Mother Tongue Influence in English Pronunciation (PDF)

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 Mother Tongue Influence in English Pronunciation: Problems of Learning English as a Second Language in India. Ma...

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 Mother Tongue Influence in English Pronunciation: Problems of Learning English as a Second Language in India. Manjula Reddivari1 JNTUA College of Engineering, JNT University, Anantapur. Email: [email protected] Abstract Pronunciation is the most challenging aspect of the Indian speakers when communicating in English. In the context of many Indian language class rooms, grammar and vocabulary are given due importance but there is no conscious effort on practicing pronunciation. Poor pronunciation not only leads to misunderstanding but also creates negative impression and confusion. Learners with bad pronunciation are judged as lack of knowledge, incompetent and they will be misunderstood. There are several factors that influence pronunciation such as native language interference, amount of exposure, phonetic ability, cultural and educational back ground and motivation. Of all the influences the influence of native language is the most inhibiting and inherent factor that manifest in the form of mis pronunciation. When we learn English in childhood we learn to speak English fluently without mother tongue influence. When we learn English in later stage, we are unlikely to attain native like English accent. The first section of the paper emphasizes the importance of pronunciation with reference to some research and reviews. The second section analyses various reasons for mother tongue influence in English communication and how to overcome the problem. Keywords: Pronunciation, sounds, native language, communication, influence, speakers, foreign language. Introduction Pronunciation is one of the most important features of oral communication. It has emerged as a systematic field of study since International Phonetic Association was established in 1886. According to Pourhosein Gilakjani (2012) and Yates & Zielinski (2009), Pronunciation is the way of producing the meaningful speech sounds when speakers speaking. It involves vowels and consonants of a language, features of speech like stress, rhythm, intonation, timing, phrasing, and how the voice is produced (quality of the voice). All these elements work together when speakers speaking so that problems in one part can influence on the other and this can make a person‟s Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 65 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 pronunciation easy or difficult to comprehend. Pronunciation is defined as the way the sounds of the language are made and the way how the word and sentence stress are placed, and the pitch and intonation are used to indicate our feeling and meaning. ( Harmer, 2007) Significance of Pronunciation According to Garrigues (1999), good pronunciation is the foundation of effective spoken communication. Pronunciation is one of the basic skills and without pronunciation there would be no spoken language and no oral communication (Julia, 2002). According to Gelvanovsky (2002), Pronunciation is the most salient characteristic of non-native speakers. It can provide information about the speaker‟s geographical and social origin. It has an important social value and it should be related to prestige, such as intelligence, professional competence, diligence and social privilege. Good Pronunciation is not ‘native- like’ pronunciation but to gain ‘learner- friendly’ pronunciation so that listeners can easily understand it to make a meaningful conversation possible. (Pourhosein Gilakjani, 2012). Pronunciation is not a major problem until it affects learner‟s comprehension. Understandable pronunciation is an essential element of communicative competence. Listeners judge about Speaker‟s ability based on his/her own pronunciation. Listeners can understand speakers who have good pronunciation even though they make mistakes in other areas of language. But they are not able to understand the speakers who have unintelligible pronunciation even if they are competent in terms of grammar, vocabulary and knowledge. If speaker pronunciation is acceptable, listeners judge about the speaker‟s overall language ability much more effectively even to the extent of tolerating grammatical mistakes (Pourhosein Gilakjani, 2012). Pronunciation is the first thing that native speakers notice during conversation. Grammar and vocabulary become useless, if the speaker cannot pronouns words accurately (Harmer, 2001). Factors Affecting Mother tongue influence Influence of mother tongue means interference of child’s first language in learning the pronunciation of other language. Interference of linguistic and structural elements of the mother tongue in the process of learning of second language. When speaker has good command over two languages i.e mother tongue ( first language) and second language (English) there is no interference problem. When learner is not enough mastered in second Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 66 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 language, his mother tongue dominates the second language and that leads to inference. Mother tongue influence is one of the current problems in foreign language teaching. In India, many learners of English as a second language have problems with pronunciation. According to Brown, (1994) there are several factors that affect learners‟ pronunciation, i.e Native language, Age , experience, innate phonetic ability, identity, language ego, motivation, and concern for good pronunciation. Studies tell that native language interference is the main influential factor in affecting the learner‟s pronunciation. Bose (2005) stated that most of the pronunciation errors are due to the interference of mother tongue: language learners use the sounds of their mother tongue instead of those of their target language. (Ladefoged, 2001; Carter & Nunan, 2001) mentioned that mother tongue has clear influence on learning (L2) second language pronunciation. Where L1 and L2 rules are in conflict, errors are expected to be committed by foreign learners. Avery & Ehrlich (1992) stated that the sound features of the learners‟ first language are transferred into the target language that results in mispronunciation. The mispronunciations of words by non-native speakers reflect the rules, stress, intonation and sound influence of their native language. The interesting fact is that most of them unaware of the fact that they are speaking with mother tongue influence. English is a second language to most of the Indians hence mother tongue influence is natural in their accent. It has been observed that mother tongue influence is nothing to do with intelligence, age, knowledge of Grammar and vocabulary or level of education. Many learners of English as their second language do have mother tongue influence on their English pronunciation. The degree of mother tongue varies from speaker to speaker depending on various factors such as home, teachers, exposure, environment etc. Here is an effort to identify the reasons for mother tongue influence in English pronunciation and suggestions to overcome them. Grammar Translation Method of Teaching Grammar translation method of teaching is widely used in many colleges of rural India. In this method of teaching pronunciation of the target language is not given adequate importance. The role of mother tongue is crucial and students are not focused on the target language as Tickoo, ( 2003) stated “ Teaching and learning primarily aimed at the ability to read the full text rather Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 67 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 than to communicate orally in every situation”. Students are forced to learn grammar and pronunciation is totally neglected. In this method of teaching teachers could be native speakers or they use native like fluency in the target language. The emphasis in this method is mainly on the translation of English words, passages into and from the mother tongue of a learner. Thus it becomes evident that there is a lot of scope for mother tongue influence in English communication. Bilingual Method of Teaching In bilingual method of teaching the teacher‟s use of mother tongue can influence learner‟s acquisition of the target language. If the teacher has more command over second language( English) there is no interference. When teacher is not mastered enough in target language mother tongue dominates and influence over the second language. In bilingual method of teaching, a few students may be more attentive to the mother tongue and less attentive to the target language leads to mother tongue influence in their communication. Darcy, (1953) in „„a Journal of General Psychology, a Review” stated that “bilingualism is a detrimental to the process of learning foreign language.” He opined that communication between the two language systems is the main reason for the interference. Hence bilingualism is a detrimental process in learning English as a second language. Lack of Audio- Visual aids Majority of teachers are not able to teach pronunciation due to lack of audio –visual aids. Generally pronunciation practice sessions are done in digital labs, where learners are able to practice the sound patterns of the target language over and over to eliminate mother tongue influence. In Indian context, most of the colleges have a few audio visual aids results in ineffective teaching pronunciation. Lack of Attention In most of the Indian classrooms a lot of time and energy is devoted to learning vocabulary and Grammar but teaching pronunciation is ignored. Harmer (2001), expressed that a lot of teachers pay enough attention to vocabulary and grammar and least attention to pronunciation. They think that pronunciation study is too difficult and monotonous for learners. Many teachers regards pronunciation as least useful of language skills therefore sacrifice their pronunciation Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 68 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 teaching time to the other areas of language learning. (Elliot, 1995). In this scenario Miller (2004), emphasized the significance of pronunciation instruction that should be balanced with the instruction of other language skills. According to Kelly pronunciation tends to suffer from neglect may not due to teacher‟s lack of interest but rather to a feeling of doubts as to how to teach it (Kelly,2004). He further stated that, due to teachers’ hesitation in pronunciation, pronunciation instructions are ignored. Lack of exposure Research says that children are better language learners than adults. According to Selinker (1972) “most adult second language learners never achieve native like proficiency in target language”. As per Lennberg(1967) “ Critical Period Hypothesis” there is a biological or neurological period which ends around the age of 12; after this period, it is extremely difficult to attain mastery over second language especially pronunciation. Students who are exposed to English language in their formative years have better pronunciation than the students who are introduced to English at their later stage. According to Lennberg theory older learners of foreign language can rarely achieve native like pronunciation. In most of the Indian schools children are taught English only from 6th standard. Hence children who have adequate exposure to language accustomed to the specific qualities of that language and those who lack exposure feel difficult to train the brain for new speech pattern of the target language. Brown (2000) stated that second language learner meet 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 learners of second language. Lack of feedback In most of the Indian schools and colleges grammar and vocabulary is corrected enough. But pronunciation is ignored. Therefore, Teachers should recognize pronunciation as fundamental ability that effect accuracy and comprehension. The emphasis should be laid on teaching correct pronunciation, recognizing errors and correct feedback is necessary for the improvement of students‟ ability in pronunciation. Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 69 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 Vernacular medium schools Majority of second language learners suffer from mother tongue influence because of vernacular medium schools which are large in number in India. Most of the learners who are hailing from the rural areas of India do their primary education in vernacular medium schools where mother tongue is a medium of instruction. Students who are exposed to English at their later stage feel difficult to pronounce certain sounds because they have already internalized the sounds of their mother tongue and apply the same pattern of their mother tongue while speaking English. External factors External factors such as school teachers, friends, and environment determine learner‟s development of accent. Teachers while teaching English carry their own dialect into English. For example, a teacher whose mother tongue is Telugu, teaches English in his/her own regional dialect, Similarly a teacher whose mother tongue is Malayali brings his Malayali dialect into class room. Generally the teacher is seen as a model for right pronunciation. Students are expected to follow the pronunciation samples given by their teacher. If the teacher is familiar with the sound system of the target language, he will be able to diagnose the students‟ problems in pronouncing words. If the teacher himself has colored pronunciation then the students are most likely to adopt the same skills. Lack of Practice Learning of English as a second language is different from the learning of mother tongue. Learning of mother tongue is a natural and constant process begins at an early stage of life by imitating parents, friends, relatives. Mistakes are instantly corrected. But learning English as a second language is an artificial and controlled process. It happens only in the class room where English speaking people are a few in numbers. In the process of learning their mother tongue, no other language interferes in their way. But when they start learning English at school, speech habits of mother tongue interferes with those of foreign language. Since their mind is already internalized with the sounds of their mother tongue grammar, structure, they tend to speak English with mother tongue rhythm. Mother tongue influence occurs when learners have not heard enough English, when they have not spoken enough English or when they have not been corrected enough. Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 70 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 During group activities, students tend to use their mother tongue instead of English all the time. The classroom is not a real situation and it just takes place at school and there is no opportunity for students to talk to native speakers ( Harmer, 2001). Listening to native or native like sounds plays an important role in pronunciation teaching because the sound what you hear that you make. Correct input is a chance to turn into correct output. For instance, learners who are frequently get involved in interaction with native speakers of English are liable acquire their foreign language pronunciation easily( Avery& Ehrlich, 1992). According to Harmer lack of time and high quality teaching learning materials are the major reasons that cause teachers do not pay attention to English pronunciation. Pronunciation involves vocal articulators that physically shape our pronunciation. “The key to successful pronunciation teaching is to have them listen and notice how English is spoken either on audio or video tape or from the teachers themselves”(Harmer, 2001, p.185). Problems related to Stress English is stress timed language with complicated rules of word and sentence stress that do not always follow predictable pattern. In English stressed syllables are spoken with a greater degree of force than un stressed syllables. On the contrary, many Indian languages are syllable timed, where all the words/ syllables in a sentence are stressed equally. Indian learners whose first language is syllable timed are not accustomed the stress timed nature of the language have problems in producing sounds in English language. Hence they follow their mother tongue rhythm with equal stress, false intonation in speaking English. Different sound systems between L 1 & L 2 : According Alkhuli, (1983), the main problem in teaching and learning English result from the differences in the sound system of English and Native Language. Ur, (1996), mentions that learners‟ errors of pronunciation derive from various factors as follows:  A particular sound may not exist in the mother tongue so that learners are not used to form it therefore they tend to substitute the nearest equivalent sound they know.  A sound does exist in the mother tongue, but not as a separate phoneme: that is to say, the learner does not perceive it as a distinct sound that makes a difference in meaning. Students from different nationalities have difficulty in articulating different sounds simply because that sounds do not exist in their native language. Learners‟ problem in pronouncing English words are caused by different sound system in both English and mother tongue. Every Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 71 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 language has its own unique sound system. The sounds that are present in English language are not present in Indian languages. The sounds that are not present in the mother tongue are difficult to reproduce in the target language. Many Indian speakers are not able to distinguish between /v/ and /w/, /p/ and /f/, /s/ and /ʃ /. Hence [p] is substituted for [f], [t] is substituted for /θ/ , [s] is substituted for /ʃ / and [d] for /ð/ , because these sounds in English are not exist in their mother tongue. Further new sounds are strange for speaker‟s organs of speech as they have not trained enough to produce such unfamiliar sounds. Hence, Speakers tend to pronounce the nearest sound what exist in their mother tongue. Hence (MTI) manifest itself in the form of certain sounds such Englis( English) isckool( School) copy ( coffee) Sue ( shoe) Pone (phone) and so on. Spelling Vs Pronunciation In English language spelling system is complex, irregular, and historical due to the fact that it has borrowed several words from many languages such as Latin, French , German, and so on. In English Language, there is no perfect correspondence between sounds and the letters. For example one letter can represent different sounds and some words can contain silent letters. “ One cannot tell how to spell a English word by its Pronunciation or how to pronounce by its spelling” ( Professor Albert C. Baugh, A History of the English Language ,1959, P.13) “ The irregularity of English Spelling is due to the fact that there is no one to one correspondence between sounds and letters”( Taylor, 1981). From the above statement, it is true that in English there is no one to one correspondence between letters and sounds. In most of Indian languages the correspondence between the letter in writing and the sound is fairly straight forward. Each letter stands for one sound in speech and one sound in speech represents one letter in writing. For example, the symbol /s/ always stands for the sound /s/and the sound/s/ is always represented by„s‟. But in English the same „s‟ letter produce four different sounds as in „city‟-„sugar‟-„vision‟ –„mission‟. Second language learners have misconception that foreign language, native language sound patterns are the same, and hence they try to transfer the words from their mother tongue to the target language. The same letter is does not always represent the same sound in English. For example, The letter [a] makes many different sounds such as , Art. any, apple, air etc. Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 72 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 Cap /æ/ Ask Same letter different sounds /a: / Any /e/ saw /ɔː/ Air /eə/ Day /eɪ/ what /ɒ/ Over Generalization In Indian languages there are no silent letters. They adopt the strategy of overgeneralization and pronounce silent letters in English language. For example [ k, l , t ] sounds are pronounced with misconception. Taylor (Language Learning , 1975) has opined that , humans while learning a language , they are likely to over generalize and omit the rules of the target language that they have not learnt. Most of Telugu words end with the vowel sound “u”. For example “Muudu, Nalugu, Aidu, Aaaru , Pesalu, Jonnalu etc. Hence they pronounce Coming as „comingu‟ and going is pronounced as „ goingu‟ because of overgeneralization. Similarly Bengali speakers use /b/ instead of /v/ and Malayalee speakers tend to replace /p/, /t/, /k/, sounds with /b/, /d/, /g/. Most of the Hindi, Gujarathi, Bihari, Assammee speakers are not able to distinguish between the short vowel and long vowel because they don‟t have short vowel /e/ sound. The pronunciation of double consonant is also one of the features of Indian languages. Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 73 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 Conclusion Pronunciation is deeply influenced by speaker‟s mother tongue. Learning correct pronunciation is a big problem for second language learners of India because mother tongue has influence on every aspect of decoding process of second language including sound, stress, structure, rhythm and intonation. Learners should understand that no languages are alike in their structure, syllabification, pronunciation and intonation etc. English is no exception. English is not a phonetic language: there are no fixed phonetic rules in English language. There is no perfect correspondence between letters (spelling) and sounds (pronunciation) in English language. Beside the differences in individual sounds in the mother tongue (L1) and foreign language(L2) , there are differences in sentence structure, placement of word stress, intensity of syllables, intonation and speech rhythm. English is a rhythmic language produced by the combination of stressed and unstressed syllables in spoken form. Learning correct pronunciation is a big problem for second language learners because speech sounds of English are not identical to the speech sounds of the mother tongue of the learners. Hence learner tends to speak foreign language in the same way as he does in the mother tongue. Mother tongue influence cannot be eradicated but it can be reduced to a greater level as follows: Learners need to be familiar with the phonetic symbols of a dictionary for better understanding of spelling and pronunciation of words that are unfamiliar. Teachers should avoid conventional methods of teaching and foreign language should be taught without translation or the use of the learner‟s native language. Foreign language can‟t be learnt at the cost of mother tongue. But when children are taught English pronunciation right from their childhood, they will experience the flexibility of speaking both the mother tongue and the target language. By using audio visual aids in teaching pronunciation, students can see, listen and imitate the correct sounds produced by the native speakers of English. As Ur (1996) , mentions, the aim of pronunciation improvement is not to achieve a perfect imitation of a native accent, but simply to pronounce accurately and comprehensible to other speakers” Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 74 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 Works Cited 1 Yates, L., & Zielinski, B ( 2009). Give it a go: Teaching Pronunciation to Adults. AMEP Research Centre, Department of Immigration and Citizen ship, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. 2. Pourhosein Gilakjani, A. (2012). A Study of Factors Affecting EFL Learners‟ English Pronunciation Learning and the Strategies for Instruction. International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2 (3), 119-128. 3. Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching ( 4th ed.). Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers : Pearson Longman. 4. Garrigues, S. (1999). Overcoming Pronunciation Problems of English Teachers in Asia.( on-line) Available :http:// asianbridges.com/pac2/ presentations/garrigues.html. 5. Julia, G. (2002). Introducing English rhythm in Chinese EFL Classrooms: A Literature Review. Published by the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia.3(1) , 26-42. 6. Gelvanovsky, G.V. (2002). Effective Pronunciation teaching: Principles , factors and teachability. In P.V. Sysoyev (Ed.), Identity Culture and Language Teaching. USA: REEES. 7. Pourhosein Gilakjani, A. (2012). A Study of Factors Affecting EFL Learners‟ English Pronunciation Learning and the Strategies for Instruction. International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(3), 119-128. 8. Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman. 9. Brown, Douglas.1994. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, Second Edition. New Jersey : Prentice Hall. 10. Bose, M.N.K. (2005). A Text Book of English Language Teaching (ELT) for Indian Students. Chennai: New Century Book House. th 11. Ladefoged, P. (2001). A Course in Phonetics, 4 ed., Heinle and Heinle. Los Angles: University of California. Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 75 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 12. Carter, R., & Nunan, D. (2001) The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. 13. Avery , P. Ehrlich, S. (1992). Problems of Selected Language Groups. In Teaching American English Pronunciation. Oxford University Press. ISBN:978-0194328159. 14. Tickoo, M. L.(2003).Teaching and Learning English : A Source book for Teachers and Teacher Trainers, Delhi: Orient Longman, P.349. 15. Darcy et, (1953) “ A Review of the Literature on the Effects of Bilingualism upon the Measurement of Intelligence”, A Journal of General Psychology. 16. Elliot, A.R. (1995). Foreign Language Phonology: Field Independence, Attitude and the Success formula Instruction in Spanish Pronunciation. In The Modern Language Journal. Vol.79, No.4.P.530-542. DOI : 10.1111/j.1540-4781.1995.tbo5456.x.ISSN:1540-4781. 17. Miller , S.F (2004). Pronunciation and the adult ESL learner. University of Pennsylvania. 18. Kelly, Gerald.2004. How to Teach Pronunciation. England: Longman. 19. Selinker. (1972). “ Interlanguage” International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching. 20. Lenneberg, E.H. (967). The Biological Foundations of Language. New York: John Wiley and sons. ISBN:9780471526261. th 21. Brown, H.D. (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (4 ed.). Longman: Sanfrancisco State University. 22. Alkhuli, M.A. (1983). English as a Foreign Language. Ph.D Dissertation, King Abdul Aziz Public Library. Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 76 Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945 23. Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching (4th ed.) Longman Hand books for Language Teachers: Pearson Longman. 24. Ur , P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press. 25. Professor Albert C. Baugh, A History of the English Language ,1959, P.13 26. https://blog.tjtaylor.net/improve-your-pronunciation/. Volume XIII, Issue XI, November/2021 Page No: 77