The teaching-learning situation of English pronunciation in Jordan

System. Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 59-70, Printed in Great Britain.

1986.

0

THE TEACHING-LEARNING PRONUNCIATION YOUSEF

The English Department,

0346-251X/86 1986 Pergamon

$3.00 + 0.00 Journals Ltd.

SITUATION OF ENGLISH IN JORDAN

EL-HALEES

University of Jordan, P.O. Box 13238, Amman,

Jordan

The results of an error and contrastive analysis study of the performance of 203 students in Jordanian secondary schools suggest that the English pronunciation teaching-learning situation is the outcome of a number of interrelated factors, chief among which are: Negative transfer from Arabic sound system into English sound system, inherent difficulty in English sound system, strategies the learners use in learning English as a foreign language, socio-emotional factors, methodological factors and psychological factors. The way in which students are taught standard Arabic effects their learning English pronunciation, especially insofar as rhythm is concerned. A plan has been suggested for improving the learning-teaching situation of English pronunciation in Jordan centred around giving advanced training in English phonetics to teachers of English.

INTRODUCTION The English pronunciation teaching-learning situation in Jordan (as well as in other Arab countries) is the product of a number of interrelated factors chief among which, in addition to the well known interlingual (contact between Arabic and English speakers) and intralingual difficulty related to English language structures, are socio-psychological factors and the fact that Arab learners never study their spoken language in school; instead they study standard Arabic. The way they are taught standard Arabic affects the way they learn English. Standard Arabic is a highly inflectional language and learners are required to produce correct endings of all the words. Their consciousness of this fact affects the tempo of their oral performance and they tend to stress every word, be it structural or content. The linguistic factors also play an important role in affecting the pronunciation of English by Arab learners. In addition to the two different sound systems of Arabic and English the two writing systems are totally different. The vast majority of Jordanian students are rarely exposed to the English language outside the classroom nor do they have enough opportunity to speak English in the classroom. The teachers of English are on the whole not well trained and therefore their English has a strong Arabic accent. And due to sociopsychological factors some students insist on imposing their Arabic speech habits on English. People usually feel the need for learning English properly after they have left school and 59

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they start taking courses in English at the age of 20 or more, hence adult education in English is increasing, resulting in the opening of more and more private institutes for teaching English for adults. Many other countries in the world have a similar situation to that which we have in Jordan and the problem is universal. Efforts have been made in many parts of the world to improve the situation, especially in Britain and the United States. Various methodological techniques based on certain linguistic schools (e.g. structuralism, transformationalism, communicative competence approach) and many types of modern technological aids have been used, ranging from the normal tape recorder to the computer. This has been accompanied by extensive research in the fields of psycholinguistics, first and second language acquisition, and sociolinguistics. It seems that the problem has not yet been solved. My contention is that one of the most optimal ways of improving the situation is by providing schools with well-trained teachers in English on all levels. The history of the degree of success in English teaching and learning, at least in Jordan, is associated with the standard of individual teachers. It is by designing an effective plan for teacher trainees that the problem of teaching English pronunciation can be improved. The purpose of the present paper is to give a brief account of some factors which affect teaching and learning pronunciation of English in Jordanian schools. This study is based on the results of a contrastive and error analysis project I conducted on the performance of 203 students and their teachers of English from 20 schools in Jordan. The subjects were asked to read a short story and reproduce it in their own words. Their performance was recorded and then transcribed. Errors were then categorized and an effort was made to suggest factors to which these errors can be attributed. Six main factors have been suggested as affecting the teaching-learning situation of English pronunciation in Jordanian schools: (1) interlingual factors related to the contact, within the learner, between Arabic as his native tongue (L,) and English as a target language (L,); (2) intralingual factors related to inherent difficulty in English as (L,); (3) developmental factors related to the strategies the learners use in learning (L,); (4) socio-emotional factors; (5) methodological factors, and (6) psychological factors. The interlingual and intralingual factors have been suggested on the basis of the results of the contrastive (CA) and Error Analysis (EA) study as mentioned above. No systematic research has been conducted on the other factors and they have been suggested on the basis of observations which I collected during my teaching at the English Department of the University of Jordan over the last 12 years and my visits and contacts with the students and their teachers in 20 secondary schools in Jordan where I conducted my research project. The suggested six factors will be dealt with below.

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FACTORS CAUSING ERRORS I. Interlanguage interference from Arabic phonological and phonetic features into those of English, a process which is known as “negative transfer”. Where a sound from L, replaces more than one sound in L,, the negative transfer here is called “divergent”; and where two or more sounds of L, are considered to be variants of one L, sound, the process is called “convergent” negative transfer (Tarone, 1978).

Negative transfer from Arabic sound system into English sound system is considered to be very frequent and persistent as errors of this sort can be detected in the performance of graduates of a University degree in English. Examples of these types: (1) Arab learners of English usually impose stress patterns of Arabic on those of English. Word stress rules in spoken Arabic can be summarized as follows: (a) Where the final syllable in the word is long: CVV, CVVC or CVCC, it carries the primary stress as in /Pa’sa:/ “stick”, /baTi:d/ “far away” and /Ra’malt/ “I carried something”. Arabic speakers often impose this stress pattern on the English word with similar syllabification, e.g.:’ ?ili ‘fant satis ‘fa:jz ?api ‘te:t dwe ’ libgz

for ‘elifnt ‘sa: tisfaiz for for ‘a: patait ‘dwelibz for One of the most frequent and persistent errors which is related to this type of interference is the stressing of the contracted form of “not”, namely /-nt/ and /i/ vowel is inserted between the final consonant of the auxiliary and /nt/, forming a final CVCC syllable, e.g.: ha tint ha2 vnt for ha ‘zint hha: znt for Ju ‘dint ‘Judnt for wu ‘dint for ‘wudnt (b) The penultimate carries stress if it is not short, i.e. CV, and the final is not long, i.e. CVVC or CVCC, e.g. /Ta’malhum/ “their work” /?iaa:Ya/ “broadcasting” /sa’ fi:rhum/ “their ambassador”. Examples of imposing this Arabic stress pattern on English are2: priz ‘entli ‘prezantli for ?eli ‘ve:tar ‘elaveita for sa ‘dinli for ‘sAdnli (c) The antepenultimate carries the stress if the penultimate is short, i.e. CV, and the final is not long, i.e. CVV, CVVC or CVCC, e.g.: ‘Jadzara “tree”,

‘miItsali “basin”, ‘ka:tabu “they (mas.) correspond with”. My material shows the following errors based on this type of stress pattern: i’nhf for ’ ?inaf ’ konsidard for kan’sidad (2) Where a falling rising tone is used in RP English to indicate certain meanings such as reservation, Arabic uses a rising falling tone and this is usually negatively transferred into English. ‘The IPA symbols will be used in transcribing ZPharyngealized items are underlined.

Arabic

and Daniel

Jones’s

in transcribing

English.

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(3) Phonemic substitution where a phoneme in Arabic in English, e.g. /J/ for /tJ/ and /b/ for /p/ as in: ‘Jikin bri’zentli

for for

substitutes

for another

phoneme

‘tJikan ‘prezantli

/p/ does not exist in Arabic as a phoneme and /tJ/ is found in some country dialects. (4) Allaphonic substitution, where a sound replaces its nearest counterpart; e.g. English /t/ and /d/ which are alveolar, the tip and blade of the tongue are in contact with the alveolar ridge, are replaced by Arabic /t/, /d/ which are dental, the tip of the tongue makes a contact with the upper teeth. English /s/ and /z/, the alveolar sibilants and /J/, the palato-alveolar sibilant, are articulated with the tip of the tongue up, against the alveolar ridge; Arabic counterparts /s,z/ the alveolars, and /J/, the palato-alveolar, are articulated with the tip of the tongue down against the lower teeth and this is how English sibilants are produced by Arabic speakers. English /r/ is implemented as an approximant before a vowel, voiced fricative after /d/, voiceless fricative after /t/ and flapped intervocalically as in “read”, “try”, “dry” and “very” respectively. Arabic speakers substitute Arabic trill /r/ for the above four implementations. (5) An example of divergent negative transfer errors is how English vowels and diphthongs are produced by Arabic speakers. Arabic vowels are less in number than those of English and Arabic vowel system has neither central vowels nor dipthongs. Arabic long vowels usually replace the nearest English vowels and diphthongs and short vowels replace their nearest short counterparts, as shown below: Arabic

Vowels Replacing

(1) e.g. (2) e.g. (3) e.g. (4) e.g.

e: ke:m, pripe:rd, he:rd u: fu:d, Ju:r 0: mo:rnibg, mo:st a: ?naf ____’ kaff ____

English

Vowels Replaced

ei, cd, a:, keim, pripead, ha:d u:, ua, fu:d, Jua, 31, au, mo:nib, maust. A, 3, i’nAf, kaf

(6) Convergent negative transfer is exemplified by Arabic speakers considering /s/ before front and back non-high vowels as two different phonemes in English in line with Arabic non-emphatic /s/ and emphatic /s/ respectively, e.g. /s/ is pronounced as emphatic in psalm /sa:m/and sun /sari// and non-emphatic in Sam (saem/ and sat (set/. Cf. Arabic ___words: /sa:m/ “he fasted”, _- _ /sa:m/ “he bargained” /s-_arm/ “he meditated” (7) Arabs learning English sometimes replace one L, phonological feature with another, neither being found in L,; this process is called overgeneralization, e.g. English / / is sometimes replaced by a voiceless unaspirated bilabial plosive /v as in Qen for /p g en/ and a central close vowel (i) for English /id/. (8) It is very important here to state the fact that interlingual interference into English can

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also be related to the standard Arabic of the learner. For any native speaker of Arabic, two forms of the Arabic language are recognized; the spoken form, or local dialect and the standard form (SA). The local dialect is not written and is never taught at school. Standard Arabic, on the other hand, is introduced to the learners from the first grade of schooling. There are enormous differences between local dialects and standard Arabic at the syntactic, morphological, phonological and lexical levels so that spoken Standard Arabic may prove to be fairly unintelligible for illiterate people. English is taught as a foreign language, and it is introduced to the learner in the fifth grade of schooling, i.e. at the age of 12 at which time he has had 4 years of learning how to read and pronounce SA. At this stage, he still retains the pronunciation of his local dialect. The negative transfer into the interlanguage of the learner of English, therefore, is a two channel process related to his local dialect and Standard Arabic. The teaching-learning situation of SA, especially in the lower grades of learning, is geared towards mastering the right inflectional endings of the word (as SA is a highly inflectional language), and the skill of reading is almost always given priority. The teacher acts as a model for his students and the students in their performance when reading, strive to spell out the right inflectional ending. This situation also applies when SA is used as a means of communication under certain circumstances. If one fails to give the right ending of the word, he is subject to severe criticism and described as being undereducated. As two forms of the word, with and without the ending, can be used in free variation in a prepausal position, one resorts to pause when uncertain of the right inflectional ending. As a result of this, one has to be conscious when reading or speaking SA; every word has to be produced correctly, and it is always given its due prominence in the utterence as an individual word. This entails a monotonous level tone and a rhythmic pattern where the number of feet is equal to the number of words. There is also a fairly slow tempo of speech and for many speakers, an unusual number of pauses. This stress pattern and level tone have a direct effect on reading and speaking English. For example the utterance “if I and this chicken” was read by many subjects as started here ‘?if

Every

functional

‘?a:j ‘and ‘bis ‘tJikin word is given an undue stress, and the tone is level.

II. Inherent difficulty in the English phonological or phonetic features which are difficult for many Arab learners to produce; for example: (a) English initial 3-consonant cluster and final 3 - or 4 - consonant cluster are inadmissible in Arabic. (B) The articulation of English sibilants is with the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth while Arabic sibilants are articulated with the tip down against the lower teeth. (c) Central vowels and dipthongs are found in English and not in Arabic, (d) an English stop is not released before a following stop as is the case in Arabic. Another source of errors which can be to a certain extent described as intralingual, related to an inherent difficulty in English as L,, is that Arabs develop a spelling pronunciation of English. Whereas English is well-known as having a non-phonemic spelling, i.e. English letters do not consistently represent the same sounds, Arabic, on the other hand, is known as being a much more phonemic language. The writing system in English can be described as being alphabetic and morphemic (Wardaugh, 1974, p. 25), while the writing system in Arabic is syllabic. Sir William Jones found the Arabic system of writing almost perfect for Arabic.

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‘Not a letter’, he comments, ‘could be added or taken away without manifesting inconvenience’. He adds the remark: “Our English alphabet and orthography are disgracefully and almost ridiculously imperfect.” (Firth, 1958, page 125). It has to be borne in mind that a relationship has been found between spellings in English (Chomsky and Halle, 1968; Venezky, 1967) which can be utilized pronunciation.

and sounds in teaching

In their Arabic classes, students are encouraged to give great attention to the written forms and consequently develop spelling pronunciations. They carry over this habit in learning English with disastrous results because of the non-phonemic nature of English spelling. III. Developmental factors which are manifested in the strategies the learner uses to acquire L,. Developmental errors are independent of L, of the learner and they are described as developmental because they are similar to those errors made by children acquiring L,. As the learner has a limited exposure to L, he forms false hypotheses about it. Examples of this type of error are: (1) Errors resulting from omission; these are caused by omitting: (a) The last element in a final consonant cluster, e.g. /neks/ for /nekst/, /?ilifan/ for /elafnt/, (b) The -vc ending in the word, e.g.: /?atend/ for /a’tendid/, /akseptid/, /?aksept/ for /disaid/ for /disaidid/, (c) A vowel from inside the word, e.g.: for /swalaud/ /swa:ld/ /fo:rst for /farist/ for /wateva/ /w;tva_r/ (d) A consonant from inside the word, e.g.: /faindi a/ for /fiding/ for /saetisfaiz/ /satifaiz/ /prezantli/ /prentli/ for (e) The article /?ilifmt ?and tJikin/ for “the elephant and the chicken” /?and ?ilifant/ for “and the elephant” for “under a tree” /?andar tri:/ /ha:d dispju:t/ for “had a dispute” (2) Spelling pronunciation can also be related to developmental his own strategies in reading the spellings, e.g.: “whilst” /wilist/ for for “whom” /ho:m/ for “us” /ju:s/ (3) Other types of errors: (a) Metathesis e.g.: /wilts/ /kitJin/ /?insteks/

for for for

/wailst/ /tJikin/ /insekts/

factors

as the learner

uses

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(b) Shortening

of vowels, /?ivin/ /most/

e.g.: for for

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/i:vn/ /maust/

(c) Lengthening of vowels, e.g.: /proposa:l/ /prapauzl/ for /a’rauz/ /?a:ros/ for (d) Addition of a consonant at the end of words, /tjikin/ /tSikinz/ for /eingz/ for /8irJ/

The most likley causes of these mispronunciations some carelessness, fatigue . . . etc., although developmental.

of

e.g.:

would be unfamiliarity with the text, them can be described as being

IV. Socio-emotional factors. It has been found that a number of the subjects refused to they knew about the right try to pronounce English in the proper way, althougq pronunciation. They insisted on pronouncing English as if it were Arabic. For example; some students insisted on pronouncing English diphthongs in a monopthongal way; they also refused to unpronounce the /r/ at the end of words. A number of girl students in one of the country schools refused to say any word in English in my presence. They also insisted on reading the short story and summarizing it in front of the microphone in an enclosed place with no one present. They were very embarrassed to say any word in English to any other person apart from their teachers. These students showed no empathy whatsoever for the English culture. Some students were too self-conscious of their Arabic-accented English, from finishing the reading of the story or summarizing it in their commented on their English by saying “it is too bad, it is better not to that”. This feeling has been found to be a major obstacle in the students’

and were inhibited own words. They speak English like learning progress.

On the contrary, some students in other rural settings were very anxious to hear a native speaker of English; they asked me to provide them with recorded courses in English; they were dissatisfied with the way English was pronounced by their teachers. It has to be remembered here that it is not easy to pinpoint the acoustic dimensions which cause a foreign accent, neither is it easy to decide which dimensions cause foreignness, if these dimensions are known. V. Methodological factors. In the first years of teaching English in Jordan, the only aspect of pronunciation the teachers of English emphasize is how to pronounce the consonants and some of the vowels. The prosodic features, rhythm, stress, intonation and juncture are almost neglected. At the pre-university stage, as a whole, morphology, rather leaving pronunciation

teaching English concentrates on syntax and to look after itself. Under these circumstances,

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individual students develop their own strategies for pronouncing words or sentences. Negative transfer from the mother tongue, Arabic, plays a major role in forming the pronunciation of the learner, in addition to other factors such as spelling pronunciation, etc. Several factors contribute to this neglect of pronunciation, the chief among which are: (1) Many teachers are untrained phonetically; they know little, if anything, about the phonological systems of English and Arabic, and they are not in a position to help themselves, let alone their students, in improving the pronunciation of English. This is evident in the types of errors they make, which are of the same type as those made by students in their first year of learning English. (2) At the end of the secondary stage, the strongest motivation for students to learn English is to pass the secondary certificate exam and to achieve as high marks as possible. In this exam, students are examined in their competence in grammar, vocabulary and written comprehension, but not in pronunciation. (3) The vast majority of students hardly use their English outside the classroom, and very many never spell out an English word in class. I dare say that the communicative function of English is hardly focused on in Jordanian schools, especially in Government schools; hence the spoken side is nearly neglected. (4) The above three factors lead to incomplete learning by the students of many phonetic features of English, and this retards mastering the sound system and the learners live with a persistent foreign accent in English. (5) Many teachers use Arabic in teaching English to put their students at rest. On the other hand many students resort to translating their English reading passages into Arabic in order to get their meanings. In both cases the spoken aspect of English is completely neglected. VI. Psychological factors. The fact that Arab students concentrate on grammar, vocabulary, and written comprehension, and thus neglect pronunciation, creates a lack of motivation within the learners and they get bored. Their major interest is in passing the high school general test and getting as high marks as possible to secure admission to a University; mastering the pronunciation is of no use in this respect because it is not required for the general exam. This lack of motivation and boredom on the part of the student makes him form false hypotheses about the pronunciation of English, hence he develops his own strategies which help him in remembering words in longer utterances without paying attention to correct pronunciation. His spoken English, if he ever speaks English, is then full of mistakes due to carelessness, fatigue, boredom and other psychological factors. Students admitted to the English department are supposed to have: (1) got high average marks (85% or above) in their high school general exam which secured their entrance to the Faculty of Arts; (2) passed English proficiency test (Eng. loo), a University requirement, (50% or above); (3) passed English 101 and English 102, faculty requirements (60% or above). The components of these courses include grammar, y,ocabulary, writing and reading comprehension. Pronunciation is not a part of the course. Our experience with many students who joined the department having shown a good command of these components, is that their pronunciation was very weak. They have great difficulty in understanding or making themselves understood.

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A SUGGESTED

SITUATION

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PLAN FOR REMEDYING THE OF ENGLISH IN JORDAN

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PRONUNCIATION

The plan suggested here is based on the conviction that “results achieved in teaching are in proportion to the language proficiency of the teacher”, as the teacher plays the most important role in the L, teaching situation. Boris Jordan (1973) recognizes five constants of the parameters of the language learning/teaching situation: objectives, methods, the student, the instructional material and the teacher. The role of the teacher seems to be central among these constants and it affects the balance. It is the teacher who can help the student to achieve the objectives of a language course as he presents materials by means of certain methods. The training of teachers must be given priority in any effort to improve the teaching of English as a second language. Emphasis is usually given to other matters, often worthwhile, such as choosing superior textbooks or adopting another methodological approach. Recently, the direct method approach has been superseded by the communicative competence approach. Such changes are of course useful, as is the improvement in the classroom situation or improvements in audio-visual equipment. However, I am firmly convinced that a well-trained teacher can make good use of any textbook available and overcome any difficulties caused by unsuitable classroom conditions. Indeed, it may be true that some improvements in technical matters may lead to a de-emphasis of the teacher’s role-especially in pronunciation. Most certainly, as some students have said to me, many teachers of English in Jordan are inhibited from using their English orally, which is defective and clearly inferior to the RP pronunciation available on many cassettes. An overdependence on technical aids, switching on a cassette machine or feeding a film into a video, may lead to an automization of the teaching process in which the teacher becomes increasingly redundant. Traditionally, before the advent of recent technologies, the obvious and primary importance of the teacher was universally recognized. The teacher was obliged to take it upon himself to construct a course from his own resources and in the context of his particular teaching situation, social and environmental. Machines and technical aids can indeed help a teacher, but only if they reinforce rather than replace his vital role. One of the main reasons for the low standard in the pronunciation of English among the students in Jordan is that the vast majority of the teachers of English are untrained and do not have enough knowledge of the phonological rules and the phonetic features of English. Most of these teachers are either graduates of a University in Jordan or of other Arab Universities, or have had 2 years of education after the secondary certificate at one of the teacher training colleges in Jordan. They usually have minimal training in English pronunciation. The elementary course in phonetics which may be offered in these institutions covers the basic elements of articulatory phonetics and touches upon some formal description of English segmental phonemes, neglecting all the prosodic features. Students gain almost nothing from a practical point of view. The suggested plan is manifested in “a course in phonetics”. Optimization: To enable the in-service or potential teachers of English in certain periods of time to acquire the phonological system and the phonetic features of English and be able to speak English natively as far as possible. This involves the acquisition of the sound system (phonemes), distinctive features, prosodic features (stress, rhythm, intonation and juncture), phonotactics (distribution of the phonemes, covering the sequential constraints) and coarticulation. Then

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the learner must be put into a position to do contrastive analysis of English and Arabic phonological systems and phonetic features, to detect the areas of difficulty for the students and to try to remedy them. Boundary Conditions: (a) Length of the course: one semester. (b) Number of hours allocated: 6 theoretical, 6 in the language laboratory (lo-15 students). (c) Teachers: well trained phoneticians, assisted by native speakers of English. (d) Activity in the language laboratory: 6 hours of regular classes under the supervision of the teacher and individual work where students have access to pronunciation material using the listening positions at the language laboratory.

DESCRIPTION

OF THE COURSE

1. The course begins with diagnostic tests for each learner, involving transcription, phoneme realization, intonation and rhythm (including weak forms) and word pronunciation. The results of this test enable us to pinpoint the difficulties of every learner; results will be kept on a special test card. They will also guide the students in their practice sessions. Learners will be tested again in the middle and at the end of the course, to ascertain their improvement as feedback on the effectiveness of the course. An introduction to articulatory phonetics to equip the learner with the necessary theoretical background to study the phonological system and the phonetic features of English and Arabic. Parallel to this course there should be sessions in practical phonetics and ear training presented in nonsense words on sounds difficult for Arabs. A course in English phonetics oriented for Arab students is recommended. This should be based on the results of a contrastive analysis and error analysis of Arabic and English sound systems. The English phonetics should be parallel with practical work outside and inside the language laboratory. (a) Outside the language laboratory: (1) transcription of words from different literature, newspapers, etc.; (2) ear training on English sounds difficult

resources; for Arabs.

(b) Inside the language laboratory: (1) exercises in prosodic features (preceding exercises in segments), using similar Arabic patterns; (2) exercises in English sound patterns which contrast with Arabic; (3) practising segments in full utterances as much as possible. There must be a continuous confrontation with spoken English; (4) learners must concentrate on their individual weaknesses by having sessions on their own. They can use the listening positions in the language laboratory; (5) the point to be stressed again is that learners must start practising prosodic features: stress, rhythm, intonation, juncture, all types of coarticulation to achieve fluency in speaking English. Basic intonational patterns have to be learned and mastered. Isochronity in rhythm has to be acquired as perfectly as possible. Errors in giving weak forms undue stress have

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to be avoided from the outset. for practice, e.g., /giv mi/ cf. Arabic/ / ‘gulhum/

OF ENGLISH

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feet in Arabic

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and English

can be used

“‘give me” “b’ring me . . . . .” “tell them”

‘dzih Ii/

(6) Successful students are given a certificate of proficiency in the pronunciation of English and they are rewarded. (7) Successful students attend a short course in teaching English pronunciation at schools in Jordan. (8) As children are more conscious of the phonetic form of the foreign language than adults, who pay more attention to the content rather than the form, (Neufeld, 1978), only teachers of English who have a mastery of English pronunciation should be assigned to primary schools. This is a very crucial problem which has to be taken care of by the Ministry of Education. Children may be able to acquire the pronunciation of English natively or semi-natively if they are trained under optimal circumstances. It is believed that learners after puberty tend to stop or to very slowly master a foreign language. However, Neufeld (1977) trained twenty adults in an l&hour session to produce Japanese and Chinese utterances natively, and the results were very promising.

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