Literature review on an important issue related to vowel sounds
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Introduction-
Vowel sounds are fun to use but not when there are issues regarding it. One of the major issue related to vowel sound is the pronunciation or the dialect of different people from different countries. The inconsistencies in the English language is the main issue related to the vowel sounds. The differences in the vowel sound are because of the geographical and mainly the social barriers between the people. People of different origin have different types of dialect based on their syllable and the stress on it. Oxford dictionary states pronunciation as how a particular sound or a word is spoken. Chinese people all around the world face several difficulties while speaking and pronouncing the English language especially vowel sounds (Zhang & Yin, 2009). This literature review throws light upon differences in vowel sounds and the issues related to it. The current and the past research on it as well as the perspective of various people or authors on it. What changes can it bring? And how did the people frame this issue in the past and now in the present?
Literature review-
Vowel comes under the segmental feature of the language, it is making a sound from the air passing through the mouth and the lips with distinction in the location of the tongue. Vowels in English are of 2 types that are, pure vowels and the diphthongs. Pure vowels have a single character which differs in a long and short vowel. There are 5 long vowels in English and 6 short vowels also (Ma’lah, 2016). One of the important issue with English vowel is that it has inconsistency. One vowel can be pronounced in different ways. This generally confuses the learners and leads to mispronunciation (Ma’lah, 2016).
(Gilakjani, 2017) states that the pronunciation of vowel sounds is a habit of how you produce the sounds. The habit is acquired when you use it over and over again. Language is the mean of communication in our daily life. Chinese people, in general, think speaking and understanding a language is as simple as breathing and there is no need to improve the vowel sounds or the pronunciation of the language (Zhang & Yin, 2009). phonetics is the main and the large factor which affects the pronunciation in Chinese people when learning the English language (Zhang & Yin, 2009). in 1991, Xu Li Hua pointed out that Chinese people learning English has several problems like, they are shy and scared of people correcting them when they speak in the wrong way. They are scared of failure in terms of people laughing at them and ridicule. Chinese people restricting themselves from speaking English makes it more difficult for them to correct their pronunciations. Chinese learners tend to add a vowel after a stop consonant.
Another difference between the Chinese and the English language is that Chinese are a tone language whereas English is an intonation language, the Chinese pronunciations work in sound and music, whereas the English language is stress-based. The meaning of the words changes when there is high or low-level stress on the vowel in the words. Example- ship and sheep, Chinese learners tend to stretch the vowel which makes both the words sound the same in the pronunciation.
The main problem regarding Chinese learners is phonetics when it comes to speaking and listening to the English language (Zhang & Yin, 2009). According to the major Phonetician there more than 42 phonemes in English language and it is very difficult to take out the exact number of phonemes in the Chinese language since the very start, so we instead of phonemes consider the morphemes for comparison in learning because for every other morpheme there is a different tone. There are around 1644 in Chinese phonetics and around 1382 in Mandarin Chinese (Zhang & Yin, 2009). In terms of phonological systems Chinese and English differs in a number of vowels. English has a total number of 15 vowels whereas Chinese, on the other hand, has only 5 vowels, which makes it very difficult for the learners to pronounce new words and vowels when they start learning English (Han, 2019). Even when there are similar vowels in both the languages the sound and the place of articulation is different that is, the time and the length of articulation of the words. The long-form and the short form of the articulation of vowels change the meaning of the word and the sound of the vowels. For example, most of the Chinese learners do not get the difference between[I] and [I:] vowels and tend to extend the articulation of it. The Chinese language differs in articulation to speak the vowels whereas in the English language there is a change of position to generate the vowels (Han, 2019).
The position of phonemes and combining them is quite different in both languages. In the Chinese language, the words generally start with a consonant and end with a vowel, whereas in English the word can start with a consonant cluster and can either end with a vowel or a consonant. Therefore, when pronouncing Chinese learners face difficulties with the words ending with consonants (Han, 2019). Chinese and English also differ in the types of rhythm that are presented in the pronunciation, the stress-timed has already been explained whereas in syllable-timed,the amount of production of time is received by every syllable of the word.” the intervals between stressed syllables in speech are either equal or at least more nearly equal than the intervals between the nucleus of each successive syllable and
next” (Matthews, 1997).
English is a stress level language whereas Chinese is a tone level or rhythm language. The words in English changes when the stress on a particular syllable on vowels is changed. By lengthening the vowel in the syllable the words change. Chinese people tend to lengthen vowels in words when learning the English language (Han, 2019). There are also reduced vowels in English that is, they are sometimes omitted and not pronounced. For example, fruit is pronounced is /fru:t/ , the vowel <i> is omitted. Sometimes vowels are omitted because of the following consonants for example, important as /imp:tnt/ ( Arianto, 2019).
The pronunciation inconsistency of the vowels <a> <e> <i> <o> <u> in many words, among,another,abandon,jew,blew,chew,girl,shirt,bird,bowl,vocal,hole,rural,jury etc.
The pronunciation of some English sounds changes because of their inconsistency in the vowel sounds. The cause of this inconsistency is due to liaison, weak form, elision and assimilation. This inconsistency is due to the ones spoken in a fast rate and less formal style (Liang, 2015).
There are almost 23 common pronunciation problems in the English language (power,2003), in which many of them are vowel related e.g. the students confuse /i/ with /i:/ as in sit, seat. Researcher and linguistics always connect the problems with English pronunciation with the inconsistency in the vowel sounds and it is complexity. This is the major cause of the problem that arises with foreign people to learn the language.
Another factor that affects the pronunciation of the vowel sounds is the learner’s age and attitude towards it. Children tend to catch up and learn the language fast when compared to adults. Adults age hinders with the learning and affects the pronunciation of the vowel sounds (Zhang & Yin, 2009). After puberty, the lateralisation of an adult is diminished and the intelligence to take in the new language pronunciation is also limited. Similarly, attitude towards the target language learning and dedication towards it leads to a better and proper pronunciation. The coordination with the teachers during the class is really important for the inconsistency in the vowel sounds pronunciation in English. Motivation also plays a crucial part in learning the vowel sounds pronunciation correctly (Zhang & Yin, 2009). A person’s psychological as well mental state also plays an important part in learning the vowel sounds. The emotional state in which the person is attending the classes is crucial for the pronunciation.
In research by (Riadi, Rufinus & Novita, 2013) about students difficulty in pronouncing long and short length vowels. Here the researchers have analysed the quality as well as how well the students pronounce the long and the short length vowels. They found that the problems arise when there is a significant difference between the learner’s language and the target language. (Swan & Smith, 2001) in 2001 have found out that there are many psychological aspects and social aspects related to the Indonesian students learning the English language (Riadi, Rufinus & Novita, 2013). The phonological difference between the Indonesian and the English language is that the former has around 6 vowels and 19 consonants but the later has 22 vowels and 24 consonants which makes it difficult for the students to catch up with the vowel sounds pronunciation (Riadi, Rufinus & Novita, 2013).
According to (Ladefoged,2006) low vowels have greater sonority than high vowels and nasals have low sonority than high vowels. Voiced fricative has the highest number of sonority. (Umera-Okeke, 2008) in their paper have given the areas of sounds and inconsistencies in the vowel of the English language by grouping them under various headings (1) The same letter does not always depicts the same sound (Umera-Okeke, 2008) (2) The same sound is not always shown by the same letter (Umera-Okeke, 2008) (3) Some of the vowels are not pronounced at all in some words (Umera-Okeke, 2008) (4) Sometimes there is pronunciation of sound in some places where there is no letter present (Umera-Okeke, 2008) (5) There are also many variations in the past tense morphemes (Umera-Okeke, 2008).
In a paper by (Huang, 2016) they have summarised the errors in the non-English students as following (1) The errors in the tongue position pronunciation. There was a significant change in the usage of high-low and back – front tongue position in the students(Huang, 2016). (2) The retroflex in the female students came out to be very heavy and when pronounced the long vowels came to be retroflex (Huang, 2016). (3) The duration in the long vowel was short in the native college students(Huang, 2016).
(Huang, 2016) used experimental phonetics methods to find out the errors in the pronunciation of the major students in English vowel sounds. A quantitative analysis method was found out for the research in English literature. They have also used scientific data for the evaluation of English language problems (Huang, 2016).
Conclusion –
Vowel duration is important and is used extensively in every language. High and the low vowel duration is important in the English language and any change in that can cause words to change. In English, the duration of the vowels presents major intelligibility(Ali, 2013). many languages differ from English in terms of their number of vowels and the number of consonants. The Chinese language has 5 vowels whereas the English language has 15 vowels which makes it difficult for the non-English learners difficult to learn the language. Similarly, Indonesian and Arabic language has a few numbers of vowels as compared to the English language. Diphthongs used in the English language creates lateralisation and issues when it comes to learning and pronunciation of the words. Phonology and phonetics studies are important to go through the issues related to vowel sounds. Researchers have also found out that Chinese students have difficulty in learning when it comes to inconsistencies in the vowel sounds such as wrong pronunciation when a word ends with consonants and not with vowels. There is also the influence of spelling on pronunciation, words which are spelled in the same way are different in their pronunciation. The mother tongue also interferes with the learning of the language, the habits have to be broken down to learn a new language with inconsistencies in the vowel sounds.
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References–
- , & Arianto, T. (2019). A Phonology-based Study: English Pronunciation Inconsistency. Kne Social Sciences. doi: 10.18502/kss.v3i19.4834
Ali, E. (2013). Pronunciation problems: Acoustic analysis of the English vowels produced by Sudanese learners of English. International Journal Of English And Literature, 4(10). doi: 10.5897/IJEL12.031
Arianto, T. (2019). A phonology based study: English pronunciation inconsistencies.
Gilakjani, A. (2017). English Pronunciation Instruction: Views and Recommendations. Journal Of Language Teaching And Research, 8(6), 1249. doi: 10.17507/jltr.0806.30
Han, F. (2019). Pronunciation Problems of Chinese Learners of English. ORTESOL Journal.
Hassan, E. (2014). Pronunciation Problems: A Case Study of English Language Students at Sudan University of Science and Technology. English Language And Literature Studies, 4(4). doi: 10.5539/ells.v4n4p31
Huang, Q. (2016). Experimental research on English vowel errors analysis. SHS Web Of Conferences, 25, 01002. doi: 10.1051/shsconf/20162501002
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Ma’lah, L. (2016). pronunciation problems: a study of vowels.
Riadi, A., Rufinus, A., & Novita, D. (2013). STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS IN PRONOUNCING SHORT AND LONG ENGLISH VOWELS.
Umera-Okeke, N. (2008). Spelling and Phonetic Inconsistencies in English: A Problem for Learners of English as a Foreign/Second Language. African Research Review, 2(1). doi: 10.4314/afrrev.v2i1.41025
Xuan, S. (2019). A Study on English Pronunciation Problems at Segmental Level of College Students from Mainland China. Journal Of Literature And Art Studies, 9(2), 238-244. doi: 10.17265/2159-5836/2019.02.013
Zhang, F., & Yin, P. (2009). A Study of Pronunciation Problems of English Learners in China. Asian Social Science, 5(6). doi: 10.5539/ass.v5n6p141