Our catch phrase is on its way.

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

From the results of Ms.A’s “applied speaking measurement” described in Installment 194 (yesterday’s installment), I can quantify the deficiencies in the speech motor skills employment techniques that preclude her achieving a “91” in her England English pronunciation. For one thing, both her S2U (tongue tip getures) and S2L (abdominal surging gestures) word final _Dz (as in “seeds”), _D (“good”), and _VD (“believed”) gestures are deficient. For another, her word final _V (“save”), _z (“knees”), and _Vz (“believes”) gestures (which have no tongue tip involvement) also display S2L deficiencies. The deficiencies manifested in these 6 gestures give her a a score of 0.7 out of 1.0 for her S2.

As for S3, Ms. A’s F/V gestures are being produced at only 80% of what is needed (0.8 out of 1.0). However, there are 8 other gestures whose subtle, largely unnoticeable deficiencies are enough to drop her S3 total by yet another 0.1. So her S3 is 0.7 out of 1.0.

4S governs her dialect, which, as mentioned above is England English. Here she scored very well: 0.9 out of a possible 1.0, with her chief deficiency being the pronunciation of “o” (such as can be found in the words “cold” and “motion”).

In summary, here is the proof of Ms. A’s present level of English pronunciation expertise:

91 – S1 deficiency of 0 – S2 deficiency of 0.3 – S3 deficiency of 0.3 – S4 deficiency of 0.1 :

91- (0.0) - (0.3)-(0.3)-(0.1) = 91-(0.7) = 90.3.

Ms. A’s homework is to practice the Series C Jingles U through Y, inclusive, at both slow, careful speed and at normal speed – and in both the TRAINING MODE and the regular mode. Doing so will help her develop her target language (England English) allophonome (“phonological system”) further.

Steve Walker, Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.