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Department of English

National University of Modern Languages

English Pronunciation Errors Committed by the Students of

Intermediate Level

y

Muhammad Shafi!

"his pro#ect is submitted in partial fulfillment of the

re!uirements for the degree of Master of $rts in

English %Linguistics&

Date of submission' May' ()*(



$C+N,-LED.EMEN"

The very first of all, I am grateful to Allah Almighty for making me able

to carry out and complete the project successfully. I would also extend thanks

to Sir /aisal Dada who, besides supervising my research project, has also

been a cooperative mentor to me. It was because of him that I could be able to

deal with the demanding intricacies of the field of research. His experience

was kind of a bright beacon for me on my way to research.

pecial thanks are also to Sir /aisal Dada for providing emotional

support and boasting up my spirits whenever I felt down during this project.

This research wouldn!t have been possible without her caring support.



Abstract

The study was designed to know the views of the teachers

regarding the students’ poor pronunciation. Population of the study was

few government schools English teachers at secondary level in district.

"earners with good #nglish pronunciation are likely to be understood

even if they make errors in other areas, whereas learners with bad

pronunciation will not be understood, even if their grammar is perfect.

uch learners may avoid speaking in #nglish, and experience social

isolation, employment difficulties and limited opportunities for further

study. $e judge people by the way they speak, and so learners with

poor pronunciation may be judged as incompetent, uneducated or

lacking in knowledge. %et many learners find pronunciation one of the

most difficult aspects of #nglish to ac&uire, and need explicit help from

the teachers. Therefore, some sort of pronunciation instruction in class

is necessary. In fact correct pronunciation of any language gives very

good impression to the listener and it is important in learning of a

language. English is a language of international communication and it is

the only widely spoken language in the world. It is a matter of great

concern that the performance of our students in English pronunciation is

very dismal.

Keywords: Instruction, Aim, 'ommunication,

Intelligibility, language, communication, English, native, foreign.



Declaration

I hereby declare that the whole data of my research has been

collected by me, by interviewing different students after taking their consents.

(o part of this work is in anyway plagiari)ed from any sources, and for this

material I have used from other sources of them.



C,N"EN"S

Acknowledgements

Abstract

*eclaration

+. Introduction

. "iterature -eview

. /ethodology

0. Transcripts of speeches

1. *ata Analysis

a. #rrors of vowels

b. #rrors of consonants

c. 2ther #rrors

3. 'onclusion

-eferences

4ibliography



C0$P"E1 *

IN"1,DUC"I,N

The topic of the research is 2English Pronunciation Errors

Committed by the Students of Intermediate Level3 which, as the title

suggests , is directly related to the field of 5honology . The purpose behind

this research is to study the areas of #nglish pronunciation. After studying

and analy)ing the faults, I would suggest some possible remedies for them

which, if applied, would remove the errors for which they have been given.

5ronunciation instruction is a prominent factor in foreign language

teaching. ince sounds play an important role in communication, foreign

language teachers must attribute proper importance to teaching pronunciation in

their classes. It is evident that communication is a mutual relationship between

the speaker and the hearer. This means that one must comprehend what s6he

hears in the target language and must produce the sounds of the language s6he

is trying to learn accurately. 7nless he has sufficient knowledge of the sound

patterns of the target language, he can neither encode a message to anybody

nor decode the message sent by another person by learning the sounds of the

target language within his mother tongue. Therefore, pronunciation instruction is

of great importance for successful oral communication to take place since it is an

important ingredient of the communicative competence 8Hismanoglu, 993:. This



paper emphasi)es the prominence of pronunciation as a key to gaining full

communicative competence, and takes into account the important issues in

pronunciation pedagogy 8teaching: such as the history of #nglish pronunciation

instruction, the aim of #nglish pronunciation instruction, pronunciation and

communication, the previous research about the effectiveness of pronunciation

instruction on learners! achievement, and the #nglish pronunciation and the

target of comfortable intelligibility.

"anguage is a speech, through which human beings interact and

communicate their ideas, thought, experiences. "anguage is a social

phenomenon through which we exchange our thoughts and convey our motto.

"anguage which is spoken by most of the people of the world is called

international language. An international language is a linkage of the world.

#nglish is a language which is spoken by the people mostly the entire world.

#nglish is a link between #ast and $est, (orth and outh.

$SICS ,/ P0,N,L,.4

4efore I move on to research, I deem it necessary to cast a glance at

the basic of phonology; hence, I am giving a brief account some terms related

to field of my research, as follows;



Pronunciation5

The way a speaker articulates 8speech: sounds while speaking. ome

linguistics have stressed to accept the notion that pronunciation is more on the

side of the receiver i.e. the hearer , then the producer and the speaker; in other

words, pronunciation is how the sounds are perceived by the hearer.

The pronunciation of #nglish words has never been slave to their

spellings< that is, the words may have &uite surprisingly different pronunciation

that the spelling may suggest. 'onsider the following ;

The word =expertise! is pronounced as =eks >pa?tee) ! not =eks?pa?tai)!.

$rticulation5

The way the sounds are produced with the help of vocal organs is called

articulation of sounds. The main articulators are tongue and lips, which in contact

with the other parts produce different sounds.

Phone5

The individual speech sounds which are &uite distinct from other sounds

are called phone, for example, the speech sounds 6p6,6k6 and 6m6.

Phoneme5



The smallest unit of sound 8speech: system of any language it!s the unit

by which two word can clearly be differentiated. @or example the sounds 6d6 and

6t 6in 6tip6 and 6dip6 .

$llophones5

*ifferent forms of phonemes owing to the context in which they occur .

for example, phoneme tB has different allophones, that is , pronounced in

different ways in different context 8 i.e. $ords and sentences etc:.

'onsider tB in 6tip 6 ,6stat6and 6fixt6.

Phonemics5

The comprehensive study of phonemes, i.e. , the distinctive speech

sounds , of a language is called phonemics.

Minimal Pair5

A pair of words which are different at only one sounds is called a minimal

pair. @or example; =can6 and 7man!. In the given words only the first sounds is

different; the first words has 6k6and the seconds has 6m6< otherwise, both have the

same pronunciation.

$spiration5

A small amount of air that accompanies certain sounds while enunciating

them is called aspiration. /any languages have this inbuilt system of aspiration



in them. @or example, #nglish 6k 6is aspirated in the words 6kit 6and6kait6, but not

in 6skeip6.

"one5

$ords have certain syllables that are called strong and others are called

weak< in other words, a part of a word is pronounced to be more prominent than

the others. This rise and fall of pitch at word level is called Tone.

@or example, the two syllabic words =produce! 8v.:, is pronounced in such

a way that the second syllable is more stressed, i.e. is strong. o the word is

enunciated as =pro?duce.

Intonation5

The rise and fall of pitch at sentence level is technically called Intonation.

The intonation helps convey the intended meaning to the listener, which implies

that the wrong intonation may distort our purpose.

The difference can clearly be spotted in the following sentences 8 the

'A5ITA"IC#* part of the sentence is the high pitch part :;

+. IM1$N was making the tea.

. Imran was M$+IN. the tea.

. Imran was making the "E$8



C0$P"E1 (

1E9IE- ,/ LI"E1$"U1E

The field of linguistics is new in 5akistan, and not much work has been

done in the field regarding the local languages. In fact, let alone the other

regional languages of 5akistan, even 7rdu, which is the national language of the

country, as not been much worked on. This is because 5akistan does not have

the department of such kinds, as existed in the major universities of the world

8Prof8 "ari! 1ehman' ()):&8

The errors in spellings and pronunciation amounts to ignorance on the

part of the learner. 5oor schooling, deficient drilling and utter carelessness of the

learners lead to the errors. /ost of the time the teachers themselves are not

aware of the correct pronunciations. Teaching to spell according to the

pronunciation is a very common practice in most of the primary schools. -egional

impact is also one of the reasons for the wrong pronunciation. It is necessary that

habit of correct pronunciation should be imbibed among the students right from

the primary stage. /isrepresentation of consonants should be avoided. 5roper

and correct placing of the accent should be stressed. Interference of the mother?

tongue while studying a foreign language should not be allowed. #very language

has got its set of rules applied for spoken and written purpose. These rules need



to be followed by the learners. @or this purpose a good dictionary is the best

teacher one can have. *ictionaries not only give us the right meaning of the word

but also help us with correct pronunciation, spellings and stress pattern. A

learner of #nglish language should particularly develop a habit of referring to the

dictionary whenever he faces a problem with the pronunciation.

"anguage is a speech, through which human beings interact and

communicate their ideas, thought and experiences. "anguage is a social

phenomenon through which we exchange our thoughts and convey our motto.

#nglish is one of the core subjects at school. /ore and more schools are

teaching #nglish to their pupils and #nglish centers can be found popular in any

city, especially big cities. However, many foreigners have commented many

5akistani speakers can speak #nglish, but only a few have intelligible #nglish

pronunciation so that they can be understood easily in direct communication

with foreigners.

Hinofitis D 4aily 8+EF9: reported that up to a certain proficiency standard,

the fault which most severely impairs the communication process in #@"

learners is pronunciation, rather than vocabulary or grammar. 4eing able to

speak or use another language besides one!s mother tongue can be an

interesting and challenging task as language learning seems to be an

incremental and time?consuming process.

"ikewise, -ubin and Thompson 8+EE0: wrote; G"anguage learning is a

long process. As researchers and teachers have been working hard to find out



effective teaching methods and approaches to language teaching. 4rown 899:

noted that certain learners tended to be successful regardless of methods or

techni&ues of teaching. Therefore, the importance of individual variation in

language learning has been noticed. It seems that in addition to language

teaching methodology, learning strategies can significantly enable learners to

achieve a high level of success in learning another language.

@an 899: reasoned that the notion of independent successful learners

is closely linked to the increasing importance now attached to the learner?

centered approach to language teaching, which is grounded in the assumption

that language learners who have greater control of their learning will become

more successful than those who do not. Therefore, as @an stated, the learning

strategies used by successful or good language learners have been the focus of

attention among both teachers and researchers. 4rown 899: also observed

that some people appear to be endowed with abilities to succeed in language

learning, whereas others lack those abilities. uch observation has long been

impetus for researchers to attempt to discern the &ualities or strategies and

techni&ues employed by good language learners.

5ronunciation teaching is a prominent factor in foreign language

teaching. ince sounds play an important role in communication, foreign

language teachers must attribute proper importance to teaching pronunciation in

their classes. However, this fact is very much neglected by many foreign

language teachers. It is evident that communication is a mutual relationship

between the speaker and the hearer. This means that one must comprehend



what he hears in the target language and must produce the sounds of the

language he is trying to learn accurately. 7nless he has sufficient knowledge of

the sound patterns of the target language, he can neither encode a message to

anybody nor decode the message sent by another person by learning the sounds

of the target language within his mother tongue. Hence, pronunciation teaching is

of great importance for successful oral communication to take place since it is an

important ingredient of the communicative competence.

2n the other hand, when students learn a second or foreign language,

they face some overlaps because of the very different phoneme systems of both

languages. o, when they try to speak a second language, they produce the

sounds which are closest to the sounds and also exist in their mother tongue. @or

example, most Arab speakers pronounce the words =play! as =blay! and =cheap!

as =sheep!. This kind of pronunciation problem creates a big hindrance in the

process of communication amongst speakers.

/oreover, it spoils the teaching and learning efforts in second language

learning settings. Trubet)koy 8+EE, as cited in -akas, 99F: said that the

phonological system of a language is like a sieve through which everything that is

said passes. #ach person ac&uires the system of his mother tongue but when he

hears another language spoken he intuitively uses the familiar Jphonological

sieveJ of his mother tongue to analy)e what has been said. However, since this

sieve is not suited for the foreign language, numerous mistakes and

mispronunciations are the result. The sounds of the foreign language receive an



incorrect phonological interpretation since they are strained through the

Jphonological sieveJ of oneKs own mother tongue.

5akistani students who are learning #nglish as a econd "anguage face

different problems with every component of language such as reading, writing,

pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. /ost of the time, the other components

are greatly emphasi)ed in classroom teaching, while pronunciation is hardly

touched upon. 'onse&uently, the learners come up with faulty pronunciation

which creates big obstacles in the process of communication. Though some

studies have been conducted in the field of pronunciation, it has often focused on

vowel pronunciation, phonological analysis of #nglish phonetics and orthography,

consonant clusters, stress intonation, patterns in spelling mistakes, and

intonation analysis etc.

There have been many differences of opinion over the years about the

role of pronunciation in language teaching and about how best to teach it. The

grammar?translation method and reading?based approaches have viewed

pronunciation as irrelevant. In the direct method, pronunciation is very important<

however, the methodology is primitive; The teacher is ideally a native or near?

native speaker of the target language presenting pronunciation inductively and

correcting through modeling. In the audio?lingual approach, pronunciation is

likewise very important and there is a great emphasis on the traditional notions of

pronunciation, minimal pairs, drills and short conversations 8'elce /urcia and

Loodwin +EE+:.



According to /orley 8+EE+:, GIntelligible pronunciation is an essential

component of communication competence. @or this reason, teachers should

incorporate pronunciation into their courses and expect students to do well in

them. Teachers should pay attention to reassessing learners! needs and their

goals, instructional objectives, and learning and teaching methodologies. They

should attach importance to current directions in language learning and teaching

theory and pedagogy. They should be primarily concerned with how

pronunciation fits into communicative language teaching. There should be

emphasis on meaningful activities.

The spellings of #nglish language are most unpredictable. #nglish

language has words from @rench, "atin, Lreek and other languages. This has

also added to the difficulty of pronouncing the words correctly. 7sually the

incorrect accent led to the wrong pronunciation. Hence when the speaker

pronounced =break! as =brek!, it would invariably be spelt wrong. The word =red!

is pronounced as =rad!, and =hed! for =had!. This, not only led to wrong

pronunciation and spellings but also created a huge problem in communication.

uccessful communication depends on clear and correct speech and

pronunciation. The beauty of any language lies in the clear unambiguous

presentation and pronunciation.

An average learner is not able to place the accent correctly leading to a

number of problems. The regional language or the mother tongue has got a

major role to play in this. $hen we speak #nglish, or for that matter any other

language, the words we stress can change the underlying meaning of the



sentence. @or example, the sentence, GI said she might get a new car can be

said and understood as and how we lay stress on each of the word stated. $hen

the stress is laid on =I! the focus is on me, when it is on =said! the importance is on

what I said, and so on.

$hen the learner is asked to write =party! he is bound to omit the alphabet

=r! as it remains silent. Hence he would spell it as =paty!. The number =thirty! is

often spelt by the learner as he hears it as =thty!. The word =rapport! has =r! silent

and its pronounced as =rappo!. An average learner would make the mistake of

omitting the =r! while writing the spelling. o are the words ='omb! with =b! silent,

=Mnife! with =k! silent, =hour! with =h! silent. The same problem is faced with the use

of =ed!. =ed! is used to indicate the past tense. As the =ed! remains silent the

learners tend to make an error while writing. /any a times =ed! is omitted

completely while writing as it is not pronounced.

In our daily lives most of us speak more than we write, yet many #nglish

teachers still spend the majority of class time on reading and writing practice

almost ignoring speaking skills. However, if the goal of your language course is

truly to enable your students to communicate in #nglish, then speaking skill

should be taught and practiced in the language classroom. In the same line, it

should be mentioned that speaking has three functions. Accordingly, 4rown and

%ule 8+EF: made a useful distinction between the interactional functions of

speaking, in which it serves to establish and maintain social relations, and the

transactional functions, which focus on the exchange of information. @ollowing

them, Nones 8+EE3: and 4urns 8+EEF: added performance as another function of



speaking. However, discussing the functions of speaking is out of the scope of

the present paper.

-hat Is Pronunciation;

5ronunciation is a set of habits of producing sounds. The habit of

producing a sound is ac&uired by repeating it over and over again and by being

corrected when it is pronounced wrongly. "earning to pronounce a second

language means building up new pronunciation habits and overcoming the bias

of the first language 8'ook, +EE3:. 5ronunciation refers to the production of

sounds that we use to make meaning. It includes attention to the particular

sounds of a language 8segments:, aspects of speech beyond the level of the

individual sound, such as intonation, phrasing, stress, timing, rhythm

8suprasegmental aspects:, how the voice is projected 8voice &uality: and, in its

broadest definition, attention to gestures and expressions that are closely related

to the way we speak a language. A broad definition of pronunciation includes

both suprasegmental and segmental features. Although these different aspects

of pronunciation are treated in isolation here, it is important to remember that

they all work in combination when we speak, and are therefore usually best

learned as an integral part of spoken language. Traditional approaches to

pronunciation have often focused on segmental aspects, largely because these

relate in some way to letters in writing, and are therefore the easiest to notice

and work on. /ore recent approaches to pronunciation, however, have

suggested that the suprasegmental aspects of pronunciation may have the most

effect on intelligibility for some speakers. Harmer 8+EE: stresses the need for



making sure that students can always be understood and say what they want to

say. They need to master Ggood pronunciation, not perfect accents. That is,

emphasis should be on suprasegmental features of pronunciationOnot

segmental aspectsOto help learners ac&uire communicative competence

8eferoglu and 4ott 991: asserts, GIn recent years, increasing attention has

been placed on providing pronunciation instruction that meets the communicative

needs of non?native speakers 8((s: of #nglish. The writers of empirical

research and pronunciation materials suggest that teaching suprasegmentals

before segmentals to intermediate and advanced ((s could be more beneficial

in a shorter period of time . Anderson?Hsieh, Nohnson, and Moehler 8+EE:

compared the relative contributions made to intelligibility by prosody, segmental,

and syllable structure. $ithin ++ different language groups, they found that the

score for prosody was most significantly associated with the overall score for

pronunciation. A similar finding was reported by Anderson?Hsieh and Moehler

8+EFF:, who concluded that Gprosodic deviance may affect comprehension more

adversely than does segmental deviance. In a related finding, *erwing, /unro,

and $iebe 8+EEF: studied the effects of both segmental and suprasegmental

instruction on learners! comprehensibility ratings and concluded that the latter

had a greater effect on performance in communicative contexts. 7sually learners

benefit from attention to both aspects, and some learners may need help in some

areas more than in others. 2ne considerable practical advantage of focusing on

suprasegmentals is that learners from mixed "+ backgrounds in the same class



will be benefitted, and will often find that their segmental difficulties improve at

the same time 8@raser, 99+:.

:8"he 0istory of English Pronunciation Instruction

The amount of prominence that has been attributed to " pronunciation

teaching has altered remarkably as have the views on the extent to which non?

native pronunciation mistakes should be corrected. In the 19!s and 39!s, when

the audio?lingual approach was very popular, the goal of " pronunciation

instruction was the achievement of a native?like accent, as modelled by the

language teacher. In this period, pronunciation instruction was based on the

discrimination and production of sounds as a way of developing the recognition

and articulation of " specific sounds 8"ambacher, +EE3:.

@rom the late +E39!s to +EF9!s, many commenced to &uestion the

prominence of an instructional focus on pronunciation in the " classroom. ome

speculated that native?like pronunciation was an unattainable goal in a second

language 85reston, +EF+:. /any language programs reduced their pronunciation

instruction or eliminated it altogether. In the late +EF9!s, there was a

reconcentration on pronunciation 8/orley, +EE+:. Instead of mimicry, people

commenced to concentrate on supra?segmentals 8i.e. stress, intonation, pitch,

juncture:, sound co?articulation and voice &uality of learning a new language

8#sling D $ong, +EF:. The goal became attaining communicative competence,

an " learner!s ability to not only apply and utili)e grammatical rules, but to

generate pragmatically appropriate utterances and employ them suitably in a



given context. Although this new shift in pronunciation teaching maximi)ed

meaningful interaction, it included less emphasis on correct articulation of "

specific sounds 8vowels and consonants: 85ennington D -ichards, +EF3< /orley,

+EE+: After +EF9!s, " pronunciation, gained new meaning due to its fruitfulness

to a broad group of international people in both #" and #@" settings 8Anderson?

Hsieh, +EFE< 4rown, +EE+< himamune D mith, +EE1< *erwing D /unro, 991<

Latbonton, 991:. Immigrant residents, refugees, students, academic

professionals, and other professionals all over the world needed to develop their

pronunciation because they left their native countries to accommodate in or visit

#nglish speaking countries to embrace cultural, economic, and financial

opportunities 8$ong, +EF3< 'elce?/urcia, +EE+< 'haudhary, 99E< *erwing D

/unro, 99E:. In reality, many of these " learners, especially immigrants and

international students in the 7.. and 'anada, encountered problems in finding

jobs due to having a foreign accent 8@errier et al., +EEE: and this gave rise to a

greater demand for " pronunciation learning. 4ecause researchers, linguists,

and teachers found ways to meet " learners! pronunciation needs in view of

globali)ation and the need for international communication, new perspectives on

pronunciation teaching and learning emerged 8Haslam, 9+9:.

In the E9!s, pronunciation was viewed as an important part of

communication. The focus of pronunciation teaching was on suprasegmentals

and how they were utili)ed to communicate meaning, meaningful practice, and

the uni&ueness of each individual #" learner. "earner?centred speech

awareness and self monitoring were also prominent in pronunciation learning in



those years 8/orley, +EE+:. The focus of pronunciation learning shifted from the

teacher playing the key role in the learning process to the student performing that

role 85ica, +EE0< Hoven, +EEE< 4rown, 99< 2xford, 99:.

/ost foreign language teachers attempt to integrate the necessary

grammar, vocabulary, culture, and four skills practice into their classes without

considering integrating pronunciation instruction as well. $hile many language.

4y doing this research I have attempted to study carefully the errors of

pronunciation. The topic has, as is clear, nothing to do with any numbers in any

way, that is, then, it stays in the Pualitative 5aradigm of research. $ith the surge

of effect of #nglish on almost all the languages of the world. As all the learners of

any language face difficulties in order to get a grip over how the new languages

used, students also make several errors in different areas; syntax, morphology

and specially, pronunciation of #nglish language. And as the advancements in

the field of 5sycholinguistics tell us that such errors have an =organi)ed! pattern

which, being students of linguistics, we should study systematically.

That!s why< I am here to study and to show you that while speaking in

#nglish<

+. $HAT errors students commitQ

. $H% they make those errorsQ

. H2$ to remove themQ



C0$P"E1 :

ME"0,D,L,.4

As researchers and teachers have been working hard to find out effective

teaching methods and approaches to language teaching. 4rown 899: noted

that certain learners tended to be successful regardless of methods or

techni&ues of teaching< therefore, the importance of individual variation in

language learning has been noticed. It seems that in addition to language

teaching methodology, learning strategies can significantly enable learners to

achieve a high level of success in learning another language. @an 899:

reasoned that the notion of independent successful learners is closely linked to

the increasing importance now attached to the learner?centered approach to

language teaching, which is grounded in the assumption that language learners

who have greater control of their learning will become more successful than

those who do not.

Therefore, as @an stated, the learning strategies used by successful or

good language learners have been the focus of attention among both teachers

and researchers. 4rown 899: also observed that some people appear to be

endowed with abilities to succeed in language learning, whereas others lack

those abilities. uch observation has long been impetus for researchers to



attempt to discern the &ualities or strategies and techni&ues employed by good

language learners. 5ronunciation teaching is a prominent factor in foreign

language teaching. ince sounds play an important role in communication,

foreign language teachers must attribute proper importance to teaching

pronunciation in their classes. However, this fact is very much neglected by many

foreign language teachers.

It is evident that communication is a mutual relationship between the

speaker and the hearer. This means that one must comprehend what he hears in

the target language and must produce the sounds of the language he is trying to

learn accurately. 7nless he has sufficient knowledge of the sound patterns of the

target language, he can neither encode a message to anybody nor decode the

message sent by another person by learning the sounds of the target language

within his mother tongue. Hence, pronunciation teaching is of great importance

for successful oral communication to take place since it is an important ingredient

of the communicative competence.

2n the other hand, when students learn a second or foreign language,

they face some overlaps because of the very different phoneme systems of both

languages. o, when they try to speak a second language, they produce the

sounds which are closest to the sounds and also exist in their mother tongue. @or

example, most Arab speakers pronounce the words play as blay and cheap as

sheep. This kind of pronunciation problem creates a big hindrance in the process

of communication amongst speakers. /oreover, it spoils the teaching and

learning efforts in second language learning settings.



Trubet)koy 8+EE, as cited in -akas, 99F: said that the phonological

system of a language is like a sieve through which everything that is said

passesR #ach person ac&uires the system of his mother tongue. 4ut when he

hears another language spoken he intuitively uses the familiar Jphonological

sieveJ of his mother tongue to analy)e what has been said. However, since this

sieve is not suited for the foreign language, numerous mistakes and

mispronunciations are the result. The sounds of the foreign language receive an

incorrect phonological interpretation since they are strained through the

Jphonological sieveJ of oneKs own mother tongue. 5akistani students who are

learning #nglish as a econd6@oreign "anguage face different roblems with

every component of language such as reading, writing, pronunciation, grammar,

and vocabulary. /ost of the time, the other components are greatly emphasi)ed

in classroom teaching, while pronunciation is hardly touched upon.

'onse&uently, the learners come up with faulty pronunciation which creates big

obstacles in the process of communication. Though some studies have been

conducted in the field of pronunciation, it has often focused on vowel

pronunciation, phonological analysis of #nglish phonetics and orthography,

consonant clusters, stress intonation, patterns in spelling mistakes, and

intonation analysis etc.

There have been many differences of opinion over the years about the

role of pronunciation in language teaching and about how best to teach it. The

grammar?translation method and reading?based approaches have viewed

pronunciation as irrelevant. In the direct method, pronunciation is very important<



however, the methodology is primitive; The teacher is ideally a native or near?

native speaker of the target language presenting pronunciation inductively and

correcting through modeling. In the audio?lingual approach, pronunciation is

likewise very important and there is a great emphasis on the traditional notions of

pronunciation, minimal pairs, drills and short conversations 8'elce /urcia and

Loodwin +EE+:.According to /orley 8+EE+:, GIntelligible pronunciation is an

essential component of communication competence. @or this reason, teachers

should incorporate pronunciation into their courses and expect students to do

well in them. Teachers should pay attention to reassessing learner needs and

learners! goals, instructional objectives, and learning 6 teaching methodologies.

They should attach importance to current directions in language learning and

teaching theory and pedagogy. They should be primarily concerned with how

pronunciation fits into communicative language teaching.



C0$P"E1 <

D$"$ $N$L4SIS

After giving the phonetic transcription of the speeches of the speakers, I

would now scrutini)e them for any possible errors found in the pronunciation. It

should be noted that the purpose of the research is only to analy)e

G5ronunciation #rrors and I would not be analy)ing the syntax or other linguistic

features.

It should be &uite clear from the outset that the touchstone for examining

errors is the tandard #nglish. In other words, the pronunciation of words which

is considered an error by me as well. There is no practical connection of other

varieties of #nglish, such as American #nglish.

@ollowing is the classification of the mistakes committed by the

students while speaking #nglish;

*8 /ront 9o=el > >

This vowel also creates a lot of problems. I observed majority of the

students pronouncing this sound wrongly. This sound is almost all the times

replaced with another front vowel 6e6.



@or example; the speaker + has replaced 6 6 with 6e6 almost

everywhere, and I would cite only a few as examples.

In line and the speaker + has pronounced =and as! 6end6. =has6 in line

3 is pronounced 6he)6. In line =man! has been pronounced as 6men6. /entioning

some examples from the speaker , in line 0, he has pronounced = that! as 6det6,

=has6 as 6he)6, and 7as6 as 6e)6. And the speaker , besides many other instance,

has pronounced 7passage6 as > pesid > in line .

0o= to remove it5

This error can be removed with the help of continuous practice of

pronouncing =eye!. This automatically becomes the #nglish sound > >8

Another way to remove this error is to ask learners to pronounce 6a6

and 6e6 sounds together.

ac? open vo=el =ith slight open lip@rounding >a>

/ajority of the students take it to the back open vowel 6S6 . $hile others

replace it with mid back vowel 6a;6.

The speaker + in words 7historical6 ' 7psychological6 ' and

7phenomenon6 ' besides others in the rest of the speech, has replaced the



sound 6a6 with > S; >8 peaker starts with 7honestly6 pronouncing the first sound

as > > , and has pronounced 7#obless6 as 6

d ;bles >8 The speaker in line 3 pronounce the word 7?no=ledge6 as 6

na;lid 6 , and 7not6 in line ++ as 6na;t6.

0o= to remove it5

This error can be removed if correct input of the sound is given and its

place of articulation is explained to the learners. The students could be referred

to that sound to relate it to this.

Errors of Diphthongs5

*8 .liding to AiB as AaiB

This error may not be considered an error as, if the speakers are notified

of it. This will automatically be removed. However, they have been witnessed to

pronounced >ae> instead of 6ai6.

@or example, the speaker + has used the word 7psychological6 a couple

of time and has enunciated >ae> instead of >ai>8

0o= to remove it5

This is not an error which may be difficult to remove. If we only notify it to

the speakers, they may correct them by themselves.

.liding to A i B as >ei>



/any students are unable to create a glide between 6e6 and 6i6 in the

instances. They pronounce the single sound instead, which is 6e6. for example;

the speaker + in line + says 6besikek6 8basically:.

0o= to remove it5

The speakers commit this error simple because they are not aware of the

diphthong nature shown by the sound. 2nce they are aware that there is an

ending vowel like 6i6 accompanying 6e6, they will start practicing pronouncing this

sound correctly.

Errors of Consonants5

$lveolar Plosives > t ' d >

$ith having striking similarities between them, Post$lveolar > t ' d > and

$lveolar > t ' d > sounds confuse many students. As the speakers that I recorded

speeches of, almost all the students pronounce the alveolar plosives as post?

alveolar. 8This should be noted that this problem exist with the speakers of

almost all the languages of the outh Asia:. This error is almost ubi&uitous in the

speech of students speaking #nglish.

%ou can take any word from the speeches of all the three speakers

having either alveolar in them and you!ll see that its actually the post?alveolar that



has been pronounced. @or example, from the speech of the speaker +, take the

word 6bet=een6 in line +. The word should actually be pronounced as >bitwiin > ,

but has wrongly been pronounced as 6bitviin6 . from the speaker !s words in line

, 7department6 contains two post?alveolar sounds 6t6 and 6d6, respectively.

These were only a few examples to be cited as examples, almost all the

words containing the sounds under discussion as instances of errors.

0o= to remove them5

The responsibility to remove errors, I think, would be on the teacher who

teaches the learners #nglish sounds. That is, it could only be removed with

correct and guided input by the trained instructor.

Labiodental 9oiced /ricative >v>

The speeches of the three students bears witness that they have not

recogni)ed and the labio?dental voiced fricative 6v6, whereas they got no problem

pronouncing the voiceless one, i.e . 6f6 . They pronounce instead a glide which in

I5A is denoted as 6u6 . This #nglish phoneme is , like alveolar plosives, wrongly

pronounced at almost every occurrence .



@or example; In line +F, the speaker + pronounces 7have6 as 6heu6

respectively. The speaker in line +0 claim to 6lv6 his university instead of 6

lviy6 it .

0o= to remove it5

This also like diphthong, glide to I B, can also be easily removed by

making the learners conscious abouit the error. The fact that they are able to

enunciate its voiceless counterpart correctly make it even easier to be removed.

Nust a little bit practice is needed.

Dental /ricative 5

*ental @ricative have always been replaced by dental stops 6t d 6 by the

students. The reason behind this, besides wrong input, is the resemblance both

the categories of sound have, e.g. have the same place of articulation which

=dental6

@or example, all the speakers recorded at every place pronounce = that!

as 6det6 and =they6 as 6de6 .

peaker + in line utters 6tijkijg)6.



0o= to remove them5

These errors, in my opinion, can be removed by demonstrating the actual

way to pronounce the #nglish fricative, which is, placing the tongue between

upper and lower teeth and letting the air out through both the side of the tongue.

Postalveolar 9oiced /ricative > >5

Although there is no occurrence of his sound in the speech of any of the

speaker that I have given, this sound is also mispronounced by many students.

At almost all the places it is replaced by 6 6 or 6j6.

@or instance, they pronounce, in most of the cases, 6pleasure6 either as

6ple)a8r:6 or 6pleja8r:6

0o= to remove it5

Puite mediocre a solution as it may seem, this error can possibly be

removed by asking the learners to pronounce the sounds 6d 6 and 6j6

simultaneously.

Nasal 9elar > >5



The students commit error regarding this consonant is the addition of an

extra velar sound 6j6 at the end of this sound.

@or example, in line 0, the speaker + pronounce a word as

6li;vi g6.

0o= to remove it5

The very simple solution would be to ask them to end a word in the

nasal velar 6N6.

/rictionless Continuant > >

The sound is not present in students languages and,hence, causes

difficulty for students to distinguish between this sound and the rhotic alveolar 6 6

present, in students . Hence , they everywhere pronounce shotic =!y instead of

the approximant of #nglish .

0o= to remove it5

The difference should be made clear and a drill be done in order to

assure production of the approximant.

These were the errors student committed while conversing in #nglish.

Apart from that they also have errors of some higher level in which errors of



aspiration, errors of assimilations, errors of linking, errors of elision, errors of

insertion can be mentioned. 4ut, since the aim of the research was to evaluate

the speeches of students on major pronunciation problems, and has been

achieved, I would conclude it have with out going in detail of the error I just

mentioned.



C,NCLUSI,N

After the close scrutiny, I conclude that the students lack the best part of

#nglish sounds. $e can understand them because we, ourselves, have those

sounds which they speak are in pour languages. 2therwise a foreigner, I am

sure, I would be able to understand what they actually want to say as they

wouldn!t be able to relate to the sounds produced by the students.

I would recommend paying special attention on *ental @ricative of #nglish

which the students almost every time replace with *ental tops of their native

languages. The approximant 6w6 also needs careful attention to be paid. Among

vowels, there should be more practice of pronouncing 6a;6 , 6a6 , 6 S 6 , 6 S u 6 and

diphthongs should be given importance.

SU..ES"I,NS /,1 /U"U1E 1ESE$1C0E1S

The future research should check in advance whether the peoplewho they

have selected for research would be free at the scheduled time or not. They

should not consume more time in analy)ing the data than anything else as that!s

what makes up the essence of the whole research.



1eferences5

*8 An Introduction to *escriptive "inguistics, H.A.Lleason, 2xford D

I4H 5ublication.

2. Lulap hah)ada 89+: Uiews of the Teachers -egarding the

tudents! 5oor 5ronunciation in #nglish "anguage ISSN !" ‐

"#! $ournal of Educational and Social %esearch &ol.

:8 #nglish "anguage Teaching in India, P.C. Alam, Atlantic

5ublishers.

<8 T#2" &uarterly, The 'haracteristics and 7ses of 'lassroom

2bservation $alker Adelman, +E3, p.+0+

8 $ajnryb, 8+EE1:. 'lassroom observation task. 'ambridge

7niversity 5ress

8 $iddowson, H.L 8+E:. Teaching #nglish, #"T journal. 2xford

7niversity 5ress.



ibliography

+. /iller, 'atherine +EF, *ifficulties in econd "anguage Ac&uisition,

2xford 7niversity 5ress

. urrey, ally +EFF, #nglish as a econd "anguage Ac&uisition,

2xford 7niversity 5ress

. 'haudron, '., +EFF. econd "anguage 'lassroom on Teaching

and "earning.

0. (unan, *. +EE1. Task for 'ommunicative 'lassroom. 'ambridge

7niversity 5ress

ma eng thesis faulty pronunciation.doc

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