8 Input and context
9.4 Speaker variation
In the interests of presenting a complete picture of variation, this section considers the way in which spoken input varies from speaker to speaker.
The discussion will be relatively brief – not because this is an unimportant area of listening, but because the points raised have fewer implications for the process approach that is recommended in this book.
In L2 contexts, any discussion of differences between speakers tends to focus quite heavily on accent. But a point that is often overlooked is that accent is not an all-or-nothing feature. Within the county of York-shire in the UK, for example, there are fine gradations of accent from one town to another. Other gradations reflect the life and experience of the individual speaker. The English of somebody from Western Aus-tralia who went to school in New York is likely to show traces of both locations; alternatively, the speaker might well command two accents and choose between them according to location and listener. Similarly, the speech of somebody who has acquired English as a second language is likely to reflect not only their first language but also what national or local varieties of English they have encountered and the extent to which they have been exposed to them. Accent, then, is a more complex and more individual factor than is sometimes admitted.
Nor should we overlook the other important features that distinguish speakers. Physiological characteristics cause speech to differ markedly from speaker to speaker. Every mouth has a different shape, as does every palate, every tongue, every set of teeth. Variations in these articulators produce marked differences in voices and in the sounds they produce.
Similarly, variations in vocal-cord length result in most women’s voices being at a higher pitch than men’s. It is a matter of wonder that an infant acquiring its first language manages to detect any consistent patterns at all in the range of adult voices to which it is exposed.
There are also personal variations in style of delivery. Some people adopt a typical speech rate that strikes us as fast; others speak overall more slowly. Some speak loudly under normal circumstances; others speak more quietly. Some pause at consistent points such as syntactic boundaries; some pause frequently; some make use of long pauses.
These considerations are not trivial. In a first language context, an extraordinary achievement occurs whenever we meet or just hear somebody new. Within a matter of seconds, we adjust (or normalise5) to the speaker’s voice and are able to follow what he or she is saying.
Encountering a voice for the first time, we succeed very rapidly in estab-lishing a set of baseline values for it. We form an idea of the speaker’s speech rate, loudness and pitch setting under normal conditions (see Brown, 1990: Chap. 6 for an interesting discussion of these features).
This enables us to recognise shifts of mood, when the speaker, for one reason or another, speaks faster, more loudly or within a higher range.
The judgements we make about a speaker’s emotional state at a partic-ular moment are to some extent relative. If somebody raises their voice in anger, we notice not necessarily that the voice is loud by universal standards, but that it is louder than it usually is. The same is true of changes in speed, which we might attribute to excitement, or changes in pitch, perhaps due to fear.
Language learning specialists take too little account of individual char-acteristics such as those just described when considering the challenges that face the second language listener. Aside from the problems posed by regional accents, they tend to assume that learners can normalise to voices speaking in L2 as rapidly as to those in L1. But it seems probable that it requires a much higher level of attention (and a longer stretch of time) to get used to a voice that employs the unfamiliar sounds, rhythm patterns and intonation of a foreign language. The characteristics of indi-vidual voices even vary to some extent according to the language being spoken. Thus, Greek tends to be spoken louder than English, French with tenser articulation, Japanese and Chinese with higher ranges of pitch. Anyone acquiring the languages mentioned has to adjust their expectations in relation to these features.
There are implications here for teachers and testers of listening. The issue of normalisation provides support for the widely expressed view
5 The terms normalise/normalisation tend to be used in two slightly different ways:
(a) to refer to the way in which the listener adjusts to the individual features of a speaker’s voice; (b) to refer to the way in which (according to some commentators) the listener edits out features such as voice pitch and quality in order to arrive at a
(Brown and Yule, 1983b: 80) that the more voices there are in a record-ing, the more difficult a listening task becomes. It is not just a matter of distinguishing one voice from another (an unfortunate by-product of audio recording); it is also a matter of establishing baseline characteris-tics for each one.
A second conclusion to be drawn is that language learners should be allowed sufficient time to normalise to the recorded voices of L2 speakers.
One way of achieving this is to ensure that comprehension questions do not target the first 10–15 seconds of a recording, to ensure that listeners have time to accustom their ears to the speaker (perhaps longer if there is more than one speaker). Another is to adhere to the tradition of playing a text at least twice, the first time for very general understanding.
There has been much discussion amongst L2 testing specialists as to whether a double play is acceptable, on the argument that we usually hear an utterance only once in real life. But here is a persuasive reason for adhering to the established practice.6
It is also worthwhile employing exercises which focus specifically on normalisation and give learners practice in adjusting to the voices of L2 speakers. It is curious how rarely this aspect of listening is targeted by instructors – especially when one considers that rapid normalisation may make the difference between success and failure on the first item in an exam. Table 9.9 provides some suggestions for exercise types.
The issue of normalisation also serves to draw attention to an under-valued resource in the voice of the teacher. In our enthusiasm for lively cassette recordings of a range of native speakers, we tend to overlook the benefits of familiarity – of a voice which learners encounter on a regular basis and do not need to adjust to. Where teaching takes place through the medium of the second language, much unscheduled listen-ing practice already takes place in the form of information, instructions and feedback. In addition, a strong case can be made, in the earliest stages of listening practice, for using simple factual passages read aloud by the teacher, as a way of building listening confidence. The voice is familiar and (especially for young learners) has none of the daunting effect of being asked to understand unseen adult actors from a distant land.
Finally, any consideration of the many variables involved in adjusting to the voice of an L2 speaker must raise concerns about the current fad among both testers and materials writers for exposing listeners at all levels to a mixture of varieties of the target language. It can be argued that, at least in the early stages, listeners already face a formidable enough
6 There are, of course, a number of others, in particular the way in which an audio recording disadvantages the listener by providing no visual or paralinguistic cues.
Table 9.9 Examples of normalisation exercises
Comparing speakers. Teacher plays a recorded natural dialogue.
Learners do not listen for detailed understanding but comment on differences between speakers in terms of speech rate, accent, fluency, etc. Learners speculate on the age of each.
Same text, different voices. Teacher gets two or three colleagues to record the same set of four sentences. Learners compare voice pitch, speech rate, pausing, etc. Teacher plays two or three words said by each speaker; learners match them to the speaker.
Distinguishing voices. Teacher plays samples of four voices (ideally two male and two female) excised from an authentic recording. Voices are identified as A, B, C and D. Learners listen and compare voices. Teacher plays further extracts; learners say who is speaking in each one. In a later exercise, teacher chooses four female or four male voices.
Speaker stance. Teacher plays short samples of sentences that are neutral in terms of context, but where the speakers are speaking angrily, happily, thoughtfully, etc. Learners try to describe the mood conveyed.
challenge in simply tuning in to a number of voices within one variety without the added complication of switching from one accent to another.
If one takes adequate account of normalisation as an issue in L2 listening, a more gradual progression would seem to be desirable:
1. an emphasis on the voice of the teacher, supported by occasional recordings;
2. a range of voices (male and female) in one standard national variety;
initially, older speakers, who tend to speak more slowly; later more rapid speakers;
3. the gradual introduction of one or two other varieties, ideally widespread or standard ones; each exemplified in a range of voices;
4. an expansion of the range of accents covered to include a greater number of native-speaker varieties;
5. exposure to a range of non-native speaker varieties – recognising that a great deal of communication today takes place between individuals who speak the target language as a lingua franca.
In this, the programme designer should not lose sight of the point made above: that there is no such thing as a ‘model’ accent, since all of us speak with personal characteristics which reflect our experience
and upbringing. To represent a listening course as containing examples of ‘the Australian accent’ is a considerable simplification: what it actu-ally contains will be examples of individuals speaking with Australian phoneme values, but with personal variations resulting from residence in difference parts of the country, the influence of peers versus the influence of family, the influence of education, and so on. Achieving familiar-ity with a new accent thus entails distinguishing the features which are common to all speakers of the group from those which are specific to an individual.