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2. Some Specific and Secondary Mbujimayi Efl Learners’ Pronunciation Difficulties

It is important to keep in mind that any investigation of speech as communication must be concerned with both the production and perception ends (Gimson 1980). Paulston and Bruder’s 1976) in their book entitled Teaching English as a Second Language,the latter insist that pronunciation practice cannot in any real sense be divorced from listening practice. Accordingly, this fact makes listening and speaking co-dependent.
Some of the typical and minor pronunciation problems faced by Mbujimayi EFL learners can be stated as follows : the chaotic nature of English spelling ,the assimilation and dissimilation of sounds in connected speech ,the aspiration of voiceless stops in English ,the strong and the week forms realisation , clusters,stress and intonation in English ,the absence of pronunciation materials in syllabus and national curriculum design … Here bellow I explain how these can prevent learners to perform in English pronunciation.

2.1. The Irregular Nature of English Spelling

Depending on the relationship between pronunciation and spelling, languages are divided into two main groups: (1) phonographic (or phonetic) and (2) non phongraphic languages (Biselela 2010). Phonographic languages are according to Hornby (2005) those having a system of spelling that approximates closely to the system of sounds. Similarly, Biselela (opcit) describes the difference between these two types of languages when he clarifies that the phonographic languages are those presenting much one to one correspondence between their graphic symbols and their phonemes . While non-phonographic languages are those which do not generally speaking show one-to-one correspondence between graphemes and phonemes. Swahili and Ciluba are instances of phonographic languages (in DRC) whereas English is a non-phonographic language. Furthermore ,making reference to reading ,(Biselela 2010) shows that phonetic languages are easier to sound out than non – phonetic ones. This fact accordingly, makes the reading difficult since there is generally a very large gap between its sound and orthography.
e.g: Ciluba “kulama ” :[k u l a m a ] ( phonographic ) English : to maintain [m e I’n t e I n] (non-phonographic)
The lack of passable correspondence between English letters and sounds causes main problems to Mbujimayi EFL learners who seem to be unable to discriminate which sounds to produce and perceive from a given environment. Put otherwise, the spelling of English is one of the most important sources of learners' mispronunciation since different spellings may stand for one sound. This is the case of the phoneme [i:] in meet, meat, siege, seize, police, key, quay, people. However reverse situation is also possible that is, one letter representing different sounds as for the letter (a) in mad [m æ d], made [m e I d],car [k a: ], village[v I l I gz ] or (o) in donkey [˄], home [əu], woman [u], women [ɪ], who [u]. Talking of the same matter O'connor ( 1988: 7) adds that in ordinary English spelling, it is not always easy to know what sounds the letter stand for. An illustration are the words city, busy, women, pretty, village where the letters ɩ, y, u, o, e and a which all stand for the same vowel sound; that is, the one occuring in sit. Similarly in banana, bather, man and many, the letter (a) stands for five different vowel sounds. It would be much more useful if the reader could always be certain that one letter represented one and only one sound, that when s/ he saw a letter s/he would know at once how to pronounce it. All the phenomena described above are sources of Mbujimayi EFL learners pronunciation difficulties since in front of such situations, learners are embaraced .

2.2. Silent letters (Sound) and elision

In his book The Use of English, (Quirk 1978) and Koneru (2011) rightly observe that many letters in English are not pronounced at all. There is a loss of the original relationship between sound and spelling. The fact that a sound disappears or is not clearly articulated in certain contexts is known as elision Gimson (1976) ,Hartmann and Ward (1976). According to Hornby (2005), elision is a process in connected speech by which a sound is left out in order to make the articulation easier or a case where a sound (consonant or vowel) is left out. As a matter of fact, elision is for English speakers a very clever way to save time and effort. This happens when unstressed vowels tend to be very weak and reduced in English and are consequently left out. This phenomenon is known as elision of vowels. That is, when an unstressed vowel is following a stressed syllable,it is often left out in pronunciation. This is referred to as syncope which, according to Hartman and Stork (1973) is the loss of one sound or letters from the middlle of a word. This is considered as a secondary problem for one to handle pronunciation and ,any learner who is not informed about it,will be lost.

 e.g:  Slow speed

Stressed syllable

Normal speed

Int(e)resting

[‘intəresti]

[‘Intrəsti]

Sev(e)ral

[‘sevərəl]

[‘sevrəl]

In these words, it is very frequent that the vowel between parentheses ( ) is omitted. Very frequently, this vowel is [ə] or [ı]. The loss of stress and thus of prominence, affects the vowel quality and changes it into a weak vowel,less prone to be prominent. In very colloquial English,the initial vowel or syllable of word may be omitted if it is unstressed.This is called aphesis, that is “the omission of one or more words from the beginning of an utterance’’ (Hartman and Wad 1976) as in evening for good evening or [baut] for about. An alternative term is aph(a)eresis.

               e.g : Utterance

Slow

Very Fast

                      Because

[bikͻz]

[kͻz]

                  About

[about]

[baut]

In the examples above, the utterance because becomes ‘’cause’’ while about becomes « bout » in pronunciation. This phenomenon is very often heard with native speakers in connected speech. Other similar cases include those where the consonant [t] and [d] in a middle of cluster of three consonants in a word are normally lost and those where [nd] and [d] in the end of words are also frequently omitted. For instance.

e.g: ‘’wind mill’’

Becomes

[win(d) mil]

         ‘’restless’’

Becomes

[res(t)less]

In this list above, the underlined sounds are not sometimes noticeable in pronunciation.
Another case of elision according to (Gimson 1976), occurs when a plosive is in the middle of a cluster of three consonants formed by two words, this plosive is normally lost.

e.g:‘’first three’’

Becomes

‘’firs three’’

[fɜ :sӨri :]

          ‘’banned   

             for life’’

Becomes

‘’bann for life’’

[bændfəlaif]

Some consonant clusters are notoriously difficult to pronounce for Mbujimayi EFL learners. An example of this is the occurrence of two and especially of three successive consonants. The alternative to ease this articulation is dropping one consonant, usually the one in the middle. This is known as simplification of clusters. e.g :

             (4)‘’asked’’

[æskt]

[æst]

                   ‘’lists’’

[lists]

liss[lɪs:]

2.3. Linking

Linking is a peripheral problem in dealing with sounds matters since phrases and even whole sentences are pronounced as one smooth sound instead of a series of separate words Finocchiaro and Brumfit (1983) ; Gimson ( 1976 ). As such, linking is the connection of the final sound of one word or syllabe with the initial sound of the next word or syllable. According to Gimson (1976), Hornby ( 2010) ,Hartman and Stork (1976) this is the ability to speak English smoothly. If one practises linking words his/her speech will become much more native like and if one does not link words together, his/her speech sounds choppy. Therefore, when native English people speak, they generally do not pause between each word, but move effortlessly from one word to the next, which is advisable even for EFL learners. There are special ways of doing this. For instance, linking of vowel to vowel, linking – r and intrusive – r, linking of consonant to consonant.

2.2.1. Linking of vowel to vowel

When a word or syllable ends in [i:], [ɩ], [eɩ], [aɩ] or [ͻɩ] and the following word or syllable begins with a vowel, there is a linking glide represented with the phonetic symbol [j].
e.g : « Say͜ it » [s e i j i t] my͜ own [m a ɩ ϳ ə u n].
Gimson (1976) explains that some glide in the direction of [ı] is likely to be made when the following vowel has a quality near to that of the first element of the diphthong especially of the wide diphtongs [aɩ. ͻɩ].
e.g:May͜ end, the boy͜ often, my‿uncle
Similarly, when a word or syllable ends in [u:], [əᴜ] or [aᴜ] and the following word or syllable begins with a vowel there is a linking glide too. But this time, it is representend by [w]. For instance:

(7)‘‘blue ink’’

 

[b l u ʷ ɪ ᶇ k]

‘‘how is’’

 

[h a ᴜ ʷɪz]

‘‘flour’’

 

[flauʷə]

2.2.2. The linking – r and the intrusive – r

In their Dictionary of Language and Linguistics (Hartmann and Stork 1976), define the linking – r – as the fact that [r] is used intervocalically between syllables or words whereas, the intrusion is in the addition of a speech sound between syllables or words in connected speech, usually for ease of pronunciation.
The intrusive – r , is by similarity that the [r] linking usage extends to all [a :, ͻ: ə] endings, even when there is no historical (spelling) explanation. Such intrusive [r] is to be heard particularly in the case of [ə] endings
e.g: Russia and China
[ʹrɅʃərənʹ tʃaɪnə]
Drama and music
[dra : mərən ənʹmiuzɪk]
Less frequently similar links, unjustified by the spelling are made with final [ a :, ə :] :
e.g :Shah of Persia
[ʹʃa :r əv ʹ pɜ : f ə ]
law and order
[lͻ : r ənd ʹ ͻ : d ə ]
The RP system of linking [r] strongly inspires the creation of analogous links in similar phonetic contexts. For (Gimson 1976) ,with some speakers however, fear of using the intrusive [r] may inhibit such liaison, a vowel glide or glottal stop being used’’.
e.g :The door opened [ծə ʹ dͻ :əᴜpand] or [ծə ʹ dͻ :? əᴜpənd]

2.2.3. Linking of consonant to a vowel (Resyllabification)

We talk of resyllabification if a word ends in a consonant and the next word begins with a vowel, we use the consonant to begin the syllable of the following word :
e.g:‘’Down͜ and͜ out’’
‘’rush͜out’’
“ far away”
This is the same in a consonant cluster ending words like in :
.e.g : « Left͜ arm »
« Pushed͜ up »
Technically this is known as phonetic resyllabification or phonemic resyllabification.

2.2.4. Linking of consonant to consonant

When there is a link of two same consonants, we do not pronounce the sound twice, but make it longer. In a phonetic transcription, we will represent it with the length mark [:] which means that the sound is elongated in the same way as with lengthened vowels (Gimson 1976). This is different from elision in that here, the same sound (two stops) following one another can not be pronounced twice, instead it is made long while with elision the sound simply desappears or is darkly uttered.
e.g : « Big girls » [bɪɡ:ɜ:lz]
        « nice summer » [naɪʹ s:Ʌmə]
Note that when a plosive is followed by another plosive, affricate, lateral or nasal, the first plosive is unreleased. This is as a matter of fact, another case of consonant to consonant linking.

2.3. Lack of the sound in the native system

To a large extent, Mbujimayi EFL learners have specific problems in pronouncing the English sounds which do not exist in their mother tongues or else in placing stress on a wrong syllable. Generally,vowels are the most troublesome sounds for EFL learners . This is because, English vowel system has twenty vocalic sounds that is 11/12 simple vowels and 8 diphthoongs while many other languages have fewer vowels : 6 in French, 7 in lingala and Swahili ,5 in Kikongo and 6 in ciluba,. The lack of the vowels such as [i :, oe, Ʌ :, ɜ :, u :] and diphthongs like [au, əu, ͻɪ, əɪ], etc in the learmers languages has much impact on their mispronunciation and misunderstanding of English sounds. For instance, learners whose first languages have no [eɪ] sound will not easily utter word like [l e I t] instead, they will understand or pronounce it as [l e t]. These sounds typical to English do not exist in Mbujimayi EFL learners previous languges and cause them problems in pronunciation. They are: [æ, I, ɜ, ʌ, ʊ, ɑ, еI, ɔI, ɑI, ɛə, ʊə, Iə, ɵ, ծ, ḍƷ, tʃ, Ʒ, ʃ, h, r, l ].
For instance a case of the English spelling where the letters t and h stand for the sounds[ Ɵ] or [ Ỡ, ] a learner from Mbujimayi would pronounce it as:

e.g: 

 

[tIn]

[sIn]

[fIn]

Thin

Instead of [Ɵin]

This mispronunciation would be justified by the fact that there is no sound having the same place of articulation as these two sounds correspondingly in the learners previous languages. What happens is that as these sounds are missing in their languages phonetic systems, their habits force them to put them in the similar boxes in their languages phonetic systems
e.g: Make [m eI k ] for a native speaker becomes [m e k]
Heard [h ɜ: d ] for a native speaker becomes [h e d ]
Regarding the above difficulties of learning a new language, (Westerman and Ward 1976) on their part justify that the untrained student of any new language hears in terms of his/her mother tongue. Further (Ellis 1982) sustains that difficulties facing L2 learner is imposed by his/her first language. Put differently, two languages cannot coexist peacefully but they must interfere. This interference results from the failure of structures from previously known language (s) to fit into the pattern of the target language. (Richards et alii 1985); (Richard 1974). There is a sort of hybridism between the source or any other mastered language and the target language.

2.4. Aspiration

According to Hartmann and Stork (1976:46) “ Aspiration is the articulation of a stop consonant with an audible puff of breath. But for (Gimson 1980), we talk of aspiration when there is a cloud of air in the production of the consonant [ p, t, k] in a stressed syllables. For instance: pin, tin, kin ['phIn, thIn, KhIn]. Many Congolese languages like ciluba have far fewer aspirated sounds that non trained students may have troubles in perceiving and producing these aspirated sounds . Morever, it is clear that initially in accented syllables [p, t, k] and [b, d, g] are
[tIn]
[sIn]
[fIn]
Thin
Instead of [Ɵin]
distinguished by the listener mainly through the presence or absence of aspiration rather than through the presence or absence of voice.
Discussing about aspiration, (Rivers and Temperley 1978: 151) explain that if a French unaspirated [t] is used in English where an aspirated [th] is expected, it may sound to English speakers like [d], such that tie will sound like die. The opposite situation may also occur. English speakers sometimes think the French are irrationally calling the famous dish a guiche, rather than a quiche. This is because the lack of aspiration of the French initial consonant is to English ears, a cue for the perception of an initial voiced or plosive in this case, English [g].
Obviously, error made in this area can make English difficult to understand for native English speakers and vice versa. But, it is better to mention that the degree of the problem will vary depending on one's native language awareness of English pronunciation rules and personal differences in language learning ability.

2.5. Assimilation

As a secondary problem for not well trained speakers of English, assimilation is a phenomenon behind some learners mispronunciation . As such, it is known as one of the aspects of connected speech; as opposed to the pronunciation of individual words or phrases in isolation.
For Meyer (2002), and Finocchiaro and Brumfit (1983) assimilation is a general process whereby adjacent sounds of different properties become more similar in terms of the voicing, place of articulation, or manner of articulation. In other words, it is the alteration of speech sound to make it more similar to its neighbors or a process of simplification by which a speech sound as influenced by the surrounding sounds to make them more similar (Gimson 1976: 292). For instance, the consonant [n] changes to [m] or [n] depending of the consonant that follows.
e.g:‘‘One beer’’ [wɅmbɩə], ‘‘One cup’’ [wɅᶇ khɅp]
Here, assimilation consists of the nasal / n/ becoming /m/ before a bilabial stop /b/and /ᶇ / before stop /k/. This transition case from one consonant to another makes articulation possible especially when the speech rate is fast. However, it is important for the learners to be able to make assimilation unconsciously. Unlike other languages, assimilation occurs very frequently in English both between words and within words. It happens in three different directions: (a) Progressive Assimilation (b) Regressive Assimilation and (c) palatalisation.
In progressive assimilation the sequence of sounds A+B, the sound A changes the sound B (Gimson 1988 : 290). This means that the conditioning sound precedes and affects the following. Very clear examples are the rules for the regular plural and regular past tense.

 e.g:Plural

Conditioning Sound

Assimilated sound

     ‘‘bags’’

[b œ ɡ] + s ending

[b œ ɡ → z]

    ‘‘books’’

[b k] + s ending

[b ki → s]

 

The plural morphemes [s]

+ alveolar

+ Fricative

- Voice

 

 

becomes [z]

becomes [z]

 

 

+ alveolar

+ Fricative

-voice

[s] + alv+fric-voice

After voiced sounds including [g]

 

 

After voiceless stop [p, t, k]

The most tense morpheme [ I ] + stop alveolar voice becomes [t] after voiceless sounds [t]
becomes [d] after voiced sounds [d]

Past tense

Conditioning Sound

Assimilated sound

e.g:‘‘laughed’’

[l œ f] + d ending

[l œ f → t]

‘‘moved’’

[m u : v] + d ending

[m u : → vd]

This progressive assimilation also happens in contractions.

e.g :Contraction

Conditioning sound

Assimilated sound

‘‘It’ s’’

[It + z]

[It →s]

Here are the explanations of what happens :

[ ¹ t                        

Z]   →[₁tz]           

   [ I  t             

S]    → [₁ts]

Alveolar

Plosive

Voiceless

alveolar

fricative

voiced

Alveolar

Plosive

Voiceless

Alveolar

Fricative

Voiceless

There is regressive assimilation in a sequence of sounds A+B, when the sound B changes the sound A. In other words, the assimilated sound precedes and is affected by the conditioning sound. This is the most common type of assimilation in English.
The following examples of ‘’ One beer’’ “ one cup” are instances of regressive assimilation.

e.g :

[ n

b ıə]

[m

b ıə]

Alveolar

Bilabial

Bilabial

Bilabial

Nasal

Plosive

Nasal

Plosive

Voiced

Voiced

Voiced

Voiced

A voiced alveolar nasal [n] before a voiced plosive bilabial [b ] becomes a voiced bilabial nasal /m/

[ n

k Ʌp]

[

k p]

Alveolar

Bilabial

Bilabial

Bilabial

Nasal

Plosive

Nasal

Plosive

Voiced

Voiced

Voiced

Voiced

This type of assimilation occurs frequently in modals "has to" "have to" (expressing obligation) and "used to" (expressing habitual action in the past):

Par Claude NTAMBWA CIMANGA, dans RIFRA, Presses Universitaires de Kinshasa, 2024