BACHELOR OF EDUCATION (TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE)

WITH HONOURS (BETESL)

SEMESTER 3 / MAY 2022

HBET1203

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

NO. MATRIKULASI : 880521085782001

NO. KAD PENGENALAN : 880521-08-5782

NO. TELEFON : 010-2743006

E-MEL : logesha21@oum.edu.my

PUSAT PEMBELAJARAN : IPOH LEARNING CENTRE

Introduction

In 21st century, English is thought to be one of the most important languages in the world.
English is spoken as the first language in many countries. It has been an international
language of communication, business, science, information technology, entertainment and
more. So it’s undeniable that, English is an important language for all kinds of professional
and personal goals. In all over the world there are 67 countries have English as their official
language and 27 countries that have English as their secondary official language. And
Malaysia is the one of the country which used English as a second language. However, most
English learners having troubles in speaking is because they to tend to focus too much on the
grammar rules, draw too many parallels with their mother tongue as they speak, or simply
feel anxious. Moreover, the factors that affected the difficulties in speaking English were lack
of knowledge, lack of practicing, the attention of the audience, environment, accent or mother
tongue, different writing or spelling, pronunciation and using of syllables and extra. It
obvious that, using the correct syllables during our conversation is most important part
because it is one of the main reason to make our speaking clear and fluent to hearer or
receiver and respondent or known as a Standard English. But the differences in the way we
construct syllables in English and our mother tongues like Malay, Chinese, Cantonese, Tamil
or others make it difficult for us to master the English language.The essay hopes to rich the
related theory of Phonetic and Phonology problems, on the other hand, the article expects our
personal response, views, support and rationales of the differences in the way we construct
syllables in English and our mother tongues whether it make it difficult or not for us to
master the English language. Apart from this, we need to discuss, and find out or selected ten
instances pronunciation by watching a given video in the assignment. We need to compare
the way the man pronounces the word to the way the words are supposed to be pronounced in
Standard English. Phonetic and Phonology are related dependent field for studying aspect
language. Phonetics is the study of characteristic of speech sound. It is made up of symbols
both familiar, such as[b] and (m) and unfamiliar, such as [Ɵ] and [ʃ], to our alphabet. And
phonology is the description of the systems and patterns of speech sound in a language.
Basically, it is the rules that every speaker of a language knows about the patterns of that
language, unconsciously. An example of one such rule would be the understanding that the
words “eight” and “butter” both have the letter[t], but they are pronounced differently based
of the other letters around them. On the other hand, Phonetics deals more with the study of
sounds without knowledge of the language spoken while phonology is more about the
patterns of sounds and the rules that are unconsciously internalized by the speaker of the
language. According to phonetic and phonology, the pronunciation is not smooth because of
we didn’t use the syllable correctly. Pronunciation with right syllables could be one of the
most important skills for speaking English. But most of the English learners make more
mistakes in this part (they never pronounce the word with the correct syllables or stress the
word correctly) and this makes difficult for them to master the English language.

If a speaker has a poor pronunciation, the listener will have trouble in understanding their
speech or the worse, will not understand it. When we speak in a way that allows others who
lack context to understand what we are saying, it becomes difficult to communicate
effectively. They often have unique ways of pronouncing sounds or words that differ from
the way dictionaries “should” say they are pronounced. This statement is actually supported
by the fact that in many places it is spoken of a Malaysian who, of a Malaysian according to
the dictionaries does not pronounce the difference sound. There are many speech patterns that
contain prominent features of Malaysian English. The length in the utterance relates to the
relative duration of number of successive syllable and also the duration of a given syllable in
one environment relative to the same syllable in a different environment. The loudness of
syllable can also affect the prosody of the utterance and in Malaysian English, it is also mean
of indicating word stress, apart from differences in length. Pitch refers to the varying height
of the pitch of the voice over one syllable or over a series of syllable. Furthermore, in some
Malay languages, stress is associated with a low pitch, whereas in most of English dialects,
stressed syllables are generally pronounced with higher pitch. Hence, when some Malay
speakers speak, they appear to put the stress accents at the wrong syllable or accentuate all
the syllable of a long English word. Some Malay accents possess a ‘sing-song’ quality, a
feature seen in a few English dialects of Britain like Scouse and Welsh English. In a stressed
–timed language, syllable may last different amounts of time, but there is perceived to be a
fairly constant amount of time between consecutive stressed syllable. Therefore, unstressed
syllables between stressed syllables likely to be compressed to fit into the time interval if to
stressed syllables are separated by a single unstressed syllable, as in ‘delicious tea’, the
unstressed syllable will be relatively long whilst if a larger number of unstressed syllable
intervenes, as in ‘tolerable tea’, the unstressed syllable will be shorter.
Malay has a simple syllable which always ends at a vowel. For instant the words “ada”
(have) pronounced “a’da”, “bapa” (father) are pronounced “ba’pa” (The Institute Dictionary,
2005). When speaking English most Malays would apply the same rule, and when saying the
words “better” (bet’r), or “butter” (but’r), they would say be’te, and bu’te. Words like
“balcony”, “canopy”, and “protocol” can be rendered, not only incomprehensible but also
unrecognizable by misplaced syllables. This is because Malaysian will say "bal'co'ny" instead
of "balco'ny", "ca'no'py" instead of "can'opy", and "pro'to'col" instead of "prot 'faith'. In the
Malay language, there is no difference between the words, and all the nouns are pronounced
equally, for example "eko'no'mi" (ecnNm), "eko'no'mik" (ecoNOmics), and "eko'no 'mis"
(econoMIST). (.) Improper stress combined with a character placed in the wrong place often
results in disastrous intonation. A typical Malaysian would interpret the above words as
“ec’no’my”, “eco’no’mics”, and “eco’no’mist”.

Malaysian speakers have trouble in pronouncing the vowels “a”, “i”, and “o”, some words
containing these vowels may sound different. The word “cat” sounds like “ket” or “kate”, so
when a man says “I love my cat”, it sounds like “I love my Kate”, giving standard English
speakers the impression that he loves his girlfriend, or wife Catherine (Kate for short) loves.
For example, there is no difference between “bat” and “bet”. A speaker, speaking of a bat
hunter with a fondness for the game, might say “the hunter bets on the number of stakes
(bats) he can shoot down”. The vowel “i” is pronounced as “ee”, and thus there is no
difference between “ship” and “sheep”. A Malaysian speaker referring to a ship full of sheep,
might, say “The sheep arriving at Klang harbor from New Zealand are full of sheep”. But
some languages don’t stress syllables the same way that English does. In order to stress a
syllable native-speaker lengthen the vowel sound of the stressed syllable and we increase our
pitch and loudness on this syllable. For example, ‘breakfast’ /brekfǝst/ (break-fast) have two
syllable ; ‘banana’ /bǝna:Nə / (ba-na-na) has three syllable, tomorrow /Tə’mɓrǝƱ /(to-mor-
row) have three syllables too. So, this isn’t really about syllable; but it’s all about stress.
There are some correlation between syllables and stress. The word ‘banana’(ba-na-na) have
three syllable and usually the English learners pronounce all the syllable as same but actually
it is not the correct way to pronounce it. ‘ba-NA-na’ The stress is on the second syllable
‘NA’. The first stress syllable should be stronger (ba); the second syllable should be a slightly
higher and need stress the word (NA) and the third stressed syllable should be a slightly
longer in time (na).

Apart from this, the English language be quite difficult because of the pronunciation aspect.
Depending on our native language, we might not have ever produced some of the sounds that
exist in English. For example, on the English dipthong, /ɪə/as in the word ‘theory’or ‘teori’ in

Malay language. Malay speakers frequently mispronounce the dipthong with /ɪɒ/due to the
influence of the Malay language on the spelling of the word. English and Malay share the
same alphabet system, however, the pronunciation of these alphabets and phonemes are
different. According to Priscilla Shak (2016), the letter 'a', for example, is pronounced /ʌ/ in
Malay as in 'kereta'. In English, however, 'a' is detected as /ʌ/, / ɑː/, /e/, / ə/, / eɪ/ or maybe
/ae/. As an example, the word abalone, /ˌæbəˈləʊni/ is usually mispronounced as eh-buh-
lohn / ay-ber-lon / ah-buh-lone. Similarly, the word archive /ˈɑːkaɪv/ is frequently
mispronounced as aa-keev / aa-cheev. Furthermore, a study finding by a couple of students
from the UPSI, the study analyzed the descriptive linguistics sounds of /θ/,/ð/, /ʃ/ and /tʃ/
among Malaysian races such as Malays, Indian and Chinese and they found that the Chinese
have issue saying the /θ/ sound, particularly once the sound is within the middle and final
positions as in the words mouth, teeth, and month. The study found that the Chinese tends to
use the /f/, /d/ and /t/ sounds. The Malays on the other hand were found have difficulty
pronouncing the /θ/ words since the /θ/ sound did not exist in Malay. Most of the Malays
pronounced the /θ/ sound as /t/ sound because the closest sound to /θ/ is /t/. The words 'three'
and 'worth,' for example, were pronounced as 'tree' and 'wort.' Most Malays additionally
omitted the /s/ sound at the end of plural words like chips and chops. This is because Malay
plural forms differ from English plural forms. And I personally have difficulties pronouncing
the word 'thigh' and 'tight.' Moreover, we have a tendency to do agree that English words can
be quite difficult to pronounce properly. This is often because Malay and English did share a
similar alphabet however each of the languages have different consonants and vowels.
English have twenty-four consonants, twelve vowels (combining the short and the long
vowels), eight diphthongs and five triphthong meanwhile Malay only have nineteen original
consonants, six vowels and three diphthongs thus limiting its native speaker to pronounce
English words. As an example, the word 'hair' have a diphthong, [eə] which pronounce as
heə(r) however Bahasa Malaysia doesn't have this diphthong thus making it speaker to
pronounce this word with the diphthong /ai/, h/ai/r. Aside from that, Malay have two ways of
pronouncing the vowel, which are [ə] and [e] whereas English solely pronounce this vowel
with /i/. Therefore, increasing the possibility for mispronunciation. For example, the work
'develop'. Most Malaysian can pronounce this word as deə-və-lop however the English
pronunciation is dɪˈveləp.
Another reason why English words can be difficult to pronounce properly is the silent letter
in English words. The silent letter doesn’t exist in Malay language system. This have cause a
lot of confusion to the Malaysian English learners. For example, the word 'hour' is supposed
to be pronounce as 'our', ˈaʊə(r) with the /h/ is silent. However, some Malaysian would
pronounce the /h/ within the word, therefore sounding it as haʊə(r). Excluding this, Over-
lapping of sounds in each the languages (Malay and English) is rather prevalent, borrowing to
the fact that the Malay language has borrowed many English words from the English
language. Terms such as "film," "restaurant," "pocket," "ticket," "sofa," "cake," "orange," and
"point" are all translated into Malay as "filem," "restoran," "poket," "tiket," "sofa," "kek,"
"oren," and "poin," respectively. Because Malay speakers are accustomed to pronouncing
these terms in their first language, they tend to omit the last consonant and mispronounce the
English word in all of these Malay words. Words such as 'pocket' and 'ticket' include /e/ in the
second syllable, indicating that /e/ has been substituted for /ɪ/. When the word 'pocket' was
developed in Malay, it had been reffered to as 'poket,' which means pocket in Malay.
Similarly, the word ‘ticket' / tɪkɪt/ became ‘tiket' /tɪket/ in Malay. The Malay word 'sofa'
[sɔfa] was derived from the English word 'sofa' [səʊfə]. They replaced /əʊ/ with /ɔ:/ in the
first syllable while /ə/ with /a:/ in the second syllable. Some of the respondents
mispronounced the word 'film' (/flm/) as 'filem' (/fɪləm /) in Malay, which is correct. The
name of the fruit 'orange' / ɒrənʤ / was pronounced as 'oren' / ɒrən / in Malay. According to
the evidence, it's possible that the Malay pronunciation / ɒrən /, which has only one final
singleton /n/, had an impact on how the / nʤ / clusters were formed in English. The word
‘cake’ /keɪk/ was also mispronounced. It was pronounced as /kek/ like the Malay word. In
Malay, the word ‘cake’ is formed by the consonant / eɪ / and is replaced by the consonant /
e /.

The most misunderstood consonants among Malaysian English speakers are “b”, “c”, “d”,
“g”, and “v”. Consonant “b” is pronounced “p”, “c” as “z”, “d” as “t”, “g” as “k”, and “v” as
“f” in the middle or the end of words. So a Malaysian man who wanted to change the light
would go to a store and ask: “Are you selling light pants?” Or a waiter at a seafood restaurant
would ask a diner: “Would you like to have some leftovers with your fried rice, sir? We have
sour sugar, ginger crap, blek pepper crap, crap friet and ek and tomato sos all taste great ”. An
American or English visitor to Malaysia for the first time will have difficulty finding
sentences, but one bold word can be “stupid”, and a poor person may lose his appetite. Such
food! Only Malaysian people eat "crab", everyone eats crab.

As stated above, we have identified some reasons that make differences in the way we
construct syllables in English and in our mother tongues that make it difficult for us to master
the English languages, For example, misplaced syllables, Incorrect stress, the misunderstood
consonants, fewer the vowel sounds and more. Finally, to complete this challenge, I suggest
that we need to focus on some of the most commonly mispronounced sounds in English like
“th” sounds and get really good at those tricky sounds. It will also boost our confidence in
speaking but will also help us sound more “fluent” than we really are. For those speakers who
are aware and acknowledge they have such problems, a proper training would help them find
ways and methods to overcome these shortcomings. A good speaking habit, listening to good
radio stations and watching good TV shows, and practicing proper English would help raise
the ‘speakers’ spoken English level to levels. Speaking understandable English that is widely
understood not only exudes confident in the speaker but reflects professionalism.
 REFERENCES

Baba, R. (2003, March 19). Dogs and cats story: How to speak proper English

(Lecture given at Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Labuan).

Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary. (2003). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Course evaluation form. (2011). Faculty of Economic and Business, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

Gaudart, H. (2003). English language teaching practices. Petaling Jaya: Sasbadi.

Paul, D. (2003). Communication strategies. Singapore: Thomson.

The institute dictionary (Kamus Dewan) (4th ed.). (2005). Kuala Lumpur:

The Institute of Languag and Literature (Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka).

Williams, K., Krizan, A., Logan J., & Merrier, P. (2010). Communicating in business

(International edition, 8th ed.). Singapore: Cengage Learning.

Abdullah,P.D (2011).HBET1203 English Phonetics and Phonology.Selangor Darul Ehsan:

Meteor Doc.Sdn.Bhd.

SOURCES

https://www.british-study.com/en/importance-of-english-language

https://owlcation.com/humanities/importanceofenglishlanguages

https://www.langoly.com/most-spoken-languages

https://www.uoepeople.edu/blog/most-important-languages-to-learn/

https://present5.com/logo-old-english-phonology-lecture-3-lecturer-olena/

NUM WORD STANDARD MALAYSIAN

 ENGLISH ENGLISH ELOBARATION
1 Realize /ˈrɪə.laɪz/ /ˈriː.ə.laɪz/ -The word “Realize” got three syllable.

/ ri: ə.lais/ -Divide realize into syllables:(re-al-ize)

-stressed syllable in realize is re-al-ize
-so,the first stress syllable ‘re’should be a
little higher.
-second stress syllable ‘al’should be
louder and the third stress syllable should
be a little longer in time.

2 Responsible /rɪˈspɒn.sə.bəl/ /rɪˈspɑːn.sə.bəl/ -The word “ responsible” got four

/ri:s.pon.si.bel/ syllable.
-Divide responsible into syllables
(re-spon-si-ble).
-The stress syllable in ‘responsible’ is
re-sPon-si-ble.
-the first stressed syllable should be
louder.
-the second stress syllable should be a
little higher and the third and fourth
stressed syllable should be shorter.
3 Unbeatable /ʌnˈbiː.tə.bəl/  /ʌnˈbiː.t̬ ə.bəl/ -The word “ unbeatable” got four

/ an:bi.te.bel/ syllable.
-Divide into syllables is(un-beat-a-ble)
-The stress syllable in unbeatable is
un-beat-a-bel(the stress syllable should
be a little higher)
-The secondary stressed syllable is
un-beat-a-ble (stressed syllable should be
a little longer in a time.

4 Select /sɪˈlekt /   /səˈlekt/ -The word “ select” got two syllable.

/ si.lek.t/ -divide into syllable (se-lect).

-The stressed syllable is (se-lect.) So the
 second syllable should be a little higher.
We need to stress the word strongly and
also will be shorter.
-the first stress syllable should be louder.

5 Fly /flaɪ/ /f:la.i/ -The word “ fly” got one syllable.

/flaɪ/ -divide into syllable (fly).

-the stressed syllable is fly. So we need
stress the syllable litter higher and
strongly.
6 Uncomfortable  /ʌnˈkʌmf.tə.bəl/ /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.t̬ ə/ -The word “ uncomfortable” got five

/n:ka.m.for.ta.bel/ syllable.
-divide into syllables (un-com-fort-a-
ble).
-the stressed syllable on the word is
(un-com-for-a-ble).So,the second
syllable should be a little higher and
strong.
-The first syllable should be louder and
the third and fourth syllable should be
shorter.
7 Everybody /ˈev.riˌbɒd.i/ /ˈev.riˌbɑː.di/ -The word “ everybody” got four
syllable.
-Divide into syllable (eve-ry-bod-y)
-the stressed syllable in the word is
(eve-ry-bod-y) So,the third syllable
should be a little higher and strong.
-the first and second stressed syllable
should be louder.
-and the fourth stressed syllable should
be a little longer in time.

8 Fantastic /fænˈtæs.tɪk/   /fænˈtæs.tɪk/ -The word “ fantastic” got three syllable.

 /fe.n.ta.s.tik/ -Divide into syllable (fan-tas-tic).
-the stressed syllable is (fan-tas-
tic).so,the stress is on the second
syllable.
-the second stressed syllable should be a
little higher and must be strong.
-the first syllable should be louder and
third stressed syllable should be shorter.

9 Awesome /ˈɔː.səm/ /ˈɑː.səm/ -The word “ awesome” got two syllable.

-divide into syllable (awe-some).
-the stressed syllable is (awe-
some).So,the stressed syllable is on the
first syllable.The stressed syllable should
be a little higher and stronger.
-the second stress syllable should be a
little longer in time.

10 welcome /ˈwel.kəm/ / we:l.kam/ -The word “ welcome” got two syllable.

  /ˈwel.kəm/ -divide into syllable (wel-come).

-the stressed syllable is (wel-come ).
So,the stressed syllable is on the first
syllable.The stressed syllable should be a
little higher and stronger.
-the second syllable should be louder.
11 Conductor /kənˈdʌk.tər/ /kənˈdʌk.tɚ/ -The word “ conductors” got three

/ka:n.duk.tar.s/ syllable.
-divide into syllable (con-duc-tor)
-the stressed syllable is (con-duc-tor).
So,the stressed syllable is on the second
syllable.The stressed syllable should be a
little higher and stronger.
-The first syllable should be louder and
 third syllable should be shorter.

ONLINE PARTICIPATION