Pronunciation Acquisition of the Inflectional Morpheme –ed in English by Nicaraguan Spanish Speakers

Angel Maria Davila

doi:10.23954/osj.v3i1.1516

Abstract

This descriptive non-experimental quantitative study investigated if the pronunciation of the –ed morphemeim proves as the English proficiency level develops. A random sampling design was used to recruit research participants. A target sample of 48 Nicaraguan English as a foreign language students were chosen from an accessible population (N= 91) to participate in this research. The participants’ age ranged from 18 to 24, with a mean age of 21 years. They belonged to three English proficiency levels: high beginners, intermediate, and high intermediate. Findings showed that more advanced English as a Foreign Language learners had a significantly higher pronunciation accuracy on the production of the allomorphs, /t/ and /d/. Their error rate on these two allomorphs was as low as 9% and 8%, respectively. Concerning the /əd, ɪd/ allomorph, no significant differences were found among proficiency levels. These results were interpreted in view of the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman, 1977) and the Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis (Major & Kim, 1996). The trends in the data definitely suggested support for the Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis which postulates that markedness by itself cannot explain the development of L2 learners as they improve their L2 proficiency level. This study offers implications for the teaching of the three phonological realizations of the -ed past tense inflection.

Highlights

Developing intelligible pronunciation is an objective that learners of English as a foreign language try to achieve
One of the linguistic difficulties that Spanish speakers face when learning English as a foreign language is the acquisition of the accurate pronunciation of the three phonological realizations of the inflectional morpheme that marks the past tense of regular verbs in English
This descriptive non-experimental quantitative study investigated two research questions: Does the pronunciation of the three phonological variations of the English past tense inflectional morpheme –ed improve with the level of English proficiency of EFL Spanish speakers? and Which of the three phonological realizations of the English past tense inflectional morpheme –ed is the most mispronounced? These research questions were examined in view of the theories Markedness Differential Hypothesis (MDH) (Eckman, 1977) and Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis (SDRH) (Major & Kim, 1996)

Summary

Introduction

Developing intelligible pronunciation is an objective that learners of English as a foreign language try to achieve. According to Jenkins (2004), Nation and Newton (2009), and Becker and Kluge (2014), intelligibility is a central element in making communication successful either with native speakers of the target language or other L2 speakers. In this respect, one of the linguistic difficulties that Spanish speakers face when learning English as a foreign language is the acquisition of the accurate pronunciation of the three phonological realizations of the inflectional morpheme that marks the past tense of regular verbs in English. Wrong production of the inflectional morpheme –ed can be explained by the absence oftense inflections in the L1 system, and may indicate that the knowledge of inflectional morphology in the learners’ L2 is not complete (Androutsopoulou et al, 2010)

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