Cải thiện phát âm tiếng anh của sinh viên người êđê theo định hướng mục đích giao tiếp ph d dissertation linguistics

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,

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

Y TRU ALIO

IMPROVING PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH

BY ÊĐÊ LEARNERS ORIENTED TOWARDS

COMMUNICATION PURPOSES

(CẢI THIỆN PHÁT ÂM TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NGƯỜI

ÊĐÊ THEO ĐỊNH HƯỚNG MỤC ĐÍCH GIAO TIẾP)

Ph.D DISSERTATION Major: English Linguistics Code: 62.22.15.01

Hà Nội, 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

Y TRU ALIO

IMPROVING PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH

BY ÊĐÊ LEARNERS ORIENTED TOWARDS

COMMUNICATION PURPOSES

(CẢI THIỆN PHÁT ÂM TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NGƯỜI

ÊĐÊ THEO ĐỊNH HƯỚNG MỤC ĐÍCH GIAO TIẾP)

Ph.D DISSERTATION Major: English Linguistics Code: 62.22.15.01

Supervisors:

1 Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang

2 Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ

Hà Nội, 2015

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 of Philosophy in English linguistics

Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without 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 the Postgraduate Studies Faculty, Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, Head of the Postgraduate Studies Faculty and all the staff for their tremendous help with administrative clearance, and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never 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 the best possible conditions from which I have benefited for the completion of the dissertation

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IV TABLE OF CONTENTS V ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS VII LIST OF GRAPHS IX LIST OF TABLES IX LIST OF SENTENCES X DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS XI ABSTRACT XIII

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) 19

1.4.1 Pronunciation in CLT 19

1.4.2 Linking and assimilation instruction 23

1.5 R ESEARCH ON Ê ĐÊ PRONUNCIATION 36

1.6 S UMMARY 40

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY 43

2.1 C ONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 43

2.2 A CTION RESEARCH 45

2.2.1 Identifying the problems 46

2.2.2 The treatment 46

2.2.2.1 Designing an intensive course 46

2.2.2.2 Conducting the teaching of the intensive course 51

2.2.3 The progress 53

2.2.4 Questionnaire for teachers’ attitude towards Êđê learners’ pronunciation 54

2.3 D ATA COLLECTION 54

2.3.1 The setting 54

2.3.2 The participants 55

2.3.2.1 Êđê learners 55

2.3.2.2 The volunteer teacher of English 56

2.3.3 The procedure of the data collection 56

2.4 D ATA ANALYSIS 57

2.4.1 The descriptive and contrastive techniques 57

2.4.2 The wave forms 57

2.4.3 Tables and graphs 61

2.4.4 Logical inferential statistics 61

2.5 S UMMARY 62

CHAPTER 3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 64

3.1 T HE POTENTIAL CAUSES OF Ê ĐÊ LEARNERS ’ ERRORS IN PRODUCING E NGLISH SOUNDS 64

3.1.1 The similarities between English vowels and Êđê vowels 66

3.1.2 The differences between English vowels and Êđê vowels 67

3.1.3 The similarities between English consonants and Êđê consonants 69

3.1.4 The differences between English consonants and Êđê consonants 70

3.1.5 The differences in consonant sequences 75

3.1.6 The differences between English syllable structures and Êđê syllable structures 81

3.1.7 The differences of sounds in connected speech of the two languages 82

3.2 T HE Ê ĐÊ LEARNERS ’ MISPRONUNCIATION OF E NGLISH RELATED TO LINKING AND ASSIMILATION 84

3.2.1 Êđê learners’ mispronunciation of English linking 84

3.2.2 Êđê learners’ mispronunciation of English assimilation 106

3.3 T HE TREATMENT TO IMPROVE Ê ĐÊ LEARNERS ’ PRONUNCIATION OF E NGLISH LINKING AND ASSIMILATION 123

3.3.1 The treatment to improve the pronunciation of English linking 124

3.3.1.1 Listening and imitating 125

3.3.1.2 Phonetic training 126

3.3.1.3 Minimal pair drills 129

3.3.1.4 Contextualized minimal pairs 131

3.3.1.5 Visual aids 132

3.3.2.The treatment to improve the pronunciation of English assimilation 133

3.3.2.1 Listening and imitating 133

3.3.2.2 Phonetic training 133

3.3.2.3 Minimal pair drills 134

3.3.2.4 Contextualised minimal pairs 135

3.3.2.5 Visual aids 136

3.3.3 Pedagogical implication for English pronunciation teaching 136

3.4 T EACHERS ’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS Ê ĐÊ LEARNERS ’ PRONUNCIATION OF E NGLISH 138

3.5 S UMMARY 142

PART C: CONCLUSION 143

1 R ECAPITULATION 143

2.C ONCLUDING REMARKS 144

2.1.The cause of Êđê learners’ errors in producing English sounds 144

2.2 Êđê learners’ mispronunciation of English with respect to linking and assimilation 146

2.3 The treatment to improve Êđê learners’ English pronunciation 147

3 T HE LIMITATION OF THE RESEARCH 148

4 S UGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES 149

REFERENCES 150

THE AUTHOR’S PUBLISHED ARTICLES AND PROJECTS RELATED TO THE DISSERTATION 153 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 XXVIII

A PPENDIX 11 Q UESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS LVII

A PPENDIX 12 I NFORMATION ABOUT THE DEVICES FOR RECORDING LX

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

39 SE2nd (The second standard error)

……….……… 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 information presented

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

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

(3) The standard deviation (SD) is the most important measure of dispersion The standard deviation can be estimated by deducting the mean from each individual score, squaring the resulting figures to get rid of the minus signs, adding these together 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 to the mean

(4) The standard error (SE) equals the standard deviation divided by the square root of the number The standard error‟s information can be used to place a single sample 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 of vibration of the vocal cords

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

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

(7) Transcriptions

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

PART A INTRODUCTION

This part states the rationale for the study, the aim and objectives of the study, the scope and significance of the study, and the structural organization of the dissertation

1 Rationale for the study

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

or later, Êđê learners should have knowledge of English pronunciation in particular and English phonetics and phonology in general Since the English language has its own phonological rules, spelling and pronunciation of English are practically two different things, Êđê learners should learn the pronunciation of the sounds in connected speech of English receptively and productively, they should be able to understand what they hear in English, and should not damage what they say, should overcome their reluctance to use English The pronunciation of English is required at any proficient levels of English, and it is considered as manifestation of the realization of learners‟ understanding of how English sounds activate in the reality of spoken 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, especially English sounds in connected speech English sounds produced by Êđê learners tend

to be unnatural, erroneous in some cases, and tend to make incomplete plosion in producing 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, or misunderstanding, or ungrammatical and unnatural pronunciation

Having been teaching English at Tây Nguyên University, I realize that Êđê learners have difficulties in the pronunciation of English Together with the sounds of English, 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 English pronunciation for learners of different countries, but not for Êđê learners, a group of ethnic minorities in Vietnam On the account of these, I have got a strong belief in solving 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 of English towards communication purposes So an investigation into improving English pronunciation of linking and assimilation is necessary, and my decision on choosing 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 by Êđê 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 English sounds;

- to identify the problems of English mispronunciation related to linking and assimilation 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 Êđê learners at Tây Nguyên University with respect to linking and assimilation of English

6 Significance of the study

This study, to my knowledge, is the first systematic research on the similarities and differences between English sounds and Êđê sounds; the first research on the problems of English pronunciation encountered by Êđê learners due to the differences between the two languages; and the first research on the solutions for the improvement 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 of English in the awarness of the differences between sounds of the two languages The identifying of the similarities and differences between the English and Êđê sounds contributes to consolidating the strength and power of the theoretical points initiated and developed by the authorities in the field of phonetics and phonology

From the practical perspective

The pedagogical implication of selected teaching techniques for pronunciation of English in the classroom is given by the present study Êđê learners will be helped to improve 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 the rationale for the study, the aim, the objectives, the research questions, the scope and the significance of the study Part B is the development with its three chapters: chapter 1 presents the literature review; chapter 2 states the methodology, and chapter 3 gives the findings and discussion Part C is the conclusion that provides the recapitulation, 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 the dissertation is stated in the references after Part C The details for the data of the study 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 of English pronunciation, pronunciation from the communication view and from the teaching view, the research on English pronunciation with the focus on linking and assimilation, 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 of connected speech These works are understandable and become guide-principles governing rules of pronunciation of English in the following parts of the study conveying linking and assimilation of English as Underhill (1994: 58) points out:

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

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

In English, there is not a one-to-one correspondence between spelling and pronunciation, but between sounds and letters Many letters can represent more than one 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 word should be pronounced and how a word they have heard should be written

By improving pronunciation of English we mean to help Êđê learners to pronounce English well enough to be understood when they speak, to be able to perform what they 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 appropriate phonological rules of linking and assimilation, and as Mortimer (1985) suggests learners 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 in connected speech related to linking and assimilation Linking and assimilation means sound relations within words and sound relations between words, i.e sounds across the word boundary The theoretical backgrounds for the study on the pronunciation 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 classroom conducted 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 phonetic and phonological characteristics Pronunciation not only relates to correct articulation 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 to negotiate meaning in discourse.” Dalton & Seidlhofer (1995: ix) insist that “while teacher education may require an understanding of pronunciation as an aspect of the

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

The selected aspects for the study on pronunciation of linking and assimilation have two reasons: (i) the English pronunciation is conceptualized as actual sounds of English in spoken forms; and (ii) at the beginning of English learning, the pronunciation towards communication starts with the basic phonetic and phonological pronunciation Since pronunciation of English is important not only to Êđê learners for the purpose of understanding and being understood, but also to those 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 vocabulary mistakes 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 you need to be able to analyse and correct your pronunciation mistakes It is not necessary to pronounce every sound perfectly to be understood – only a few parts of each sentence are really important, but these parts are essential The native speaker depends on hearing these parts clearly, therefore you need to know 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 certain extent, to function English sounds in spoken forms, to speak so that people listen to what we say and then join the way we say, so that the meaning we intend is clear, to produce appropriate sounds and sound patterns, and to be confident to speak English There is a bunch of definitions of pronunciation of English initiated by the authorities with language teaching methods which are adopted as means to satisfy their ends

The growth in the use of English means that English is used as a medium of communication between nations of the world, and it is used as a global language Dalton & Seidlhofer (1995: 3) define pronunciation in general terms as the production 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 as the production and reception of sounds of speech Second, sound is significant because 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 is with reference to acts of speaking

Though considering pronunciation in both senses, Dalton & Seidlhofer (1995) give particular 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 the role 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 communicative language teaching The teaching of pronunciation means the teaching of a spoken language meeting the demand of learner‟s communication compared with the target language as Pennington (1996:2) regards:

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

it opens the way to a better understanding of how language works and how the different aspects of linguistic and social meaning are interrelated, an understanding of the phonology of a language is a necessary basis for fully effective 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 the same 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 for illustration:

- 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 a word 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) By linking, English people are said not to do a pause between each word when speaking, but move smoothly from one word to the following words or sounds In such cases, sounds often happen in groups, phrases or sentences, i.e linkage of English sounds often occurs in connected speech and in natural speech

vowel-Phonologically, English sounds in contexts may spread their characteristics to the next other sounds, i.e the pronunciation of sounds in the combination of other sounds stretching accordingly with the movement of organs of speech that is on the way to reach the next sounds in the continuum speech Together with the differences in the place of articulation, at the same time, sounds to be produced will change 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 at word-boundaries where either two vowels or a consonant and a vowel meet”

In relation to the way English sounds are produced, phonologically, the writer finds that the final sounds of a word might release their phonetic and phonological characteristics stretching across sounds in connected speech that can be a linkage of preceding sounds to the sound of the following words Moreover, English words in connected 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 word affects the initial sound of the following word Linking of English often happens across word boundaries

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

(7)

(8)

In connected speech, English speakers sometimes link words together The most familiar case of linking is when a word ends with a consonant and the next word begins with a vowel, and when a word ends in a vowel and the next word begins

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 a difference 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 to colloquial and connected speech

In brief, the understanding of the basic possible combinations of sounds in final positions of preceding words with sounds in initial positions of following words will 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 the feature of a neighboring sound Assimilation occurs frequently in English, either within 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, it

changes 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 on pronunciation, Spencer (1996) considers coarticulation as phonological process and postlexical process in English Katamba (1996) explores that in the production of speech, due to adjustment of the articulatory apparatus in the transition from one sound to the next, phonetic properties may spread their distinctive features in their environment; this phonological process leads to allophones and assimilation, and the phonological behaviour of phonemes is largely determined by the phonetic features, 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 to some other sound in its neighborhood The advantage of having assimilation is that it results in smoother, more effortless, more economical transitions from one sound to another It facilitates the task of speaking The speaker usually tries 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 one after another, therefore they are produced with the movement of organs of speech in contacting with each other to reach the next sounds The movement sometimes cannot 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 been said to be coarticulation or assimilation

Stating phonological rules that divert the realization of lexical sounds in certain directions before the phonetic realization, Roca & Johnson (1999: 48) divide these rules 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 of the mouth that will accordingly correspond to the form modified by the rule rather than its lexical base

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

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

“phonetics describes sounds: articulatorily (positions and movements of the speech organs), acoustically (patterns in the air, detectable with the appropriate technology) and perceptually (impact of the sound on the ear and subsequent transmission of the signal 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 phonetic realization 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 community using 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) argue that sounds in connected speech are often influenced by adjacent sounds The effects occur across word boundaries: vowels may be reduced or disappear, one or more consonants may be dropped or altered for a process of assimilation Ladefoged (1975: 92) regards that words can be affected when they occur in connected speech Sounds are often affected by adjacent sounds Similar effects commonly occur across word boundaries “When one sound is changed into another because of the influence of a neighboring sound, there is said to be a process of assimilation.”

With respect to assimilation of English, Katamba (1989:80) explains “often 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.” He further claims 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, the speaker 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 of articulation 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 therefore simultaneous or boundless);

 Coarticulatory (including co-production) processes are phonetic operating on physical objects which exist in time - the processes themselves are time dependent (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 in natural connected speech is the way that sounds belonging to one word can cause changes in sounds belonging to neighboring words.” This leads to „a phoneme realized differently as a result of being near some other phoneme belonging to a neighboring word‟ Roach (1988:107) mentions regressive assimilation of English,

a case of assimilation across the word boundary much more than progressive assimilation 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/ is stated by Roach (1988:107), the suffix /s/ is pronounced as /s/ if the preceding consonant is voiceless, and as /z/ if it is voiced For example, cats /E$CK/, dogs

Cruttenden (2001: 67) shows that the sound change of English refers to the development of particular phonemes or sounds, but it is misleading to ignore the relationship of the sound units to the system within which they function and which might not be changing Although there may be considerable qualitative changes, the number 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 of individual phonemes in terms of the quality of their realization, it is clear that many sound changes can be explained only by reference to readjustment of the phonetic relationships of the phonemes of the system as a whole Moreover, any particular point in the development of the sound system of a language is not simply to be considered as a stage in the process of change of a number of sound units but rather as the presentation of the functioning of a system at a certain historical moment” (Cruttenden, 2001: 68)

Lecumberri & Maidment (2000) define “assimilation is a process by which two (or more) sounds become more similar to each other This assimilation is achieved by one of the sounds taking characteristics from the other one Assimilation may be classified 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, a preceding sound takes features from the sounds following, i.e the features „move‟ backwards or are anticipated In progressive assimilation, a sound accounts for features 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, the assimilation 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 an articulatory segment on adjacent segments as coarticulation, and then divide two subdivisions of coarticulatory effects as follows:

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

 right-to-left (RL), or anticipatory effect, in which properties of a segment 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 the extents 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, and coarticulation is used to refer to influences of adjacent or near phonetic segments on one another….” Phonological assimilation might reflect the phonetic tendencies of coarticulation, but is voluntary or optional, and phonetic coarticulation describes effects that are not under voluntary control even though the degree of those effects may often be manipulated

From the view point of the terms of assimilation and coarticulation, speech at both the 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 of phonological process The result of phonetic processes acts in phonetic objects during the rendering process arising both logically and temporally The result of phonological processes operates on phonological objects prior to the full characterization 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 the utterance independently

Katamba (1996: 19) provides the following words to consider coarticulation which makes 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‟ are basically different, but are not functionally different in English i.e they cannot be used to distinguish the word meaning Rather, they are considered as allophones of the same phoneme /k/ and which one is used on a given occasion depending on what the neighboring sounds occur to be The two „k‟ sounds are in a complementary distribution When two sounds are in a complementary distribution,

they are barred from operating in identical environments: one sound appears in certain 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 in which it spreads and shares its acoustic and articulatory features with another sounds is really necessary for those who learn English

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

in pairs: nasal „n‟ of “in” changes into voiced bilabial /P/ when followed by voiceless bilabial =A= of “pairs”

in Brighton: nasal „n‟ of “in” changes into voiced bilabial /P/ when followed by voiced bilabial =B= of “Brighton”

in fact: nasal „n‟ of “in” changes into voiced bilabial /ɱ/ when followed by

voiceless fricative =G= of “fact”

in these: nasal „n‟ of “in” changes into dentalized /Q/ when followed by voiced dental =J= of “these”

in turn: nasal „n‟ of “in” changes into alveolarized /Q/ when followed by voiceless alveolar =C= of “turn”

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

in German: nasal „n‟ of “in” changes into velarized /ɲ/ when followed by voiced

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 voiced

palatal =U= of “York”

in Kent: nasal „n‟ of “in” changes into velarized /ɲ/ when followed by voiceless

velar =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 coalescent assimilation is a reciprocal assimilation Sounds in a sequence within a word come together 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 teach learners 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 help

them to surpass the difficulties of English pronunciation, and they would be close to the 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 communication purposes, the issues of pronunciation of English are concerned in oral communication that provides some perspectives to the more practical considerations, including the accuracy and fluency of speech continuum It is obvious 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 from other previous language teaching approaches in that it emphasises the

“comprehensiveness” of pronunciation In the Communicative Language Teaching Method (CLTM), both fluency and accuracy are important goals; for this reason, teaching and learning pronunciation are considered as teaching types of spoken language The CLTM has influenced teaching and learning pronunciation of English for communication purposes The CLTM has been developed with language 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 pronunciation for nonnative speakers of English is central in all classroom language teaching, since the primary purpose of language is communication; and there is a threshold level of pronunciation for them; if they are below this threshold level, they will have oral communication problems no matter how they control English grammar and 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 is neglected because the grammar of the target language is taught in the learner‟s

language, and translation is a primary medium for learners to read foreign language literature and texts

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

Previous research on the acquisition of English pronunciation by foreign language speakers 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 the acquisition of English pronunciation have dealt with learners‟ acquisition of English intonation, 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 articulatory phonetics, theories of second-language phonological acquisition, and an up-to-date command 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 students understand their pronunciation; the affective factors that are related not only to their native language but also to their own motivation, personality and their view of the target culture

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

to fluency and accuracy Fluency can be understood that it is prioritized in a

classroom 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 possible goals 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 their home country and use the second language in the host country, as over-hesitant speakers are likely to have difficulty communicating with native listeners for any length of time Accuracy in terms of audience-determined norms is also an important goal, especially for those who must convey information to other native speakers” (Pennington, 1996: 220)

In regard to errors of English pronunciation, Kelly (2000: 11) confirms that the pronunciation of learners tends to be mistaken as foreign and undistinguishable from that of a native speaker Kelly (2000: 11) further claims that learners‟ pronunciation errors may cause problems in their language use in communication as well as consistently mispronounce a range of phonemes that may be extremely difficult for a speaker from another language community to understand This can be very frustrating for the learners who might have a good command of grammar and lexis

4

Gimson (1962: 83) insists that a native speaker of a given language knows what sound exists and does not exist in his or her own language, what sentence is grammatically organized and ungrammatically structured English people are sensitive to the variations from their pronunciation The „wrong accent‟ can be considered as an impediment to social interaction in certain professions Such extreme sensitivity is apparently not paralleled in any other country or even in other parts of speakers of English

The variations in the pronunciation of English, as Gimson (1962: 84) explains, there exists a great diversity in the spoken realizations of our language, as regards the sounds used in different parts of the country and by different groups of the community On the other hand, the sounds of the language are always in process of change at any time between the speech sounds of the younger and older generations

Gimson (1962) concludes that English always has its regional pronunciations in a variety 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 English speaking world is recognized considerably in the last century and continues for historical reasons to serve as a model in many parts of the world Most teaching textbooks 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 English pronunciation in social interaction Native speakers of English produce varied sounds naturally in their speech Therefore, foreign learners of English need to train how to achieve Received Pronunciation, and to overcome the obstacles in daily communication

A number of phoneticians have viewed pronunciation from the issues involved in teaching 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 than pronunciation The modern language teaching has developed two general approaches 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 the teacher‟s or textbook writer‟s impressionistic observations about sounds based on orthography The analytic-linguistic approach relates to the information and tools such as phonetic alphabet, articulatory descriptions, charts of the vocal apparatus, contrastive information, and other aids to supplement listening, imitation, and production This approach explicitly informs the learner and pays attention to the sounds and rhythms of the target language

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

a primary teaching objective; grammar or text comprehension was taught through the 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 language teaching and learning for communication purposes until the replacement by the new language teaching methods

1.4.2 Linking and assimilation instruction

There are different opinions about why connected speech of English should be taught in the classroom Pronunciation teaching can be viewed under phonetic and phonological 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 speech helps explain why written English is so different from spoken English Dalton & Seidlhofer (1995: 114) also suggest that extensive work on the aspects of connected speech will not only contribute to the students‟ ability to produce fluent and comprehensible speech, but to their ability to comprehend the spoken language as well

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

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

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

a sports coach A coach characteristically supplies information, gives models from time to time, offers cues, suggestions and constructive feedback about performance, sets high standards, provides a wide variety of practice opportunities, and overall [sic] supports and encourages the learner.”

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

of sounds in connected speech oriented communication purposes, at least, for learners 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 for listening The most serious problem second language learners have in this area are the comprehension problems caused by blurring or word boundaries What seems

to be called for here is to make learners aware of what is going on and help them build up the right expectations about the kind of sound patterns they are 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 in connected speech not only builds awareness of sounds across word boundaries, but also improves learners‟ pronunciation of spoken English comprehensively It is clear that linking of English are related closely to assimilation when linking of consonant to consonant occurs across the word boundary In connected speech, sounds within words often blend together and seem to become parts of the following 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 act together to create units larger than the single word It will help Êđê learners avoid confusion 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 to the differences between spoken and written English They should be taught early for learners to familiarize with them to improve their pronunciation oriented towards communication purposes For learners, the importance of the pronunciation of sounds in connected speech is that they will pay much attention to their use of sounds in spoken English, improve their listening and speaking skill, understand what was said, and be able to pronounce naturally English sounds

The pronunciation of assimilation of English is another part of sounds in connected speech 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 in the phrases or sentences where they occur This influence might occur in the three following cases: left-to-right influence, right-to-left influence, and interinfluence that has been said as coalescent assimilation

McCarthy (1991) points out the strength and weakness of traditional pronunciation teaching Its strength is in the ability of linguists to segment the sounds of language into phonemes described, presented and practised in language classes as isolated sounds for contrast purposes in words or contexts Its weakness lies in its very strength, 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, and phonemes 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 be addressed: segment features, voice-setting features, and prosodic (intonational) features The segmental, or phoneme-based needs to be supplemented by the concern with general articulatory characteristics of stretches of speech including voice-setting features that can cause persistent difficulties for listeners The prosodic components include stress and intonation McCarthy (1991) further claims pronunciation as a constellation of features manifested not just in the articulation of particular 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 target structures are dissimilar or nonexistent This theory can be explained as “a valid

explanation 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 a language, to some extents, means to learn how to use that language for communication purposes as Pennington (1996: 218- 219) states „the most important perspective for deciding what to teach is to look at your students, their problems with English and their future needs in the way of language skills‟ In language teaching tendency, thus, language skills play an important role in producing learners who are able to perform language That is why teachers will work on the phonological aspects of language to improve their learners‟ pronunciation

According to Pennington (1996: 219), pronunciation can be expected to improve through practice, through the kinds of pair and group activities which are at the heart of modern, communicative and learner-centered methodology for language teaching Pennington (1996: 219) also suggests that “instructional approaches for second language phonology should seek to motivate and engage learners to make a great self-investment in their own phonological development by considerations of such factors as learners‟ interests and goals, interactional dynamics and classroom climate, and appropriate feedback and reward systems.”

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

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