ISCA Archive ISAPh 2024
ISCA Archive ISAPh 2024

Training English prosody with manipulated voices: Can both intermediate and advanced learners benefit?

Radek Skarnitzl, Tomáš Bořil

Prosodic aspects of speech such as intonation and rhythm are crucial for the comprehensibility and fluency of L2 speakers. However, prosody is rarely addressed in English pronunciation teaching. This paper reports on a short prosody-focused training, where participants’ own PSOLA-modified speech was used as model in an adapted listen-and-repeat paradigm. The individualized training, comprising one audio-only and one audio-visual session, was delivered to six intermediate (B-level as per CEFR) and six advanced (C-level) Czech speakers of English. The comparison of before- and after-training reading performance shows that both intermediate and advanced speakers benefitted from the training: their phrasing was more in line with the linguistic structure of the texts, and particularly their melodic variability increased significantly. The implications of the study are discussed especially with respect to awareness-raising.