Week 11: Voice Quality, again

After reviewing my post from last week, I noticed a few things. First, that my pronunciation of the French /r/ is improving but, second, that my voice quality is still not where I want it to be. I sound too "American" which I think might be a result of my vocal posture. Although I know the French language is generally fronted, I still have a difficult time displaying this in my speech because of my life-long vocal patterns I've created as an American English speaker. I listened to my archetype and perceived that, especially with her overemphasized speech, there is significant fronting that makes other aspects of her speech (such as /r/) easier.

However, I still felt unsure about what exactly to focus on, and so I started doing some research. I found an article by David Birdsong (2007) regarding whether or not speakers of other languages are able to sound like native-like French speakers if they began learning French later in life. He also indicated that mastery over both the global and local phonological elements are key to being identified as a native speaker. Obviously, I don't think I will attain this in this semester but it was helpful to determine the places I need to improve in order to be on the right track.

Even after doing all of this, though, I still felt unsure what to focus on because I had already practiced difficult vowels and consonants and I wasn't sure how to practice in ways I hadn't yet. But then, I had a revelation of sorts! I was washing my hands in the bathroom and I found myself just starting to recite the script of my archetype and, while looking in the mirror, I realized it looked like I was hardly fronting my speech at all! I then forced myself to exaggerate more (which I had thought I was doing!) and it actually was really difficult! While trying to force my lips more forward, I realized that my speech seemed to improve/was easier! It was slightly difficult to tell how much it improved, though, because I was mostly focusing on my lips.

I realized that this is a very simple method and even remember my classmates (Robin & Ana) have mentioned this method before. I can't believe I never tried it!

Here is my recording for this week.