Babkina, V. (2018). Phonological interference of mother tongue over the English

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ANNEXES 
 
Annex 1. Questionnaire ...................................................................... 117 
Annex 2. The International Phonetic Alphabet .................................. 121 
Annex 3. Oral Test ............................................................................. 122 
Annex 4. Transcription of the oral pre-test/ post-test .......................... 125 
Annex 5. English language consonant sounds pronunciation
evaluation rubric ................................................................. 140 
Annex 6. Power Point Presentation material for Case 9:
Replacing the sound /ð/ with the sound /d/ and the sound 
/θ/ with the sound /t/ or /f/. .................................................. 142 
Annex 7. Student´s Handouts 1 and 2 for the PPP material 
for Case 9. Replacing the sound /ð/ with the sound /d/
and the sound /θ/ with the sound /t/ or /f/ ........................... 152 
Annex 8. Teacher´s Page for the PPP material for Case 9: 
Replacing the sound /ð/ with the sound /d/ and
the sound /θ/ with the sound /t/ or /f/. ................................. 158 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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INTRODUCTION 
 
Learning any foreign language implies mastering a range of various 
skills and abilities that together cater for language acquisition up to a 
certain level of proficiency. All the language skills are equally important 
and overlooking any of them can lead to a failure in the language 
learning process. Foreign language pronunciation ability is not an 
exception. For the purpose of this paper “a foreign language” will be 
considered the English language and, consequently, the notion of 
pronunciation will refer to the English language pronunciation. 
It is undeniable that there is a variety of factors that play significant 
role in mastering pronunciation. These are learners´ age, their linguistic 
aptitude, motivation, attitude to the language, native tongue influence and 
some other factors. The question of the impact of mother tongue on 
learners´ English language pronunciation has always been appealing. 
Moreover, this issue has become even more acute in contemporary life 
due to the expanding phenomenon of globalization, development of 
technology and cosmopolitanism of a modern society, and, as a 
consequence, due to the growing amount of non-native speakers of 
English. Since the English language is now viewed as a means of 
communication for different purposes, the importance of being 
understood by a listener, being able to transmit the message is a priority 
during the process of oral communication.

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Oral communication requires pronunciation of sounds, words and 
phrases, although, it does not imply senseless articulating but assumes 
producing comprehensible utterances. Here, the factor of the mother 
tongue influence over the English language pronunciation can be seen as 
a serious obstacle on the way towards meaningful process of oral 
discourse. Each EFL learner has his or her own mother tongue and 
undoubtedly experiences the influence of it when speaking L2. The 
acquisition of L1 is a natural process, whereas second language learning 
usually demands a certain effort. When we try to speak a foreign 
language we pronounce words and phrases in order to express our 
thoughts and achieve communication. These words consist of different 
sounds the pronunciation of which most of the time is not common to us 
due to the phonological differences between our native language and L2. 
Therefore, unconsciously, we tend to apply the phonology of our L1 on 
the pronunciation of L2. Thus, it seems true as Odlin (1989:112) puts it, 
that native language phonetics and phonology are powerful influences on 
second language pronunciation
1
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The role of mother tongue is an important factor to be considered 
by a L2 teacher when approaching the learners´ English pronunciation. 
Unfortunately, sometimes it is being ignored and overlooked, which can 
bring about total demotivation from the part of students. Each teacher 
needs to remember that the mother tongue is part of a learner´s life and 
culture, it cannot be erased but it must be paid special attention to. 
Learners´ mother tongue should be accepted by a teacher so that it can be 
used as a tool to facilitate the English language pronunciation acquisition.
When a native language causes pronunciation difficulties, in other words 
whenever phonological interference occurs, a teacher should be able to 
provide the learners with necessary teaching techniques to cope with 
problems.
There is a tendency to integrate pronunciation into the process of 
oral communication in the language classroom where learners can pay 
special attention to the importance of transmitting a message and being 
1
Odlin, T. (1989):