Phonological Perversion as Detriment to Effective Use of Spoken English among Secondary School English Teachers in Non-Native Context

Oyinloye, Comfort Adebola,Fatimayin, Foluke,Fatola, Olugbenga Lasisi,Osikomaiya, Mojisola Olufunke

doi:10.22158/fet.v3n3p24

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of phonological perversion in the use of spoken English among secondary school English Teachers in Ogun State, Nigeria. The population of the study comprised all English Language teachers in the selected schools with the sample size of 120. The validated instruments used for collecting data were pronunciation test and questionnaire. A reliability index of 0.84 was achieved using Cronbach’s alpha. The data collected were statistically analyzed using frequency, percentages and t-test at 0.05 level of significant. The findings revealed that the English Language teachers in Ogun State whose language background is Yoruba had problems in pronouncing some English sounds, e.g., /v/ and /f/, /z/ and /s/, /ei/ and /e/, /i?/ and /ea/, /i:/ and /i/ and h-dropping (hard as add). It is recommended that Nigerian teachers of English Language be professionally developed in the rudiments of English sounds for intelligent communication.

Highlights

Language is the major tool of communication in human society and speech occupies a major position in most discussions of language as a communicative medium
If the goal of language learning is to communicate in the Target Language (TL), learners of English as a second language (ESL) should strive for intelligibility, comprehensibility and interpretability
The test consisted of a word list and a set of sentences all containing problematic phonemes for Yoruba speakers of English and the questionnaire consists of English teachers‟ perceptions towards the factors that are responsible for the phonological errors committed by English teachers The participants were asked to read aloud English words while the researcher audio recorded the responses

Summary

Introduction

Language is the major tool of communication in human society and speech occupies a major position in most discussions of language as a communicative medium. Learners need not to pronounce like native speakers of English but they need to have an accent that is close to a known standard, English teachers can use different kinds of models for teaching and learning pronunciation in English language. Okoye (2012), in line with Onwubiko (2011), stressed that mother tongue constraint has, in every possible assessment, endangered a staggering and persistent decline in the quality of English spoken in Africa This may make one to wonder why, in all levels of schools in Nigeria, many learners have so much difficulty with their communication skills in English such that they cannot function effectively in the academic use of English. The study identifies that five English consonants namely, the labio-dental voiceless fricative

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion