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Malay is one of the major languages in the world, but there has been relatively little detailed research on its phonetics. This Element provides an overview of existing descriptions of the pronunciation of Standard Malay before briefly considering the pronunciation of some dialects of Malay. It then introduces materials that may be used for studying the phonetics of Malay: a short text, the NWS passage; and a map-task, to generate conversational data. Based on recordings using these materials by two female and two male consultants who are academics at Universiti Brunei Darussalam, the Element next offers an acoustic analysis of the consonants and vowels of Malay, the syllable structure arising from fast speech processes, as well as the rhythm and intonation of the Standard Malay that is spoken in Brunei. Finally, it suggests directions for further research on the phonetics of Malay.

Phonetic research investigates how speakers and listeners use speech to convey messages. The speech produced to encode a particular message can vary wildly. Understanding and explaining the phonetic variability embodied in this example is one of the main motivations for this Element. Why and how do speakers produce this variability and how does it impact listeners? This Element focuses on spontaneous speech and its relationship with phonetic research. The authors discuss background and describe research investigating the variation that occurs when speakers and listeners are engaged in spontaneous, conversational speech. As a result, this Element explores aspects of spontaneous speech from the phonetic perspective using both production and perception areas of phonetics. This Element focuses on spontaneous speech and its relationship with phonetic research, exploring aspects of spontaneous speech from the phonetic perspective using both production and perception areas of phonetics.

This Element explores ways in which language teachers, especially teachers of English, can benefit from knowledge of phonetics. It also offers recommendations for introducing and improving pronunciation teaching in the classroom. While hoping that this Element is useful to instructors of all languages, the majority of the examples comes from North American English (NAE) and the English language classroom. At the same time, the Element acknowledges that English language teaching is rather different from the teaching of other languages, since nowadays, most interactions around the world in English do not involve a native speaker, and use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has become widespread. Teachers of English should be aware that their students may not want to mimic all aspects of native-speaker pronunciation; since some native-speaker patterns of speech, such as the extensive simplification and omission of sounds may not be helpful in enhancing intelligibility.

This Element focuses on phonetic and phonological development in multilinguals and presents a novel methodological approach to it within Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST). We will show how the traditional conceptualisations of acquisition with a strong focus on linear, incremental development with a stable endpoint can be complemented by a view of language development as emergent, self-organised, context-dependent and highly variable across learners. We report on a longitudinal study involving 16 learners with L1 German, L2 English and L3 Polish. Over their ten months of learning Polish, the learners' perception and production of various speech sounds and phonological processes in all of their languages were investigated. Auditory and acoustic analyses were applied together with group and individual learner statistical analyses to trace the dynamic changes of their multilingual phonological system over time. We show how phonetic and phonological development is feature-dependent and inter-connected and how learning experience affects the process.