Is it Possible for us, L” learners to achieve



How can L2 learners achieve good English pronunciation?

Asami　Kan and Miwako　Soda

Have you learnt English pronunciation properly? Normally, we study English for six years at junior high school and high school in Japan. However, we are sure that there are only a few students who study English pronunciation systematically at school. Do you think natives understand your English? Most natives in Japan are used to listening to Japanese English, so it seems like natives understand our English. However, it’s hard to say natives who have little experience of Japanese understand us. Therefore, to have effective communication with people from other countries, we want to think of the problems Japanese people face when pronouncing English and look at some of the effective ways of achieving better pronunciation.

Identify elements and features of English pronunciation

Elements

Phonemes: A phoneme is the smallest unit of speech that can be used to make one word different from another word, such as the “b” and the “p” in “big” and “pig.” We need to know English phonemes correctly to pronounce them clearly.

Vowels and Consonants: Japanese has 5 vowels (/a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/) and 14 basic consonants (/k/, /s/, /t/, /h/ /ɡ/, /z/, /d/, /b/ /p/ /n/, /m/, /r/ /j/, /w/) It’s not the same as English vowels and consonants. Every language has different number and types of vowels and consonants.

Each researcher has different opinion about classification of vowels and consonants. This time, let’s take a look at the IPA for English. IPA stands for International Phonetic Alphabet.

IPA for English chart ()

---------English vowels

English has 20 vowels. In detail, English vowels can be divided into three which are short vowel, long vowel, and diphthongs.

*Vowels

Here is a short vowel and long vowel chart with word examples. Horizontal axis shows horizontal movement of your mouth. Vertical axis shows vertical movement of your mouth.

|Vowels |

|  |← Mouth wider horizontally |Mouth narrower horizontally → |

|Mouth |iː |I   |ʊ |uː |

|narrower |sleep /sliːp/ |slip /slIp/ |book /bʊk/ |boot /buːt/ |

|vertically | | | | |

|  |e |ə |ɜː |ɔː |

| |ten /ten/ |after /aːftə/ |bird /bɜːd/ |bored /bɔːd/ |

|Mouth |æ |^ |ɑː |ɒ |

|wider |cat /kæt/ |cup / k^p/ |car  / cɑːr/ |hot /hɒt/ |

|vertically | | | | |

 

Diphthong means a vowel sound made by pronouncing two vowels quickly one after the other. Here is a diphthong chart with word examples.

|Diphthongs |

|Iə |eI |  |

|beer /bIə/ |say /seI/ | |

|ʊə |ɔI |əʊ |

|fewer /fjʊə/ |boy /bɔI/ |no /nəʊ/ |

|aeə |aI |aʊ |

|bear /beə/ |high /haI/ |cow /kaʊ/ |

----------English consonants

English has 24 consonants. English consonants’ sounds have voiced and unvoiced.

*Consonants

|Consonants |

p

pan /pæn/ |b

ban /bæn/ |t

tan /tæn/ |d

day /deI/ |ʧ

chat /ʧæt/ |ʤ

judge /ʤ^ʤ/ |k

key /kiː/ |g

get /get/ | |f

fan /fæn/ |v

van / væn/ |θ

thin /θIn/ |ð

than /ðæn/ |s

sip /sIp/ |z

zip / zIp/ |∫

ship /∫Ip/ |ʒ

vision /vIʒ^n/ | |m

might /maIt/ |n

night /naIt/ |ŋ

thing /θIŋ/ |h

height /haIt/ |l

light /laIt/ |r

right /raIt/ |w

white /waIt/ |j

yes /jes/ | |

Thus, Japanese and English do not have exactly the same phonemes, vowels and consonants. This difference makes it difficult for learners to learn English pronunciation.

Other features

There are many more features, but this time we’d like to explain four important features of English, that are stress, intonation, elision, and assimilation.

Stress: Stress gives rhythm to speech. The speaker chooses important words in each utterance and those words are stressed.

Let’s try! ---What’s the difference?---

I’d like a cup of mocha FRAPPUCCIONO.

I’d like a cup of MOCHA frappucciono.

I’d like a CUP of mocha frappucciono.

Intonation: Intonation is the way in which the pitch of the voice goes up and down in the course of an utterance.

Let’s try! ---What’s the difference?---

It’s a really boring movie, isn’t it? ↑（Rising）

( )

It’s a really boring movie, isn’t it?　↓(Dropping)

( )

Elision: Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase when two sounds are connected. This omission is happened because it is easier for speakers to pronounce. And also, it may sound euphonious for listeners.

e.g)

What time is it now?

I don’t know.

Assimilation: Assimilation is a phonological process, that is, the phonetics of a speech segment becomes that of another segment in a word.

e.g)

Don’t be silly!

Could you tell me why?

Japanese people’s problems

*Pronunciation: English Japanese people speak sounds differently or strangely for natives because English has many more phonemes than we have. (bat [bǽt], thing [θÍŋ], very [véri], zero [zí:rou]…)

English has 20 vowels and 24 consonants, but Japanese speakers have fewer than half of those in English. It is very easy to see that pronunciation is hard for Japanese people. Also, structure of the words between Japanese and English is different. For Japanese words, the order of the phonemes comes like CVCVCV (kuruma). Even though we pronounce the English words, we use Japanese way (system→sisutemu). And this is called Katakana English.

*Education system/style in Japan: The English education now in Japan tends to focus more on grammar and writing than communicative skills such as speaking and listening. Therefore, L2 learners usually do not have enough chances to use and learn communicative English.

Did you study pronunciation at junior high school or high school? We think we usually do not have chance to study pronunciation. It seems English education in Japan focuses on the entrance exams of high schools or universities. Not only pronunciation but also English education itself, it is a big problem because students forget what they studied after exams.

*Negative attitude: It seems many Japanese people have a negative attitude (hesitation etc) toward using English, and tend to speak Katakana English on purpose.(Teachers as well in case)This is because of the lack of confidence in speaking skill including pronunciation, and also, we feel shy to pronounce English in front of others. Japanese people care too much about how others think. This negative attitude and shyness make to say Japanese people's level of pronunciation is not very good. Natives think that Japanese people should pronounce English with confidence and big voice, and behave like natives when we speak.

Effective way to achieve better English pronunciation

*Listening and Shadowing: Listening is useful to get used to features and elements of English. We’d better to listen to English as much as we can. And when we are listening, you should follow tapes and CDs and try to imitate them.

*Read aloud: We can practice saying phonetic signs with a mirror in your hand carefully watching movement of your tongue. We can also practice reading junior high school text book which uses basic English vocabularies and rules.

!!! Before starting to read aloud, we need some examples. We think listening and shadowing can be good example. Therefore, please try to read aloud after these steps. And, it’s better to have our pronunciation checked and evaluated by teachers in order to motivate ourselves and get feedback about our pronunciation.

*With positive attitude: We should not hesitate when we are practicing pronunciation. A positive attitude is necessary for people who are studying foreign languages in order to not be afraid of making mistakes.

Conclusion: There are many obstacles about learning L2 pronunciation. Sometimes we cannot learn pronunciation because of phonetic difficulties. Sometimes we cannot learn because of lack of confidence. However, we can learn and practice English pronunciation with effort!!

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