ABSTRACT
Language
learning practice often assumes that most of the difficulties that learners encounter
in the study of language are consequences of the degree to which the native languages differ from the English of
the native speakers.
This research
work is basically analyzed problems of pronunciation among the non-native
speakers of English, especially the Yoruba People. The Yoruba Speakers of
English encounter problems in pronouncing some English sounds because they are
not aware that some English Phonemes exist. Some are aware but do not know
where and how to use them.
Examples of
these sounds are: /θ, ð, Ʒ, z, J, ٨,
Ʒ: ǝ/. Therefore, they replaced the listed sounds with the
familiar ones in the Yoruba phoneme system for example: /d/ for / ð /. Thus, a Yoruba speaker
substitute the sound /d/ for / ð / in the word 'father'. Hence, the word 'father' /fa: ðәr// is then realized
as ‘/fa:dӕ/.
This project
analyzed some factors responsible for the mispronunciation of the English sound system and suggest ways those
problems can be reduced if not curbed.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Background
of the study 1
1.2 Aims and objectives 3
1.3 Scope of
Study 4
1.4 Significant
of Study 4
1.5 Statement
of the problem of research 4
1.6 Theoretical
Frameworks 5
1.7 Methodology 6
1.8 Conclusion 7
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 Introduction
8
2.1 English as a
second language 8
2.2 Varieties of
world English 10
2.2.1 Nigerian
English 12
2.3 Language in
contact 16
2.4 Language
interference 17
2.5 Yoruba as a
speech community 22
2.6 English
phonetic and phonology 23
2.7 Conclusion 40
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 Introduction
41
3.1 Data
Presentation 41
3.2 Data of our
Respondents 43
3.3 Data
Analysis 43
3.4 Conclusion 58
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 Introduction 59
4.1 Summary 60
4.2 Recommendation 61
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDICES
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
In learning to
speak a second language, one's goal is usually to be as competent as the native
speakers of that language; and if not, one will strive to be intelligible to
any speaker of that language. Depending on when one's attempt at bilingualism
starts, it is often possible before the age of puberty to acquire near-native
competence in a second language.
Most speakers of
English around the world today are second or foreign language users. Estimates
of the number of speakers of English globally range between seven hundred
million and eight hundred million, about three hundred million of whom speak
the language as native users. These are people who use the language as their
first language are made up of speakers in the United States of America, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand. Most of the speakers in the formal British
territories of Africa, India, the Caribbeans and Asia speak English as a second
language. That is, these speakers acquire a native language first before they
come to learn English. A considerable numbers users merely use the language as
a window on the world as foreign speakers.
Native speakers
are those who have acquired the language naturally as their first language
during childhood and who are said to be norm generating; second language users
are those who have acquired the language after acquiring another language but
who make almost daily use of the second language for intercommunal functions
because of the multilingual nature of their societies. For most of the users of
English as second language in Africa and Asia, the English language is also
their official language, that is, the language of government, of the judiciary,
of business and inter-ethnic communication. For all these users to keep to the
norms of the native English speakers, influences or inferences phenomena from
their native languages environment make them develop new norms that may not be
consistent with native norms. The third category of speakers are foreign
speakers; those who learn and use the language for no real need for it except
for travel and access to English culture, but can do without using the language
in their daily lives. For these users, the goal of learning is that foreign
users come close to this goal.
Received
pronunciation (RP) in second language situations especially in former British
territories, the dialect of the English language is usually taught is so-called
RP as described by A.J Ellis (1896: 23)
Received
Pronunciation all over the country, not widely differing in any locality, and
admitting a certain degree of variety, may be considered as the educated
pronunciation of the metropolis, of the court, the pulpit and the bar.
Second language
user of English has a number of difficulties in the pronunciation of utterances
of English, difficulties arising mainly from interference of the sound patterns
of their native languages on the sound systems of English orthography and
difficulties arising from their mode of learning the English language. As an
example of the first type of difficulty, most Nigerian speakers of English
substitute /t/ for /θ/ in thin /tin/ and /d/ for
/ð/ as in this /ðis/ because most Nigerian languages do
not have dental fricative; the closest to these English sounds in their native
languages are thus substituted for these sounds. Others substitute /s/ for
/θ/ and sound /z/ for sound /z/ because there is no
one on one correspondent of English letters to English sounds. Most Yoruba's
pronounce the words: says, victual, bomb, cupboard, sing, wanted danced,
Greenwich, honour, come, boys, as /seis, vik ʃ uæl, bomb, kopᴅd, sing, wanted,
danzd, grinwis, hᴅna, kᴅm, bᴅis/ instead of /sez, vitl, bᴅm, k˄bᴐd, siᵑ, wᴅntid, danst, grinwit ʃ , ᴅn∂, k˄m, bᴐ :z/ respectively.
Examples of the
type of learners' difficulty arise largely because most of those who teach
English language as a second language are themselves not very competent in the
language. The same source of difficulty is responsible for most Nigerian
speakers of English not distinguishing between high tense and lax vowels in
seat and sit, pool and pull when these contrasts are operative in some of their
first language.
Some of
learners' difficulties are more important than others as capable of interfering
with intelligibility. Cues for intelligibility are hierarchical in English.
Intonation comes first, followed by consonant sounds while vowel sounds come
lowest. We shall therefore look at learners' difficulties with these in mind.
Therefore, pronunciation among- the Yoruba speakers of English has been
identified as a problem which we are set to investigate and proffer possible
solutions which would help the audience to pronounce English wopdis better.
1.2 AIM OF THE STUDY
Our aims of
undertaking this project include but not limited to the following:
·
To practically carry
out a careful test in order to establish which of the factor(s) is/are
responsible for the wrong pronunciation of sounds.
·
To conscientizing our
readers that some of the already existing factors might be proved wrong based
on the practical analysis that will be carried out from the respondents'
response.
·
To aid a further
study on the teaching of the phonological segment and suprasegmentals to
student at all levels of learning in Nigeria
In this research, the Received Pronunciation (RP) will be used as the norm
or the standard pronunciation model for the explanation of the deviation
noticed in the variants of the sound segments. This is chosen due to its
prestigious position as a dialect that is taught in the public school and its
relevance to our field. Therefore, the study will serve as a check on the
performance of the English sounds.
1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of the study is the spoken/pronunciation of selected words ill
English language by the Yoruba speakers of English.
1.4 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY
The significant of this research work is to emphasis on the wrong
pronunciation of sounds especially those that are as a result of background
factors, which cannot yet be determined until the final stage of this research
is reached. The research therefore assures us that all factors that are likely
to be responsible for the wrong or right pronunciation of the sounds will be
drawn and looked into. It was noticed that the Yoruba speakers of English often
transfer their mother tongue knowledge of alphabets or letters to English
words. Example are: 'fever' pronounced as 'fifa' by a Yoruba speaker instead of
/fi:v∂/ 'church' is pronounced as 'shurch'. The speaker
substitutes /ʃ/
for /tʃ/ sound, 'check' is also pronounced as 'sheck' e.t.c
1.5 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problem to be analyzed in this research is the problem of pronunciation
by the Yoruba speakers
of English. The research work is meant to test and see if truly the transfer of
Ll to L2 (that is, the Yoruba phonetic system and the English phonemic system)
are the major causes of the problem of pronunciation by the Yoruba users of
English sounds in attaining the Received Pronunciation standard. Other factors
that would be examined as part of the problems include, educational background,
level of exposure, status e.t,c. The mispronunciations of the English words
have been identified as a problem which would help our respondents to pronounce
English words better.
1.6 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK (PHONOLOGY)
Phonology is a level of linguistic organization of significant sounds for
which it provides rules not only of their phonetic realization but also of
their distribution. According to Fromkim and Rodman (1974), it is also the term
used to refer to the kind of knowledge that speakers have about the sound
patterns of their particular language. It can therefore be summarized that
phonology of a language is the system and pattern of the speech sounds and the
tacit knowledge that the speakers have of the sounds. Phonology will answer the
following questions:
·
What
are the peculiar sounds of this language?
·
How
are they joined together to form meaningful units
·
What
are the rules that affect sound protection and structuring in the language?
The basic unit of phonology is the phoneme, usually defined as the minimal
unit in the sound system of a language that can keep utterances apart. To
establish the phonemes of any language, a number of principles are used namely:
·
Contrast
·
Complementary
distribution
·
Phonetic
similarity
Adetugbo (1997)
defines phonology "as the study of speech sound which constitutes a system
in any language".
Yule (1996:56)
defines phonology "as the description of the systems and patterns of
speech sounds in a language. The perception of phonology from this stand point
places it as a branch of linguistics that deals with the mental recognition of
the speech sound of language.
1.7 METHODOLOGY
Our methodology
shall be segmented into two main parts. We shall be having the mode of our
respondents and the mode of our date collection as well as sources of our
information.
In our mode of
respondents, we shall be having respondents being represented from a selected
secondary school and the Lagos State University. In other words our respondents
shall constitute the class of undergraduates including 'professionals'. The
reason for ibis cannot be far fetched, though the non-students or students belong
to undergraduate level will also be used for this analysis but for the purpose
of clear analyses, we have decided to make use of majority of the undergraduate
the Lagos State University. In our mode of data collection, we shall be
adopting the interview method of analyses as to alternate the questionnaire
method. This method has been strongly chosen because much of what we shall be
doing in our research work shall involve practical. We have decided interview
method be used in our data collection. The method of our interview shall be a
one – one discussion with our respondents. Some words will be written out for
our respondents to be pronounced. This will be the last lap of our interview
with our respondents.
Our research
work is going to be mainly of field work; however, we are going to review some
relevant materials on the research work. In other to do this, we shall be
relying on library as our source of information.
1.8 CONCLUSION
This chapter has
introduced this research; we embark on with the background to the study,
problem of research, objective, scope and theoretical framework of the
research. This has established our research and paved way for smooth
progression and we hope to arrive at concrete findings at the end of this research
work.
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