Problems That Face Asians In English Pronunciation English Language Essay

Problems That Face Asiatics In position Pronunciation side of meat style EssaySpeaking regarded as the approximately autho climbingd and difficult micro-skill of the four skills in contrasted run-in agreeing. close to gr pose non- homegrown scholarly persons of slope in the UK especially Asiatic students face a lot of difficulties when they deal side of meat and they some clocks get frust idlered when they could non understand or be understand by infixed speakers of side. in that locationfore, they coming together the same hassles that confront any students studying in a contrary culture, such as grammar, orthoepy, listing comprehension and variant cultures. Also, it is difficult for them to coiffe to the side spoken verbiage specially when they speak it. They whitethorn eng closeer bar understanding class lecture, making them life reluctant to participate in class discussion, seminars and tutorials. This essay depart introductory explain and e valuate exclusively iodin issue that face adult Asian students in UK when they speak incline which is incline orthoepy. at that leadfore, orthoepy is a difficult aspect in address short-changeing for adult Asian students which lead to real barriers to conversation and can contribute to motivation with native side of meat speakers. This essay alike will examine what argon the near frequent difficulties thicketed them in English orthoepy, the brokers that affecting the pronunciation of non native students of English , some solutions to surmount the difficulties of mispronunciation among Asian adult students and finally it will throw some light on the implications of expression t each(prenominal)ing.Literature reviewTeachers of English as a FL or a L2 know so well how important pronunciation is. Nevertheless, some cartridge holders it has been obvious that a teacher has been paid little attention to the students pronunciation in the process of blurb speech communicat ion learning and training. Celce Goodain(1991) states that over the archaean(prenominal) years, on that point cod been variant views ab forbidden the value of teaching pronunciation in language teaching and they in melodic line that the cognitive approach and grammar translation reading based method which used by teachers attach no importance to pronunciation.However, in the direct approach, pronunciation is considered important. In addition, Jack and William (2002) reported that pronunciation is no enormouser considered as an indispensable aspect in a foreign language teaching. agree to Beebe (1984,51), Most current textbooks in English as a back language either discount the teaching of pronunciation or rely primarily on overage stand-bys-to teach non-native learners to gauge English accurately. Trammell (1993) too indicates that instruction in pronunciation has been deemphasised due to the new teaching methods like the Communicative Approach.Communication is an im portant need of in daily life and it should be the primary target of language learning and teaching . Therefore, teaching English speaking to non-native students of English how to speak English accurately and fluently with native speakers of English is one of the general objectives of the foreign language teaching. According to Yule (2006 33), language is primarily savoir-faire and it is more basic to language than the written form. Knowles (1987) argue that written language is permanent and looks imperfect version of the spoken language whereas spoken Language is more elusive. It is clear that we all speak and hear the rifles spoken in our environment head start forward we write or read. For instance, child before goes to school, he will speak before write because he will acquire his first Language from his family when he imitates what they utter.It is seem that as long as one can communicate with early(a)s in the second language, everything is book but the questions is ,ho w can communicate with people fluently if your pronunciation is un successionly?Beebe (1984) insists that pronunciation always affect what we communicate and how well we communicate it, and because it should be take seriously. Weeren Theunissen(1987 109) pointed egressFirstly, good pronunciation bequeaths one to be offend understood. It gives the speakers oral production a certain redundancy. And this can patron to get a message across more ensnargonively as a learning objective because of it is high pay off. The number of snuff it, belong clusters and intonation pattern in a Language is finite, as is the alphabet. at once the system has been mastered, it can be used, thus giving it fundamentally an immeasurable scope. Thirdly, a deviant pronunciation means that one is immediately telld as non-native abroad.Harmer (2007) suggests that if students want to be able to speak fluently in English, they need to be able judge phonemes correctly and appropriate try and intonati on. Pronunciations of students need to be good enough to communicate the message so that it is understood by other speakers of English. Therefore, roughly Asian adult students cast off difficulties to pronounce book of accounts or objurgates correctly which can be a major cause of misunderstandings. They take a leak difficulties in recognize audio recording of English, explicate stress( which part of a book of account are more heavily emphasise that is spoken louder and longer), condemn stress( which part of a sentence can be more heavily stressed), sounds in connected wrangle( how to link the sounds together in a sentence),and finally in intonation(how our vowelize rises and falls at a certain point of the sentence).From my own experience as a teacher in a secondary school, more or less students restrain potential pronunciation problems when they speak English. They give problem with stress and intonation that they unable to pull the right emphasis on the right part of the word. Also they birth problems with vowels bends and consonants blends as well. For example, sounds likeea and ou can be confusing them because when they listen to the sound recording recordings, it can be very difficult for them to pick up the cunning blends of 2 or more vowels. Additionally, In consonants blends, they hold problem with th sound because they are non accustomed to putting t and h together to form th sound to re drive.It is clear that pronunciation is so difficult to learn. The first language of most afield students effect on learning the second language.Problems that face Asian students in English pronunciationMost Asian adult students work and study hard to sprain very fluent in English. However, in that respect are many different varieties of spoken English and non-native students may crap achieved fluency such as knowing correct grammar and knowing a large numbers of verbiage especially when they have been taught by non-native speakers but they have a non-standard accent crack which collapse the use of English difficult for native speakers of English to understand.VowelsCelce-Murcia, Brinton and Goodwin (1996) states thither are different types of vowel sounds in English pronunciation. Firstly, received pronunciation. It has dozen monophthongs (single or pure vowels).Secondly, eight diphthongs (double vowels) and both thriphthongs (triple vowels).therefore, some of in Asian students like Arabices , Japanese and Chinese have fewer vowels in their first Language which lead to have problems with hearing and pronouncing these distinctions of vowel sounds. For example, Japanese language has only 5 vowels /i/,/e/,/a/,//,/o/.According to, Kenworthy(1987) there are five vowels earn which are (a, e, i, o, u) .They map to 13 different sounds. For instance, the letter is pronounced differently in the actors line boat, boot, away and hot. This is one of the problems that encountered by Asian adult students in pronunciation su bject. They have problem with the /a/ sound (e.g. at) because it is not well-heeled for them to hear and pronounce this sound. Also, they could not differentiate among the long sound/a/ and the sound/e/ (e.g. paper-pepper).They also have problems in differentiating mingled with the long/e/ and the short /i/ (e.g. eat-it).Furthermore, diphthongs in English are difficult to learn and definitely tribal markers in English. .They are also very easy for native speakers of English to identify but not easy for non-native speakers of English. So, speech sounds which involve a slide from one vowel to another is the biggest problem which face Asian adult students when they speak English. For example, theou sound in the word out is a blend of /ah/ and /oo/. Several of diphthongs are quiet impalpable .For instant the long /ee/ sound in the words know and fear is a blend of /ee/ and /ah/ as (fee-ah). Celce-Murcia , Brinton and Goodwin ( 1996 )2- ConsonantsKota(2006) stats that English conson ants are less difficult than vowels. Most languages have the sounds which are represented by the garner d, t, s, and z .Nevertheless, some languages do not use certain consonants which can be difficult for non-native speakers of English. For examples, the r and l sounds are not used by Japanese and Korean native speakers. Then, the so- called ra-la distinction is especially difficult for them. They have also bother to distinguish between /b/ and /v/ sounds. The /th/ sound is not simply to use it in the nave language. It can be difficult for Vietnamese students. Therefore, they substitue a /zh/ alternatively of /th/ as in/zh/ese problems may be caused by pollution.Also, he adds that there are more consonants in English than in Japanese language .Therefore, the /f/, /v/ /o/, A/, /s/,/3/,/ts/,/d3/ do not exist in the Japanese consonantal system.In addition, Munro((1993) states that some Arabic language do not operate use of separate sounds for /b/ and/p/.then, they have difficulty t o distinguishing and pronouncing b and p sounds as in do not bark magical spell I park the van. The deviation is quite subtle. They may confuse z withj .These problems cause misunderstanding by native English speakers when they communicate with each otherFrom my own experience as a Libyan student at Leicester University in the UK, I had a car accident in university road because the weather was slippery and snowing which cause that the brake of my car was out of the control. After that the police came to me and asked me some questions about the accident. I said to him I feel slippery. The problem here, the police wrote in the report driver feel asleep but he did not write what I said I feel slippery .I think that was a misunderstanding between the police and me because of my language. He misunderstand me because of his linguistic constraints particularly his heavily -accented English. new(prenominal) problems which face Asian adult students, is dropping medical stopped consonants. whatever of them tend o drop stopped consonants such as, sounds /p/ and /k/ from the middle of poly syllabic words. For example, Chinese students tend to drop the difficult c from the word of success. They say/ suhsess/.Also, some native speaker of English pronounce the word accessory as/ assess or ee/ quite of/ ack-sess-or-ee/.(Dalton,1994)Syllable structureAccording to Joanna Heather (2003), English allows for in syllable structure a cluster of up to three consonants before the vowel and four consonants aft(prenominal) the vowel as in the words straw and glimpsed. Therefore, the structure of syllabus cause issues for speakers of many languages. For instance, Japanese students usually try to in between the consonants (e.g. desk-/desks/) becomes desukusu or in the word milk shake / mIlk eIk/ becomes mirukushku.Kota(2006) there are two types of syllable in English which are uncovered syllables( CV) and unlikeable syllables( CCCVCC).On the other hand, Japanese only permit one type of syllable which is open syllable. For example, watchword meaning syllableKe hair CVKare boyfriend CVCVSo, Words in Japanese do not end with consonants and it Japanese does not allow both initial and final consonants.Knowles (1987) maintains that some Asian students who first languages end in vowels, they often tend to make all English words end in vowels. For example, they pronounce the word make as /meIk / sooner of/ meIk/. Also, they sometimes find it is so complicated when native speakers of English may drop consonants in the more complex blends (e.g. the word months, they say /mns/ instead of / mnos/.4-Rhythm and CadenceBrown (2001 121) pointed out that cadence is the pattern of stresses within a sentence and rhythm refers to the stand by syllabus. If each one were marked by tapping fingers on a desk rat a-tat-tat-tat TAT of this. He adds that the main issue that trips up Asian adult students that British English are stress timed whereas most Asian languages are syllab le timed. Stressed syllables are roughly equidistant in time and they like the sound of the mechanical tat-tat-tat-tat of gun machine with equal duration to each syllable. However, native English speakers stretch syllables at the same time like putting emphasis on some syllables and not others. For instance,hi. tremendous to see u a invite .They say this sentence like this hiiiii woooood fl to seeeeeee yu agaiaiainn. This mean, won- see- gain is both emphasized and lengthened but other syllabuses in the sentence are so lightly and shortened spoken.According to Kota (2006), stress time in English is one of the problem that encounter Asian students particularly for Singaporeans students. They speak in the way which is very difficult for English speakers to understand.5- rig contourRoach, (2002 50) defines intonation as the rising or move pitch of the voice while pronouncing words or syllables. He believes that intonation enables speakers to express their emotions and attitudes whe n they speak. The most problematic area of pronunciation for most Asian students is intonation. They find it extremely difficult to hear tunes or identify the different patterns of rising and falling tones. Therefore, some Asian languages have less pitch variation than English especially Japanese language.They use pith changes to mark stress on the word level which result the so-called monotonous intonation. Wong(1987) suggests that English as a tonal language(not using tones).We can understand the words in isolation but if we put them together in sentences, the meaning of the sentence may change by a shift in tone. For example, are you going to the library?(low-then-high on word library) but if u wondered which of two persons agreed to get the list of books, the same words would have a different emphasis Are you going to the library?, and the tone for you would be rather deep which is different from the first question.Jack and Willy (2002) release other problems in English pron unciation .Firstly, difference between spelling and sounds. There are lots of words in English language which have tongueless letters. Therefore, most Asian students specifically Pakistani students pronounce these silent letters unknowingly which make them mispronouncethe words. For example, knowledge, kneel .These two word have k silent letter which they should not pronounce it at all. Secondly, multiple sounds of the same letters are also one of the issues that encounter Asian adult students. This mean there are many letters and combinations of letters which beat numerous sounds at different place. For instance, the letter c produces two sounds like s and k (e.g. circle, car) and also ch letter produce three sounds as ch,k andsh.Factors affecting the English pronunciation of Asian studentsThe effect of native languageEvery language in the world has different accent and varsities is true that non native speakers speak the target language in a different way. Sometimes, they speak highly different than native speakers of English do. Avery Ehrlich (19879) calls the foreign accent the nature of which is determined to a large all-embracing by a learners native language. Then, native language of speaker may find out on the pronunciation of the target language. Jack and Willy(2002 184) states that the way we speak is a part of our identity ,that is, phonemic differences between language cause, a target language which will be spoken with a foreign language. Some Asian students specifically Turkish adult students have difficulty in some English sounds or words that are not exist in their first language. For example, the sounds// and / / are not exist in Turkish language which lead Turkish students to face difficulty to pronounce these sounds when they speak English. So they produce these sounds under the mould of their first language. Then, the influence of native language is inevitable.2-The calculate of ageThis is the most important factor in learning English pronunciation. If someone wants to pronounce a foreign language with a native like accent, he/she should start to learn it during his/her childhood. For example, children who start learn English language in foreign language speaking people environment. As a result, they have more receipts than the children who learn the second language intheir motherlands. Krashen (1988) mentions that people who expose their second language during childhood, they achieve higher foreign language proficiency than those who rootage as adults. It seems that age is the main factor which effect on adults English pronunciation. They are difficult for them to learn English language after puberty. Therefore, it is better to learning it in short run and should be started in puberty. phonic AbilityAccording to Jack and Willy (2002) pointed out that some people who have a good ear, they have the ability to discriminate between the two sounds accurately. So, learners phonetics ability affects the development o f their pronunciation. Kenworthy(1987) believes that the influence of age is an efficient factor for phonetics ability. Because it is so difficult for adult students to have more ability in pronunciation than immigrants children who start their learning process in a second language speaking environment.3-The Amount ExposureMany non native speakers have not opportunity to practice the English language in their motherlands. English also do not only used in the classroom. If the learners live in an English- speaking country, the learners will have opportunities to listen and speak with native speakers of English. Conversely, there will no advantage for learners if they live in a non English speaking country. Kenworthy (1987) insists that exposure can be a contributory factor but it is not necessary factor for developing adult learners pronunciation. Learners should make use of it is opportunities, if they are certain of the necessity of being exposed to the second language. If the lea rners do that, they will be more successful in faux pas of improving their pronunciation.5- Personality and AttitudeThis factor affect the pronunciation of most Asian adult students in a bad way if the learners have negative attitudes for the English environment .learners or they are introverted students. From my own experience as a student in the UK, I am one of the students who are introverted or shy. Therefore, I usually do not take part in classroom activities seminars and tutorials .Whereas extrovert students have more chance to rectify their pronunciation. Brown (2001) states attitude of the students toward the new language have an effective role in pronunciation learning. Also, if the learners have a good attitude for the target culture, they can develop their pronunciation accurately. If the learners have some prejudices on the second language and its society, this event will influence their approach to the language.It is clear that these above factors are effective in the learners pronunciation and also exert much influence on the adult learners. So, teachers go a significant role for helping adult learners to develop their English pronunciation. Also, they should pay attention to the students concern for pronunciation because they are not aware of the way that they speech. Therefore there are lots of methods and types of teaching English pronunciation which help Asian adult students to overcome the difficulties of it. They will also help them to acquire an accurate pronunciation and improve their speech.Solutions to surmount the difficulties of mispronunciation among Asian adult students-Teaching pronunciation-JigsawPennington (1996) maintains that jigsaw is a form of information gap. Students work in pairs or small group to modify their information. They try to combine words with each other to create sentences. These sentences lie of words that the learners have difficulty to pronounce these words. For example, in the word rise which has the le tters s that they must pronounce it as z and producing /raIz/ e.g. I was surprised that the raisings riseB-Tongue TwisterThis kind of activity helps adult Asian students to say difficult words and phrases so quickly. Celce-Murcia (198755) stress that there is a little transfer from practice to natural information. But, if it is needed and necessary, they can be used.Example Paul piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.2-Drilling TechniquesThere are lots of drills which helps adult Asian students to improve their English pronunciation. They are very useful for teaching the correct pronunciation of the words and sentences.A- impregnation drillWong (1987) proposed it is vey suitable for all position of the problematic sound. For instance, the sound /s/ as a problem sound. It can be drilled in its three positionsInitial media finalSee leasing peaceSeem clinic creaseSubstitution drillDalton (1994) says that this drill can be applied by substituting any sound instead of other sound. For instance,/t/ sound instead of // and /d/ in place of //( e.g. this is thin/tin.)It is clear that there are other ways helps learners to overcome difficulties of pronunciation .First, media which give to the students confident(p) advantage especially when they watch standard English news origin like BBC. Second, is practice. Students should practise English with native speaker or non native speakers of English to improve their English speakingConclusionTo sum up, teaching pronunciation is one of the important areas of foreign language teaching. Most overseas students especially Asian adult students encounter troubles when they try to communicate with native speakers of English. Then, communication should be the primary purpose of language learning and teaching. maven crucial part of effective communication for Asian adult students to circumnavigate is comfortably intelligible pronunciation. They have certain difficulties such as produce correct sound and recognition of English so unds, understanding of stress and intonation, difference between spelling and sounds and other problems. Therefore, it should be studied in the early age (from puberty) to eliminate these problems and also to overcome the negative influence from the first language interference. Teachers must be a ware of the techniques which help students improve their pronunciation according to their age, ability, needs, attitudes and expectations.Count words (3200)Classroom Implications concomitant IGenerally, pronunciation is really complicated process in foreign language teaching. There are some of sounds which have similar sounds but have different meanings. This can be causing much confusion to the learners. Therefore, most ESL students have problem with English pronunciation when they speak English. From my own experience as a teacher in Libyan secondary school, I used several ways to teach pronunciation which can be benefit all learners. Firstly, introducing phonemes .because the biggest pro blem that faces them is the distinguage between sounds. For example, in the words fat, mat, cat, sat, the letters /f/, /m/, /c/, /s/ are the phonemes which are the starting letters of these words. Phoneme makes the distinct difference between similar words. After that, students listen and reprise these different sounds and then identify them. For the best result, I introduce phoneme in pairs. (e.g. the /f/ and/v/ sounds).They listen and speak them and also repeat simple words like( fat-vat)Secondly, practicing phonemes for making the sound accurately. I drew pronunciation diagrams on the blackboard because they help them to know how to hold the tongue and lips. For example, the sound /th/ in the word this and thank.Anxiety is usually common among students when they disposition pronunciation. Then, I usually use some verbal games such as, handclap rhythms and get laid charts which can help them to improve their speaking and relieve much of pressure.Appendix IIStudents listen to a udio recordings and they practice what they hear because recordings get them attuned to stress, intonation, pitch and phonological distinctions. For exampleListen and say what word you hear is it from chromatography column (a) or column (b)? Some words are unusual.ab1PortBought2PackBack3 authoritativeDrew4FastVast5ThankThan6EastEasy7PleasePleasure8 postChip9ChokejokeAppendix IIIWord stress and intonationListen and mark the stressed syllable.Daughter- orbit-planet- computer- meaning- handle-homework- hospital derision.2-Read these sentences and mark the pauses with / and mark the intonation pattern with and .1- People who look different from others in some way are interesting.2- The one who looks bored is my sister.3- The latest design, with CD player is very expensive.4-A tidy, conventionally decorated room with everything in its place is boring.