An Experimental Study of the Pronunciation of Russian Fricative Consonants Based on Acoustic Factors of Duration and Strength in an Iranian Audience and a Comparison of Their Articulation in Both Languages

Abstract

At the beginning of this century, which is known as the century of globalization, learning a foreign language is inevitable. Therefore, almost a large part of society partly have to deal with foreign languages. Learning a foreign language is associated with many problems. Not only grammatical and lexical problem in both languages, but also the phonetic system in all their aspects such as acoustic and articulation characteristics, accent, intonation and stress. Such problems should be solved in order to realize the main purpose of the education, which means communicativeness with maximum approximation to the original language. The experiment was aimed at improving the acoustic and pronunciation skills of Persian-speaking students. The purpose of the analysis is to eliminate the interfering influence of phonetic phenomena of the native language on the target language as well as to correct and improve students’ pronunciation and using special instrumentation techniques bring it closer to the normative pronunciation of modern Russian literary language. The results of this study show that mistakes in pronouncing consonants depend directly on the characteristics of the consonant systems of the Russian and Persian languages. A comparison of articulatory movements of speech organs involved in the production of speech (both active and passive) of Persian and Russian fricative consonants revealed the fact that there is no similarity between them.

References

1. Bertel‘s E.Je. 1932. Uchebnik persidskogo jazyka [Textbook of Persian language] Leningrad, Izdanie Leningradskogo Vostochnogo Instituta. (In Russ.)

2. Derr M.A., Massaro D.W. 1980. The contribution of vowel duration, F0 contour, and frication duration as cues to the /juz/–/jus/ distinction. Perception & Psychophysics. Vol. 27 (1), pp. 51–59.

3. Dr Block D., Cameron D. 2002. Globalization and language teaching. Routledge.

4. Haghshenas A.M. 2015. Avashenasi [Phonetic]. Entesharat-e agah. Chap-e farsi (Faroos-e Iran). Tehran.

5. Haywara R. 2000. Experimental phonetics. Harlow, Pearson Education Limited.

6. Jakobson R., Fant G.M., Halle M. 1962. Vvedenie v analiz rechi [Introduction to speech analysis]. Novoe v lingvistike, issue 2. Moscow. (In Russ.)

7. Johnson Keith. 2015. Avashenasi acoustic va shenidari [Acoustic and auditory phonology]. Tarjomeh Zahra Mahmoud zadeh. Pazhoheshgah olom va fanavari etelaat Iran. Tehran. Nashr-e Chapar.

8. Knjazev S.V., Pozharickaja S.K. 2011. Sovremennyj russkij literaturnyj jazyk [Modern Russian literary language]. Moscow, Gaudeamus. (In Russ.)

9. Ljubimova N.A. 1982. Obuchenie russkomu proiznosheniju: Artikuljacija. Postanovka i korrekcija russkih zvukov [Teaching Russian pronunciation: Articulation and correction of Russian sounds]. 2-e izd. Stereotip. Moscow, Russkij jazyk. (In Russ.)

10. Modaresi Ghavami Golnaz. 2020. Phonetics: Scientific study of speech. SAMT. Tehran.

11. Musavi Neda. 2015. Ashnaee ba narm afzare praat [Introduction to Software PRAAT]. Nashr-e nevise Parsi. Tehran.

12. Richards. 1992. The culture of teachers of English in Hong Kong. Department of English city polytechnic of Hong Kong.

13. Samare Yadollah. Nilipour Reza. 2018. Avashenasi zaban-e farsi: Avaha va sakht Avaee heja [Persian phonology. Sounds and making phonetic syllables]. Markaze nashr-e daneshgahi. Tehran.

14. Shherba L.V. 1953. Fonetika francuzskogo jazyka. Ocherk francuzskogo proiznoshenija v sravnenii s russkim [Phonetics of the French language. An outline of French pronunciation versus Russian]. 4-e izd., ispr. i rasshirennoe. Moscow, Izd-vo lit-ry na inostrannyh jazykah. (In Russ.)

15. Valipour Alireza. 2014. Avashenasi zaban-e rusi [Russian phonetic]. SAMT. Tehran.

16. Valipur A., Dzhamalzad M. 2020. Jeksperimental’noe issledovanie osobennostej proiznoshenija russkih shhelevyh soglasnyh pri obuchenii iranskih studentov [Experimental study of Russian pronunciation of fricative consonants based on the category of voiceless-voiced in the Iranian audience]. Vestnik PNIPU. Problemy jazykoznanija i pedagogiki, no. 2. Perm’, pp. 188–201. (In Russ.)

17. Weenink David. 2018. Speech signal processing with praat. University of Amsterdam.

18. Zinder L.R. 1979. Obshaya fonetika [General Phonetics]. Moscow.