English Phonetics and Phonology – Third Mid Term 2010 - Group 01 May 27, 2010

Hugo Alexis Ortiz Morales

Luis Javier Carrillo Zamora
Javier Hernando Ortega Cuellar
Philology and Languages: English
Human Sciences Faculty
Department of Foreign Languages
Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Final Paper – Group Self-Analysis

Itroduction.

This final paper has one main objective: the analysis of the errors that we

committed when giving three different political speeches; besides, exposing the tools we

used to solve them out. Then we will explain how we improved our own oral production

with the help of each member of the group performing different roles in front of each other:

speaker, audience, judge and counselor. Furthermore, it is important to explain that we

chose political speeches because politicians usually make a great emphasis in their words

by stressing them exaggeratedly in order to assure the understanding and that their speeches

will stay in people’s mind; moreover, the remarked and slow pace pursuing the same

effects. The analysis of a political speech was a quite useful instrument to get a closer

approach to the leading role of the suprasegmental features in English intelligibility. So we

thought that this kind of speech would allow us to increase in quality our own individual

skills. Along this document, the reader will be able to find a group analysis of the members,
a self-analysis of each member taking into account the class and professor’s feedback, an

analysis taking into account some of the class’ reading documents, an analysis of each

member’s improvement along this semester and the final conclusions of the group’s work.

Group analysis of each member’s speech.

 Javier H. Ortega: His intonation was quite flat. It seemed he was trying to imitate

Obama’s language patterns. There were some rises and falls missing in the speech

so its meaning was affected. Connected Speech was a weakness of him as well.

Speaking fast was not good when the goal of the presentation was intelligibility.

There were some words that were unintelligible, such as /ˈjet/ and there are some

clusters that are not properly pronounced, like /ˈproˌtests/ or /ˈtæsks/.

The main cause of his problem with intonation was trying to mimic Obama’s

accent, although Kenworthy considers this as a key to achieve intelligibility

(Kenworthy, 1987), in this case it was a misleading way. Obama’s speech was very

fast and had no the characteristic features of a traditional political speech; so that

made Javier spoke so fast that some clusters containing junctures became difficult to

him to articulate.

 Javier Carrillo: There were some articulatory mistakes such as producing the mid

low vowel instead of the high- back- unrounded vowel in the second name

“Truman”. There were also mispronouncing mistakes such as as [æˈlɪəs] instead of

/ˈælaɪz/, with the high front vowel at the end instead of the diphthong [ai]; and the
 addition of a vowel sound before the [s] sound of the word [ˈespɪrɪtʃwəl] instead of

/ˈspɪrɪtʃwəl/. The word [ˈkəntroʊl] was stressed in the second syllable, instead of

/kənˈtroʊl/; which could have changed the syntactic relationship of the cluster

generating confusion in the audience.

"It may be difficult for the listener to identify the word when it is not properly

stressed" wrote Kenworthy, (Kenworthy, 1987) and we agree. However, in terms of

intelligibility of the speech as a whole, the word was not an important or a key fact,

thus, intelligibility was not completely affected.

 Hugo A. Ortiz: Although Hugo did a good use of intonation, he had some problems

when pronouncing clusters that ended with a consonant and begun with another

consonant. There were some problems such as holding a consonant too much, for

instance in the word [ˈs:əmˌhɑːw] when it should be /ˈsəmˌhɑːw/, he prolonged the

initial consonant, but it was the result of hesitation.

Most of Hugo’s mistakes occurred because of some reading mistakes. According to

Gibson’s text about “Reading Aloud”, “The requirement to focus on every word also

slows reading speed and impedes the chunking of meaningful units (Eskey and

Grabe 1988) (Gibson, 2008, 30). So it could be the reason for those errors, specially

the linkage of clusters in connected speech.

 Self-analysis of each member taking into account the class and professor’s

feedback.

- Javier H. Ortega: My performance was good in terms of intelligibility; however,

according to the audience feedback, my biggest error was reading fast and trying to

mimic Obama´s speaking patterns. Obama´s suprasegmentals patterns are very

different even for an American native speaker and it would be more accurate to adapt

the whole speech to my own patterns regarding my knowledge in suprasegmental

features.

- Javier Carrillo: Based on the audience and professor’s feedback, I think my

performance was accurate regarding intelligibility, which was the aim. Although

some words were difficult to understand (unknown words), to my mind, the

articulation of the speech as a whole was clear. I feel confident and comfortable

because of the rehearsals practiced the previous day.

- Hugo A. Ortiz: When presenting the speech to the audience I felt quite confident

because we had practiced the speech a lot of times the week before; however I

committed a few errors which were mentioned by the audience at the end of the

presentation. In terms of intelligibility we think I improved a lot in comparison with

the first time I read aloud the speech. I used all tools we had learnt along the semester

in order to avoid committing some mistakes I could not avoid before.

 Analysis of the speeches taking into account some of the class’ reading

documents.

With respect to the type of discourse, we find a great deal of unknown vocabulary,

specially in Kennedy and Luther King’s addresses, that made the first reading aloud in the

rehearsal difficult to comprehend and therefore, difficult to articulate and intone

accurately. However, our background achieved in our Phonetics Course helped us to

overcome intuitively those errors of intonation and pronunciation of unknown words. This

experience was complemented by watching the speeches’ videos. In this way we realized

some details regarding to pace, pauses, intonation of some remarked phrases, body

language and the basis of our presentation: speeches’ reading aloud by politicians.

Referring to body language, or “nonverbal language” according to Shlain (The

Alphabet versus the goddess, 1999), we put into practice those features characteristic of a

politician discourse such as, security, loud voice and sight towards the audience which

allow the “viewer … evaluates the candidate’s sincerity, cleverness, honesty, cunning, and

forthrightness” (Shlain,1999, 41).

It was so illustrating even though some of us did it better.

About the speeches performance by politicians, we observed that reading was a

significant aid to their memories. As we experienced, reading from a text aid to feel more

comfortable avoiding anxiety, and all the consequences of it, during an oral performance in

front of an audience. This thought can be easily ratified by Dr. Sally Gibson: “Having the

text to read or use as a prompt can relieve the burden of having to remember it or compose
what to say, thereby allowing more attention to be directed to oral or aural concerns.”

(Gibson, 2008, 31).

Comparing the reading aloud and free speech part of our presentation, we can say

that there was a deep difference between these two types of communication. While

performing a political address, we felt confident assuming that we were acting as

politicians, and reading a script previously rehearsed. At the time of giving feedbacks of

our rehearsal, we showed our actual “nonverbal clues, concrete gestalts, spontaneity,

…emotion” (Shlain,1999, 44); and for some of us it was more difficult to avoid hesitations

or repetitions as ESL Learners.

Analysis of each member’s improvement along this semester.

- Javier Ortega: At the very beginning of the semester I did not know that

suprasegmental features could help me to improve my English speaking skills. Along

the semester I understood that practicing and exercising suprasegmental features I

could improve the way I do when speaking in public. My partners have told me that

my intonation was quite flat when we started studying phonetics and phonology

course but they also told me I have improved a lot because right now I am aware of

the importance of stressing words correctly and using intonation in any conversation

or speech in English.
 - Javier Carrillo: It`s important to recognize that my knowledge about English

Phonetics was quite poor before I started this course, and that now, I can say that I

have already got the theoretical basis to get a fluid, spontaneous and accurately

intelligible Oral skills in English Language.

- Hugo Ortiz: A good point to remark is the fact that my improvement is the result of

practicing the theoretical knowledge acquired in class. Taking into account all of the

different reading materials and the professor’s rehearsals in class is the best way to

improve not only your speaking skills, but your whole second language skills; thus,

common errors such as transmitting Spanish patterns such as flat intonation and fast

speaking disappear with every single exercise and activity realized. Tools such as

recordings and presentations were an excellent help in order to realize my own errors

and find the way to overcome them.

Conclusions.

1. We have learnt, from the second presentation, that suprasegmental features carry a

great deal of meaning in English Language; this is, intonation, stress, rhythm in

connected speech determine how intelligible we are; oppositely to Spanish that is

mainly based on syntactic and semantic features. Besides, we have learnt that

“Nonverbal Language” is important when we speak to convey the paralinguistic

features that are complementary to the verbal message.

 From the rehearsal of the presentation we have concluded that Reading Aloud helps

to point out the errors we sometimes commit without being aware of them.

Furthermore, is a great aid to memory and to avoid anxiety.

Speaking in public and receiving feedback from the audience about our

performance is a helpful tool for us, because that is the way we can realize about

what we are doing well and what we are doing wrong.

2. We think that it was definitely accurate to choose this kind of speech. As political

speech contains many different, characteristic and unique suprasegmental features,

it was an useful tool that facilitated the analysis and comparisons with our own

suprasegmental features and it helped a lot by giving us real-life examples of how

we have to intonate, pronounce, etc.

3. It results evident for us, that the work made by the group throughout the semester

has been satisfactorily evolutionary; that the awareness of our role as ESL Learners

has increased and that the elementary tools has been given and what we have to do

is to articulate our skills by rehearsing the use of those tools.

4. And, how will we rehearse those skills? Besides practical activities (listening to

radio, watching news, movies, interacting with native speakers, etc) we have to keep

into account that the reach of any achievement that we set up will depend entirely

on the plan we trace and the organization, responsibility and effort we execute that

plan with.
Annex 1.

I Have a Dream - Address at March on Washington (Fragment)

August 28, 1963. Washington, DC.

We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When

will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the

fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the

cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto

to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and

a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not

satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness

like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations.

Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where

your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the

winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to

work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go

back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation

can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the

moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its
creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the

sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the

heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be

judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

Source: http://www.mlkonline.net/dream.html (Retrieved: May 6th, 16:38hrs.)

Annex 2

Inaugural Address January 20, 1961 (Fragment)

President John F. Kennedy

Washington, D.C.

January 20, 1961

Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President

Nixon, President Truman, Reverend Clergy, fellow citizens:

We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom--symbolizing an end as

well as a beginning--signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and

Almighty God the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters
ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all

forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for

which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe--the belief that the rights of man

come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth

from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new

generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter

peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of

those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are

committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any

burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the

success of liberty.

This much we pledge--and more.

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of

faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided

there is little we can do--for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one

form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron

tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope

to find them strongly supporting their own freedom--and to remember that, in the past, those who

foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.
Source:

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/In

augural+Address+January+20+1961.htm (Retrieved: May 26th, 16:50hrs.).

Annex 3

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: 'A More Perfect Union' (Fragment

Philadelphia, PA | March 18, 2008

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group

of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment

in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an

ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence

at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was

stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and

brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to

continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future

generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our

Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the

law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be

and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or

provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as

citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive

generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets

and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to

narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the

long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free,

more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment

in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless

we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have

different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may

not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction -

towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

Source:

http://www.barackobama.com/2008/03/18/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_53.php

(Retrieved: May 26th, 17:02hrs.)

References

- Gibson, S. (2008). Reading aloud: A useful learning tool? ELT Journal, 62,1, 29-36.

- Shlain, L. (1999). The Alphabet versus the goddess. New York: Penguin Arkana.

- Kenworthy, J (1992). Teaching English Pronunciation. New York: Longman.