Silent Letters Research Articles

An Analytical Study of the Recognition of Silent Letters in the Pronunciation of English Words by Baghdadi Arabic Speakers

The phonetic system in English differs to some extent from that of Arabic. Novice Baghdadi Iraqi speakers encounter numerous challenges in pronouncing English words as a result of this. As an illustration, it is common to hear English learners articulate "assign” /əˈsaɪn/ as / əˈsaɪgn / or "kneel," / niːl/ as /k niːl/. The objective of this study is to detect prevalent distortions in the pronunciation of silent letters in English words among Baghdadi Iraqi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The methodology employed in this analysis was a qualitative descriptive study. Utilizing purposive sampling methods, a sample of 5 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) novices was chosen from the 1st level of the English Department, Dijlah University, Iraq. These learners were categorized as novice high-level learners (beginners). Analytically descriptive methodology was employed to analyze the data obtained from tests. The findings of this study indicate that EFL novices make errors when pronouncing words that include silent letters such as b, c, d, g, gh, h, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, th, and w. The writers examine three positions of the silent letters in words (beginning, medial, and final), and, by that understanding, it becomes feasible to create valuable instructional resources and teaching techniques to address this matter.

An Analytical Study of the Recognition of Silent Letters in the Pronunciation of English Words by Baghdadi Arabic Speakers

The phonetic system in English differs to some extent from that of Arabic. Novice Baghdadi Iraqi speakers encounter numerous challenges in pronouncing English words as a result of this. As an illustration, it is common to hear English learners articulate "assign” /əˈsaɪn/ as / əˈsaɪgn / or "kneel," / niːl/ as /k niːl/. The objective of this study is to detect prevalent distortions in the pronunciation of silent letters in English words among Baghdadi Iraqi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The methodology employed in this analysis was a qualitative descriptive study. Utilizing purposive sampling methods, a sample of 5 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) novices was chosen from the 1st level of the English Department, Dijlah University, Iraq. These learners were categorized as novice high-level learners (beginners). Analytically descriptive methodology was employed to analyze the data obtained from tests. The findings of this study indicate that EFL novices make errors when pronouncing words that include silent letters such as b, c, d, g, gh, h, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, th, and w. The writers examine three positions of the silent letters in words (beginning, medial, and final), and, by that understanding, it becomes feasible to create valuable instructional resources and teaching techniques to address this matter.

Silent Letters in the Balinese Script | | Adeg Adeg: A Graphetic and Graphematic Feature Analysis

The concept of “silent letters” relates to graphic symbols that are not pronounced or that do not have mapping with a specific linguistic unit. In the context of processing the mapping of sequences of linguistic units to writing, this concept often results in ambiguity. The Balinese script, which refers to a silent letter, appears in a basic shape || adeg adeg. Scholars of Balinese script define adeg adeg as a process to eliminate characters (Akshara’s), resulting in consonants without inherent vowels. This explanation is very metaphorical, ambiguous, and not based on adequate terms to describe graphetic and graphematic features that are related to mappings between graphic unit sequences and linguistic unit sequences. Balinese script || adeg adeg as primary data comes from the 16.162 lemma in the Balinese dictionary - Indonesian with Latin and Balinese script. Adeg adeg is analyzed both graphically and graphematically to identify its characteristics, with the stages of analysis adapted from the Multimodular Model of Writing System proposed by Meletis (2018). Graphetic analysis shows that the adeg adeg is identified as basic shapes || with three salient graphetic features: -recodability, -paired variants, and +additive. Graphematically, adeg-adeg is defined as a grapheme <> with the following features: +lexical distinctiveness, +linguistic value, and +minimality. The clarity of graphetic and graphematic characteristics significantly contributes to a more comprehensive and transparent cognitive-linguistic mechanism depiction, especially in deciphering writing systems based on Akshara’s highly complex characteristics.

THE SILENT LETTER IN H. MELVILLE’S MOBY DICK, OR THE WHALE

The article analyzes the role of the unpronounceable (silent) consonant ‘h’ and the image of the mute letter in Herman Melville’s poetics, especially in Moby-Dick, or The Whale. The paper discusses the indistinction of textual objects (the word ‘whale’, the title of the novel The Whale) and images (white sperm whale Moby Dick, pale characters in Melville’s short stories), which is key for characterizing Melville’s works as autometatexts. The common characteristics that unite both layers - the graphic, auditory existence of the text and the fictional world of the novel - are ‘silence’ and ‘visibility’. The article examines the structure-forming role of these concepts for the system of the images and motifs and their conceptualization within the framework of Melville’s philosophy of creativity and the paradox of the genius who is able to tell the Truth in fiction. The act of creating and reading a text is identified with the process of drawing and seeing a silent letter; the novel then is a transformation field for both the writer and the reader into an architect and a stonemason on the way to comprehending the secret knowledge through the matter of language. The article takes into account the interpretations of the role of the letter ‘h’ in the novel that are classical in Anglophone Melville studies; the methodology of the French philosophers, who wrote about Melville’s work; and modern interpretations from Russian literary criticism.

The Role of the ESL Teacher in the Use of Modern Techniques on Teaching Deletion-A Case Study Ringim Educational Zone, Jigawa State, Nigeria

This research evaluated the role of the ESL teacher and the use of modern techniques on teaching deletion. Questionnaire and oral interview were the instruments that the researcher used to collect the data. The research findings showed that most of the students do not know how to pronounce some words correctly, that is, they have a problem with the silent words that have silent letters. The findings also revealed that some teachers do not pronounce the words correctly. It is concluded that the teachers transfer their inadequacy to the students and do not use appropriate techniques in teaching pronunciation especially words with silent letters. The researcher recommends that only teachers who are B.A. and B.A.Ed English graduates should teach the subject and they too, must use appropriate techniques when teaching pronunciation especially words with silent letters/sounds

Literature Review On English Consonant Pronunciation Problems Encountered By Indonesian Students

Because the ultimate goal of English instruction is for students to be able to communicate successfully in English, it is critical for EFL students to have a clear and comprehensible pronunciation of the language. As a result, English students must place a higher focus on their ability to accurately enunciate words. Learning good pronunciation is one of the most important things one can do to improve one's communication skills. However, many English as a foreign language students find it difficult to polish their pronunciation. Outside of Indonesia, students in Indonesia are required to study English as their first language. Students study English at school solely for the purpose of communication. As a result, they are unable to correctly enunciate any English word, despite the fact that they are expected to utilize English fluently outside of the classroom. The objective of this essay is to analyze the obstacles and reasons that Indonesian students have when attempting to accurately pronounce English consonants by analyzing past research. Following an examination of the study, it was discovered that Indonesian students had similar difficulty and inaccuracies in pronouncing English consonants. The first reason is because some consonants in English do not exist in Indo-European or their native language. This is due to the fact that English consonants were taken from other languages. The second issue is that most Indo-European students have difficulty pronouncing stop consonants such as / v / θ / ð / ʃ / ʒ / tʃ / and / dʒ /. These are the vowels and consonants that come at the end of words. The difficulties distinguishing between voiced (consonants with vibration) and voiceless (consonants without vibration) consonants, the inconsistent sounds for vowel letters in English and Bahasa Indonesia, vowel-letter combinations, silent letters, a lack of knowledge of English fricative sounds, a preference for speaking their mother tongue rather than English, a lack of experience correctly pronouncing things, and the sounds of two or three combinations of consonants.

Morphology as an aid in orthographic learning of new words: The influence of inflected and derived forms in spelling acquisition

Prior studies have shown that children are sensitive to the principle of root consistency, whereby root morphemes retain their spelling across related words. The current study used an implicit learning situation to examine, in 56 third grade and 56 fifth grade French-speaking children, whether orthographic learning of new morphologically simple words ending in a silent letter benefited from morphological relatedness with inflected and derived forms. In the morphological condition, the new words (e.g.,clirot with a final silentt) appeared in short stories along with a morphologically related form in which the silent letter of the root was pronounced, justifying the presence of the silent letter in the root word. The morphologically complex form was an inflectional form (e.g.,clirote) for half of the children and was a derived form (e.g.,clirotage) for the other half. In the nonmorphological condition, the new words were not accompanied by morphologically related forms. After children had read the stories, their orthographic learning was assessed by asking the children to choose the correct spelling of each nonword from among three phonologically plausible alternatives (e.g.,clirot,cliros, cliro). Children chose correct spellings more often in the morphological condition than in the nonmorphological condition for both types of morphology in Grade 5 but only for inflectional morphology in Grade 3. Our findings indicate that, in learning new spellings, French children seem to rely on the root consistency principle earlier for inflectional morphology than for derivational morphology. Possible reasons for this developmental delay in mastering derivational morphology are discussed.

More Harm than Good: Why Dictionaries Using Orthographic Transcription Instead of the IPA Should Be Handled with Care

The aim of the present paper is to shed more light on using L1 (Polish) orthographic spelling to represent the pronunciation of English words in English-Polish dictionaries (e.g. journey /dżerni/, ship /szyp/) and discuss multiple drawbacks of this practice. While there are numerous advantages of using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in foreign language teaching, some Polish lexicographers insist on, what they call, a “simplified” phonetic transcription. In my paper I conduct an overview of three English-Polish dictionaries which use orthographic transcription instead of the IPA and exemplify inevitable confusion and serious problems they present the learner with. The analysis reveals that orthographic transcription intensifies interference between L1 and L2 and contributes to the fossilization of the most persistent mispronunciations stemming from phonetic transfer. Inconsistent and inaccurate transcription prevents learners from spotting patterns and rules (such as e.g. non-rhoticity, vowel reduction, silent letters, etc.). It is argued that relying on ordinary spelling rather than the IPA is a short-sighted alternative which presents more problems than solutions.

Deviant Arabic Transliterations of Foreign Shop Names in Saudi Arabia and Decoding Problems Among Shoppers

This study aimed to analyze a sample of Arabic transliterations of foreign shop names in Saudi Arabia; to identify the inaccuracies, and inconsistencies in the Arabic transliterations; the causes of the Arabic inconsistent and erroneous transliterations; whether shoppers (who do not know English) can decode and pronounce a sample Arabic transliterations of shop names; and the factors that should be taken into consideration in transliterating foreign shop names to Arabic. Results of the data analysis showed that 52% of the inaccurate transliterations are in the vowels and diphthongs; 36% are inaccurate and inconsistent transliterations of consonants. In 11.6% of the shop names, ch was reduced to sh; and /g/ was transliterated in 3 ways. 13% of the consonant transliteration deviations occurred in words containing a silent letter. In 6%, the Arabic vowel was double. In 8%, compound shop names were spelled together (blended) in the Arabic transliteration; In 7%, foreign names from French, Italian, Japanese, and Turkish were transliterated as they are pronounced in English, not in the original language. Findings also showed variant spellings of the same name shop names especially from French, Italian and Turkish (Parfois بارفواه بافويس; Spring سبرينق سبرينج; Semit Sarai سميت/سيميت; Chocolate شوكلت/شوكليت). Results of a decoding test given to a sample of college students and faculty who have a low proficiency level in English showed that the subjects could decode shop names such as ماكدونالدر، بيرغر كينج، هارديز، كوستا، ساربكس.. نسكافيه بيرجر كينج، تويز ار اص، but had difficulty decoding , دولس قوستو, أدفنتورا, جارليشوز لاونج, أميريكان إيجل أوتفترز, أكسسوريز, بايليس, باربكيوتونايت, لولو سلبريت, ذا تشيلدرنز بليس and other. The students and faculty had difficulty decoding Arabic transliterations because they are not familiar with the shop name in the foreign language, and because of the absence of short vowels in the transliteration, which makes it difficult to pronounce the transliterated names correctly. Deviant transliterations are attributed to transliterators who are non-native speakers of Arabic, English and other foreign languages. Recommendations for accurate Arabic transliterations of foreign shop names in Saudi Arabia are given.

Silent Letter Pronunciation Errors Made by English Major Students of Raden Intan State Islamic University

The purposes of this research were to classify the types of error made by the students in pronouncing silent letter, to count the total of errors that students made, and to know the source of errors. The subjects of the research were the students at the second semester of English Education Raden Intan State Islamic University of Lampung. The H class of the afforementioned students were the sample and purposing sampling technique was used to sample that class of 29 students. The result of the research showed that there were 4 types of errors; omission, addition, misformation, and misordering. The total of errors were 343 error’s items which made by the students. Addition was the most common errors made by the students, which was 211 items or 61,51%. Second most common was misformation with 84 items or 24,48%. It then followed by omission with 46 items or 13,41%. At the end of the errors’ classification based on surface strategy taxonomy was misordering with 2 items or 0,58%.

Exploring ESL Learners' Anxiety towards Silent Letters in Pronunciation: A Case Study of Undergraduates of University of Sialkot, Pakistan

Exploring ESL Learners' Anxiety towards Silent Letters in Pronunciation: A Case Study of Undergraduates of University of Sialkot, Pakistan

Phonological Errors Produced By Students In Pronouncing English Silent Letters

Hampir semua huruf mulai dari ‘a’ sampai ‘z’ kecuali huruf ‘j’, ‘q’, dan ‘v’ ditemukan silent (sunyi/ tidak dilafazkan) pada posisi atau lingkungan bunyi tertentu. Misalnya, huruf /b/ sunyi dalam kata ‘plumber’, /g/ sunyi dalam kata ‘gnome’, huruf /p/ dalam kata ‘coup’, /i/ dalam ‘zaria’, /l/ dalam ‘salmon’, /m/ dalam ‘mnemonic’, /s/ dalam ‘debris ‘, /x/ dalam ‘faux’, /z/ dalam rendezvous (Oxford Advanced Learner Dictinary). Kajian ini membahas tentang pola, bentuk, posisi, dan lingkungan dari silent letter tersebut. Data adalah semua kata-kata yang mempunyai silent letter diambil dari Oxpord Advanced Learner Dictionary, kemudian dianalisa dengan menggunakan teori Carney (1994). Hasil analisa menunjukkan bahwa silent letter terdapat dalam dua pola yaitu pola ‘endocentric digraph’ dan ‘empty letter’. Dari pola endocentric digraph ditemukan bermacam-macam bentuk digraph yang mengambil posisi diawal, ditengah, atau diakhir sebuah kata. Sedangkan pola empty letter tidak punya bentuk. Hubungan bunyi dua huruf yang mengapit satu huruf sangat kuat, sehingga bunyi huruf yang terapit jadi silent. Kemudian diteliti bagaimana mahasiswa melafazkan kata-kata yang mengandung silent letter tersebut. Hasil penelitian penunjukkan bahwa secara keseluruhan kemampuan mahasiswa senior dalam melafazkan kata-kata yang mengandung silent letter masih sangat rendah.

Foreign Language Learners' Opinion about English Pronunciation as Communicative Hurdle

The study was conducted to 'investigate ESL students' attitudes about English pronunciation as a communicative hurdle and to explore the effects of ESL students' attitudes about English pronunciation as a communicative hurdle'. This research utilizes the mixed method approach and for the proper execution of this work, the researcher collected data through a questionnaire. Research data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Responding to eight statements the respondents showed complete disagreement and replied that difficult words create no difficulty in pronouncing them, they feel no confusion about silent letters like a knife, difficult spellings are less problematic to speak, variation in pronunciation due to complex spelling creates no problem, pronunciation does not depend on only spellings, pronunciation of words matches with their spellings does not become the cause of trouble for them, and lengthy words are less difficult to pronounce them correctly.

The Effects of Animated Film on Esl Learner’s Pronunciation in Secondary Education Context

Accurate and clear pronunciation plays a major role in language learning in order to communicate verbally in target language. Most secondary students in Malaysia still face difficulty in pronouncing English words correctly even though they have learned English as a second language for at least six years. This research aims to investigate the effectiveness of using animated film in enhancing pronunciation and also explore its influence towards learner’s motivation. A mixed method action research is used to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data. Pre-test and post-test are carried out and a paired T-test is run with SPSS to investigate the effectiveness of the teaching method towards different phonetic groups. Meanwhile, a semi-structured interview is conducted with 16 participants to identify their confidence level in word pronuncing . Results show that there are significant improvements in pronouncing ‘words with voiced and unvoiced consonant’, ‘words that look alike’ and ‘words with silent letter’ but not in ‘words with short and long vowel’ and ‘words with more than two syllables.’ It indicates that the effects of animated film in pronunciation teaching are varied towards different categories of word due to several factors. Thus, educators have to be aware of the factors that diminish the effectiveness of intervention used and overcome them for better teaching and learning process.

The Importance of Sight Word Recognition to Improve Reading Fluency

Reading is one of crucial skills for mastering English proficiency. It does not only involve the ability to pronounce correctly, but also to understand the text as a whole. It does not only have tremendous power when it comes to fuelling the development of all aspects of language ability, its importance to the entirety of a human life cannot really be overstated nowadays. The fact that English is full of silent letters and unexpected sounds provoke the learners to simply memorize the spelling of a word in order to recognize its written form in the future. The inconsistency between letters and phonemes, more than one way to spell the same sound, are the basic problems for the learners, especially beginners. Dealing with the matter of inconsistency, the technique and strategy to learn English is gradually upgraded. This study applies descriptive analysis method to reveal the sight word recognition strategy focusing on upgrading the competency in mastering vocabularies and reading. The findings show that by activating the recognition of sight word and associating phoneme (sounds) and grapheme (letters), learners tend to be more easily figure out the words and understand the text. By having sight words vocabularies through orthographic mapping, the process of understanding reading text becomes easier. Learners know the words more quickly since sight word recognition improves reading fluency and efficiency. In its process, as learners see the word, they automatically activate the recognition of its meaning and pronunciation at the same time.

A Multiple-Associations Approach to Teaching Technical Terms in English for Specific Purposes Courses

Teaching and learning of technical terms constitute a major problem for ESP instructors and students. To help the students learn, retain, apply and relate technical terms, a multiple-associations instructional approach that focuses on connecting the printed form of the technical term with its pronunciation (the hidden sounds, double and silent letters, and homophones), with its part of speech, singular or plural form, synonym or antonym, English and Arabic meanings, usage, component parts (prefixes, suffixes, roots), previously-encountered terms and others should be followed while presenting the new technical terms in business, computer science and engineering to the students. Categorization, association, and visualization skills and mnemonic approaches should be emphasized. Mind maps can be used to show those connections. Out of class, extensive listening and reading activities are also encouraged. Quizzes should require the students to make the multiple associations described in the article. The multiple-associations instructional approach proved to be effective in enhancing the learning of technical terms by EFL college students. Further recommendations for strategies that can be used in teaching multiple associations are given.

English Grammar Rules as an External Barrier Faced by EFL Students for Effective Communication

The key objective of the study was to 'investigate English grammar rules as an external barrier faced by EFL students for effective communication and to examine the impact of English grammar rules as an external barrier faced by EFL students for effective communication'. To fulfil the preceding purpose this research utilizes the mixed method approach and for the proper execution of this work, the researcher collected data through a questionnaire. Research data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results of data analysis illustrate the respondents of the study responded with medium to low degree mean values. The results of the current study reveal that most of the foreign language learners indicated that in the two preceding situations and atmospheres the external barrier such as silent letters, difficult spellings, wrong pronunciation, variation in pronunciation due to complex spelling systems, pronunciation of words matches with their spellings, and lengthy words learners feel a high degree of difficulty and English grammar rules work as a hurdle for effective communication.

THE IMPROVEMENT OF MISPRONUNCIATION ENCOUNTERED BY MOST YOUNG ENGLISH LEARNERS

Mispronunciation is a critical issue encountered by most young English learners in a second language learning that causes low spoken English proficiency, which plays important roles today. The objectives of this study were to identify the segmental changes resulted in the articulation of English mispronounced words produced by most young learners, to describe the different elements between Indonesian and English sound systems, and to explain the phonological interference of mother tongue in English mispronunciation. This study uses descriptive qualitative research design performed on ten primary school students selected by using purposive sampling in Semarang. Data were collected by using simak method and analyzed by using padan fonetik artikulatoris method.
 The data suggest that the majority of the participants had difficulty in articulating the words with absent phonemic segments /ɪ, æ, əː, ɔ, ʌ, eɪ, ʊə, ɪə, aɪə, ʃ, θ, ð, ʒ, voiced v/, silent letters <b, d, e, t, w, gh, and r in some cases>, spelling patterns <th, ow, ph, ie, ueue, ough>, and tricky words including several English borrowings that have inconsistent spelling pronunciation. The results showed that the interference of L1 sounds and pronunciation rules occurred through substitution of closest native sounds for absent phonemes, insertion of native sounds, and negative transfer of L1 spelling pronunciation. It can be concluded that most of the young learners mispronounced on words with absent phonemic segments, silent letters, spelling patterns of many letters combination, and several English borrowings.

Common Errors Identification in Pronouncing Silent Letters in English Words by EFL Novices

In English, the sound system is somewhat distinct from Arabic. Yemeni Novices have many difficulties pronouncing English terms owing to this. For example, we often hear English learners pronounce "sight [sait]" with "[saig]" or "know,” [nəʊ]" with "[knəʊ]." This study is concerned with identifying widespread errors in the pronunciation of silent letters in English words among Yemeni EFL learners. Qualitative descriptive study was used in this investigation as a methodology. With the aid of purposive sampling techniques, a sample of 5 EFL novices was selected from 1st level of the English Department, Faculty of Education, Sana'a University, Yemen, which was classified into a group of novice high-level learners (beginners). Analytically descriptive method was used to analyze the data after they were collected through test. The result of this study showed that in pronouncing words containing the silent letters like b, c, d, g, gh, h, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, th, and w, the researcher finds errors made by the EFL novices. He analyzes three positions of the silent letters in the words (initial, medial, and final position) and by understanding this; it would be possible to develop useful instructional materials and teaching strategies to target this issue.

Pronouncing Inert Letters: What can we learn from undergraduate EFL students?

English Education students are prepared to be English teachers as one of the sources in learning activity. However, the students still mispronounced some words including ones which contain inert letters. This study aimed to find out the most frequent errors made by the English Education Students in pronouncing inert letters and the factors of the inert letters’ pronunciation errors. This study was a descriptive study which applied quantitative and qualitative approaches. The subjects of this study were 25 students of the English Education Study Program at Universitas Bengkulu. This study used recording, observation checklist, and interview as the instruments. Recording and observation checklists were used to gather subjects’ pronunciation. In order to find the factors of the pronunciation errors, an interview was conducted. The pronunciation was analysed by using pronunciation checkers, Voice Notebook and Audacity. The interview results were analysed based on factors of pronunciation accuracy. The results showed that the most frequent errors of inert letters pronunciation made by the subjects were sounded inert letter /d/ of /-nd/ by 94% and silent inert letter /a/ of /-cal-/ by 88%. The interview generated some data which shows that the factors of subjects’ pronunciation errors were native language, age, and amount of exposure to English.