Globalization has given English. an international platform. Today English is the most accessible linguistic communication. Almost all communications find look in English. Today English has given catholicity and flexibleness to higher instruction. National commercialism. bench all are carried out in English. It is for this ground that more and more pupils are taking up larning English as 2nd linguistic communication. Knowledge of English paves the manner for farther surveies taking up occupations in Multinational companies. improves the chance of advanced surveies and Global travel. These future chances and advantages enticement more and more pupils to choose for survey of English as their 2nd linguistic communication. Yet while larning and talking the linguistic communication. there are assorted factors which govern the learning gait and quality. They are related to the native linguistic communication of the talker. age of the pupil. his or her attitude towards the linguistic communication. motive of larning the linguistic communication. his or her cultural background. Each of these dramas an of import function in the acquisition of 2nd linguistic communication.
In larning a linguistic communication pronunciation forms an built-in portion of the linguistic communication. To talk the linguistic communication articulating the word right is really of import. In this essay as we deal with learning pronunciation to the secondary school pupils. who speak Arabic as their native linguistic communication. we need to certain facts about these pupils. The pupils in secondary degree in schools have reached pubescence and are recognized as striplings. Their morphological and rational growing is accelerated at this age and they are at a turning point. They get a linguistic communication faster and more easy than the grownups. Age has an consequence on 2nd linguistic communication acquisition. It has relevancy to the ‘Critical period’ theory popularized by Eric Lenneberg in 1967. It argues that full linguistic communication acquisition is impossible beyond a certain age. It says that kids have neurological advantage in larning linguistic communications and pubescence gives a turning point to the ability. The encephalon loses its malleability after a certain age. losing its ability to accommodate and reorganise. This makes linguistic communication larning a hard undertaking. These pupils in their secondary degree have begun their exposure to the linguistic communication in early childhood and go more adept in the usage of linguistic communication than the grownups. who start late acquisition. In a schoolroom. where pupils are from more or less similar background. where they come from households who are native talkers of Arabic. we can still happen differences in the learning ability of the talkers. While some speak English without any speech pattern. most speak with an Arabic speech pattern and may be distinguished from the remainder.
In such a context it is of import that we take into consideration certain factors which influence the pronunciation and larning abilities of these pupils.
Agehas an consequence on larning English as the 2neodymiumlinguistic communication. It has relevancy to the critical period theory popularized by Eric Lenneberg in 1967. It argues that full linguistic communication acquisition is impossible beyond a certain age. It says that kids have a neurological advantage in larning linguistic communication and pubescence gives a turning point to the ability. The encephalon loses its malleability after a certain age. losing its ability to accommodate and reorganise. Thus it makes linguistic communication larning a hard undertaking.
Language Aptitude-Determining Language aptitude in a schoolroom is highly effectual in foretelling successful scholars. As aptitude is mostly unchangeable. it is of import that pupils be tested.
Schemesused in acquisition may be different for scholars from different civilization. There are differences in the schemes used by male and female scholars. It has been observed in assorted surveies that females bask larning linguistic communication more than males and employ schemes widely and intensively.
Personality Factors-Surveies have shown that personality factors like extraverts and introverts play an of import function in larning a non native linguistic communication. Extroverts get a 2nd linguistic communication better than introverts. as they are willing to pass on even if they are non certain of success.
Motivationof the pupils plays a cardinal function in larning 2nd linguistic communication. Motivation may be intrinsic. i. e. . desire to larn for an internal wages. or extrinsic wages for high classs or congratulations. It has frequently been seen. that intrinsic motive leads to better larning. more effectual and long term acquisition.
Abilityof the scholar to larn mark linguistic communication is the competency of the individual. which means cognition of the scholar of the linguistic communication regulations.
Schemes of Learning English as Second Language
Every linguistic communication has its ain phonetics. its ain regulations. different emphasis and modulation. Often English as 2nd linguistic communication is mispronounced due to the sound. regulations and emphasis of modulation of native linguistic communications. It was pointed out by Avery & A ; Ehrlich ( 1992 ) that the sound system of the native linguistic communications can act upon pronunciation of English in three ways.
A pupil may hear a word in English in the same manner as he or she hears his or her native linguistic communication. He or she hears the sounds of his or her female parent lingua alternatively of the existent sound of the word given by his or her instructor. Thus intervention of the native linguistic communication is referred to as ‘negative transfer’ by Murcia. Brinton & A ; Goodwin ( 1996. p. 20. ) It said:
Today most research workers in the field. while minimising the function that native linguistic communication intervention dramas in other countries of linguistic communication acquisitions. would hold that intervention ( now more normally referred to as negative transportation ) is valid in 2nd linguistic communication pronunciation acquisition.
Marzouk. ( 1993 ) understands that the individual’s past experience in native linguistic communication plays an of import function in larning 2nd linguistic communication. particularly in adolescent old ages. Since first linguistic communication plays an of import portion for speech patterns in 2nd linguistic communication. it is of import for ESL instructors to hold a elaborate cognition of the first linguistic communication. This cognition will assist the instructor place the forms from the first linguistic communication act uponing the scholar. Consequently student groups may be formed. so that teachers can fix the methodological analysis of direction harmonizing to the demand of the group.
Surveies made by bookmans show that there is considerable influence of female parent lingua in larning the 2nd linguistic communication.
Altaha ( 1995. p110 ) in his survey of the common jobs faced by Arabic pupils
Learning English as their 2nd linguistic communication found that really small research is available
Sing pronunciation jobs faced by the Arabs in larning English. He carried out a survey on a group of Saudi pupils who had ne’er left their state and had started
Learning English from the age of 13. His pupils had taken classs in reading.
Writing. conversation. grammar and phonetics He found that they were confronting jobs
Sing usage of some braces of harmonic sounds. They were/tf/ and / ? / as in “chair”
“Share” . /v/ and /f/ as in “van” and “fan ; ” /p/ and /b/ as in “pat” and “bat” ; harmonic bunchs ( i. e. “grandfather” frequently mispronounced “grandifather” ) consonant duplicating ( i. e. ”allow” frequently mispronounced “al-low” ) .
Kharma & A ; Hajjaj ( 1989 ) identified the pronunciation jobs of the Arabs. by Roll uping informations in an unwritten interview. It was identified that the mispronunciation were related to utilize of consonants. vowels and emphasis in the words. The consonants /p/ . /v/ .
/?/ . /?/ . /?/ . /r/ . /l/ . was identified debatable by the Arabs.
The Australian Government ( 1978 ) in an article corroborates findings similar to Altaha’s
Except for two excess consonants /gl/ . and/?/ .
Avery & A ; Ehrlich ( 1992 ) in their book about learning American English Pronunciation to choose groups found that Arabic talkers had trouble in articulating certain English consonants. These harmonic bunchs were same as that found by Altaha. Avery & A ; Ehrlich ( 1992 ) found that the troubles were non related to a peculiar age group but to Arabic scholars in general.
Anna Marina of Eberly College of Arts and Science. West Virginia University. U. S. A. conducted a survey to analyse the pronunciation troubles faced by Arabic talkers in English consonants. Aim of her survey was to place the relentless troubles in pronunciation of the Arabic scholars. who had mingled in the civilization of the mark linguistic communication for four old ages or more. This survey differed from earlier surveies made by Altaha ( 1995 ) . Kharma Hajjaj ( 1989 ) and Avery & A ; Ehrlich ( 1992 ) as their participants were chiefly indigens of Arabic states and ne’er experienced being immersed in the mark linguistic communication. Anna Maria’s participants were motivated to talk like native talkers. losing non-native pronunciation. The participants were grownups who had to undergo interview Sessionss. sentence reading. minimum braces reading. During these Sessionss. it was observed that mispronunciation of words related to changeless phonemes due to foreign accent taking to misunderstanding of significances by the hearers. who were chiefly native talkers of English.
It was found that intervention of the female parent lingua or Language 1 was the chief factor lending to it. The consonants that were identified as debatable were the same as that found by other research workers. Four out of eight debatable consonant sounds were /?/ as in purchasing. [ bay?? ] . /?/ as in civil [ s?v?? ] . /d/ as in”bed” [ b?d ] . /r/ ( /?/ ) as in. hazard [ ??sk ] .
The consonant that were identified as debatable were /p/ as in drama [ pley ] and /v/ as in “five” [ fayv ] . The consonants /p/ and /v/ are non present in the Standard Arabic Phonetic system. So the Arabic talkers substitute /b/ for /p/ and /f/ for /v/ . This permutation to nearest sound is likely to bring forth foreign speech pattern and lead to mispronunciation and misunderstanding by native talkers of English.
This survey brings place the fact that achieving native like pronunciation after adolescence is really hard and a end barely reached. It is in-fact a disclosure and a lesson for ESL instructors. who need to attune their instruction methodological analysis and accomplishments harmonizing to pupils demands.
Having understood the background of larning English as 2nd linguistic communication. we will now
Deal with the schemes involved in learning pronunciation to secondary school pupils
In Saudi Arabia. Pronunciation forms the key to linguistic communication acquisition. Without proper pronunciation conversation is likely to acquire limited. School pupils who start larning English at an early age develop better pronunciation. Older pupils who start late find it hard to accommodate to new linguistic communication pronunciations. To talk a linguistic communication the chief purpose of the scholar is to accomplish intelligibility. i. vitamin E to talk the linguistic communication meaningfully. to be understood. This may be achieved on using proper emphasis. beat and modulation to the linguistic communication.
Learning of English for these Arabic speech production pupils is no easy undertaking. There are many sounds in English that a native ( Arab ) is non familiar with. as those sounds are absent in Arabic. So it is of import that the pupils are exposed to the sound system of the 2nd linguistic communication. i. e. English. A scope of undertakings may be so set that the scholar is exposed to the same group of sound. until he has command over it. Activities associating to these should be repeated frequently. so that the ear and the address get developing on the sound. These activities should be really much related to the contexts that are taught in the category. It helps in better assimilation.
For novices word emphasis ( i. e. the form of stressed syllables in words ) and modulation ( the rise and falling degrees of pitch ) used in vocalizations are of utmost importance. Use of emphasis and modulation non merely helps better hearing accomplishments. but besides adds to the significance of the word. For novices. pattern of listening to native talker. who speaks with modulation. will further larning the word more right. Advanced scholars. nevertheless. already adept in modulation of the syllables and words. will necessitate to tune in to the significances exposed by modulation.
It is of import for ESL instructors to follow certain guidelines. while taking categories for these adolescents’ native Arabic pupils larning English. In a schoolroom. it becomes of import for the scholars to cognize what the instructor is concentrating at. When the instructor is concentrating on the pronunciation the scholars excessively should be cognizant of it. as it will ease acquisition. When the attending of the instructor displacements to intending. the category should be adequately motivated and alerted to grok the alteration. If the two subjects are differentiated and dealt as different sections of learning. it will non make confusion in larning ; alternatively it will ease truth of acquisition.
In a category some pupils may be weak in placing a group of new sounds. They should be made to pattern these whenever the instructor finds an chance to make so.
The cardinal characteristics of the linguistic communication like beat. modulation in a word or sentence should be made familiar to the pupils. It is possible that such characteristics are absent in his native linguistic communication.
Subjects or contents that provide for listening accomplishments need to be practiced. so that an ear for the sound is developed. It needs to be related to the schoolroom instruction. Competent ESL instructors may utilize the transcripts of native talker interactions to advance activities that deal with cardinal facets of his pronunciation.
Integration of course of study with assorted facets of acquisition is needed. It facilitates freedom of the pupil to pattern with in the contents of his course of study. do looks and seek elucidation wherever needed. Often some pupils are weaker than mean pupils in a category and need particular categories or tutoring in a acquisition Centre or in a group. It is of import to decelerate down the gait of tutoring to the degree of the scholar and catch up with him.
Ghaleeb Rababah and Paul Seedhouse made a survey on a sample group of scholars to larn about the relationship between communicative schemes used by 2nd linguistic communication scholars and their ability to convey comprehendible messages to the hearers. The pupils were 30 in figure. English big leagues at Yarmouk University. Jordan. analyzing English as 2nd linguistic communication for more than 9 old ages. They were given three undertakings of communicating: image narrative stating. object designation and function drama.
In object designation. assorted images of objects from every twenty-four hours life were taken. The pupils were asked to call and depict them. They could foremost make it in their native linguistic communication and so utilize 2nd linguistic communication to pass on them. Picture narrative stating showed the narrative of an accident in 6 images. The scholars were asked to state the narrative as if it was related to them. It served the intent of narrating mundane incidents of life. Role drama undertaking involved learner A. who acted as a alien and scholar B was to move as an old indigen of the metropolis ( say London ) . The native scholar B was to work out the jobs of the scholar A. steering him to work out his jobs. The intent was to mensurate the comprehension of messages exchanged.
The deductions of the survey concluded that doing usage of effectual communicating schemes such as actual interlingual rendition. periphrasis. codification exchanging helped them go through comprehendible messages. Even weak scholars were able to make so. The success ratio of the message comprehension is straight related to the proficiency of the pupil.
The teacher’s function is to familiarise the scholars with communicating schemes and actuate them to take hazards and non be afraid of doing mistakes. Use of communicative schemes is utile in counterbalancing the deficiency of lingual cognition therefore assisting even weak scholars to convey messages successfully.
Practical Aspects of Teaching Pronunciation
In this Essay we aim at learning English Pronunciation to Secondary School Student of Age group 14 old ages and supra. Most of these Saudi pupils are introduced to English in Middle School. It is hence understood they do non hold exposure to English for many old ages.
English and Arabic
English and Arabic are two linguistic communications which vary extensively. The fluctuation is non merely in the sound used. but besides in the comparative importance of vowels and consonants showing their significances. English has 22 vowels and diphthongs to 24 consonants. while Arabic has 8 vowels and diphthongs to 32 consonants. English has far more harmonic bunchs than Arabic. Arabic does non hold matching harmonic equivalent to pr. pl. gr. thr. thw. sp. Three section bunchs being perfectly absent in Arabic like spr. skr. str. spl. In such a state of affairs Arabic talkers when talking English tend to infix short vowels to help pronunciation.
‘perice’ or ‘pirice’ for monetary value
‘ispring’ or ‘sipring’ for spring
‘arrangid’ for arranged.
Since Arabic linguistic communication is simple and virtually phonic and their letters stand for their sounds. Arabic talkers try to talk English utilizing the same phonic methods.
‘istobbid’ in Arab lingua for ‘stopped ‘ ( as the sound ‘p’ does non be in Arabic ) .
Pronunciation utilizing emphasis
In contrast to English. Arabic word emphasis. is regular and predictable. Stress can change the significance wholly as in con’vict ( verb ) and ‘convict ( noun ) . Often Arabic words spelled identically. intend wholly different things.
Phrase and sentence beat. being similar in both Arabic and English. do few jobs. In Arabic. primary emphasis occurs more often while unstressed syllables are pronounced more clearly. When Arab talkers use lifting tones. instead than structural markers for a inquiry. this pattern is frequently carried over to talk English. The modulation of the Arabic talkers to a low autumn. at the terminal of phrases. put it to a different beat and modulation from normal address. This may bring forth a really unnatural recitation. different and distinguishable from mundane address.
The grammar construction of Arabic. is really different from that of English and it influences the talkers. It is for this ground that Arabic talkers find it hard to hold on English nouns. verbs and adjectives. which follow no definite form. The handling of the pupils by the instructors aid the acquisition. depending on the attack or schemes undertaken to learn.
In such a context it is imperative that. certain guidelines be laid down by the ESL instructors to the pupils refering pronunciation. Good pronunciation comes from emphasizing the right words. It is because English is a time-stressed linguistic communication. Many other linguistic communications are considered syllabic. English focal points on specific stressed words and semivowels over non stressed words.
Stressed words are content words. e. g nouns – kitchen. Cargo. Peter.
Verbs as -visit. travel. come. Adjectives as – beautiful. stupid. new. Non-stressed words are function words like subsidiary verbs e. g. am. were. Prepositions-of. before. and Conjunctions- but. Pronouns- they. she. A pupil may be given some sentences to read.
The first undertaking to be done is to underscore the stressed words. Next. on reading aloud the focal point should be on stressed words and semivowel over the non-stressed words. By concentrating on stressed words. non-stressed words and syllables are frequently ‘swallowed’ in English. It is besides of import non to concentrate on articulating each word.
Classroom activities to Enhance Pronunciation
For a new scholar of English following the pronunciation chart is really utile. But for thesecondary school pupilswho are already familiar with these sounds. it is of import that the all right tuning of the pronunciation accomplishments be done. The category may be introduced to the fluctuations in the vowel sound. A list of sound of vowels given. when recited clarifies the difference in use of the vowel
Repeat of each of these words gives the pattern on the linguistic communication every bit good as Teachs
the pupils to distinguish the sounds. The ESL instructor may present pupils to the 26 letters of English alphabet that produce 44 sounds in the linguistic communication. which indicates that the figure of sounds in a word may be more or less than the figure of letters. Activities introduced in a schoolroom that may get down with bettering the vocabulary with –
Language Labshave been successful in Promotion of unwritten interlingual renditions from Arabic to English. The scholars have to work separately in the traditional linguistic communication research lab. The consequence showed that coincident reading from Arabic to English improves the public presentation of the scholar significantly.
Story Relation:Listening to a read aloud narrative with a prevue of background and revising the of import points in female parent lingua. promoted high developmental tonss in vocabulary.
A 1000 words image lexicon isfull in coloring material and offers the corresponding pages for vocabulary or pronunciation. Reinforcement activities suited for schoolroom or place usage are given on bordering pages. These have clear simple instructions and up-to-date art and artworks explicating more than thousand words. The chapters cover all facets of day-to-day life. doing pupils familiar with every twenty-four hours used words.
InVocabulary Acquisitionrepeated exposure to new lexical points utilizing a assortment of agencies helps in memorising the new words. Introducing the scholars to adaptable AIDSs of verbal. ocular. haptic memory AIDSs helps in the betterment of the ability to remember words. Since single pupils have his or her ain acquisition manners it is of import that they be given a broad array of schemes to take from. It boosts their consciousness of single acquisition manners doing them confident and independent scholars.
Secondary degree pupils may besides beread short narrativesin the schoolroom. Post reading feedback from the pupils may be gathered through. verbal ego coverage or station reading analysis of sense doing communicating. reflexiveness and re-contextualization.
Bettering the Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading Attitude of the Students
The job of hapless reading comprehension and deficiency of vocabulary cognition collected through standard trial tonss and teacher’s appraisal showed that the pupils lack exposure and cognition of vocabulary and schemes for larning new words. It besides showed that they need ample clip for free reading and read aloud Sessionss. To undertake the job the instructor spent more clip in read aloud activities and the pupils besides spent more clip in single soundless reading. The consequence indicated a steady growing in vocabulary of the pupils.
Secondary Students of Schools in Saudi Arabia are largely taught English from Middle School. Since they are more or less new to the linguistic communication they need particular counsel under ESL instructors to accomplish their mark linguistic communication. 2nd linguistic communication. Arabic has a standard pronunciation used fundamentally to read Quran. It is for this ground that native talkers of the linguistic communication find it really hard to larn to articulate English right. Yet without English. which is now an international linguistic communication it is really hard for modern pupils to remain connected with the outside universe. A newsman from a newspaper in Saudi Arabia. Intisar Al –Yamani in 2002 writes “Avoiding a linguistic communication that provides calling chances in future and is in itself a beginning of cognition in all topics non merely encourages ignorance but is a danger to our society at big. ”
Significance of learning and larning English as 2nd linguistic communication holds huge possibilities for the young person of the state. Therefore importance of larning it can ne’er be undermined.
Troubles Faced In Learning Second Language
The grade of trouble the scholars experience in larning 2nd linguistic communication depends on the complexness and difference of the native linguistic communication from the mark linguistic communication. Often the mistakes produced are of sentence structure and pronunciation due to intervention of the native linguistic communication besides known as L1 transportation. The interdentals. common in English ( the sound Thursday ) like thin. thing. the. this. that etc are comparatively rare in other linguistic communications. It is substituted with [ T ] or [ 500 ] by the talkers of other linguistic communication. English has more figure of vowel sounds. twelve glandular fever. eight diphthongs and two diphthongs. Arabic talkers have lesser figure of vowels. that excessively pure 1s merely. So they have jobs articulating these differentiations. Learners of 2nd linguistic communication frequently over pronounce unstressed vowels taking to an unnatural beat in pronunciation. English is a stress-timed linguistic communication in which the emphasis is laid at unvarying distances. Arabic uses phonetics based on its syllables. so the indigens do non hold any thought of clocking the emphasis in the new linguistic communication. There are many tenses in English with elusive differences. which a new scholar finds hard to larn.
Mistake Analysis and Correction
S. P. Corder in 1970 established the field of Error Analysis. Most of the jobs faced by scholars was due to incorrect illations made about the regulations. It has been observed that mistakes are systematic. while errors are non so. Mistakes may be omissive. linear or substitutive. In linguistic communication degree mistakes may be phonological mistakes. vocabulary mistakes. lexical mistakes and syntactic mistakes. The grade of these mistakes depends on the grade of intervention with the communicating. Global mistakes make words or vocalizations hard to understand. By analyzing the mistake. scholars talking and composing can be dealt with efficaciously but the hearing and reading mistakes can non be handled. It is for this ground and the turning away schemes of the scholar that these mistake analysis methods are still under consideration.
Mentions
Anna Marina. make Val Barros ( 2003 ) . Pronunciation Troubles in the Consonant System
Experienced by Arabic Speakers when larning English after the age of pubescence. Eberly college of Humanistic disciplines and Science. West Virginia University.
Altaha. F. ( 1995 ) . Pronunciation mistakes made by Saudi university pupils larning English: analysis and redress. ITL: Reappraisal of applied linguistics. 109- 123.
Australian Government ( 1978 ) . English a new linguistic communication: likely troubles of English pronunciation for Arabic talkers ( p. 1-43 ) .
Avery. P. . & A ; Ehrlich. S. ( 1992 ) . Teaching American English Pronunciation. Oxford University Press.
Kharma. N. . & A ; Hajjaj. A. ( 1989 ) . The sound system. Mistakes in English among Arabic talkers ( P. 11-19 ) Alfred Place. London.
Lenneberg. E. . ( 1967 ) . Biological foundations of linguistic communication. Wiley. New York.
Marzouk. G. ( 1993 ) . Some facets of phonological transportation from Arabic to English. Journal of the Irish Association for applied Linguists. ( p13 – 40 ) .
Murcia. M. . Brinton. D. . & A ; Goodwin J. ( 1996 ) . Teaching pronunciation. Cambridge University Press
Gahleeb Rababah & A ; Paul Seedhouse. Communication Strategies and Message Transmission with Arab Learners of English in Jordan. University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Arecls E-Journal Vol 1. Nov 2004.
Web sites Referred
World Wide Web. britishcouncil. org
World Wide Web. esl/about. com/od/intermediatevocabulary
World Wide Web. Indiana. edu/-reading/ieo/bibs/vocabrng. hypertext markup language
World Wide Web. cal. org/co/iraqi/ienglish. hypertext markup language
World Wide Web. bbc. co. uk/worldservice/learningenglish
hypertext transfer protocol: //esl. about. com/od/speakingenglish/a/8wspattern. htm
World Wide Web. arabnews. com
hypertext transfer protocol: //www. ericdigests. org
