Cantonese ESL Learners' Pronunciation of English Final Consonants

Abstract

This paper discusses Cantonese ESL learners' pronunciation of English final singleton consonants. Twelve learners at the intermediate and advanced levels participated in a recent research study, which included four different tasks: the reading of a word list of about 150 words, the description of about 100 pictures, the reading of three passages of about 250–350 words each, and a conversational interview. Words consisting of all the English permissible final singleton consonants in different preceding vowel environments were used for probing into the learners' interphonology. The participants' performance in each task was recorded and transcribed independently by two raters. The results of the study showed that the participants had most problems with the voicing contrasts of final obstruents. Other problems included the non-release of final plosives and the inaccurate articulation of certain fricatives and sonorant consonants, especially the lateral /l/. The preceding vowel environments of nasals and lateral were also found to be significant in determining the learners' acquisition of the segments concerned. It is suggested that ESL teachers should be aware of the sources of their students' problems as well as the relative gravity of the problems if they are to help their students overcome the problems effectively.