Object

Abstract:

The subject of the monograph deals with various strategies used by advanced non-native Polish advanced learners of English while indicating word stress and its position withi mulitiple syllable English words.The first chapter is entirely devoted to the theoretical aspects of English phonetics related to the topic. It is divided into four sections: in the first one, the syllable and its essence are thoroughly analyzed: structure, syllable division and syllable analysis in terms of strong (heavy) and weak syllables. The second section presents the definition of the stress word in English along with the essence of its variability and the three levels of stress: main stress, minor stress and no stress. The next section of the chapter is devoted to the word stress position within specific words: simple (one and two-syllable words) and complex (three-syllable and longer words). The last section is an attempt to determine a possible correlation between the structure of the syllable and the word stress pattern.In the second chapter, English word stress is presented from the perspective of Poles learning English as theri second language (L2). Similarly to the previous chapter, this chapter also consists of four sections. The first one is an analysis of English word stress from a phonological perspective and describes the three most important aspects: the stress within the syllable and its severity, as well as the phenomenon of vowel reduction. The second section is devoted to syllables in Polish: the essence of defining boundaries within one syllable as well as between different syllables in a given word is specified. The third section focuses on the essence of word stress in Polish: three types of stress (rhythmic, dynamic, melodic) and the main rules governing word stress in Polish. The fourth section of this chapter tries to organize some general tendencies in the process of determining the placement of word stress in the English language, seen from the perspective of suffixes and compound words (nouns, verbs and adjectives).The third chapter focuses mainly on the theory of Second Language Acquisition and its theoretical assumptions in practice. This chapter is divided into two sections. The first - more extensive - is devoted to the theory of acquiring English as a foreign language. The role of both mother tongue (L1) and foreign language (L2) in the SLA process is taken into account. Here, the so-called 'Interlanguage' - including linguistic errors resulting from the continuous development of learners' linguistic skills, as well as errors resulting from the transfer of various rules or rules from the mother tongue to the ground of a foreign language – plays a very important role. In addition, the chapter contains the theories and models of SLA most relevant to the topic of the monograph, as well as the role of mother tongue phonology in foreign language acquisition. The second section of the chapter describes two studies related to word stress carried out on Poles learning English by J. Archibald in 1998 and E. Waniek-Klimczak in 2002. The last chapter of this monograph describes the study carried out at the Institute of English Studies at the University of Łódź with the participation of students of the first, second and fifth year of English philology. The chapter provides an exhaustive description of the study: its main objectives, hypotheses and assumptions, methods, participants, procedurę, results obtained and conclusions drawn from the analysis of the results. It is worth mentioning that the results were divided into three additional subsections - each of them corresponds to the theses made at the beginning of the study and the research goals.

Table of contents:

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 7

CHAPTER I ‘SYLLABLE’ AND ‘STRESS’ IN PHONETICS – THEORETICAL ASPECT OF THE TERMS 11
1.1. What do we mean by ‘syllable’? 11
1.1.1. The syllable and its nature 13
1.1.2. The English syllable structure 15
1.1.3. The division of words into syllables 19
1.1.4. Weak and strong syllables 21
1.2. How to define ‘stress’? 22
1.2.1. The variability of English stress 27
1.2.2. Three levels of stress in English 29
1.3. Stress and its position within the word 30
1.3.1. The stress placement within simple words 30
1.3.1.1. Two-syllable words 32 1.3.1.2. Three-syllable words 34
1.3.2. The stress placement within complex words 36
1.3.2.1. Prefixes 37 1.3.2.2. Suffixes 38
1.3.2.3. Compound words 38
1.3.2.4. Word-class pairs 40
1.4. Correlation between syllable structure and stress 40

CHAPTER II ENGLISH WORD-STRESS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF POLISH LEARNERS 43
2.1. Phonological aspects of English word stress 43
2.1.1. Syllable stress 44
2.1.2. Syllable weight 46
2.1.3. Vowel reduction 48
2.2. On syllables in Polish 49
2.2.1. The centers and boundaries of syllables 50
2.2.2. The boundaries between syllables 50
2.3. Polish word-stress and its specification 51
2.3.1. Three types of stress in Polish 52
2.3.2. The principal rules of stress assignment 53
2.4. Regularities in English word-stress assignment 56
2.4.1. Suffixed words 58
2.4.2. Compounds 60
2.4.2.1. Compound nouns 62
2.4.2.2. Compound verbs 63
2.4.2.3. Compound adjectives 64

CHAPTER III SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THEORY AND ITS ASSUMPTIONS IN PRACTICE 67
3.1. Short overview of the Second Language Acquisition theory 67
3.1.1. The role of L1 69
3.1.2. The role of L2 70
3.1.3. The general issue of interlanguage 72
3.1.3.1. Developmental errors 74
3.1.3.2. Transfer errors 75
3.1.4. Phonological theories and models in SLA 76
3.1.4.1. Markedness Differential Hypothesis 78
3.1.4.2. Ontogeny Phylogeny Model 79
3.1.5. The phonology of L2 81
3.1.5.1. Segmental phonology 82
3.1.5.2. Prosodic phonology 83
3.1.5.3. The role of L1 phonological system in L2 speech Perception 83
3.1.5.4. Implications for L2 phonological acquisition 84
3.2. Studies on English word-stress assignment by Polish advanced learners of the language 86

CHAPTER IV IS THE ENGLISH WORD-STRESS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF POLISH ADVANCED LEARNERS OF ENGLISH? 97
4.1. Introduction 97
4.2. The study 98
4.2.1. Main objectives of the study 99
4.2.2. Methods 100
4.2.3. Participants 101
4.2.4. Procedure 102
4.2.5. Results 103
4.2.5.1. Can they hear it or not? 103
4.2.5.2. Does proficiency in L2 matter? 106
4.2.5.3. Computing vs. transferring – different strategies of indicating of the stress position 108
4.2.5.3.1. Computed or not computed? – stress in different parts of speech 108
4.2.5.3.2. Polish your English – do the students transfer L2 stress pattern into their L2? 111
4.2.6. Conclusions 115

CONCLUSIONS 119
APPENDICIES 123
REFERENCES 135

Place of publishing:

Piotrków Trybunalski

Physical description:

138 s.

ISBN:

978-83-7133-992-9

Publisher:

Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jana Kochanowskiego. Filia w Piotrkowie Trybunalskim

Date issued:

2021

Identifier:

doi:10.25951/4453

Language:

angielski

Format:

application/pdf