Phonotactics and English Language Learning (ELL)
Part 2: Dealing with
Native French Students
As pointed out in the previous article (or Part 1: Dealing with Native Chinese Students),
all languages have different phonotactic rules that may or may not overlap at
some point. That is, we can find the very same combination of consonant and
vowel sounds in two different languages, but at the same time, we can find “impossible”
combinations in a given language. For example, the diphthong /ew/ in Spanish is
quite frequent in words such as euforia (euphoria), Eugenio (Eugene), and eufemismo (euphemism). All
of them contain the /ew/ vowel combination in Spanish, but this combination is “impossible”
in English because it gets to be pronounced /yuw/.
French is also a good pool of phonotactics that has
overlapping rules with English, but it also has different sound arrangements.
In this article we will explore four different phonotactic rules in French that
–when being transferred into English- cause a lot of trouble to these speakers.
Needless to mention, that this transfer from French produces a great amount of
extra foreign accent while interacting with other speakers, and it can
perfectly cause plenty of misunderstandings.
The case of Native French
Speakers
a)
Consonant Sounds
French speakers tend to drop the beginning /h/ sound in English words, such as the
examples provided below. From a phonotactic point of view, the beginning /h/
sound is not part of the possible phonemic combinations in that language. That’s
why it’s necessary that learners become aware of this to correct this pronunciation mistake.
/h/ at the beginning of English words
|
||
Word
|
Correct
|
Mistake
|
house
|
/haws/
|
/aws/
|
helmet
|
/’hɛǝlmǝt/
|
/’ɛǝlmǝt/
|
husband
|
/’hʌzbǝnd/
|
/’ʌzbǝnd/
|
hearning
|
/’hiyǝrɪŋ/
|
/’iyǝrɪŋ/
|
The very last example in this chart is good evidence that beginning native French speakers –when dropping the beginning /h/ sound- make hearing and earring homophones.
1. I lost my hearing.
2. I lost my earring.
Corrective Exercises:
a) Drilling
of individual words with beginning /h/
b) Drilling
of contrastive words such as hearing / earring
c) Drilling
of sentence containing minimal pairs
From an orthographic (spelling) point of view, lots of
French words contain a final letter –s. But considering the phonotactics of
this language, this final –s is silent. A French speaker may tend to transfer
that information unconsciously into English and forget to pronounce this voiceless
fricative glottal sound, the /s/ sound at the
end of words.
This consistent mistake by beginning English learners
whose mother tongue is French can be seen while they pluralize nouns. Although
here we have mentioned the /s/ sounds because of the final –s in many plural
words in English, let’s not forget that it actually accounts for either /s/ or
/z/ -directly depending on the presence or absence of voicing in the final
consonants of nouns in English.
/s/ or /z/ sound at the end of words
|
|
Common Mistake
|
Correct Pronunciation
|
one
of my sister
|
one
of my sisters
a
lot of problems
|
a
lot of problem
|
|
many
book
|
many
books
|
several
desk
|
several
desks
|
Correcting this single, simple mistake in their speech
will allow French speakers to sound much more natural while speaking English. Students
can then become more confident with the phonotactics of English.
Corrective Exercises:
a) Contrasting
singular and plural words
b) Reading
phrases containing plural words
c) Drilling
of sentence containing plural words and/or phrases
b)
Vowel Sounds
As pointed out by Mojsin (2009), “the /ey/ sound (as in fake) doesn’t exit in French, so native speakers of this language
generally pronounce it as /ɛ/.” For this reason, it will be common that words
such as “wet” and “wait” end up being homophones.
Students must learn how to make a difference when
pronouncing:
/ɛ/
|
/ey/
|
|
1
|
wet
|
weight
|
2
|
west
|
waste
|
3
|
test
|
taste
|
4
|
men
|
main
|
Taken from Mojsin, L (2009) Mastering the American Accent. LA:
Barrons Page 143
|
||
Help them check their vowel understanding by learning to
differentiate the /ey/ and /ɛ/ sounds graphically and then acoustically. This
exercise, if you have already noticed it, can be used to work with native
Chinese and French students who happen to have the same kind of pronunciation
problem (Acuña 2013).
Chart 1: How are the following words
pronounced? Check the right column.
|
|||
#
|
Words
|
/ey/
|
/ɛ/
|
1
|
age
|
||
2
|
edge
|
||
3
|
met
|
||
4
|
main
|
||
5
|
pen
|
||
6
|
let
|
||
7
|
wait
|
||
8
|
day
|
||
9
|
then
|
||
10
|
steak
|
||
Taken and adapted from Orion, G
(1988). Pronouncing American English. NY:
Newbury Page 67
|
|||
Chart 2: Practice the following
contrasting words. Make sure you are making a clear difference.
|
|
1
|
When being wet, your
weight is greater.
|
2
|
Don’t go west; it’s a
waste of time.
|
3
|
Do you know what a taste
test is?
|
4
|
They’re the main men in
the group.
|
Created by Prof. Jonathan Acuña for
teaching purposes.
|
|
Corrective Exercises:
a) Drilling
contrastive words
b) Drilling
sentences with both sounds
Tense and Lax
Vowels
Among the sound collection of many languages where
French is included, speakers don’t count with a clear contrast between tense
and lax vowels: /ɪ/ vs. /iy/ and /ʊ/ vs. /uw/.
/ɪ/
|
/iy/
|
/ʊ/
|
/uw/
|
||
1
|
bit
|
beat
|
1
|
could
|
cooed
|
2
|
did
|
deed
|
2
|
should
|
shoed
|
3
|
it
|
eat
|
3
|
full
|
fool
|
4
|
fit
|
feet
|
4
|
hood
|
who’d
|
To sum up, it’s important to monitor native
French-speaking students to help them deal with this phonotactic difference
between English and French. Even if you –the instructor- don’t know much about
French but have some background in Spanish, native Spanish speakers share
similar pronunciation problems with French learners.
ETo
fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research
and expand these areas:
1
|
Confusing th
with /s/ and /z/
|
2
|
Dropping the
final /r/ sound (for American English)
|
3
|
The –ing pronunciation
|
4
|
Word/sound
contrast for /ow/ and /ɔ/
|
5
|
Pronouncing
similar words in French and English
|
Professor
Jonathan Acuña-Solano
ELT
Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica
Freelance ELT Consultant four OUP in Central America
For
further comments or suggestions, reach me at:
@jonacuso – Twitter
Other blogs I often write for my students at the
university are:
Acuña,
Jonathan (2013) Phonotactics
and English Language Learning (ELL) Part
2: Dealing with Native French Students Published at http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/2013/01/phonotactics-and-english-language.html
Mojsin, L (2009) Mastering
the American Accent. LA: Barrons
Get a copy of this article by clicking here.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
