Description
The aim of this study is to compare the pronunciation of consonants in
American English among a group of speakers of this language as a foreign
language before and after speech therapy. It outlined a phonetic profile of
students of American English as a foreign language noting difficulties on
consonants pronunciation. For this analysis, changes on consonant production
after speech therapy were observed, comparing the initial with final
pronunciation performance. It was used the acoustic analysis to obtain objective
results. This discussion suggests the inclusion of speech therapy as a strategy
for teaching pronunciation in English. In this study, it was selected 6 students of
American English as second language for at least 1 year and maximum 3 years
and had started this study after 18 years old, 2 males and 4 females. The
recordings were performed in quiet environment. To perform the acoustic
analysis it was used the computer programs Audacity, version 1.3 beta and
Praat, version 5.0.47. The results were discussed and substantiated in the
acoustic theory of speech production and the use of speech therapy. The
results pointed out the possibility of change in the pattern of articulatory
phonemes chosen for adult learners of American English as a foreign language.
There were satisfactory articulatory changes in 100% of students with difficulty
on voiced and unvoiced affricative alveolar and on palatal liquid voiced, 83.3%
of students with difficulty on unvoiced fricative dental and 66.6% of students
with difficulty on voiced dental fricative. From this study, it is expected to
contribute to the expansion of the field of study and work of the Speech
Therapists as to improve student's pronunciation of a foreign language through
the speech therapy.
