In language learning, many components and features are studied including; morphology, lexicology, syntax and grammar. While these are important in understanding language learning, there is another area that deserves attention but is often neglected within the world of language learning. This area being phonology, the study of a language’s sound system and the features that help develop the sounds of speech. Pronunciation is the way in which these sounds are manipulated to form comprehensible speech, the manner in which a particular language realizes these speech sounds, or if they even utilize a particular sound, is part of what makes each language unique. When learning another language, pronunciation plays a large role in the speaker’s level …show more content…
It is because of this that pronunciation is often neglected and viewed as a minor concern in the curriculum of foreign language classrooms (Lord, p. 492). This paper, however, will explain why pronunciation is indeed a major factor in communication, from the point of view of the learner and the English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor. When an individual learns another language, often they have a goal to effectively communicate in that language, but they also will often hope to obtain a native-like fluency, or to diminish their foreign accented speech (Talebzadeh & Gholami, p. 54). Accented speech is especially an area of persistence for adult learners (Hanulikova, p. …show more content…
625). This study focuses particularly on vowels as they often play a role in accented speech and pronunciation issues (Franklin & Stoel-Gammon, p.626). These two particular vowel systems vary largely in number, Spanish having the more common five vowel system (Franklin & Stoel-Gammon, p. 626), while English has a larger twelve count system. Spanish vowels are also more closely tied to their orthographic representations, a recoverable orthography, whereas English orthography is non-transparent (Vokic, p. 396), and it generally doesn’t aid in pronunciation. It is for this reason that orthography plays a role in pronunciation issues, the representations and their influence on the perception of sound (Vokic, p. 392) can be a source of confusion for learners as they attempt to apply the phonological rules of their L1 to the L2 ( Iverson & Evans, p. 866). Considering that these two languages are represented orthographically with many of the same alphabetic letters, it is understandable why a native Spanish speaker would attempt to apply their phonological awareness, their understanding of particular sounds as they are associated with orthographic representations to the L2 (Vokic, p. 395). The English system, however, uses a variety of rules including vowel reduction and at times a complete disregard of vowels (Lord, p.
This chapter focused mainly on misconceptions and attempting to clarify those misconceptions about accents. In the opinion of linguists, accent is a difficult word to define. This is due to the fact that language has variation therefore when it comes to a person having an accent or not, there is no true technical distinction because every person has different phonological aspects to their way of speaking. However, when forced to define this word, it is described as “a way of speaking” (Lippi-Green, 2012, p.44). Although Lippi- Green identified the difficulty linguists have in distinguishing between accent, dialect, and another language entirely, they were able to construct a loose way of distinguishing. Lippi- Green states that an accent can be determined by difference in phonological features alone, dialect can be determined by difference in syntax, lexicon, and semantics alone, and when all of these aspects are different from the original language it is considered another language entirely (Lippi-Green, 2012).
Language can be a difficult task to foreigners who have already achieved a first language. In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, “Mute in an English-only World” by Chang-Rae Lee, and “Leave your Name at the Border” by Manuel Munoz, the authors explain how people are judged by their “broken language”, and their lack of understanding the English language. Tan, Lee, and Munoz admits that by not being fluent in English, it was hard to adjust to the new world that they lived in. The authors explained that throughout their life-time, English was very important to them; they also felt embarrassed in front of others who could not understand what they were saying. By having an accent in America can be a burden on individuals whether it is due to a feeling of being unwelcomed or alienated by others.
This research is intended to analyze the transcript of a child’s speech. The target child is a female named Majorie who is 2 years and 3 months old. The transcript is from The Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. The linguistic aspects that will be examined are the phonological processes of the child including speech errors, syllable shapes, and her phonetic inventory consisting of manner and place of articulation. Included in the analysis will be her stage and development of lexical knowledge and what words she uses.
When most people think of the process of language development in “normal” children, the concepts that come to mind are of babies imitating, picking up sounds and words from the speakers around them. Trying to imagine that a child who cannot hear one single sound a person makes can learn to speak a language is absolutely fascinating. These children range from amazin...
English Language Learners range from Newcomers learning survival English and developing foundational literacy skills to Long-Term English Learners who have had 6 years or more of their education in English yet continue have significant language gaps. These students may speak English with little or no accent and still lack the vocabulary, grammar and grade level literacy to be successful in school. English language learners may remain silent in the classroom as they adjust to a new school, environment, and culture unless he is a native language comrade to interact with. The English language learners are concerned about decoding verbal and non- verbal communication as well as understanding the social culture framework of the school. Most of the time English language learners are observing during instruction, trying to repeat words used by others, memorizing simple phrases and sentences, tired by midday or be frustrated attending long lectures unaccompanied by visual and gestures, relying on first language translation used peer translation or bilingual dictionary, as the students begin to learner they become more involved in the classroom, they can respond non-verbally to commands, statements, and questions in simple form. As their oral comprehension increases, they begin to use simple word and phrases and may use English spontaneously. They can understand short conversation on a simple topic when reading students can understand a narrative text and authentic materials, although they will be below
Service, E. (1992). Phonology, working memory, and foreign-language learning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 45A, 21-50.
As explained phonological awareness develops through a gradual process of refinement of sounds, starting with broad distinctions between general sounds, moving ultimately towards fine gradations of phonemes (Barratt-Pugh, Rivalland, Hamer & Adams, 2005a). Studies David Hornsby and Lorraine Wilson from suggesting that children learn phonic before they learn how to read and write. Children at young ages explore the relationships in sound and letter, this leads there phonics to a graphic symbol.
Andrew Sampson states that total proscription of mother tongue is detrimental to some extent, suggesting that code switching of mother tongue and English, under a good strategy of control, is useful for academic needs and even communicating purposes by concluding, “The results of this study suggest that code-switching is not necessarily connected to learners’ ability level and rarely signals an unwillingness to communicate in L2, but rather serves communicative classroom functions such as expressing equivalence, discussing procedural concerns, floor holding, reiterating concepts, and forming group relationships” (302). Code-switching not only improves the learner’s proficiency in English, but also allows the students to learn. In most cases, English language is meant for English-speaking students’ at level L2 or L3. Therefore, teachers should help non-native English-speaking students to code-switch in their communications. Code switching would improve the learner’s ability to identify his or her mistakes and correct those mistakes while she or he continues to learn English. At the same time, if possible, the teachers might use code switching to illustrate particular concepts and subjects. In other words, the teachers themselves can use the learner’s L1 or any other language to explain concepts or offer examples on the subjects in the learner’s L1. However, the teachers should avoid using oversimplified English words and vocabularies. This is because such approach would not help the learner to perfect his or her English
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...
How do children acquire language? What are the processes of language acquisition? How do infants respond to speech? Language acquisition is the process of learning a native or a second language. Although how children learn to speak is not perfectly understood, most explanations involve both the observations that children copy what they hear and the inference that human beings have a natural aptitude for understanding grammar. Children usually learn the sounds and vocabulary of their native language through imitation, (which helps them learn to pronounce words correctly), and grammar is seldom taught to them, but instead that they rapidly acquire the ability to speak grammatically. Though, not all children learn by imitation alone. Children will produce forms of language that adults never say. For example, “I spilled milk on hisself” or “Debbie wants a cookie”. This demonstrates that children have the desire to speak correctly and have self-motivating traits to communicate. This supports the theory of Noam Chomsky (1972)-that children are able to learn grammar of a particular language because all intelligible languages are founded on a deep structure of universal grammatical rules that corresponds to an innate capacity of the human brain. Adults learning a second language pass through some of the same stages, as do children learning their native language. In the first part of this paper I will describe the process of language acquisition. The second part will review how infants respond to speech.
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.
Long, M. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In W.Ritchie and T.Bhatia (eds.) Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (San Diego, CA: Academic Press), 413-68.
Oral language development is the foundation of learning to read and write. When we first make our big entrance into the world, our oral language starts developing. As we grow up, we hear all kinds of sounds such as words, songs, traffic and much more. Oral language is all about using spoken words to express knowledge, ideas, and feelings. According to an article called “Stay at Home Educators” oral language plays a tremendous role for literacy development. There are four great examples that they discuss in this article that I thought was very informative. Oral language helps develop vocabulary concepts. When students discover the meaning and pronunciation of words, they are understanding different types of speech.
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.
By assuming that students will learn proper communication skills without guidance is a big mistake. Individuals should begin learning basic communication skills at birth and continue learning throughout their educational experience. There are, of course, many types of communication. We use verbal communication, non-verbal communication, written communication and many different forms of. Additionally, communication plays an important role in the process of conveying knowledge as well. Communication is instrumental in education since it helps the instructor and the students to work together with each other. Communication is the most important component of any society. In order, to communicate properly we need correct pronunciation, because pronunciation affects how we understand the meaning of the words. If the sound of a word is different it could lead the listener to believe that the word has a different meaning, and if this happens, it is very obvious that it is a form of improper communication. This may lead to a lot of misinterpretations. To avoid these kinds of problems we need to teach accurate pronunciation. English, in schools, is a very important subject for teaching proper...