Strategies in foreign language pronunciation: A qualitative investigationPublished by BETA-IATEFL • on 01/01/2000 • in Publications

Written by: Marina Samalieva, The University of Plovdiv

In this writing:

2. Background of the study 3. Data Analysis 4. Discussion 5. Conclusion References

1. Introduction

The communicative approach to teaching foreign languages is based on the idea of building up and developing communicative skills and one of the crucial factors for its realisation are the learner strategies. Despite the fact that learner strategies are taken as a key factor in teaching and learning various aspects of the foreign language such as listening, reading comprehension, lexis etc. (Huahuang & Naerssen, 1987; Abraham & Vann, 1990 etc.) in teaching pronunciation these factors have not been studied so far.

The present study has the following objectives – a) to point out the area of difficulty learners meet while learning the English pronunciation and b) what type of strategies they apply in learning pronunciation and the frequency of their use.

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2. Background of the study

2.1. The Sample

Twenty one students from the Agricultural University of Plovdiv learning English as a foreign language participated in the study their level of proficiency in English being upper intermediate.

2.2. The Method of Research

To collect the data for the study we used the method of the interview.

2.3 The Setting

The interview included questions. The aim was to establish the most frequent difficulties the students have in learning English pronunciation. Moreover the students had to point out the strategies applied by them in learning English pronunciation for instance: repetition, practice, imitation etc. An example question: You have heard a word and want to remember its pronunciation. What do you do? Point to the greatest number of strategies you apply. The interview with each student was recorded.

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3. Data Analysis

3.1. Pronunciation problems

The pronunciation problems learners have are mostly in: a) pronunciation of long, unfamiliar words and specialised terms (57.1%); b) pronunciation of separate sounds (42.8%) and c) 38.1% – stress and rhythm (Table 1).

Other problem areas pointed out by the learners are -speed and familiarity with interactants (33.3%); pronunciation of sounds in which there is inconsistency with the spelling or the so-called pronunciation inconsistency (33.3% and so on, table 1).

Table 1.

Pronunciation problems and percentage of students reporting them

Problems Frequency % of students1. Length and familiarity with words i.e. place names, names of people, terms

57.1

2. Sound production 42.83. Stress/rhythm 38.14. Speed and familiarity with interactants 33.35. Pronunciation inconsistency (i.e. pronunciation of multi-valued letters)

33.3

6. Perception of native pronunciation 14.37. L1 interference 9.5

3.2. Pronunciation strategies

The learners reported 29 strategies in learning pronunciation (Table 2). These strategies may be classified as cognitive, metacognitive and social. Some of the strategies were applied very frequently. The increasing the input i.e. listening to records, and watching television language programmes and repetition were most widely used – 95.2% and 90.4%, respectively. There follow dictionary use and practising target items in speaking, writing (66.6%), and memorisation, seeking assistance of teacher/peer students and associations (61.9%). The number of strategies ranges from 7 to 18; i.e. students report a great variety of strategies.

Concerning the type of strategies the data show that all the students preferred the strategies of practice and communicative interaction that Wenden (1991:21) calls  “strategies of cognitive learning”. As regards the metacognitive strategies, there is great variation. For 23.8% of all students the most frequent strategies are monitoring and self-correction etc. (Table 2). 52.3% of the students apply the self-assessment. The strategies seeking assistance of teacher/peer students and repetition after 61.9% and 28.6% pointed out correction by teacher/peer students, respectively.

To learn which category of students uses the metacognitive strategies we tested the learners for pronunciation (Rogerson & Gilbert, 1995). For all students with a very good level of pronunciation and one with a good level the most frequent strategies are monitoring and self-correction. (Table 2). All very good students and 63.6% of the good students apply the self-assessment. The students with a fair proficiency most frequently use the strategy seeking assistance of the teacher/peer students, repetition after correction by teacher/peer students.

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4. Discussion

Twenty-nine strategies for learning pronunciation belonging to the three major categories- cognitive, metacognitive and social (for details see Samalieva, 1999) have been found in this study. These results are in relation with other studies carried out in different conditions and with other subjects (Ellis and Sinclair, 1989; O’Maley and Chamot, 1991) and show the great variability of strategies the learners apply in learning pronunciation. The learners preferred the strategies connected with practice and communicative interaction that are called “strategies for cognitive learning” (Wenden, 1991:21). The greater part of learners referred to the strategy increasing the input, oral repetition, etc. The learners in this study apply also metacognitive strategies. These data consolidate the opinion of many authors that for effective learning to take place the usage of cognitive strategies is not sufficient (Brown, 1987; Ellis & Sinclair, 1989). Great variability was found in the qualitative application of the metacognitive strategies. Thus, the very good and good learners point to the strategy monitoring and self-assessment  while the poor learners report teacher/peer student correction. In the literature it has been suggested that properly applied metacognitive strategies have been effective for improvement of learners’ performance. Without the ability to manage and control by means of monitoring their progress and to assess the result of their efforts to learn the foreign language the students will not be able to apply their repertory of strategies when necessary because they will not know the need where and how to apply these strategies. So in order to get beyond the limits of the problem solving situation the learners should possess a rich set of metacognitive strategies. Brown point out “learners should apply metacognitive strategies besides the cognitive strategies” (Brown, 1987).

Studies about the role of strategy application in relation to the learner awareness of his processes of learning English pronunciation is of particular importance for their integration in the teaching of foreign languages.

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5. Conclusion

5.1. Twenty-nine strategies for learning English pronunciation referring to the categories mentioned in the literature as cognitive, metacognitive and social have been reported in the study.

5.2. All learners reported a great variety of strategies in learning pronunciation. They preferred the strategies of practice and communicative interaction or the so-called “strategies of cognitive learning”.

5.3. The better students use the metacognitive strategies – monitoring and self-correction that shows their awareness of the problems they encounter in English pronunciation. The less proficient students report the strategy correction by teacher/peer students.

5.4. Studies about the role of strategy application in relation to the learner awareness of his processes of learning English pronunciation is of particular importance for their integration in the teaching of foreign languages.

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References

Abraham, R.G. and Vann, R.J. 1990. Strategies of unsuccessful language learners. TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 24/2.Brown, H. D. 1987. Principles in Language Teaching and Learning. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall.Huang, Xiao-Hua and M.V. Naerssen. 1987. Learning for oral communication. Applied Linguistics, vol.8/3.Ellis, G. and B. Sinclair, 1989. Learning to learn English: A course in learner training. Cambridge: CUP.O’Maley, J. and A. U. Chamot. 1991. Learning strategies in second acquisition. Cambridge: CUP.Rogerson,P & J.B. Gilbert 1995. Speaking clearly.  Pronunciation and listening comprehension for learners of English. Cambridge University Press .Samalieva, M. 1999. Learner strategies in learning a foreign language. Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski” Scientific Works, 1999 – Philology (in press).Wenden, A. 1991. Learner strategies for learner autonomy. U.K: Prentice Hall International.

THE PRONUNCIATION PROBLEM IN THE CLASSROOM

(By: SUBHAN SHABRI)

2009

1. INTRODUCTION

The target of teaching and learning English is to enable students to communicate in the

language. It is expected that the students have ability in four language skills; listening,

speaking, reading and writing. All the language skills support one another. There must be a

balance among the skills. Each skill consists of three components; they are grammar,

vocabulary, and pronunciation. The components will be parameter for the learners in

measuring the progress of their learning activities. How they use the correct grammar, the

choice of words or vocabulary, and, of course, how they pronounce the words or vocabularies

they use in spoken English (for listening and speaking skills).

However, teaching English in senior high schools means facing learners or students who

have got English lesson for years in previous school levels. They are not beginners who do not

know English at all. They have got a number of English vocabularies in their own mind, and

even some of them are good in grammar. But, since English is taught as a foreign language,

they do not have enough time and opportunities to practice this language naturally. English is

not used as the means of communication. Consequently, their English is passive.

Brown (2000: p.1) says that learning a second language is a long and complex

undertaking. Your whole person is affected as your struggle to reach beyond the confines of

your first language and into a new language, a new culture, a new way of thinking, feeling, and

acting. Total commitment, total involvement, total physical, intellectual, and emotional

responses are necessary to successfully send and receive messages in a second language.

Learning and teaching English as a foreign language will be more complicated than

Brown’s statement above since English is not used as a means of communication. There is only

a little opportunity to communicate in this language. For that reason, the senior high school

students have known about English, but they do not want to practice their English because they

have problem with pronunciation.

Practice is the key word for the four basic skills in English. Concerning with the speaking

skill, the learners of English as the foreign language have to be able to pronounce the English

vocabulary correctly when they practice this language. So, the problem is how well they

pronounce all vocabularies which they use, so that their audience can understand what they

mean. Mispronunciation will make miscommunication.

2. DISCUSSION

a. Problem

The tenth year students of MAN Teluk Kuantan have English subject three times a

week, each meeting is ninety minutes. The subjects are delivered in English. The teaching

and learning activities cover four language skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing.

The students pay full attention to the teacher and the subjects. In fact, the students still have

some problems. Among all of the problems, the most serious one is about pronunciation. The

students tend to pronounce the English vocabularies as the phenomenon above.

Mispronunciation is something happens frequently.

The writer would like to give an example as the illustration of the pronunciation

problem of the students. One of the students wants to make sure whether his friend will come

today or no. He phones the friend and says ‘Are you going here to die?’ [a: ju goiŋ hie tu

dai]? Actually he wants to ask ‘Are you going here today?’ [a: ju goiŋ hie tude]?, but he

mispronounces day [de] as die [dai].

He pronounces the word day as [dai] because he is influenced by his habit reading the

word in the Indonesian language, there is no difference between spelling and pronunciation

in Indonesian as their mother tongue. They tend to pronounce the words they use as what the

spelling are. The mispronunciation case as the example above happens frequently.

The problems can be described as follows:

1. They mispronounce the homonyms such as:

day [de] and die [dai]

work [wə:k] and walk [wo:k]

snake [sneik] and snack [snæk]

other [Λðә] and order [o:de:]

fool [fu:l] and full [ful]

four [fə:] and for [fə]

love [lΛf] and laugh [laf]

feel [fi:l] and fill [fil]

high [hai] and hike [haik]

2. They mispronounce the -ed in the ending of past forms (V2) and past participle forms (V3).

For example, how to pronounce looked, warned, needed, or wanted.

b. Problem Solving

The significance of pronunciation in English can be proved by numerous English

pronunciation dictionaries. A standard English dictionary always includes the pronunciation

phonetically of each entry of the word. It means that an English learner will find from the

dictionary not only the meaning of the word, but something which is also important is how to

pronounce the word correctly. If he knows the spelling of the word only, possibly he will be

able to write the word, but he will mispronounce it if he or she does not know the

pronunciation of the word.

Actually the teacher has implemented a number of approaches and methods to help the

students in order to reduce their weaknesses in pronouncing English vocabularies. The

teacher has asked them to ensure or clarify the pronunciation of the words on the dictionary

by themselves. Dictation and Drill Method have also been implemented by the teacher to

make them familiar with the vocabularies of this foreign language. In fact, the efforts are not

useful enough to help them in overcoming the pronunciation problem.

There must be an approach or method to overcome this pronunciation problem. The

approach or method must belong to practical things. Littlewood (1981: p.8) states that the

criterion for success in communication is not so much whether he or she has managed to

convey an intended meaning, but rather whether he or she has produced an acceptable piece

of language. However, by emphasizing the communicative nature of this language, the

activities also aim to help the learner develop links with meaning that will later enable him or

her to use this language for communicative purposes.

The term ‘practice’, as used here, includes not only activities where the learner’s

response is expected to be immediate, but also those where the learner has more time to

reflect on the operations he or she is performing.

To gain the purpose of teaching, a teacher should be creative to choose the appropriate

way of teaching. In this case, a teacher must be able to combine some techniques, methods,

or approaches to make students pronounce the words easily. Because the appropriate way

chosen by the teacher can influence students’ interest, motivation and their ability in

pronunciation.

In teaching and improving the English pronunciation, usually teachers use Drill

Method. The teachers ask the students to repeat the words they say after them. It is useful

enough to make the students able to know about the English pronunciation, but there are also

some weaknesses of this method. The students will merely know the pronunciation of the

words which have been asked by the teachers to be repeated in the Drill Method. It is

impossible for the teachers to always use this method in teaching and increasing the

pronunciation ability of the students. It will spend too much time. This way tends to be far

away from the term of contextual and seems to be textual. The purpose of learning a

language communicatively will be out of target.

The writer offers Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) as the way out or solution

of the pronunciation problem if the students in the classroom. CLT is a kind of approach in

teaching and learning a language communicatively, or we can say learning a language by

using (or practicing) it immediately. Finocchario & Brumfit (1983) in Brown (1994: p.79)

say the characteristics of CLT seems to be the answer of how to improve the students’

pronunciation ability. They are:

1. Communicative competence is the desired goal.

2. Meaning is paramount.

3. Dialog, if used, center around communicative functions and are not normally

memorized.

4. Contextualization is a basic premise.

5. Language learning is learning to communicate.

6. Effective communication is sought.

7. Drilling may occur, but peripherally.

8. Comprehension pronunciation is sought.

9. Attempts to communicate may be encouraged from the very beginning.

10. Translation may be used where the students need or benefit from it.

11. Linguistic variation is a central concept in materials and methods.

12. Language is created by the individual often through trial and error.

13. Fluency and acceptable language is the primary goal: accuracy is judged not in the

abstract but in context.

14. Students are expected to interact with other people, either in the flesh, through pair

and group work, or in their writings.

15. Teachers help students in any way that motivates them to work with the language.

In implementing CLT in teaching English pronunciation, teacher has to remember that the

characteristics of CLT; there must be a communication activity, in this case, the listening and

speaking skills must be the targets in teaching and learning activity. The activity itself can be

dialogs between teacher and students, or among the students themselves, it also can be

interviews, role plays, and so on. The activities have to be able to force the students to get

involved in the communicative activities. They have to listen to what people say to them and

try to recognize and understand, then how to respond them by speaking (producing by them).

Promadi (2008: p.54) says that the activities taken by the teacher into the classroom have to

be able to help the students in reaching the communicative target. The activities make them

active in communication such as sharing information, negotiating, and to fulfill the

information gap.

Furthermore, he says that CLT activities are begun by structural mastering exercises and

other exercises which are close to the communication itself.

The stages of communicative activities in CLT

The picture shows that the stages of communicative activities in CLT are begun from pre-

communicative activities to the communicative activities. In the pre-communicative activities

stages, the students do not have any motivation to communicate. The learning activities

target is to master the structure of the language which is learnt. Alkusyairy (1998) in Promadi

(2008: p.55) states that in the pre-communicative stage, the students are trained with half of

the communication mastery by giving drilling and asking questions in order to make them

have basic knowledge about the language. In this stage, Al-Ribaki (1973) in Promadi (2008:

p.55) says, teacher can also ask the questions whose answers have been recognized by the

students to make them have possibility to speak or to use the language.

The writer can say that the pre-structural activities as the requirements for the students

to be able to recognize and understand then to speak in having communication. How can

anyone get involved in a communication if he or she does not know any basic knowledge

about the language itself? For that reason, it is clear that pronunciation as one of the basic

knowledge in learning a language (in this case is English) is necessary to be understood by

the students.

The teacher will present a contextual thing as the material in the teaching and learning

activities. The material should be easy to be understood by the learners in order to make them

not having problem in the content of the material, so they will just pay attention how they

will try to speak (pronounce) about the topic.

The opportunity in practicing the language means that the teaching and learning

activities have come into the term of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). The student

or learners will increase their pronunciation ability communicatively and contextually.

3. CONCLUSION

Learning by practicing are the key words in learning a language. Pronunciation as a sub-

component of language skills is one of a number of serious problems faced by the learners of

English as a foreign language. By always taking time to practice it, it is possible for them to

be close and closer to the right way to pronounce the words of this foreign language.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is a kind of approach which can help the learners

in increasing their pronunciation ability. The learners have possibility to listen how people

speak then to try to recognize the speaking, and to compare with their own way in

pronouncing the words or utterances used in the conversation. For example, how they

differentiate the sounds between ‘day’ and ‘die’, or between ‘God’ and ‘goat’.

The approach of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has the same sense with the

term of Contextual Teaching Learning (CTL) because by taking the contextual things in

teaching and learning process, the expectation to have the communicative activities in the

teaching and learning seems to be able to be reached.

4. REFERENCES

Belchamber, Rebecca. 2007. The Advantages of Communicative Language Teaching, An article.

Melbourne.

Brown, H. Douglas. 1994. Teaching by Principles; An Interactive Approach to Language

Pedagogy. San Francisco: San Francisco State University.

Brown, H. Douglas. 2000. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. San Francisco: San

Francisco State University.

Harmer, Jeremy. 1991. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Cambridge: Longman

Hornby, A. S. 1994. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Larsen-Freeman, Diane. 1986. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Hong Kong:

Oxford University Press.

Littlewood, William. 1981. Communicative Language Teaching; An Introduction. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Promadi. 2008. Pendekatan Komunikatif dalam Pembelajaran Bahasa Arab melalui Kelas

Maya. Pekanbaru: Suska Press.