School of Language and Culture

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https://hdl.handle.net/10292/554
The study of language, society and culture is at the core of the broad spectrum of knowledge known as the humanities. AUT's School of Language and Culture focuses on language in its widest sense — creative writing, English and its relationship with new media, translation and interpreting, international studies and the importance of intercultural competencies, discourse analysis and language teaching.

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Browsing School of Language and Culture by Author "Couper, Graeme"

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    English phonology and pronunciation teaching [Book Review] [online]
    (Applied Linguistics Association of New Zealand, 2011) Couper, Graeme; Wette, R
    Review(s) of: English phonology and pronunciation teaching, by Rogerson-Revell, P. (2011), London: Continuum. ISBN: 978-0-8264-2403-7. 19.99 pounds. 352 pp.
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    Investigations into pronunciation teaching
    (IATEFL, 2011) Couper, Graeme
    This article reports on the main findings of my recently completed PhD (Couper 2009) and discusses the implications for the classroom. The findings are based on a series of three cumulative studies. With the insights gained and the focus provided by a Cognitive Phonology framework, Critical Listening (CL) and Socially Constructed Meta-language (SCM) emerged as two key variables which play a role in effective pronunciation teaching.
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    Pronunciation teaching: getting stress without getting stressed
    (Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée (AILA), 2014-08-15) Couper, Graeme
    It has been established that stress plays an important role in intelligibility, but few studies have investigated teaching stress. This paper reports on the findings of two small-scale exploratory studies which investigated how stress can be taught effectively. The first study focussed on stress at the level of the word while the second study extended this to focus on tonic (or sentence) stress. The aim of these studies was to explore learners’ perceptions of stress as a basis for classroom responses which might lead to more accurate perception and production of English stress. The approach is based on a cognitive linguistic theory of language in conjunction with socio-cultural theories of learning. In practice this means beginning with learners’ current perception of stress in both their own languages and English and working towards improved understanding and production of English stress. This approach relies on both learners and teachers understanding the language specific nature of stress and helps to develop common understandings and achieve more effective communication both during explanations and in providing feedback. This involves socially constructing metalanguage and using critical listening techniques. Both perception and production (listening and speaking) were measured pre- and post-instruction. The participants (seven in study one and six in study two), on a university preparation course, attended a series of lessons (10 and 15 hours respectively). The teaching is described along with learners’ reactions to it. A qualitative analysis across the two studies allows for the emergence of a number of key insights into learning which lead to practical suggestions for the classroom. Results of tests show how learners’ perception and production of stress changed during the course of instruction. Finally, these studies form the basis for a proposed larger scale investigation which will attempt to provide greater empirical evidence in support of these findings.
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    Teaching and learning L2 pronunciation: Understanding the effectiveness of socially constructed metalanguage and critical listening in terms of a cognitive phonology framework
    (University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2009) Couper, Graeme
    This thesis investigates the processes learners go through in learning the pronunciation of a second language, and how teachers can facilitate these processes. Its focus on the cognitive has led to the development of general teaching principles and the development of theory. It brings theory and practice together by using practice to inform theory and theory to re-inform practice. A broad multi-disciplinary approach has been taken, drawing on insights from phonology and L2 speech research, pronunciation pedagogy, and theoretical insights from SLA (Second Language Acquisition), socio-cultural theory and educational psychology, and bringing these together under a unifying theory of Cognitive phonology. The empirical evidence to support both the theoretical and practical conclusions reached is provided through a progressive series of qualitative and quantitative studies. These studies all focus on difficulties in pronouncing syllable codas, i.e. epenthesis (the addition of a vowel) and absence (inappropriate omission of a consonant), in the context of adult high-intermediate level ESOL students resident in New Zealand. The first study explores the effect of different techniques and learners' ways of understanding pronunciation, and establishes some of the groundwork required before critical variables can be isolated, defined and tested. The second study takes a group of just four students and closely observes how they form new phonological concepts. This leads to the isolation of variables for further investigation. Both of these studies find that significant progress is made and retained over time. The third study tests experimentally for the effect of two key variables isolated and defined in the second study: Socially Constructed Metalanguage (SCM) and Critical Listening (CL). This tightly controlled study finds both variables have a positive impact on pronunciation learning. This thesis finds there is a role for form-focused instruction and corrective feedback in pronunciation learning. While this is in line with many views within SLA theory, it is only by turning to Cognitive Phonology that the necessary distinctions can be drawn between types of instruction in order to reveal what it is that makes explicit instruction effective. These theoretical insights are shown to have practical applications for the classroom.
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    Teaching concepts of pronunciation: syllables, stress and drunk snails
    (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), 2014) Couper, Graeme
    No abstract.
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    The value of an explicit pronunciation syllabus in ESOL teaching
    (AMEP Research Centre, Macquarie University, 2003) Couper, Graeme
    This article reports on an action research project which investigated the value of systematically and explicitly incorporating a pronunciation sub-syllabus within the overall syllabus of a full-time post-intermediate level ESOL course. This pronunciation syllabus involved raising each individual learner’s awareness of their difficulties with pronunciation and of the main features of spoken English in general. IIt then attempted to systematically and explicitly instruct learners in theses features, at both the segmental and suprasegmental levels, and to encourage learners to practise and monitor their pronunciation. The effectiveness of the syllabus was examined through pre- and post-course tests of pronunciation and through a survey of students' reactions to the syllabus and their beliefs regarding the teaching and learning of pronunciation. The results showed that clear gains were made, and that learners believed both that teachers should teach pronunciation, and that the particular approach taken here had been of value.
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