engleski

Individual or Group Verbotonal Phonetic Correction – Which One Is Better?

In this pilot study main similarities and differences between individual and group sessions of phonetic correction using verbotonal methods are discussed on the basis of their outcomes. Four speakers who started to learn Croatian as foreign language participated in 10 sessions of individual (1 speaker) or group (3 speakers) phonetic correction, respectively, during the initial level language course. The main purpose of the sessions was the improvement of pronunciation of Croatian fricative /s/ that was not adequately pronounced in any of the speakers resulting therefore in misunderstanding or insufficient speech quality. Furthermore, some time in the beginning of each session was dedicated to the work on global form of speech (rhythm and intonation) since the rhythm and intonation present in each speech would easily reveal speaker's native language. The sessions were established following main principles of the verbotonal method – listening as the basis of speech acquisition, wholeness of the structure and filtering speech in order to enhance better pronunciation. The results of the phonetic correction training were compared on the basis of the perceptive test performed by 2 trained listeners. The listeners participated in the listening of selected words recorded before and after sessions of the verbotonal phonetic correction without any knowledge whether the person attended individual or group classes although they had had the information on the two possibilities before the test. The results show that the words recorded after the correction were defined as more acceptable or pronounced by a native speaker and the answers depended partly on the position of the sound /s/ in the word.

voiceless dental fricative /s/ ; individual and group phonetic training ; the verbotonal method

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