English Pronunciation Difficulties Faced by the Higher Secondary Students: A Study Based on Two Colleges in Motijheel Area

  

 

Abstract

 

Quite naturally, the learners of English as second or foreign language encounter problems regarding pronunciation. This paper highlights some problems concerning pronunciation of English learners in Bangladesh. The paper aims at finding out which difficulties the learners of higher secondary level face frequently in pronouncing the vowel and consonant sounds, and it also provides some recommendations on how to improve the condition. On the basis of sources like interview of students and recording it for collecting pronunciation samples, questionnaire distributed to the teachers for collecting opinions regarding students’ English pronunciation, and making the students read a passage that contains some words of problematic pronunciation. The data collected from above sources have been analyzed in a qualitative manner.  On the basis of findings, some pedagogical implications and recommendations have been presented for the students and the teachers to improve existing English pronunciation problems of students gradually.

Key word:

 

 

Table content

English Pronunciation Difficulties Faced by the Higher Secondary Students: A Study Based on Two Colleges in Motijheel Area

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

More than centuries English has been in use started with the merchants, missionaries and settlers in Bangladesh.  Even after the British left it has been playing an important role in various domains of Bengali life. In Bangladesh, English has a significant position in the education sector. To get access into English- medium one needs to have very good English with good pronunciation. Almost all the factors in life English is a determining issue. Therefore, the National Education Policy 2010 gave much priority to build strong, confident and accented base English to compete the word.

The policy suggests to take appropriate steps from the very early stage of education to ensure English writing and speaking skills with further emphasis in the forthcoming classes as per needs. English is also suggested to be taught as a compulsory subject at the degree level of all colleges and universities. The study also recommends appointing English teachers to high schools and higher education for ensuring better English education. In the policy, English is also suggested to remain as a medium of instruction in higher education along with Bangla. (National Education Policy 2010).

While the demand of English is soaring the spoken English with proper pronunciation is neglected the most. We are inspired to learn English but not with proper guided pronunciation.  Many M.A holders speak English with much fluency and confidence but shatter in making the foreigners understand what he means to pronounce the words in his/her speech. Sometimes pronunciations become a laughing stock.

To avoid this disgraceful moment we need to focus on English proper pronunciation. It is not our fault that we make mistake to pronounce English correctly. Our dialect influences us while speaking.  In motijheel area the students are from different background of distinctive dialects.

 

The complex reason can be that they are not familiar with International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols. Also sometimes they cannot distinguish the phonological sound between Bangla and English.

Therefore this paper deals with pronunciation difficulty of the tertiary level students of Motijheel area. Some questions are raised regarding pronunciation difficulty:

1. What English sounds do the students of tertiary level find difficulty to produce?
2. What are the factors responsible for the students to pronounce English correctly?
3.  How much influence do the Bangla dialects have on English pronunciation?

 

Literature review:

Various researchers showed that English pronunciation problem is a common phenomenon in many countries where English is a second or foreign language. In tracing out difficulties faced by Bangladeshi speakers of English, Rahman (1996), in a study, has found that in Bangladesh, English is spoken with an accent related to the mother tongue which pays little attention to sound patterns, stress, rhythm and intonation system of English. Haque et al. (1990, as cited in Rahman, 1996, p.15) shows that a Bengali vowel is not conditioned by length. On the other hand, length distinguishes English vowel sounds /iː i, ɔː ɔ, uː u/. Bengali speakers do not usually make any distinctions between long and short vowels. For example-they pronounce /ful/ and /fuːl/ in the same way. He again found that the chief difficulty for a Bengali learner is using the weak forms /ə/ and /ɪ/ in unstressed syllables. This is not usually observed by a Bengali speaker.

Along the same context, Mujaffar (1999) observes that Bangladeshi speakers pronounce the voiced palatal plosive /z/ and the voiced palato alveolar affricate /ʤ/ as allophones of same phoneme. The speakers read the letter „z‟ as /ʤ/ and the letter „j‟ as /z/. Thus, he presents some mispronunciation of Bangladeshi speakers of English in some consonant sounds like /f/ and /v/; /z/. /ʤ/ and /ᴣ/; /θ/ and / ð /; /t/ and /d/, etc. In his observation, students commonly adopt the labiodentals /f/ and /v/ as the bilabial aspirated plosives /pʰ/ and /bʰ/, even some speakers take them as bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/. He thinks the mispronunciation is due to the absence of them in the Bangla phonemic inventory. The voiceless aspirated dental plosives /θ/ and / ð / tend to be the voiced dental plosives /tʰ/ and /d͵/ to the Bengali speakers. Bangladeshi students have also problems with consonant clusters /sp/, /st/ and /sm/. These are dealt with by prosthesis or epenthesis of a glottal stop or a vowel.

Banu (2000), in a study, has drawn some phonological distinctions in both vowel and consonant sounds of Bangladeshi speakers. She observes Diphthongs /eι/ and /əu/ of BRP are replaced by monophthongs /e:/ and /o /, though there is a tendency to lengthen this monophthongs. For example, day /de:/, say /se:/, hate /he:t/ etc. The

central vowels /ʌ/ in words like bus, mother, cut, hut are made more lax and open and the result is almost like an /a/ like bas, kat, madar, hat. The sound like / з:/ in word like bird, girl, etc. are transformed into lax /a/ and /bard/ and /garl/ become homophonous with middle vowel of smart and heart. She also observes Bangladeshi speakers have a tendency to substitute some un-aspirated English consonants with aspirated sounds. As English fricatives /f, θ, ð, ѵ, z, ʒ/ are absent in the Bengali inventory of phonemes; /f/ becomes/ ph/, /θ/ becomes /th/, /ð/ becomes /d/, /z/ becomes /dʒ/ and/ z/ becomes /ʒ/or /dʒ/ in the English pronunciation of Bangladeshi speakers. The realization of /ѵ/ as /bh/, a bilabial aspirated stop, is very common. For example, loving /lʌbhιŋ/, very /bherι/ etc. The alveolar series /t/ and /d/ are somewhat retroflexed by Bangladeshis, especially those from the south. The /z/ becomes /dʒ/ and / dʒ/ becomes /z/, so we hear zoo like jew or giraffe as ziraffe. She also states, unlike English, Bengali rhythm is based on arranging long and short syllables, not stressed and unstressed ones. Thus, there is more of a spelling pronunciation amongst Bangladeshi speakers of English.

In this regard, Cook (2002) thinks learner’s L2 is affected by their L1 for the following:

1. Sounds: learning of pronunciation depends on aspects other than the phoneme, for example: distinctive feature.
2. Syllable structure: L2 learners simplify use consonant clusters and add extra „epenthetic‟ vowels, often to fit the first language.
3. Voice onset time: L2 learners gradually acquire the L2 way of voicing stop consonants. Their first language is affected by their knowledge of the second language.
4. Intonation: L2 learners are still capable of discriminating tones. L2 learners have strategies for dealing with new intonation (2002, pp.69-83).

In another study, Hoque (2011) has brought out some mispronunciation of Chittagonian English learners of Bangladesh and he has observed that some students replace / d / with / t /, for example-bad / bæd / is pronounced as / bæt /, good /gud/ as /gut/. They also commonly replace /tʃ/ with /s /, observed in the pronunciation of actually /æksuælι/ , which /huιs/, much /mʌs/, child /saild/, tacher as /ti:sʌr/, etc. It happens, according to him, because the sound is absent in Chittagongian. Again, some Chittagonian speakers of English utter /c/, a symbol presenting sound between /tʃ/ and /s/, instead of /tʃ. Some Chittagonian speakers are likely to replace plosive /p/ with fricative /f/. Some students were found to utter people /pi:pl/ as /fιɔfɒl/, /fι:fɒl/, /fιfo l/, parents /peərənts/ as /færents/, and capable /keιpəbl/ as /kæfe:bɒl/. It happens, as the sound is absent in Chittagonian variety. Some other students replaced /ʃ / with / s /, e.g. socio / sɔsιo /. Some others tend to replace /dʒ/ with / s /, in word like age /eιdʒ/ as / eιs /. Some others tend to replace / dʒ / with /z/. The tendency has been observed in the pronunciation of age /eιz/ and /ez /, joy / zoι /, enjoy /enzoι/, etc. Some others replace /z/ with /dʒ/ which can be observed in words like busy /bιdʒι /, zero /dʒιru/. Replacement of / z / with / s / is also observed in use /ιus/, as /æs/, is /ιs/, and cases /kæses/. Some are habituated to pronounce silent /h/ in words like

which /huιs/, where /hɔjʌr/ and, /hɔja:r/ , when /hɔjen/, what /hɔwʌt/, why /huaι/ and /hɔaι/ etc. Replacement of /θ/ with / ţ (ত) / has been found in thank /ţæŋk/ and in both / bɔːţ/. Replacement of /θ/ with /ţh (থ)/ is observed in thousand /ţhauzænd/, etc. So, differences are distinguishable in the above discussion.

The results indicate that: 1. /v/ sound was mispronounced as /f/ in all positions. 2. /p/ was mispronounced as /b/ in all positions. 3. /z/ was mispronounced as /ks/ only in the initial position. 4. /s/ was mispronounced as /z/. Students could not recognize the different sounds of /s/ when it falls in the medial and final positions. 5. /ʃ/ proved to be problematic for students in the medial position. It was mispronounced as /k/. 6. /g/ followed by /z/which is a cluster sound of the letter X. This cluster was mispronounced as /ks/ in the medial position. 7. /ʧ/ was mispronounced as /ʃ/ in the initial and final positions. 8. /ʒ/: was mispronounced as /ʤ/ and as /ʃ/ only in the medial position. 9. /ŋ/: was mispronounced as /n/ only in the final position. 10. /ʤ/ was mispronounced by students as /g/ in the initial and final positions.

Along the same vein, Uddin and Manjur (2015) have studied the influence of Bangla dialects on English pronunciation and they have surprisingly noted that except few regions (i.e. Noakhali, Sylhet and Chittagong) the pronunciation of the same speech of the people of different surveyed regions was almost the same. In these particular three regions, English pronunciation is identical with their own dialect. For example, in Sylhet, students use frequently the sound (Kha) instead of (Ka) and in Noakhali region students have a tendency of using /p/ sound instead of /f/ sound. In case of Chittagong, they pronounce /s/ sound instead of /tʃ/. If other zones are considered, any rigid isogloss cannot be set rather those zones can be tagged with dialect continuum. It has been found that the people of other regions except Noakhali; Chittagong and Sylhet are almost same in their English accent. They have observed that in all the zones in Bangladesh /z/ sound is a common problem of pronunciation.

Therefore, along with the contribution of previous studies for the development of this research, this study has been designed to particularly bring out the nature of pronunciation problems of tertiary students in Bangladesh and factors behind these problems.

 

METHODOLOGY:

Settings and Participants:

In Motijheel area this study has been conducted with 15 students from different departments of 3 universities in Bangladesh. Another 10 students also selected to have dialogue among them.

Ten specialized teachers in language and linguistics from 3 universities have also been provided with questionnaires to get information and to know their opinions regarding pronunciation problems of the students. To do the research a mix method methodology has been adopted.

Data Collection:

For the research the data has been collected from different sources:

1. The selected students were asked to read English story.
2. As an observer I have observed students are mispronouncing some words. The mispronounced words have been picked.
3. Some students were interviewed with some questions to see their problems in English words while speaking English.

For data collections at first permission was taken formally from the teachers and students. Interviews were recorded by their permission.  It took almost 10-15 minutes to interview the students.

Analysis of Teachers’ Questionnaire:

In my point of view nearly 98% of the students in Motijheel area are influenced strongly by their dialects. Therefore they find difficult to pronounce English sound correctly.

• Intense practice can make students possible to pronounce English correctly and without any influence of mother tongue. Nearly 60% teachers agreed that the students can overcome their deficiency if only they put effort to improve their pronunciation. On the other hand 40% teachers believed that it is impossible to correctly pronounce English without any influence of mother tongue. Students’ English pronunciation is hampered by the influence of dialects.
• Point was raised: in Bangladesh Educational institutions should follow the standard pronunciation of English. Half of the teachers, 50%, agreed upon this, participants almost 30% agreed and said students will surely progress well in pronunciation. While 10% teachers strongly disagreed saying it as impossible. The reason is that as English is the second language so it is difficult to correctly pronounce English.  Another 10% teachers disagreed upon this.
• Students are well aware of English pronunciation from their school level. Around 60% of the students disagreed in this point. It seemed to me that learners are unaware of English pronunciation from their primary level. While 20% participants strongly disagreed, other 20% agreed on this point and think that they are aware of it but they do not practice it regularly.

 

DATA ANALYSIS:

 

The data collected from the interviewees, class observation and reading test show the following pronunciation problems among the tertiary level students in Motijheel area.

Pronunciation problem with vowel sounds:

In simple form there are two types of vowels.  They are: the long vowel and short vowel. Students mistake to distinguish the sound between these two vowels.

1. It is observed that 3 students pronounced ‘daughter’ /dɔːte(r)/ as /dɔte(r)/. A good number of students found to pronounce ‘do’ /duː/ as /du/. Among them two students pronounced ‘police’ /pəˈliːs/ perfectly, 4 students uttered /pəlis/ others pronounced /polis/.

 

By 12 students short /ʃɔːt/ was uttered as /ʃɔrt./  2 students produced the sound  father /fɑːðə(r)/ as /fɑðə(r)/. Two students pronounced  first /fɜːst/ as /fʌst/.

Analyzing these obvious mistakes   draw the conclusion that students do not know the long and short vowel sounds also they do not have knowledge of distinguishing long and short vowel.

Rahman (1996), in this context, has found: the quality of a Bengali vowel is not conditioned by length. On the other hand, length distinguishes English vowel sounds: /i, iː; ɒ, u, and uː,ɔː/.

 

2. Almost all the students who took part in the interview and reading test pronounced examination /ɪgˌzӕmɪˈneɪʃn/ as /egˌzӕmɪˈneɪʃn/.

 

3. Dipthongs are comprised of two English vowels. The students who were interviewed could not utter a number of dipthongs. More than half of the students pronounced ‘potato’ /pəteιtəʊ/ and /pɔteto/ and day /deι/ as /de/,  and tasty /teιsti/, make /meɪk/, late /leɪt/, poor /pʊə(r)/, here /hɪə(r)/ as /testi/, /mek/, /let/, /pʊɒ(r)/ and /heə(r)/.

It happened due to their lack of knowledge in vowels: dipthongs.

4. “A diphthong and a pure vowel constitute a tripthong or 3 pure vowels constitute a tripthong (Roach, 2010, p.23). Students are seen to pronounce the tripthongs at their convenient way like without following the structure of pronouncing tripthong: player /pleɪə(r)/ and lower /ləʊə/ as /pleə(r)/ and /ləʌ(r)/.

Pronunciation problem with consonant sounds:

While speaking incorrect consonant sounds has also been observerd. It seems students have been affected by their mother tongue.

Consonant sounds like ‘p’ and ‘b’ are mispronounced. Words like ‘paragraph’, poison’, and ‘apple’ are pronounced as /fӕrɑgrɑːf/, /fɔɪzən/, and /ʌfl/ instead of /pӕrəgrɑːf/, /pɔɪzən/ and /æpl/.

Mujaffar (1999) has observed that English labio-dental fricative /f/ and /v/ are absent in Bangla phonemic inventory, that is why students commonly adopt these sounds as the bilabial aspirated plosives /pʰ/ and /bʰ/.

As a result some students pronounce leaf, verb and very as liːpʰ/, /bʰɜːb/, /be:rι/ instead of /liːf/,/vɜːb/ and /veːri/.

Some common words were uttered unusual way by some students of selected tertiary level school in Motijheel area.  Words like  ‘monster’, ‘interesting’ were pronounced as / mɒnestər/, /ˈɪntʌrəsɪŋ/.

 

Discussion:

Our existing English teaching system is proper to improving English pronunciation for the tertiary level students. Some participants suggested some important points to overcome the pronunciation problem challenged by the tertiary level students especially in Motijheel area.

Tertiary students suggested that teachers should be more efficient in English sound system in order to make students good at pronunciation.  To improve English pronunciation necessary equipment should be provided in the classroom. In opened expressions of the students some of them said Educational institutions should provide special training or courses  to improve students’ English pronunciation.

Pronunciation problem (vowel sound) found among tertiary level student in Motijheel area.

• In English speaking long vowels sometimes turns to short ones: /iː/ ~ /i/, /uː/ ~ /u/, /ɔː/ ~ /ɔ/, /ɜ/~ /ʌ/, /ɑː/ ~ /ɑ/.
• Sometimes short vowels undergo interchange: /ɪ/ turns to /e/, /e/ turns to /æ/, /ə/, turns to /æ/, /ɑ/ turns to /ʌ/.

Problems in consonant sounds:

• The sound /p/ becomes fricative /f/.
• While pronouncing /f/ and /v/ they become /pʰ/ and /bʰ/.
• The two consonant sounds like /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ turns into /s/ and /z/ sunds. 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

English pronunciation problems among tertiary level students in Motijheel area is really a big problem. Only a strong resolution, determination and teachers’ motivation can help students solve this problem. To solve pronunciation problems some recommendations are presented here:

• Some theory like, Conceptualization theory in pronunciation can be used to enable learners come to a certain level in proper pronunciation.
• Right concept of L2 input should be given more and more.
• Students should be inspired to drill every day to have good utterance.
• Modern equipments should be provided to improve pronunciation.
• Students should be taught that writing symbols and sound symbols are different.
• Also teachers should be trained on phonetics to aid students’ pronunciation.

 

CONCLUSION:

English is a Lingua Franca. Therefore students should learn English with proper pronunciation. Students should be taught and encouraged to learn standard form of English pronunciation.  This study showcases that students of tertiary level in Motijheel area are with many obstacles to pronounce English correctly. Despite many limitations I hope my data collections, analysis, findings and recommendations will motivate students to improve their English pronunciation as I have pointed the wrong pronunciation sounds.

 

References:

Leila Anjomshoa, F. S. (February 2015,). The Importance of Motivation in Second Language Acquisition. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature, 130.

Rasheed, M. M.-A. (6:2 2012). Learning English Language in Bangladesh: CLT and. Government Teachers‟ Training College, Barisal, Bangladesh, 64.

Sayuri. (2016). English Speaking Problems of EFL Learners of Mulawarman University. www. indonesian-efl-journal.org, 57.

Hassan, S. M. (2009). Condition of English in Bangladsh: Second language or Foreign Languaage. The Journal of Asia TEFL 1, 1-25.

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