Artikulaciono-akustičke karakteristike konsonanata u međujezičkom sistemu: eksperimentalno-fonetska studija

Abstract

The study investigates the articulatory and acoustic features of consonants in Sеrbian-English interphonology, specifically by analyzing Serbian EFL students’ perception and production of consonants. The research focused on the difficulties in the perception and production of consonants in different positions, and in various testing tasks. Perception testing was conducted through phoneme identification and discrimination tests, while the production was investigated in three speech styles differing in formality: word list reading, paragraph reading and interview (designed to elicit spontaneous speech). We only tested the perception of non-native speakers, whereas both non-native and two native American English speakers were recorded for production examinations, so that more valid conclusions could be reached. A total of 72 firstyear English-major students at the Faculty of Philology and Arts, University of Kragujevac, participated in the study. The analysis of the obtained data was based on the combination of qualitative and quantitative interpretation methods. Namely, through the investigation of perception testing results, accuracy percentages were calculated and subjected to further statistical testing. Production analysis included methods of experimental phonetics, assuming the analysis of relevant acoustic parameters with appropriate illustrations on spectrograms and waveforms. 478 Даница М. Јеротијевић Тишма The results demonstrated a relatively high level of accuracy in perception of target sounds with detected deviations in specific contexts. The participants struggled more to discriminate, than to identify consonants, which we interpreted as the result of the possible drawback and limitation of the very methodological design of the testing material. The acoustic analysis of the production revealed problematic consonants, i.e. /θ ð ŋ w/ classified as new, and /k p v t d s z ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ r l/, classified as similar according to the advocated theoretical models. A high level of variability was noted, as well as the intermediate values of specific phonetic features, actually resembling neither of the languages, which confirms the assumptions about the approximative nature of the interlanguage system. Phonetic context turned out to be a significant predictor of variations in certain cases, in the sense that it might make pronunciation easier, or more difficult for that matter, while we could not regard the formality of speech style as an irrefutable trigger for variations in all cases. The effect of speech style is mostly reflected in the acoustic cues of duration, while it is less evident in the intrinsic features of consonants. Judging by the results of the current study, we concluded that mother tongue interference must not be disregarded since it determined the level of Serbian EFL speakers’ perception and production of consonants at the tertiary level of education to a fair degree. The process of assimilation dominated throughout the corpus, hence the presence of foreign accent was almost inevitable. It appears that Serbian students succeed in differentiating phonological differences, but not subtle phonetic ones, i.e. they fail to perceive/produce the variations in allophonic realizations. A special problem can be ascribed to the discrimination of phonetic contrasts of similar sounds, yet the assimilation of sounds non-existent in the mother tongue is likewise appreciably frequent. Having all this in 479 Артикулационо-акустичке карактеристике консонаната у међујезичком систему mind, we presume that new sounds have greater chance for new category formation, as opposed to similar sounds. Moreover, dfferential substitution prevailed for new sounds, yet we also found rather frequent instances of hypercorrection. Speech style could also be relevant for predicting the variability in differential substitution frequency. By comparing the participants’ perception and production we confirmed the linear interrelationship between the two, meaning that perception enhancement should go along the improvement in the production, which has significant implications for the teaching practice in Serbian EFL classrooms. Even though the results predominantly confirm the assumptions based on the selected theoretical models, the study underscores some unresolved issues that might serve as the focus of future studies.