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http://dx.doi.org/10.13064/KSSS.2022.14.3.051

The relationship between fluency levels and suprasegmentals according to the sentence types in the English read speech by Korean middle school English learners  

Kim, Hwa-Young (Institute for General Education, Korea University)
Publication Information
Phonetics and Speech Sciences / v.14, no.3, 2022 , pp. 51-66 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study aims to help Korean English learners to learn English pronunciation by revealing which suprasegmentals affect the implementation of English sentences closer to native English speakers when they read English sentences. To this end, Korean middle school English learners were selected as subjects and research data were gathered through sentence types (declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamative), as well as syllables. Speech rate, pause frequency, pause duration, F0 range, and rhythm among suprasegmentals were used for analysis of these English sentence utterances. Mean analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were performed. The results showed that speech rate, pause frequency, pause duration, and F0 range affected the evaluation of fluency levels. In the regression analysis between all suprasegmentals and fluency levels, the suprasegmentals that most affected fluency levels were speech rate and F0 range. Rhythm had no meaningful relation with fluency levels. Therefore, when teaching English pronunciation, it is necessary to teach students to increase their speech rate and F0 range. In addition, students should be trained to reduce both the number and the duration of pauses during utterance to improve their fluency. It is noteworthy that of the four sentence types, exclamative sentences were produced with faster speech rate, fewer pauses, shorter pause duration, and higher rhythm values.
Keywords
fluency level; F0 (fundamental frequency) range; pause; rhythm; sentence types; speech rate; suprasegmentals;
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