Computer Assisted Language Learning for Syllable-time Language Exposed Adults who are Learning a new Stress-Time Language

Abstract

In this paper we discuss a preliminary study which is one of a series of studies conducted to design a computer software system which helps self-educate spoken English learners. This software system detects English language syllable stress and uses the results to guide the prospective learners towards a successful learning of spoken English. When learners are learning another language, they confront a number of problems as each language is unique and carries particular aspects. Learning to speak a new language is more than just learning words, phrases and sentences. The difficulties of a spoken language student become worse when an adult student whose vernacular tongue belongs to a syllable-time language such as Mandarin, makes an effort to learn a stress-time spoken language such as English. In a stress-time language, it is the utterances with correct word stress and thereby sentence stress which is usually a problem among adult learners. Using the right sentence stress is the key point in proper communication. For a learner whose vernacular tongue is syllable-time, making mistakes in this area is very common. Following these patterns, a case study was conducted with 50 final year university undergraduate students whose vernacular tongue is syllable-time such as Sinhalese or Tamil. The final year undergraduate students who learn English aim to spot the difficulties they face in using correct intonation in the process of learning another language. The results of the study indicate that there is a considerable amount of sentence stress problems among the students of spoken English.