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Phonemic Problems

in

Language Learning

A Presentation by

Perlie O. Geron

MAE-LE

Bulacan State University

Graduate School

School Year 2011-2012

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What do we need to master to speak

a language?

Speaking knowledge of

a language

Vocabularyo The sum of words used by,

understood by, or at the

command of a particular

person or group.

Phonologyo the study of the system or

pattern of speech sounds

used in a particular language

or in language in general

Grammaro the rules for speaking or

writing a particular language,

or an analysis of the rules of a

particular aspect of language.

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PRESCRIPTIVE

PrescriptivePrescriptiveDescriptiveDescriptive

Rules of prescriptive

grammar make

statements about howpeople ought to use

language.

Provides rules as to how

the language should be.

DESCRIPTIVE

Descriptive grammarsimply describesgrammar the way it is

used every day bypeople. There are no setdefinite rules.

Descriptive languagetells how the languageis.

GRAMMAR

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PHONETIC vs. PHONEMIC

Phonetic(articulation) level

The phonetic level takes

care of the motor act of

producing the vowels and

consonants, so that we

have a repertoire all the

sounds we need in order

to speak our language.Phonological

(phonemic) level

The phonological or

phonemic level is in charge of

the brainwork that goes into

organising the speech sounds

into patterns of sound

contrasts so that we can make

sense when we talk.

Phonemic

Phonetic Phonemic problems

do NOT involve NEW

sounds

Rather it involves

learning NEWways to

USE old sounds

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Command ofphonology bears nocorrelation to

education, neitherdoes years ofhearingorspeaking thetargetlanguage.

Phonemicsystem are

incommensurablePatterns ofthe

speakers mothertongue areso deeply

ingrained astocontrol the

adults/speakershearing.

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Language Acquisition Desiderata

Knowledge of

English

phonemics

Knowledge of the

phonemic system

of the target

language.

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Four Situations on the Phonemic

System of the Target Language

1. There may be a relativelygood analysis.

2.There may be a good butincomplete analysis.

3.There may be a poor

analysis

4.There may be no analysiswhatsoever

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There may be a good but

incomplete analysis. These analyses are rendered incomplete

because they fail to describe, stress, rhyme and

rhythm, and transitions and terminals.

Another omission is the failure to provide

adequate phonetic descriptions of allophones.

ALLOPHONE

one of the slightly differing forms that the same singlespeech sound phoneme can take.

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Evidence of Poor Analysis of

Phonology

a) Some state pronunciations with little or no

qualification.

b) Some direct students to overlook featuresc) Some state that proper pronunciation is

impossible to acquire.

d) Some make use of impressionistic anduseless terms

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Evidence of Poor Analysis of

Phonology

e) Some express linguistic features as theresult of racial or other irrelevantattributes.

f) Some are more concerned with soundnot present in the language described.

g) Some confuse spelling and

pronunciation,h) Some assume perversity of the

speaker/learner.

i) Some confuse phonetics and phonemics,

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Evidence of Poor Analysis of

Phonology

j) Some state pronunciations in terms of

deviations from a known or reconstructed

parent language.

k) Some are contradictory

l) Some suggest ridiculous gymnastics

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In Conclusion

Proper training in phonetics

together with close attention to

phonemics may enable a studentto make first approximation

quickly and easily

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What Remains

Is to achieve pronunciation

acceptable to the last detail

and make it automatic