Question 6:

Non-native speakers of English (NNS) often have problems with pronunciation.

Discuss the problems areas and suggest ways to overcome these problems
identified. Provide relevant examples to illustrate your answer.
A "native speaker of English" refers to someone who has learned and used English
from early childhood. It does not necessarily mean that it is the speaker's only language,
but it means it is and has been the primary means of concept formation and
communication. It means having lived in a truly English-speaking culture during one's
formative years, so that English has been absorbed effortlessly as by osmosis. Nonnative speakers of English here refer to people whose first language was something
other than English. It may be used to refer to someone with little or no knowledge of the
English language, or someone who speaks English fluently, but whose first language
was something else. Pronunciation is an essential part of language. According to Fries
(1945), the main problem in learning a new language is not the vocabulary but it is
instead the mastery of the sound system, which is to understand the stream of speech
and to hear distinctive sound features. Pronunciation is important to avoid
misunderstandings when communicating. The three problem areas identified are
problems in pronunciation, accent and suprasegmentals. Further into the discussion,
there will be suggested ways in overcoming these problems that have been identified.
The first problem area of non-native speakers in the English language is
pronunciation. Being non-native speakers (NNS) of the English Language, many often
have problems with the pronunciation of certain words. Our pronunciation can be notice
when we are having a conversation with other people. People usually dont understand
what you are saying. Pronunciation is probably one of the hardest skills in English to
learn. It takes a lot of time and effort to improve your pronunciation. Pronunciation of
English is one of the most challenging aspects of learning the language. It is essential to
listen to a native speaker to establish the initial features of the sounds you are learning
to make. For instance, Katakana English refers to spoken English and it had been used
in English classes and it differs from the Standard English. Kana represents a specific
sound or combination of sounds, the pronunciation of each sound often differs from that
of the original English word. While speaking, the Japanese sometimes confuse and
cannot differentiate the pronunciation of words that contain the letters "l" and "r" as these

sounds does not exist in the Japanese phonemic inventory. For instance, some may
pronounce the word "work" as "walk." Japanese speakers pronoun work as /wk/,
British listeners may confuse it with walk. So, the correct pronunciation for the word
work is /w(r)k/ while the word walk pronounced as /wk/. As they pronounced the
sound r, they pronounce l sound. Another common speech mistake pertains to words
that begin with si. Instead of pronouncing it as "see," Japanese speakers tend to
pronounce it as "shi." For example, I have an older shister should be changed to correct
one I have an older sister.

The way we can improve our pronunciation is we can hear native English when
they speak. We need to listen to the sound and stress patterns. In addition, we can
learn how to pronoun the words correctly from the native speakers as well. We may
watch some videos of English speakers online and on television. The other way to
improve our pronunciation is practice, practice and practice! We need to practice hard
and practice more as we all know, Practice Makes Perfect. We need to practice at least
30 minutes a day. Our pronunciation will not magically improve just because we are
speaking English. The sounds of English may be very different from the sounds in your
language. It may be difficult and even uncomfortable for your mouth to make some of the
sounds in English. You need to practice with the sounds of English until they feel as
natural and comfortable as the sounds of your language. It wont happen overnight, but
gradually your pronunciation will improve.
Besides that, the activity of tongue-twister is a good way to improve our
pronunciation. Tongue Twisters can help us to improve our pronunciation and to gain
fluency in the language. It should also be noted that, the tongue twisters are neither
grammatically correct nor meaningful. Tongue twister is not only a game and just for fun,
but it is a tool to practice proper pronunciation and to get fluency in the language. Firstly,
students will try to say some parts of the tongue-twister separately, in order to pronounce
them correctly. In the end, they will try to say the tongue-twister as fast as possible, but
also pronouncing it correctly, linking the words. English tongue twisters may be used by
foreign students of English to improve their accent, actors who need to develop a certain
accent, and by speech therapists to help those with speech difficulties. The example of

the tongue twister is: She sells sea shells on the southern side of the south sea shore.
The second problem is the accent. Strong accent makes the listeners cannot
understand the words that they are saying as different area of people have different
accent. Different foreign speakers have different accents such as Spanish accents,
Japanese accents, Chinese accents and the others. For example, Chinese teachers who
use Chinese language as their first language may speak English with a strong Chinese
accent. The way to overcome this problem is the speakers may speak the words slowly
to make the sounds clear, so that the listeners no longer struggle to understand the
speaker although our accent is influenced strongly. We need to be a good listener
instead of becoming a good speaker. One of the best ways to overcome accent
problems is to be a good listener. Listening to the speakers and practicing the words out
loud while we are alone if you are shy.
The other problem area of NNS is suprasegmental or more specifically, the stress
position in pronouncing. The suprasegmental refers to properties of an utterance that
apply to groups of segments, rather than to individual segments. The main
suprasegmental features are stress and intonation. Stress is extremely important in
English and carries a great deal of information. There is stress on both word and
sentence levels. Word Stress is one of the problem areas of pronunciation. Students
misplace stress on words or pronounce all syllables equally. This can lead to problems of
intelligibility. Sometimes words shift their stress and word stress can actually change
the meaning of the word. For example, the word digest /ddest/ in noun stressed as
/ddest/ in verb. We can overcome this problem by checking dictionary in advance of
a seminar or presentation to make sure you know where the stress falls on long words.
Besides that, during the classroom activity, teachers can help students to understand
and differentiate the stress of the words. Through comparison between two words which
have different meaning but only one sound changed, students can properly differentiate
and understand the differences.
Sentence stress in English is the way a speaker highlights certain words in each
sentence. It helps the listener focus on important parts and understand the speakers
meaning. It gives the listener clues to listen to parts of the sentence which are more
important. If stress is not used, or used incorrectly, the listener may misinterpret the

intended meaning, or have difficulty picking out important concepts. The common
problems include stressing too many words in a sentence and not stressing any word
clearly. For example: Where did you go? What will he say? In sentence, we dont usually
put stress on words which are less important, for example auxiliary verbs such as did,
will and pronoun are you and he. To overcome this problem, teachers can have some
listening activities with the students to raise awareness of stress time in English. Teacher
may give the students the tape script to a listening and before they hear it, ask them to
predict and write down the words they think will be stressed. The students may read the
stress in the sentence out loud. Teachers can help students by telling them to make the
stressed syllables louder and longer and reducing the unstressed syllables. The aim of
this activity is to show how native speakers listen and understand the language, taking
note of important words and usually the stressed one.
Last but not least, the next problem area will be intonation. Getting the right
intonation is important to convey the right attitude. The wrong use of intonation can lead
to misunderstanding. Intonation refers to the paralinguistic vocal features such as pitch,
loudness, quality and flexibility. Speakers vary these to show intent and emotion. For
example, when you want people to do something for you, we need to say in polite way.
We need to say Please close the door and not Close the door. The way you talk
shows your characters and it will affect your image as well. Students may be
misinterpreted as being rude if they talk in impolite way. The way to overcome this
problem is we may listen to as much spoken English as possible. We should be aware of
where the voices rises and falls.
As a conclusion, non native speakers also can have good pronunciation too. You
are likely to improve your pronunciation more quickly if you are doing plenty of listening
and speaking. This is why it is so crucial that you speak as much English as you can
outside the classroom. Having said this, it is certainly not necessary to have nativespeaker-like pronunciation. Your accent is part of you and your culture and there is no
need to lose it entirely.

COLLABORATION FORM
NAME : TANG SIEW TIEN
IC NUMBER : 931129 -13 - 6036
GROUP : PISMP- TESL JAN INTAKE 2013

SEMESTER : 1

SUBJECT : INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

SUBJECT CODE : TSL3101
DATE
4/2/2013

DISCUSSION
Get the assignments

RECORD
Assignments need to

question from lecturer.

be handed in to

SIGNATURE

lecturer by 30th
August 2012.
( Madam Norzilah)
8/2/2013

Understanding the

Planned a timetable

requirements of the

and started to do the

assignments and start

assignment.

( Emy Wong )

discuss with friends.

( Law Szee Huei )
( Michelle Wong )
13-15/2/3013

Searching information

-Found the

from internet and

information from the

reference book.

internet.
-Records the

20/2/2013

Preparing the draft

bibliography.
Analyse the

with friends.

information based on
the requirements of
the assignment.

( Madam Norzilah)

( Shirley Chan)

-Linking relevant
information.

( Chan Hie Chen )

( Ngo Hui Kiang)

( Sim Ching Loong )
1/3/2013

Show the draft to the

Corrected by lecturer.

lecturer.
( Madam Norzilah)
15/3/2013

Hands - in the

Handed - in and

assignment to the

recorded by the

lecturer.

lecturer.
( Madam Norzilah)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
H.G Widdowson. (2000) Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Loga M. Baskaran. (2005) A Linguistics Primer for Malaysians. Kuala Lumpur: University
of Malaya Press.
Dr Gerard Sharpling (n.d ) Learning English Online at Warwick : Pronunciation.
Retrieved Tue 14 Aug 2012, from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/learning_english
/leap/listeningandspeaking/pronunciation/

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, it would not have been possible without the kind support and
help of many individuals. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them.
I am highly indebted to our respected lecturer, Madam Norzilah for her guidance
and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the
assignment. She had been very kind and patient while suggesting me the outlines of this
assignment. Thank and appreciation to her for giving me such attention and her support
in completing this assignment.
I would like to express my gratitude towards my fellow coursemates for their kind
co-operation and encouragement which help me in completion of this assignment.

INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU KAMPUS RAJANG ,

96509 RAJANG BINTANGOR .
PROGRAM IJAZAH SARJANA MUDA PERGURUAN ( PISMP )
SEMESTER 1 / AMBILAN JAN 2013
INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
SHORT COURSEWORK : ESSAY
TITLE OF ESSAY : NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH (NNS) OFTEN HAVE
PROBLEMS WITH PRONUNCIATION. DISCUSS THE PROBLEMS
AREAS AND SUGGEST WAYS TO OVERCOME THESE
PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED. PROVIDE RELEVANT EXAMPLES TO
ILLUSTRATE YOUR ANSWER.
NAME : TANG SIEW TIEN
IC NUMBER : 931129-13-6036

INDEX NUMBER : 1207

GROUP : PPISMP-TESL SEM 3 (JUNE INTAKE 2011)
SUBJECT : INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
SUBJECT CODE : TSL3101
LECTURER : MADAM NORZILAH BTE.MOHD. ZAIN
DATE OF SUBMISSION : 15 MARCH 2013

TABLE OF CONTENT

BIL
1
2
3
4
5
6
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CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
SLIDE PRESENTATION
REFLECTION
COLLABORATION FORM
BIBLIOGRAPHY

PAGES
1
2
3-4
5
6-7
8