PEC_2022

VARIACIONES FONÉTICO-FONOLÓGICAS…
Silvia C. Barreiro Bilbao

PRUEBA DE EVALUACIÓN CONTINUA (PEC) () () (10 h)

American English

1st EXERCISE (1.6/2 points): Perform the following written tasks:

Read the following text and divide it into intonation units based on the
syntactic structure. Asterisks show stressed syllables according to the
intonation patterns.

When *I was a *very young *person, I *began my ca*reer as an

*actress. When*ever my *mother wasn’t *free to *drive me into
Man*hattan for au*ditions, I would *take the *train from sub*urban
New *Jersey and *meet my *father — who would have *left his *desk
at the *law office where he *worked — and we would *meet under
the *Upper *Platform A*rrival and De*parture sign in Penn *Station.
We would *then *get onto the *subway to*gether and, when we
*surfaced, he would *ask *me “*Which way is *north?" I *wasn’t very
*good at *finding *North in the be*ginning, but I au*ditioned fair
a*mount and so my *Dad kept *asking me “*Which way is *north?"
Over *time, I got *better at *finding it.

I was *struck by that *memory *yesterday while *boarding the *plane

to come *here. Not just *by how *far my *life has *come *since then,
but by *how *meaningful that *seemingly small *lesson has *been.
When *I was still a *child, my *father de*veloped my *sense of
*direction and *now, as an a*dult, I *trust my a*bility to *navigate
*space. My *father helped *give me the *confidence to *guide my*self
through the *world.

Once divided it into intonation units, provide the phonological

transcription of the text as if it were uttered with an American English
accent (GA). Do not forget to show the likely processes that can occur
in connected speech, i.e., elisions, syllabic consonants, assimilations,
coalescence, liaisons, weak forms... Use a pronunciation dictionary, if
needed…

1
 PEC_2022
VARIACIONES FONÉTICO-FONOLÓGICAS…
Silvia C. Barreiro Bilbao

2nd EXERCISE (0.4/2 points): Now perform the following oral &
written tasks:

Listen to the following speech given by Anne Hathaway (on Paid Family
Leave at the UN Observance of International Women's Day, 08/03/2017)
by clicking here (notice that the text of the previous exercise is the
transcript of the first part of her speech, from 0’’ to 1’18’’).

Pay attention to her speech and…

 Provide four features of her pronunciation in relation to:
o Prosody
o Connected speech processes

 Indicate the moment it happened in brackets (_’_’’)

 Do not forget to justify your answer
 You can use other parts of her speech apart from what you
have transcribed in the previous exercise

 For instance:

- “Anne drops the consonant /___/ in the word __ because it

is followed by…”. (_’_’’)
- “Her pronunciation of the word __ (did not) include a
possible case of assimilation of ___. The consonant __
could have become __ as it is in the following phonetic
context _______”. (_’_’’)
- “She used a ___ tone when ___ tone is expected in ___.”
(_’_’’)

Check your PEC before submitting.

2
 PEC_2022
VARIACIONES FONÉTICO-FONOLÓGICAS…
Silvia C. Barreiro Bilbao

EVALUATION CRITERIA

The evaluation of the PEC (20% of the final grade) will be added to the
evaluation of the written exam (the remaining 80%).

If you decide not to submit the PEC, you can still pass the course with
the mark got on the written exam (representing then 100% of the final
grade).

The maximum mark of the PEC will be 2 points.

Penalization:
a. 1st EXERCISE (phonetic transcription):
 By ‘mistake’ is meant either a wrong answer or a lack
of answer.
 A mistake can be made…
o …in the symbols used to represent phonemes
o …in the likely processes of connected speech
(assimilations, elisions, etc.)
o …in the division of the text into intonation units.
 If the same mistake occurs more than once, it only
penalises once.
 Each mistake penalises -0.025 points

b. 2nd EXERCISE (pronunciation features):

 This exercise only adds points, does not subtract.
 Each correct feature plus reasoning is worth 0.1 points.
If there is no reasoning provided, the pronunciation
feature is worth 0.05.
 Wrong answers do not penalise.
 Lack of an answer does not penalise.

3
 PEC_2022
VARIACIONES FONÉTICO-FONOLÓGICAS…
Silvia C. Barreiro Bilbao

SUBMISSION

Include your personal information (full name/DNI/Centro Asociado

UNED/mobile number) in the top right-hand corner of the first page.

Convert your PEC document into pdf format.

Send it to your tutor (using the task icon in the virtual course website) by
the third week of April.

No PECs will be marked after the deadline (22nd of April).

***

Use the full transcript uploaded to the virtual course (File Storage: PEC),
if needed.