English Language Pronunciation Research Articles

Phonetic Spelling Algorithm Implementations for R

The phonics package provides several functions for indexing words by their English language pronunciation. Over nearly one hundred years, many different algorithms have been developed to support word and name indexing. From Soundex, developed in the early 20th century and predating the digital computer, through to modern digital phonetic algorithms like Phonex, the phonics package provides support for more than a dozen methods. Together, these provide phonetic algorithms appropriate for use in name indexing and name matching across a variety of English language use cases.

Computer-Mediated English Language Pronunciation Learning in Nigerian Classroom Setting

This paper examined and analyzed pupils’ proficiency in oral English with or without exposure to computer. It investigated the ways pronunciation deficiency can be resolved through Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Finally, it determined the influence of computer-mediated learning on the subjects’ proficiency in oral English. The paper aimed at exploring possible solutions to pronunciation deficiency of users of English as a second Language (ESL) in Nigeria. The study sample included JSII and SSII classes in a selected Local Government in Osun State. They were divided into two groups of 20 Experimental and 20 Controlled. Questionnaires were given to elicit information on their level of computer knowledge and exposure to English. A pre-test was conducted to test the subjects’ level of pronunciation knowledge before the experiment was carried out. After six weeks of teaching the Experimental Group (EG) with computer- mediated learning method, and the Control Group (CG) using the traditional method, a post test was administered. The second comparison was between the Experimental and Controlled groups in the post-test. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data and the underlying theory was Warshauer and Healey (1998). The result shows disparity in performances of the two groups.

Students' Conceptual Mindfulness about Learning Pronunciation at College Level

The study highlights students' conceptual mindfulness about learning pronunciation at college level. The objective of the study were; 1) to find out the usefulness of English language pronunciation among college students, 2) to highlight students' problems in the way of learning English pronunciation at college level and 3) to find out the perceptions of students toward English pronunciation competence at college level. It was a descriptive study and questionnaire was used as a research tool. All the college students in the three districts (Okara, Pakpattan & Sahiwal) were included in the population. Fifty college students took from each district through simple random sampling techniques. So, the total sample of the study was 150 college students from three districts. Data was analyzed and find the mean score value for all the statement and then marked the mean score value with Levels of opinion. The results of the study informed us that learning the pronunciation of the 2nd language is difficult but not impossible; little concentration, practice and hard work is required to learn pronunciation of English language. It is concluded that four integrated skills; reading, listening, writing and speaking should be used in the teaching learning process for pronunciation and also used the 'listen and repeat' technique should be used.

Lingua Franca Core: A Plausible Option?

One important decision that English language teachers should make is to decide on a pronunciation model. This decision should be based not only on mere preference, but also on technical information. This paper seeks to review the Lingua Franca Core (LFC), a pronunciation model proposed by Jennifer Jenkins (1998, 2000) in an attempt to facilitate communication for L2 speakers. This paper also presents a set of reactions that her proposal has prompted in scholars in the area of teaching English language pronunciation. Such reactions are the manifestation of rejection of the LFC which is based on a number of arguments. First, there is no agreement as to the number of interactions that occur in English in L1 and L2 contexts. Thus, the predominant use of L2 speakers of English is questioned. Secondly, the advantage of the intelligibility of non-native speakers over native speakers in interaction with other non-native speakers is also subjected to scrutiny. Finally, a special focus on implications for the L1-Spanish-speaking learner of English is proposed, as well as for English language teachers who teach pronunciation. For instance, a series of issues which could facilitate the learner’s workload is discussed. One the other hand, the implementation of the LFC implies that the amount of work to be done by the teacher would be drastically increased. This necessarily entails a disadvantage in terms of both time and teaching materials to be allocated by the English Language Teaching (ELT) professional.

O WhatsApp como ferramenta para a prática oral e escrita em língua inglesa

The new technologies are applied in the education context through an amount of resources and interaction tools by students and teachers. In this way, this study aims at analyzing the oral and written production of students from a Simple Present activity in the WhatsApp; as well as, evaluating the pronunciation in English Language of these students. As methodological procedures, the study used bibliographical, field, experimental and analytical research, being developed with graduating members of an English Language course offered in a University in North of Parana. As results, it was observed that the activity was acquired by a large part of the students, proving that the use of technologies in the classroom contributes to students’ foreign language learning. Based on this research, it is expected to offer a contribution to the foreign language area, as a way to motivate teachers to carry out classroom activities in which students could practice their orality using the new technologies.

The Usage of Smartphone in Improving English Language Pronunciation at University Level

Learning correct pronunciation is a challenging job for second language learners. Learning correct pronunciation is possible only by the continuous effort in listening and practicing the Received Pronunciation, the most prestigious and standards accents of British English. Smartphones help the learners to speak English with pronunciation. The current research study was an effort to explore the usage of smartphones in improving English language pronunciation at the university level. Descriptive and quantitative research method was used in this study. Data were collected through a questionnaire that had close-ended items. Questionnaires were distributed among 383 learners studying in 6 universities of Punjab, Pakistan. Data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 22.0) to find out results in the form of frequency percentage, mean sore and standard deviation by applying the independent sample t-test. The results of the study demonstrated that using smartphones actually helps in improving students pronunciation due to continuous listening to authentic online audio videos materials. Eventually, students learn to pronounce English words individually and in connected speech like that of native speakers of English.

Bungled Pronunciation of English in Colleges of Punjab, Pakistan: A Survey Along with its Ramifications

The prime and predominant objective of this study is to investigate and analyze the botched pronunciation of English language words prevalent in public and private sector colleges of Punjab, Pakistan. We have discussed that, what are the key factors which are responsible for such botched and poor pronunciation. The paper has surfaced the bungled pronunciation got through an oral questionnaire. The paper has identified the major pitfalls embedded in English language pronunciation while pointing out why it is happening and where the problem lies. A comparative study regarding public colleges of those countries where English is secondary language viz. India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Students of different subjects and teachers of different subjects having teaching experience of several level have been taken on board. Altogether 30 govt. in-service public sector college teachers and 40 teachers from private sector colleges responded to the questionnaire; and 117 students from private and public sector colleges tendered responses. The study has underpinned the English language skill of the teachers by pinpointing that what weightage pronunciations bears in English language skill.

The Effect of Facebook Activities on Enhancing Oral Communication Skills for EFL Learners

This study investigated the effect of utilizing Facebook activities on enhancing oral communication skills for English as Foreign Language learners (EFL) in the English Department at Yarmouk University, Jordan. Participants of the study were first year English Language Bachelor degree students who speak English as a foreign language. The researcher hypothesized that if these learners practiced Facebook activities, their oral communication skills may be improved. For answering questions of the study, the researcher designed a pre-post oral communication skills test to determine the participants’ mastery of oral communication skills. Furthermore, she uploaded the activities on a Facebook account that were made available for all the participants of the study. Results revealed that the suggested Facebook activities were effective on improving participants’ oral communication skills. Then the study recommended that Facebook activities may be utilizing on improving other skills such as speaking and listening or even English language pronunciation.

The Superiority and the History of English Language Pronunciation Teaching

The Superiority and the History of English Language Pronunciation Teaching

The effectiveness of social media network telegram in teaching English language pronunciation to Iranian EFL learners

AbstractIn recent years, the expansion of digital technologies, multimedia, and social networks, dramatically transformed our lives. Education in general and the area of foreign language teaching and learning have also benefited hugely from those developments and advances. As a result, the face of language learning is changing and new technologies provide language learners and teachers with tools and opportunities unimaginable before. Current study examined the effectiveness of using social media network Telegram® in teaching English language pronunciation to Iranian EFL learners. Participants of this study included 30 Iranian EFL learners (in two experimental (N = 14) and control (N = 16) groups) who received different treatments over the four weeks. The results of pre-test and post-test revealed that the pronunciation of participants in experimental group improved significantly compared to control group but we found no significant improvement in pronunciation of participants in experimental group from p...

The Bold and the Beautiful: How Aspects of Personality Affect Foreign Language Pronunciation

This paper reports on a study into the inter-relationships amongst foreign language pronunciation, mimicry ability and a range of personality and attitudinal factors. It will begin with a brief review of studies into affective influences on pronunciation ability (Arnold 1999, Hu & Reiterer 2009) and research into the importance of mimicry talent (Jilka 2009; Piske, MacKay & Flege 2001). This will be followed by a short description of a pilot study carried out prior to the main experiment. In the main study, a group of Polish learners of English completed a number of mimicry tasks in three languages: Italian, Dutch and Chinese, as well as a narration task in English. Mimicry performance and English pronunciation were then assessed by native speakers and compared. Participants also completed a questionnaire concerning their feelings about the languages they were to mimic and a second questionnaire designed to detect affective factors such as language learning anxiety, as well as attitudes towards the pronunciation of Polish and English. The pilot study suggested that the perceived attractiveness of the foreign language to be mimicked did not affect the performance of most participants, and that mimicry skill was fairly constant across languages. However, those who were particularly concerned about their personal appearance showed greater fluctuation in their ability to mimic and their performance appeared to be influenced by their attitude towards the language. This is referred to by the author as the Cecily effect. That study also confirmed the results of my previous experimental work showing that mimicry skill is correlated to some degree with English language pronunciation and that both pronunciation and mimicry are negatively affected by high levels of anxiety. The main study sets out to investigate whether or not these conclusions hold true for a larger sample population and also seeks to determine the effect of confidence and willingness to take risks on scores for both foreign language pronunciation and mimicry exercises.

Drama in the Language Lab – Goffman to the Rescue

Between 2011 and summer 2014 I taught Irish in the Modern Irish Department of University College Cork (UCC). I spent one hour a week with each of my two second year groups in the language lab throughout the academic year. Ostensibly, my task was to teach the students to pronounce Irish according to Munster Irish dialects. It was decided to use Relan Teacher software for this purpose. My main objective was to teach traditional Irish pronunciation and thus to struggle against the tide of the overbearing influence of English language pronunciation which is becoming an increasing threat to traditional spoken Irish. Achieving good pronunciation of Irish language sounds, where there is strong interference from English, is not easy. For many students there is no difference between an English /r/ and an Irish /r/. Irish has a broad and slender /r/ depending on the nearest vowel. Many students do not even acknowledge that Irish has to be pronounced differently and this is a tendency that seems to be gathering momentum. The question I asked at the beginning of my research was how could I cultivate a communication context in which students would start to use sounds they had been rehearsing in ...

Adopting a musical intelligence and e-Learning approach to improve the English language pronunciation of Chinese students

This study investigates the use of musical intelligence to improve the English pronunciation of Chinese third level students. It is relevant for a human-centred systems engineering approach to cross-cultural interaction. Language learning is important as valid communication can help interactions and cultural understanding between countries, this also may benefit international stability. There are natural barriers between the English and Chinese language which are reflected in teaching approaches. The teaching of English in Chinese classrooms is removed from real-world English learning environments. The academic environments and approaches focus on the learning of grammar, spelling and writing with little real-life conversation and interaction with native English speakers. English language learning in China is from a more academic perspective rather than practical utilisation. Correct pronunciation and accent is therefore diminished. This study demonstrates that a musical intelligence e-Learning approach can benefit Chinese English language students.

Relationship of English Pronunciation with Intelligence

In this study an attempt was made by the researchers to find the relationship of backwardness in English pronunciation with intelligence. The study was conducted on a sample of 350 students of class 9th from both the Government and Public schools situated in Nawanshahr. Standard Progressive Matrices by Raven and diagnostic test were administered to all students. It was found that there exists positive relationship between intelligence and correct pronunciation of words. The more intelligent the student, the less is he prone to committing errors in English pronunciation. The urban students have better command over pronunciation in English language than rural students. The students studying in public schools have better command over pronunciation in English language than students studying in govt. schools.Further it was also found that the male and female students do not differ significantly over the pronunciation in English language.

Non-native Pre-service English Language Teachers Achieving Intelligibility in English: Focus on Lexical and Sentential Stress

The aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of ‘intelligible pronunciation’ Turkish pre-service English language teachers may need to develop as to both lexical and sentential stress patterns in English prior to their professional careers. Turkish language, a syllable-timed language, differs from English, a stress-timed language, and such a difference is likely to cause difficulties for Turkish pre-service teachers of English in mastering intelligible pronunciation in English. Thus pre-service English language teachers may need to receive specific training concerning the placement of lexical and sentential stress in English due to the diverse features of English language pronunciation. This paper therefore attempts to outline the major lexical and sentential stress patterns of English prospective English language teachers are expected to acquire before graduation from English Language Teaching (ELT) departments in the Turkish context.

Design and Development of Multimedia Pronunciation Learning Management System for Non-Native English Speakers

Pronunciation continues to grow in importance because of its central roles in speech communication and speaker identity. However, correct pronunciation has been the concern among non-native English speakers as they tend to carry the intonation, phonological processes and pronunciation rules from their mother tongue into the pronunciation of English language. To address the issues of mispronunciation, this study designs and develops the Multimedia Pronunciation Learning Management System (MPLMS) by digitising the universally agreed system of phonetic symbols with full face motions or mouth movements. This paper discusses the design and development of the MPLMS based upon Alessi and Trollip's instructional system design model.

Improving English Pronunciation Through Computer-Assisted Programs In Jordanian Universities

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of using computer- assisted programs for teaching English pronunciation on students' performance in English Language pronunciation in Jordanian universities. To achieve the purpose of the study, a pre/post-test was constructed to measure students' level in English pronunciation. The sample of the study consisted of 149 third year students; (73) male students and (76) female students from Al Zaytoonah university during the second semester of the academic year 2010/2011. The subjects of the study were distributed into two groups (experimental and control). The experimental group was trained on English pronunciation using computer-assisted program while the control group was trained using the printed material. Descriptive statistical analyses were used (means and standard deviation) for the pre and post- tests of students' English pronunciation. Comparison statistical methods were used (Two Way ANOVA) analysis of variance to make a comparison between the control and the experimental groups and gender variable (male and female). The findings of the study indicated that there were statistically significant differences in the post- test between the control and the experimental groups in favor of the experimental group, and there was no statistically significant difference in the students' performance due to gender.

Adopting a Musical Intelligence and eLearning Approach to Improve the English Language Pronunciation of Chinese Students

This study investigates the use of musical intelligence to improve the English pronunciation of Chinese third level students. It is relevant for a human centered systems engineering approach to cross-cultural interaction. Language learning is important as valid communication can help interactions between countries, this also may improve international stability. There are natural barriers between the English and Chinese language which are reflected in teaching approaches. The teaching of English in Chinese classrooms is removed from real world English learning environments. The academic environments and approaches focus on the learning of grammar, spelling and writing with little real life conversation and interaction with native English speakers. Correct pronunciation and accent is therefore diminished. This study demonstrates that a musical intelligence eLearning approach can benefit Chinese English language students.

Acculturation in relation to the acquisition of a second language

Learners who begin to acquire a second language (L2) in a naturalistic environment after puberty are thought to be constrained by biological age factors and to have greater difficulty obtaining native-like L2. However, the extant literature suggests that L2 acquisition may be positively affected by post-maturational factors, such as acculturation. This exploratory study examined the relationship between acculturation and L2 acquisition on Chinese–English late learners. Chinese students who arrived in the USA after puberty were examined to see whether the acculturation process towards US society was associated with higher speaking proficiency levels and more native-like pronunciation of English language. The results suggest that acculturation relates to speaking proficiency but not pronunciation.

Factors Related to English Language Pronunciation

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...