Understanding the Brazilian Way of Speaking English

Understanding the Brazilian way of

speaking English

Maria Lucia de Castro Gomes

UTFPR

Workshop Program

• Basis for the study group formation

• Theoretical approaches

• The three perspectives on pronunciation

teaching and learning

• PRAAT – a tool for awareness raising

• Data anlysis

• Final remarks

Study Group

• Partnership – DALEM UTFPR and BRAZ-

TESOL Curitiba Pronunciation RIG

• Around 15 members (English teachers

and students)

• Meetings – twice a month at UTFPR

Theoretical basis

• Usage-based phonology (Bybee, 2003,

2010)

• Exemplar Theory (Pierrahumbert, 2001,

2002, 2003)

• Acoustic Analysis (Kent & Read, 2002;

Russo e Behlau, 1993)

• English as a Lingua Franca (Jenkins,

2000; Walker, 2010)

• Grammar is viewed as the cognitive organization of one’s experience with language. (BYBEE, 2008)

• [Frequency] is intrinsic to the cognitive representations for the categories. More frequent categories have more exemplars and more highly activated exemplars than less frequent categories (PIERREHUMBERT, 2001)

• Teachers and their learners, […], need to learn not (a variety of) English, but about Englishes, their similarities and differences, issues involved in intelligibility, the strong link between language and identity, and so on. (JENKINS, 2006)

Inner circle

e.g. USA, UK

320-380 million

Outer circle

e.g. India, Singapore

300-500 million

Expanding circle

e.g. China, Russia

500-1,000 million

KACHRU’S “CIRCLES” THEORY

Crystal, 2010

KACHRU’S “CIRCLES” THEORY and the roles of English

Acronym Full name Meaning

EFL English as a

Foreign

Language

EXPANDING CIRCLE +

INNER CIRCLE

ELF English as a

Lingua Franca

EXPANDING CIRCLE +

EXPANDING CIRCLE +

OUTER CIRCLE

ENL English as a

Native

Language

INNER CIRCLE + INNER

CIRCLE

(NS + NS)

ESL English as a

Second

Language

OUTER CIRCLE + OUTER

CIRCLE

+ INNER CIRCLE

Adapted from Walker, 2010

Perspectives on Pronunciation

Learning and Teaching

• Production – articulation of sounds

• Perception – intelligibility and

comprehensibility

• Awareness – differences between L1 and

L2 sound systems

Production practice

Consonants

// // // // // //

– It’s a good faith. It’s a good fate. It’s a good face. It’s a good phase.

– I went to Beth. I went to bet. I went to Bess. I went to bed.

– The raid is set. The rate is set. The race is set. The raise is set.

– She began to ride. She began to write. She began to writhe. She began to rise.

– Don’t dip it. Don’t tip it. Don’t sip it. Don’t zip it.

– Dan is older than Stan.

– Did you pass Pat on the Path?

– I think there is zinc in the sink.

– Seth is said to set the table.

– Sue is due at the zoo at two.

Production practice

Vowels • EAT – IT

• SEEK – SICK

• SLEEP – SLIP

• POOL – PULL

• WHO’D – HOOD

• STEWED – STOOD

• BIRD – BUD

• HURT – HUT

• SAINT – SENT

• AIM – AM

• PLAIN - PLAN

• CANE – CAN

• HATE – HAT

• TAPE – TAP

• PETE - PET

• PINE – PIN

• PIPE - PIP

• NOTE – NOT

• RODE – ROD

• CUTE – CUT

• USE – US

CVC – CVCV

• Dad – Daddy

• Bug – buggy

• Push – pushy

• Bob – Bobby

• Fog – foggy

• Rain – rainy

• Cloud - cloudy

Perception activities

IV - Practicing Sentence Stress

1. Bill told his brother to answer the front door, not ____________.

2. The pencil costs five dollars, not _________.

3. We planned to visit Orlando, Florida, not ______________.

4. Jim’s Frank’s cousin, not ______________.

5. She said the star of the movie was Roger Moore, not _________.

6. Jerry knows when the TV program begins, not ______________.

1. a) the back door.

b) his sister.

c) the phone.

2. a) the pen.

b) five cents.

c) six dollars.

3. a) Miami.

b) Orlando, Texas.

c) live there.

4. a) the back door.

b) his sister.

c) the phone.

5. a) the pen.

b) five cents.

c) six dollars.

6. a) Miami.

b) Orlando, Texas.

c) live there.

Awareness

• The Brazilian way of speaking English

• Creature Comforts (4m17s)

Basic features of Brazilian English

• in onset – // // - THINK THIS

– // // - CHAIR JET/GYM

– // // - WORK YELLOW

– // - RADIO

– Phonetic differences

// // // - aspirated

PEN [] TEN [] CAR []

• in Coda – // - SING THANK

– // - WILL BRAZIL

– // - THEM SUM

– // - THEN SUN

– / // // - unreleased

– CAP / CAB HAT / HADBACK /

BAG

SEGMENTS

The Consonants – the main differences


The vowels

Portuguese - 7

/ /

American English – 11

Vowels / / + //

Diphthongs / /

British English – 12 // / /


• Peak – pick

• Fool – full

• Cane – can

• Eyes - ice

• Happy

• Cloudy

• Daddy

• Bobby

Vowels length


• SUPRA SEGMENTALS

– Epenthesis – SCHOOL WORKED

Paragoge – BIG SAME SIDE

– Vowel Reduction – The schwa // -

COMFORTABLE THE CAR A MAN

– Word stress - COMFORTABLE - POLICE

– Sentence stress

• Bill told his brother to answer the front door.

PRAAT – a tool for awareness

• Praat is a software developed by the

linguists Paul Boersma and David

Weenick, from the Phonetic Science

Institute in Amsterdam University. It is

basicaly used for speech analysis.

• http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/

http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/

Aspiration

American speaker

played //

Brazilian speaker Level – B1 British speaker

Aspiration

tire //

American speaker


Aspiration

car //

American speaker


Final //

fell in love

//

American speaker


// F1 327 F2 2.289

V D 0,1934

// F1 428 F2 2.264

V D 0,1033

Vowel

quality and

quantity

F1 274 F2 2.702

F1 444 F2 2.227

V D 0,1541

V D 0, 2742

NS - AM NNS - BR

Beat

//

Bit

//

// F1 694 F2 2.106

V D 0,1353

V D 0,2192

// F1 954 F2 1.903

F1 744 F2 2.141

F1 862 F2 2.098

V D 0,1343

V D 0,2608

NS - AM NNS - BR Vowel

quality and

quantity

Bet

/ /

Bat

/ /

// F1 418 F2 1.238

V D 0,1621

V D 0,1478

// F1 603 F2 1.255

NNS - BR NS - AM

F1 325 F2 929

V D 0, 2960

F1 435 F2 1.127

V D 0,1222

Vowels

quality and

quantity

Boot

//

Book

//

Vowel duration

eyes // ice // American speakers

Vowel duration

ice // eyes // Brazilian speakers

Epenthesis

American speaker

Brazilian speaker Level – C1

changed

//

Brazilian speaker Level – A2

Epenthesis and Paragoge

American speaker British speaker

Brazilian speaker Level – B1

passed

//

PALATALIZATION


beside

Vowel length CVCV

Daddy

//

NS - AM NNS - BR

WORD

STRESS

//

Police


American speaker

VOWEL

REDUCTION

//

famous

// American speaker

Brazilian speaker Level – C1

American speaker

American speaker

British speaker

Nuclear stress

Where did all this money come from?

Nuclear stress

Where did all this money come from?

LFC – Lingua franca core

Searching for priorities

• Consonant sounds – all but // and // or

// in coda

• Groups of consonants – clusters

• Vowel sounds – quantity instead of quality

• Nuclear stress placement

Non-core features

• // and //

• // in coda

• Exact vowel quality

• Pitch movement (tone)

• Word stress

• Stress-timing

• Vowel reduction, schwa, and weak forms

• Certain features of connected speech

ELF

• Consequences on adopting an ELF

approach to pronunciation

– CONCERNS

– BENEFITS

CONCERNS

• Concern 1 – An ELF approach will lower standards

• Concern 2 – An ELF approach will make errors acceptable

• Concern 3 – The ELF is a reduced version of native-speaker pronunciation

• Concern 4 – ELF means variation, but mutual intelligibility means a common standard

• Concern 5 – If you take away native-speaker accents, you leave learners without a model

• Concern 6 – You cannot teach an accent that nobody has

• Concern 7 – It is wrong to impose an ELF approach to students

• Concern 8 – A bad accent gives a bad impression

• Concern 9 – Most teachers prefer a native-speaker accent

• Concern 10 – Most learners say that they want to sound like a native speaker

BENEFITS

• Benefit 1 – A lighter workload

• Benefit 2 – Increased progress and achievability

• Benefit 3 – Accent addition instead of accent reduction

• Benefit 4 – Identity through accent

• Benefit 5 – Mother tongue as friend

• Benefit 6 – Non-native speakers as instructors

My final remarks

• The status of English as an international language forces a change in the way of teaching.

• The dichotomy British English/American English is not important for a model choice anymore.

• This new way of thinking requires a new concept of language acquisition; one that is not restrict to right/wrong or possible/impossible.

• The use of a language is much more complex than that, and the teaching/learning process requires that both teachers and learners be flexible to deal with that complexity.

• The Brazilian way of speaking English should be dealt with not as problem but as a set of characteristics, that, depending on the objective of the learner can be treated differently, focusing on EFL or ELF. Either one or the other, intelligibility should be the focus.

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Understanding the Brazilian Way of Speaking English

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