The study is based on an observation of the pronunciation of a group of undergraduate students of English as a Second Language （ESL） whose mother tongue is Arabic and who have no formal training in the spoken variet...The study is based on an observation of the pronunciation of a group of undergraduate students of English as a Second Language （ESL） whose mother tongue is Arabic and who have no formal training in the spoken variety of English other than that received in the classroom. The study of acquisition of pronunciation of consonant clusters at morphological, particularly at the morphophonological levels indicates that the learners are sensitive to the syllabic structure viz., cccv type and cccvcc type, at the word-initial, medial and final positions. Samples of words with different consonant clusters were tested with a homogeneous group of students. Words of identical morphological categories were used as the data to test the students＇ level of perception. These were analyzed using Speech Analyzer Version 2.5. The data includes consonant clusters like plosive-fricative, plosive-plosive, fricative-fricative and plosive-fricative-trill/liquid combinations. The results varied according to the perceptual and articulatory abilities of the learners. It was observed that the plosive perception and acquisition of three-consonant clusters of plosive-plosive word initially, plosive-plosive combinations word finally and plosive-fricative type, posed more difficulty for the learners. The tendency to drop one of the consonants of the cluster was more pronounced with syllables ending in plural morphemes and those ending in -mp, -pt, -kt, -nt, -bt, etc. Difficulty was also noticed with the initial plosive＋/r/, plosive＋/1/combinations, especially in word initial positions. Across the syllable boundaries, these clusters are almost inaudible with some speakers. The difficulty in the articulation of these consonant clusters can be accounted for the mother tongue influence, as in the case of many other features. The results of the analysis have a pedagogical implication in the use of such words with consonant clusters, to teach reading skills to the students of undergraduate level in the present setting and promote self-learning through the use of speech tools.展开更多
It is widely accepted nowadays that intelligibility is the essential goal for most learners of English,and it is not necessary for them to mimic all aspects of native-speaker English in order to achieve a high level o...It is widely accepted nowadays that intelligibility is the essential goal for most learners of English,and it is not necessary for them to mimic all aspects of native-speaker English in order to achieve a high level of intelligibility.However,the features that are needed in order to make oneself easily understood by listeners from elsewhere remain controversial.The current research focuses on thirteen five-minute recordings of conversations between young speakers of English in central China and an interviewer from Britain,in order to determine which features of their speech gave rise to misunderstandings.It was found that,in the 18 tokens of misunderstanding identified,4 resulted from lexical semantics(22%),3 from Chinese place names(17%),3 from grammar(17%),and 11 from pronunciation(61%)(with some tokens cross-classified).The most common phonological factors giving rise to loss of intelligibility were omission of syllables and simplification of word-initial consonant clusters.展开更多
文摘The study is based on an observation of the pronunciation of a group of undergraduate students of English as a Second Language （ESL） whose mother tongue is Arabic and who have no formal training in the spoken variety of English other than that received in the classroom. The study of acquisition of pronunciation of consonant clusters at morphological, particularly at the morphophonological levels indicates that the learners are sensitive to the syllabic structure viz., cccv type and cccvcc type, at the word-initial, medial and final positions. Samples of words with different consonant clusters were tested with a homogeneous group of students. Words of identical morphological categories were used as the data to test the students＇ level of perception. These were analyzed using Speech Analyzer Version 2.5. The data includes consonant clusters like plosive-fricative, plosive-plosive, fricative-fricative and plosive-fricative-trill/liquid combinations. The results varied according to the perceptual and articulatory abilities of the learners. It was observed that the plosive perception and acquisition of three-consonant clusters of plosive-plosive word initially, plosive-plosive combinations word finally and plosive-fricative type, posed more difficulty for the learners. The tendency to drop one of the consonants of the cluster was more pronounced with syllables ending in plural morphemes and those ending in -mp, -pt, -kt, -nt, -bt, etc. Difficulty was also noticed with the initial plosive＋/r/, plosive＋/1/combinations, especially in word initial positions. Across the syllable boundaries, these clusters are almost inaudible with some speakers. The difficulty in the articulation of these consonant clusters can be accounted for the mother tongue influence, as in the case of many other features. The results of the analysis have a pedagogical implication in the use of such words with consonant clusters, to teach reading skills to the students of undergraduate level in the present setting and promote self-learning through the use of speech tools.
基金funded by State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs(project GDT20173200030&project G20190214022).
文摘It is widely accepted nowadays that intelligibility is the essential goal for most learners of English,and it is not necessary for them to mimic all aspects of native-speaker English in order to achieve a high level of intelligibility.However,the features that are needed in order to make oneself easily understood by listeners from elsewhere remain controversial.The current research focuses on thirteen five-minute recordings of conversations between young speakers of English in central China and an interviewer from Britain,in order to determine which features of their speech gave rise to misunderstandings.It was found that,in the 18 tokens of misunderstanding identified,4 resulted from lexical semantics(22%),3 from Chinese place names(17%),3 from grammar(17%),and 11 from pronunciation(61%)(with some tokens cross-classified).The most common phonological factors giving rise to loss of intelligibility were omission of syllables and simplification of word-initial consonant clusters.
