Factors Related to English Language Pronunciation

Abstract

Summary A list of 200 English monosyllables was pronounced by 28 Filipino speakers. Errors in pronunciation, as determined by whether or not the recorded words were perceived correctly by native American listeners, were found to be related to word frequency, phonetic difficulty, and the evaluative dimension derived from semantic differential analysis. Infrequently occurring words, words rated high in phonetic difficulty, and words poorly differentiated on the evaluative dimension were most often mispronounced. Pronunciation was not related to the imagery ratings assigned to the words. Low frontal and middle back vowels were especially difficult to pronounce, followed by initial consonants classified as stops and fricatives. While articulatory characteristics and familiarity (as indicated by word frequency) account for substantial error variance, the emotional connotation of words as assessed by the evaluative dimension appears to be a ubiquitous factor that may underlie transfer of pronunciation skills be...