AIRS 2nd Annual Conference: Seattle 2010
Title: Singing voice and phonetic acquisition
Authors: Sandra Cornaz (GIPSA Lab, Grenoble & Turin, University, Italy), Nathalie Vallée (CNRS Dept.
34), & Nathalie Henrich (GIPSA Lab Department of Language Sciences, University Grenoble)
Introduction
Physical and vocal exercises adapted for speech and singing improvement are numerous and various.
However, the field of language teaching does not often use those tools. Our research aims at a) highlighting
the validity of a pedagogy based on those types of exercises - especially sung ones - of French as a foreign
language (FFL); b) understanding how much and why singing, as pitches and duration variation in a
temporal dynamics, would impact positively phonetic and phonological performance in a non native
language. To reach this goal, two experimentations are developed: the first one is global and transversal
while the second one is made of shorts and isolated tasks.
The first experimentation consists in observing and analyzing, via regular recordings during a 9 hour
phonetic correction, the progresses done by Italian native adults' speakers in French oral vowel perception
and production. Half of them are involved in a traditional lesson of French phonetic; the rest of the group is
taught the same base, plus additional exercises usually used for singing-voice practice. In the second
experimentation, Italian subjects are not involved in French preliminaries or current lessons. They have to
discriminate and product phonemes from dissimilar stimuli, among which the pitch and the duration can
change but never the vowel.
Both experimentations are in process. Nevertheless for the transversal experimentation, interesting results
appear from the pilot study done in Italy. Learners who were taught with the common method with
additional singing-voice exercises and specific tasks for singing practice reach higher competences at the
end of the formation in French oral vowel discrimination and production.
In the next months, the first experimentation will be tested on a greater number of subjects. The second
experimentation, dealing with singing characteristics like duration and pitch, would let us know more about
their shared or individual role for the language acquisition. Also, we hope to ascertain new factors for FFL
phonetic acquisition when singing-voice and its practice become a main part of a didactical method for an
Italian adult public.
Bios
Sandra Cornaz is a PhD student in second year in the Department of Language Sciences of University of
Grenoble 3 (France) and in "Ricerca in Studi euro-asiatici: indologia, linguistica, onomastica in Linguistica,
linguistica applicata e ingegneria linguistic" of Turin University (Italy). She is supervised by Nathalie
Vallée and co-supervised by Nathalie Henrich and Antonio Romano. Since 2003, she is a teacher in French
as a second and a foreign language, specialized on phonetics (Professional and Research Masters in French
as a second and foreign language from the University of Grenoble 3, 2006 and 2008). Also, she sang many
years in a semi- professional children and teenagers choir (Opéra Junior in Montpellier) and later, she
studied solo and ensemble music in a music school (Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional in Grenoble).
Her research project deals with the role of singing voice tasks in the field of a foreign language phonetic
acquisition. Finally, she teaches linguistics, phonology and phonetics at Grenoble 3 University since 2008.
She is a member of the Association Francophone de la Communication Parlée and the Association des
Professeurs de Langues Vivantes-Langues Modernes.
Nathalie Vallée (PhD in Language Sciences "Systèmes Vocaliques: de la typologie aux prédictions" from
the University Grenoble 3, 1994) is a researcher of the French National Centre for Scientific Research

 (CNRS) in the Department n°34, (languages, language, and speech). Her research projects deal with
emergence, morphogenesis, organization and functioning of sounds structures in the world languages. She
makes typological analysis and phonetic experimentation; she observes universal systems and general
tendencies in the way to understand how universal systems are linked with biological characteristics and
parameters in speech production and perception. Furthermore, she teaches Phonology, Phonetics,
Linguistics in various Universities in Grenoble.
Nathalie Henrich (PhD in Musical Acoustics from the University Paris 6, 2001) is a voice researcher of
the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS, Department of Human and Social Sciences).
She was educated as a researcher and teacher in Fundamental Physics. She specialized on human voice
production in speech and singing. Her research projects deal with the physical and physiological
characterization of various vocal techniques, such as Western lyrical singing, Sardinian Bassu singing,
Bulgarian women's singing,... She is also interested in vocal effort and vocal straining in speech and
singing. She has worked on the development and improvement of non-invasive experimental techniques for
human voice analysis, on perception and verbalisation of voice quality in singing, and on source-filter
interaction in singing. Dr. Nathalie Henrich is a member of the French Acoustical Society (SFA), the
European Acoustical Society (EAA), the French Phoniatrics and Communication Disorders Society
(SFP&PaCo), the French Ethnomusicology Society (SFE), the COllegium MEdicorum Theatri (COMET).
She is Associate Editor for Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology (Taylor & Francis group)