SPEECH

COMPREHENSION
 Concept of Comprehension
- Comprehension refers to “the mental processes by which listeners take in the
sounds uttered by a speaker and use them to construct an interpretation of what
the speaker intended to convey”
- Speech comprehension is in fact an active process and not a passive one.
 Process of Speech Comprehension

Construction process: Utilization process:

- Syntactic approach - Speech acts

- Semantic approach - Prepositional content
- Thematic structure
 Construction Process
Is the process in which the listeners construct an interpretation of what they hear.

A. Syntax Approach

Listeners have a range of mental strategies available to them for breaking sentences
into components, classifying the components, and constructing a semantic
representation of them.
When listeners hear the determiner "this", they know it refers to the first word of the
noun phrase, they can expect to find noun soon after it:
- This cat
- This apartment
B. Semantic Approach

In the semantic approach, listeners have to work from interpreting a sentence that they
are going to convey. They assume that sentences refer to entities, events, states, and
events. They then actively look for sounds, words, and compositions that meet those
assumptions and expectations. The basic premise of the semantic approach is that the
goal of the listener is to determine the usage of each sentence.
 The Utilization Process
The speaker speaks with a purpose such as affirming belief, asking for help, promising an
action, expressing congratulations, asking for information, etc.
During use, there are three parts of the statement that can be separated:
speech acts, prepositional content and subject structure.
A. Speech Acts

The act of speaking is the utterance that performs the communication function. We
perform the act of speaking when making apologies, greetings, requests, etc.
Among the many types of speech acts a person can perform are
Three component: affirmations, questions and commands.
Example :
- I told you that Hanif was out
- Who fixed the TV?
- I order you to stay calm
The examples above are standard methods used by speakers to inform, ask, and
command. However, ordering someone to do something can be done in many
different ways. This can be done indirectly using declarative constructs,
interrogative constructs, and other traits
device.
Example:
- Direct command:
Turn off the fan, open the window
- Indirect commands:
It's so hot here, it's so dark here, did you forget something?
B. Preposition Content

A very important function of the sentence is to identify the ideas that make up the
speech act, since the content of the statement is the statement directly expressed by the
sentence. This idea is conveyed by the proportional or ideological content of the
sentence. The propositional content of a sentence is the combination it expresses.
Example:
The young troops defeated the army comprises of two propositions : the troop were
young and the troop defeated the army. the combination of them both conveys what the
speaker wants to inform to the listener.
C. Thematic Structure

It deals with aspects of sentence structure that relate a sentence to the context in
which it is spoken.
Thematic structure has three main points.
- To convey given and new information
- To convey the subject and predicate
- To convey the frame and insert.
The utilization process, therefore can be possibly characterized below :
On hearing an utterance, listener identify the speech act, propositional content, and
thematic structure.
They next search memory for information that matches the given information
Finally depending on the speech act they deal with the new information.
There are three major principles for the utilization process to be taken up :
- The reality
- The cooperative
- The congruence
 Stages of Memory

Sensory Register/ Short-term Long-term

Sensory Memory Memory Memory
Has a time course Has a time course Has a time course
measured in measured in measured in days
seconds minutes maybe years
1. Sensory Memories or Sensory Registers

Sensory memories or sensory registers act as memory stores the stimuli received
through feel. It contains raw and unanalyzed stimuli in a fraction of a second. A
sensory memory exists for each sensory channel: iconic memory for sight stimulus
(graph), echo memory for auditory stimuli (sound) and tactile memory for touch.
Information from sensory memory (registers) enters short-term memory. Short-term
memory works as a notepad for the temporary recall of information in progress.
poor short-term memory It's fast and has limited capacity. That is why hyphenated
phone numbers are easier to connect to remember it as a single long number.
2. Short-term Memory

• It is also known as working memory system. Working memory is designed as short-term

memory. Limited capacity memory system capable store and process information
simultaneously serve to complete the task.
▪ Where the memory is recalled without practice something happened recently.
▪ Short-term memory is TEMPORARY STORAGE.

3. Long-Term Memory

According to Squire and Zola-Morgan, 1999, Long term memory, as said earlier, is a
place where information is stored more premanently. It holds many different kinds of
information including : facts, events, motor perceptual skills, knowledge of physical laws,
spatial models of familiar environments, attitudes and beliefs about ourselves and others.
It has unlimited capacity and generally stores meaning rather than wording or sounds.
There are two types of long-term memory:

1. Episodic memory.

Episodic memory represents the memory of a series of events or experiences. From this
memory, we can reconstruct actual events that occurred at a particular point in our
lives. Episodic memory, which includes past events in a person's life, represents
information about episodes of temporal dates that can be recorded later.

2. Semantic memories

Semantic memory is a structured record of the facts, concepts, vocabulary, and skills
we have acquired. The contents of semantic memory are explicit, known, and
retrievable.
 Remembering and Memorization
Remembering is a reconstructive process in which people are making claims about past
events, not merely retrieving about them. They do retrieve the information from
memory. The process of remembering comprises three stages, namely: input, storage,
and output.
The basic principles behind memorization are obvious. Passages will be easier to
memorize if they are meaningful, grammatical, written in the learner’s own native
language, and complete with rhyme and meter to anchor the surface structure.
Memorization without meaning is certainly rare and difficult.
 Ambiguity and Comprehension
Ambiguity is a type of certainly of meaning in which several interpretations are plausible.
1. Homophone
Homophone are words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings
Example :
Knight (ksatria) -> Night (malam)
See (melihat) -> Sea (laut)
Accept (menerima) -> Except (kecuali)

2. Homonym
Homonym is a word that is said or spelled the same way as another word but has a
different meanings.
Example :
Can (Dapat) -> Can (Kaleng)
Book (Buku) -> Book (Memesan)
Fly (Terbang) -> Fly (Lalat)
 Lexical Ambiguity
A sentence that is ambiguous at the lexical level is also called lexical ambiguity.
This sentence can be taken to mean that (1) she cannot have children, or (2)
children are noisy and she cannot stand it. The ambiguity exists because the word
"bear" in this sentence has two different meanings for her.
 Surface Structure Ambiguity
Surface Structure Ambiguity are Sentences which are ambiguous in surface level of
syntactic relationship. The double meaning not due to any ambiguous words but
rather to the fact that it has two different surface structures.

Example :
- I know a man with a dog who has fleas.
- John knows a richer man than Trump.
- The girl hit the boy with a book.
 Deep Structure Ambiguity
Deep structure ambiguity are sentences which are ambiguous on the deep structure
level of logical relationship. The basic difference between the two interpretations is
explicitly revealed in the two deep structures.( Fromkin and Rodman, 1983: Kees,
1999). In conclusion, there exist two different kinds of ambiguity on the structural
level surface structure ambiguity and deep structure ambiguity.

Example :
- Flying planes can be dangerous.
- It is too old to eat.
- The horse is ready to ride.
THANK YOU