IFA, EFL, RA-Z, PDI: IFA, EFL, RA-Z, PDI: phonolapsological phonolapsological

annotation for annotation for teaching teaching

pronunciationpronunciation

Włodzimierz Sobkowiak

Wiesława Ferlacka

Presentation outline:

PDI RA-Z PDI of RA-Z IFA pronunciation syllabus PDI of RA-Z for IFA pronunciation

syllabus Further applications

PDI - summary

The PDI algorithm: phonetically transcribes English orthographic

text, automatically extracts and tags the most

commonly encountered pronouncing problems by Polish learners of English,

generates a phonolapsological profile of the text.

The resulting PDI index contains: quantitative difficulty level information, with

the range of 0-11, qualitative difficulty tags in the form of 61

PDI codes, each for one specific Polglish pronunciation problem.

PDI - sample of tagged text

RA-Z e-library

RA-Z library

English (plus French and Spanish) based on research into reading and

learning addresses the needs of American and

ESL children and homeschoolers also popular among EFL educators takes readers’ feedback into account

(worldwide consultancy) many fine-grained levels of difficulty

Mean PDI/word over 18 RA-Z levels

Mean PDI/word over 317 RA-Z texts

PDI in three corpora

Topics of interest in RA-Z texts

Politics (A run for presidency, etc.) Genetics (What makes you you, etc.) Famous Americans (Rosa Parks, Louis

Armstrong, George Washington, etc.) Places of interest (Mount Rushmore,

etc.) Customs (Halloween, Xmas, New Year’s

Eve celebrations, etc.) Legends (How zebras got their stripes,

etc.) Social issues (slavery, immigration, etc.) Historical events (transcontinental

railway, etc.)

A sample RA-Z book – level G

A sample RA-Z book – level R

Frequent PDI codes in RA‑Z

• PDI(J) - schwa• PDI(Z) - word-final voiced obstruent• PDI(0) - British≠American• PDI(*) - no phonetic difficulty

Frequent PDI codegrams in RA-Z

No codegram RA-Z word examples

1 JZ 22399 of, and, as, was

2 JL 22208 the, that, them, than

3 J0 8136 for, or, water , over, were,

4 UZ 5476 have, his, hand, whose

5 LZ 2569 with, these, those

6 Y0 2556 all, also, small, almost

7 rZ 1777 used, lived, named

Wordle® of PDI(JZ) in RA-Z

Some pronunciation goals in the IFA EFL syllabus

1. Know the phonemic shape of words within a basic English vocabulary, including word stress.

2. Be able to recognize all the phonemic contrasts of English perceptively, and to implement them in their own production.

3. Show an understanding of the allophony of English phonemes in perception and an ability to implement it in production.

4. Have a perceptive awareness of selected English connected speech processes [...] and an ability to use them in their own speech.

5. The materials should be carefully selected for content and form

text idtext id RA-Z record (sentence)RA-Z record (sentence)

H01H01 MaleMaless ha haveve lar largege antler antlerss

H07H07 SnaSnagg snee sneezeszes an and d sneesneezeszes

K16K16 ReptileReptiless an and d amphibianamphibianss ha haveve backbonbackboneses

N14N14 KindKindss o off ssnailnails s anandd sslulugsgs

Q06Q06 BuildinBuildingsgs an and d bribridgesdges destroy destroyeded

W04W04 CamelCamelss cactu cactusesses an and d sansand d dunduneses

1. Know the phonemic shape of words within a basic English vocabulary.

ALL attested sentences of RA-Z (>3 words) with the maximum score for PDI(Z): all

words end in voiced obstruents.

2. Be able to recognize all the phonemic contrasts of English perceptively, and to implement them in their own production

A sentence with 14 occurrences of PDI(0), British≠American, 73 words, PDI/word=1.8.

When he crossed pea plants with other pea plants possessing opposite traits, like

short with tall or smooth-seeded with wrinkled-seeded, he discovered that the resulting plant always looked like one or the other rather than like a mix of both.

3. Show an understanding of the allophony of English phonemes in perception and an ability to implement it in production

Two sentences of RA-Z with 8 aspirated stops each:

•Spain's king forced Mexicans to pay taxes and the kings harsh actions caused many Mexicans who hadn't taken part in the revolution to now turn against Spain

•15 to 2 cups pumpkin seeds, 2 teaspoons melted butter, salt to taste (about a teaspoon).

4. Have a perceptive awareness of selected English connected speech processes [...] and an ability to use them in their own speech.

All RA-Z sentences with linking /r/ and PDI/word<1:

• Ants are insects.

•"I will go for a bike ride", he says.

• Now whenever I look at this tree, it'll remind me of Grandpa.

• From there I can get back on a big boat.

Other PDI applications for IFA phonetics training: diagnosis & treatment

PDI can be used on any text: classic corpora, learner corpora (incl. PICLE, student-generated texts, web content, etc.).

Texts can be quite easily annotated to highlight the focal spots of pronouncing difficulty and enhanced with appropriate resources (glossaries, exercises, etc.).

PDI can be used as a tool for individualised phonetic diagnosis and remedial treatment.

Other PDI applications for IFA phonetics training: resources

PDI can be used to evaluate and possibly revise the existing IFA pronunciation syllabus and resource/materials list.

PDI can be used for phonetic test preparation and evaluation.

PDI can feed into TTS to produce Polglish accented speech (Sobkowiak in press: PLM'07)

For more...

On PDI: http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/~swlodek/public.htm http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/~swlodek/SobkFerl.pps http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/~swlodek/cuv3.html http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/~swlodek/PLM07.htm

On RA-Z: http://www.readinga-z.com

On PDI of RA-Z: Sobkowiak & Ferlacka, book in preparation