Textual and Prosodic Features of an Oral Academic Text

Discourse is the way that language – either spoken or written – is used for communicative effect in a real-world situation. Thornbury considers the text as the product and the discourse – as a communicative process that involves ‘language and the record of the language that is used in this discourse, which is ‘text’. Although presentations are generally categorized as spoken text types, an academic presentation is a compromise between spoken and written text types: on the one hand, it is given in a classroom as an oral text; on the other hand, it is thoroughly prepared as a home assignment in the form of a written text. This article focuses on the analysis of such linguistic features of students’ presentations as cohesion, coherence, and prosody. For this analysis, data were collected from 60 2nd year students of the International College of Economics and Finance (ICEF) presentations on various economic topics which were recorded and examined (the time limit for each of the presentations was 10 minutes); out of 60, 10 presentation texts were selected for auditory analysis, and thematic centers (TCs) were examined using acoustic analysis. Measurements of prosodic parameters such as pitch, intensity, and duration (rate of utterance) were obtained using the computer programs Speech Analyzer 3.0.1 and Praat (v.4.0.53). The results of these analyses show that students’ presentations are cohesive, coherent and contain TCs, which are characterized by specific prosodic parameters that have a certain effect on the comprehension of these texts, their expressiveness and pragmatic value.

The term "text" has more than 300 definitions, depending on the approach to its analysis. In semiotics, text is treated as a sequence of various signs, any form of communication; in linguistics, any text is a sequence of verbal signs. From the point of view of psycholinguistics as the science of text creation and text production a text is generally described as a way of representation of reality built with the help of elements of the language system (Leontiev, Belyanin). In text linguistics, text is treated as a sequence of sentences connected with each other through coherence within the concept of the author (Blokh, Nickolaeva, Moskalskaya).
This study is based on the use of textual approach according to which the analysis takes into account thematic, contents, structural, and communicative features of text formation. This paper aims to explore these features in students' academic presentations in a Russian university.

Text Features
According to Galperin, "text" is defined as a result of text creating process which is characterized by the following features: completeness, specific genre, a title and a number of units (paragraphs) connected ELENA VELIKAYA with each other through various types of connections -lexical, grammatical, logical, stylistic -and a communicative and pragmatic purpose (Galperin, 2005, p.

18) (translation by author).
It is important to mention that I. R. Galperin referred this definition to a written text even though both written and spoken academic types of text are characterized by similar features. The first text feature is informational content of the text which is realized through nomination of facts and events revealing text content and meaning. Galperin reveals three kinds of information: factual, conceptual, and subtextual. Text delimitation features are usually associated with text informational content. The biggest segment of the text, according to Galperin, is a paragraph even though some other authors (Blokh, for example) name it a dicteme which links it to the theme as the main characteristic feature of it, nominalization and predication being the other essential features that help to distinguish the dicteme (Blokh, 2000, pp. 56-67). Blokh calls the dicteme the main text unit and the minimal thematic unit, and the whole text (a combination of dictemes) -a result of mental and verbal activity of a person in a particular situation. The major criteria in dicteme determination are thematic and compositional (referring to the composition of the text).
Next important text feature introduced by Galperin is cohesion as a specific kind of text logical connection which ensures continuum of the text. This category is realized in the text at the level of words, sentences, and dictemes. Continuum is another essential text feature which Galperin considers as a sequence of facts and events which develop at a particular time in a specific context. It is natural that a text is divided into episodes, but cohesion makes it possible to look at the text as a whole. Modality (another text feature) is treated by Galperin and other linguists as the speaker's attitude to reality. Lyons and Quirk admit the fact that any text is characterized by modality, and Vinogradov finds it an important constructive feature of a sentence (Vinogradov, 1975, p. 55). Galperin thinks modality is revealed differently in various text types: it is more explicit in poetic texts and less explicit -in academic texts, and it becomes an inherent feature of the text as a whole (Galperin, 2005, p. 122). Coherence as a text feature refers to semantics and integrates different parts of a text to achieve its integrity. Integration makes parts (dictemes) of a text 'subordinate to the main idea of the text' (Ilyenko, 1989, p. 72). 'It is integrity (coherence) which provides consecutive comprehension of factual and contextual information (Galperin, 2005, p. 124). It builds itself both on cohesion means and associative and presuppositional relationships. Text completeness is the last feature identified by Galperin and is the function of its concept which is the basis of the text and which develops in various text types such as descriptions, analysis or narrations. 'When the result is achieved through progressive movement of the theme the text is completed (Galperin, 2005, p. 131).
All of these textual features are important, but only two of them -cohesion and coherence -were selected for the analysis since students got familiar with them in the course of their 1 st year study.

Cohesion
Thornbury claims that a text can be treated as a text if it is self-contained, well-formed, cohesive, coherent, has a clear communicative purpose, is recognizable as a text type, and is appropriate to its context of use (Thornbury, 2005, p. 19). According to Thornbury, the main cohesive devices are lexical repetitions, the presence of thematically related words, synonyms and words which demonstrate grammatical cohesion -pronouns, substitution words (so, not, are cases in point, Will it snow? -I think -not) (one, ones), ellipsis (For instance, It needs to, The ones that don't). The author also adds to this list of cohesive devices such linking words as however, but, although, the conjunctions and, but, or, because. They have a sentence-integral function -connect clauses inside sentences. Sequencing expressions, for example, first, lastly, furthermore, what is more, on the other hand are also included in conjuncts. Summarizing the ways which make texts cohesive Thornbury classifies cohesive (linking) devices at the level of lexis, grammar and discourse into: lexical cohesion: -direct repetition, word families, synonyms and antonyms -words from the same semantic field, lexical chains and lists -substitution grammatical cohesion: -reference -pronouns, articles -substitution of clause elements using so, not, do/does/did, etc. rhetorical cohesion: -question-answer -parallelism (Thornbury, 2005, pp. 21-23) All these devices help to connect elements in the text to each other and the text to its context.

Coherence
A text makes sense if it is coherent which is understood by writers as sense-making quality. Thornbury approaches coherence from the micro-TEXTUAL AND PROSODIC FEATURES OFAN ORAL ACADEMIC TEXT level (sentence-by-sentence level) and macro-level (topics). At micro-level, theme and rheme (topic of the sentence and comment), or given information and new information are analyzed. New information is usually placed in the latter part of the sentence which very often makes it the given information of the next sentence. This pattern of text formation can be represented in the following way: 1. topic 1 comment 1 topic 2 comment 2 topic 3 etc.
2. topic 1 comment 1 topic 1 comment 2 topic 1 etc. (McCarthy, 1991, p. 55-56) Another way to evolve and achieve argument coherence in a text is to use nominalization and, specifically, such key words as way, problem, answer, situation, process, etc. (Thornbury, 2005, p. 40). Key words are words which are either frequently used in the text or which explain what the text is about carrying the topic of it. Key words play an equally important role at the macro-level in order to achieve coherence. Thornbury also claims that key sentences play a big role in identifying the topic. These are the sentences which begin the text and other key sentences, repeat or paraphrase at least two or three elements of that first key sentence (Thornbury, 2005, p. 55). What can be added to his pattern is the presence in every text of a thematic or information centre, being text elements concentrating the main idea of the text, expressed in a concise form, bearing the major 'semantic burden' in relation to a particular theme and intellectual information of the whole text. Thematic centers contain lexemes and phrasemes which are semantically included in the compositional/thematic and semantic structure of the text through key words (Velikaya, 2009, p. 74).
As it was mentioned earlier, the method of analysis of linguistic features of students' presentations consisted of two stages: at the 1 st stage 60 presentations were recorded, examined and 10 of them were chosen for thorough analysis. Out of 10 presentation texts, two were selected for a detailed textual and prosodic analysis. At the 2 nd stage, these presentations were examined for identification of textual features (informational content, cohesion, coherence, continuum, modality, completeness, thematic relevance, and presence of TCs) and prosodic features, such as melody (tone modification), loudness (intensity), and tempo (rate of utterance). Prosodic (acoustic) analysis was performed with the use of two computer programs: Praat (v.4.0.53) and Speech Analyzer 3.0.1. Both of these programs help a researcher to obtain maximum and minimum pitch levels in Hz, absolute results of duration parameters of a speech segment in sec and intensity figures in dB. It was also taken into account that absolute parameters are usually irrelevant in research, so the absolute pitch and intensity results of speakers were related to average figures. The obtained parameters included pitch and range figures in semitones, average intensity within one intonation group, and average rate of utterance in syllable/sec. (Blokhina & Potapova, 1982). This made it possible to perform research without reference to male or female speech realizations. The use of acoustic analysis allowed the researcher to obtain the following parameters: the movement of the tone, pitch range of the stressed syllable, rate of nuclear tone change in the TC, average pitch level in the TC, the maximum pitch level and average pitch level in semitones, pitch range in the TC and the rest of the intonation group (background). With the use of auditory analysis the following data were obtained: the analysis of the setting, the composition of the presentation, the place of the TC, pitch level, pitch range, type of the nuclear tone (Low (Medium) Fall, High Fall, Low Rise, High (Medium) Rise, Rise-Fall, Fall-Rise, Rise-Fall-Rise, Mid-Level), range of the nuclear tone (narrow, medium, wide), type of the Head (Stepping Head, Falling Head, Sliding Head, Rising Head, Climbing Head, Level Head) (Sokolova et al., 1997, p. 164), loudness (low, medium, high), tempo (low, medium, high), and type of the pause (very short, short, medium, long, extra long). The usage of these analyses made it possible to obtain an objective picture of textual and prosodic features used in students' presentations (prosodic prominence) and their relevance for comprehension.

Textual Features
1 st presentation 1. The text of the presentation is self-contained and well-organized: it is about one particular topic -the history of financial crises -and has three distinct parts (introduction, main part and conclusion). 2. The text of the presentation is cohesive: Lexical cohesion: a) direct repetition of the word crisis (crises, financial crisis) -18 times, bank (banking) -11 times; b) words of the same word family (crisis-crises, bank-banking) and words that are thematically related: banking crisis, assets overpriced, economic crisis, bank crash, stock market, budget surplus, financial market, earn profit; c) substitution: one for economic crisis (in paragraph 3). Grammatical Cohesion: a) Reference: pronouns. In paragraph 5: 'Introduced the New Deal Program … . In addition to this, This helped a little, …' . In paragraph 6 : 'Another crash happened in 1987. It was provoked by …'. 'The system …, it was stopped'. In paragraph 7: 'LTCM was saved: it was liquidated …'. In paragraph 8: 'The crisis that has happened … . It was a result … ' . In paragraph 9: '… the last crisis … . This crisis …'. In paragraph 10: '… the recent crisis was predicted, nothing was done to prevent it; b) Conjuncts (linkers): -so (paragraphs 4, 6, 9, 10), thus (paragraph 7), however (paragraphs 5, 7), also (paragraph 10); -firstly, next (paragraphs 2, 10), lastly (paragraph 2), to start with (paragraph 4), as a result (paragraphs 4, 7, 9), in addition to this (twice in paragraph 5), at first (paragraph 7); c) Tenses: present, past, past perfect, future-inthe past. Rhetorical Cohesion: No question-answer technique (were not taught), no parallelism: the text is built up as a narrative which does not imply questions and answers.

3) The Presentation is Coherent:
a) It demonstrates logical relations (theme and rheme relationship) (topic -comment, given and new information . As for other textual features, this presentation is informative since it contains factual information about the history of financial crises, it demonstrates implicit modality and shows completeness. Nominalization is revealed with the help of the noun situation (paragraphs 5 and 9), which nominalizes some particular actions and events (For instance, '… a large speculative rise in the stock markets and loans defaults'). The composition of the presentation text was built up according to the following scheme: context -interpretation (description, analysis) -deduction (comment). The TC is represented by four sentences in the conclusion.
2 nd presentation 1. The text of the presentation is self-contained and well-organized: it is devoted to the explanation of one economic issue -price discrimination. It is well structured and has a clear introduction, main part and conclusion. 2. The text of the presentation is cohesive: Lexical Cohesion: a) Direct repetition of the words: price (5 times in the 1 st paragraph and 13 times -throughout the text), discrimination (5 times in the 1 st paragraph, 14 times -throughout the text); b) Words that are thematically related: price discrimination, perfect, price charged, consumer surplus, producer surplus, elasticity of demand, higher price, price equal to; c) Substitution: In paragraph 6 the one -for the person. Grammatical Cohesion: a) Reference: pronouns, articles. For example, 'I believe this is a very interesting topic (this -for price discrimination). 'This is used to trade goods' (lowering prices) (in paragraph 6). 'This is where the name comes from. He also managed to sell …' -he -for the owner of the auction (paragraph 6). 'The person who desperately wants it' (it -for the statue) (in paragraph 6).
It -for price discrimination in paragraph 7.
The definite article the also makes connections: it implies a previous mention of the noun it determines. For instance, in paragraph 5 -a liter bottle -the bottle; b) Conjuncts (linkers): so (paragraphs 1, 4. 5, 7), and (paragraphs 3, 6), but (paragraphs 3, 5, 6), because (paragraph 6 price, discrimination, charge, consumer, surplus, demand, elasticity, buying, selling, discounts, trade, goods, auction, benefit. As for other textual features, this presentation text is informative because it provides factual information about one important economic issueprice discrimination. Due to the presence of rhetorical devices, it demonstrates explicit modality and shows completeness. Nominalization is revealed with the help of the noun topic (paragraph 1), which nominates the economic issue of price discrimination. The TC appears in paragraph 3 and is repeated at the end of paragraph 6 (frame composition scheme).

Prosodic Features
For the purpose of this paper, the two presentations reported in the previous section were analyzed for their prosodic features.
1 st presentation According to the auditory analysis, there was a variety of tempo, pauses and tone modifications in this presentation. This variety occurred due to the purpose, the target of the presentation and the setting. The purpose of the presenter was to inform and persuade the audience; the presentation was given in a specific environment with an examiner and other students present as audience. The TC, which at the same time serves as a conclusion of the presentation, consists of 12 intonation groups, 9 of which are meaningful for the analysis since they contain both the nucleus and the background. The types of nuclear tones used are while -Rise-Fall, globalization -Mid-Level, frequency -Mid-Rise, spread -Mid-Fall, crises -Mid-Fall, because and have experienced -Mid-Level, crisis -Mid-Rise, they're -Mid-Level, within -Mid-Fall. It was pronounced in a narrow (2 semitones) to medium (4-5 semitones) tone range with one single nucleus said in a wide range (globalization -13 semitones), with a medium loudness and varied from low to medium and high rate of utterance. The only type of head used was Mid-Level head. The TC is characterized by a number of pauses the length of which vary from very short to extra long in the middle and at the end of the phrase.
The acoustic analysis of the TC showed that the prominence of the nucleus globalization and the background is 13 semitones which corresponds to 2.6 in relative numbers. The nucleus is not prominent in any of the parameters. The rate of the nuclear tone change is 5 times higher in the background. The nucleus frequency prevails in average pitch level, pitch range and the rate of nuclear tone change. The nucleus spread is prominent only in the parameter of the rate of utterance and nucleus crises is not prominent in any of the parameters. The nucleus didn't is less prominent than the background in the average pitch level, pitch range and the rate of utterance where the background prevails. This acoustic picture is dissimilar to the nucleus crisis, which prevailed in three parameters: average pitch level, pitch range and rate of utterance. In the last intonation group, the nucleus within is also pronounced not distinctly and the background dominates. The prominence of the TC (pitch range parameter) is 5 semitones (similar to the background), which can be classified as medium but at the lowest extreme of it. It is more prominent at the beginning of it in average pitch level, pitch range and rate of nuclear change (frequency) and at the end of it in pitch level, pitch range and rate of utterance (crisis). The results of this acoustic analysis are given in Table 1. The graphic representation of tempo and intensity in this TC is illustrated in Figure 1. 'While globalization has increased the frequency and spread of financial criseser -the severity didn't increase because we have experienced quite the same type of crisis but they're now just -er -erspreading within countries.' 2 nd presentation It can be seen from the auditory analysis of this presentation that tempo, pauses and tone parameters varied. This variety was justified by the purpose, the target of the presentation and the setting. Similarly to the 1 st presentation, the purpose of this one was to inform and persuade the audience; the presentation was given in a similar environment as the 1 st one. The presentation was built up with the use of frame type of composition when the TC appears at the beginning of the text and is repeated at the end of it summarizing (or restating) the main idea.
The TC contains three intonation groups. The types of nuclear tone used are: situation -Mid-Fall, piece -Mid-Level, pay -Low-Fall. The most typical types of head are High head and Stepping head -this is regular for academic speech. It was pronounced in a medium tone range, with medium loudness and from medium to high rate of utterance. The most commonly used types of pauses were either very short or long.
The acoustic analysis showed the prominence of the nucleus situation is equal to 19 semitones in contrast to the background of 6 semitones (which corresponds to in relative numbers, respectively). This demonstrates the prominence of the nucleus in the parameter of the pitch range. It was also prominent in the rate of nuclear tone change; the average intensity and the rate of utterance are similar in numbers. The nucleus price is prominent against the background only in the average pitch level. In fact, background parameters dominate. The parameters of average intensity are similar. The nucleus pay is not prominent in any of the acoustic parameters: the background prevails in the average pitch level, the pitch range, the rate of the nuclear tone change and more significantly in the rate of the utterance. The average prominence of this TC is 9 semitones against 8 of the background (pitch range parameter), which can be classified as medium. At the beginning of this center, the pitch range and the rate of nuclear change were more relevant for the nucleus; in the middle of it -only the average pitch level was more important and at the end of it -the background was more prominent. The results of these acoustic measurements are given in Table 2.
The graphic representation of tempo and intensity in this TC is illustrated in Figure 2.  Figure 2. The intonogram of the TC in the 2 nd presentation. 'It is a situation when -er -each consumer is charged a price exactly equal to his or her willingness to pay'.

Discussion
The textual analysis of both the presentations showed that the texts are self-contained and wellorganized. Both texts are characterized by lexical, grammatical and rhetorical cohesion. They are coherent: demonstrate logical theme and rheme relationships and possess key words which build up a lexical frame of semantically meaningful words. Both presentations are informative, explicitly demonstrate modality and show completeness of the texts. They are also characterized by nominalization. Each of the presentations has its own TC: the 1 st text composition scheme places it at the end of it in conclusion; the 2 nd text composition places it at the beginning of the text and repeats it at the end of it (frame composition scheme).
The phonetic analysis included auditory and acoustic analyses. The auditory analysis of the 1 st presentation showed that chunking of it resulted in the presence of 11 dictemes (a dicteme is a minimal thematic unit) and a large number of intonation groups which were not complete logically and semantically. Intonation groups very often did not correspond to potential syntagms. The main tool of delimitation was pauses which varied from very short to extra-long in the middle and at the end of the TC (It is tonality) (Wells, 2007, p. 6). The TC contained 12 intonation groups 9 of which were meaningful for analysis. The main accent was placed on content words (globalzation, frequency, spread, crises) and function words (didn't, they're, within) (Tonicity). The types of nuclear tones used were Rise-Fall, Mid-Level, Mid-Rise, Mid-Fall. (Tone parameter). The only type of head used was Mid-Level head. The acoustic analysis showed medium prominence of this TC (similar to 5 of the background). This TC was pronounced in a narrow to medium range, with medium loudness and varied from low to high rate of utterance.
The auditory analysis of the 2 nd presentation showed the presence of 8 dictemes. Phrases were almost always complete logically and semantically, and intonation groups very often corresponded to potential syntagms. The main tool of delimitation was pauses which varied from very short to long (This is tonality). The main accent (nucleus) was placed on content words (situation, price, pay). (This is tonicity). The types of tone used in the TC were Mid-Fall (situation), Mid-Level (price) and Low-Fall (pay) (This is tone parameter). The types of head used were High head and Stepping head). The acoustic analysis showed that the average prominence of this TC accounted to 10 versus 8 of the background, which can be classified as medium. The TC was pronounced with medium loudness, in a medium tone range and from medium to high rate of utterance.
The purpose of this phonetic research was not to detect intonation patterns only, but to infer the linguistic meaning and the pragmatic effect intended by the presenters. The overall effect (the students were interested in what the presenters were saying, followed their presentations, asked questions, elicited short discussions) was achieved even though the prosodic organization of both presentations demonstrated a lack of knowledge of rules of chunking, accentuation of nuclear tones and their types and meanings. Basically, this lack of knowledge can impede understanding and decrease expressiveness and comprehension. The blurred prosodic picture of the TCs, however, remained unnoticed by the listeners, as they mentioned after the exam, mainly due to the fact that the audience was not phonetically trained either, and the TCs were detected and perceived only semantically.

Conclusion
A student's presentation is an oral text, which is given in a classroom with a particular purpose. It possesses a number of linguistic (textual and prosodic) features. The analysis of textual features showed that ICEF students may be able to build up a text in English, which is well-organized and well-structured, cohesive, coherent, informative, complete and possesses a certain degree of modality. The presentation texts have TCs, which summarize the main idea of the texts. The location of the TC in the presentation text varies and depends on students' logic of thinking. The analysis of prosodic features demonstrated that students underestimate the significant role of prosody or suprasegmentals (Wells, 2007, p. 2) in an oral academic text which provide listeners with various intonation combinations mastering of which can lead to oral communicative competence. Since they are unaware of proper chunking, nucleus placement, types of nuclear tones ('Three Ts') (Wells, 2007, p. 6) and intonation patterns of English they produce texts which may be difficult to comprehend by listeners.
These findings have been obtained from only one experience that is why the conclusions made are preliminary. What ought to be done further is to analyze students' needs, monitor their performance and develop strategies for training in the area of communicative competence with a focus on better English pronunciation, which can become part of 'Making presentations in English' course taught in the 2 nd year.