English Phonology Research Articles

The effects of phonics instruction on L2 phonological decoding and vocabulary learning: An experimental study of Chinese EFL learners

Phonological decoding – defined here as the ability to convert the written forms of an alphabetic writing system into the phonological forms they represent, using knowledge of the language's symbol-sound correspondences (SSC) – may play an important role in various aspects of second language (L2) learning, including the crucial task of vocabulary learning. Yet, many L2 learners appear to have low phonological decoding proficiency, even after extensive exposure to the language. Phonics instruction – explicit teaching of a language's SSC – has been found to improve phonological decoding amongst first language (L1) beginner readers. However, there is limited evidence concerning the effects of phonics instruction in L2. Addressing this gap, we conducted a quasi-experimental study in which two classes of first-year English majors (n = 71) in two Chinese universities received twelve weeks of English phonics instruction. A comparison group comprising parallel classes in the same universities (n = 67) received twelve weeks of instruction in English phonology, but without phonics. Pre- and post-tests measured participants' phonological decoding and vocabulary memorisation; the latter was assessed by immediate recall tests and recognition tests of the new words' phonological and orthographic forms. The phonics group significantly outperformed the comparison group in both post-tests, with medium effect sizes.

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN ENGLISH AND ARABIC PHONEMIC SYSTEM IN "JUST MISSING YOU" SONG LYRICS

This research is a contrastive analysis of phonemic system between English and Arabic in “Just Missing You” song lyrics. The objectives of the research are finding similarities and differences of phonemes in song lyrics to help students learn to pronounce English with Arabic phonemes. This research focus on 24 consonant and 20 vowel phonemes in English and 28 consonant and 6 vowel phonemes in Arabic. The research method is descriptive contrastive with qualitative approach. The method design contrast the phoneme between English and Arabic in song lyrics based on the type of phonemes, they are articulatory phonetic for consonant and height, part of tongue, and shape of lips for vowel. The result of the research found the similarities between English and Arabic phonemic system in “Just missing you” song lyrics which consist of 18 consonant and 6 vowel phonemes. The differences between English and Arabic phonemic system in “Just Missing You” song lyrics consist of 8 consonants and one vowel.

The untapped potential of human language: Investigating the perception of typologically unattested and rare consonants

Though research into this area is scarce, the perception of rare and unattested consonants has potential for research in speech phonotactics and pronunciation, especially in relation to the creation of ConLangs which typically use non-native’ sounds in their phonological inventories. Previous studies explored the “nativeness” of rare/ non-English phonemes (Davidson, 2005; Linzen and Gallagher, 2017) or conducted ABX tests to gauge perceptual similarity (Noguchi and Hudson Kam, 2017; Pisoni et al., 1982). This paper explores why rare and unattested phonemes may be less common in speech today by using a variation of the ABX methodology. Using information from PHOIBLE (Moran and McCloy, 2019), each question contained three distinct sounds: a common phoneme, an English phoneme, and a rare/unattested phoneme (e.g., a palatal tap). The participant would then pick which sound (either 1 or 2) was most like the third “hook” phoneme (sound 3). Sounds 2 and 3 would then swap, creating a new “hook.” Similarity identification relative to sound 1 was analysed via logistic regression in R. Notably, several unattested phonemes were chosen over the opposing sound to a significance rate of p > 0.05, with a proportion of rare phonemes also being chosen to a degree of significance over English sounds.

Production and perception of English phonemes for Chinese college students

The production and perception of English vowels and consonants were measured for Chinese college students who started their English education from 9 to 13 years old. In the production experiment, 12 English vowels were recorded in the /hVd/ context and twenty one English consonants were recorded in /aCa/ context for each participant. In the perception experiment, participants were asked to identify English vowels in /hVd/ and English consonants in /aCa/ that were produced by a young female American English native speaker. In both production and perception, vowels were markedly more challenging than consonants with vowel production and perception scores around 60% and consonant production and perception approximately 90%. Moreover, there was a significant correlation between consonant production and perception, but not between vowel production and perception. These results indicate that Chinse college students’ main difficulty in English phonetic production and perception are vowels rather than consonants at simple phonetic contexts like /VCV/ and /CVC/ structures. The second language learning models will be discussed to interpret these findings. [Work supported by the Open Project Fund from the National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning at Beijing Normal University, China, and University of Texas at Austin Research Grant.]

English Phonetics and Phonology: A Blended Learning Design Plan

English Phonetics and Phonology: A Blended Learning Design Plan

ENGLISH and ARABIC SIGN LANGUAGE PHONOLOGY and MORPHOLOGY

This visual-manual modality is used in sign language to transfer meaning. Sign language is strongly related to manual groups of deaf people.Sign language is used by deaf people for a very long time, most written records about sign language trace based to the fifth century.
 Sign languages are seen as complex as many spoken language besides they are not real language as most people think.
 Sign languages are thought to be mime in some words, typical and arbitrary. It is not important for this type of language to have a visual relationship to their references. Spoken language is quite different from iconicity while the first is not onomatopoetic, the second is more systematic and more common use in sign language.

Online Learning of English Phonology in Saudi Arabia: Investigating College Students’ Perceptions during the Pandemic Period

EFL curricula in Saudi Arabia are very comprehensive, with all components of language included in the syllabus. Phonology, or the study of speech sounds, is especially significant in the context of foreign language learning, given its central role in verbal communication. Accuracy of production is a factor of precision in the instruction, which brings in its offing learning challenges in the virtual mode. In the wake of the Covid-19 imposed norms EFL education in Saudi Arabia has undergone drastic changes, giving education new dimensions that deserve investigation. The current study investigates learner perceptions of English phonology online instruction to check its efficacy in the changed paradigm. The study is quantitative in nature, the participants are undergraduate female EFL learners at Qassim University, and the instrument is an online survey. Measurements over six factors indicate that the sample population hold positive perspectives for English phonology virtual learning, the feature that they demonstrate the highest positive attitude for is the teacher’s interactive role, whereas pair and group discussion find the least favor with them. The study has long term implications in foreign language learning environments of the future as virtual learning appears to be here to stay.

The Phonosemantics of the Sibilant Sounds of the Arabic and English Languages

Understanding the general meaning of phonemes and their combinations helps to guess the meaning of unknown words intuitively. The aim of this paper is to examine a group of Arabic as well as English phoneme combinations as examples to prove they have some specific common meaning, a so-called DNA that can be traced in all given words. Thus, a group of selected words were chosen from the Holy Qur'an whose language represents the Classical Arabic variety. It has been assumed that the relationship between phonemes and what they signify is non-arbitrary. It is determined that certain consonant combinations retain their meanings. Thus, upon closer examination, words that are not similar to one another but which have identical consonant phonemes combinations bear an element of meaning which is absent in words not containing such combinations.

English and Arabic Vowels: Ferreting Out the Similarity for Bridging Pronunciation Accuracy

<p><em>This study aimed at exploring the similarity between Arabic and English vowel sounds that may benefit Indonesians to pronounce some English vowels. This investigation approached whether their Arabic acquisition could facilitate their learning target language, which is English. To come up with the sought-after similarities, requiring an in-depth study on the existing literatures discussing the phonetic features of those two languages was the step to take. Accordingly, an archival study was selected and employed as a qualitative research design supported by the secondary data analysis method. Several kinds of literatures as the data sources were comprising scholarly journal articles, theory books of Arabic and English phonology, and proceedings. All of the data were available online and were readily accessed through several search-engine platforms; one of which was Google Scholar. The data collection process involved identifying the data set, evaluating the data set, tabulating, and synthesizing the data. The findings have articulated that English and Arabic languages have lax/short and tensed/long vowels. The short vowels comprised /ʌ/; /ɪ/; and /ʊ/. Meanwhile, the long vowels encompassed /a:/, /i:/, and /u:/. This sort of similarity has conveyed the notion of linguistic proximity, which contributes to language transfers upon acquiring the target language.</em><em></em></p>

Neutralization in English phonology

In English phonology, neutralization can be considered a process which incorporates a phonemic distinction‟s elimination in a complete context of phonology. The classic example of neutralization is the neutralization of a word-final voicing contrast. If there is phonetically complete neutralization occurs, then there should be phonetically identical two surface forms. In the present study, the main aim is focusing on phonological neutralization while considering the role of phonetic and phonological representations in the perception and production of human speech. The study finds out that there is neutralization, but not always all word-final voice contrast can be neutralized (despite the devoicing rule‟s operation). Moreover, the study finds out that all the rules of phonology can be applied in such a way that where neutralization can be seen and allowing underlying distinctions since, neutralized word can to be preserved or recovered.

Challenges in the perception of L2 English phonemes by native speakers of Cypriot Greek

Research into non-native speech perception performance suggests that adults encounter difficulties discriminating segmental distinctions that are not used contrastively in their first language. Current theoretical models suggest that these difficulties are related to the acquisition of a native speech system but diverge in whether the perceptual mechanisms operate on acoustic or articulatory information. The present research addresses: (1) the difficulties Cypriot Greek (CGR) listeners of L2 English encounter with English vowels and consonants, and (2) the effect of extra-linguistic (i.e. age, gender, years of learning L2 English, educational setting, age of onset, reported use in the L2, visits to English-speaking countries) and linguistic factors (word frequency, word length, syllable number) on the perception of vowels and consonants in L2 English. A task involving two discrimination tests assessed native CGR listeners’ perception of English contrasts for vowels and consonants. Overall, listeners performed slightly better when dealing with consonants compared to vowels, significant effects have been reported. Concerning the examined factors, age, gender, years of L2 instruction, and years of experience have been reported to have significant effects, especially on speech perception of consonants. Specifically, the findings suggest that acoustic cues such as voicing and vowel length, which are relevant for native speakers of English, may not be for non-native speakers, in this case for CGR L1 speakers.

An Acoustic Way to Support Japanese Children’s Effective English Learning in School Classrooms

In this paper, the importance of implementing good acoustic conditions in classrooms using sound amplification systems is investigated to support more effective English education for elementary school children. To date, the failure of educating English as a second language at Japanese schools has been demonstrated by poor English conversation ability of those who completed a compulsory six-year English language course at Japanese junior-high and high schools (age 12–18). To amend the situation, teaching English became compulsory at grade three (age 8–9) and above at most Japanese elementary schools in the 2020 academic year. We conducted acoustic measurements of two types of sound amplification systems, a pair of PC loudspeakers and another with a loudspeaker array, in a typical classroom at an elementary school in Japan. We also analysed English listening test results of 216 Japanese native children (age 11–12) who were learning English in their usual classes in Japan, to compare the effects of those two systems. Results of logistic regression analysis adjusted by the discrimination difficulty of word pairs demonstrated the statistically significant association between correct answer rate of the English tests and classroom acoustic factors. Although, on average, upgrading the sound amplification system had positive effects on the correct answer rate, it also had a negative impact when the word pairs had English phoneme contrasts that do not appear in Japanese phoneme structure. Combined with the acoustic measurements’ results, it was also revealed that heterogeneous sound fields that depend on seat positions could be compensated using sound amplification systems with loudspeaker arrays. Our findings suggest that improvement of both acoustic quality and teaching methods is required for children to acquire English communication skills effectively in their classroom.

Abdominal enhancement techniques for L2 English phoneme pronunciation: Comparing the effectiveness of the techniques for Mandarin and Cantonese speakers

Production of certain English phonemes relies heavily on effort from the abdominal region, and under-utilization of this region by second language English speakers can create difficulties pronouncing these sounds. In particular, production of long vowel/diphthong sounds requires sustained abdominal contraction to maintain the length of these phonemes, and production of voiced fricative consonants requires a sharp burst of abdominal effort to expel air from the lungs to adequately voice the consonant. Both Cantonese and Mandarin speakers have particular problems producing these phonemes, and this study compared how instruction in the abdominal techniques effected production of these sounds by these two learner groups. The study focused on the vowel and diphthong sounds, /iː/, /uː/ and /eɪ/, and the voiced fricative consonants, /z/,/ð/, /v/ and /ʒ/. A previous study by the author had found the abdominal techniques improved Chinese learners’ production of these phonemes. The learners in that study were evenly divided between Mandarin and Cantonese speakers, and this study reanalysed the data to examine which speaker group benefited more from these abdominal techniques. Results showed that the Mandarin speakers were the major beneficiaries of the techniques. Importantly, the study also explored, in depth, likely reasons for this.

Does English orthography influence bilingual Spanish readers? The effect of grapheme crosslinguistic congruency and complexity on letter detection

Phonemic correspondences for a particular grapheme are not always congruent across languages. Also, some complex graphemes can be found in some languages but not in others. The purpose of this study is to determine if the congruency and complexity of English graphemes influence letter detection in L2 learners. We further investigated whether age group (7-, 9- and 11-year-old children, and university undergraduates) determines the size of these effects. Participants completed two different letter detection tasks using the mouse-tracking paradigm. Results from Experiment 1 indicate that only younger children are slightly affected by incongruent graphemes. Results from Experiment 2 show that all readers perform worse with complex graphemes. L2 learners interiorize English phonology at early stages, being barely affected by their native Spanish language. Importantly, L2 learners decode complex graphemes similarly to native English readers. Interpretations based on the BIA-d model are discussed.

English Phonemic Awareness of Students with Visual Disabilities

Most of researches have reported the significance of English phonemic awareness to the success of learning English, but less discussions involving students with visual disabilities. Students with visual disabilities lacks of visual input and form a strong sensitivity to audio input, researches have reported that this condition affect their spelling ability, yet, their ability in recognizing English phonemes has been less explored especially in Indonesia. Thus, this research aims to describe the phonemic awareness of students with visual disabilities who learn English as Foreign Language. The participants of this research are students with visual disabilities whether active or passive braille user. 7 students with visual disabilities participated in an Online English Phonemic Awareness Test. Two independent raters rated the data independently. Interrater agreement was applied to ensure the objectivity of two independent interrater. The findings show that students with visual disabilities are aware of consonants Fricative alveolar, Plosive bilabial, and Plosive alveolar sounds but struggling with Fricative velar and Affricative velar sound, they are also aware of vowels Close mid front vowel, Close front long vowel sounds, Close mid back vowel and Open central vowel but struggling in identifying Open back vowel, Close mid central vowel, and Open mid back vowel. English phonemic awareness is a very important basic thing in language learning. However, it will be very challenging for ESL learners, especially those who learn are blind students because of certain obstacles that blind students have so that strategies are needed in language learning.

Spoken English Assessment Using Confused Phoneme Assessment Model

Under normal circumstances, in the process of evaluating the phoneme of spoken English which is easy to be confused, it is impossible to accurately assess the oral ability of different groups of people according to their oral ability. The assessment process has problems of poor robustness and low stability. We propose a spoken English assessment method based on an easily confused phoneme assessment model to address these problems. We design an English easily confused phoneme-based evaluation model in the proposed framework by adopting fuzzy logic for the assessment task. We also present HPD set for confused phonemes and introduce the easily confused phonemes in spoken English. Moreover, we derive four fuzzy measure assessment grades of E/G/NI/GR and present the assessment model for them. We continuously recognize and annotate spoken English to find the best-matched statement and complete the recognition and assessment of easily confused phoneme. Then, we also focus on spoken English assessment based on an easily confused phoneme assessment model. Empirical results demonstrate the superior performance of our proposed models over the conventional evaluation methods. Our proposed models improve the spoken English assessment method by 30% and the stability by 45%. Besides, our model is also suitable for the spoken English assessment of different groups of people.

A Reassessment of the Influence of Igbo Segmentals and Their Implications on the Teaching and Learning of English Sounds

This paper reassessed the influence of Igbo segmentals on the teaching and learning of English sounds in the University of Nigeria Nsukka. It aimed to determine the extent to which phonological interference in Igbo language has negatively influenced the teaching and learning of the English phonemes. The study was anchored on Lado’s (1957) theory of Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH). The data for study were elicited from a ten-item questionnaire which was randomly distributed to 50 First Year students of the Department of English, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Again, the findings of previous researches were utilized to contrastively augment the primary data. Using both simple percentage system and Lado’s framework, the data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results showed that the recommendations of previous researches were yet to be fully implemented because there are still cases of language transfer at the level of phonology, particularly, the segmental level. Thus a good number of suggestions and recommendations were made to alleviate the problem.

A Contrastive Study of English and Arabic Vowel Phonemes

Consequently, the present study sheds light on a very important aspect that is a contrastive analysis of segmental vowel phonemes of both L1 and L2. As one of the Problems, that is affecting the teaching/learning process of ELT. Then to clarify the different areas between the segmental vowel phonemes of Arabic and English. It also aims at making a comparative segmental analysis in the vowel phonemes of both L1 - L2, in order to shed light on the areas of difficulties. Taking into account the different forms of sounds in relation to their spellings. Also the sound systems of both languages L1 and L2. Particular the areas of common mistakes. Thus, it encourages teachers to check English pronunciation before teaching and predict problems before they happen. Also the use of advanced methods and pronunciation dictionary for (IPA). It also helps learners to master all the significant sound features and basic structural patterns. On the phonological levels, differences cause difficulties e.g. The areas of Arabic /p/ and /v/ ,and English front vowels phonemes /i:/-/i/- /e/- /æ/, central /ə:/- /ə/-/Λ/,and back/a:/-/o/-/ ﬤ:/-/u/-/u:/ phonemes in English, they do not exist in Arabic. In addition to the English vowel /e/ which doesn’t exist in Arabic. This observation can't be only linguistically, but it will also confirm by L2 learners. These theories need to be clarified in order to allow rules to be expressed. In the English language, there are 26 alphabetical letters which are totally different than their sounds. Another drawback is the alphabetical method which is intended to teach reading by means of spelling. There is no one –to- one correspondence between sounds and letters. That is to say, each different sound cannot be represented by the same letter. There are also words which are spelt differently but sound the same. Therefore, the present study concentrates on the difficulties that Learners and beginners face in using English segmental vowel phonemes. It also tries to get new methods and new ideas. This study is based on the practical experience of the writer, being specialized in English phonology, a lecturer and an author of a phonetics textbook for beginner learners who learn English as a foreign language. And as a supervisor who follows undergraduate students in the field of experience. That is, in order to find out possible remedial solutions, better suggestion and recommendations. Then follows a descriptive method to achieve this purpose. With the sample of twenty student girls. As a case study of undergraduate trainees of Majmaah Universitiy in the training field, to collect data from the subjects’ real environment during talks, speeches, presentations and teaching in the Field Experience. The results were recorded to be analyzed. In particular, the areas of English vowels and diphthongs that are totally different than in Arabic.

ENGLISH PHONOLOGY FOR LANGUAGE LEARNERS: EXPLORING LEARNERS’ PREFERENCES

English Phonology is an absolutely necessary subject that should be mastered by foreign language learners in learning English. It is taught mostly at university level. However, there are still many students who are not aware of how important learning English Phonology is and less interested in learning this subject. There also has been little study that concerns students' preferences in learning English Phonology whereas knowing students’ preferences on topics or themes used in learning materials is a good step to make better learning outcomes. This study aims to investigate the most and least preferred topics and themes by EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students during English Phonology learning. This was a descriptive quantitative research by using a cross-sectional survey design. The data was collected with questionnaire from 112 participants of English Education Study Program students. The result showed phonological process pattern in English becoming the most preferred topic and theme while segmental phonology becoming the least preferred topic and theme in learning English Phonology.

Attitudes toward English phonetics learning: a survey on Indonesian EFL learners

Indonesian EFL learners face challenges in comprehending English phonemes as it becomes one of the significant predictors of English literacy. Hence, the English Phonetics subject is considered one of the most difficult ones, making the teaching and learning process less effective. Addressing Indonesian EFL learners’ attitudes toward English phonetics teaching is significant to improve phonetics teaching, yet, research on this has not received much attention. This present study was conducted to explore EFL learners’ attitudes toward English phonetic learning. A quantitative approach with survey design was employed involving 112 Indonesian EFL students. The researchers identified students’ attitudes using an adapted questionnaire from Lintunen and Mäkilähde (2015). Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 was utilized to analyze the data. The results indicate that Indonesian EFL students perform positive attitudes toward English phonetic learning, although they confess that phonetics is challenging. It implies that phonetics learning is potential and promising to support their English fluency; hence, lecturers need to make phonetics Learning more enjoyable, easier and participating in drawing the students' full engagement by considering their preferences and attitude toward phonetics learning.