COURSEWORK 2 4.0 Explanation of possible causes for the pronunciation problem. 4.1 Introduction Pronunciation is one of the most difficult problems facing ESL students. ESL refers to people whose first language is not English. According to Oxford Student‟s Dictionary of English (2001), pronunciation means, “the “ the way in which a language or a particular word or sound is said or a person’s way of speaking a language.” Baker Baker (1992) claims that, “pronunciation is very important and learners should pay attention as early as possible since it is definitely the biggest thing that people notice when a person person is speaking”. As we finish doing our research for this group task, we find that there are basically three problem areas in pronunciation faced by the subject that are sounds (vowels/consonants), stress (word stress/sentence stress/linkage) and intonation (rising tune/falling tune). tune). 4.2 Possible causes for the pronunciation problem. 4.2.1 Sounds Possible cause: cause: The age factor, mother tongue interference and phonetic ability. Chitravelu,N.,Sithamparam,S.,& Teh S.C. (1995) defined sounds as, “spoken language and the sound system varies between languages” . The subject as non-native speakers of English often use their mother tongue (first language) as a starting point in learning new language which is why she/he may have problems producing sounds of English words. It may be difficult for him/her to get used to the new English Phonemes. The use of the first language as a guideline to learning English also lmits how phonemes are produced or heard that make him/her hard to distinguish different pronunciations. For example, example, the subject have difficulty pronouncing pronouncing the word “blue” /blu/ instead instead of saying “blue”, he says “belu”. 4.2.2 stress Possible cause: cause: The amount of exposure.Speakers first language has a stress pattern that is unlike English. Word stress The most common error that the subject commits is to put the emphasis on the wrong syllables or on the wrong words. The Englishclub.com that we find in the internet, states two very simple rules about word stress as “one word has only one stress and we can only stress on vowels, not consonants”. consonants”. In English, certain syllables are stressed when sounding out words and certain words are stressed when speaking sentences. Generally, there are three stress levels recognized in word stress that are primary stress (the stress (the syllable given most prominence), secondary stress (the stress (the syllable given some prominence) and unstressted syllable(the syllable(the syllable given almost no
prominence at all). For example, the word „memorial‟ is pronounced with the primary stress on “mo” and secondary stress on “me”. The subject pronounced it wrongly where listeners are likely to misunderstood what we say if we put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. Sentence stress According to Chitravelu,N.,Sithamparam,S.,& Teh S.C. (1995), sentences, like words, also make use of stress to communicate meaning. The subject had the difficulty to identify the three concepts in sentence stress that are marked and unmarked, stress-time rhytm and content words and structured words. He/she tend to pronounce content words too quickly without the necessary stress. For example, Marked and unmarked sentences I want her. (unmarked) I want h er . (marked, probably the speaker wants her and not somebody else) Linkage of sounds The subject tends to pronounce each words in sentences by pausing and pronouncing each word clearly as he/she thinks it will make the communication succeed. He/she didn‟t realize that there are some words when link together as sentences is said in “one breath force.” For example, the sentence “there are” would sound like “dera” not “der are”. 4.2.3 Intonation Possible Cause: The standard patterns of intonation in English for the various meanings in communication always complicate the subject. Intonation is “the rise and fall of your voice while you are speaking” as defined in the Oxford Student‟s Dictionary of English (2001). Whether the voice rises or falls or remains flat depends upon the meaning, and especially the feeling the speaker wants to convey. In other words, intonation and sentence stress are connected to each other to determine comprehension. For example, there are specific intonation patterns to express emotion or to ask questions. Titulo B.P. (2003) claims that, “even if you pronounce each word clearly, if the intonation is not standard,the meaning probably will not clear, leading to a loss of some comprehension.” For example, the sentence “ they can‟t come on Friday” which the subject tend to stress wrongly. When we use the negative form “can’t” we tend to stress the fact that it is the negative form by also stressing “can’t” . 5.0 Conclusion As a conclusion, this project was one of the way to expose us the importance of pronunciation skill. Only by putting them into practice will make these fundamental principals into our own as the saying goes “practice makes perfect”, we will be on the road to master clear communication and receive numerous benefits.
