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Listening to Jordan: A Phonetic Analysis of a Mexican Man’s Speech.
Dulce Angélica Chávez Juárez
1. Introduction
When we talk about pronunciation when learning a new language, we talk about “the
production and perception of the significant sounds of a particular language in order
to achieve meaning in contexts of language use” (Seidlhofer, 2001). This involves
the production and perception of segmental sounds, stressed and unstressed
syllables, and intonation. The way we sound it is also influenced by factor from our
surroundings; the way we pronounced can project our identity as individuals, as well
as members of a specific community. Sometimes this last feature can create some
conflicts since our pronunciation is responsible for intelligibility: “whether or not we
can convey our meaning” (Roach, 2009).
The idea that intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communicative
competence, is accepted in general (Seidlhofer, 2001). That is why as English
teachers we have the necessity of teaching to our students the segmental and
suprasegmental levels of pronunciation.
2. Description of the participant
The participant for this research is a 26-year-old Mexican male engineer, working
for an American company in Mexico. He was asked to record himself talking briefly
about his last vacations. The research revealed he started to study English as part
of his secondary and high school curricula. However, when he was 18, he decided
to keep learning English so that way he could find better job opportunities in the
future. He mentioned that since the pandemic started, he has been taking
conversational courses and using social media as a way to connect with and talk to
people from other countries who can help him to improve his speaking ability. He
has achieved B2 level in different Mock tests, one of them a TOEFL Mock Test.
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Even though he can communicate effectively in English at work with his American
coworkers, he considers he still has to improve his pronunciation as well as the way
of organizing ideas before speaking.
In these research paper I will analyze different errors he made while talking about
his vacations in terms of segmental and suprasegmental levels.
3. Segmental features
Segmental features or segmental phonology is about “how sounds relate to one
another in linear strings” (Zsiga, 2013) in here, we find individual vowel and
consonant sounds. In this research we will discuss about individual vowel sounds as
well of mispronounced consonant sounds.
As found in Coe (2001), Spanish and English share lots of similar sounds, while
this is true for most of the consonant sound, in vowels there a huge difference.
Therefore, this tent to cause a lot of problems for Spanish-speaking learners of
English.
One of the problems that we will analyze is the difficulty of recognizing and using
English sounds. This is seen in line number three of appendix 1 where the learner
changes the diphthong /aʊ/ for the diphthong /oʊ/ in the word ‘mountains’ Even if the
sound /aʊ/ is very similar in Spanish (Coe, 2001) the learner uses the sound /oʊ/ as
similar as people will read the blend ‘ou’ in Spanish. This also happen in the same
word with the change of the phoneme /ə/ to the diphthong /aɪ/. Finally, we have a
consonant sound change where final /z/ is substituted for the /s/ sound. This
happens because Spanish speakers do not have the sound /z/; having as result the
pronunciation /moʊntaɪns/ instead of /maʊntənz/. It is important to draw attention to
the first two errors since they are not generally found in Spanish speakers. In my
opinion these might be a fossilized error of the learner in this specific word.
Another example of difficulty in using English sounds as Spanish speakers is
using only the Spanish sound /es/ in the place of /s/ when the letter ‘s’ is being followe
by another consonant (Coe, 2001) which is visible in line seven where the word
‘stories’ changing from /stɔːriz/ to /estɔːris/.
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4. Suprasegmental features
Suprasegmental features or suprasegmental phonology covers “how sounds are
grouped into larger, hierarchical constituents such as syllables, feet, words, and
phrases” (Zsiga, 2013).
In Spanish language all syllables take mostly the same time to be pronounced.
So, there is not a great difference between stressed and unstressed syllables. This
is not the case in English where there are stressed syllables tend to be pronounced
more distinctly while unstressed ones are reduced and pronounced usually either
with /ə/ or /ɪ/. This we can hear it in most of all function words since all of them are
said in their strong form and not their weak form. Such is the example of ‘was’
pronounced as /wɑːz/ and not /wəz/ in lines one and six.
5. Recommendations
In terms of intelligibility, the complete message is clearly conveyed except for a
word that I could understand in line 11. However, there’s still some room for
improvement that can be made with the learner since he mentioned he would like to
get rid of his Mexican accent and change it for an American one.
Most of the errors heard in the audio are not common in native Spanish speaker,
at least according to Coe in his chapter in Swan’s Learner English book. I will
recommend the learner to try to imitate the words he hears in English since he loves
American indie music. At work he can also keep practicing with his American
coworkers as well as asking for feedback to them.
He is someone who really enjoys learning in his own-paced so looking for
courses online will be also suitable for them.
And last, but not least even if some suprasegmental aspects can be also
improved. I think that controlling the hesitation to speak and taking some time to
connect ideas would help him to have a better control and he will transmit the
message in an easier way.
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6. My language awareness of pronunciation
I have always believed that not matter what your interests are, you can always
keep learning about them. This is a philosophy in live that I like to follow, as well
as ‘everything happens for a reason’ and not knowing about Phonetics and
Phonology when I was younger led me to wanting more to become an English
teacher and this research reminded me of that; of the first job interview that I had.
I wanted to be an English teacher at Interlingua. I have to clarify this was
before being in the major or having my Teachers’ Training Course Diploma. I
went to the interview and passed the first exam. However, the speaking part I did
not because I could not pronounce correctly the -ed ending in regular verbs in
past and it was such a basic thing for them.
That day I realized how important those ‘small’ differences in pronunciation
were in my life. After that I started to notice that similar differences applied in
plural and regular nouns. Then it was in the use of these and this. That day my
English world expanded and the more I wanted to learn to help people like me to
improve.
Even though I do not want to get rid of my Mexican accent, I do want to
improve my pronunciation. To be a better English teacher than I was yesterday.
Most of the times pronunciation is not being taught in school or not enough time
is given to its practice, but if our pronunciation of the language is the best we can
have, then we can compensate a little bit and transmit that to our students who
believe it or not … they can be future English teachers, just like me.
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References
Roach, P., (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology: A practical course. Oxford
University Press.
Seidlhofer, B. (2001). Pronunciation In. R. Carter & D. Nunan (Eds.), The Cambridge
Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
(pp. 56-65) Cambridge University Press.
Coe, N., (2001). Speakers of Spanish and Catalan In. B. Smith & M. Swan (Eds.),
Learner English: A Teacher’s Guide to Interference
and Other Problems. (pp. 90-96) CUP.
Zsiga, E., (2013) The Sounds of Language: An introduction to Phonetics and
Phonology. Wiley-Blackwell.
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Appendix 1
Participant’s speech transcript | Duration: 1’ 35”
1 Hello this is Jordan. The last place I went on vacation was Real Del Monte a couple
2 of weeks ago. It is a place in Hidalgo that it’s two or three hours away from Mexico
3 City. It’s a town that is in the mountains and even though this place it’s very small
4 it’s a nice place to have a relaxing time and to eat something on the street. The
5 next day we went to the Basaltic Prisms and to tell the truth it wasn’t my favorite
6 part: the heat was very strong, and the place is not as nice as in the pictures and
7 I have to say I consider it a little dirty the water it’s a little dirty and even though the
8 place and it’s quite small one so it’s not as interesting ‘cause in the picture. The
9 good thing there is that there are some stories about goblins and elves around that
10 place so it’s kind of interesting that part of the culture there. In the afternoon we
11 went to a <unintelligible> I don’t know what is the name of this aquatic park I
12 suppose, and we spent the day with my aunt and my uncle who lives there I think
13 that’s it it’s not as fancy but this is the last place where I went.