Explanation of possible causes for the pronunciation problems and ways of overcoming the problems.

Based on the video recording, I managed to identify and analyze one of the problems in the pronunciation feature that is made by the subject frequently. In fact, our subject is facing pronunciation difficulties in the omission of fricative /s/ and /z/ sounds in the final grammatical endings and contractions position. For evidence, Chinese has /s/ sound but no /z/sound. (Kenworthy, Teaching English Pronunciation, 1992) Basically, the /s/ sound is the sound that you place your tongue lightly at the top of your mouth which is on the ridge behind your front teeth. Air will escape through the top of your tongue in an even way. However, Z is exactly similar to S, except it vibrates especially on your tongue and the roof of your mouth. Basically, you need to hold your tongue in the S position with more tension. Hence, this creates the vibration. Grammatical endings of third person singular, plural form, past tense and contraction do not occur in Mandarin Chinese grammar. (YIING, AN ANALYSIS OF PRONUNCIATION ERRORS IN ENGLISH OF CHINESE SPEAKERS FROM UTAR, 2011). Hence, the subject tend to omitted the final fricative /z/ in friends (| frendz |) which represents grammatical endings of third person singular. For instances, the subject tend to face some pronunciation difficulties like friends (| frendz |) become friend (| frend |), kids (| kdz |) become kid (| kd |), visitors (| vztz |) become visitor (vzt |) and towards (| twdz |) become toward (| twd |). Besides that, there is omission of the plural marker occurred in chocolates (| tklts |). This followed by that's (| ts |) become that (| t |), and likes (| laks |) become like (| lak. ) Based on my interpretation, the possible cause for the pronunciation problem that triggered on our subject mainly is the amount of exposure to English. Hence, the amount of exposure to English is less if compared to the Mandarin. The factor mentioned above influencing Chinese speakers in English pronunciation, which is interference of mother tongue in learning English

pronunciation as they are more exposed to their first language which is mandarin. The main language used in the subjects family is mainly Mandarin and Hakka. Thats why the subject is less exposed to the English language if compared to others. Subsequently, Malaysian Chinese students are learning a range of English that has already been influenced by both Mandarin and Malay due to the multifaceted linguistic situation that occurred in Malaysia, for instance, in the simplification of final consonant clusters. It is also related to the amount of exposure of the Chinese speaker in English language. This is supported by the statementConversely, many people live in non-English speaking country but use English in many areas of their lives, such as work and school. In such complex bilingual and multilingual situation is difficult to get an accuracy pictures of how much exposure of English a learner has received, and of what kind (Kenworthy, 1992). From this perception, we will get to know that it is totally not exposure that matters, but is the way of learner gives response to the opportunities to listen to and apply English daily. Inadequately, if the speakers has only insufficient knowledge about phonology and phonetics, hence it will affect the acquisition of the English pronunciation then. In order to learn English well, the second language learners should highlight the importance of the English pronunciation learning by increasing the amount of exposure in English. The more they expose to the English language, the more conscious they will be with their pronunciation, and hence their knowledge of Phonetics and Phonology will be upgraded. In fact, there can be other factors which cause the subjects pronunciation problems. This is supported by Various studies have compared the pronunciation accuracy of people living in an English-speaking country and those who are not, it seems that the amount of exposure, though clearly a contributory factor, is not necessary factor for the development of pronunciation skills (Kenworthy, 1992). (You should elaborate a bit/cut & paste your points here..give some explanation about what you ve citedmaybe add in 1 short sentence..)

There is another possible cause which I found might influence the subjects pronunciation problem which is the factor of motivation and concern for good pronunciation. Based on the subject, he is very conscious of his own pronunciation as what we can observe throughout the video. The subject actually imposed self-correction whenever he found out that he had made specific mistake during the reading session. As what the researchers identified, students will often expressed in statements how terrible is their pronunciation and some ought to seek for correction. Besides that, the aspect which pauses frequently during speech is observed throughout the video recording. The subject is aware of his pronunciation as he tends to concern too much on the accuracy of his own pronunciation by pausing words by words. Even if he is unconscious of his own pronunciation mistake which is omission of fricative /s/ and /z/sounds in the final grammatical endings and contractions position, but still he sounds uncertainty with his pronunciation. However, if the learners lose their motivation and concern for good pronunciation, there will be no improvement in their pronunciation. If there is no improvement, speaker might face difficulties when they are trying to interact with others. Whenever their motivation for best pronunciation is on, they will be conscious of their own mistake and overcome the pronunciation problem with ease. Hence, they will be confident to communicate with people by using the fluent and accurate pronunciation in future. This statement is supported by Learners may also be unconcerned because they simply are not aware that the way they speak in resulting difficulty, irritation or misunderstanding for the listener. (Kenworthy J. , 1992). There are several ways to overcoming these pronunciation problems. However, I decided to choose the integrated pronunciation teaching as the best solution to sort out these problems. Under integrated pronunciation teaching, the role of self-evaluation and monitoring is an essential element that is required. In the early stage of learning, teacher is the disseminator of classroom who delivers knowledge and facilitates the students as students at this stage are still unable to

expect which aspects are important or not. Like what I predicted above, the factor of the amount of exposure to English is the main cause of our subjects pronunciation problem. I believed that if the amount of exposure to English language increases, students can achieve better assessment and attain better improvement. This is supported by the statement But as their exposure to English increases, and as they acquire the necessary discriminatory skills, learners begin to develop their own internal criteria of what is acceptable and what is not (Kenworthy, Teaching English Pronunciation, 1992) . If there is the increase of amount of exposure to English, our subject will become more aware of his common mistakes and hence his pronunciation problems will be solved then. This is because the more he exposes to English language, the higher the knowledge of his English, and hence the more aware he will be during pronouncing. We can observe the signs of the development of selfevaluation and monitoring skills when the learner begins to spontaneously imply self-correction in his or her performance. Subsequently, the learner needs ample strategies and opportunities to practices the strategy so that to help them improve in this area. We can relate with this statement The pressure of speaking- Choosing what to say, finding words, finding the appropriate grammatical structures-leave little mental energy to pay attention to how the sound come out (Kenworthy, Teaching English Pronunciation, 1992). Either inside or outside the classroom, helping the learner to make acts of monitoring and self-evaluation is an integral part of such effort. Once the learner has become familiar with self-monitoring and selfevaluation activities in the classroom, the Oral homework can be introduced. Oral homework is defining as homework which involves oral production instead of written or reading assignment. Assignments are prepared, rehearsed, and then recorded on video or audio tape, either during sessions set aside for private study or at home. Learners evaluate their own performance using a scoring system specified by the teacher (Kenworthy, Teaching English Pronunciation, 1992). There will be a discussion during class where class members are given

opportunities to play or show their completed assignments and prepared to receive comments from others. Throughout this activity, students are provided some feedback and evaluation from the teacher as well. In fact, there is a variety of oral homework assignments such as describing task, speculation tasks, state your opinion, giving instructions or directions, social graces and story-telling tasks that can be carried out to help the students to overcome their pronunciation problems which is omission of fricative /s/ and /z/sounds in the final grammatical endings and contractions position. Moreover, by providing the opportunity to excel, it is another way to require the learner to put on their best pronunciation. Activities like planning; rehearsal and presentation can be conducted. For examples, the teacher can ask the students to prepare and plan for a voice-over for a short video or film. The voice-over is a common feature of news broadcast, documentary films, current events programs and etc. After rehearsing the script that is required for the video record, they need to carry out a presentation so that to achieve the best pronunciation. Through this activity, students will be able to apply their best pronunciation and to demonstrate their skills as speakers. This can help them to evaluate and aware of their own pronunciation problems besides help to boost up their self-confidence especially presenting in public. In conclusion, there is a supported statement that is beneficial for chinese speaker which stated that Consequently, further researches are also encouraged to explore communicative strategies in pronunciation teaching with a focus on some of the problematic sounds and features associated with the Chinese language background when helping to develop the Chinese learners comprehensibility and oral fluency in English (Gao, 2005).

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Works Cited
Gao, L. L. (2005). Pronunciation difficulties analysis: a case study using native language linguistic background to understand a Chinese English learners pronunciation problem. Pronunciation difficulties analysis: a case study using native language linguistic background to understand a Chinese English learners pronunciation problem, 76-84. Kenworthy, J. (1992). Teaching English Pronunciation. In J. Kenworthy, Teaching English Pronunciation (p. 6). Hong Kong: Longman Group (Far East) Ltd. Kenworthy, J. (1992). Teaching English Pronunciation. In J. Kenworthy, Teaching English Pronunciation (p. 118). Hong Kong: Longman Group (Far East) Ltd. Kenworthy, J. (1992). Teaching English Pronunciation. In J. Kenworthy, Teaching English Pronunciation (p. 119). Hong Kong: Longman Group (Far East) Ltd. Kenworthy, J. (1992). Teaching English Pronunciation. In J. Kenworthy, Teaching English Pronunciation (p. 128). Hong Kong: Longman Group (Far East) Ltd. Kenworthy, J. (1992). Teaching English Pronunciation. In J. Kenworthy, Teaching English Pronunciation (p. 8). Hong Kong: Longman Group (Far East) Ltd. YIING, I. K. (2011). AN ANALYSIS OF PRONUNCIATION ERRORS IN ENGLISH OF CHINESE SPEAKERS FROM UTAR. AN ANALYSIS OF PRONUNCIATION ERRORS IN ENGLISH OF CHINESE SPEAKERS FROM UTAR, 45,46. YIING, I. K. (2011). AN ANALYSIS OF PRONUNCIATION ERRORS IN ENGLISH OFSIX UTAR CHINESE STUDIES UNDERGRADUATES . AN

ANALYSIS OF PRONUNCIATION ERRORS IN ENGLISH OFSIX UTAR CHINESE STUDIES UNDERGRADUATES , 52.