Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Dana Taušová
Pronunciation of English as a Second Language of Children and Adults
Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: PhDr. Kateřina Tomková, Ph.D.
2013
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,
using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
………
Author’s signature
Acknowledgement:
I would like to thank my supervisor PhDr. Kateřina Tomková, Ph.D.
for her encouragement and valuable advice and help.
Table of Contents
Introduction ... 5
1 Pronunciation of English as a second language ... 8
1.1 Models of pronunciation of English as a second language ... 8
1.2 Interference from first language ... 13
1.3 Pronunciation of children and adults ... 16
1.3.1 Critical period ... 18
1.3.2 Musical aptitude ... 21
1.3.3 Psychological factors ... 22
2 Differences between English and Czech ... 25
2.1 Vowels and most common errors ... 27
2.2 Consonants and most common errors ... 28
2.3 Suprasegmental features ... 29
3 Survey of typical errors ... 34
3.1 Procedure ... 34
3.2 Analysis ... 36
3.2.1 Children in groups with parents ... 36
3.2.2 Children without parents ... 38
3.2.3 Group of adult learners ... 39
Conclusion ... 41
Works Cited ... 43
Summary ... 45
Resumé ... 47
5
Introduction
The aim of this thesis is to focus on pronunciation of English as a second language. Of crucial concern is the extent to which second language learners can approximate phonetic-phonological norms of a second language with respect to age.
Thus the present study deals with the hypothesis that there is an age limit concerning the acquisition of pronunciation of English as a second language. Further, various aspects are taken into account which might have an impact on correct pronunciation such as interference from the first language or psychological factors as well as the degree of motivation. Last but not least, musical aptitude is also mentioned as one of the considerable factors which can influence the perception of pronunciation.
First of all, different approaches to pronunciation models of English as a second language are discussed, with special focus on the Czech environment. J. Jenkins’s book The Phonology of English as an International Language (2001) is the most seminal work with this respect, however, opinions of other authors such as A.C. Gimson or J. Norrish are relevant as well. To contribute to this issue from sociophonological point of view, J. Honey’s observations will be applied.
The interference from the first language with respect to English as a second language acquisition and communication is also part and parcel of the thesis since this phenomenon is arguably noticeable in the second language pronunciation performance. As far as this part of the thesis is concerned, the opinions of J. E. Flege are salient for Flege discusses the differences between children and adults with respect to age and critical period and focuses on approximation in pronunciation to native speakers in his research.
In addition, Ch. Dalton and B. Seidlhofer’s Pronunciation (1994) is a very useful resource of information covering all the areas in the pronunciation
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of particular phonemes and suprasegmentals and clearly explains English pronunciation in general. Both A. Skaličková’s Srovnávací fonetika češtiny a angličtiny (1979) and M. Krčmová’s Fonetika a fonologie (1996) help to understand the differences between both languages and show the difficulties and reasons for the most common errors of Czech speakers of English. Realization of certain phonemes and stress patterns are therefore a prerequisite for the survey, which is analyzed in the final part of the present study, with regard to approximation of the native speaker’s level of pronunciation.
There is a particular interest in differences between the pronunciation of children and adults in this thesis. The comparison of adults and children’s perception of pronunciation of English as a second language with various aspects are of another crucial focus as well as the acquisition of correct pronunciation in general. The intention is to take into account possible differences between adults and children in production of phonemes and suprasegmentals which obviously differ to a certain extent in English and Czech. The most frequent errors made by Czech speakers of English as a second language are taken into consideration and these are subsequently observed within a given number of students with the target of analyzing and finding out the difficulties with respect to general knowledge of English, the age and other factors, such as motivation or anxiety of negative evaluation or communication failure. Besides, musical aptitude is referred to briefly as well, since musical aptitude has a considerable impact on second language pronunciation. The conclusions which R. Milovanov came to in her thesis The Connectivity of Musical Aptitude and Foreign Language Learning Skills (2009) are, in this respect, essential contributions to the present study.
Subsequently, children and adults are compared in their performances and results, and reasons for the lack of awareness in correct pronunciation are suggested, with respect to what is stated in this thesis. In addition, a summary
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of the most likely errors that Czech speakers of English as a second language in most cases make is included in the final analysis, which is based, above all, on the researches, which have been carried out so far, and partially on the results from the observation of the learners, which tries to prove the hypotheses established in this thesis. The main argument in this thesis is that adults lack the ability to master the pronunciation of English to such level of authenticity as children do in the matter of approximation to native speakers of English for reasons which are discussed throughout this thesis.
Critical period hypothesis and therefore the first language acquisition assumption are essential for the conclusions in this thesis as well as both conscious and subconscious awareness of pronunciation of the learners as observed in the courses which the learners attend.
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1 Pronunciation of English as a second language
1.1 Models of pronunciation of English as a second language
To begin with, it will be reasonable to outline various aspects of one of the major questions asked in this thesis, that is, the correct pronunciation of English as a second language and if it is at all possible to choose any correct model of pronunciation.
Nowadays, English has been undoubtedly established as lingua franca all around the world. The number of non-native speakers of English even outnumbers those who speak English as their mother tongue. (Jenkins 2001, p. 11) There are better conditions not only for adults but also for children from an early age to be exposed to English and use English for many different purposes. To speak English is a necessity, and what is more, in many areas of life it is a criterion for a good job or extended opportunities. In order to meet the purpose of efficient communication, it is essential to use appropriate language, by definition, use correct grammar and lexis, but above all, intelligible pronunciation since pronunciation is part and parcel of successful spoken communication. And vice versa, the awareness of what is different in English form the speaker’s mother tongue makes it possible for the interlocutors to understand properly as well.
There are many different spoken forms of English among the native speakers themselves and there is also a number of spoken variants of non-native speakers of English. Evidently, more often than not, English is a means of communication among people who speak English as a second language, which definitely has a considerable impact on the pronunciation of English as a second language. As a result, phonetic-phonological norms relevant for native speakers are somewhat modified
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according to the speakers’ backgrounds and purpose of the conversation. (see Jenkins, Honey) As a matter of fact, these speakers bring new elements into English pronunciation. This leads one to suppose that there is a need for an international standard to base a correct form of pronunciation on, however, this model is a goal far beyond our abilities to reach. J. Jenkins in her Phonology of English as an International Language (2001) also comes to a conclusion that there “is the need for some sort of international core for phonological intelligibility: a set of unifying features which, at the very least, has the potential to guarantee that pronunciation will not impede successful communication.” (p. 95) It seems almost impossible to codify English pronunciation because it is too complicated to set a norm for correct pronunciation in comparison to Czech where there is a set of rules relevant to correct pronunciation and the codification of Czech orthoepy, which is part of the norm of standard language, is also at hand. (Krčmová 1996, p. 14) Honey (1997) with respect to definition and establishing somewhat general standard for English pronunciation asserts that “one important reason why a standard accent may be difficult to describe is that listeners’ perceptions of it may be more significant than its empirically observed phonological features.” (p. 98) What is more, Czech native speakers are subconsciously aware the orthoepic rules and know these to a certain extent so it is possible for them to use the right pronunciation as well as identify properly what is being communicated.
This is, above all, because Czech has a phonic system of writing, which means that the sound form of a word is more or less reflected in writing. Therefore a phonological principle is applied in Czech so that Czech native speakers can predict the pronunciation accordingly. (Krčmová, 1996, p. 5-6) As a matter of fact, Czech native speakers do not have to face such difficulties with respect to both productive and receptive abilities since a certain extent of parallelism between spoken and written form of Czech
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can be observed. (Krčmová, 1996, p. 7) Nevertheless, English speakers, or in other words, non-native English speakers have to be aware of their pronunciation as well as decode unambiguously what is being said, since this phonological principle does not work in English. Jenkins (2001) further comments on this need as follows:
second language speakers “will also need to be able to tune into each other’s accents and adjust their receptive expectations accordingly.” (p. 96) The phonological norms of Czech and both basic differences and difficulties with respect to pronunciation of both languages will be discussed further in this thesis.
Taking into account a suitable model for pronunciation, the purpose, and extent of communication in English worldwide, it is vital to point out that English is not only the domain of communication with native speakers. As Jenkins (2001) notes, “English is now learnt and spoken most frequently to serve international functions among L2 (second language) speakers in international contexts. Its L1 (mother tongue) speakers have therefore forfeited the right to dictate standards of pronunciation for L2 use.”
(p. 16) Nonetheless, certain rules in English phonetic norms can be observed as well as followed by non-native speakers. These phonetic norms are not paid sufficient attention in acquiring English as a second language because pronunciation is, as a rule, subdued in the process of learning a second language and other areas in the language are prioritized at the expense of pronunciation practice.
Additionally, what makes choosing an appropriate model of pronunciation difficult as well, is not only the presence of so many accents of English to choose from, but also the presence of the mass media and education which make the variety of accents prevalent today. From the sociophonological point of view, Honey (1997) says that the persistence of various accents of English is closely connected to the media and availability of education. These “appear to hit a barrier which prevents the total
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eradication of certain forms of accent (and indeed dialect) and ensures their survival in some degree, despite the obvious advantages of adapting to the widely accessible standard.” (p. 101) What is more, the speakers often adapt to the speech of their interlocutors, which is a subconscious process, “with convergence or divergence taking place as a function of some of the sociosituational factors.” (p. 105) Honey mentions with this respect just the sociosituational variation which means that “higher- status addressees are likely to call forth greater approximation to standard accents, while informal situations produce greater use of nonstandard accents and other spoken forms.”(p. 105)
Family background and/or social environment are inevitable factors reflected in individual accents as well, concerning both native speakers and learners of a second language. Gimson (1989) suggests that
it will no doubt be possible to identify the phonetic and phonological features which characterize his native speaker’s pronunciation when he is making a formal speech or when he is talking to children or when he is influenced by anger or tenderness. … In addition, some speakers will tend (often unwittingly) to adapt their own speech to some extent to that of their interlocutor. (p. 313)
As a matter of fact, the learners of English as a second language establish their pronunciation just on the basis of a model provided, further extending their abilities according to confidence and progress in the process of gradual language acquisition. However, it is needless to say that a significant extent of stability of speech production by native speakers can be observed. Thus, the pronunciation model differs from speaker to speaker depending on the situation or other psychological factors.
Arguably, the freedom to choose any model appears to be both efficient and convenient
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for the learner in the end provided that they adhere to the model and undoubtedly consider the purpose and extent of use of English.
Further, with respect to a pronunciation model choice, an essential question of what generally accepted principles should be emphasized in both teaching and acquiring pronunciation arises. Notwithstanding a great diversity of English accents, choosing an appropriate model for pronunciation is both a convenient as well as an important factor in the process of language acquisition. Standardized accents of English are most often recommended. Gimson (1989) is the advocate of choosing a standard form and gives the following reasons for the choice of a pronunciation model while saying that
the advantage of such choices is that these forms (in a standard variety) are without difficulty mutually intelligible. The decisive criteria in the choice of any teaching model must be that it has wide currency, is widely and readily understood, is adequately described in textbooks and has ample recorded material available for the learner. (p. 315)
Up until recently such model of pronunciation has been, by definition, RP.
However, under the latest conditions of speaking English as a second language, the exclusive position of this standard as a most accepted, spread and taught model for English learners appears to dwindle. Abercrombie (1991) comments on today’s position and prospects of RP, saying, that RP is “slowly but surely on its way out.”
(p. 206) Jenkins (2001) too suggests other English accents as pronunciation models, i.e. Scottish English or General American instead of RP which often has rather negative connotations. (p. 17) Abercrombie (1991) mentions these too, pointing out that there are minimum problems from phonetical point of view concerning Scottish accent which makes this particular accent more intelligible for learners than, say, RP
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where there is a larger vowel system with many diphtongs, which may present difficulties in teaching as well as learning. However, RP is the most natural accent learnt in Europe and what is also convenient there, is a lot of pedagogic material available. General American seems to be a good model for pronunciation as well, nevertheless, European learners of English, even if they seem to have closer connections to American accent for various reasons, more or less, again choose RP in both teaching and learning. (p. 205)
The most appropriate solution seems to be, and Jenkins (2001) also suggests such a possibility, to choose an accent that is the closest to the English learner for different, not necessarily personal, reasons or, as Jenkins puts it, adhere to “ ‘cloning’, whereby learners model their pronunciation on that of someone they admire, not necessarily a ‘native’ speaker, but someone whose accent is easily intelligible.” (p. 17) It also provides a second language speaker with greater freedom and flexibility in the process of acquiring the language.
Finally, in spite of a lot of accents among native and non-native speakers of English, which arguably causes inaccuracies in pronunciation of English as a second language, it is undoubtedly vital to opt for a pronunciation model. If the learners do so, they can make advantage of it in their following learning process.
1.2 Interference from first language
To begin with, it seems to be a very natural process, for second language speakers, to imitate the pronunciation according to phonetic and phonological system of their mother tongue. As Norrish (1995) remarks, “the sounds in any one language form a system and someone listening to a language other than his own will tend to ‘hear’ the sounds of his own language, or at least sound close to those of his own
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language, rather than those that are, in fact, being produced in the foreign language.”
(p. 17) Not surprisingly, this can often be observed especially with beginner learners, however, advanced learners are not exceptions.
O’Connor (1990) offers a very apt and comprehensible metaphorical explanation for the lack of ability to master the pronunciation of a second language when he describes the sounds of a language in terms of boxes. In O’Connor’s words we have in our heads a set of boxes equipped with particular sounds. Thus as we speak or listen, we take out the sounds from relevant boxes and use them in a correct pattern.
However, we can make use of this procedure only up to a certain age. At a certain age, these boxes are full and we can hardly add any other material. (p. 2) In other words, the ability to imitate the sounds and further use them appropriately is limited by the age when we are able to perceive others and at the same time be intelligible to others.
What is more and also explains the difficulty with mastering the pronunciation at the native speaker’s level is that the inventory of such boxes differs in various languages. O’Connor’s explanation roughly corresponds with Flege’s assumptions of maturational effects on articulatory production with regard to the critical period.
Dalton et al (1994) further analyses our perception of the second language which is influenced by, say, a filter concerning our knowledge of the sound system as a code. Mastering a first language is a prerequisite for such a filter to work.
Native listeners have a predisposition for regarding certain kinds of acoustic information as significant and others as not. The kind of information we regard as significant depends on what we have come to regard as such during first language acquisition, for at that stage we learnt to segment the acoustic chaos around us into significant units. What we are not aware of is the fact that they are significant by convention only, and that other conventions are possible. Usually this is first brought home to us when we struggle with some of the sounds of a foreign language. It is important to realize, however, that this conventional first language filter is likely to
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remain in operation when we are exposed to a second or any other language. As long as our first language filter is ‘on’ we cannot even perceive differences which are crucial in the second language. We can only participate in what is new with reference to what is familiar.(p. 18)
Moreover, learners of English as a second language often have to face the lack of opportunities to use the language on a daily basis thus they acquire proper features of the language in a very limited environment, or to put it another way, as a gradual process along with other priorities concerning the communication as a whole.
According to Gimson (1989) “it is rare for the foreign learner, usually acquiring English in an artificial and intermittent fashion, to approach the native’s receptive and productive competence.” (p. 314)
Regarding the productive competence of non-native English speakers, there are subconscious errors made just according to the level of knowledge both of mother tongue and second language. The older the speakers are, the more they are inclined to find similarities between the two languages. On the other hand, the younger the learners are, the less is the knowledge of phonetic rules and so there is nothing but only the imitation of the sound patterns, be these familiar or not.
It is often said that children are like unwritten books or, as we said above, have empty boxes available for ‘sound material’. This could be applied to awareness of different pronunciation, or rather, different sounds and subsequent imitation of these. (see 1.1) They just repeat what they hear and observe, whereas adults know the written system which does not help here in the least but the other way round, limits the adult students in this respect. This conception again refers to Flege and O’Connor’s hypotheses and, by definition, to the critical period. The adults are not able to get rid of the mother tongue implications when acquiring the second language, moreover, often in artificial conditions.
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Further, as Doughty (2005) says “non-native listening skills are less flexible.
In their native language, people cope effortlessly with unfamiliar voices and intra- and inter-speaker variations in pronunciation, and have little difficulty processing speech in the presence of noise or distraction. All of these factors cause great difficulty in non-native listening.” (p. 20) The need for practicing is inevitable to a great extent otherwise the speakers, especially adults, still tend to use strategies connected to the mother tongue than to the second language and the whole process is thus inefficient.
1.3 Pronunciation of children and adults
Another difference between adult learners and children with respect to a second language acquisition process is that children do not have any notion of a written form of the language. Speaking and listening ability is a spontaneous process and as children grow and can more and more actively take part in social interaction, they also adopt the features of the language naturally, that is to say, both in their first language and further in the second language. The pronunciation is often taken for granted. As a matter of fact, most of the errors children make are the transitional errors. On the other hand, adults take pronunciation for granted, and concerning the second language, they only notice the differences in pronunciation if there are some distinctive features. Very often these distinctive features are those typical ones for the second language which, not necessarily, have exactly the same counterparts in both languages. (Skaličková, 1979) At the beginning, there comes the phase of transitional errors yet very often the typical and overlooked differences are further fossilized in the pronunciation.
(see 2.1) Czech speakers of English are used to Czech phonological rules and application of these rules in pronunciation, needless to say the close relation of writing
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and pronunciation of Czech. Czech language is highly predictable in the sense of correct pronunciation contrary to English. (Krčmová, 1996) Thus most difficulties in pronunciation patterns prevail due to the awareness of Czech phonology. Crystal (p. 236) aptly compares the written and spoken language and what the results are if people are not aware of these quite unlike systems.
The origins of the written language lie in the spoken language, not the other way round.
It is therefore one of life’s ironies that traditionally in present-day education we do not learn about spoken language until well after we have learned the basic properties of the written language. As a result, it is inevitable that we think of speech using the frame of reference which belongs to writing. We even use some of the same terms, and it can come as something of a shock to realize that these terms do not always have the same meaning. (p. 236)
To sum up, writing system presents another difficulty that impedes correct pronunciation of adults to a great extent. On the other hand, children, who have not mastered writing skills yet, have, in this respect, advantage since they learn pronunciation based on their receptive abilities.
Discussing the most common errors and how the speakers often sustain these errors in the progress of their productive skills, Litllewood (1990) makes a distinction between ‘transitional’ errors and ‘fossilised’ errors. The former are eventually overcome as the language competence makes progress, the latter are kept in the speaker’s productive ability and become a part of the speaker’s individuality.
(p. 34) Littlewood further comments on these particular errors:
Normally, we expect a learner to progress further along the learning continuum, so that his ‘interlanguage’ moves closer and closer to the target language system and contains fewer and fewer errors. However, some errors will probably never disappear entirely. Such errors are often described as fossilized, meaning that they have become permanent features of the learner’s speech. Obvious examples are the pronunciation
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errors which form part of the ‘foreign accent’ retained by most adolescent and adult learners. (p. 33)
In addition, it is difficult to make any generalizations since both transitional and fossilized errors are closely connected to individual speakers as well as social environment.
In comparison of adults to children with respect to the articulatory production of different phonemes, there is also apparent a passing phase, which has definitely its roots in the first language, in children’s speech production, however, the children adjust very quickly to the pronunciation model provided. The reasons why children apply familiar sounds are that they simply do not know how to pronounce them, however, after a fairly short period of practice, the children manage to master the proper pronunciation of English, distinguishing clearly and being aware of the difference between both languages. Adult students, on the other hand, pay less attention to correct pronunciation and as a consequence, even if they practice enough, they tend to substitute those unfamiliar sounds with those of their mother tongue. (see 3.2)
1.3.1 Critical period
First of all, there are arguably differences between children up to certain age and adults with respect to a second language acquisition. There is a hypothesis concerning brain development and the impact on the language acquisition. Therefore, the ability to absorb and master a second language on the native speaker’s level is commonly described as a critical period for not only first language but also a second language acquisition. J. E. Flege (1987) points out that there can be “possible maturational effects on human vocal learning” (p. 47) and he further argues that “one might hypothesize that the ability to learn new patterns of segmental articulation in speech diminishes after
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a critical period has been passed in human development.” (p. 48) From this point of view, one may deduce that children must be naturally able to approximate and/or master the native speaker of English much easily than adults, since this is exactly what their brain development enables them to.
However, with the end of the critical period and thus brain development, the adults cannot make use of such natural process and have to apply other methods instead, often rote learning. Doughty (2005) states that “adults rely not upon signals in the language in the input, but on their native-language-processing strategies. That this happens is inevitable because developmental sharpening is a prerequisite to native listening ability.” (p. 28) And similarly Flege (1987) summarizes the results from his research as follows:
Adults are capable of learning to produce new phones in an L2, and of modifying their previously established patterns of articulation when producing similar L2 phonemes … They identify acoustically different phones in L1 and L2 as belonging to the same category. This may ultimately prevent them from producing similar but now new phones authentically. (p. 62)
It is also more difficult for adults to imitate unfamiliar sounds in comparison to children who acquire their first language and second language just in such, say the same, natural way. The older learners are and the more they master their mother tongue, the more they tend to make generalizations based upon their first language.
Dalton (1994) mentions that “it has been established that due to certain psychosociological factors, our resistance to modifying our pronunciation increases as we get older.” (p. 8) And Doughty (2005) points out that “this is because speech-processing abilities are altered, through experience with the native language, so that adults acquiring their L2 typically process input with mechanisms already
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attuned to their L1.” (p. 29) Doughty writes with reference to many researches that “input processing during native language acquisition is highly efficient and relevant to the language-learning task at hand. In child language acquisition, developmental sharpening is beneficial, since the attunement proceeds stepwise in concert with input and interaction.” (p. 19) Thus children approximate the second language better in terms of receptive as well as productive skills, nothing to say about the language as a whole.
Littlewood (1990) too states in this respect that “there is a ‘critical period’, during which the brain is flexible and language learning can occur naturally and easily. Since this period ends around puberty, adolescents and adults can no longer call upon these natural learning capabilities. The result is that language learning becomes an artificial, labourious process.” (p. 65)
Naturally, there are debates concerning especially the issue of critical period with respect to second language learning, however, it is arguably part and parcel of second language learning and covers also pronunciation acquisition. By definition, there are adult learners of English as a second language who are able to master English on a proficiency level in spite of the critical period hypothesis. What supports this particular theory with respect to pronunciation skills is Littlewood’s (1990) reference to various researches in which it was found out that “given more or less equal opportunities, efficiency in second language learning increases with age, and that younger learners are superior only in acquiring pronunciation skills.” (p. 66) Similarly to Littlewood, according to Dalton et al (1994) there are the cognitive advantages which older learners may have over younger ones and that studies point out that children are probably better at acquiring an acceptable accent than adults. (p. 8)
21 1.3.2 Musical aptitude
Interestingly, it is also noteworthy that the brain development and the consequences on language acquisition go hand in hand with another phenomenon, namely, musical aptitude. To put it another way, the second language acquisition and the musical support in the early age have a lot in common as opposed to adult language (and musical as well) aptitude. There are hypotheses which promote the “theory that producing music and speech sounds are connected since birth and musical elements aid learning linguistic functions such as sound patterns and meaning.” (Milovanov, 2009, p. 5)
Naturally, as Milovanov (2009) puts it,
the apparent relationship between music and language seems to be present form the very early stages of life. Music and language seem to grow from a common source ever since birth. Small infants can mime the musical features of their mother tongue long before they are able to produce phonemes. The stress and pitch patterns are there first and more precise phonemic features join the musical features of the language a little later. (p. 43)
In other words, not only first language acquisition but also a second language acquisition, are in accord with the most natural process for learning strategies of children. On the other hand, this combination has little impact on adult learners provided that they did not make use of this ability in their childhood.
In her thesis The Connectivity of Musical Aptitude and Foreign Language Learning Skills, R. Milovanov (2009) argues that “by means of songs second language learning was more efficient when compared to learning with speech sequences.
They state that children’s songs and lullabies have an emotional function, but they can
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also facilitate linguistic processing.” (p. 7) And further supports her hypothesis, saying that
the role of age of acquisition of the second language is recognized as a predictor of second language outcomes. The starting age of acquisition is observed to significantly correlate negatively with attained second language proficiency at the end state. Pronunciation seems an aspect in language known to be most difficult to learn after childhood. On the other hand, adults may compensate for this difficulty by their high-level of motivation. (p. 12)
Milovanov (2009) finally came to a conclusion based on her research that “the foreign language phonemic pronunciation results were in accordance with the general musical aptitude score, the more musical aptitude the subject had, the better the pronunciation test results were.” (p. 43) The hypothesis that musical aptitude has also an impact on phonetic ability of learners is undoubtedly worth taking into account when pronunciation of English as a second language is dealt with. It brings remarkable contributions to pronunciation progress with respect not only to children but further in adult learners who notwithstanding their age usually struggle to approximate the native-like authenticity in pronunciation of English.
1.3.3 Psychological factors
First of all, the approach to the second language learning differs from learner to learner depending on a variety of factors which influence progress in mastering a second language as well as the final results. To put it another way, there are individual differences between learners, age being one of them. Additionally to critical period and even musical aptitude, motivation is definitely a prerequisite for mastering the second language, especially with adult learners. It is also vital to be willing to identify with the language as a whole. As a matter of fact, the learner is determined by previous
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learning experience and thus rooted learning strategies, age, and other personal factors even if these have, above all, greater influence on adults than on children, as this was explained in the previous section of this thesis. All these factors cannot be neglected in the second language acquisition.
It takes the learner a significant effort to concentrate on newly learnt sounds and it often occurs that students later forget the phonemes in question at the expense on other difficulties they have to face in the learning process and/or speech performance. In Norrish’s (1995) words “a regression takes place to certain extent as the attention is focused on another aspect of the message other than its pronunciation.” (p. 52) Norrish also points out that this is especially true of older students as “it gets increasingly difficult for them to overcome the barrier of the sound system, the phonology, even if they are better in grammar aspects. Younger learners, on the other hand, can frequently become indistinguishable from native speakers.”
(p. 52) Obviously, adults learn faster, children learn better. Nonetheless, even though there is a great motivation to achieve native-like level of the language, anxiety of communicative failure and embarrassment both result in inaccuracies in pronunciation to a significant extent and the pronunciation capability could be thus very weak as a consequence. Generally speaking, all these above mentioned factors are more noticeable in adult’s phonetic ability than in children’s. Jenkins (2001) notes that
it has been argued that the adult is less motivated than the child to learn the language fully, is more self-conscious about speaking (i.e., practicing and making errors), does not have the cultural identification with the host country necessary to become fluent, and in general is less able to achieve the open attitudinal and affective state required for language acquisition to take place. (p. 66-67)
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Despite the fact that Jenkins’s conclusions are more relevant to non-native English speakers in English speaking environment, these could also be fully applied to learners in Czech environment.
Further, with respect to the psychological factors regarding the second language acquisition, Jenkins (2001) refers to the identity as an integral part of the tendency to conform to phonetic norms of a mother tongue. “Learners who in all other respects achieve a very high degree of proficiency in English frequently retain a number of L1 phonological features. Although motor control is likely to be an element in this process, identity is probably the more salient issue.” (p. 16)
Dalton et al (1994) extends this interpretation and even says that “it may seem as objectionable to oblige learners to conform to an alien code of conduct. It may even be seen as forcing them to reject their own identity. Pronunciation is so much a matter of selfimage that students may prefer to keep their accent deliberately, in order to retain their self-respect or to gain the approval of their peers.” (p. 7)
To sum up, insisting on correct pronunciation may not always be desirable.
And it may not be feasible, either. (Jenkins, 2001, p. 8) Nevertheles, concerning Czech speakers of English as a second language in Czech environment, often without any prospect to use English as a means of communication in native-English environment, it seems exaggerated to talk about retaining their identity as far as their pronunciation is concerned, especially with beginner speakers of English, nothing to speak about children. Generally speaking, the awareness of differences between both languages, not only in pronunciation, establishes further children’s awareness of other cultural habits and leads therefore to their tolerance and openness.
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2 Differences between English and Czech
The phonetic-phonological systems of different languages cause pronunciation difficulties especially concerning new phonemes which are not present in the mother tongue, however, are found in a second language. Speakers usually recognize the same or similar phonemes and on that account pronounce these without any particular awareness correctly (see Flege 1987). On the other hand, those phonemes which need different articulation, or are allophones in the mother language but not in the target language, or vice versa, should be paid enough attention when pronounced as well as practiced sufficiently. Moreover, another significant phenomenon in language, which should be paid enough attention to, is stress and intonation for “misusing of stress patterns can lead to a breakdown in communication.” (Norrish, 1995, p. 55)
Let us first look at the basic differences in phonemes inventory of both Czech and English which often represent substitutions in phonological realization. Attention is paid to the most common errors of Czech speakers of English as a second language, such as length of vowels, devoicing of consonants in word-final positions, assimilation and suprasegmental features such as stress patterns and intonation. (Skaličková, 1979) Both acoustic as well as articulatory processes are vital in speech production, or to put it another way, articulatory process goes hand in hand with receptive control.
Flege (1987) further points out that “languages differ both in terms of the number of contrastive sound units they posses, and according to how those units are realized articulatory.” (p. 48) Thus, from the mother tongue perspective, that is Czech for the purpose of this thesis, the phones of English may seem to Czech speakers of English either as identical, similar, or new, new ones do not have a counterpart in Czech and differ hereby acoustically.
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Taking into account the above mentioned differences, Flege concludes that
“L2 learners either make the small articulatory modifications needed to realize similar L2 phones differently than their counterparts in L1. Or, if they do not, the production of similar L2 phones according to L1 phonetic norms goes unnoticed by listeners.”
(p. 48)
Flege subsequently suggests that there are several hypotheses why speakers of English as a second language do not sound authentically in pronunciation of the phonemes in question. One of those hypotheses proposes inaccurate perception of phones of a second language. Flege also refers to Trubetzkoy and states that the second language learners separate “acoustic differences that are not phonemically relevant in L1.” (p. 48) This is exactly what Dalton (1994) mentions in connection to language filters. (see 1.2)
Generally, there are some distinctive features as far as the articulatory production is concerned. In English the pair of dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ presents the most common problem. These are mostly replaced by /t/ or /s/ and /d/ or /z/
respectively. Another typical feature is devoicing of final voiced consonants which is also more or less the consequence of the first language orthoepy. (Skaličková, 1979) Therefore, the result is a completely different phoneme and the meaning of the word is entirely changed. In this respect, the awareness of correct pronunciation for Czech speakers is a matter of major challenge when practicing the pronunciation of English. However, the prevalence of mother tongue influence is just a passing phase in children’s pronunciation who in most cases manage to adhere to correct articulatory output. Despite the motor control in adults’ speech production, this level of approximation hardly ever occurs. Jenkins (2001) points out that
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as far as pronunciation in SLA [second language acquisition] is concerned, L1 knowledge is the inevitable starting point, operating a stronger influence than it does in the case of either grammar or lexis… Many features of the L2 phonology, while different from those of the L1, particularly at the phonetic level, are instinctively categorizable within the L1 system and possible to approximate in varying degrees of closeness to the L2. (p. 104)
2.1 Vowels and most common errors
First of all, there are ten vowel phonemes in Czech with length as a distinctive feature. On the other hand, supposing that we take RP as a model, there are twenty vowel phonemes – twelve monophtongs and eight diphtongs – in English, together with the appropriate durational variations. (Gimson, 1989, p. 321) Moreover, special attention must be paid to the quality/quantity complexes. Another characteristic of Czech vowels is the openness, therefore we classify open, mid, and close vowels, and frontness/backness which is the criterion for front, central, and back vowels.
Vowels are never reduced or assimilated and the vowel length is independent of the stress. According to Skaličková (1979) the stress does not have any impact on the vowel quality in unstressed syllables which is in contrast to English. Any stressed syllable can be made unstressed due to stress shift, in these unstressed syllables then [ɪ]
or [ə] occur. The only function of stress in Czech is to identify the beginning of a word, while in English the stress indicates e.g. the words within different word categories or compounds form collocations. In Czech the difference between vowels with respect to the contrastive value relies upon quality while in English the quality has the most important contrastive value. (p. 148) To put it another way, it is difficult to compare quantity of Czech and English vowels in the same terms. Basically, in Czech the long vowel is twice as long as a short vowel, whereas in English the consonants that follow have influence on vowel quantity. Among the distinctive features of vowels, timbre
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is important in English which is insignificant in Czech. And last but not least, articulation must be taken into account as well, the position of tongue is the most important here, which is, broadly speaking, convex in Czech and concave in English.
(Skaličková, 1979, p. 26-33)
As far as vowels are concerned, there are some common substitutions of English phonemes which are not present in Czech and on that account Czech speakers of English as a second language replace these by the closest possible equivalents which are available in Czech. The most common substitutions are as follows. The front open vowel /æ/ usually tends to be replaced by more close sound resembling /e/ and not distinguishing therefore between pairs of words such as ‘pen-pan, send-sand, gem-jam’. Further, the schwa /ə/ is a feature missing in Czech, thus speakers realize it according to spelling. What is also essential to mention here, is that the schwa often occurs in unstressed syllables and as stated above, there is not a reduction in vowel quality with respect to stressed and unstressed syllables. As also mentioned above, Czech words have stress on the first syllable only, the stress does not move.
(Skaličková, 1979, Krčmová, 1996)
2.2 Consonants and most common errors
There are twenty-four distinctive phonemes in English which is almost the same as in Czech where there are twenty-six, nevertheless, there are a few consonats which do not have any similar equivalents at all in both consonant systems, i.e. /θ, ð, w/
in English and /ř, ť, ď, ň/ in Czech. Moreover, even those similar phonemes differ in function, frequency, or distribution, nothing to speak about articulation. (Skaličková, 1979) As opposed to vowels, consonants are influenced by the surrounding, thus the process of assimilation occurs. Both regressive and progressive assimilation
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occurs in Czech (Krčmová, 1996, p. 130-131), however, there is only progressive assimilation in English. Thus many Czech speakers of English tend to introduce this type of assimilation to English as a consequence of their mother tongue impact, where i.e. neutralization of voicing is a phonetic rule, and pronunciation of voiceless consonants word-finally occurs as a result. The opposition of voiced – voiceless consonants is preserved in English. Secondary articulation such as aspiration or labialization is not common in Czech. (Skaličková, 1979)
Out of twenty-four English consonants, the following consonants present the major challenge for Czech speakers. /θ/ pronounced as /s/ or /t/, /ð/ replaced by /z/
or /d/, nothing to speak about consonant clusters where these fricatives occur in surrounding with /s/, /w/ particularly in contrast to labiodental /v/, the difference is very often ignored, and /ƞ/ which is substituted by /g/ or dental /n/. Concerning the pronunciation of English consonants, final devoicing of the following consonants of /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/ often occurs as similar to Czech neutralization of voicing which is a rule in Czech, thus for learners this is often a task even beyond the motor control of their pronunciation. And last but not least, English plosives /p/, /t/, /k/
are aspirated when in initial positions while in Czech there is no such phonetic feature.
Czech speakers are not often aware of the aspiration and as a result these voiceless plosives are pronounced almost as their voiced counterparts. (Sklaičková, 1979)
2.3 Suprasegmental features
Another problem for speakers of English as a second language presents stress and stress patterns in English. In comparison of Czech to English, there is only one phonological rule in Czech, that is, the main word-stress is always on the first syllable of a word. However, in English the placement of stress presents a difficulty, especially
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due to strong influence of Czech stress pattern usage. Stress only has a delimitation function in Czech from phonological point of view and it mostly signals word boundaries. (Krčmová, 1996, p. 140) Therefore, for Czech speakers the stress in English does not seem to be arranged in any reasonable way, thus could be placed anywhere from the Czech speaker’s point of view. Dalton et al (1994) emphasize the importance of word-stress for intelligibility of an utterance from which results that the word-stress is definitely relevant when pronouncing particular words. “Incorrect word-stress decreases intelligibility – and may even lead to embarrassing misunderstandings.”
(p. 39)
As far as stress is further concerned, two different realizations of stress must be taken into account. Firstly, word stress which is an integral part of any word itself, and secondly, sentence stress or rhythm, which is a matter of a finite utterance unit. Provided that both stress and sentence stress are changed, then comprehension is immediately interfered with. (Norrish, 1995, p. 55) With respect to the word stress, O’Connor (1990) comments on results of misusing correct stress pattern as follows:
“If you stress the wrong syllable it spoils the shape of the word for an English hearer and he may have difficulty in recognizing the word.”(p. 91) With respect to the latter meaning of stress, speakers who want to sound naturally fluent in English must also pay attention to rhythm of an utterance. Since “when you know what words you have to say you should be capable of saying them without stumbling over the sound and sequences of sounds. In English … the end of one word flows straight on to the beginning of the next.” (O’Connor, 1995, p. 101)
What is arguably worth mentioning here is that there are time-stressed languages and syllable-stressed languages. Even though the dividing line is not as sharp as can be supposed, the distinction between these two types of languages can make
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it easier to understand the pronunciation differences between the first language and a target language, that is, English. Norrish (1995) explains briefly that “stress-timed languages have stressed syllables at roughly equal distances in time which are not dependent on the number of unstressed syllables in between.
Whereas in syllable-timed languages, each syllable occupies roughly the same amount in time.” (p. 17) According to this distinction, it is apparent that English presents the first type of a language. As a consequence, English might sound as ‘slurred speech’
to speakers of syllable-timed language as opposed to the sound of a machine gun sound of just a syllable-timed language. (Norrish, 1995, p. 17, p. 55) Gimson (1989) also refers to the importance of stress and rhythm in pronunciation. “The stress- timed rhythm of the English utterance (be it a single word or connetcted speech) with the related obscuration of weak syllables is the prime distinguishing feature of the language’s pronunciation, with no exact parallel in any other language.” (p. 318)
Last but not least, let us look at intonation, which is undoubtedly part and parcel of any single language and speakers must not suppose intonation is the same as in their mother tongue. Thus the speakers must accept that, as O’Connor (1990) puts it, “English intonation is English.”(p. 108) A presupposition that the intonation is the same in all languages is completely wrong and speakers must take into account the intonation as a part of the performance target aimed. And Gimson (1989) stresses too that “It should be remembered that intonation makes a most important contribution to the accentuation pattering of English.” (p. 320) And further on Gimson points out that “since correct rhythm and accentuation (with the associated reduction of weak syllables) are regarded as indispensable for any level of spoken English, all learners should be proficient in making use of pitch movements as important cues for signaling salient words or syllables.” (p. 333) What is more, using inappropriate intonation can be
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misleading for the addressee, since intonation implies certain aim of the utterance.
Norrish (1995) adds to the issue of intonation that “it appears that when native speakers misunderstand learners of their language, the most frequent cause is that the learner’s mother tongue ‘tunes’ arouse unexpected reactions.” (p. 54-55)
To sum up, all the differences between English and Czech mentioned in this chapter are commented on from the productive point of view, or else, from the speaker’s point of view as an active participant in the communication process.
Nevertheless, the perception of all these phenomena in the flow of speech must be taken into account as well. To put it another way, the interlocutor, or better the speaker of English as a second language, should be able to decode receptively the speech produced by native speakers of English as well. In other words, the efficient communication from the English learner’s point of view is a double-sided process depending on both productive and receptive skills of the learner involved and their ability to apply what they know in the speech as well as in the process of hearing and further identifying the sound and sound patterns accordingly.
Nevertheless, pronunciation cannot be learnt in an ordered structure in contrast to e.g. lexical and grammatical parts of language. In Gimson’s words (1989)
“pronunciation does not permit such progressive treatment, since all phonetic/phonological features are potentially present from the very first lesson, unless vocabulary items are artificially introduced.” (p. 312) Since pronunciation is an essential part of spoken communicating in a foreign language, both productive, that is speaking, and receptive, listening, skills should be taken into account, concerning efficient communication process as a whole. Not only can misunderstandings based on the lack of awareness of correct pronunciation cause failure of a message conveyed, on the one hand, but also influence the appropriate receptive result, on the other hand.
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Thus efficient communication is consequent upon awareness of correct pronunciation when English as a second language is both learnt and taught.
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3 A survey of typical errors
3.1 Procedure
To begin with, in order to support the hypothesis that children are better learners with respect to pronunciation of English as a second language than adults, a survey has been carried out with the aim to prove that the adults strongly rely on their mother tongue. In addition to that, adults, who play a musical instrument or played a musical instrument when they were children and therefore should have a musical ear, as it is usually put, are said to be better with respect to their pronunciation performance when they study English as a second language in comparison to those who do not or did not play a musical instrument.
The participants of the survey are children and their parents on the one hand, who attend English courses together, and groups of children and adults who attend the courses separately, on the other hand. All the participants in the survey are Czech native speakers who are more or less exposed to English only in courses they have been attending while the survey has been carried out. As far as a model for correct pronunciation is concerned, British Standard English is taken as a model for correct pronunciation. It is undoubtedly worth mentioning here that all the participants in the survey do not need and/or use English for any particular purposes, the reasons for attending vary, however, the adults usually take up English courses because they are aware of the necessity to speak English, moreover, they want to improve their speaking skills above all, practice English regularly or they had an opportunity to attend the course at work. They want for their children to start as early as possible.
Both children and adults live entirely in the Czech language environment with minimal exposure to English beyond the courses actually attended.
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Concerning the first group, there are children aged three to five who started with English as a second language at this particular age and have had thus comparatively short exposure to English, however, they had already acquired and mastered to a certain extent their mother tongue. Moreover, their parents participate in each lesson with the children and it is necessary to say that the parents are mostly intermediate speakers of English, or better, all the parents are speakers of English altogether. This points to the fact that they are aware of the advantage of an early exposure to a second language and they also consider learning English a priority with respect to many other activities children have generally. As a matter of fact, the children listen to native English speakers on a regular daily basis appropriate to their age. They learn English in similar way to their mother tongue learning by singing and chanting and appropriate language is further elicited during the course.
This strategy is above all based on the hypothesis of the critical period which is mentioned in this thesis in connection to J. E. Flege (1987) who pointed out that one of the reasons why children are better in pronunciation of English as a second language, is just the critical period in their development. Thus the process is spontaneous and natural for children similarly for acquiring a first language. After passing the critical period, learning a language becomes more difficult in many aspects and requires more effort to approximate the native-like level of authenticity in pronunciation.
Another group is children aged six to ten who are mostly beginners or who have had some experience with English since they are primary school pupils.
These children attend the course without parents. The learning strategy is the same as the one within the group of children with their parents.
As far as adult learners of English as a second language are concerned, the participants are beginner speakers of English who have been taught English
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for about two months at that time. Nonetheless, the adult learners are not bound to a regular extra listening out of their classes. However, they are presented with enough authentic listening material during the courses.
Sets of minimal pairs of words, word phrases, and tongue twisters are used to elicit English speech production using typical difficulties represented when these are produced by Czech speakers of English as a second language. The participants have been tested without telling them beforehand in order to achieve the most authentically produced speech and spontaneity. The words and phrases of particular concern are perceived both as isolated sounds in pronunciation practice exercises and in context, either in connected speech or in separate sentences using the particular phonemes and stress patterns.
3.2 Analysis
Observing the progress with regard to approximation the pronunciation model provided, there are noticeable differences not only between the children and their parents who undoubtedly influence each other but also between the adults themselves.
3.2.1 Children in groups with parents
First of all, let me comment on the group of children with their parents.
All in all, the children have made a great progress with their pronunciation, they realize very quickly what the pronunciation differences between English and Czech are, furthermore, they realize even the differences in meaning concerning minimal pairs of words with distinctive phonemes in them. Interestingly, however not surprisingly, what the parents often do, is that they enforce their children to speak repeating
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what the teacher aims to elicit, nevertheless, ignoring the teacher’s pronunciation completely and presenting to the children their own way of pronunciation based on their so far obtained knowledge. Thus, very often, when the focus is on those phonemes, which are especially different in both languages, the aim of the pronunciation practice, not usually but very often, fails owing to the parents’
ignorance.
On the other hand, as was already said before, the children realize very quickly the differences and try to imitate the correct pronunciation since they are, naturally, interested in a new element in the language. Further, after a short period of time, the parents are too able to distinguish between the two different sound systems as well and as a consequence pay more attention to their correct pronunciation. Children are taught English through songs, rhymes and tongue twisters aimed at a particular phonemes and sound patterns as well as context-bound utterances. As a result, the parents seem to lose the barrier due to this approach, since the children are the most important here in the courses, and the focus is not directly on the parents and their pronunciation, they subconsciously improve their pronunciation too, they even ask for repeating in order to assure they hear correctly. The anxiety of the parents’
embarrassment is noticeable at the beginning, however, this phenomenon disappears during the progress of the course. Interestingly, fathers do usually better than mothers in their pronunciation performance as well as in all other respects.
The progress with the parents’ pronunciation awareness is slower than with their children’s. As opposed to children, the parents are gradually embarrassed with their lack of correct pronunciation and thus make efforts not to confuse their children. Children do not find anything extraordinary about differences in pronunciation from the very beginning. Stress and intonation are taught in a very
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natural way as well. Provided that the children listen to or watch English regularly, which they should in these courses, they get used to the rhythm and intonation without any difficulties.
3.2.2 Children without parents
As far as the group of children who attend the courses alone, there is the awareness of differences in pronunciation apparent from the first lesson.
These children do very well in practicing their pronunciation. What must be mentioned here is that the older the children are, the more anxious they are about their pronunciation. Obviously, the reason for that is that they realize there have not been put enough emphasis on the way they speak in previous encounters with English. It happens more often here that the children need to repeat what is being said in order to follow the instructions correctly or when eliciting the language presented. As these children have already started to attend primary school and therefore they can read, there are noticeable differences between those children who listen regularly to English and those who do not. As a consequence, the children who are used to listening to English to a certain extent, are able to predict the correct pronunciation according to the written form. What must be said here, they do not read in fact, however, they are able to predict the pronunciation based on their previous receptive experience.
Additionally, it is a very hard task to make the children focus intentionally on their pronunciation because the phonetic/phonological rules applied in their mother tongue are fully in operation, thus their pronunciation is very strongly influenced by Czech. Obvious differences between children who listen to English regularly can be observed in this particular respect. On the other hand, all the children make efforts
