IMPROVING PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH BY êđê LEARNERS ORIENTED TOWARDS COMMUNICATION PURPOSES

This is a study of improving pronunciation of English with respect to linking and assimilation for Êđê learners. This study attempts to achieve three objectives that are (i) identifying the potential causes of Êđê learners’ errors in producing English sounds; (ii) identifying the problems of English mispronunciation related to linking and assimilation made by Êđê learners (iii) working out the treatment to improve English pronunciation for Êđê learners.The main issues in the present study are dealt with the following research questions: (i) What are the potential causes of Êđê learners’ pronunciation from a contrastive perspective? (ii) What are the English pronunciation problems encountered by Êđê learners with respect to linking and assimilation? (iii) To what extent does the application of pronunciation improvement techniques affect Êđê learners’ pronunciation with regards to linking and assimilation?In order to find out the answer to the research questions, this study employs contrastive analysis for identifying the similarities and differences between English sounds and Êđê sounds, and action research with three steps: (i) identifying the English pronunciation problems encountered by Êđê learners; (ii) the treatment: designing an intensive course of English pronunciation, conducting the teaching of the intensive course, recording Êđê learners pronunciation; (iii) the progress: comparing the results of the recordings.The findings of the present study are concerned with the differences between English sounds and Êđê sounds that are thought to be the potential causes of Êđê learners’ errors in producing English sounds. By the application of the intensive course of English pronunciation and the appropriate teaching techniques, Êđê learners pronunciation has improved significantly.

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled

IMPROVING PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH BY ÊĐÊ LEARNERS

ORIENTED TOWARDS COMMUNICATION PURPOSES

submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor ofPhilosophy in English linguistics

Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been usedwithout due acknowledgement in the text of the dissertation

Hanoi, 2015

Y Tru Alio

My special thanks go to Assoc Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến, former Head of thePostgraduate Studies Faculty, Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, Head of the PostgraduateStudies Faculty and all the staff for their tremendous help with administrativeclearance, and many others, without whose support and encouragement it wouldnever have been possible for me to have this dissertation accomplished.

I am grateful to the University of Tây Nguyên where I have been working for thebest possible conditions from which I have benefited for the completion of thedissertation

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my colleagues for the sacrificethey have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II TABLE OF CONTENTS III ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS V LIST OF GRAPHS VI LIST OF TABLES VI LIST OF SENTENCES VII DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS VIII ABSTRACT X

PART A INTRODUCTION 1

1 R ATIONALE FOR THE STUDY 1

2 A IM OF THE STUDY 2

3 O BJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 2

4 R ESEARCH QUESTIONS 2

5 S COPE OF THE STUDY 2

6 S IGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

7 S TRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION OF THE DISSERTATION 3

PART B DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 D EFINITION OF PRONUNCIATION 4

1.2 D EFINITION OF LINKING AND ITS TYPES 7

1.3 D EFINITION OF ASSIMILATION AND ITS TYPES 10

1.4 P RONUNCIATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF C OMMUNICATIVE L ANGUAGE T EACHING (CLT) 18

1.4.1 Pronunciation in CLT 18

1.4.2 Linking and assimilation instruction 23

1.5 R ESEARCH ON Ê ĐÊ PRONUNCIATION 35

1.6 S UMMARY 40

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY 42

2.1 C ONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 42

2.2 A CTION RESEARCH 44

2.2.1 Identifying the problems 45

2.2.2 The treatment 45

2.2.2.1 Designing an intensive course 45

2.2.2.2 Conducting the teaching of the intensive course 50

2.2.3 The progress 52

2.2.4 Questionnaire for teachers’ attitude towards Êđê learners’ pronunciation 53

2.3 D ATA COLLECTION 53

2.3.1 The setting 53

2.3.2 The participants 54

2.3.2.1 Êđê learners 54

2.3.2.2 The volunteer teacher of English 55

2.3.3 The procedure of the data collection 55

2.4 D ATA ANALYSIS 56

2.4.1 The descriptive and contrastive techniques 56

2.4.2 The wave forms 56

2.4.3 Tables and graphs 60

2.4.4 Logical inferential statistics 60

2.5 S UMMARY 61

CHAPTER 3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 62

3.1 T HE POTENTIAL CAUSES OF Ê ĐÊ LEARNERS ’ ERRORS IN PRODUCING E NGLISH SOUNDS 62

3.1.1 The similarities between English vowels and Êđê vowels 64

3.1.2 The differences between English vowels and Êđê vowels 65

3.1.3 The similarities between English consonants and Êđê consonants 67

3.1.4 The differences between English consonants and Êđê consonants 68

3.1.5 The differences in consonant sequences 72

3.1.6 The differences between English syllable structures and Êđê syllable structures 78

3.1.7 The differences of sounds in connected speech of the two languages 79

3.2 T HE Ê ĐÊ LEARNERS ’ MISPRONUNCIATION OF E NGLISH RELATED TO LINKING AND ASSIMILATION 81

3.2.1 Êđê learners’ mispronunciation of English linking 81

3.2.2 Êđê learners’ mispronunciation of English assimilation 102

3.3 T HE TREATMENT TO IMPROVE Ê ĐÊ LEARNERS ’ PRONUNCIATION OF E NGLISH LINKING AND ASSIMILATION 119

3.3.1 The treatment to improve the pronunciation of English linking 120

3.3.1.1 Listening and imitating 120

3.3.1.2 Phonetic training 121

3.3.1.3 Minimal pair drills 125

3.3.1.4 Contextualized minimal pairs 126

3.3.1.5 Visual aids 128

3.3.2.The treatment to improve the pronunciation of English assimilation 128

3.3.2.1 Listening and imitating 128

3.3.2.2 Phonetic training 129

3.3.2.3 Minimal pair drills 130

3.3.2.4 Contextualised minimal pairs 131

3.3.2.5 Visual aids 132

3.3.3 Pedagogical implication for English pronunciation teaching 132

3.4 T EACHERS ’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS Ê ĐÊ LEARNERS ’ PRONUNCIATION OF E NGLISH 134

3.5 S UMMARY 137

PART C: CONCLUSION 139

1 R ECAPITULATION 139

2.C ONCLUDING REMARKS 140

2.1.The cause of Êđê learners’ errors in producing English sounds 140

2.2 Êđê learners’ mispronunciation of English with respect to linking and assimilation 142

2.3 The treatment to improve Êđê learners’ English pronunciation 143

3 T HE LIMITATION OF THE RESEARCH 143

4 S UGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES 144

REFERENCES 145

THE AUTHOR’S PUBLISHED ARTICLES AND PROJECTS RELATED TO THE DISSERTATION 148 APPENDICES I

A PPENDIX 1 T HE CHART OF E NGLISH VOWELS AND CONSONANTS I

A PPENDIX 2 T HE CHART OF Ê ĐÊ VOWELS AND CONSONANTS II

A PPENDIX 3 T HE RESULTS OF PRONUNCIATION OF E NGLISH LINKING III

A PPENDIX 4 T HE RESULTS OF PRONUNCIATION OF E NGLISH ASSIMILATION V

A PPENDIX 5 T HE MEAN , THE SD AND THE SE OF PRONUNCIATION OF E NGLISH LINKING VII

A PPENDIX 6 T HE MEAN , THE SD AND THE SE OF PRONUNCIATION OF E NGLISH ASSIMILATION IX

A PPENDIX 7 K EYS TO THE TEST FOR PRONUNCIATION OF E NGLISH LINKING XII

A PPENDIX 8 K EYS TO THE TEST FOR PRONUNCIATION OF E NGLISH ASSIMILATION XIII

A PPENDIX 9 I NTENSIVE C OURSE ON E NGLISH P RONUNCIATION XIV

A PPENDIX 10 L ESSON PLANS XXVII

A PPENDIX 11 Q UESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS LV

Appendix 12 Information about the devices for recording lviii

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

1 AlPlV-(Alveolar plosive voiceless) /C/

6 AlFrV± (Alveolar fricative voiced or voiceless) /K±/

11 Conson (Consonant)

12 DenFV- (Dental fricative voiceless) /I/

14 LabDFrV- (Labial dental fricative voiceless) /G/

15 LabDFrV+ (Labial dental fricative voiced) /H/

18 PalAlAfV- (Palatal alveolar affricate voiceless) /CM/

19 PalAlAfV+ (Palatal alveolar affricate voiced) /DN/

22 PalAlFrV- (Palatal alveolar fricative voiceless) /M/

23 PalAlFrV+ (Palatal alveolar fricative voiced) /N/

33 CLMT (Communicative Language Teaching Method)

34 GTM (Grammar Translation Method)

34 1st (The first mean)

35 2nd (The second mean)

36 SD1st (The first standard deviation)

37 SD2nd (The second standard deviation)

38 SE1st (The first standard error)

39 SE2nd (The second standard error)

40 SPE (The Sound Patterns of English)

41 /…/ (Slanting brackets used for phonemic transcriptions)

42 […] (Square brackets used for phonetic transcriptions)

……….……… 141

LIST OF SENTENCES

Sentences of linking

Sentence 3 81

Sentence 8 84

Sentence 21 85

Sentence 28 87

Sentence 35a 88

Sentence 39 89

Sentence 46 90

Sentence 60 91

Sentence 108 93

Sentence 144 94

Sentences of assimilation Sentence 18 102

Sentence 35b 104

Sentence 52 105

Sentence 72 106

Sentence 79 107

Sentence 121……….…108

Sentence 126……….…110

Sentence 128……….111

Sentence 151……….113

Sentence 190……….114

DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS

The following cues have been used in this dissertation to convey the informationpresented

(1) The italic type is used for the emphasized sounds, words, phrases or sentenceswhich are defined in the text

(2) The mean () is the average of a set of scores (obtained by adding theindividual scores together and dividing by the total number of scores) The meangives us information about the central tendency of the scores

(3) The standard deviation (SD) is the most important measure of dispersion Thestandard deviation can be estimated by deducting the mean from each individualscore, squaring the resulting figures to get rid of the minus signs, adding thesetogether and dividing by the number of scores minus one This gives the variance.The SD gives information on the extent to which a set of scores varies in relation tothe mean

(4) The standard error (SE) equals the standard deviation divided by the squareroot of the number The standard error’s information can be used to place a singlesample mean in relation to the population mean from which it is drawn

(5) Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz), to be referred to the frequency ofvibration of the vocal cords

(6) The amplitudes can be known as the waveform The average amplitude of thewaveform over a small fraction of a second is a convenient way of presenting theamplitude at that point The computerized Speech Lab (CSL) Model 4500 calculatesamplitude graph, and is called amplitude

Note: The information gained from the wave forms when being observed is still veryabstract, since the observations involve the frequency calculations (times, intensities,and frequencies) There are still lists of questions and problems that might be neededfor further future works However, in the dissertation, the wave forms are used toillustrate and to compare the differences between native speakers’ voices recordedand Êđê learners’ voices recorded

(7) Transcriptions

In this present study, slanting squares / / are used for phonetic transcriptions andbracket squares [ ] for phonological transcriptions Some sounds are tested withinwords, and some words are tested in contexts Some sentences are not needed to betranscribed in the whole utterance The transcriptions, depending on the items to betested for the study purpose, can be in the full sentence at once or only in a fewwords of the sentence

The main issues in the present study are dealt with the following research questions:(i) What are the potential causes of Êđê learners’ pronunciation from a contrastiveperspective? (ii) What are the English pronunciation problems encountered by Êđêlearners with respect to linking and assimilation? (iii) To what extent does theapplication of pronunciation improvement techniques affect Êđê learners’pronunciation with regards to linking and assimilation?

In order to find out the answer to the research questions, this study employscontrastive analysis for identifying the similarities and differences between Englishsounds and Êđê sounds, and action research with three steps: (i) identifying theEnglish pronunciation problems encountered by Êđê learners; (ii) the treatment:designing an intensive course of English pronunciation, conducting the teaching ofthe intensive course, recording Êđê learners pronunciation; (iii) the progress:comparing the results of the recordings

The findings of the present study are concerned with the differences between Englishsounds and Êđê sounds that are thought to be the potential causes of Êđê learners’errors in producing English sounds By the application of the intensive course ofEnglish pronunciation and the appropriate teaching techniques, Êđê learnerspronunciation has improved significantly

PART A INTRODUCTION

This part states the rationale for the study, the aim and objectives of the study, thescope and significance of the study, and the structural organization of thedissertation

1 Rationale for the study

For Êđê learners who study English as a foreign language, English pronunciationplays an important role in acquiring it To have a good English pronunciation sooner

or later, Êđê learners should have knowledge of English pronunciation in particularand English phonetics and phonology in general Since the English language has itsown phonological rules, spelling and pronunciation of English are practically twodifferent things, Êđê learners should learn the pronunciation of the sounds inconnected speech of English receptively and productively, they should be able tounderstand what they hear in English, and should not damage what they say, shouldovercome their reluctance to use English The pronunciation of English is required atany proficient levels of English, and it is considered as manifestation of therealization of learners’ understanding of how English sounds activate in the reality ofspoken English

The English language borrows the Roman alphabet, so does the Êđê language.However, in each language the sound values, to some extent, are different, especiallyEnglish sounds in connected speech English sounds produced by Êđê learners tend

to be unnatural, erroneous in some cases, and tend to make incomplete plosion inproducing word endings For example, Êđê learners produce erroneously the words

ending in ‘-ed’, ‘-s’, ‘-z’ with their linking such as in “stripped of everything”, “My

parents are at a meeting and my sisters are at the cinema” (Mortimer, 1985) Their

incorrect pronunciation of English may lead to mislinking in connected speech, ormisunderstanding, or ungrammatical and unnatural pronunciation

Having been teaching English at Tây Nguyên University, I realize that Êđê learnershave difficulties in the pronunciation of English Together with the sounds ofEnglish, the aspects of connected speech are also the problems that emerge in their

pronunciation In addition, there have been a number of studies related to Englishpronunciation for learners of different countries, but not for Êđê learners, a group ofethnic minorities in Vietnam On the account of these, I have got a strong belief insolving the identified aspects of English pronunciation made by Êđê learners, and as

a teacher of English, I realize that there is a need to improve their pronunciation ofEnglish towards communication purposes So an investigation into improvingEnglish pronunciation of linking and assimilation is necessary, and my decision onchoosing the theme for my study is based on this belief

2 Aim of the study

The overall purpose of the study is to improve English pronunciation produced byÊđê learners with the focus on English linking and assimilation

3 Objectives of the study

This study is an attempt:

- to identify the potential causes of Êđê learners’ errors in producing Englishsounds;

- to identify the problems of English mispronunciation related to linking andassimilation made by Êđê learners;

- to work out the treatment to improve English pronunciation for Êđê learners

5 Scope of the study

The study is defined to the problems of English pronunciation encountered by Êđêlearners at Tây Nguyên University with respect to linking and assimilation ofEnglish

6 Significance of the study

This study, to my knowledge, is the first systematic research on the similarities anddifferences between English sounds and Êđê sounds; the first research on theproblems of English pronunciation encountered by Êđê learners due to thedifferences between the two languages; and the first research on the solutions for theimprovement of English pronunciation for Êđê learners at Tây Nguyên University

From the theoretical perspective

This study is significant for both Êđê learners of English and Vietnamese teachers ofEnglish in the awarness of the differences between sounds of the two languages Theidentifying of the similarities and differences between the English and Êđê soundscontributes to consolidating the strength and power of the theoretical points initiatedand developed by the authorities in the field of phonetics and phonology

From the practical perspective

The pedagogical implication of selected teaching techniques for pronunciation ofEnglish in the classroom is given by the present study Êđê learners will be helped toimprove their pronunciation of English linking and assimilation

7 Structural organization of the dissertation

This dissertation consists of three parts Part A is the introduction that presents therationale for the study, the aim, the objectives, the research questions, the scope andthe significance of the study Part B is the development with its three chapters:chapter 1 presents the literature review; chapter 2 states the methodology, andchapter 3 gives the findings and discussion Part C is the conclusion that provides therecapitulation, concluding remarks on each of the three research objectives,recommendations for pedagogically implicating the achieved results of the research,suggestions for further studies The information about the referred research for thedissertation is stated in the references after Part C The details for the data of thestudy are presented in the appendices that end the dissertation

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review presents the theoretical background related to the definition ofEnglish pronunciation, pronunciation from the communication view and from theteaching view, the research on English pronunciation with the focus on linking andassimilation, and the research on Êđê pronunciation

1.1 Definition of pronunciation

So far, there have been a number of research on the English pronunciation which

serve as the ground for the study review These works are: Teaching Pronunciation,

a reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages, compiled by

Celce-Murcia et al (1996); An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English that has been written by Gimson (1962); English Phonetics and Phonology that is researched by Roach (1988); Gimson’s Pronunciation, done by Cruttenden (2001);

Applied English Phonology written by Yavas (2006); Phonology in English Language Teaching worked by Pennington (1996); Teaching Pronunciation,

researched by Celce-Murcia, et al (1996); How to Teach Pronunciation, done by Kelly (2000); Teaching English Pronunciation, studied by Kenworthy (1998), etc

Their contributions have been made relating to the English sounds and aspects ofconnected speech These works are understandable and become guide-principlesgoverning rules of pronunciation of English in the following parts of the studyconveying linking and assimilation of English as Underhill (1994: 58) points out:

“Connected speech is not just the sum of its individual words Continuousconnected speech consists of a flow of sounds which are modified by a system

of simplifications through which phonemes are connected, grouped andmodified Stream of speech pronunciation brings together the three branches ofpractical phonology: sounds, stress and intonation” (Underhill, 1994: 58)

In English, there is not a one-to-one correspondence between spelling andpronunciation, but between sounds and letters Many letters can represent more thanone sound The relationship between spelling and pronunciation is not always easy

for those who learn English as a foreign language to see how a written English wordshould be pronounced and how a word they have heard should be written

By improving pronunciation of English we mean to help Êđê learners to pronounceEnglish well enough to be understood when they speak, to be able to perform whatthey want to say In terms of pronunciation of English towards communication, as

Ramsey et al (1989) emphasise “fluency rather than accuracy”, Êđê learners are

expected to pronounce English sounds with an awareness of appropriatephonological rules of linking and assimilation, and as Mortimer (1985) suggestslearners should “make sure that the overall pronunciation sounds natural”

There are many views related to pronunciation such as pronunciation and spelling,pronunciation of individual sounds of English (vowels and consonants),pronunciation of sounds in connected speech (ending sounds, contraction, linking,assimilation, stressed and unstressed syllables, weak forms, rhythm, word stress,and intonation) The present study focuses on pronunciation of English sounds inconnected speech related to linking and assimilation Linking and assimilationmeans sound relations within words and sound relations between words, i.e soundsacross the word boundary The theoretical backgrounds for the study on thepronunciation of English are regarded from the theories provided by Katamba(1996), Avery & Ehrlich (1998), Dalton & Seidlhofer (1995), Pennington (1996),

Spencer (1996), and Tatham et al (2006)

Pronunciation of English should be an integral part of an English classroomconducted together with other language skills by the teachers from the early stages

It is obvious that sounds in connected speech of English have their own phoneticand phonological characteristics Pronunciation not only relates to correctarticulation but also concerns with the meanings from an utterance As Dalton &Seidlhofer (1995) claim that “pronunciation is never an end in itself but a means tonegotiate meaning in discourse.” Dalton & Seidlhofer (1995: ix) insist that “whileteacher education may require an understanding of pronunciation as an aspect of the

language system, it will often be preferable in teaching to proceed according topriorities determined by how pronunciation functions in language use”

The selected aspects for the study on pronunciation of linking and assimilation havetwo reasons: (i) the English pronunciation is conceptualized as actual sounds ofEnglish in spoken forms; and (ii) at the beginning of English learning, thepronunciation towards communication starts with the basic phonetic andphonological pronunciation Since pronunciation of English is important not only toÊđê learners for the purpose of understanding and being understood, but also tothose who learn English with the problems of English sounds in connected speech

as Rogerson & Gibert (1993:1) state:

“Sometimes ‘communication breakdown’ is due to a grammar or vocabularymistakes and sometimes it is due to a pronunciation mistake Just as you need

to be able to analyse and correct your grammar and vocabulary mistakes youneed to be able to analyse and correct your pronunciation mistakes It is notnecessary to pronounce every sound perfectly to be understood – only a fewparts of each sentence are really important, but these parts are essential Thenative speaker depends on hearing these parts clearly, therefore you need toknow which parts of a sentence must be clear and how to make them clear”(Rogerson & Gilbert, 1993: 1)

From the view of teaching and learning English, pronunciation means, to a certainextent, to function English sounds in spoken forms, to speak so that people listen towhat we say and then join the way we say, so that the meaning we intend is clear, toproduce appropriate sounds and sound patterns, and to be confident to speakEnglish There is a bunch of definitions of pronunciation of English initiated by theauthorities with language teaching methods which are adopted as means to satisfytheir ends

The growth in the use of English means that English is used as a medium ofcommunication between nations of the world, and it is used as a global language.Dalton & Seidlhofer (1995: 3) define pronunciation in general terms as theproduction of significant sound in two senses First, sound is significant because it

is used as part of a code of a particular language In this sense, pronunciation is asthe production and reception of sounds of speech Second, sound is significantbecause it is used to achieve meaning in contexts of use Here the code combines

with other factors to make communication possible In this sense, pronunciation iswith reference to acts of speaking

Though considering pronunciation in both senses, Dalton & Seidlhofer (1995) giveparticular prominence to communicative aspects, and refer to the physical features

of sounds only in so far as they are relevant to an understanding of how they figure

in discourse, that is to say in the achievement of meaning According to Dalton &Seidlhofer (1995), the significance of pronunciation lies in general points about therole of pronunciation in social interaction

Traditionally, according to Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 291), pronunciation has been

defined as the accurate production of the sounds, rhythms, and intonation patterns

of a language Pronunciation itself plays an important part in communicativelanguage teaching The teaching of pronunciation means the teaching of a spokenlanguage meeting the demand of learner’s communication compared with the targetlanguage as Pennington (1996:2) regards:

“Pronunciation is also a primary medium for communication of informationabout ourselves as individuals and as representatives of different groups Since

it opens the way to a better understanding of how language works and how thedifferent aspects of linguistic and social meaning are interrelated, anunderstanding of the phonology of a language is a necessary basis for fullyeffective teaching of a spoken language”(Pennington, 1996:2)

Recently, as Jenkins (2000) states, pronunciation is taken into the new century with

a perspective relevant to the needs of the world’s majority of English speakers

1.2 Definition of linking and its types

According to Avery & Ehrlich (1998: 84) “in connected speech, words within thesame phrase or sentence often blend together Connecting groups of words together

is referred to as linking When words are properly linked, there is a smooth

transition from one word to the next.” Consider the link of consonants to vowels forillustration:

- C(labial) + V: stop it , grab it, came in;

- C(dental) + V: with it, breath it;

- C(alveolar) + V: washed it, run around;

- C(palatal) + V: march in, cash out;

C(velar) + V: back out, sing it

(Avery & Ehrlich (1998: 84)

According to Celce-Murcia et al (1996), the amount of linking is not entirely

preditable, but linking occurs with regularity in the following five environments:(1) Linking with a glide commonly occurs when one word or syllable ends in a

tense vowel or diphthong and the next word or syllable begins with a vowel: be

able.

(2) When a word or syllable ending in a single consonant is followed by a word

or syllable beginning with a vowel, the consonant is often produced intervocalically

as if it belonged to both syllables: dog eat dog.

(3) When a word or syllable terminating in a consonant cluster is followed by aword or syllable commencing with a vowel, the final consonant of the cluster is

often pronounced as part of the following syllable: left arm, find out.

(4) When two identical consonants come together as a result of the juxtaposition

of two words, there is one single, elongated articulation of the consonant (i.e.,

native speakers do not produce the consonant sound twice): short time, big gap.

(5) When a stop consonant is followed by another stop or by an affricate, the

first stop is not released, which facilitates the linking: blackboard, good jury, big

dipper (Celce-Murcia et al., 1996: 158-59).

In this part, linking can be classified into the following types: the linking of to-vowel (V-V), consonant-to-vowel (C-V), and consonant-to-consonant (C-C) Bylinking, English people are said not to do a pause between each word whenspeaking, but move smoothly from one word to the following words or sounds Insuch cases, sounds often happen in groups, phrases or sentences, i.e linkage ofEnglish sounds often occurs in connected speech and in natural speech

vowel-Phonologically, English sounds in contexts may spread their characteristics to thenext other sounds, i.e the pronunciation of sounds in the combination of othersounds stretching accordingly with the movement of organs of speech that is on theway to reach the next sounds in the continuum speech Together with thedifferences in the place of articulation, at the same time, sounds to be produced willchange their manner of articulation

There exist many phonological processes such as elision, deletion, linking,assimilation to make the pronunciation fluent and smooth Dalton & Seidlhofer(1995: 123) states that “linking is more specific: it applies only to what happens atword-boundaries where either two vowels or a consonant and a vowel meet”

In relation to the way English sounds are produced, phonologically, the writer findsthat the final sounds of a word might release their phonetic and phonologicalcharacteristics stretching across sounds in connected speech that can be a linkage ofpreceding sounds to the sound of the following words Moreover, English words inconnected speech are not produced in isolation, but they are produced with a link.The phenomenon of linking of English occurs when the final sound of one wordaffects the initial sound of the following word Linking of English often happensacross word boundaries

In the present study, besides the ending sounds of individual words of English, thewriter also refers to what ending sounds of words leave off in continuous speechstream, i.e the ending sounds of preceding words will spread and stretch itsphonetic and phonological features to the next sounds in connected speech

with a vowel For instance, the difference between ‘my turn’ /Pa" C*:Q/ and

‘might earn’ /Pa"C *:Q/ is that in the case of “my turn”, the /C/ in ‘turn’ is aspirated, and in the case of ‘might earn’, the /C/ in ‘might’ is not aspirated (Roach,

1988: 110) The difference between aspirated and unaspirated /C/ may cause adifference in meaning as well as in grammar In another cases of linking, sounds are

attracted across word boundaries, such as “more ice” and “more rice”, “the great

apes” and “the grey tapes” (Kelly, 2000: 112) Roach (1988) insists that learners of

English must be clearly aware of the problems that they will meet in listening tocolloquial and connected speech

In brief, the understanding of the basic possible combinations of sounds in finalpositions of preceding words with sounds in initial positions of following wordswill help Êđê learners to become aware of pronunciation of English linking

1.3 Definition of assimilation and its types

By assimilation, Celce-Murcia et al (1996) mean that an adjustment in connected

speech is the process of assimilation, during which a given sound takes on thefeature of a neighboring sound Assimilation occurs frequently in English, eitherwithin words or between words There are three types of assimilation:

(1) Progressive assimilation, for example, bags, and backs, ‘s’ of bags is

assimilated, it changes to become voiced /L/, and ‘s’ of backs is assimilated, itchanges to become voiceless /K/;

(2) Regressive assimilation, for example, have to, ‘v’ of have is assimilated, it

changes to become /G/, another examples, used to, ‘-ed’ of used is pronounced as /

D/, but in this case it is assimilated and changes to become voiceless /C/; He’s in

pain, ‘n’ of in is assimilated by a plosive bilabial /A/ that follows it, in this case ‘n’changes to /P/.

(3) Coalescent assimilation, for example, ‘Is that your dog?”, /C/ of that + /U/

of your come together and create a third sound with features from both original

sounds /C/ + /U/ become /CM/

(Celce-Murcia et al., 1996).

Pennington (1996) considers coarticulation as the effect of linguistic context onpronunciation, Spencer (1996) considers coarticulation as phonological process andpostlexical process in English Katamba (1996) explores that in the production ofspeech, due to adjustment of the articulatory apparatus in the transition from onesound to the next, phonetic properties may spread their distinctive features in theirenvironment; this phonological process leads to allophones and assimilation, andthe phonological behaviour of phonemes is largely determined by the phoneticfeatures, as Katamba (1996) points out:

“In language a phoneme has several allophones, with the allophone selected in

a particular position being dependent on the other sounds that are adjacent to

it The commonest phonological process responsible for this is assimilation.Assimilation is the modification of a sound in order to make it more similar tosome other sound in its neighborhood The advantage of having assimilation isthat it results in smoother, more effortless, more economical transitions fromone sound to another It facilitates the task of speaking The speaker usuallytries to conserve energy by using no more effort that it is necessary to produce

an utterance” (Katamba, 1996: 80-1)

In an utterance, Roach (1988: 106) points out that speech sounds often occur oneafter another, therefore they are produced with the movement of organs of speech incontacting with each other to reach the next sounds The movement sometimescannot reach completely the ideal position of the sounds to be pronounced For

example in “that side”, in rapid speech, /t/ of ‘that’ is produced as /s/ because the following sound in ‘side’ starts with /s/, therefore the organs of speech should be

ready to move to reach the next sound This phenomenon in phonology has beensaid to be coarticulation or assimilation

Stating phonological rules that divert the realization of lexical sounds in certaindirections before the phonetic realization, Roca & Johnson (1999: 48) divide theserules into lexical levels and phonetic levels Consider the examples of the lexical

level in cup; and the phonetic level in cupful At the lexical level, [p] in cup is the bilabial stop; at the phonetic level, [p] in cupful is a labiodental when standing

before [f], As a result, they conclude that the phonetic realization will come out ofthe mouth that will accordingly correspond to the form modified by the rule ratherthan its lexical base

According to Roca & Johnson (1999) phonological rules “are as much part of themachinery of the sound component of language as are lexical representations.” Inparticular, learners must learn the rules of a language if they are ever going to get itspronunciation right, because the differences in pronunciation between differentlanguages or accents within the same language are the result of the presence ofdifferent rules in those languages

Roca & Johnson (1999: 54) differentiate phonetics from phonology as follows:

“phonetics describes sounds: articulatorily (positions and movements of the speechorgans), acoustically (patterns in the air, detectable with the appropriate technology)and perceptually (impact of the sound on the ear and subsequent transmission of thesignal to the brain); and phonology will be aimed at its more abstract aspects.”

The combination of the feature of phonemes as mentioned above: the phoneme /p/

in cup is described as fortis, voiceless, bilabial and oral stop In contextual aspect as

in the word cup-ful or cup final, the phoneme /p/ can be realized as a labio-dental

stop In English there is a complication in both phonemic system and its phoneticrealization that Gimson (1962: 50) summarizes as follows:

- different coexistent phonemic system;

- phonetic discrepancies in the realization of the phonemes;

- variation in the distribution of phonemes in words, even within a communityusing the same phonemic system;

- variation of phonemic distribution, even within the speech of one individual,according to the situation.

From the viewpoint of sound simplification, Carr (1999), Ladefoged (1975) arguethat sounds in connected speech are often influenced by adjacent sounds Theeffects occur across word boundaries: vowels may be reduced or disappear, one ormore consonants may be dropped or altered for a process of assimilation.Ladefoged (1975: 92) regards that words can be affected when they occur inconnected speech Sounds are often affected by adjacent sounds Similar effectscommonly occur across word boundaries “When one sound is changed into anotherbecause of the influence of a neighboring sound, there is said to be a process ofassimilation.”

With respect to assimilation of English, Katamba (1989:80) explains “often inlanguage a phoneme has several allophones, with the allophone selected in aparticular position being dependent on the other sounds that are adjacent to it Thecommonest phonological process responsible for this is assimilation.” He furtherclaims that assimilation is the modification of a sound that can make it more similar

to some other sound in its neighbourhood For the convenience of speaking, thespeaker usually uses no more effort to produce an utterance

Katamba (1996: 86-92) divides assimilation processes into: palatalisation,labialization, voice assimilation, place of articulation assimilation, manner ofarticulation assimilation and nasalization From the viewpoint of assimilation, it is

really important to refer into coarticulation or co-production theory by Tatham et

al., (2006: 73):

Assimilatory processes are phonological and act in abstract objects (that is,segments which are timeless and whose parameters or features are thereforesimultaneous or boundless);

Coarticulatory (including co-production) processes are phonetic operating onphysical objects which exist in time - the processes themselves are timedependent (so cannot be phonological);

 Separating processes into a hierarchical arrangement which introduces tiers

and which differentiates types of process, seems to us to be a sine qua non.”

Roach (1988: 104-05) defines assimilation of English: “A significant difference innatural connected speech is the way that sounds belonging to one word can causechanges in sounds belonging to neighboring words.” This leads to ‘a phonemerealized differently as a result of being near some other phoneme belonging to aneighboring word’ Roach (1988:107) mentions regressive assimilation of English,

a case of assimilation across the word boundary much more than progressiveassimilation that is a case of assimilation across the morpheme boundary and to

some extents also within the morpheme such as in the words ‘bump’, ‘tenth’, ‘hunt’

‘bank’, a nasal consonant preceding a plosive or a fricative in the same morpheme

is always determined by the following consonant

A similar type of progressive assimilation of voice with the suffixes /s/ and /z/ isstated by Roach (1988:107), the suffix /s/ is pronounced as /s/ if the precedingconsonant is voiceless, and as /z/ if it is voiced For example, cats /E$CK/, dogs /DɒFL/, jumps /DN)PAK/, runs /T)QL/, Pat’s /A$CK/, Pam’s /A$PL/

Cruttenden (2001: 67) shows that the sound change of English refers to thedevelopment of particular phonemes or sounds, but it is misleading to ignore therelationship of the sound units to the system within which they function and whichmight not be changing Although there may be considerable qualitative changes, thenumber and pattern of the terms within the system might show relatively stability.The system can change because a sound, without itself changing, can receive a new

phonemic value For instance, the sound [R] in English is as a realization of [Q]

followed by the velar [k] or [g], but when the final [g] in a word like sing was no

longer pronounced, [R] contrasted significantly with [Q] and [P] e.g ram, ran, and

rang Cruttenden (2001: 68) considers that

“It is often convenient in diachronic studies to investigate the development ofindividual phonemes in terms of the quality of their realization, it is clear thatmany sound changes can be explained only by reference to readjustment of thephonetic relationships of the phonemes of the system as a whole Moreover,any particular point in the development of the sound system of a language isnot simply to be considered as a stage in the process of change of a number ofsound units but rather as the presentation of the functioning of a system at acertain historical moment” (Cruttenden, 2001: 68)

Lecumberri & Maidment (2000) define “assimilation is a process by which two (ormore) sounds become more similar to each other This assimilation is achieved byone of the sounds taking characteristics from the other one Assimilation may beclassified according to the direction in which the borrowing of characteristics is

effected.” Lecumberri & Maidment (2000: 55) divide assimilation into two types:

regressive assimilation and progressive assimilation In regressive assimilation, apreceding sound takes features from the sounds following, i.e the features ‘move’backwards or are anticipated In progressive assimilation, a sound accounts forfeatures from the sound preceding it, i.e the stretch towards preceding sounds

However, Tatham et al (2006) state that Lecumberri & Maidment (2000) mentions

only the assimilation occurring across the word boundary, but in reality, theassimilation also occurs within words

Tatham et al (2006: 22-23) also further provide coarticulation or co-production

theory related to assimilation of English, define the effect of the influence of anarticulatory segment on adjacent segments as coarticulation, and then divide twosubdivisions of coarticulatory effects as follows:

 left-to-right (LR), perseverative or carry-over effects, in whichproperties of segment carry over to influence those of following segments;

 right-to-left (RL), or anticipatory effect, in which properties of asegment influence those earlier segments

According to Tatham et al (2006), coarticulation is universal in the meaning that all

languages neighbouring segments interact phonetically with one another, but theextents of the effects and the balance of the two possible indirections vary from

language to language Tatham et.al (2006: 23) further show that “assimilation is

used to refer to influences of one phonological segment on another, andcoarticulation is used to refer to influences of adjacent or near phonetic segments onone another….” Phonological assimilation might reflect the phonetic tendencies ofcoarticulation, but is voluntary or optional, and phonetic coarticulation describeseffects that are not under voluntary control even though the degree of those effectsmay often be manipulated

From the view point of the terms of assimilation and coarticulation, speech at boththe phonological and phonetic levels is made up of a string of discrete segments,blend together to produce a relative continuous articulation and soundwave, Tatham

et al (2006) regard that the differences between coarticulation and assimilation are

that coarticulation is the result of phonetic process, and assimilation is the result ofphonological process The result of phonetic processes acts in phonetic objectsduring the rendering process arising both logically and temporally The result ofphonological processes operates on phonological objects prior to the fullcharacterization of the utterance plans The idea of coarticulation shows that there is

an invariant or target phonetic specification for each segment, i.e a representation

of characterizing their unique specifications that is stored and exists prior to theutterance independently

Katamba (1996: 19) provides the following words to consider coarticulation whichmakes sounds in their environments (complementary distribution) change to

become allophones: car and key In car when /k/ is produced, it is clear that the

back of the tongue touches the part of the soft palate near the uvula, at the very back

of the roof of our mouth, but in key, /k/ is the more front part of the soft palate near

the hard palate that the tongue makes contact with The two varieties of ‘k’ arebasically different, but are not functionally different in English i.e they cannot beused to distinguish the word meaning Rather, they are considered as allophones ofthe same phoneme /k/ and which one is used on a given occasion depending onwhat the neighboring sounds occur to be The two ‘k’ sounds are in acomplementary distribution When two sounds are in a complementary distribution,

they are barred from operating in identical environments: one sound appears incertain contexts and the other in some different defined contexts Another example

of the complementary distribution is the phoneme /t/ which has several allophones

It is possible to predict the allophones deriving from the same phoneme /t/ such as

ten, tea, two, and eighth

Katamba (1996: 19-20) shows that the allophone [t] in ten is aspirated as it is in the initial stressed syllable, [t] in tea [t] is made with spread lips, [t] in two is made with rounded lips, and [t] in eighth, the allophone, is dentalized

/t/ in ten: [th] is aspirated

/t/ in tea: [tj] is spread to more front

/t/ in two: [twu] is bilabiolized and rounded

/t/ in eighth: [t] is dentalized.

It is shown that an understanding of the sound that occurs in certain environments inwhich it spreads and shares its acoustic and articulatory features with anothersounds is really necessary for those who learn English

Spencer (1996: 149) defines phonological rules as the process of spreading orsharing of a particular feature, i.e a particular change occurs in a particularenvironment For instance:

in pairs: nasal ‘n’ of “in” changes into voiced bilabial /P/ when followed byvoiceless bilabial =A= of “pairs”

in Brighton: nasal ‘n’ of “in” changes into voiced bilabial /P/ when followed byvoiced bilabial =B= of “Brighton”

in fact: nasal ‘n’ of “in” changes into voiced bilabial /ɱ/ when followed byvoiceless fricative =G= of “fact”

in these: nasal ‘n’ of “in” changes into dentalized /Q/ when followed by voiceddental =J= of “these”

in turn: nasal ‘n’ of “in” changes into alveolarized /Q/ when followed byvoiceless alveolar =C= of “turn”

in church: nasal ‘n’ of “in” changes into palatal-alveolarized /ɲ/ when followed

by voiceless affricate =CM= of “church”

in German: nasal ‘n’ of “in” changes into velarized /ɲ/ when followed by voicedalveolar =DN= of “German”

in shares: nasal ‘n’ of “in” changes into palatal-alveolarized /ɲ/ when followed

by voiceless palatal-alveolar =M= of “shares”

in York: nasal ‘n’ of “in” changes into palatalized /ɲ/ when followed by voicedpalatal =U= of “York”

in Kent: nasal ‘n’ of “in” changes into velarized /ɲ/ when followed by voicelessvelar =E= of “Kent”

(Source: Spencer, 1996)Beside the left-right and right-left assimilations of English mentioned above, Celce-

Murcia et al (1996) recommend three types of assimilation in English with other

names: progressive, regressive, and coalescent assimilation The coalescentassimilation is a reciprocal assimilation Sounds in a sequence within a word cometogether and create a third sound with features from both neighbouring original

sounds known as issue, pleasure, stature, procedure etc.; and sounds between

words in connected speech relating to their juxtaposition with neighboring sounds:the final sound of preceding word and the initial sound of following word come

together and create the third sound such as in banked your money that your, would

you, didn’t you, etc

From the point of view of the nature of language teaching, the theory is to teachlearners how to use language, but not to teach about language In this research,teaching sounds in connected speech of English for learners is an attempt to helpthem to surpass the difficulties of English pronunciation, and they would be close tothe use of spoken language

1.4 Pronunciation from the perspective of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

1.4.1 Pronunciation in CLT

From the view point of teaching and learning language for communicationpurposes, the issues of pronunciation of English are concerned in oralcommunication that provides some perspectives to the more practicalconsiderations, including the accuracy and fluency of speech continuum It isobvious that the view of pronunciation from CLT is as an approach, since non-native speakers of English outnumber its native speakers; and CLT is different fromother previous language teaching approaches in that it emphasises the

“comprehensiveness” of pronunciation In the Communicative Language TeachingMethod (CLTM), both fluency and accuracy are important goals; for this reason,teaching and learning pronunciation are considered as teaching types of spokenlanguage The CLTM has influenced teaching and learning pronunciation ofEnglish for communication purposes The CLTM has been developed withlanguage teaching methods by the methodologists, such as Larsen-Freeman (1986),

Celce-Murcia et al (1996), etc

In the CLTM, as Celce-Murcia et al (1996) claim, the primary goal of language

learning is to learn how to use the target language The teaching of pronunciationfor nonnative speakers of English is central in all classroom language teaching,since the primary purpose of language is communication; and there is a thresholdlevel of pronunciation for them; if they are below this threshold level, they willhave oral communication problems no matter how they control English grammarand vocabulary

A contrast between the CLTM and the Grammar Translation Method (GTM) is that

in the GTM, the teaching of pronunciation is irrelevant, and oral communication isneglected because the grammar of the target language is taught in the learner’slanguage, and translation is a primary medium for learners to read foreign languageliterature and texts

In the Direct Method, the goal of its instruction becomes learning how to use aforeign language to communicate, pronunciation is taught through intuition,imitation and repetition which sooner and later are its disadvantages because thelearners are not the well trained parrots The Audiolingual Method is an attempt toreplace the Direct Method because of its disadvantages The purpose of languagelearning in the Audiolingual Method is to learn how to use the language tocommunicate; language forms occur within a context, the teacher is as the model ofthe target language, language learning is a process of habit formation, and thepronunciation is very important and is taught from the beginning and teachersshould prevent learners from making errors and mistakes

Previous research on the acquisition of English pronunciation by foreign languagespeakers that focused on the acquisition of individual vowel or consonant

phonemes, as Celce-Murcia et al (1996) state, did not satisfy the goal of learning

language for communication purposes Recently, new directions in research on theacquisition of English pronunciation have dealt with learners’ acquisition of Englishintonation, rhythm, connected speech, and voice quality settings According to

Parish (1977, cited in Celce-Murcia et al., 1996), to teach English pronunciation,

teachers should have at their disposal a working knowledge of articulatoryphonetics, theories of second-language phonological acquisition, and an up-to-datecommand of techniques and procedures to use in the classroom

As Stevick (1978, cited in Celce-Murcia et al., 1996: 29) states, it is important that

teachers need to be aware of the affective factors that easily help studentsunderstand their pronunciation; the affective factors that are related not only to theirnative language but also to their own motivation, personality and their view of thetarget culture

From the viewpoint of pronunciation for communication, Pennington (1996) refers

to fluency and accuracy Fluency can be understood that it is prioritized in aclassroom of spoken language before accuracy According to Pennington (1996)fluency is crucial for teaching pronunciation because it orients to teaching language

use, and accuracy orients to teaching language usage Let’s consider two possiblegoals of English pronunciation described by Pennington (1996: 220) as follows:

“In the majority of cases, native pronunciation seems to be an unrealistic goal.Fluency is one goal that is important for many students who will leave theirhome country and use the second language in the host country, as over-hesitantspeakers are likely to have difficulty communicating with native listeners forany length of time Accuracy in terms of audience-determined norms is also animportant goal, especially for those who must convey information to othernative speakers” (Pennington, 1996: 220)

In regard to errors of English pronunciation, Kelly (2000: 11) confirms that thepronunciation of learners tends to be mistaken as foreign and undistinguishablefrom that of a native speaker Kelly (2000: 11) further claims that learners’pronunciation errors may cause problems in their language use in communication aswell as consistently mispronounce a range of phonemes that may be extremelydifficult for a speaker from another language community to understand This can bevery frustrating for the learners who might have a good command of grammar andlexis

4

Gimson (1962: 83) insists that a native speaker of a given language knows whatsound exists and does not exist in his or her own language, what sentence isgrammatically organized and ungrammatically structured English people aresensitive to the variations from their pronunciation The ‘wrong accent’ can beconsidered as an impediment to social interaction in certain professions Suchextreme sensitivity is apparently not paralleled in any other country or even in otherparts of speakers of English

The variations in the pronunciation of English, as Gimson (1962: 84) explains, thereexists a great diversity in the spoken realizations of our language, as regards thesounds used in different parts of the country and by different groups of thecommunity On the other hand, the sounds of the language are always in process ofchange at any time between the speech sounds of the younger and older generations.Gimson (1962) concludes that English always has its regional pronunciations in avariety of ways for geographical, political, and commercial reasons To meet the

demands of English as a global means of communication, Received Pronunciation(RP) is considered a norm of English pronunciation RP has been taught to learners

of English as a foreign language (L2) Therefore, the role of RP in the Englishspeaking world is recognized considerably in the last century and continues forhistorical reasons to serve as a model in many parts of the world Most teachingtextbooks describe one of two types: American English (General American) and

RP, and RP is likely more acceptable (Gimson, 1962: 80)

In brief, from the communicative view, it is said that there are variations in Englishpronunciation in social interaction Native speakers of English produce variedsounds naturally in their speech Therefore, foreign learners of English need to trainhow to achieve Received Pronunciation, and to overcome the obstacles in dailycommunication

A number of phoneticians have viewed pronunciation from the issues involved inteaching pronunciation, and from various methodological perspectives As Kelly

(1969, cited in Celce-Murcia et al., 1996) argues, in a long history of language

teaching, grammar and reading vocabulary have been studied much longer thanpronunciation The modern language teaching has developed two generalapproaches to the teaching of pronunciation: (1) an intuitive-imitative approach and(2) an analytic-linguistic approach

The intuitive-imitative approach is used, occasionally supplemented by theteacher’s or textbook writer’s impressionistic observations about sounds based onorthography The analytic-linguistic approach relates to the information and toolssuch as phonetic alphabet, articulatory descriptions, charts of the vocal apparatus,contrastive information, and other aids to supplement listening, imitation, andproduction This approach explicitly informs the learner and pays attention to thesounds and rhythms of the target language

Together with the approaches mentioned above, in the twentieth century, there werethe Grammar Translation and reading-based approaches, in which the teaching ofpronunciation was irrelevant, the oral communication in the target language was not

a primary teaching objective; grammar or text comprehension was taught throughthe learner’s native language That is the reason why the language teaching methods

of that time (before the twentieth century) did not satisfy the goal of languageteaching and learning for communication purposes until the replacement by the newlanguage teaching methods

1.4.2 Linking and assimilation instruction

There are different opinions about why connected speech of English should betaught in the classroom Pronunciation teaching can be viewed under phonetic andphonological characteristics of English as well as under communication purposes

As Dalton & Seidlhofer (1995: 114) point out, if speakers avoid all assimilations(even when speaking slowly), they will sound very formal, and connected speechhelps explain why written English is so different from spoken English Dalton &Seidlhofer (1995: 114) also suggest that extensive work on the aspects of connectedspeech will not only contribute to the students’ ability to produce fluent andcomprehensible speech, but to their ability to comprehend the spoken language aswell

Wong (1987, cited in Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1995: 123) believes that “some studentshave learned English through the eye rather than through the ear, resulting in thefalse notion that words should be pronounced the way they look on the printedpage, each one separated by blank spaces Their speech typically is replete withpauses, one after every word.”

For the reason mentioned, teachers play an important role to help learners toimprove their pronunciation, and help them overcome the difficulties in speakingskills Morley (1991: 507, cited in Pennington, 1996: 219-220) says that theteacher’s role is similar to a coach’s:

“The work of a pronunciation/speech coach can be viewed as similar to thatdone by a debate coach, a drama coach, a voice coach, a music coach, or even

a sports coach A coach characteristically supplies information, gives modelsfrom time to time, offers cues, suggestions and constructive feedback about

performance, sets high standards, provides a wide variety of practiceopportunities, and overall [sic] supports and encourages the learner.”

Ponsonby (1987, cited in Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1995: 115) states that linking andelision are the aids helping us maintain the fluency of the rhythm, and pronunciation

of sounds in connected speech oriented communication purposes, at least, forlearners of English who should be aware of the distinguish in the following aspects:

- spelling and pronunciation: mate and mat, Pete and pet, hide and hid, note

and not, cute and cut (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1995: 5);

- voiced and voiceless sounds: hopes and lobs, laughs and believes (Dalton &

Seidlhofer, 1995: 50);

- aspirated and unaspirated stops: pie and spy, tie and sty, key and ski (Dalton

& Seidlhofer, 1995: 40);

- grammatical endings such as in the tense of verbs, number of verbs or of

nouns: laughed and lived, missed and realized, ropes and robes, docks and dogs,

reefs and reeves, cloths and clothes (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1995: 49);

- possessive apostrophe ‘s: Jack’s and Dave’s,

- and contractions: Pat’s leaving early and Pat’s already left, This book’s

quite interesting and this book’s been selling well (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1995: 50)

Avery & Ehrilich (1992: 51) confirm that “the pronunciation of sounds will vary

depending on the phonetic context in which they occur and these variations can be

stated by a rule.” Through the variations in pronunciation of English, Dalton &

Seidlhofer (1995: 116) argue that:

“Roach also stresses the importance of work on connected speech forlistening The most serious problem second language learners have in this areaare the comprehension problems caused by blurring or word boundaries Whatseems to be called for here is to make learners aware of what is going on andhelp them build up the right expectations about the kind of sound patterns theyare likely to be confronted with in normal native speech” (Dalton &Seidlhofer, 1995: 116)

By pronunciation of English linking, as can be seen, the pronunciation of sounds inconnected speech not only builds awareness of sounds across word boundaries, but

also improves learners’ pronunciation of spoken English comprehensively It isclear that linking of English are related closely to assimilation when linking ofconsonant to consonant occurs across the word boundary In connected speech,sounds within words often blend together and seem to become parts of thefollowing words; and words within phrases and sentences also blend together.These phenomena can be linking as follows:

- vowels to vowels: be on time, pay up, blue angel, he isn’t here, lay it here.

- consonants to vowels: with it, washed it, run around, sing it.

- consonants to consonants: stop trying, big boy, bad judge, keep speaking

(Avery & Ehrlich 1998: 86-7)

In linking consonants to consonants within the phrase and sentence of rapid speech,assimilation might happen This means that across word boundaries, sounds will acttogether to create units larger than the single word It will help Êđê learners avoidconfusion of linking of some cases and elision in other cases i.e

- CVC+VC: ‘watch out’ becomes ‘wa+chout’

- and CV+CVC: ‘get out’ becomes ‘ge+tout’ (Wong, 1987: 49, cited in Dalton

et al., 1995: 123)

- Elision (deletion of sounds in connected speech): past president, next month.

(Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1995).

So far, linking, contraction, and elision (deletion) can serve to introduce learners tothe differences between spoken and written English They should be taught early forlearners to familiarize with them to improve their pronunciation oriented towardscommunication purposes For learners, the importance of the pronunciation ofsounds in connected speech is that they will pay much attention to their use ofsounds in spoken English, improve their listening and speaking skill, understandwhat was said, and be able to pronounce naturally English sounds

The pronunciation of assimilation of English is another part of sounds in connectedspeech might contribute to an understanding of sounds across word boundaries, and

to the improvement required of learners for communication As mentioned,

assimilation of English is a phenomenon in which sounds influence each other inthe phrases or sentences where they occur This influence might occur in the threefollowing cases: left-to-right influence, right-to-left influence, and interinfluencethat has been said as coalescent assimilation.

McCarthy (1991) points out the strength and weakness of traditional pronunciationteaching Its strength is in the ability of linguists to segment the sounds of languageinto phonemes described, presented and practised in language classes as isolatedsounds for contrast purposes in words or contexts Its weakness lies in its verystrength, because the sounds of language cannot be taught separately, but they can

be taught when the words follow one after another in more complex speech, andphonemes might considerably change For instance, in the normal spoken speech of

‘good morning’ [F+BP&Q"R], the difference between the /d/ and /m/ appears:

the /d/ of ‘good’ becomes more likely to /b/ when it precedes the bilabial /m/ of

‘morning’

McCarthy (1991) argues that pronunciation is important as an aspect of oriented language teaching and that three areas, or components, should beaddressed: segment features, voice-setting features, and prosodic (intonational)features The segmental, or phoneme-based needs to be supplemented by theconcern with general articulatory characteristics of stretches of speech includingvoice-setting features that can cause persistent difficulties for listeners Theprosodic components include stress and intonation McCarthy (1991) further claimspronunciation as a constellation of features manifested not just in the articulation ofparticular phonemes but in the stream of connected speech that is natural discourse

discourse-In the theory of foreign language acquisition, Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 20) agree

that the contrastive analysis hypothesis is developed in cases where the targetstructures are dissimilar or nonexistent This theory can be explained as “a validexplanation for the difficulties experienced by learners in the realms of syntax,morphology, and phonology”, and it would be able to predict all learning problems,explaining the cause of many, but far from all, systematic language-learning errors

From the teaching view point, it can be said that to learn pronunciation of alanguage, to some extents, means to learn how to use that language forcommunication purposes as Pennington (1996: 218- 219) states ‘the most importantperspective for deciding what to teach is to look at your students, their problemswith English and their future needs in the way of language skills’ In languageteaching tendency, thus, language skills play an important role in producing learnerswho are able to perform language That is why teachers will work on thephonological aspects of language to improve their learners’ pronunciation.

According to Pennington (1996: 219), pronunciation can be expected to improvethrough practice, through the kinds of pair and group activities which are at theheart of modern, communicative and learner-centered methodology for languageteaching Pennington (1996: 219) also suggests that “instructional approaches forsecond language phonology should seek to motivate and engage learners to make agreat self-investment in their own phonological development by considerations ofsuch factors as learners’ interests and goals, interactional dynamics and classroomclimate, and appropriate feedback and reward systems.”

Pennington (1996: 2) confirms that in a classroom, the teacher will function as amotivator, facilitator, and communicator with his students and as an expertconsultant who helps them fulfill their individual goals With their teachers andteaching programs, learners improve their pronunciation through an activity, abehavior and practice

It is clear that the understanding of the phonology of a language is a necessary basisfor the fully effective teaching of a spoken language Pennington (1996:2) arguesthat since sounds are the basis of all higher linguistic units, phonological differencescan signal differences at several levels of language, i.e differences in lexical,grammatical and utterance meanings Pennington (1996: 2-3) also shows that:

- Lexical differences are signaled by the difference in pronunciation of vowel

sounds or consonant sounds For example in pin, pen, pan, the central sound of the

words makes them different from each other

- Grammatical differences are signaled by phonology such as the difference

between the verb use and the noun use The last sound of the word makes them

different form each other: /ju:z/ (verb), and /ju:s/ (noun); the final sounds

differentiate the verb advise and the noun advice:/+DHa"L/ and //+DHa"K/ The

difference between the verb and noun forms of insult and insult is signaled by the

amount of energy expended to produce the first part and the second part of theword: ///"Q>K)SC//and />"QK)SC/; the stressed syllable is more forcefully

pronounced than the unstressed one

- Differences in utterance-level meaning can be signaled by phonology, i.e the

difference between voices (intonation) indicated by a falling voice, rising voice, orquestioning

In brief, the goal of teaching pronunciation of English for communication is not toteach a learner to produce like-native sounds, but to orient his pronunciation in

communicating, accepting and understanding as much as possible Celce-Murcia et

al (1996: 8) regard the goal of pronunciation in a classroom as follows:

“The goal of teaching pronunciation to such learners is not to make themsound like native speakers of English With the exception of a few highlygifted and motivated individuals, such a goal is unrealistic A more modestand realistic goal is to enable learners to surpass the threshold level that theirpronunciation will not detract from their ability to communicate” (Celce-

Murcia et al., 1996: 8).

It is obvious that a foreign learner who uses English for communication purposeswill not need to master all the variants of English speech sounds However,Cruttenden (2001: 296) claims that “in language acquisition of another language,any learner should be devoted to pronunciation for efficient communication, and inany course of English a realistic amount of time should be devoted to practice in thespoken language.” In language learning, pronunciation is regarded as learners’

activities in producing speech sounds (i.e phonemes: vowels and consonants), and

in producing words, phrases and sentences (i.e allophones: sound combinations)

According to Celce-Murcia et al (1996: 37), learners need to know “sound

differences that distinguish words”, and then they need to know “sounds that areperceptibly different but do not distinguish words” These activities of thepronunciation are related to the meanings and attitudes that the speakers conveywhen they speak the language

As Celce-Murcia et al., (1996: 8-10) point out, English today becomes a global

language, and the diversities of English are realized by the English speaking world.With the communicative approach, the issues of methodology of how to improvethe pronunciation of speakers of English and how to teach English pronunciation

communicatively are raised Some techniques provided by Celce-Murcia et al.

(1996) that are still being used to teach pronunciation, are:

(i) Listening and imitating: A technique used in the Direct Method in which

students listen to a teacher-provided model and repeat or imitate it This techniquehas been enhanced by the use of tape recorders, language labs, and video recorders

(ii) Phonetic training: Use of articulatory descriptions, articulatory diagrams,

and phonetic alphabet

(iii) Minimal pair drills: A technique introduced during the Audiolingual era

to help students distinguish between similar and problematic sounds in the targetlanguage through listening discrimination and spoken practice Minimal pair drillstypically begin with word-level drills and then move on to sentence-level drills(both paradigmatic and syntagmatic)

(iv) Contextualized minimal pairs: A technique used in the Cognitive

Approach in which the teacher establishes the setting and presents key vocabulary;students are then trained to respond to a sentence stem with the appropriate

meaningful response For example, hits or heats

(v) Visual aid techniques: Enhancement of the teacher’s description of how

sounds are produced by audiovisual aids These devices are also used to cuepronunciation of the target sounds

(vi) Tongue twisters: A technique from speech correction strategies for

native speakers For example, “She sells seashells by the seashore”

(vii) Developmental approximation drills: A technique suggested by

first-language acquisition studies in which second first-language speakers are taught toretrace the steps that many English-speaking children follow as they acquire certainsounds in their first language

(viii) Practice of vowel shifts and stress shifts related by affixation: A

technique based on rules of generative phonology used with intermediate oradvanced learners, the teacher points out the rule-based nature of vowel and stressshifts in etymologically related words to raise awareness; sentences and short textsthat contain both members of a pair may be provided as oral practice material

(ix) Reading aloud/recitation: Passages or scripts for learners to practice and

then read aloud, focusing on stress, timing, and intonation This technique may ormay not involve memorization of the text, and it usually occurs with genres that areintended to be spoken, such as speeches, poems, plays, and dialogues

(x) Recordings of learners’ production: Audio and videotapes of rehearsed

and spontaneous speeches, free conversations, and role plays Subsequent playbackoffers opportunities for feedback teachers and peers as well as for teacher, peer, andself-evaluation

As can be seen, English pronunciation is a starting point in learning activities forlearners who learn English as a foreign language; at the same time, Englishpronunciation activities will help them familiarize with new sounds of the targetlanguage, new ways of practising sounds, new ways of hearing, and new habits ofusing spoken English