INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU KAMPUS BAHASA ANTARABANGSA

LEMBAH PANTAI, 59200 KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

PROGRAM IJAZAH SARJANA MUDA PERGURUAN

DENGAN KEPUJIAN (TESL) PENDIDIKAN RENDAH,
INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU, KPM

COURSEWORK
INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
(TSL 3101)
NAME

: SHARIFAH JANNATUL AJILAH BT SYED JAAFFAR

I/C NO

: 910813-06-5104

CLASS

: PISMP TESL (R) 3

INTAKE

: JANUARI 2011

SEMESTER

:1

LECTURERS NAME: MADAM YASHWANORA BT YAHAYA

DATE DUE

: 25 FEB 2011

Non-native speakers of English (NNS) often have problems with pronunciation.

Discuss the problem areas and suggest ways to overcome these problems
identified. Provide relevant examples to illustrate your answer.
In the last half century, the widespread of English Language is amazingly
inevitable. English Language is mainly used all over the world and most people
recognize the needs of English Language in their life. The unprecedented growth
numbers of people using English in their daily life affairs, business or as a way of
communication affects the growing number of non-native speakers. According to
education.com, non-native speakers may be used to refer to someone with little
or no knowledge of the English language, or someone who speaks English
fluently, but whose first language was something else. However, the main issue
which is at stake mainly in regards to the inefficiency of pronunciation of non
native speakers. It is basically about on how to assimilate and apply the native
speakers pronunciation norms into the non-native speakers which is most likely
to have less interaction with the native speakers.
Moving on towards the problem area on pronunciation, non-native
speakers have to accept the fact that their pronunciation is highly influenced by
their mother tongue. Even though our own mother tongue represents our identity
and nationality, but, we must constantly shows improvement in order to reach
Standard English proficiency. It is a big deal for those people who certainly care
about their image or others perception. A person that is fluent in speaking would
be able to gain respect or received others attention as they can express
themselves well.
The first problem area that non-native speakers are facing is on syllable.
As has been mentioned Rogerson & Gilbert (1990) syllable sensitivity is
important because the syllable is the basic unit of English pronunciation, and an
awareness of syllables is fundamental for an awareness of other aspects of
pronunciation. Even though the concept or the idea of syllable itself is universal,
but the structure is simply different and may altered according to the language.
Rogerson & Gilbert (1990) found that the possible problems for Japanese

speakers is that they focused on de-voices the vowels ee (as in eat) and u (as
in boot) between voiceless consonants and silence as at the end of a word.
Therefore, a Japanese version of the words cocoa is bound to sound like three
syllables. According to Rogerson & Gilbert (1990), Japanese also counts nasals
(n, m, ng) as syllables. The two things that are highlighted in syllable
simplification is consonant deletion and vowel insertion. It was pointed out that
Japanese and Spanish tend to go for vowel insertion and have problem in
pronouncing initial clusters especially /s/ clusters. For instance, Japanese will
pronounce strike is pronounced as sa-trike. Besides, Japanese also face
difficulty in pronouncing steak as they have a simpler syllable structure (i.e.
consonant-vowel or just a vowel) may tend to insert vowels in consonant clusters
in any position in the word and steak becomes suteki( Rogerson & Gilbert ,
1990). Besides that, the Hindi students might also have pronunciation problem
where they tend to go for consonant deletion. For example, hate become ate,
had is pronounced as ad and hand as and.
There are several ways to overcome the problems involving the syllable
simplification. It is not easy to fix the problem as the level of English mastery is
different for each person. The speakers might not be able to get the point or the
root of problem straight away. Through a lot of practise, we can simply grasp the
eloquent pronunciation. In that case, the best suggestion would be reading an
English book out loud. By making sure that we take our time while reading the
words out loud would be another good practise of realising our own pronunciation
problem. By simply pronounce the words and repeat it a few time, it would be a
great help on checking for any alphabet weaknesses. By stressing on the
weakness, they might learn something valuable through it. Some people
recommended using a practical solution that is to use tapping exercises until they
would aware of perceiving syllables in an English sense. It is important to make
people aware and realise their own mistakes in order to give room for
improvement and they would master the pronunciation. It would be a great fun
also to practice speaking with some native English speaking friends. Through

listening to the native speakers, we can grab the correct pronunciation and
enhance our performance.
Secondly, the problem that is faced by non-native speakers is on word
stress. One common mistake that non-native speakers happen to do is by
neglecting the importance of correct word stress placement. Incorrect stress
placement is a very important cause of intelligibility problems for learners (Roach,
1983). These problems mainly happen due to the interference of mother tongue
that is the first language (L1) of non native speakers. Particularly, the system of
other language is not the same as English which has certain syllable and stress
pattern. However, the non-native speakers seemingly applied the rule of their L1
when using the second language (L2). Thus it has greatly affected the placement
of word stress in the conversation. The three main areas of word stress is pitch
change, syllable length and vowel quality. Firstly, one of the areas of word stress
that need to be paid attention is pitch change. Certain people would prefer to use
a higher and inclined pitch on unstressed syllables rather than stressed syllable.
As mentioned by Jenkins (2000), a Turkish student had asked her the opposite of
the word mature, but pronounced it with the stress on the first syllable such that,
assuming an approximation of the final / a/ diphthong, she interpreted the word
as macho. It would create confusion to the listener in processing the meaning of
the word uttered. Secondly, other concept to be noted is syllable length. As has
been shown (Rogerson & Gilbert,1990), in some languages, vowel length makes
a difference in meaning, in the same way that bit and bet are different words in
English. Not many languages did distinguish vowel length between short and
long vowel which would certainly create a misinterpretation to the listener. Thirdly,
the prominent area that is vowel quality also needs to be mentioned. Therefore,
the important parts that need to be paid extreme attentions are differences
between strong and weak vowels. Instead of relying on structural information
given to them by the rhythm of the speech they rely on clear and distinct
pronunciation of all vowels and consonants (Brown,1977).

Another specific ways to overcome this problem is by figuring out what are
the real problems in the word rhythm. We need to start from the basic by
introducing the characteristics of stressed and unstressed syllables in English
which is shown in the table below.
loudness
Stressed

pitch
vowel clarity

long

Full

high

short

reduced

low

loud

syllables
Unstressed
syllables

length
vowel length

quiet

The table would make us realize the characteristics of stressed and

unstressed syllable in order to identify the real problem in word stress. Apart from
that we can use musical instruments such as piano, kazoos or mouth organ as
humming, or hand gestures to indicate pitch change. The purpose of using any
one of them is to offer students a speech model presented by pitch change only,
allowing them to concentrate on this specific point (Gilbert, 1994). In addition, we
can use kinesthetic aid such as hand gestures or humming. By using hand
gestures and wave, it would deliver a vivid picture on how pitch changes among
syllables.
Thirdly, other aspect of problem that is faced by the non native speakers is
in terms of rhythm and pronunciation. According to traditional descriptions,
intonation is the melody of speech, and is analysed in terms of variation in pitch.
(Roach.P) First of all is that English has a characteristic rhythm and listeners are
expected to hear this rhythm. It is the basic guide of structure of information in
the spoken message, not something added to the basic sequence of consonants
and vowels. (Brown,1977) The most prominent feature of English rhythm is
where the syllables are not equal in duration. The crucial problem is in the L1 is
where unstressed syllables are not reduced and squeezed in between stressed
syllables. (Rogerson & Gilbert,1990).Therefore, a word with four syllables will be

twice as long as a word with two syllables. For Spanish, the problem is that their
vowel have the same length.
One of the approaches that might help us learn a precise pronunciation
and rhythm is by singing or rapping along to English songs. It will definitely be an
enjoyable activity for us as we will be able to imitate the words in the song.
Besides, our vocabulary would be increased as well. Through discovery of new
words that we can use in our everyday life, we will automatically know just how to
pronounce them. Apart from singing and rapping, we can us the method like
reciting the poem. When we are exposed to the activity such as reciting the poem
or verse, we will be more aware of the usage of emphasis and pauses. Through
this activity, it will benefit us in producing and following a correct rhythm. From
this activity, we will also be able to differentiate the difference between strong and
week vowels. Furthermore, when we listen to the recording of limerick or tongue
twister, it guides us on comparing the way of pronouncing the same words and
adjusting accordingly. Other trick that seems to be a helping hand in keeping up
the beat and rhythm is by clapping and tapping.
In a nutshell, non native speakers should aware of their problem area in
pronunciation in order to upgrade themselves to a certain level by finding ways to
overcome those problem area, Although we have our own accent due to the
influence of the mother tongue, we need to assimilate and dwell towards
reaching a Standard English level in speaking. The correct pronunciation would
clear any misunderstanding that happen in our daily conversation.
(1600 words)

REFERENCES

Jennifer J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language:new

models,new norms, new goals.

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford: Oxford

University Press.
Rogerson P. &Gilbert J.B. (1990).

Speaking clearly. The Pitt Building,

Trumpington Street, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.

Roach P. (2001). Phonetics. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Chi-Fen Chen, Chuen-Yn Fan, and Hsiang-Pao Lin. (n.d.). A New Perspective on
Teaching English Pronunciation. In Rhythm. Retrieved 30 May 2011, from
http://chifenchen.tripod.com/papers/paper-2.html.
Brown, D.H. (1997) Principles of language learning and teaching (3rd ed.) New
Jersey : Prentice Hall Regents.
Fromkin, V and Robert Rodman.(1988). An introduction to language. London Holt
Rinehart and Winston Inc.