Annotation and Analyses of Temporal Aspects of Spoken Fluency
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.v26i3.644-661Keywords:
Transcription Conventions, Oral Corpus, Fluency, ProficiencyAbstract
This article presents the methodology adopted for transcribing and quantifying temporal fluency phenomena in a spoken L2 corpus (L2 English, French, and Italian by learners of different proficiency levels). The CHILDES suite is being used for transcription and analysis, and we have adapted the CHAT format in order to code disfluencies as precisely as possible. We briefly present findings for two extreme subgroups in the corpus--our most hesitant and least hesitant learners--and compare the major differences in the temporal structure of the speech of these two learner groups with a native-speaker control group. Implications of these findings for the automatic assessment of spoken fluency will be discussed.
References
Alderson, J. C. (2007). The CEFR and the need for more research. Modern Language Journal, 91, 659-663.
Beattie, G. W. (1980). Encoding units in spontaneous speech: Some implications for the dynamics of conversation. In H. W. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Temporal variables in speech (pp. 131-143). den Haag: Mouton.
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2009). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (Version 5.0.46) [Computer program]. Available at http://www.praat.org
Butterworth, B. (1980). Evidence from pauses in speech. In B. Butterworth (Ed.), Language production: Vol. 1. Speech and talk (pp. 155-175). London: Academic Press.
Byrnes, H., Child, J., Levinson, N., Lowe, P., Makino, S., Thompson, I., & Walton, A. R. (1986). ACTFL proficiency guidelines (1st ed.). Alexandria, VA: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Campione, E., & Véronis, J. (n.d.). Pauses et hésitations en français spontané. Retrieved March 21, 2009, from http://74.125.47.132/custom?q=cache:zGB8FDHAw8EJ:sites.univ-provence.fr/veronis/pdf/2004-Campione-JEP.pdf+campione&cd=8&hl=fr&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=google-coop-np
Chafe, W. L. (1980). Some reasons for hesitating. In H. W. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Temporal variables in speech (pp. 168-180). den Haag: Mouton.
Clark, H. H., & Fox Tree, J. (2002). Using uh and um in spontaneous speaking. Cognition, 84, 73-111.
Council of Europe. (2001). Common European framework of reference for languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
de Jong, N. H., & Wempe, T. (2007). Automatic measurement of speech rate in spoken Dutch. ACLC Working Papers, 2(2), 51-60. Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam. Retrieved March 21, 2009, from http://www.hum.uva.nl/aclc/object.cfm/C21601B3-BB4D-4A6A-9C45A56D58D33479/F962E5A9-1321-B0BE-A423747078C3C228
Dechert, H. W. (1980). Pauses and intonation as indicators of verbal planning in second-language speech productions: Two examples from a case study. In H. W. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Temporal variables in speech (pp. 271-285). den Haag: Mouton.
Deese, J. (1980). Pauses, prosody, and the demands of production in language. In H. W. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Temporal variables in speech (pp. 69-84). den Haag: Mouton.
Deschamps, A. (1980). The syntactical distribution of pauses in English spoken as a second language by French students. In H. W. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Temporal variables in speech (pp. 255-262). den Haag: Mouton.
Fox Tree, J. E., & Clark, H. H. (1997). Pronouncing ‘the’ as ‘thee’ to signal problems in speaking. Cognition, 62, 151-167.
Freed, B., Segalowitz, N., & Dewey, D. (2004). Context of learning and second language fluency in French: Comparing regular classroom, study abroad, and intensive domestic immersion programs. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26, 275-301.
Goldman-Eisler, F. (1958). Speech analysis and mental processes. Language and Speech, 1, 59-75.
Goldman-Eisler, F. (1961). The distribution of pause duration in speech. Language and Speech, 4, 232-237.
Goldman-Eisler, F. (1968). Psycholinguistics: Experiments in spontaneous speech. New York: Academic Press.
Good, D. A., & Butterworth, B. L. (1980). Hesitancy as a conversational resource: Some methodological implications. In H. W. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Temporal variables in speech (pp. 145-152). den Haag: Mouton.
Griffiths, R. (1991). Pausological research in an L2 context: A rationale, and review of selected studies. Applied Linguistics, 12, 345-362.
Hawkins, P. R. (1971). The syntactic location of hesitation pauses. Language and Speech, 14, 277-288.
Hellwig, B., Van Uytvanck, D., & Hulsbosch, M. (2002-2009). EUDICO Linguistic Annotator (ELAN). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institut für Psycholinguistik. Available at http://www.lat-mpi.eu/tools/elan
Hilton, H. E. (2008a). Connaissances, procédures et productions orales en L2. AILE, 27, 63-89.
Hilton, H. E. (2008b). The link between vocabulary knowledge and spoken L2 fluency. Language Learning Journal, 36, 153-166.
Hilton, H. E. (2008c). Le corpus PAROLE: architecture du corpus et conventions de transcription. TalkBank. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved March 21, 2009, from http://talkbank.org/BilingBank/PAROLE
Hilton, H. E., Osborne, N. J., Derive, M.-J., Suco, N., O’Donnell, J., Rutigliano, S., Billard, S. (2008). Corpus PAROLE. Chambéry: Université de Savoie. Available at http://talkbank.org/data/BilingBank/PAROLE/
Hincks, R. (2001). Using speech recognition to evaluate skills in spoken English. Working Papers in Linguistics, 49. Lund: Lunds Universitet. Retrieved March 21, 2009, from http://www.speech.kth.se/~hincks/papers/fon01.pdf
Hulstijn, J. H. (2007). The shaky ground beneath the CEFR: Quantitative and qualitative dimensions of language proficiency. Modern Language Journal, 91, 663-667.
Hulstijn, J. H., Schoonen, R., de Jong, N., Steinel, M., & Florijn, A. (2004-2008). What is speaking proficiency? (WiSP). Amsterdam: Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication, Universiteit van Amsterdam. Available at http://www.hum.uva.nl/wisp
Kormos, J. (2006). Speech production and second language acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Kormos, J., & Dénez, M. (2004). Exploring measures and perceptions of fluency in the speech of second language learners. System, 32, 145-164.
Kowal, S., & O’Connell, D. C. (1980). Pausological research at Saint Louis University. In H. W. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Temporal variables in speech (pp. 61-66). den Haag: Mouton.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2006). The emergence of complexity, fluency, and accuracy in the oral and written production of five Chinese learners of English. Applied Linguistics, 27, 590-619.
Lennon, P. (2000). The lexical element in spoken second language fluency. In H. Riggenbach (Ed.), Perspectives on fluency (pp. 25-42). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Levelt, W. J. M. (1989). Speaking: From intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Levelt, W. J. M. (1992). Accessing words in speech production: Stages, processes and representations. In W. J. M. Levelt (Ed.), Lexical access in speech production (pp. 1-22). Oxford: Blackwell.
Levelt, W. J. M. (1999). Producing spoken language: A blueprint of the speaker. In C. M. Brown & P. Hagoort (Eds.), The neurocognition of language (pp. 83-122). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Maclay, H., & Osgood, C. E. (1959). Hesitation phenomena in spontaneous English speech. Word, 15, 19-44.
MacWhinney, B. (2007). The CHILDES Project: Tools for analyzing talk: Vol. 1. Transcription format and programs. Pittsburgh: Carnegie-Mellon University.
MacWhinney, B., & Spektor, L. (1995-2008). Child language data exchange system. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University. Available at http://childes.psy.cmu.edu
Malvern, D., & Richards, B. (1997). A new measure of lexical diversity. In A. Ryan & A. Wray (Eds.), Evolving models of language (pp. 58-71). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Marshall, R. C. (2000). Speech fluency and aphasia. In H. Riggenbach (Ed.), Perspectives on fluency (pp. 74-88). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Möhle, D. (1984). A comparison of the second language speech production of different native speakers. In H. W. Dechert, D. Möhle, & M. Raupach (Eds.), Second language productions (pp. 26-49). Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
Noyau, C. (2002). Les choix de formulation dans la représentation textuelle d’événements complexes: Gammes de récits. Journal de la Recherche Scientifique de l’Université de Lomé, 2, 33-44.
O’Brian, I., Segalowitz, N., Freed, B., & Collentine, J. (2007). Phonological memory predicts second language oral fluency gains in adults. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 29, 557-582.
O’Connell, D., & Kowal, S. (1980). Prospectus for a science of pausology. In H. W. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Temporal variables in speech (pp. 3-10). The Hague: Mouton.
Osborne, J., & Hilton, H. E. (2008, September 12). Propositional structure and L2 fluency: Findings from a spoken corpus. Paper presented at the EUROSLA Annual Conference. Aix-en-Provence: Université de Provence.
Pawley, A., & Syder, F. H. (1983). Two puzzles for linguistic theory: Nativelike selection and nativelike fluency. In J. C. Richards & R. W. Schmidt (Eds.), Language and communication (pp. 191-226). London: Longman.
Raupach, M. (1980). Temporal variables in first and second language speech production. In H. W. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Temporal variables in speech (pp. 263-270). den Haag: Mouton.
Riazantseva, A. (2001). Second language proficiency and pausing: A study of Russian speakers of English. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23, 497-526.
Rieger, C. L. (2003). Disfluencies and hesitation strategies in oral L2 tests. In R. Ecklund (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2003 Disfluency in Spontaneous Speech Workshop. Vol. 90: Gothenburg Papers in Theoretical Linguistics (pp. 41-44). Göteborg, Sweden: Göteborg University.
Riggenbach, H. (Ed.) (2000). Perspectives on fluency. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Rochester, S. R. (1973). The significance of pauses in spontaneous speech. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 2, 51-81.
Schmidt, T., & Wörner, K. (2004-2009). Extensible markup language for discourse annotation (EXMARaLDA). Hamburg: Universität Hamburg. Available at http://www.exmaralda.org
Swerts, M. (1998). Filled pauses as markers of discourse structure. Journal of Pragmatics, 30, 485-496.
Towell, R. (2002). Relative degrees of fluency: A comparative case study of advanced learners of French. IRAL, 40, 117-50.
Trofimovich, P., & Baker, W. (2006). Learning second language suprasegmentals: Effects of L2 experience on prosody and fluency characteristics of L2 speech. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28, 1-30.
Vermeer, A. (2000). Coming to grips with lexical richness in spontaneous speech data. Language Testing, 17, 65-83.
von Stutterheim, C. (2003). Linguistic structure and information organisation: The case of very advanced learners. In S. Foster-Cohen & S. Pekarek Doehler (Eds.), EUROSLA Yearbook 2003 (pp. 183-206). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
WebCEF Partners (2004-2009). WebCEF collaborative assessment of oral language proficiency. Leuven, Belgium: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Available at http://www.webcef.eu
Zechner, K., & Bejar, I. (2006). Towards automatic scoring of non-native spontaneous speech. In R. C. Moore (Ed.), Proceedings of the main conference on Human Language Technology Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association of Computational Linguistics (pp. 216-223). New York: Association of Computational Linguistics.
Zechner, K., Higgins, D., & Xi, X. (2007). SpeechRaterTM: A construct-driven approach to scoring spontaneous non-native speech. In 1-3 October, Farmington PA. Vol. SLaTE-2007: Proceedings of the 2007 workshop of the international speech communication association (ISCA) special interest group on speech and language technology in education (pp. 128-131). Pittsburgh, PA: CarnegieMellon University.
