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2005/1/20
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Daniel Pan
491200679
Doris Shih
Educational Research
Does one’s native language affect its ability in learning the second language?
Introduction
English is the most popular language used in the world. Every country around the world acknowledges the importance of English. Today in Taiwan, the government has been introducing the language from elementary schools. In the past few decades,
English lessons are introduced to students in Taiwan as early as from the middle school. In Taiwan It is also a required course for all students in high school academic.
Thus students in Taiwan are all acquired with different levels of English ability when they graduate from high school.
However, students under same teachings of English showed different result in their language skills. This includes reading, listening, writing, and speaking. This research paper is focused on the oral and pronunciation skills [speaking] of the language learning process. My primary goal in this research is to provide analysis and evaluation on the differences showed between two individual. Secondary goal is to precisely prove the possible cause of the error, which affected the student in the learning process.

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Data Collections
My data collection and references are books and Internet resource. There are books about linguistic studies and language teachings. And there are also resources about language from the Internet and library.
Result of Teaching Method
According to English teaching method by Diane Larsen-Freeman, language is primarily spoken, not written. Language teaching should be emphasized on reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Works on all four skills occurs from the start.
For countries that do not use English as its primary or secondary language like
Taiwan, English is treated more as an international language instead of language you use for a living. Language learning is consists of both teaching in literally and speaking ability. In Taiwan’s case, literal learning is greatly induced than oral speaking. This leads to problem such as knowing how to write without knowing how to speak. For most Taiwanese students, they could produce sentences accurately in a lesson, but could not use them appropriately when genuinely communicating outside of the classroom. Students may know the rules of linguistic usage, but be unable to

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3 use the language (Diane 1978). There are a lot of teaching methods and each has its strength and weaknesses. Each may effect how and why the student performs and present as they are in the future.
Research Target
Two individual students, a male and a female, from the English Department in
Fu Jen University were being asked to join my research program. Both students agreed to participate in my research. Though they lived and studied in different part of
Taiwan, each had been having same kind of education and teachings in the English area. In this research, we have come up with an agreement to let them remain anonymous and thus in this research paper both students will be replaced with a new name that will represent them instead of their real name. Kidd will replace as the male name and Candy will replace as the female name.
Discussion
My research is based on the speaking ability these student have and so I had to first gather enough information on what method they have been encountering through

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4 their learning process. From the interviews and surveys I’ve been gathering from them, it shows that in Taiwan the teaching method is more likely using the Grammar
Translation Method. Of course not just grammar translation, its also intervene by other teachings such as direct methods. “Teachers in high school only teach textbooks.
First, they teach the vocals and then they go into the text of each chapter” one student said, “and they only explains the grammar and discourse”. We can see here that there is no speaking practice mentioned. And the fact is the Grammar Translation Method
(GTM) is truly a useful teaching method for English. However the weaknesses of this teaching method is the speaking and listening ability is barely practiced. In GTM, students are asked to memorize vocabularies and grammar rules. And the effect is making them produce sentences accurately in a lesson, but could not use them appropriately when genuinely communicating outside of the classroom. They can get perfect in making sentences and outstanding in grammar structure but not knowing how to communicate using English.
Kidd and Candy both share the same education background. They both studied in the same year since elementary to junior high and to senior high.
I had interviews with Kidd and Candy separately in two different places. The interview each took around 40 to 50 minutes. During the interview, they were asked to answer my questions in English. They were also asked to recite part of chosen

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5 text I’ve prepared for them. The whole process and conversation has been recorded.
The recitation part recorded is analyzed and evaluated. The results will be shown in the analysis section.
Analysis
First part of the interview I asked them to recite and speak in English on the chosen text. I’ve chosen a script from a play “Six Degrees of Separation” written by
John Gaure. The script by Gaure was chosen randomly. However a script for them to recite was picked because I think dialogues are better than reading narrations. In reciting a dialogue, I would ask them to read and speak with intonations. The full script of the coverage can be found in the appendix section. In this section I have taken one or two dialogues, which best shows the contrast of the two individual.
[Original]
Sidney Poiter! There I don’t care. We have to have truth. He started out as a lawyer and terrified of libel.
Sidney Poiter! There I don’t care we have
[sIdnI] [ ðε r] [aI] [k ε r] [wi] [h æ v] to have truth He started out as
[tu] [tru θ ] [hi] [start] [aut] [ æ z] a lawyer and terrify of libel.
[e] [lcj ø ] [ ø nd] [t ε r øfar ] [larbl]
[Kidd 0:26]
Sidney There I care we have

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2005/1/20
[sItnI] [l ε r] [aI] [k ε r] [wi] [h æv ] to truth he start out as
[tu] [tzuf] [hi] [stat] [aut] [ æz ] a lawyer and terrify libel
[e] [lcj æ ] [nd] [t ε rafar] [larbl]
[Candy 0:19]
Sidney Poiter! There I don’t care we have
[sIdnI] [ ðε r] [aI] [k ε r] [wi] [h æ v] to have truth He started out as
[tu] [tru θ ] [hi] [start] [aut] [ æ z] a lawyer and terrify of libel.
[e] [lcj ø ] [ ø nd] [t ε r øfar ] [larbl]
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It is not difficult to notice the way two individual pronounce. Kidd has more errors than Candy has. Kidd has problem pronouncing [ ð, θ ]. I could have let them read word by word in vocabulary forms, but then I thought that would lose the meaning of speaking. In mandarin there are 37 phonetic symbols. In mandarin phonetic symbols we can see there are symbols that contains combinations of two KK symbols. For instance: ㄓ / t ξ/ ㄔ / t ξ`/ they share a combination of the /t/ sound and / ξ /. However in Taiwanese we have other much complex combinations.
The complexion of the symbols is a large influence to the aspiration when it comes to pronunciation. Language speaking can be mastered by practicing. The more you use the more you get the drill. Different phonetic symbols from different language create different combinations of the KK phonetic sound. Sounds we make all come through the vocal tract. In mandarin for instance, aspiration is pushed and created. Different

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7 language have different specialty. And in this experiment, we can see that Kidd, having Taiwanese as a native language, cannot often place his tip of the tongue alveolar ridge to make the / ð / sound. Instead of placing his tip between the teeth creating friction, his tip is usually placed on the alveolar ridge, creating the /l/ sound.
The second part of the interview was to ask them briefly answer to the questions
I have prepared for them. The questions are placed at the appendix. These questions basically reflect how they participate in language practice. These questions can give help on evaluating the speaking skills and also suggest why and how they react on
English learning.
Conclusion
Through the experiment and interviews used on these two people we can see that how complex the language system is. We can see that Kidd and Candy had same education background. There are not many differences in these two students. However only one little difference could be the reason for why they pronounce differently. The results of the experiment for Kidd and Candy show that the influence of the native language is very important. The native language for Kidd is Taiwanese and Mandarin.

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In Taiwanese there are more than 37 phonetic symbols. The combinations of phonetic symbols are much more than the phonetic characters of Mandarin characters. And because he has it as his first spoken language, he cannot perfectly pronounce the / ð / and / θ /. When we examine how they speak, we go into the sound language study where the vocal tract is shown. The vocal tract is that area in animals, particularly humans, where sounds are created that exit out of the mouth or vibrate in the throat.
In Taiwanese, the tongue usually rests at the back part of the vocal tract.
It lays between Nasal Cavity and lower teeth. There is no sound in Taiwanese that creates fricatives. According to the study of language, there are reasons that suggests that adults’ tongues “get stiff” from pronouncing one type of language
(e.g. English) and just cannot cope with the new sounds of another language 9e.g.
French or Japanese). It’s a cute idea, but no evidence to support it (Yule 1996). In this case, Kidd has the habit of creating sounds that does not match with fricatives.
His tongues are stiff enough by disable his tongue in between the teeth to create a fricative sound. Instead of / ð / he will make / l /.
Of course it is understood that the first spoken language does not have to go

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9 through the learning process. And in Kidd’s case, we see he hasn’t gone through the learning process to speak the language, instead he knew how to speak the language naturally. The lack of practicing English in his high school years affected his later performance in speaking the language. We can say that language can only be well spoken under various practice and trainings. And the lack of the process creates problem in his ability in pronouncing the correct sound. His native language,
Taiwanese has conflict in the sounds created in English. Thus we can say that different native language does effect on the way one learns the second language.
References
Diane, L.F. (2000). The Grammar-Translation Method. Techniques and Principles in
Language Teaching. Oxford, New York.
Yule, George. (1996). The Sounds of Language & Second Language Acquisition learning. The Study of Language . Cambridge, United Kingdom.