Foreign language speech fluency: An introduction to research methodology

studia pierwszego stopnia

English Philology

studia stacjonarne

academic profile

fakultatywne

Mieszany: realizowany zdalnie i w sali

Phonetics 1 and Phonetics 2 courses completed

ECTS points in relation to student’s duties

total hours: 30

total ECTS: 2

1 ECTS = 30h in class

1 ECTS = 30 h preparation to class

Course description

The course develops skills in research methodology in the area of Second Language Acquisition, needed for pursuing further academic degrees in linguistics. More specifically, the course focuses on how L2 speech fluency is understood, measured and researched. The students will follow every step a researcher needs to take in order to conduct an L2 speech fluency study, which involves, among others, transcribing, annotating and using PRAAT software for the analysis of spoken data. The course aims to equip students with academic skills for speech fluency research.

Course objectives:

- Familiarising with advanced research methods in applied linguistics.

- Familiarising with the theoretical background of L2 speech fluency research.

- Developing skills related to L2 speech analysis.

- Applying PRAAT software for L2 speech fluency research.

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Course content:

• Introduction to L2 speech fluency research – theoretical background

• Measuring L2 speech fluency

• Speech data collection

• Preparation for L2 fluency analysis

• Transcriptions and annotations

• Cross-checking

• Using PRAAT for spoken data analysis

• Final discussion on L2 speech fluency research methodology

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Methods of instruction/ forms of classroom activity:

presentation, discourse analysis, group discussion, ICT tools/MSTeams

Reading list

De Jong N. H., Pacilly J. J. A., & Heeren W. F. L. (2021). PRAAT scripts to measure speed fluency and breakdown fluency in speech automatically. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 28(4), 456–476. doi:10.1080/0969594X.2021.1951162

De Jong, N. H., & Wempe, T. (2009). Praat script to detect syllable nuclei and measure speech rate automatically. Behaviour Research Methods, 41, 385–390. doi:10.3758/BRM.41.2.385

Lennes, M. (2002). Total duration of labeled segments. Praat script. Available: https://github.com/lennes/spect/blob/master/scripts/total_duration_of_labeled_segments.praat

Segalowitz, N. (2010). Cognitive bases of second language fluency. New York: Routledge.

Tavakoli, P., & Wright, C. (2020). Measuring Fluency. In Second language speech fluency: From research to practice (pp. 43–63). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108589109.003

Learning outcomes acc to PQR 2019:

Knowledge

The student knows and understands

1. main methods of analysis, including research schools within English philology (k_W04/P6S_WG)

Skills

The student can

2. use the terminology related to English speech fluency and take theoretical standpoints resulting from studying English research methodologies (k_U01/P6S_UW

3. use appropriate tools and methods to analyse and discuss English speech fluency (k_U06/P6S_UK)

Social competences

The student is ready to

4. critically evaluate and solve problems arising from the implementation of professional tasks related to speech fulency research (k_K02/P6S_KK

5. comply with the rules of professional ethics (k_K05/P6S_KR)

Forms of evaluation of learning outcomes:

Completion of a set of speech analysis tasks, involving transcription of speech samples, cross-checking transcriptions, annotating speech samples in PRAAT (outcome 1,2,3,4,5)

Each task must be completed at at least 60% to get a pass.