For your Case Study, you will be working with your informant throughout the course on at least three pronunciation difficulties.  PLEASE NOTE: This discussion question make take a bit more time, therefore, it is counted as Discussion 6 and Discussion 7 (and you have two weeks to complete it instead of one). 

For this assignment, please see the document: Speaking Test. 

Have your informant read at least until Line 12 (it’s okay if this is not the informant you will use for the Case Study, however, understand that for the Case Study your informant will read the entire test.  Furthermore, the informant for this topic must be a non-native speaker of English).  It’s best if you can record the speech for this assignment (or he or she can even forward you a recording of their reciting it).  Whether you listen to a tape or hear it in person, Have your own copy of the test and circle the vowels and consonants in which you hear phonetic variations (in other words, pronunciation mistakes).  

If your informant cannot read English: Make a recording of yourself reading the passage.  Listen while the informant repeats the passage back to you (one line at a time, two lines at a time, it doesn’t matter).  Your informant will try to imitate your speech and speak the best they can so try to encourage them to relax and just be themselves. 

In the subject line of this discussion, write a pseudonym for your informant’s name  (remember, no real names) and in parentheses, their native language.  (Ex. Ángel Luis (Spanish))

In the body of this discussion, list the various pronunciation mistakes.  If there are very few or no mistakes, then this is not the appropriate person for this assignment (see How do I know if this is the right person to interview for the Case Study?) 

Then do a mini-analysis. How long has your informant been speaking English?  Have they had English language lessons or are they learning from co-workers and friends (or both)? Do you think the mistakes are due to influence from the first language? Do the mistakes seem to fade as the informant speaks and gets comfortable, or are the mistakes pretty regular?