Problems with Speaking Fluency Among Saudi ESL Learners CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1. Introduction: Speaking has always been one of the most important skills to be acquired in learning English as a second language (ESL). With it comes the importance of correct pronunciation or proficiency. Achieving correct pronunciation is very difficult for most second language learners (SLL). Even after many years of instruction and training in the target language, learners have always shown to have difficulties with the spelling of English as natives. Fluency implies the ability to speak smoothly, rapidly, and effortlessly and the ability to “have assimilated all or most of the sound patterns and grammar, and an appropriate use in conversation” (McArthur, 1992, p. 407). Someone who has “complete fluency” in the target language such that his or her “speech on all levels is fully accepted by educated native speakers in all of its features” is considered to have “native proficiency” (ETS, 1982). Many studies have contributed to the idea that achieving the native accent as an adult is almost impossible no matter how long one has been exposed to the target language. Though some studies have stated that there is a relationship between an increase in language proficiency and an increase in exposure to the target language. Second language learners with different first languages (L1) tend to use sounds differently in their language as opposed to the target language. Thus, the phrase, ‘He speaks like a Chinese or a Latin’ is common to describe a non-native speakers of a English language. The cause for this may be that some sounds are allophones of one phoneme in one language while they are two separate phonemes in a different language. Similarly, some lan... ... middle of paper ... ...s within the words are light, it would suggest that Arabic speakers do not acquire the English distribution of this sound and its two allophones but rather transfer their own /l/s from their first language. Similarly, if Arabic speakers treat all of the words containing the /l/ as the dark allophone, this would suggest that there is some sort of overgeneralization in their inventory of language which would need to be repaired before becoming fossilized. 32 Since American speakers use both the light and the dark /l/ in the intervocalic position, to conclude that an Arabic speaker treating a light /l/ in intervocalic position is pronouncing the sound incorrectly, for example, would constitute an erroneous analysis of the results. The following chapter, chapter 4, discusses the results for the questions of this study and presents a detailed discussion of these results.
Chicago’s accent situation is almost identical to those in other cities, you cannot expect everybody from New York to have a thick Brooklyn accent, and this lies true within the Windy City. As shown through the script experiment, a large percentage of people do have three of the characteristic vowel changes that distinguish the accent, but only a small minority speaks with all the vowel changes that make up the quintessential accent.
The way people speak English is primarily affected by where and from whom they learned to speak it. In many cases,
As the development of sounds and speech begin, we can first a take look at infant developmental stages. The first stage is the phonation stage where some vocalizations are made similar to syllabic nasal sounds. The second stage is the coo and goo stage. In this area, sounds that are being produced are similar to back vowels, consonant-vowels, and vowel consonant syllables (ie: velars). The third stage is one that is the exploration and expansion stage. In this stage, we are able to see productions that are considered more of a sequence that involve consonant-vowel and vowel-consonant shapes. The fourth stage is the canonical babbling stage. During this stage, the production of velars seems to decrease a little, where as the production of alveolars and bilabials increase. The last stage is the variegated babbling stage. In this stage, the child’s production of speech begins to sounds more like the way, whic...
When reading the article, “Principles of instructed second Language” by Professor Rod Ellis (2008), he gives us a brief overview of eight principles that we can use to help ELL students. L2 (second language learners), must be able to adapt to the language of America. As educators we must find the correct road map to assist these students. SLA researchers are not so sure that we can help these students to achieve this goal. Professor Ellis does believe with some guidance that educators can have “provisional specification”.
Garrett (1975) represented four characteristics of slips of the tongue. The first one is that the exchange exists between linguistic units of the same positions. For example, initial linguistic segments are replaced by another initial linguistic segment. The same generalization is applied to the middle and final linguistic segments. Additionally, slips appear in similar phonetic units. This means that that the consonants are replaced by consonants and vowels are replaced by vowels. Furthermore, the slips occur in similar stress patterns, which signifies that stressed syllables are replaced by stressed syllables and unstressed syllables are replaced by unstressed syllables. Finally, slips of the tongue follow the phonological rules of a language (cited in Carroll, 2007, p. 195).
The proper use of pronunciation is what helps a message be understood easily by other fluent English speakers. Often times, an ELL student can struggle with forming a word correctly and may cause a word to be pronounced as a different, but similarly sounding word. One example of how the pronunciation of a word can cause a message to be unclear a Spanish speaker pronouncing “kitchen” as “chicken”. These two words are very close in sound, but each word has a completely different meaning. A mother that asks a child to “please clean the kitchen” greatly differs from the mispronounced word that has changed the sentence to “please clean the chicken”. There are many speech therapy courses that are offered in schools that will improve a child’s ability to speak productively. In the oral language speech by ELL student Tania, the Spanish student faces challenges while pronouncing “stories about magic, vampires “. These impediments can be worked on and improved over time. The grading scale of pronunciation on a rubric can range from insufficient in the result of being virtually unintelligent; to excellent, being that it pleasantly uses intonation and pronunciation as accurately as a native speaker
Giving the fact that metalinguistic awareness is not a single unit; different aspects of metalinguistic awareness reveal different correlates. While research about lexical awareness supports monolingual superiority (Chin & Wigglesworth, 2007), phonological awareness studies show discrepancy (Adesope et.al, 2010). It follows that not all research findings support bilingual superiority in all metalinguistic aspects. Some, report disadvantage or no difference between monolinguals and bilinguals, despite the fact that null significance is rare because journals interested more in dramatic findings (Bialystok, 2001; Adesope et.al, 2010).
New languages are always overwhelming.English is difficult language to learn, especially if it isn’t practiced often. The english language includes rules that can be frustrating to get a grip of. Many International students face the fear of not being understood or not pronouncing something correct...
The idea to include L1 as part of the language teaching system has been debated upon in recent years. The strong anti-L1 suggest on a complete prohibition of L1 in classrooms, while many others see L1 as a tool to better students’ learning of the TL. This section will highlight the pros and cons arguments for using the L1 in classrooms, along with further evidence supporting the advantages mother tongue bring to the language learning, and teaching process.
Children acquire their native language, which fall within a wide range of languages, at a very early stage of development. During development, a child begins to show signs of verbal communication, usually starting out as cooing, babbling, recognizable words, and later two or more word sentences. This occurrence is also seen in the development of second languages. Second language acquisition is the study of how second languages are typically developed. The process of acquiring our native language is very similar and influential to the development of a second language. The development of a second language has become increasingly popular throughout the world. Today more people are growing up with appropriate resources to acquire a second language, which can be seen from the vast numbers of bilingual individuals.
Stephen Saylor answers you by saying "a clear pronunciation is paramount to making your message understood" Stephen Saylor. In speaking English with natives or non-natives for different reasons (collage or job interviews, asking for directions, making new friends.... Etc.) usually pronunciation plays a major role and gets a lot of attention, to be honest, it is the first and most noticeable feature of your English, Tomasz P. Szynalski supports this in his article "Why you should study English pronunciation" by saying "When you talk to a person in real life, they may not notice your limited vocabulary or grammar mistakes. But they will notice right away if your pronunciation is good or bad" Tomasz P. Szynalski.
This paper first, argues why first language acquisition is fundamentally different from second language acquisition in light of the fact that acquiring first language is innate. Thereafter, this paper discuses fundamental distinction between first language acquisition and second language acquisition in terms of age, cognitive development and previous experience.
However, you will need motivation and patience on your way to fluency. Case in point, many immigrants in the US speak poor English, even after years of being there.
People live in the world of communication. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English (Moore, 1997), communication is defined as, “The activity or process of expressing ideas and feelings or of giving people information”. The significance of communication can be found within the context of a human existing as a social being. As a human being manages his or her life in the course of the interaction between other members of the entire society, communication is inevitable. Communication occurs through the medium of a language and it is presented in two different forms which are written and spoken (Brown & Yule, 1983: 1-10). The importance of spoken performance of a language is becoming more prominent over the written performance capability. It is because the ability to speak a language reflects a person’s personality, self image, knowledge of the world, ability to reason, skill to express thoughts in real-time (Luoma, 2004: ix). These days, due to the global trend of internationalisation, the ability to communicate in English is needed as an essential skill. Whenever the international exchange happens, the use of spoken English entails. However, it is not always an easy task for people who use English as a second language to be able to speak to the level of a native speaker. They have to perfectly understand the sound system of English, have almost instant access to proper vocabulary and be able to place words together intelligibly without hesitation. Moreover, they also have to perceive what is being said to them and need to be able to respond appropriately to acquire amiable relations or to accomplish their communicative goals (Luoma, 2004: ix). Therefore, non-native English speakers encounter these barriers and they are subject to make mistakes often. In relation to this matter, this essay argues that there are socio-cultural factors as well as linguistic factors that affect non-native speakers’ communication in English. It provides analysis of several different situations when the use of spoken English has generated miscommunication problems in regards to author’s personal experience.
Hence, the overall goal of this study is to investigate the Hasawi plosive phonemes and how they shape different allophones. This paper is divided into five main sections: the first section is an introduction of the topic including an overview of the dialect; the second section is a review of the literature which includes brief previous related studies; the methodology used for this study is described in the third section; the fourth section demonstrates the findings of this study; and finally the conclusion.