How can L2 learners achieve good English pronunciation?
Asami Kan and Miwako
Soda
Have you learnt English pronunciation properly? Normally, we study English
for six years at junior high school and high school in Japan. However, we are sure that
there are only a few students who study English pronunciation systematically at school.
Do you think natives understand your English? Most natives in Japan are used to
listening to Japanese English, so it seems like natives understand our English.
However, it’s hard to say natives who have little experience of Japanese understand us.
Therefore, to have effective communication with people from other countries, we want
to think of the problems Japanese people face when pronouncing English and look at
some of the effective ways of achieving better pronunciation.
Identify elements and features of English pronunciation
Elements
Phonemes: A phoneme is the smallest unit of speech that can be used to make one word
different from another word, such as the “b” and the “p” in “big” and “pig.” We need to
know English phonemes correctly to pronounce them clearly.
Vowels and Consonants: Japanese has 5 vowels (/a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/) and 14 basic
consonants (/k/, /s/, /t/, /h/ /ɡ/, /z/, /d/, /b/ /p/ /n/, /m/, /r/ /j/, /w/) It’s not the same as English
vowels and consonants. Every language has different number and types of vowels and
consonants.
Each researcher has different opinion about classification of vowels and consonants.
This time, let’s take a look at the IPA for English.
IPA stands for International
Phonetic Alphabet.
IPA for English chart (http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CILL/ipa.htm)
---------English vowels
English has 20 vowels. In detail, English vowels can be divided into three which are
short vowel, long vowel, and diphthongs.
*Vowels
Here is a short vowel and long vowel chart with word examples. Horizontal axis shows
horizontal movement of your mouth. Vertical axis shows vertical movement of your
mouth.
Vowels
← Mouth wider horizontally
Mouth
iː
narrower
vertically
sleep /sliːp/
e
Mouth
wider
vertically
I
slip /slIp/
ə
ten /ten/
after /aːftə/
æ
^
cat /kæt/
cup / k^p/
Mouth narrower horizontally →
ʊ
uː
book /bʊk/
boot /buːt/
ɜː
ɔː
bird /bɜːd/
bored /bɔːd/
ɑː
ɒ
car / cɑːr/
hot /hɒt/
Diphthong means a vowel sound made by pronouncing two vowels quickly one after the
other. Here is a diphthong chart with word examples.
Diphthongs
Iə
eI
beer /bIə/
say /seI/
ʊə
ɔI
əʊ
fewer /fjʊə/
boy /bɔI/
no /nəʊ/
aeə
aI
bear /beə/
high /haI/
aʊ
cow /kaʊ/
----------English consonants
English has 24 consonants. English consonants’ sounds have voiced and unvoiced.
*Consonants
Consonants
p
b
pan
ban
/pæn/
/bæn/
t
d
tan /tæn/ day /deI/
ʧ
ʤ
judge
chat /ʧæt/
k
key /kiː/
ʒ
θ
ð
van /
thin
than
væn/
/θIn/
/ðæn/
m
n
ŋ
h
l
r
w
might
night
thing
height
light
right
white
/maIt/
/naIt/
/θIŋ/
/haIt/
/laIt/
/raIt/
/waIt/
fan /fæn/
get /get/
/ʤ^ʤ/
v
f
g
s
sip /sIp/
z
∫
zip / zIp/ ship /∫Ip/
vision
/vIʒ^n/
j
yes /jes/
Thus, Japanese and English do not have exactly the same phonemes, vowels and
consonants.
This difference makes it difficult for learners to learn English
pronunciation.
Other features
There are many more features, but this time we’d like to explain four important
features of English, that are stress, intonation, elision, and assimilation.
Stress: Stress gives rhythm to speech. The speaker chooses important words in each
utterance and those words are stressed.
Let’s try! ---What’s the difference?--I’d like a cup of mocha FRAPPUCCIONO.
I’d like a cup of MOCHA frappucciono.
I’d like a CUP of mocha frappucciono.
Intonation: Intonation is the way in which the pitch of the voice goes up and down in
the course of an utterance.
Let’s try! ---What’s the difference?---
It’s a really boring movie, isn’t it? ↑（Rising）
(
It’s a really boring movie, isn’t it?
(
)
↓(Dropping)
)
Elision: Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase when two
sounds are connected. This omission is happened because it is easier for speakers to
pronounce. And also, it may sound euphonious for listeners.
e.g)
What time is it now?
I
don’t
know.
Assimilation: Assimilation is a phonological process, that is, the phonetics of a speech
segment becomes that of another segment in a word.
e.g)
Don’t
Could
be
silly!
you tell me why?
Japanese people’s problems
*Pronunciation: English Japanese people speak sounds differently or strangely for
natives because English has many more phonemes than we have. (bat [bǽt], thing [θÍŋ],
very [véri], zero [zí:rou]…)
English has 20 vowels and 24 consonants, but Japanese speakers have fewer than half
of those in English. It is very easy to see that pronunciation is hard for Japanese
people. Also, structure of the words between Japanese and English is different. For
Japanese words, the order of the phonemes comes like CVCVCV (kuruma). Even though
we pronounce the English words, we use Japanese way (system→sisutemu). And this is
called Katakana English.
*Education system/style in Japan: The English education now in Japan tends to focus
more on grammar and writing than communicative skills such as speaking and
listening. Therefore, L2 learners usually do not have enough chances to use and learn
communicative English.
Did you study pronunciation at junior high school or high school? We think we usually
do not have chance to study pronunciation. It seems English education in Japan focuses
on the entrance exams of high schools or universities. Not only pronunciation but also
English education itself, it is a big problem because students forget what they studied
after exams.
*Negative attitude: It seems many Japanese people have a negative attitude (hesitation
etc) toward using English, and tend to speak Katakana English on purpose.(Teachers as
well in case)This is because of the lack of confidence in speaking skill including
pronunciation, and also, we feel shy to pronounce English in front of others. Japanese
people care too much about how others think. This negative attitude and shyness make
to say Japanese people's level of pronunciation is not very good. Natives think that
Japanese people should pronounce English with confidence and big voice, and behave
like natives when we speak.
Effective way to achieve better English pronunciation
*Listening and Shadowing: Listening is useful to get used to features and elements of
English.
We’d better to listen to English as much as we can.
And when we are
listening, you should follow tapes and CDs and try to imitate them.
*Read aloud: We can practice saying phonetic signs with a mirror in your hand carefully
watching movement of your tongue. We can also practice reading junior high school
text book which uses basic English vocabularies and rules.
!!! Before starting to read aloud, we need some examples. We think listening and
shadowing can be good example. Therefore, please try to read aloud after these steps.
And, it’s better to have our pronunciation checked and evaluated by teachers in order to
motivate ourselves and get feedback about our pronunciation.
*With positive attitude: We should not hesitate when we are practicing pronunciation.
A positive attitude is necessary for people who are studying foreign languages in order
to not be afraid of making mistakes.
Conclusion: There are many obstacles about learning L2 pronunciation. Sometimes we
cannot learn pronunciation because of phonetic difficulties.
learn because of lack of confidence.
pronunciation with effort!!
Sometimes we cannot
However, we can learn and practice English