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63PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS OF ENGLISH LEARNERS
Dilshoda Abduhalim qizi Abdurahimova
Bachelor student of Chirchik State Pedagogical Institute [email protected]
Nafisa Raimovna Kobilova
Teacher of Chirchik State Pedagogical Institute n.kobilova1975@gmail .com
ANNOTATION
Learning a foreign language has become the most essential tool of today's challenging world. In order to be aware of something new a person should know at least 2 foreign languages. By the way the process of attaining a new language could be a bit difficult if a learner has never experienced or encountered the target language before. The most onerous challenge will be unknown words and their pronunciation, and then there appear spelling problems too. This article indicates the problems of pronunciation and the methods of teaching pronunciation of words in a correct way.
Keywords: pronunciation, teaching pronunciation, spelling words, target language, foreign language.
INTRODUCTION
Pronunciation is the most important skill of spoken English (as cited in Gilakjani, 2011). Not surprisingly, pronunciation instruction plays a significant role in the teaching of English as a second language (ESL) (Jahan, 2011). Given that the majority of ESL learners seek to speak native-like English (Derwing, 2003), the importance of teaching pronunciation cannot be emphasized too much (Hismanoglu, 2006). Obviously, it is imperative that teachers help learners of English develop the ability for the communication needs and the ability for being understood easily (Morley, 1991).
However, many of English language learners (ELLs) confront difficulties in learning English pronunciation (Gilakjani, 2011). Problems in pronunciation weaken their communicative competence (Hinofotis, 1981). More severely, many of them still lack sufficient proficiency in pronunciation even if they have learned English in an ESL course. In fact, it is understandable that an ESL student using a nonstandard variety of English might be negatively affected while acquiring English language if they are not familiar with standardized English (Charity & Mallinson, 2011).
Specifically, ESL students' "pronunciation conventions differ from those of English speakers" (Benjamin, 2002). Accordingly, helping ESL students learn standardized English should begin with understanding pronunciation variations that ESL students possess while acquiring English.[1]
LITERATURE REVIEW
Several works have been conducted on the influence of L2 in learning English language (Catford, 1977), (Moosa, 1972) and (Swan; Smith, 2001) reported that /p/ and /b/ sounds are two different phonemes and each one is distinguished by a native speaker. In Arabic Language, the situation is different, because there is only the phoneme /b/ so this is the reason why most Arabic speakers mispronounce words with these sounds /p/ and /b/ (of course the Sudanese students of English face the same problem. Students confuse between /p/ and /b/ e.g. words like („park', 'bark'), („pen', 'ben'), ('pull', 'bull'), ('supper', 'subber') if we ask the students to say these words, they pronounce /b/ instead of /p/ in each pair of the words above and sometimes /p/ is used in the place of /b/ but this rarely happens. The reason for shifting from /p/ to /b/ is the fact that the two sounds are regarded, as they are two allophones of one phoneme. Also in the far past, (Alkhuli, 1983) noted that Arab students of English confuse /p/ with /b/ and that is linked to the influence of the mother tongue, so their tongues get stiff with their L1 sounds, and they commit such errors until the mastery of L2 sounds. Many other sounds are influenced by the mother tongue of foreign learners (Gruttenden, 1994) showed that foreign learners of English language should be careful not to use /t/ or /s/ for /0/ and /d/ or /z/ for /5/; (/z/ and /s/ are used by SSE whose language background is Sudanese Spoken Arabic e.g. central and northern Sudan, and /d/ is used for /5/ by non-Arabic speaking Sudanese background, e.g. students who descend from southern Sudan). In the near past (Brown, 2000) found that a second language learner meets some difficulties, because his L1 affects his L2 specially in adulthood, and this effect is a result of L1 transfer; so it is a significant source of making errors for second language learners. (Ladefoged, 2001; Carter&Nunan, 2001) showed that mother tongue has clear influence on learning L2 pronunciation. Where L1 and L2 rules are in conflict, errors are expected to be committed by foreign learners. All that can be linked to what is known as the interference between L1 and L2. So many learners use /p/ as /b/, others use /s/ for /0/ and /z/ for /5/ and /b/ for /v/. In addition to the past works, (O'Connor, 2003; Yule, 2003) have studied pronunciation problems and the influence of LI. So many sounds such as /p/ and /b/, /s/ and /0/, /z/ and /5/, /tj/ and /J7, /v/ and /b/ are confused e.g. (pit / bit), (thin / sin), (question /action), (very / berry). For the (SSEs)
/z/ and /s/ are usually used in the place of /5/ and /0/ which result from the interference of Sudanese spoken Arabic. /5/ and /0/ exist in some forms of Arabic e.g. (Iraqi, Saudi Arabian, Kuwaiti, etc); however, they do not exist in Sudanese dialect where they are replaced by /s/ and /z/. The mispronunciation of the above sounds is the result of the over practice of the first language, a process of fossilization. The adults vocal musculature is set to pronounce foreign sounds with an accent (Yule; O'Connor, 2003) reported that the main problem of English pronunciation is to build a new set of sounds corresponding to the sounds of English, and to break down the arrangement of sounds which the habits and the systems of our L1 have strongly built up. And that means we use new ways of hearing and new ways of using our organs of speech. So it is too difficult to change such habits which a learner has obtained since his childhood or at least it needs very long years to be changed and after also very long time and regular practice, and all that is linked to a certain age of the learner. So the points mentioned above altogether share the concept that the learners confuse such sounds and replace each of them with other sounds that are said to be the nearest ones to them (O'Connor, 2003).[2]
METHODOLOGY
Pronunciation also plays a great role in our lives, in a way that we project our identity through our way of speaking, and also shows our membership of particular communities (Seidlhofer, 2001: 56). All of this may be the reason why teachers think of teaching pronunciation as an important and difficult field.
Correct pronunciation brings success to EFL students anywhere in the world. In contrast, inadequate proficiency of English pronunciation impacts the progress of communicative aptitude that is required for building up the communicative bridge between speakers and listeners.
It is obvious that differences in phonological system of mother languages will hinder rather than promote English pronunciation learning (Huang & Radant, 2009). To improve EFL students" English pronunciation, teachers thus should obtain perceptions into their pronunciation variations, which will provide teachers with ideas of designing various teaching strategies for dealing with those students" challenges in learning English pronunciation. In fact, teachers are able to help all students learn standardized English without diminishing their linguistic backgrounds through knowing their language variations (Charity&Mallinson, 2011). Accordingly, verbal assessment should not be based on specific norms, but take linguistic differences into account and value students" voices. It goes without saying that knowing English language variation of ESL students will ultimately assist teachers prepare to instruct
their students, perceive the learning challenges, and help students solve the problems (Dalle & Young, 2003). Hazen stated that "if people had a better understanding of how language works, they would probably be less inclined to make negative judgments about speakers of different dialects" (Hazen, 2001, p. 1). Undeniably, "language is integral to both culture and identity, an understanding of language variation and language diversity is critical to multicultural education" (Charity & Mallinson, 2011). "We can't teach what we don't know" (as cited in Charity & Mallinson, 2011). Therefore, understanding pronunciation variations facing ESL students can help teachers be aware of students" dialect diversity and challenges in learning standardized English articulation. With a central idea on the interference of first language, the above discussions present the significance of being able to speak English with good articulation as well as the difficulties and problems EFL learners encounter while acquiring English pronunciation. Unquestionably, the brief theoretical overview discussed above is essential in order for readers to understand the answer of the inquiry question addressed in this article. The next section will discuss the answer of the inquiry question through reviewing relevant literature with regard to major pronunciation challenges encountering EFL learners today.[3]
About the phoneme replacement of the English language with the ones of the mother tongue, Steinberg (1985, p.17-21) quoted by Sant'Anna (2003, p. 61-62) analyzes that: "After listing the phonemes which belongs to the English language and not to the Portuguese one, he highlights that the articulatory proximity can be one of the student's first difficulties when he tries to imitate the sounds strange to his native language. It means that, when hearing, the students does not realize that a determined phoneme does not belong to the phonological system of his mother tongue; when trying to pronounce it, he uses the phonemes which he knows in his language. As the student did not recognize the "different" phoneme, he will use a phoneme of his language that he "thinks" to have noticed and, thus, he will be before a problem caused by the articulatory proximity".
An instance of this problem can be noticed when the students listen to words such as think /0iqk/, thing /0iq/ or with /wi5/ automatically, they will repeat them like this /fink/, /fing/ and /wif/, because they cannot recognize the voiceless sound /0/ which represents the "th" that does not occur in Portuguese and will replace it with the sound /f/ that is very alike by ear. In the same way, some words like the /5a/, they /5eI/ or brother /'brA5ar/ will result in /de/, /dei/ and /'bro:der/. The voiced sound /5/ which is the other sound of the "th" is replaced by the sound /d/, the sound /a/ by the sound /e/ and the sound /A/ by the sound /o:/, consequently different from the standard pronunciation. The word the has changed completely in this example above.
Generally, every word with the digraph "th" is problematic for learners. Certainly, the "th" sound is the most difficult for the students to learn how to pronounce correctly. It is hard to articulate this phoneme because you have to put your tongue between the teeth in order to produce it properly. It is important to know "if you change one phoneme for another you change the word." (UNDERHILL, 2002, p. viii). This fact of substituting the English phonemes with the similar ones in Portuguese is very common among learners. It always happens when the word is very hard to articulate and it requires a different position of the vocal tract. [4]
RESEARCH RESULTS
Problems with the pronunciation of words in English can be solved in the following way, for example, based on the method I used in practice. To apply this method, I first taught the English alphabet in its entirety to a group of adults. After learning the letters, they were compared and pronounced with the letters in the native language. After that, I also taught the sounds in English and how they differ in pronunciation. I also gave an idea of the pronunciation of vowels and consonants and how they are pronounced in the word. After this process, pronunciation problems were almost not observed in the students. The sounds in English are drastically different compared to the native language, so the pronunciation of letters and sounds can be learned by the degree of their word sequence. As an example, let us take in which cases the letter C is pronounced as [k] and [s]. The arrival of the letter C before the vowel letters A, U, and O is the basis for its pronunciation as [k]: cat, cut, cold. It is pronounced as [s] if it comes before I, E and Y letters: city, cycle, celebrate. In the process of learning English, it is even more effective if it is taught by adding elementary information about the pronunciation of words. Students will gain an understanding of the correct pronunciation of words and their errors in speaking skills will also be less.
Another factor for teaching pronunciation is to teach how to distinguish vowel and consonant sounds. Each teacher tries to get the language learner to understand the words without any difficulty. That is, the pronunciation problem is not only related to the student, but the teacher must also follow the rules of correct pronunciation. The teacher also requires a certain amount of direct participation from the student who has just started learning the language in the process of pronouncing the words. After pronouncing unfamiliar words, it is advisable to repeat them several times. The student then begins to pronounce the words independently and has no difficulty in pronouncing them.
■ i: shssp eage field I ship busy started u gaad put should u: rrrcan grew through 19 ear here career ei train say plane Phonemic Chart
Vowels e bed dead said 9 about police the 31 bj;d hunt watk o: doer walk sa»y U9 VffiUC suT.e taurist OI boy paint öjI BO coat law note short long dipthongs voiced unvoiced
ae appie cat mat A LP msinev cut a: car bath safari D hat what oecauso e9 hair caroful there ai bï hiQh fine au now our house
Consonants P Ben hopping jum,£> b ball hobby nerb t table iJTle watched d Cog ari<ned played tf chips itr.h p. cture d5 jam darker fudge k !$ey car lack g green ~IUQ league
f fire lausjn phone m Iivan turn my lamb V video moie of n DC funny krrfe e Stock healthy Teeth n StPQ urvcle angry Ô mother l£is w lb ■ J onion v^ew s See £ity rctico 1 Light sme^y feel. z ¿ebra cosy has r oght berry wror-c J Sil0P nation special w where one 3 television usual i&sure h bouse hungry who
II rigs. adapted b AlbaFnglish cc.ul.
Vowel and consonant sounds of English language. CONCLUSION
Every language has its unique points and this makes it sound magnificent. For English language letters and sounds distinguish from each other. And words are not pronounced as they written or shown. For this reason every English teacher should teach students with knowledge of letters and sounds.
REFERENCES
1. Liang-Chen Lin, Understanding Pronunciation Variations Facing ESL Students, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol.4, No. 5(1); 2014, p.16-20.
2. Mohamed AbdAlla AbdAlgane Mohammed, Somia Ali Mohamed Idris, Challenges of Pronunciation to EFL Learners in Spoken English, Multicultural Education, Volume 6, Issue 5, 2020, p. 193-203
3. Mohamed AbdAlla AbdAlgane Mohammed, Somia Ali Mohamed Idris, Challenges of Pronunciation to EFL Learners in Spoken English, Multicultural Education, Volume 6, Issue 5, 2020, p. 193-203
4. Adair José Justino Cassimiro, Difficulties in dealing with the English pronunciation, Universidade Estadual de Goias Building the way - Revista do Curso de Letras da UnU-Itapuranga, v. 1, n. 1 - 2011, p. 48-57.
