An Empirical Study On The Pronunciation Of Supra-Segmental Features Of Junior High School English Teachers In Poverty Areas

From the perspective of English phonetics and error analysis theory,this empirical study focused on the pronunciation features of supra-segmental phonemes of 94 junior high school English teachers in W County,a former national poverty county.The study used Praat to extract the acoustic parameters and analyzed the experimental phonetics of the pronunciation samples of the experimental subjects,finally we summarized the features of the supra-segmental phoneme pronunciation of these junior high school English teachers.The study implemented two acoustic analysis experiments,the acoustic data before speech training(as pre-test data)and the acoustic data after speech training(as post-test data).Compared the collected data from multiple angles and tried to discover their specific pronunciation features in English supra-segment phonemes and their development after speech training.This experimental study attempts to answer the following two research questions:(1)What are the features of the pronunciation of supra-segmental phonemes for junior high school English teachers in poverty areas?(2)After the speech training,were there significant differences in the pronunciation features of the supra-segmental phonemes? If there were significant differences,what were the differences? If there were no significant differences,what improvements and adjustments need to be made?The experiment sequence is as follows: First,five native speakers were invited to read the designated reading materials in the anechoic chamber and record them,and we use Praat to analyze the spectrum(as sample data).After that,94 junior high school English teachers in W County were invited to read the same reading materials mentioned above and we used Praat to perform acoustic analysis on the recording materials(as pre-test data).Then we compared the pre-test data with the acoustic data provided by native speakers.In the post-test experiment,researchers took advantage of the on-the-job speech training of teachers in this areas,and they trained the 94 teachers on the pronunciation of supra-segment phonemes for three months.The acoustic analysis experiment was carried out,and we also used Praat perform acoustic analysis on the second reading recording(as post-test data).Finally,the post-test and pre-test data are compared to observe whether the subjects? supra-segment pronunciation features after training are significantly different from those before training.The conclusion is that in terms of stress there are three major features of stress position error,habitual stress,and stress duration convergence.After speech training,the stress position error and habitual stress have been improved,but the convergence of stress duration still needs further research.In terms of intonation,there are errors in the position of the nucleus and confusion in the segmentation of tonal groups.After speech training,the segmentation of the tone group has improved,the fluctuation of the sentence has increased significantly,and more emotional information can be conveyed.In terms of pause,the errors of intra-word pauses,parallel components,and peer-to-peer pauses are relatively large.After speech training,improper pauses are less likely to occur,especially long-duration procrastination.In all,there are some significant differences between the pre-test and the post-test,indicating that these errors have been corrected to a specific extent.Through this empirical study,we can provide some reference for the phonetic research of the supra-segment phonemic features of junior high school teachers and conduct acoustic empirical research from a new perspective,providing a reliable analysis for scholars studying the English supra-segment method.