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While Correct pronunciation refers to how to utter the words in the right sounds of the targeted language other than the mother tongue. The right pronunciation usually refers to how the native speakers of the targeted language say or utter the words. With good enunciation and pronunciation, someone does can understand what the other person is saying. There are some common problems in pronunciation in an ESL classroom. This matter have been occur many years and English teachers been trying to overcome these problems. We have identified two of the problems and one of them is mother tongue interference. Mother tongue refers to the person first language. Its the first language the person use since birth. When learning the second language (L2), the person with the knowledge of the first language (L1) sometimes will apply the rules of their first language in the second Language. This scenario is popular among the Malaysian people. In Malaysia we live with three different races and cultures which is Malay, Chinese, and Indian people. Sometimes, people who came from English speaking background cannot pronounce the English words correctly because they are used to the Malaysian English (Manglish). This is where the Malaysian applies the Bahasa Melayu rules in English language. When speaking in English language among the Malaysian people, the Malaysian tends to put the lah and bah at the end of the conversations. For example okaylah, no lah and see lah. The Malaysian also tends to put repetition in their English language. They apply the rules of first language in the second Language, such as dont play play (jangan main-main) and together gather (bersama sama). They tend to apply the rules of Malay language in the English language. Problem in pronunciation also occur because a specific sound in the English language do not exist in the mother tongue. The students need to be helped to hear the sounds and help they understand how the sound is produce and given a lot of practice to make the perfect pronunciation of the words. It will become a lot easier if the students know the phonemic alphabet, but in English some words does not sounds exactly like how they are spelt. For example ough, cough, although, through, bough, rough, etc. These chosen words do not produce the same sound although they kind of have the same spelling at the back of the words. Another prove of mother tongue is the biggest interference in the pronunciations are, when we look at the Chinese people which in their Chinese language system doesnt have the r sound. When learning English language as well as other language, the most common problem they faces was, they cant pronounce the words that have the r sound in it. For example, in Bahasa the word ular they tend to pronounce it ulal. In English language the word mirror turns into millel. For the Indian people, in their language system they pronunciation of the r sound is very thick. Thats why when they pronounce in English word that has the r sound they tend to stress it. This way of pronunciation is not right although we might understand the word that they are saying. The next problem in pronunciation in an ESL classroom is the low self-esteem when speaking English. Since it is not their first language the second Language learners that are not used to speak in English will feel shy when speaking in English because of afraid of making mistakes. This is due to improper training and lack of exposure to English language. Furthermore, the tutors themselves here in Malaysia are not the native speakers. Sometimes tutors tend to pronounce wrongly and students will tend to follow. Some of second Language students are passive students. This makes them hard to achieve perfection when speaking in English. This low self-esteem problem happen when the second Language learners tend to make mistake when speaking, The common mistakes that they make when speaking is when they tend to stress individual words incorrectly. This problem can be
fixed by hearing correctly and pronounce it correctly by using the guide in the dictionary. Second Language students also tend to stress the words in a sentence wrongly. In English language, by stressing different words in a sentence, we can actually change the meaning of the sentence. If you stress the wrong word, the listener might get the wrong message. Pronunciations cover on word stress, sentence stress and intonation. By learning all of these, second language learners can actually pronounce correctly. There are eight common pronunciation features that second language learners must achieve in order to pronounce correctly that is voicing, aspiration, mouth position, intonation, linking, vowel length, syllables and specific sounds. By achieving all of these, learners can actually boost their self-esteem in speaking English.. The attitude of the second Language learners also can be the problems in pronunciation. Second language learners need to have a positive attitude towards learning the targeted language. In most Asian country, their attitude towards learning the English language are not always positive, but not that always negative. Asian people are a bit timid and shy when it comes into learning the English language. They are afraid of making mistakes when uttering the words and afraid of being laugh by their peers. Second Language learners need to put aside that negative attitude and be more confident with their selves when speaking the English language. There were three big barriers to good English pronunciation. Anxiety, learned helplessness and cultural identity. Anxiety usually occurs among the students, they realize that they are anxious and they know it will hinder their progress in learning the second Language. In this case, the students unwilling to experiment with sounds and will having a hard time to blend sounds correctly because of lack of fluency. The second Language learners also have lack of control of the essentials of pronunciations such as word stress and make it hard for other people to understand for the listeners to understand them. Next barriers are the students in the situations where they are hopeless in learning because they feel, they have tried so many times but didnt get the positive results, and they end up giving up. Same goes in learning English language, if the students didnt get positive reaction from the teachers they will probably have lower their self esteem in learning the targeted language. The teachers might think that the second Language students are lazy, but its just because they feel that they cannot improve. Last barriers are the cultural identity. In pronunciation, we seek to the teachers to provide the right pronunciation. The pronunciation between the teachers and the native speakers of the targeted language might be different but as long as we pronounce it the right way with the right enunciation we will be able to communicate with the native speakers of the targeted language. Accents are not that really important, different people from different places and country and region have their own accents in how to pronounce the English words. Its just the matter we utter is with the right sounds and with the right word stress. Besides pronunciations there are other problems in the ESL classroom. For example, the second Language learners become dependent towards the teachers. This scenario are well known in the Malaysian where the students depend on the teacher to get every mistakes to be corrected by the teachers without trying to corrected it themselves especially in pronunciation and spelling of the English word. This can be called spoon feeding where the teachers became the students number one sources of knowledge. The teachers need to give the second Language learners more positive encouragement so that the students are able to do works by themselves improves their English language skills. Second Language learners always persistent in using their first language. This will always happen because not many of our students came from English speaking background. Either they felt comfortable in using the native language when communicating with their peers or they have no confident in using the English language as medium of communicating among their Malaysians friends. In order to resolve this problem, the students should not be speaking in their first language when learning English in class
and when are caught doing so, the teachers can penalize the students and have they recite a poem in front of the class for example. Second Language learners can also practice their language by entering debate and choral speaking. Like the saying, practice makes perfect. The more they practice, the better they will be in speaking English. There are many popular ideas about language learning for second Language learners. First, language is learned mainly through imitation. Second language learners sometimes create some words that they never heard. This is based on their imitation of the new words and it is important in enhancing pronunciation and intonation. By listening carefully to the word, they can actually improve their pronunciation. But learners must first adapt all the rules of English learning. Secondly, motivation is very important in second Language learning. Teachers can help the learners to be motivated by creating a supportive classroom environment so that the learners are stimulated. There are many ways that can be adapt in order to help second language learners to be confident in learning English, not only on pronunciation but overall of English. One of the ways that we found is that learners can adapt the fourteen characteristics of good language learners created by Rubin & Thompson (1982) that is : 1. Find their own way; taking charge of their learning. 2. Organize information about language. 3. Are creative, developing a feel for the language by experimenting with its grammar and words. 4. Make their own opportunities for practice in using the language inside and outside the classroom. 5. Learn to live without uncertainty by not getting flustered and by continuing to talk or listen without understanding every word. 6. Use mnemonics and other memory strategies to recall what has been learnt. 7. Make errors work for them and not against them. 8. Use linguistic knowledge, including knowledge of their first language in learning second language. 9. Use contextual clues to help them in comprehension. 10. Make intelligent guesses. 11. Learn chunks of language as wholes and formalized routines to help them perform beyond their competence. 12. Learn certain tricks that help to keep conversation going. 13. Learn certain production strategies to fill in gaps in their own competence. 14. Learn different styles of speech and writing and learn to vary their language according to the formality of the situation. These findings of Rubin & Thompson (1982) had inspired Naiman et al. (1928 in Cock, 1991:80) to undertake a study of good language learning (GLL) trait. They found six broad strategies shared by good language learners: 1. Find a learning style that suits them. 2. Involve themselves in the long learning process. 3. Develop an awareness of language both as system and as communication 4. Pay constant attention to expanding their target language. 5. Develop the second language as a separate system. 6. Take into account the demands that second language learning imposes. There are so many ways to rectify these pronunciation problems beside all the ways that have been stated above. All these are called strategies and strategies are important in learning language especially second language. Remember that learning language is an active mental process. It is up to the learners to emphasize their learning process and how the learners organize their language. By adapting all the strategies, all these problems of pronunciation and other problems relating to ESL can be overcome.