L2-ruotsin lausepainon sanallinen kuvaaminen – menetelmällisiä käänteitä ääntämisen arviointiin
Keywords:
assessment, pronunciation, sentence stressAbstract
In this study, we explore how sentence stress is described in pronunciation assessment. The data, also used in two previous studies, consist of listener ratings of Finnish-speaking learners’ pronunciation in read-aloud and free speech. The listeners rated the speakers’ pronunciation on segmental and suprasegmental level on a numeric scale and verbally. Typical descriptions of sentence stress in the data focus on specific error categories and general comments. The sentence stresses that were assessed with the lowest ratings were often described in more detail than those with higher ratings. According to the raters’ comments, the sentence stresses that got the lowest ratings typically occurred too often or not often enough. The sentence stresses with the highest ratings were also described with positive comments. There were differences between the rater groups when it comes to the amount of comments and the proportion of specific and general comments. Differences between read-aloud and free speech concerned the proportion of general comments and the frequency of too many stressed words. The results can be utilized in pronunciation assessment, as assessing pronunciation is often considered challenging.
