• Justification:
• I chose this topic because is a common problem in students who go to speaking corners in the language center (SAC) of the university of Quintana Roo. I think that the fossilization in students because they don t know how to identify their errors in pronouncing because not all of them know about phonology or do not have a high level of English.
• Objectives:
• To know what factors make that some Mexican students tend to have pronunciation problems with the phonemes; theta, eth, and the mispronunciation of the consonant: f, v, s, and z,
• Show how to pronounce these different phonemes.
What is fossilization?
• “Fossilizable linguistic phenomena are linguistic items, rules and subsystems which speakers of a particular NL will tend to keep in their IL relative to a particular TL, no matter what the age of the learner or amount of explanation and instruction he receives in the TL. (NL - Native Language; IL - Interlanguage; TL - Target Language)”, ( Interlanguage & fossilization, 2012)
• SELINKER(1972)
What does fossilization happen?
• Linguists do not know exactly why
fossilization happens
• Because of an inadequate learning
environment .
• They are not in a native speaker
country, so they cannot have a good input.
SPANISH AND ENGLISH SOUNDS
Theta and eth
• Theta /θ/ and eth /ð/
are dental fricative
sounds in English
language. They are
called dental because
to reproduce them you
have to put your
tongue between your
lips.
• theta is voiceless and
eth is voiced.
The consonants F and V
• In English: • The consonant “ f ” can be pronounced with the
phonemes /f/ and /v/. These phonemes are labio-dental
fricatives because the air comes through the teeth and
lips. And the /f / is voiceless and the phoneme /V/ is
voiced.
• The consonant “ V ” is only pronounced with the sound
/V/
• In Spanish:
• The consonant “ f ” is pronounced with the
sound /f/
• The consonant “ v ” is pronounced with the
sound/b/ which is a bilabial stop and voiced
sound . In Mexico is common to pronounce the
letter “ v ” as /b/.
The consonants S and Z
• In English:
• The consonant S is pronounced with the sound /s/
and also with the sound /z/
• The consonant Z is pronounced with the sound /z/
• In Spanish:
• The consonant S is pronounced with the sound /s/
• The consonant Z is pronounced with the sound /s/
• The phonemes /s/ and /z/ are alveolar
fricatives, there are alveolar because the tongue
is on the alveolar ridge when the sound is
reproduce. And also it results from an
obstruction of the air flow at the alveolar ridge.
The /s/ is voiceless and the /z/ is voiced.
• Research
• Group 1: students with a basic level in
English.
SAC
Student 2 student with an advanced level in
English,
he has taken phonology
Theta Eth
Mouth /t/ There
Breath This
Earth That
Think /t/ Then /d/
Birth /t/ Those
Thanks /t/ Either /d/
Thieve /d/ Than
Thorax Weather /t/
Pathetic /d/ Mother /d/
Catholic Father /d/
Theta Eth
Mouth There
Breath This /d/
Earth That
Think Then
Birth Those
Thanks Either
Thieve Than /d/
Thorax Weather
Pathetic Mother
Catholic Father
GROUP 1
STUDENT 2
Theta and eth• Group 1
• Students tend to pronounce the consonants TH as /t/ or /d/ because
these phonemes are in Spanish phonetic alphabet. They listen how the
pronunciation of the words is, and they adapt the sound with /t/ and /d/.
• It is common to see this problem because these phonemes are not used
for Mexican people; however, there are some regions in Mexico where
people used the phoneme theta. The phonemes theta and eth are difficult
for Mexican people because they are not getting used with these sounds.
•
• Student 2
• Student demonstrated to be familiarized with these sounds. He has a
high level in English, and also he has taken courses of phonology and
linguistics which allowed him to know about these phonemes.
F V
Off Thieve /f/
Fan Of /f/
Feel Five /f/
Professor Veal
Fault Event /b/
Fresh Van
Shelf Available /b/
Half Evaluation
Wolf Prevention
Vote /b/
F V
Off Thieve
Fan Of
Feel Five
Professor Veal /b/
Fault Event
Fresh Van
Shelf Available
Half Evaluation
Wolf Prevention /b/
vote
GROUP 1
STUDENT 2
• Group 1
• In this part, students did not have problems pronouncing the /f/ because this sound
exists in their alphabet; however they think that the consonant F is pronounced always
with /f/. An example of this is the word - of – that is pronounced with the phoneme /v/
but they pronounced it like /f/.
• On the other hand, they do not know how to pronounce the letter V in English
because in Mexico we pronounced the letter V as /b/ like in the word - vil – we do not
say /vil/, we say /bil/. This problem happens when the letter V is in the beginning of the
words. However, they can pronounce the letter V as /v/ when the consonant is in middle
of the word; - Prevention- they say /prɪ v̍entʃən /. But when the consonant is at the
end of the word they pronounced the letter as /f/ like in –of-, they pronounce /af/ instead
of /av/.
• Student 2
• This student made mistakes in pronunciation but in a different way that the group.
He mispronounced the word –prevention-; /prɪ B̍entʃən/, when the group pronounced
it well, so for this student can be a problem the pronunciation of the letter V in middle of
a word. Also he had pronounced the word –veal- with the sound /f/.
GROUP 1
STUDENT 2
S Z
Bus Buzz
So Zoo
Sip Zip /s/
Muss /z/ Zebra
Miss /z/ Zombie
Stand Zoom
Mess Busy /s/
Case Quiz
Base Phrase /s/
Suggest Rise /s/
S Z
Bus Buzz
So Zoo
Sip Zip
Muss Zebra
Miss Zombie /S/
Stand Zoom
Mess Busy
Case Quiz
Base Phrase
Suggest Rise
• Group 1
• Like in other consonants, the sound Z is not pronounced like /z/ in
Mexico. An example: the word –zapato- ,Mexicans say /Sapato/
instead of /Zapato/. So it is not surprising that students with a basic
level in English do a lot of mistakes with the letter Z in English
words.
• It is important to mention that these students know that in
English exists the sound /z/ but they think that when word has a
double S, they have to pronounce it like a /z/. For example the
words -miss- and- muss- they pronounced them with /z/.
• Student 2
• In this lists of words, the student had a mistake with the letter
Z, he pronounced it as /s/ in the word –zombie-.
Ways of correcting these
mistakes in pronunciation in
class
How can you indicate inviduals
sounds
• Mouthing the word using gesture
• Emphazising a Finger indication
syllable
Making marks
/hoTEL/ /hotel/ /ho tel/
Visuals
CapitalizationUnderlining
Stress
mark
Conclusion• First, we are not familiarized with the English alphabet, it
has different sound that in Spanish alphabet of Mexico
does not have. So for this reason many students carry
with these mistakes in pronunciation. For this reason it is
important to study phonology and phonetics to
understand how the sounds work.
• Other reason can be that we are not in a country
where English is spoken like a national language so we
do not have the enough and appropriate input of English
to improve our language, Also that we live with people
who can have mistakes and they can transmit us those
mistakes. In short, we are in an inadequate learning
environment.
•
• These mistakes can be corrected in class with
the help of the teacher; there are many ways of
do it. But the important thing is that students
realized about their mistakes and correct them in
order to follow in a good way their process of
learning the language.
• This correction will help students to acquire a
better accent in English.