When one learns a second language after acquiring a first language, features of the first language interfere with those of the second language. This is called L1 Interference or negative transfer. Because of a variety of English spoken in different parts of the world, there is no purity of either language or pronunciation. Therefore we often come across alternate pronunciations and mispronunciations. However one needs to strive to acquire correct pronunciation.
In a native/first language situation, from a very early stage children learn to respond to sounds and tones
which their elders habitually use while talking to them. In due course, children start learning English. They
tend to speak in the mother tongue accent. In India, where English is used as second language, children
listen to wrong sounds and tones spoken by their teachers/grown ups in their environment and tend to pick
up faulty pronunciation.
Moreover we tend to speak English as we speak our mother tongue; therefore we tend to make mistakes
due to its influence.
The key areas of L1 interference in Malayalam/English learners are:-
1. Pronouncing silent letters
Eg;- /briddʒ / instead of /bridʒ/
/əddʒɜ:n/ instead of /ədʒɜ:n/
2. Pronunciation of double letters
Eg;- brilliant, apparatus, apparel,
Commission, bullet, committe
3. Pronouncing words without stress shift
'absent ab'sent
abstract ab 'stract
4. Pronouncing ‘-es/s’ and ‘-ed’ morphemes
5. Strong articulation of weak function class words
6. Intrusive ‘y’ eg;- /kya:t/ instead of /kæt/
7. Phonetic fossil
8. Problem with /z/ sound
eg;- /su:/ instead of /zu:/
9. Wrong pronunciation of some numbers and other common mispronunciations
10. Wrong assimilations and common mispronunciations.
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