Papers by Melissa Bettoni
Cadernos de Estudos Linguísticos
The present study aimed at investigating effects of perceptual training in the production of word... more The present study aimed at investigating effects of perceptual training in the production of word-initial /s/-clusters in Brazilian Portuguese/English interphonology. The hypotheses proposed that there would be improvement in production after training and that such improvement would also be found in an eight-month follow-up test and in a twelve-year follow-up test. Also, it was hypothesized that the production of /s/+sonorants would remain more problematic than the production of /s/+stops after training. Twenty-three Brazilians who spoke English as a foreign language at a minimum B1 level of proficiency participated in the study. Eight of them were assigned to a control group. The fifteen remaining participants took a test consisting of reading tasks and an interview before and after an identification perceptual training following a high variability approach. Eight months later, eight participants from the experimental group took a follow-up test with the same tasks from pre- and po...
Todas as Letras Revista de Língua e Literatura
Working memory (WM) plays an important role in language learning processes. Several studies have ... more Working memory (WM) plays an important role in language learning processes. Several studies have focused on WM and, more specifically, on one of its subcomponents, the phonological loop (and its relationship with the second language [L2]). Thus, the present research aims to review studies on phonological loop and L2 acquisition, carrying out a survey on their data-gathering instruments, as well as their results. Regarding language acquisition, the results of the reviewed studies indicated that WM correlates positively with first language (L1) and L2, considering 1. vocabulary acquisition, 2. grammar acquisition, 3. language proficiency, 4. phonological processing, 5. storage capacity, and 6. attention.
Research, Society and Development
Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar como a pronúncia é abordada em dois canais de YouTube... more Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar como a pronúncia é abordada em dois canais de YouTube com foco no ensino de inglês para brasileiros bem como identificar o interesse dos brasileiros no assunto mediante o número de visualizações e curtidas dos vídeos. Os canais foram: ‘Ask Jackie’, apresentado pela americana Jackie, com 717 mil seguidores e 24.117.582 visualizações, e o canal ‘Tia do Inglês’, apresentado pela brasileira Marcela, com 681 mil seguidores e 25.124.066 visualizações. Os vídeos abordando pronúncia foram selecionados e avaliados segundo critérios quantitativos e qualitativos. Os resultados indicaram que em relação à porcentagem de vídeos que abordam pronúncia, o canal ‘Ask Jackie' apresenta 9,1% (17 de 187 vídeos no total) de vídeos e o canal ‘Tia do Inglês’ 2,6% (15 de 572 vídeos). Em ambos os canais os vídeos com mais visualizações e curtidas não têm foco na pronúncia. Os itens de pronúncia que mais aparecem em ambos os canais são vídeos com palavras no ger...
SEMINÁRIO DE PESQUISA, EXTENSÃO E INOVAÇÃO DO IFSC - 2014, Jul 14, 2014
O presente trabalho apresenta resultados preliminares e discussao inicial sobre a relacao de idio... more O presente trabalho apresenta resultados preliminares e discussao inicial sobre a relacao de idioletos dos alunos do Ensino Medio Integrado em Informatica do IFSC-Chapeco e os seus problemas de pronuncia na lingua inglesa. A fim de construir uma lista com os principais problemas de pronuncia em lingua inglesa que apresentam relacao com o idioleto do aluno que pode servir de guia para os professores de ingles que forem trabalhar com os alunos da regiao, varias etapas de estudo, elaboracao de instrumentos de coleta, pilotagem e coleta de dados foram realizadas. A analise de resultados esta em andamento e aponta para confirmacao da hipotese de influencia de idioleto na pronuncia da lingua inglesa. Ainda, mostra que problemas comuns para alunos brasileiros como a palatalizacao do /t/ e /d/ nao sao comuns entre os nativos de Chapeco e a producao do /r/ de palavras em ingles tende a ser mais dificil do que para falantes de outras regioes do pais.
Ilha do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies, Jan 31, 2020
The present study aimed at investigating students’ perceptions about the study of pronunciation a... more The present study aimed at investigating students’ perceptions about the study of pronunciation and the comprehensibility of their speech. Twenty-four English-speaking Brazilians at the advanced level or higher had audio recordings of their sentences judged by four English speakers from different nationalities representing the three circles in Kachru’s World Englishes Model (1985). Comprehensibility, accentedness, number of mispronunciations at the segmental level (such as palatalization, voicing, devoicing, epenthesis), native language of the judge, and perceptions about the study of pronunciation were tabulated and compared quantitatively and qualitatively. Results indicated positive correlations among better compreensibility, less accentedness and fewer mispronunciations at the segmental level; and, between comprehensibility and the desire for specific knowledge regarding pronunciation.
Ilha do Desterro A Journal of English Language, Literatures in English and Cultural Studies, 2008
Interspeech 2007
This paper focuses on the perception and production of the English alveolar stops (/t/ and /d/) i... more This paper focuses on the perception and production of the English alveolar stops (/t/ and /d/) in syllable coda by Brazilian learners of English. In the production test, the participants read a list of English sentences containing alveolar stops in word-final position. The preceding and following phonological contexts were controlled, so that the effect of context on the production of the alveolar stops could be analyzed. The perception test consisted of an oddity discrimination task where the target obstruents were either unreleased, aspirated, palatalized or produced with a paragogic vowel. The results of the production investigation show that the learners tended to unrelease the obstruents, but several tokens were aspirated, palatalized or produced with a paragogic vowel. As regards the relationship between perception and production of word-final /t/ and /d/, a positive correlation was found between the discrimination and production rates.
This research focuses on palatalization of final alveolar stops by Brazilian learners of English.... more This research focuses on palatalization of final alveolar stops by Brazilian learners of English. Thirty learners from the pre-intermediate level of an English course read a sentence list in English, containing word-final alveolar stops, and a sentence list in BP, containing word-final te and de. Considering L1 transfer, it was expected that the production of English final alveolar stops would be problematic. This production was examined according to two hypotheses. The first hypothesis was that absence of palatalization in BP would indicate absence of palatalization in BP/English interphonology and the second hypothesis was that the phonological environments which trigger palatalization in BP/English interphonology would not coincide with those environments which trigger palatalization in BP. Both hypotheses were supported.
he role that age plays in second language learning/acquisition (SLA) has been the central topic o... more he role that age plays in second language learning/acquisition (SLA) has been the central topic of many studies in SLA for the last four or five decades. The notion of a critical age for learning was brought to this field by Penfield and Robert in 1959 when they claimed that the age of nine was a limit in terms of successful language learning because of physiological con-straints such as progressive loss of brain plasticity (BEEBE, 1988; SINGLETON, 2005). However, it was Lenneberg, in 1967, who proposed an onset for learn-ing at the age of two when lateralization should start; thus, it was suggested a critical period (CP) for language learning beginning at two and ending with the beginning of puberty, which was believed to mark the end of lateralization (ELLIS, 1994; SINGLETON, 2005). Research comparing children and adult language learners identified both advantages and disadvantages for learners within the CP. It was found that con-cerning speed of learning adults were faster and c...
The study of the influence of the native phonological system (L1) on second language (L2) speech ... more The study of the influence of the native phonological system (L1) on second language (L2) speech perception has been growing since the 1940’s (Bohn, 1995). Current models of L2 phonological perception or of L2 phonological learning (Flege, 1995; Kuhl & Iverson, 1995; Best, 1995; Escudero, 2005; Best & Tyler, 2007) have emphasized the role that accurate perception seems to play on accurate segmental production of the target language. It is generally believed that adults are language-specific perceivers and that the perception of the L2 segments occurs through the filter of the L1 sound system, at least in initial stages of L2 learning (Ellis, 1994; Schmidt, 1996; Harnsberger, 2001; Best, McRoberts & Goodell, 2001; Brannen, 2002; Wayland, 2007; Best & Tyler, 2007). Cross-language mapping studies with L2 naïve listeners have shown that discrimination of foreign sounds previously mapped as similar to L1 categories receive lower scores when compared to sounds mapped as dissimilar to the ...
Research, Society and Development
Este estudo teve como objetivo identificar instrumentos de coleta de dados usados para avaliar a ... more Este estudo teve como objetivo identificar instrumentos de coleta de dados usados para avaliar a Capacidade de Memória Processual (CMP) em L2 jovens alunos e fornecer uma visão histórica deles e de sua administração em estudos publicados. Estudos encontrados em mecanismos de busca usando uma combinação dos termos ‘aquisição L2’, ‘crianças aprendizes’, ‘memória processual’ e ‘testagem’ tiveram seus resumos examinados para identificar se a idade máxima dos participantes era de 12 anos. Doze estudos foram selecionados e junto com o trabalho seminal sobre aquisição de memória de trabalho são descritos e discutidos. Alguns pontos em comum foram encontrados entre os estudos. Com relação ao idioma dos participantes, o L2 mais comum é o inglês e o L1 mais comum é o espanhol. Quando medidas verbais de MP são usadas, elas geralmente ocorrem tanto em L1 quanto em L2 ou somente em L1. Estudos descobriram que a MP afeta a aquisição L2 e a aquisição L2 afeta a aquisição L2 de jovens aprendizes. A...
… Annual Conference of …, 2007
This paper focuses on the perception and production of the English alveolar stops (/t/ and /d/) i... more This paper focuses on the perception and production of the English alveolar stops (/t/ and /d/) in syllable coda by Brazilian learners of English. In the production test, the participants read a list of English sentences containing alveolar stops in word-final position. The preceding and following phonological contexts were controlled, so that the effect of context on the production of the alveolar stops could be analyzed. The perception test consisted of an oddity discrimination task where the target obstruents were either unreleased, aspirated, palatalized or produced with a paragogic vowel. The results of the production investigation show that the learners tended to unrelease the obstruents, but several tokens were aspirated, palatalized or produced with a paragogic vowel. As regards the relationship between perception and production of word-final /t/ and /d/, a positive correlation was found between the discrimination and production rates.
Resumo: O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar as crenças e práticas de professores de inglês par... more Resumo: O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar as crenças e práticas de professores de inglês para crianças em relação à pronúncia e o impacto causado por uma disciplina de fonética e fonologia da língua inglesa com uma abordagem de ensino de pronúncia nestas crenças e práticas. Vinte e um professores responderam questionários com perguntas abertas e fechadas no começo e no fim do curso. Uma análise qualitativa foi conduzida e os resultados indicaram que os informantes consideram que o ensino e o estudo da pronúncia são importantes e mostrou que ainda há necessidade de estudar e discutir como a pronúncia pode ser abordada nas aulas de inglês para crianças. O curso teve impactos positivos reduzindo o medo da pronúncia e promovendo um aumento na frequência das aulas nas quais a pronúncia é abordada. Palavras-chave: Ensino de pronúncia. Ensino de crianças. Ensino de língua inglesa. Formação de professores. Crenças de professores. Abstract: The present study aimed at investigating teach...
RESUMO O presente artigo explora o uso das novas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TICs) c... more RESUMO O presente artigo explora o uso das novas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TICs) como promotoras de autonomia na aprendizagem da língua estrangeira, especificamente o inglês, em um projeto envolvendo música. Autonomia, neste contexto, ocorre quando o aluno assume a responsabilidade pelo controle de sua aprendizagem e não se restringe a ambientes informais de educação (MOURA FILHO, 2009). O artigo relata uma atividade colaborativa em grupo que promove autonomia ensinando o aluno a focar sua atenção em como e por quê a língua está sendo usada de determinado modo na letra da música em vez de concentrar na decodificação gerada pela simples tradução. A influência das novas TICs na constante evolução da indústria fonográfica e as mudanças de hábito dos consumidores de música é sustentada pela discussão de dados coletados com um questionário respondido por vinte estudantes do último ano do ensino médio de uma escola pública. Finalmente, o artigo descreve os preparativos, o d...
This paper focuses on the perception and production of the English alveolar stops (/t / and /d/) ... more This paper focuses on the perception and production of the English alveolar stops (/t / and /d/) in syllable coda by Brazilian learners of English. In the production test, the participants read a list of English sentences containing alveolar stops in word-final position. The preceding and following phonological contexts were controlled, so that the effect of context on the production of the alveolar stops could be analyzed. The perception test consisted of an oddity discrimination task where the target obstruents were either unreleased, aspirated, palatalized or produced with a paragogic vowel. The results of the production investigation show that the learners tended to unrelease the obstruents, but several tokens were aspirated, palatalized or produced with a paragogic vowel. As regards the relationship between perception and production of word-final /t / and /d/, a positive correlation was found between the discrimination and production rates. Index Terms: L2 perception/production...
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Papers by Melissa Bettoni