Abstract
The paper investigated the implications of the transcription systems of the English vowels for the Nigerian learner of English. It did a comparative analysis of some transcription systems of the English vowels. It found that many of the scholars of English phonetics tend to write out the symbols of the English sounds in different forms, largely dependent on their regional background. This, it was observed, usually leads to a multiplicity of symbols to represent the same sound. The paper noted that this usually causes confusion for the Nigerian L2 learner of English. It therefore suggested that an attempt should be made to create a uniform format of vowel representations in English to help the Nigerian EL2 learner have a better and easier mastery of the English sound system.
Highlights
The English transcription system is almost as varied as there are scholars doing the transcription
Some may be even as few as one or two being related. Many of these polarised transcriptions were found in the course of writing this paper. Even though all these transcription symbols might have been related to the International Phonetic Alphabets (IPA) chart, the fact is that the transcriptions of sounds by the scholars of English tend to follow their regional background as we will see in the analysed data below
The purpose is to find out the possible implications of these diverse transcription systems on the mastery ability of the L2 learner of the English language
Summary
The English transcription system is almost as varied as there are scholars doing the transcription. The variations between transcriptions are usually from the minimal to the major (cf Yule, 2010) What this means is that the differences at times may be as low as differentiations between two to three phonetic alphabets and as many as eight or ten. Some may be even as few as one or two being related Many of these polarised transcriptions were found in the course of writing this paper. Even though all these transcription symbols might have been related to the International Phonetic Alphabets (IPA) chart, the fact is that the transcriptions of sounds by the scholars of English tend to follow their regional background as we will see in the analysed data below
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