Voice-setting features refer to general articulatory characteristics of stretches of speech. The tendency of speakers of a particular language to adopt certain habitual positions of articulation in connected speech, resulting in a characteristic voice quality, can be described in terms of voice setting features. Such features comprise what are sometimes referred to as voice quality, voice quality settings (Esling and Wong, 1983), phonetic settings (Laver, 1980), or certain paralinguistic features (Brown, 1977). Laver (1980: 2) gives an example of such a setting as:
a quasi-permanent tendency to keep the lips in a rounded position throughout speech. Another would be a habitual tendency to keep the body of the tongue slightly retracted into the pharynx while speaking. Another would be the persistent choice of a characteristically ‘whispery’ mode of phonation.
Thornbury (1993: 128) goes as far to say that: ‘until the learner is able to approximate the voice-setting features of the target language, work on individual phonemes is largely whistling in the dark’. Voice quality setting is the phenomenon which accounts for our impressions of, for example, certain male Arabic speakers as speaking their language (or English) with a hoarse- or husky-sounding voice (Pennington and Richards, 1986).
Learners should be made aware of the voice quality as this would give them the opportunity to practice their communication communicatively (Jones and Evans, 1995). It can give students a clearer idea about the link between phonology and meaning (ibid). Paying more attention to the voice quality features in pronunciation teaching can positively increase the intelligibility of the learner (Pennington and Richards, 1986: 209).
The accent of a speaker is typically characterized by a description of the pronunciation of individual sounds, the placement of stress and of rhythm and intonation. Another way of characterizing accent, which may be less familiar to ESL teachers in North America, is the description of voice quality settings, which are the long-term postures of the larynx, pharynx, tongue, velopharyngeal system and lips, as well as long-term laryngeal configurations reflected in the diverse phonation types described by Catford (1964).
Voice quality settings may function linguistically, to characterize the particular language or dialect or social group to which a speaker belongs; or they may function paralinguistically, to signal mood or emotion in conversational contexts; or they may also function extra-linguistically to characterize or identify the individual speaker. When a feature of voice quality figures prominently in the setting of an ESL student’s native language but does not occur commonly or to the same degree in English, it is a potential obstacle to intelligibility. Examples of accents which illustrate voice quality settings often found in ESL classrooms include uvularized tongue body position in some dialects of Arabic; uvularized tongue body and faucal constriction (that is, habitual constriction of the upper pharynx) in other dialects of Arabic.
Because voice quality setting features are often associated with individual speaker recognition or paralinguistic emotional coloring, the extent to which they incorporate the segmental phonology of the language and the extent to which they signal regional or social information may be overlooked. Distinctions in voice quality would be particularly difficult for a foreign learner of the language to recognize, lacking the opportunity or ability to observe the distribution of the phenomenon. In the United States, a broad model of voice quality setting might include the following features:
1. spread lips; 2. open jaw
3. palatalized tongue body position; 4. retroflex articulation;
5. nasal voice; 6. lowered larynx; 7. creaky voice.
Not all dialect groups will share the same features, and some dialect groups may even demonstrate opposite features, but settings that combine some if not all of these features are very common, and represent articulatory habits that students can easily observe and learn to recognize. Esling and Wong (1983) do not mean to suggest that the second language student’s aim should be to sound exactly like a native speaker of the target language, but rather that identification with the target group, insofar as that is the student’s goal, is often realized phonologically through the mechanism of voice quality. Honikman (1964) describes a typical setting of French as
open jaw setting. German is also characterized as lip-rounded. Russian, in contrast, is close in jaw setting, with spread lips and fronted (palatal) articulation. Indian and Pakistani languages are described as having open lips and jaw, with retroflex articulation of the tongue. Turkish and Persian are cited as examples of languages where articulation is performed primarily by the tongue tip. These descriptions are restricted to features which can be identified both auditorily and visually.
It can be argued that highlighting the significance of teaching voice quality in the teaching of pronunciation is of high importance. Learners would be able to see the effect of pronunciation on meaning through voice quality (Jones and Evans, 1995). Learners could realize that various voice settings express different emotions and consequently convey different meanings in the process of communication.
4.7.2.1 Suggestions for Teaching
Knowledge of voice quality settings of English as well as those of other languages provides a useful tool in improving pronunciation performance. A number of pronunciation difficulties may be the combined result of the learner’s inability to grasp the generalization that a particular setting or long-term configuration represents. Many characteristic vowel and consonant phonemes of English share features which can be grouped together to constitute the habitual articulatory posture of English. If the voice quality of the learner’s native language differs from the setting normally found in the target language, both intelligibility and comprehension in spoken communication may suffer. It follows that if the learner can be taught the relatively small number of higher-level features that constitute
the setting, then the pronunciation of a relatively large number of the lower-level segmental features captured within the generalized setting should improve as a result.
In addition, voice quality settings help to improve the image that students project when they speak English. One effective method of sensitizing ESL students to their own and each other’s native voice qualities is to ask students to prepare a short phrase from everyday conversation, an announcement, or a tongue-twister to produce in their native language to the rest of the class. Even with only one or two representatives of each language, a linguistically heterogeneous class can yield noticeable differences. Particularly salient voice quality features can usually be assumed, provisionally, to be linguistically motivated, and can be contrasted from language to language. Students quickly learn that voice quality is not only individual, but also a part of one’s accent in a language. Another technique for building awareness of voice quality in pronunciation is for students to observe and make notes of the settings of various personalities that they see on television. Certain programs might reflect a variety of regional or social dialects in English, whereas national newscasts might present a model which students wish to imitate.
Whether or not imitation is used as a technique, it should be pointed out to students that there are voice quality settings which one adopts in increasingly formal or prestigious varieties of English. The features of a socially higher valued setting in English may or may not correspond to the voice quality features that students bring from their native languages. If not, the difference may contribute, along with differences in rhythm, intonation, and segmental phonology, to low intelligibility or unfavorable social judgments against the speaker. It is
important for these students to become aware of voice quality and of how to observe and recognize different settings. They should also be presented with a model containing salient features which are likely to occur in the pronunciations of English which they are accustomed to hearing.
Esling and Wong (1983: 94) concludes that it is desirable to make ESL students aware of the voice quality settings that characterize their own languages, as well as to present voice quality characteristics which they can use as a model of pronunciation in English. This model can be referred to analytically to identify the settings of English speakers whom students hear and observe, or for sensitization as an example of one accent of English which is easy to recognize and to practice. Voice quality comprises the constant background of settings that define both (1) the voice of the individual and (2) the accent of the individual’s language variety. While the former are personal, the latter are language-specific, socially indexical and phonologically relevant, and should be described and taught within the pronunciation component of the ESL curriculum.