet analyses of CLT would supply interesting samples of linguistic features that are likely to be transferred. This would be useful for both language curriculum designers and language policymakers in deciding which language features to supply in language curriculum materials. Furthermore, teachers would find ways of helping learners to improve their language proficiency based on samples of CLT analysis.

Praat is a freeware program widely used by phoneticians for acoustic analyses of speech sounds, though less commonly so for pedagogical purposes. To our knowledge, no research on English pronunciation teaching has used Praat outside a classroom setting. In this article, we would like to report on a voluntary pronunciation-training project and discuss the extent to which Praat can promote self-regulating pronunciation practice beyond the classroom. Six Thai college learners with high aspirations to improve their pronunciation skills volunteered to participate in this training. In light of the small number of participants, we were unable to conduct in-depth research to examine extensively the effectiveness of using Praat outside the classroom. However, we have gained hands-on experience from undertaking this training project, and therefore would like to share with readers how an instructor can use the Praat program to help their learners improve their pronunciation. We also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of using Praat beyond the classroom setting and highlight the roles of the instructor in assisting learners to reach their pronunciation goals.

The article analyzes the effective electronic resources used in teaching Ukrainian as a second language. The authors highlight informational, educational, and controlling resources. Using electronic resources in the Ukrainian language teaching and learning process facilitates the development of an active vocabulary and critical thinking of the international students, lexical and linguistic competence, intensive study of phonetics, spelling, grammatical features of the language, and the diversity of the educational process. The significant effect of these resources in learning a foreign language is related to digitization and how it has affected the modern young generation, who cannot imagine their lives without varieties of gadgets. Mobile applications, which can be downloaded to any device, are designed for students to learn the lexical minimum, develop the correct pronunciation, improve their spelling and vocabulary, and practice making sentences. At the same time, the use of electronic resources when studying Ukrainian as a second language requires the students to be thoroughly self-organized and motivated. They are programmed only to reproduce a certain lexical or grammatical field, have no student-teacher or student-student feedback, aimed at checking the level of knowledge assimilation at a certain stage. Electronic resources should be used, under the control of a teacher, as a simulator for mastering the lexical minimum and grammar. These resources cannot replace communicative situations and speech cases, during which students actively use vocabulary and master speech constructions, and thus acquire lexical competence.

This study seeks to uncover the theoretical bases for the production of the classical Arabic phonetic terms and their elements in the means of generating terms for both lexical semantics and conceptual semantics. The research problem is concerned with examining the roots of generating these phonetic terms and determining the categories of their elements in order to inspect the development of the generation of the terms and investigating the relationship between the specific lexical meanings and their change to figurative meanings. The study is based on the content analysis in terms of classifying the elements and analysing the roots of the qualitative data at the level of the features of the generation of terms' procedures. The findings indicate that the classical phonetic terms were subject to the parameters of the morphological derivation and based on three categories ranging from simple, to complex and compound, in addition to the change of the lexical meanings of the terms to figurative meanings. The study suggests linking the elements and methods of generating these phonetic terms with their partial and detailed definitions in these treatises. This is due to the interest of the ancient phoneticians in the explanation of the concepts more than the formulation of the terms.

Gender differences are manifested not only in the physiological characteristics of a person, but also in the speech communication. This article presents the research data obtained at the phonetic and lexical levels of the language. The purpose of this work is to determine the speech characteristics that distinguish men and women at the studied language levels. The identification of the peculiarities of the speech of men and women supplements and clarifies the results of research in the field of gender studies. Before beginning the discussion on the specifics of male and female speech, it is important to understand what gender linguistics is and to learn a little about the history of this study. Until recently, linguists focused only on studying the differences in languages that were related to differences between groups of people (psycholinguistics, ethno linguistics, socio linguistics). But no one paid attention to the gender difference of the speech. Only recently have linguists begun to pay attention to the peculiarities of male and female speech.

With the rapid development of economy and technology, more and more fields are combined with electronic intelligence and artificial intelligence, and language teaching is no exception. As a research hot issue, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has attracted more and more people's attention. Based on computer-aided technology, teachers can not only provide students with rich language input, but also improve classroom efficiency. However, there are still some problems in this technology. This paper reviews some empirical studies on the impact of computer-assisted language teaching from 2015 and reveals the relevant progress and shortcomings of foreign researches in terms of six aspects from the perspective of language teaching, in order to provide some enlightenment for future research.

This paper sets out to peruse the role of various theories or more precisely, hypotheses invoked in second language acquisition (SLA) research by surveying three empirical studies pertaining to the critical period hypothesis in the SLA of phonetics and phonology. In particular, the three studies reviewed are titled in chronological order as (1) "A critical period for learning to pronounce foreign languages?" (Flege, 1987); (2) "Reexamining the critical period hypothesis: A case study of successful adult SLA in a naturalistic environment" (Ioup et al., 1994); and (3) "Ultimate attainment in L2 Phonology: The Critical Factors of Age, Motivation, and Instruction" (Moyer, 1999).