ENGLISH AS SECOND LANGUAGE
INTRODUCTION
It is undeniable that English is not an easy language to learn. Malaysian ESL students oftentimes find English to be rather confusing and difficult to learn. Pronunciation seems to trip most students up. Though the English language syllabus makes room for pronunciation skills to be included in classroom practices, many often have problems with the pronunciation of certain words. According to Abbas and Muhammad Reza (2011), many ESL learners have “major difficulties” with English pronunciation even after years of learning the language. Pronunciation skill is considered the most difficult skill to teach, making it the least useful to teach (Rajadurai, 2006). The teaching of pronunciation involves the segmental level and the suprasegmetal level. The segmental level covers the phonemes including consonants and vowels while the supra-segmental level comprises features such as linking, intonation and word stress.
1.0 THE STUDENT / SUBJECT
For the purpose of this report, an undergraduate student studying English at Open University of Malaysia (OUM) was selected. The subject was a male aged in mid thirties. The subject had his primary education in Chinese National School in which Chinese was the medium of instruction. English was taught as an additional subject within the school curriculum. Subsequently, he had his secondary school education in which Malay was the medium of instruction. This was crucial in order to examine whether there was phonological transfer from Malay language to their English pronunciation. The subject spoke Mandarin Chinese at home daily and rarely used English in his daily conversation.
2.0 THE DATA – THE READING PASSAGE, ORTHOGRAPHIC AND PHONEMIC TRANSCRIPTION
The reading passage for this report was taken from a children story book entitled “The Crane’s Gift” by Steve and Megumi Biddle. The book was graded Level Four, and was published by Pearson Educational Limited in 2001. The reading passage was selected due to its level
It is undeniable that English is not an easy language to learn. Malaysian ESL students oftentimes find English to be rather confusing and difficult to learn. Pronunciation seems to trip most students up. Though the English language syllabus makes room for pronunciation skills to be included in classroom practices, many often have problems with the pronunciation of certain words. According to Abbas and Muhammad Reza (2011), many ESL learners have “major difficulties” with English pronunciation even after years of learning the language. Pronunciation skill is considered the most difficult skill to teach, making it the least useful to teach (Rajadurai, 2006). The teaching of pronunciation involves the segmental level and the suprasegmetal level. The segmental level covers the phonemes including consonants and vowels while the supra-segmental level comprises features such as linking, intonation and word stress.
1.0 THE STUDENT / SUBJECT
For the purpose of this report, an undergraduate student studying English at Open University of Malaysia (OUM) was selected. The subject was a male aged in mid thirties. The subject had his primary education in Chinese National School in which Chinese was the medium of instruction. English was taught as an additional subject within the school curriculum. Subsequently, he had his secondary school education in which Malay was the medium of instruction. This was crucial in order to examine whether there was phonological transfer from Malay language to their English pronunciation. The subject spoke Mandarin Chinese at home daily and rarely used English in his daily conversation.
2.0 THE DATA – THE READING PASSAGE, ORTHOGRAPHIC AND PHONEMIC TRANSCRIPTION
The reading passage for this report was taken from a children story book entitled “The Crane’s Gift” by Steve and Megumi Biddle. The book was graded Level Four, and was published by Pearson Educational Limited in 2001. The reading passage was selected due to its level
References: Abbas P. G, and Mohammmad Reza, A. (2011) Why is Pronunciation So Difficult to Learn. English Language Teaching Vol. 4, No. 3; Retrived July 4, 2013 from http:// www.ccsenet.org/elt Baskaran, L David Detering, (2005). Retrieved July 4, 2013 from http://www.ubd.edu.bn/academic/faculty/FASS_V2.1/staff/papers/DD/esea- comm.pdf Dechert, (1983) and Ellis, (1997) as cited in Baljit Bhel, (1999) George Yule. (2002). The Study of Language( Second edition). Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Kho, C.Y. (2011). An Analysis Of Pronunciation Errors In English Of Six Utar Chinese Studies Undergraduates Phoon, H Steve, B. & Mengumi, B. 2001. The Crane;’ Gift. Pearson Educational Ltd: UK. Rajadurai, J. (2006). Pronunciation issues in non-native contexts: A Malaysian case study. Malaysian Journal of ELT Research, 12, 42-59. Thomson, D. 1996. Second Language Acquisition. PPP-ITM : Mass Lecture.