PRONUNCIATION

PROBLEMS OF NONNATIVE SPEAKERS OF

ENGLISH
l smhh mn bnt dllh @ bdul zz

Who is a non-native speaker?

an individual whose first language
was something other than English
someone with little or no
knowledge of the English
language, or someone who speaks
English fluently, but whose first
language was something else

 Contrast with Native Speakers of

English (NSE), they are the people
whose first language is English
learned English when they were
children
think in English
use it naturally
Usually they are people from Englishspeaking countries like the USA, Great
Britain, Australia, Canada, Ireland, etc.

three types of English speakers

according to Kachrus Circles Theory
Inner circle
Outer circle
Expanding circle

Inner circle
represents the traditional bases of
English
English as it originally took shape and
was spread across the world
United Kingdom, the United States,
Australia, New Zealand, Ireland,
Anglophone Canada and South Africa,
and some of the Caribbean territories.

Outer circle
produced by the second diaspora of English
spread the language through the
colonization by Great Britain and the US in
Asia and Africa
includes India, Nigeria, the Philippines,
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania,
Kenya, non-Anglophone South Africa and
others.
The outer circle is also where English is
important for historical reasons and plays a
part in the nation's institutions, either as an
official language or otherwise.

Expanding circle
Finally, the expanding circle
encompasses those countries where
English plays no historical or
governmental role, but where it is
nevertheless widely used as a foreign
language or lingua franca
includes much of the rest of the world's
population: China, Russia, Japan, most
of Europe, Korea, Egypt, Indonesia, etc.

Major languages in the world

Arabic
Cantonese
French
Hindi
Spanish

 in Arabic language, the speakers

may encounter some difficulties
where /p/ and /b/ are confused,
and /b/ is being used for both
example Paris is pronounced as
Baris.

 In Cantonese language the initial

position of /w/ and /v/ are
confused, /w/ is being used for
both.
The example is Venice is
pronounced as Wenise.

 Some non-native speakers that use

French as their first language would
deal with some difficulties such as //
and // are confused and // is being
used for both.
The example of the word is Canteen
(/kntin/) is pronounced as Kntin.

 An English speaker that uses Hindi as a

main language also will have problem
in pronouncing English words. The
sound of /d/ are made up with the
extreme edge of the tongue-tip curled
back to a point just behind the alveolar
ridge and this should be avoided.
For example many of them pronounced
But with Bud pronunciation

 The next major non-native speakers of English

are using Spanish as their first language are
having difficulties such as in consonant
letters.
The letter /l/ is always clear and /r/ in Spanish
is a tongue-tip trill.
Example: Lord
// and // are confused but // is being used
for both.
Example is Cat (kt) is pronounced as Kt.
Rhythm in Spanish is like that of French or
Hindi.

Malaysia
// sound is confused with /d/
sound.
Example of //:
Thing
Path
Example of /d/ :
Day
Duck

 their
Malaysians generally read it asthee-ya. In Oxford or any
English dictionary, the phonetic signs for this word is similar
to the word there.
debt
Pronounced asdet, notdebt.
doubt
Silentbtoo, hencedaut.
receipt
In this case, thepis silent, henceri-sit.
procedure
It's notprou-si-dearfor goodness sake, butpre(eas in
water)-si-jer.
penis
it's not read aspe(as inpenalty)-nis, butpi-nes(as in

Factors that cause the pronunciation problems:

Lack of confidence
Lack of vocabulary
The teachers did not focus on the
pronunciation
Influenced by the surrounding

Ways to overcome:
Practice
Listening
Watch the English movies, news in
English
Assign the teaching and learning
process to the native speaker
phonology books
Using audio materials
Phonology classes
Qualified phonology teachers