An acoustic analysis of sentence level prominence in Pakistani English speech

The study examines how native Pashto ESL learners place stress on identical lexemes within English sentences, focusing on pitch, duration, and intensity. The Objectives of this study is to analyze the acoustic properties of stressed syllables, to investigate the influence of Pashto on English stress production, and improve prosodic stress understanding to aid Pashto ESL learners. An experimental and quantitative approach was used, involving (20 × 3 × 7 = 420) from (N = 20) Pashto ESL speakers reading pre-selected words in carrier phrases. The voice sample data was collected from the cloud OneDrive corpora datasets (Abbasi, Abbasi, SRSP-Pak-Eng-43, 2023] [SHEC unpublished raw datasets, Sindh Madressatul Islam University, 2023-SHEC-SRSP-PaK-Eng-43) of Pashto speakers with similar method based on the disyllable stimuli. Seven pairs of disyllabic words were selected as stimuli following the framework of Beckman & Pierrehumbert (Beckman and Pierrehumbert, Phonology 3:255–309, 1986) and Fry (Fry, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 27:765–768, 1955, Fry, Language and Speech 1:126–152, 1958). Each word pair consisted of a noun and a verb that had identical spelling forms and differed only in terms of stress placement (noun: stress on the initial syllable; verb: stress on the final syllable). The recordings were analyzed using PRAAT software. The significance of the study aims to enhance communication skills and cultural understanding in language training for Pashto-speaking ESL learners. Pashto speakers often misplace stress in English due to differences in prosodic characteristics between Pashto and English. The study analyzed pitch (F0), duration, and intensity of stressed syllables in English short sentences spoken by Pashto ESL learners. Misplaced stress affects communication abilities and language acquisition outcomes for Pashto speakers. The findings can help develop better instructional strategies and materials for ESL programs targeting Pashto speakers. The findings contribute to the broader field of cognitive science, particularly in understanding the relationship between prosody and stress perception. The implication of the study is to understand prosodic stress patterns can significantly improve the communication abilities of Pashto speakers of English as a Second Language, making their English speech more natural and comprehensible.