Phonological problems occuring in classes of Swiss students with regard to learning types , stress patterns and individual sounds

Pre-University Paper , 2000 , 31 Pages

English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics

CONTENTS

1. Introduction
1.1 Learning types
1.2. Stress patterns
1.3. Dictation
1.4. Minimal pairs
1.5.Interviews

2.Research
2.1.Problems
2.1.1.Learning types:
2.1.2.Stresspatterns:
2.1.3.Dictation:
2.1.4.Minimal pairs
2.1.5.Interviews
2.2.Results
2.2.1.Learning types
2.2.2.Stress patterns
2.2.3.Dictation
2.2.4.Minimal pairs
2.2.5.Interviews

3. Summary of results
3.1 Conclusion

Personal declaration

Appendix

D

Interview

Multiple intelligence's checklist

Key to multiple intelligences checklist

Deutsche Übersetzung

Stress patterns

Minimal pairs

Phonemic chart

MATURAARBEIT

Phonological study in English about English

Thesis

Phonological problems occurring in classes of Swiss students at different levels at high school with regard to individual sounds, stress patterns of words and learning types.

1. Introduction

The aim of this survey was to find out, if there were phonological problems with English common to all levels of High school classes.

What was being looked at and why was it chosen?

I had the possibility to go into 4 classes of the high school in Chur and 1 in Sargans. The classes were: 4BA (1year of English at school), 5BC (2 years), 6AB(3years) and 6CB(3-4 years) in Chur and 3wb (3.5 years) in Sargans.

I would like to thank all the teachers that I was allowed to come into their classes and conduct the survey. Those are: Ms Gillespie, Prof K.Spinatsch, Prof.H.Bruns, Prof.Camenisch and last but not least Mr .A. Baumgartner Thanks also to the co- principal of the high school in Chur: Dr.A.Spescha who gave me the permission to do my survey in Chur.

1.1 Learning types

The intention of plotting learning types against the number of correct answers in the stress pattern activity was to find out if there was any correlation between them.

Since the types complement one another and some were equally strong, it was a difficult task to do. For the questionnaire, selected questions were taken from a NLP book¹. It was interesting to see what type one is and it had some truth in it, but I could not use them further.

We use different learning types. As they did not influence the correct answers in the stress pattern activity, I will not discuss them in depth. That would be a different subject to be treated, which cannot be done within this survey.

- Linguistic: One is good at learning languages, has a good vocabulary resource and likes reading
- Logical mathematical: One thinks logical and sees the problems .It was seen that this was top in a C class, which is mainly maths, physics and natural studies.
- Spatial: One learns best by seeing the words and putting them into categories. The objects have to be put into a physical dimension.
- Kinaesthetic: One has to do something in order to understand it. Usually a word has to be written down so that it can be taken in. This type needs to move around.
- Musical: this is an auditory type. Usually, this type chooses the answer by testing if it sounds right. This type has no problems with pronunciation if he has heard the word externally or internally.
- Interpersonal: One likes to communicate with others and needs the exchange of learning objectives with others.
- Intra personal: One prefers to learn by himself. He is a bit shy.
- Naturalist: One likes going out into the nature. This type is more a visual but also an auditory learner

1.2. Stress patterns

In this activity ten words were given with the patterns below. The students had to match the words with the stress pattern. At first they had to do it individually, afterwards I stressed the words and they had to check if they were right, if not, a correction had to be made.

I was curious to see, if there was L1 interference or American influence. Also a reason for doing it, was to find out if they had internalised the rules. One word that speakers of German easily miss stress is cigarette. Most students stressed it ‘ ‘cigarette’ instead of the British ‘cigar’ette’ Some words had two choices, depending on if one counts the syllables, when the word is pronounced clearly as: /I mi: di et lI/ or as in connected speech, when sounds are elided: /I mi: diet lI/

The words were chosen with respect to the possible problems they could pose to the students

1.3. Dictation

A dictation from Paul Davis and Mario Rinvolucri from the book Dictation was chosen. The dictation was not too difficult. However, it did pose some difficulties to nearly every student. Some words were unknown to students: sacked or gratitude.

The aim of this activity was to see what the students would produce when they were given a dictation. Furthermore, could the individual sounds be tested. There were some tricky ones in the dictation.

Some mistakes, such as ‘ immediately’ without the e before the -ly or ‘cancelled’ with American spelling, had to be expected to appear.

Were there any big differences between the different levels and what caused problems to all students. In order to find the solution I had to look at the wrongly spelled word and had to say it to myself, if it was not straight away clear, so that I could identify the phoneme. Sometimes there was no similar word in English so German and French had to be taken into account as well.

1.4. Minimal pairs

As I was looking at individual sounds, one of the teachers², I was allowed to do the survey in class, suggested doing a minimal pairs exercise as well. I found that idea good and started to reflect on how I was going to do it. In the end, the words chosen came from various sources³. The idea came from Kenworthy p48 ‘which sound’.

However, this way it was relatively easy and the students were not faced with too big a problem. It showed me though, that the pairs found in the dictation also proved to be difficult. Some pairs are known to cause problems:/e/ /a/ /Q//s/ /q/ /d/. Usually /w/ /v/ also pose a problem, but obviously more when producing it. The German /w/ is the English /v/ . Therefore the /v/ should not normally cause a problem, the /w/ though, is quite often pronounced as in German.

The activity tested the following pairs:/k/ /g/ /e/ /a/ /U/ /a/ /v/ /w/ /n/ /G/ /s/ /Q/ /t/ /d/ /b/ /p/ /s/ /z/ /EV/ /c:/ /q/ /d/.

I pronounced the words relatively clear .

1.5.Interviews

I had to have spoken samples, in order to reinforce the findings in the other activities. As the amount of time would have been too great, if I had to do with all students the interviews, I restricted myself to ten. However, as at the last one the recorder did not record what was said but the radio, there are only 8 students. I was not looking at grammatical errors but phonological ones. I knew there would be problems and I wanted to find out what they exactly were. It is known that speakers of German have difficulties with /Q/ /q/, so ‘thing’ often sounds as ‘sing’ or ‘they’ sounds as ‘day’. Usually, it can be deducted from the context, which is meant and the British are quite tolerant towards that.

2.Research

2.1.Problems

I intended to get a sample of 100 students and hoped 5 classes would be sufficient. I now only have 84 but that is a sufficient sample for an A-level survey.

2.1.1.Learning types:

There was not really a big problem, though I had to translate the questionnaire so that it would be a bit quicker for some of the students. One expression was unknown to most students: something sounds off-key.

For the statistic I had to choose only one type per student. This may have influenced the result. I would have thought that some learning types had an influence on the correct answers, mainly the linguistic and the musical type.

2.1.2.Stresspatterns:

After the first class on April 14th, I was surprised to find nearly 70% of the class opting for 5 syllables by ‘immediately’, because I had chosen 4.I then had my solutions checked and was told that also ‘unusual’ could have 4 syllables, if it is clearly enunciated. Therefore, I had for ‘cigarette, unusual, and immediately’ 2 possibilities, either of them was counted as correct.

2.1.3.Dictation:

Some words were unknown to the students. The first class did not perceive the first word ‘Gratitude’. The mistakes made, were of all sorts of kind which made me go through a lot of work, detecting the phoneme they had thought to have heard and analysing why they had heard it that way. Was it a minimal pair that only differs in tongue position? Was it one we do not have in German? Was an English letter written as the equivalent German sound? I had to know the exact position in the mouth. Therefore, I had to work through Sound Foundations⁴, which is an excellent book for phonology. My main help was a mirror and the phonemic chart.

2.1.4.Minimal pairs

It would have been better; if I only had said the word I was looking for. So it would have been more difficult. I pronounced the words relatively clearly and it was not too big a problem. The students found it very easy this way. If I had done it the other way above, I might have found more problems, as I did in the dictation. I recorded the words so that it would be for all classes exactly the same. At first I said the words, then I repeated the word I was looking for.

2.1.5.Interviews

It was a great amount of work to do. I had to listen carefully as not to miss wrongly pronounced words.

2.2.Results

2.2.1.Learning types

Is there a relationship between learning types and number of correct answers in the stress pattern activity? The hypothesis can with a 90% degree of certainty be rejected. Therefore there is no relationship between the learning types and the correct answers in the stress patterns. This was tested with Chi Square.

learning types overall

illustration not visible in this excerpt

I had the types plotted against each other and as the chart above shows, the linguistic is top, followed by the interpersonal. The charts of the classes look similar. The maths class (6CB) was top in linguistic and only slightly lagging behind with the logical mathematical type. In all the other classes the logical type was bottom of the types.

2.2.2.Stress patterns

Was there any big difference between the first choice and the second, after they had heard it? Were the students able to match the heard words correctly with the patterns?

The patterns were as follows

Comfortable: 0oo (1st), vocabulary: o0ooo (2nd), accommodation: ooo0o (4th), biology:o0oo(2nd), cigarette:oo0 (3rd) Brit, 0oo(1st) Am., naturally:0oo (1st), refugee:oo0 (3rd), unusual:o0o(2nd), o0oo (2nd) clearly enunciated, engineer:oo0 (3rd), immediately:o0oo(2nd), o0ooo (2nd) clearly enunciated

This is going to be listed according to the level of class 4BA (1year)

illustration not visible in this excerpt

5BC (2 years of English)

illustration not visible in this excerpt

From those two tables quite an amount can be deducted.

The low level tended to stress ‘comfortable’ the German way on the -able. Also ‘cigarette’ had Swiss-German influence but also American one, if it is stressed on the first. The students seemed to prefer this way. They did however, hear the difference, when it was said.

For ‘refugee’, I do not have an explanation, why they chose the second syllable. The stress on the first syllable means that the pattern of refuge was chosen. Obviously the stress shifting was not known. The same applies for the choice of ‘engineer ‘ on the first syllable. There it is the pattern of ‘engine ‘. As for ‘immediately ‘, the stress was placed correctly. Depending on the class, it was either pronounced more enunciated or shortened as in everyday speech. For the upper classes, I took the mean values for the graphic.

stress patterns 3-4 years 1st choice

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stress patterns 3-4 years 2nd choice

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Obviously the students had internalised the pattern for’ comfortable’, as there were nearly 90% correct. The stress of ‘cigarette’ seemed to be known better than at the lower levels. Again with ‘refugee’, 32% had chosen the stress on the second syllable, without having heard the stressed version. 80% though, opted for the correct version after hearing it. As for the stress of ‘engineer’, there did not seem to be such a big problem as at the lower levels. Most students chose the correct answer at once.

As for ‘immediately’, there was no problem with the stress placement either. The students, though opted more for the clearly enunciated version. On the whole it showed the American influence on the stress of ‘cigarette’. This word also has Swiss German influence. The stress placement of ‘refugee ‘ seemed to have caused problems to all levels when they had to do it individually. The stress was mostly put on the 2nd syllable instead on the 3rd .It could have been caused by the word ‘refuse’. There were hardly any problems with the stress of ‘accommodation, vocabulary, biology, naturally and immediately ‘.

2.2.3.Dictation

This was the greatest amount of work to do. Nearly each student made some mistake and if it was only a missing out of an “e“. The American spelling of ‘cancelled’ was not taken into account of, as it is not a phonological problem. It was however seen, that there were around 30% for the American spelling. The dictation posed most problems to the lowest level. There quite a few individual mistakes occurred.

Some problems had to do with liaison: The day’s of ‘next day’s ‘ was heard as ‘stace, tace, and thase’. The last one also shows the problem of the distinction of the two phonemes /d/ /q/. In’ next day ‘, the ‘t’ is elided in connected speech. This was just left out. It might have been a spelling mistake only, but as it is an elision it might be worth looking at. Another one was ‘with a’. Around 10% of the students heard ‘with the’. If the two words are in connected speech the ‘a’ is just a schwa /E/. The ‘the ‘ also has a schwa, when it is pronounced weak. Here it was heard as: /wIQ QE/ instead of /wIQE/

One student heard the intrusive ‘j’ in ‘He also’ and wrote it down as ‘yoso’. I think, it is important to introduce the intrusive sounds and also look at the juncture of words.

Around 10% of the students had problems with ‘had had ‘. They wrote, ‘Have had’. This is not only a phonological problem, but also a grammatical. They might not have studied the past perfect yet, so they took the nearest version: Present perfect. If it was so, they would have needed to use has, as it was the third person spoken of.

Moreover, did they have difficulties with the weak and strong form of ‘to’. In the phrase ‘P told him not to’, 50% of the lowest level chose the strong form ‘too’. In the other classes it was not as distinct, in the end there were only 13 out of 84 students. Also one that was not only a problem for one level, was the difference between ‘not do and not to’. They have the same weak sound, the only difference is that the /d/is voiced, whereas the /t/ is unvoiced. The phrase was heard as /nDtdE/ instead of /nDtE/. The ‘t’ of ‘not’ is elided when another ‘t’ follows. One favourite with nearly all levels is ‘suitcase’. It is often spelled and written as ‘suitecase’. If the ‘e’ were not there it would not be a problem. However, the two words ‘suit’ and ‘suite’ with its homonym ‘sweet’ are often confused and ought to get more attention. The two are entirely different pronounced:/su:t/ /swI:t/. The two have though the same tongue position high in the mouth ,but they differ in lip position. The /I:/ has a wide lip spreading, whereas the /u:/ is rounder. The influence of French could also be found. The French words ‘le maire or la mère ‘might have influenced the word ‘nightmare’. It can also have been the word ‘air’ /eEr/ which is a homonym of the word ‘mare’. Again 20% had the word in one of the variations : ‘nightmaire , nightmair, nightmere’, written. It posed no problems to the lowest level though.

As could be forecasted, there would be a problem between the two phonemes /Q/ and /s/. It was not as bad as in the minimal pairs, though five students wrote instead of ‘sacked’: ‘thaked, thagt or thanked’. Another fricative is the sound /f/. Especially the Londoners seem to substitute the /Q/ for a /f/. It is also common with speakers of Germanic languages. Some students wrote ‘flinged or flang’ for ‘thanked’.

Furthermore, seemed the students to have difficulty with certain minimal pairs. 10% could not distinguish the two phonemes /a/ /U/. The words that posed the difficulties were ‘sacked and crashed’. They were noted down as ‘sucked, sucket, crushing or crushed’. The two sounds have the same tongue position, low in the mouth. The difference is in the lip position. The /a/ has the lips slightly spread, whereas the neighbouring sound /U/ has already a rounder position.

The above was not the only minimal pair to cause problems. The pair /e/ /a/, which differs only in tongue position posed a problem to nearly 4 %. The word that was the cause is ‘Gratitude’. It turned out as ‘prettitude or rectitude’. The tongue in /e/ has a mid-position. In /a/ on the other hand, the tongue is lower down in the mouth.

The pair of the velar plosives /k/ /g/ only posed a little problem .In the dictation, 2% mistook them in the words ‘Gratitude -Cratedude and sacked - thagt’. In the mouth we have different names for the various positions. The bony ridge just behind the upper front teeth is the alveolar ridge. The hard palate⁵ follows on. The soft palate starts in the middle and ends at the back of the roof of the mouth. Touching the middle part of the soft palate makes a velar⁶ sound. The velum is the soft tissue that hangs from the soft palate.

In German the English sound /w/ does not exist. Our /w/ is the English /v/. In Swiss-German we have a sound that could be used for the /w/. If the two sounds /u:/ and /a/ are merged together, it sounds like the English sound /w/. In the dictation the word “owner” (factory owner) was written as ‘oner, orner or oune(r)’.

The first sounds very German. Instead of /EVnE/ it was pronounced as /c:nE/. The second still has a German touch. Here at least another sound was heard. The third took the nearest version and wrote the word with the German sounds he heard.

One that has to do with elision is ‘immediately’. 34% missed the ‘e’ out before the -ly. The /E/ cannot be heard in the adverb. In clearly enunciated speech the adverb has 5 syllables, whereas in everyday speech it only has 4. It might be worth pointing it out to the students, that the adjective remains the same and only the -ly has to be added to make an adverb.

In this dictation there was also a danger of using homonyms. It is not so much a phonological problem, though they should be trained as well. Around 13% wrote ‘plain’ instead of ‘plane’.

Interference of German was found in the words ‘gratetude and smallesh’. The ‘e’ was written, since the English ‘e’ is the equivalent to the German ‘i’ in pronunciation. Looking at the ‘e’, which is the /I:/, it would have been the wrong sound, as the ‘i’ in those two words is short :/I/.

What also caused problems, mainly at the two lower levels, were the past endings. Some used the regular ending-ed for ‘told or gave’. Others heard the correct sound, but did not use the regular ending. ‘Thanked or sacked’ were written as heard, with a ‘t’. After the following sounds, the ending -ed is usually pronounced /t/:/k/ /f/ /p/ /tH/ /H/.⁷. Transcribed is it as follows:/QaGkt/ and /sakt/. In the sentence: ‘ the factory owner asked why’, the ‘asked’ was from 13% of the students written in the present tense. They obviously did not hear the /t/ as ending. This was found at all levels but the majority was at the lowest level. In another case, 6% of the students wrote the second ‘c‘ in ‘cancelled’ as an ‘s’ which was correctly heard. The variations ‘canselt, cansled, canselled’ were mainly at the two lower levels found. It is no surprise, as the pronunciation looks as follows: /kanslt/. The letter c does not exist as a phoneme. Therefore, it does not always sound the same. Quite often it sounds as /k/: ‘hiccup /hIkUp/, hack /hak/, coffee /kDfi/, extricate /ekstrIkeIt/’. It is used with the phoneme /s/ when it is followed by the following three letters. In -ce-, -ci-, - cy- the ‘c’ is pronounced as /s/. If an ‘h’ follows it is pronounced as /tH/.

2.2.4.Minimal pairs

Even though this exercise was relatively easy, it showed me the problems once more, which occurred in the dictation as well as in the interview. These words are well known to cause problems by speakers of German.

The words that posed problems at the lowest level were mainly ‘men/man’ (/men/ /man/), which got less than 60% right; ‘thin/sin’ (QIn/ /sIn/), where it was just about 40%. With around 90%correct were the following pairs:/p/ /b/ /EV/ /c:/ /q/ /d/.

The class with 2 years of English had the same problems as the one with 1year.In addition they also had serious difficulty with /q/ /d/.

The upper classes did seem to have learnt to distinguish between the phonemes /Q/ /s/. They did however still have problems with the voiced companion of /Q/: /q/. Only 80% could distinguish between the pair /q/ /d/. Furthermore did the pair /a/ /e/ pose difficulty to around 30 % of the students

Overall it looked as follows:

minimal pairs overall

illustration not visible in this excerpt

The two sounds /e/ /a/ are extremely near to each other in mouth position. /e/ is a front sound in middle position, with the jaw in neutral position. The men/ man cup/cap vine/wine sing/thin/sin toe/doe beat/peat Sue/zoo coat/caught they/day tongue is also in mid position. On the contrary, the sound /a/, which is also a front sound, has a lower tongue position and the jaw is slightly more open, though not round yet.

As for the sounds /Q/ /s/ they are both fricative sounds. This means that air is forced out through a narrow space in the mouth, with the lips, tongue, teeth etc in a certain position. There are nine fricatives in English:

Voiced or lenis: /v/ /q/ /z/ /Z/

Unvoiced or fortis: /f/ /Q/ /s/ /H/ /h/

When producing voiced sounds, the vocal cords vibrate, since not just breath is being pressed out but also a sound is made.

With unvoiced sounds, the vocal cords do not vibrate as only breath is released. The pair /q/ /d/ is a well-known problem area for nearly all languages, since the /q/ does not occur in most languages. It is therefore often substituted with /d/. The latter is a voiced plosive sound and not a voiced fricative.

Closing the air passage and then releasing the air in a way that can be heard, makes a plosive sound.

The plosive sounds are the following:/p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/. There are also two sounds, which are composed of a plosive and a fricative :/tH/ /dZ/; they are called affricates. From those sounds /p/ /t/ /tH/ /k/ are unvoiced, whereas the others are voiced.

/d/is a voiced alveolar plosive .It is alveolar⁸, because the tongue touches the bony ridge just behind the upper front teeth. /q/ on the other hand, is a voiced dental fricative. There the tongue touches the teeth. It is in a lower position than /d/.

One pair of phonemes that also posed problems in the dictation was /a/ /U/. Here it was /kUp/ vs /kap/. In the dictation ‘sucked instead of sacked’ appeared from time to time. The students however, did rarely know the verb ‘sacked’, so it was not so easily to guess from the context.

In one class there was the influence of Spanish. One girl is bilingual. The phonemes /EV/ /c:/ are often not distinguished from one another. That caused problems with the pair ‘coat, caught’. Also the in Spanish non-existing /z/ did cause problems. She could not distinguish between the two sounds /s/ and /z/. In this survey problems of Swiss-German speakers are being looked at and not those of other languages. A good source of problems for Spanish speakers is Learner English p72-75.

On the whole the problems predicted occurred in the test.

It might have been worth getting the students to read the pairs and then decide, if they were able to make distinctive sounds, but this would not have been possible, as neither the students nor I would have had extra time to spare. If I had it done that way it would have involved a great amount of extra work, listening to the recordings. So I only had to do it once and each student per class too. It was a more efficient way, not only the testing, but also the evaluation.

2.2.5.Interviews

The part of the interviews is the smallest one, as it would have been too much work to listen to all students and re-listen again in order to find the phonological problems. I therefore did the interview with only 10 students. In the end there were only 8, as the tape recorder did not tape the interview but the radio. In another one, the students must have switched off the microphone from time to time, as I was not able to hear the whole interview on the tape. Most of the students were quite good speakers though, they were either musical or had been abroad for some time. Some had Romance as mother tongue, which could also have influenced the interview.

In the lowest level, they must have turned off the microphone from time to time, so I could not find a lot of problems. Those I found proved my findings in the dictation and the minimal pairs. The ‘th’ in brother was pronounced as ‘d’. So instead of the voiced dental fricative/q/, it was pronounced as the voiced alveolar plosive/d/. Also the unvoiced ‘th’ posed a problem. Instead of ‘thing’, it was pronounced as ‘sing’, which gives the sentence a different meaning. In the class with two years other problems did occur.

First of all, there was a not using of the schwa. As a result, ‘quiet’ was pronounced as ‘quite’: not /kwoIEt/ but /kwoIt/. If ‘quiet’ is mispronounced, it can lead to confusion. Furthermore, there was confusion between the two sounds /w/ and /v/. The English /w/ was used for the /v/, so ‘village’ was pronounced /wIlIdZ/. The same occurred with ‘very’. In addition to the above problem, there was also one regarding the two labio-dental⁹ fricatives /f/, /v/. The word ‘rivers’ was pronounced as /rIfK:rs/, which would be ‘reverse’ without the ‘r’ pronounced . It could be distinguished though, as the stress was on the first syllable and not on the second as in ‘reverse’. Pressing the bottom lip against the top front teeth makes a labio-dental sound. If someone has difficulty, the teeth of a rabbit can be taken as an image. Its teeth usually touch the bottom lip. /f/ is unvoiced, but in ‘rivers’ /rIvEs/, the /v/ is voiced. Not only were those two sounds a problem in this word, but also the sounds /E/ /K:/ which are neighbouring sounds. They are both central sounds and the jaw is in a neutral position. Moreover, was the ‘r’ mostly pronounced when it should not have been .So happened in ‘world’ /wK:rld/ and ‘earth’ /K:rd/. There seems to be a natural tendency to use all the letters of a word if one is not exactly sure of its pronunciation. Besides the pronounced /r/, did the word ‘earth’ also contain another typical problem of most languages. It was spelled with a /d/ instead of the /Q/, the unvoiced dental fricative. The ‘th’ is unfortunately not always pronounced the same. In the above word, there was also German influence, as our word is ‘ERDE’. So there was a high tendency to choose a ‘d’, instead of an ‘s’. The ‘th’ is usually used with a similar sounding phoneme, if the /Q/ /q/ cannot be produced correctly. This happened in the following words: ‘The’ /dE/ instead of /qE/, ‘these’ /di:s/ instead of /qi:s/.Here instead of the voiced dental fricative, the voiced alveolar plosive was used. The tongue position for the /d/ is further back, than the other one. The tongue touches the teeth, if the correct sound is made and not the alveolar ridge just behind the upper front teeth. The unvoiced companion of the /q/, the /Q/ caused naturally also problems. ‘Thing’ was pronounced as/siG/, ‘think’ as /sIGk/This can lead to confusion, if the context is not exactly clear. If you are near the water, and a student says ‘sink’ instead of ‘think’, you could tell him, that you did not know he was drowning. The problem with the substitute here is nearly the same as with the one above. The /Q/ is an unvoiced dental fricative, the /s/ an unvoiced alveolar fricative .The tongue position stays the same, only that by the latter the air is being released through a narrow space.

American influence was found in the word ‘water’. The Americans usually soften the English sounds. Therefore, ‘water’ was pronounced /wDdEr/ instead of /wc:tE/. If it is pronounced the American way, it can be misunderstood as ‘what a’ in connected speech.

In the class with 3 years of English not many problems occurred. This was however, also due to one of the girls who had been a year in Australia. In Australian English the softening of sounds also seems to occur. In the first certificate part, where the theme was the environment, in the ‘recycling paper, metal and glass’, the ‘metal’ became ‘medal’. The only difference of those two words is that in ‘metal’, it is an unvoiced alveolar plosive, whereas in ‘medal’ /medl/ it is a voiced alveolar plosive. It seems to be easier to use the voiced version when speaking, though it can cause confusion.

One big problem, that was also present at the lowest level, was the inability to distinguish between the following two sounds:/q/ /d/; the ‘the’ became /dE/, ‘other’ /UdE/, ‘this’ /dIs/, ‘rather’ /rR:dE/ and ‘with’ /wId/. In the context it is usually easy to see which is being meant. It is very common to substitute the /d/ for a /q/, since the latter does not exist in most languages. Both sounds are voiced, the difference is mainly in the tongue position . The /d/ has the tongue near the front part of the hard palate, whereas for the /q/ it touches the teeth in middle position.

For the class with 3-4 years of English, the problem above also posed trouble.

‘They’ was pronounced as ‘day’. This is also a common alternative . It can, though be a source of misunderstanding. Often it is not corrected, as the sense can be deducted from the context. Some teachers however, do point it out to the students and build up awareness. It is often not corrected until late. The problem is the big classes and the amount of time that needs to be spent on, when doing phonology. In class it is sometimes very hard to hear the distinction between those two sounds, since the teacher is not as near to the student as in one to one tuition or other small groups.

The unvoiced partner of the above posed problems as could be predicted. In ‘think ‘ or ‘third ‘ the /Q/ was pronounced as /f/ or /s/. These are also unvoiced: /f/ is a front sound (labio-dental), /Q/is slightly further back (dental) and the /s/ is again further back and also higher up in the mouth (alveolar). The /f/ is quite often used from people who live around London. The students might have picked it up from a Londoner or someone who had been there for some time. At least the way of producing the sounds is the same; they are all fricatives. Another favourite of Germanic languages is the /w/. The trouble is, that the English /w/ does not exist in German .The German /w/ is the equivalent of the English /v/. The German /v/ sounds more like the /f/. In the words: ‘what, village, Switzerland, working, walk’, it was more a German /w/ than the proper English sound. Moreover, there was another problem in ‘walk’. Instead of /wc:k/ it was pronounced /wDlk/. The latter has a lower tongue position. Furthermore, was the ‘l’ pronounced, which could be due to the tendency in German to pronounce all consonants in a word. The students tend to pronounce the word as they see it, if they are unsure how to pronounce it. That is quite natural and I think nearly everyone does it if he / she comes across an unknown word.

Not only were mispronounced words found, but also miss-stressed ones. ‘Canton’ is in German stressed on the last syllable, in English however on the first. Instead of /kantEn/ it was pronounced /kantEVn/. Also was the word ‘economics’ missstressed. Instead of ‘e’conomics’ , it was stressed ‘eco’nomics’. This is also due to the German stress placement.

To sum the interview part up, the problems that occurred were more or less to be expected. Most problems were not just at one level but also at all. The problem was that in most classes the better speakers took part . In reality, there are far more problems around , those pointed out are the most common ones.

3. Summary of results

To begin with, the learning types did not have a great influence on the stress patterns, as it was not only one dominating type per person, but also sometimes more than one. For chi-Square , I had to choose one of the types. Secondly, the students of the upper levels had obviously internalised the stress rules, as for ‘comfortable’ the stress improved from class to class. In the beginning, there was the main stress on the 3rd syllable as in German, where the suffixes are stressed. The stress placement in ‘refugee’ also posed some problems to the two lower levels; where the stress was placed on the second as in ‘refuse’. ‘Cigarette’ clearly had Swiss-German and American influence in the first choice throughout all levels. There the stress is placed on the first and not on the third syllable, as in British English, French and High German. Otherwise there were not any big problems to be found in this activity.

stress patterns overall 1st choice

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The students were not always sure which to choose in the first instance. They got it mostly right, after they had heard the stress.

There were however some stress problems in the interview. ‘Canton’ and ‘economics’ were stressed the German way in a top class.

To continue with the dictation, neither of the classes had no mistakes at all. There were individual students in all classes who wrote the dictation correctly. It was though clear, that the average number of mistakes per student decreased with the level of English: 4AB 7.7; 5BC 2.4; 6AB 1.3; 6CB 4; 3wb 1.5. Taking the Latin into consideration, it showed that those with 5 or 6 years of Latin made fewer mistakes than those with none or only 1-2 years. The Latin classes were also those who had a high percentage of linguistic and musical types.

There were a lot of individual mistakes, which could not be put into a system.

The main problems were:

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If this table is being looked at, it does not seem too bad. However, the dictation was not very difficult and a great amount could be deducted from the context itself. What did cause problems though, were the past endings at the two lowest levels. This should be taken into consideration when introducing the past endings and the sounds. The ‘ed ‘ does not always sound the same.¹⁰ The students heard the correct sound and wrote it down as they had heard it. It could be worth, doing more exercises on this section. It is also helpful, to know the rule how to pronounce it. The rule is: after vowels and voiced consonants: /d/, after unvoiced consonants: /t/ and after d, t: /Id/.

In the minimal pairs activity, the problems predicted occurred throughout all levels. Some of them were also found in the dictation and the interview. The difficulty was the distinction between the pairs: /e//a/, /q//d/, /Q//s/. The last two are often known to cause problems, as they do neither occur in German nor in most other languages. The first pair is also known to cause confusion. It is not that easy to distinguish between the two, if the pair is: ‘men, man’, since the vowel only differs in tongue position.

In the interview part, the main problem throughout all levels was the /Q/ /q/. It was either used with another unvoiced fricative for the first sound or with the voiced alveolar plosive for the second. The difference between /w/ and /v/ also posed some problems. This was because the German /w/ is the English /v/. The English /w/ does not exist in German. In Graubünden we have many words of ‘ua’. This sound can be used to show the difference between the two sounds. Sometimes the letters were pronounced, where they should not have been. To overcome that problem it is ideal if the students can make sense of the phonemic script, so that they can read the word correctly. On the whole the problem expected occurred, though there might have been more, if I had interviewed more students. This would however been to time consuming.

3.1 Conclusion

The aim of this survey was to find the phonological problems occurring in classes of Swiss students at different levels at high school with regard to individual sounds, stress patterns of words and learning types. This was tested with a dictation, a stress pattern activity, a minimal pairs activity, a multiple intelligence question sheet and with some students an interview was conducted. Certain problems were not surprising, as they are well known to cause problems and are also quite often neglected. Take for example /Q/ /q/. These two sounds are mostly miss-pronounced, as they do not exist in most other languages. They are however mostly understood in the context. It can though cause confusion if one wants to say that someone is a bit ‘thick’, meaning stupid, and says ‘sick’. It is sometimes difficult to hear all the fine nuances and it is not always appropriate to correct the students all the time. If a student is being corrected all the time, he might get worried and refuses to talk. Constant correction can be contra productive. Some time should, however, be allowed for phonological work in class. Furthermore, there should also more attention be paid to the stress of words as well as the rhythm of English .The rhythm is very similar to German. What causes problems are the suffixes, which are similar to English. In German, they are stressed on the suffix, whereas in English the suffix is unstressed¹¹. If a word is miss- stressed, it can sound very strange to a native speaker. Especially in English many words shift the stress and change so meaning: pho’tography - ‘photograph - photo’graphic. If the stress is always placed on the first syllable, the word might be misunderstood.

What really ought to be looked at are the sounds that are completely different to German and can cause confusion such as writing an ‘e’ instead of an ‘i’. This is a great favourite for German speakers , since the German ‘i’ is the English ‘e’. The German ‘e’ has a wider mouth position ( a big smile )than the English sound /e/. It is vital to make the difference clear to the students as this can pose problems when a word has to be spelt. This applies especially to the lower levels . It is not just a problem of English but some other languages also have sounds that are pronounced completely different to German. Take for example the ‘j’: In German it is pronounced as /jDt/, in French as /Zi/ in Spanish as /Xota/ and in English as /dZeI/ .If this is pointed out to the students mistakes such as writing ‘smallish’ and ‘Gratitude’ with an ‘e’ instead of the ‘i’ should not happen any more. Another cause of problems is the ‘ea’. This pair has at least 7different ways of pronouncing it :/i:/ /eI/ /eE/ /IE/ /e/ /R:/ /K:/. The one that is mostly used is /i:/.

According to the dictionary it is pronounced as above before the following letters:

c, d, e, h, k, m, n, p, s, t, v, w. It is pronounced /eI/ before a ‘t’: ‘great’. /eE/ and the /IE/ are used, if an ‘r’ follows: ‘bear, ear’. It is pronounced /e/ mainly before: Th, d, f, v, s, and t. For example: ‘deaf, death, and sweater’. It seems to be pronounced /R:/ before an r and another consonant: ‘hearken, heart’. The same applies to ‘hearse’, where it is pronounced /K:/. This did not exactly come from this survey, as in the interview I had some excellent students, but from some of my fellow students in class. It has however to do with my subject covered, so it was worth including it.

It is well known, that when learning a language phonological problems occur. The problem is often, that not enough attention is being paid to the phonetics. Some students have no idea how to read the phonemic script or they think they know, but produce a different sound, as the phoneme looks similar to a sound in their own language. I have neither asked the students nor the teachers, how much they spend on phonology in class, I have heard from another student who prepares for the A-Levels in Zurich, that they had spent half a year on this subject. In my own experience (ISME), there is not enough time being spent on phonology. What is the point in having phonemic transcription, if the students do not know exactly how to produce the sound .If the script can be read correctly it facilitates the pronunciation of an unknown word in the dictionary greatly. English has so many different phonemes for one letter or pair of letters that the phonemic script is of enormous importance for the correct pronunciation.

Therefore, phonology is as important as grammar and should not be underestimated. There are many good books around that deal with all the skills we need to communicate in a language. For example: Headway, Matters (Longman) or Distinction. For teachers I would recommend Sound foundations by Underhill, or Teaching English pronunciation.

Finally, I would again like to thank all the students who have taken part in this survey and also the teachers, I was allowed to come into their classes. Furthermore, I would also like to thank my CPE teachers in England from 1996/97 Karen and David Hand. They have worked very hard on the pronunciation and have, as a result, given me a greater understanding for this subject. Since then I have been more interested in phonology. This was the reason for choosing rather an unconventional A-Level theme. Thanks also to ITTC

Bournemouth, that I got a copy of their phonemic script. It has been very useful.

Last but not least, thanks to A.Carigiet who has proofread the script.

It has been a very interesting study and if I had wanted to put all the data in I had found, I would have needed many more pages. So I had to restrict myself. I do hope this study comes in useful to teachers who have to deal with SwissGerman students, as usually German is dealt with but Swiss- German is not the same language as German. We pronounce things differently.

Personal declaration

This survey was conducted and written by myself. The books that were used are found in the bibliography. The teachers are proof that the material was collected by survey and not just out of a book.

Simone Andrea Dietrich

Bibliography

Books:

Aitken.R (1992/1995 3rd) Teaching Tenses, Harlow Essex, Longman

Berman M. (1998) A multiple Intelligences Road to an ELT Classroom Wales, Crown House Publishing Ltd

Kenworthy J. (1987) Teaching English Pronunciation Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers, Harlow Essex, Longman

Sachs L. (1984, 6th edition) Angewandte Statistik (applied statistics) Berlin, Springer

Swan M., Smith B. (1987) Learner English, a teachers guide to interference and other problems, Cambridge, CUP

Swan M. (1980/1995, 2nd) Practical English Usage Oxford, Oxford (OUP)

Underhill A. (1994) Sound Foundations The Teachers Development Series, Bath, Heinemann

Electronical media

URL: http://www.stir.ac.uk/celt/staff/HIGDOX/WORDLIST/index.htm

URL: http://www.eslcafe.com/help/index.cgi?rev=41660 15.7.00

Appendix

Dictation Gratitude

¹² Peter worked as a night watchman in a smallish factory. That morning the boss came in with a suitcase. He told Peter he would be flying to New York the next day. Peter immediately told him not to. The factory owner asked why. Peter told him he had had a nightmare .In his nightmare he had seen the next day's plane to New York crashing. Peter’s boss cancelled his ticket and didn't fly to New York. The next day the plane crashed. The boss thanked Peter and gave him a big present .He also sacked him.

Interview

Topics for the freer speaking activity

-Food hobbies recent holidays

Family future plans daily routine

Difficulties learning English Home town

Differences between Bournemouth and home (another place for the

Swiss at ISME

Music pets

2nd part oral activity FCE (First Certificate in English Speaking Test) 1996 Test Material 27

Key to multiple intelligences checklist

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Multiple intelligence’s checklist

Deutsche Übersetzung

¹⁵ Schreiben Sie zu jeder Aussage 0,1 oder 2.Schreiben Sie 0,wenn Sie mit der Aussage nicht einverstanden sind und 2, wenn es für Sie voll zutrifft. Schreiben Sie 1,wenn Sie irgendwo zwischendrin sind.

Ich lese gerne Bücher, Magazine und Zeitungen Ich löse oft Rechnungen im Kopf

Ich bin gut im Kartenlesen

Ich mache gerne Sport ( bewege mich gerne)

Ich spiele ein Musikinstrument oder singe in einem Chor Ich habe viele Freunde

Ich gehe in die Bibliothek allein um zu studieren Ich verbringe viel Zeit draußen

Ich habe einen guten Wortschatz in meiner Muttersprache Ich kategorisiere Dinge gerne

Ich bin gut im Zeichnen

Ich habe Mühe damit, lange still zu sitzen

Ich kann sagen wenn die Musik falsch tönt (wenn z.B. statt eines f

ein Fis gespielt wird, das nicht in

den Akkord passt)

Ich führe oft Aktivitäten an

Ich kann aus meinen Fehlern lernen

Ich beobachte gerne Pflanzen und oder sammle gerne Mineralien (Gesteine)

Ich habe ein gutes Namensgedächtnis Ich frage viel ,wie Sachen funktionieren

Videos und Dias helfen mir neue Information zu lernen

Ich bin gut im Nähen, Holzbearbeitung, Bauen oder Mechanik Ich kann die Melodien vieler Songs summen

Ich helfe häufig meinen Freunden

Meine Freunde finden manchmal einige der Dinge die ich mache ,komisch

Ich höre gerne den Melodien, die der natürlichen Welt entsprungen sind, zu

Vogelgesang zum Beispiel

Stress patterns

Can you match the following words to the stress patterns below? Sometimes a pattern matches more than one word

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Minimal pairs

¹⁸ This exercise tests your ability to distinguish minimal pairs of sounds.

I give you two or three words first, then choose the one, which matches the next word you hear. Tick the correct answer.

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Phonemic chart

¹⁹ Vowels (Monophthongs)

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Vowels (Diphthongs)

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Consonants

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[...]

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¹ A multiple intelligences road to an ELT classroom, by M. Berman (1998)

² Prof. H.Bruns Kantonsschule Chur

³ Learner English, Teaching English Pronunciation and

www.stir.ac.uk/celt/staff/HIGDOX/WORDLIST/index.htm

⁴ Sound Foundations A. Underhill Heinemann

⁵ from Latin palatum, German Gaumen, Wölbung

⁶ from Latin velum, veil, ceiling, German: Decke, Segel

⁷ See Teaching tenses p35

⁸ From Latin alveolum (sound foundations, p 35)

⁹ From Latin labium, =lip, dental :dens,dentis =tooth

¹⁰ See Teaching tenses p 35 or M.Swan Practical English Usage (1995) 416.2

¹¹ See Teaching pronunciation p136

¹³ Teaching about the environment

¹² Dictation „ Paul Davis, Mario Rinvolucri CUP 1988

¹³ „ UCLES 1996 (University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate)

¹⁴ Multiple intelligence's checklist

Rank each statement 0,1 or 2. Write 0 if you disagree with the statement and write 2 if you strongly agree. Write 1 if you're somewhere in between

I like to read books, magazines and newspapers

I often do calculations in my head

I can read maps easily

I enjoy physical exercise

I play a musical instrument or sing in a choir I've got lots of friends

I go to the library alone to study I spend a lot of time outdoors

I have a good vocabulary in my own language I like to put things into categories

I can draw well

It's hard for me to sit quiet for a long time I can tell when music sounds off-key I'm often the leader in activities I learn from my mistakes

I enjoy observing plants and or collecting rocks I can remember people's names easily I ask lot of things about how things work

Videos and slides really help me to learn new information I'm good at sewing, woodwork, building or mechanics I can hum the tunes to lots of songs

I often help my friends

My friends find some of my actions strange sometimes

I enjoy listening to the sounds created in the natural world- birdsong for example

¹⁴ Adapted from a multiple intelligences road to an ELT classroom by M. Berman (1998)

¹⁵ Taken from M.Bermann, A multiple intelligence road to an ELT classroom .Übersetzung: Simone Dietrich 18.3.2000

¹⁶

¹⁷ fEr IgzR:mpl : dIkteIHn

¹⁶ „ Simone Dietrich 4th October 1999 Bournemouth (ITTC)

¹⁷ Produced by Rich Gorvin „ITTC Bournemouth 08/04/1999 ITTC Phonemic Script

¹⁸ Simone Dietrich 30.4 .2000

Sources: M. Swan, B. Smith Learner English, CUP 1987, J. Kenworthy , Teaching English pronunciation Longman 1987 p 48 and www.stir.ac. uk/celt/staff/HIGDOX/WORDLIST/ index.htm

¹⁹ Adapted from Sound Foundations

• Author: Simone Dietrich (Author)
• Publication Year: 2000
• Pages: 31
• Catalog Number: V100469
• ISBN (eBook): 9783638988957
• Language: English
• Tags: Phonological, Swiss