Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Veronika Bartošová

Comparison of English Pronunciation of Italian and Spanish Speakers Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: PhDr. Kateřina Tomková, Ph. D. 2019

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author’s signature

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my supervisor, PhDr. Kateřina Tomková, PhD., for her kind

advice and guidance she offered me. I would also like to thank my dear friends, the speakers, who kindly provided the recordings. Last but not least, I am grateful for my

family and friends´ unconditional support and patience.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction ...... 7

2 Theoretical Framework ...... 10

2.1 Sound Systems ...... 11

2.1.1 The English Sound System ...... 11

2.1.2 The Spanish Sound System ...... 26

2.1.3 The Italian Sound System ...... 34

2.2 Second Language Acquisition and Learning...... 40

2.2.1 First Language Interference ...... 42

2.2.2 English Teaching and Learning in Spain ...... 44

2.2.3 English Teaching and Learning in Italy ...... 45

2.2.4 Exposure to the English Language and Native Speakers of English in Spain and Italy ...... 49

3 Case studies ...... 52

3.1 Methodology ...... 52

3.2 Analysis of the Recordings and Questionnaires ...... 57

3.2.1 Spanish Speakers ...... 58

3.2.2 Italian Speakers ...... 71

3.3 Comparison ...... 82

3.4 Socio-Cultural Factors ...... 85

4 Conclusion ...... 86

5 Bibliography ...... 89

5.1 Sources...... 89

5.2 Works Cited ...... 89

Summary…………………………………………………………………………...91

Shrnutí……………………………………………………………………………...92

Appendix…………………………………………………………………………...93

List of Tables

Table 1: Classification of the English diphthongs ...... 16

Table 2: Classification of the English consonants ...... 21

Table 3: Classification of the Spanish consonants ...... 27

Table 4: The vowel phonemes of Spanish ...... 28

Table 5: The vowel phonemes of Italian ...... 34

Table 6: Classification of the Italian consonants ...... 35

Table 7: Questionnaire template ...... 54

Table 8: Assigned text template ...... 56

Table 9: Model transcription of the assigned text in General American ...... 57

Table 10: Pablo – speech transcription ...... 58

Table 11: Pablo – questionnaire ...... 60

Table 12: Enrique – speech transcription ...... 62

Table 13: Enrique – questionnaire ...... 65

Table 14: Manuel – speech transcription ...... 67

Table 15: Manuel – questionnaire ...... 68

Table 16: Sara – speech transcription ...... 71

Table 17: Sara – questionnaire ...... 72

Table 18: Chiara – speech transcription ...... 75

Table 19: Chiara – questionnaire ...... 76

Table 20: Marco - speech transcription ...... 78

Table 21: Marco – questionnaire...... 80

Table 22: Overview of the pronunciation errors ...... 82

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1 Introduction

Pronunciation, being one of the most important features of learning a second language, is usually put second after the acquisition of vocabulary and grammar in the process of learning of foreign languages. Nevertheless, pronunciation is of immense importance regarding speech comprehensibility and, subsequently, shapes listeners´ perception of the speaker, therefore, a significant amount of effort should be put into acquiring a satisfactory, almost native-like, level of pronunciation proficiency.

This thesis is concerned with the comparison of English pronunciation of

Spanish and Italian speakers. As both Spanish and Italian are Romance languages, their sound systems share many commonalities and learners of

English from both countries share certain struggles while acquiring English pronunciation due to the distinctness of the sound system of English as a

Germanic language.

Several researchers conducted research on the identification and listing of mistakes Italian and Spanish speakers make during their speech in English; however, in this thesis, they will be combined in a comparative study while considering cultural and social factors that influence the acquisition of pronunciation as well as the first language interference. This thesis will focus on occurrence of the earlier identified and expected pronunciation errors of the

Spanish and Italian speakers in this research while reading a text and speaking

English without preparation. It will also focus on occurrence of previously non- listed pronunciation mistakes while identifying possible reasons behind these mistakes in the respondents´ speeches.

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The theoretical part of this thesis will provide an overview of the sound systems of English, Spanish and Italian. For this purpose, the most useful sources of information on the matter were Hualde´s The Sounds of Spanish

(2005), Roach´s English Phonetics and Phonology: A practical course (2009) and Radimský´s Fonetika Italštiny (2018). This part of the thesis will also include a list of recurrent English pronunciation errors made by Spanish and

Italian speakers. Furthermore, the theoretical part will examine second language learning in general, introducing some of Stephen Krashen´s theories; and the factors that influence this process in a positive or negative manner. In addition, it will also examine English teaching and learning in Spain and Italy and exposure to the English language in these two countries. The biggest source of data for this purpose was found in Caraker´s study “Spain and the

Context of English Language Education” (2016) and Faez´s “English Education in Italy: Perceptions of Teachers and Professors of English” (2011).

In the case studies of this thesis, analysis of English pronunciation of three

Spanish speakers and three Italian speakers will be done. Their pronunciation skills will be challenged by reading an English text and then answering an assigned question without preparation. Their speeches will be recorded, transcribed and then objectively analysed and compared in the Results section, mainly focusing on segmental mistakes and stresses. Mistakes from the lists of possible pronunciation errors from the theoretical part will be identified in this section while pointing out other errors not listed in the theoretical part. Besides recording their speech, the respondents will be asked to fill in a questionnaire for the purpose of connecting the evaluation of their pronunciation to the socio- cultural factors that influence successful acquisition of English, such as their

8 exposure to the English language and the native speakers of it and their perception of the quality of English teaching in their countries as well as their own motivations. The conclusions of this research will be drawn based on which of the two language groups of speakers display higher occurrence of pronunciation errors than their counterparts while speaking English.

The presupposed reasons behind the speakers´ lack of English pronunciation proficiency are the insufficient exposure to English and the native speakers of it and the relatively low effectivity of the English language teaching methods in Spain and Italy. Even though these two countries share similar teaching environments and possibilities of exposure to English through media and literature, the proposed hypothesis, based on the authors own observation of speakers of Spanish and Italian, is that the Italian speakers in the present research will deliver a better speaking performance with fewer pronunciation errors on the segmental level than the Spanish speakers. However, the Spanish speakers will do better on the suprasegmental level, i.e. placement of stresses, intonation. The proposed hypothesis will be proved or disproved.

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2 Theoretical Framework

Spanish, Italian and English, as well as most European languages, belong to the Indo-European language family. The three largest phyla of this language family are Slavic, Romance and Germanic. As opposed to Spanish and Italian, which belong to the Romance branch of this language family, the English language pertains to the Germanic phylum. This thesis focuses on native speakers of two of the most spoken members of the Romance languages,

Spanish and Italian, and their pronunciation of English as learners of a second language. Despite the fact that Spanish and Italian are both members of the same phylum, their phonetics substantially diverge. The following subchapters of the theoretical framework of the thesis particularly describe the Spanish and

Italian sound systems as well as the English pronunciation.

Furthermore, the theoretical framework contains lists of common pronunciation errors among Spanish and Italian speakers of English and the possible explanation behind them based on the commonalities and differences between the sounds systems of these two languages and the sound system of

English. Moreover, this chapter focuses on second language acquisition in general, its factors, such as first language interference, the importance of cultural background of the learners, their exposure to the English language in their home country, their motivation in connection with language education, language education environment and methods of teaching. Nevertheless, it is crucial to examine the system of English language education in Spain and Italy as such, as well as the earlier mentioned factors, by the reason of subsequent evaluation of the speakers´ pronunciation proficiency, which will be carried out as part of the case studies of this thesis.

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2.1 Sound Systems

2.1.1 The English Sound System

As English has many varieties related to the geographic position of the speakers (i.e. World Englishes) that differ in grammar, vocabulary, spelling and most importantly, pronunciation (e.g. Received Pronunciation, American

English, African English, Indian English), it is fundamental to choose one of the varieties as a pattern for this work. By the reason of its pervasiveness in linguistic literature and frequent usage among respected linguists such as

Gimson, this work primarily prefers Received Pronunciation (RP), considered the standard variety of English. In order to represent the 44 sounds used for the transcription of Received Pronunciation, symbols from International Phonetic

Alphabet (IPA) are used.

2.1.1.1 Vowels and Consonants

When defining vowels, “the most common view is that they are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips” (Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 10). On the contrary, if we make consonant sounds, “it can be clearly felt that we are making it difficult or impossible for the air to pass through the mouth” 1 (Roach,

English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 10).

1 However, as Roach notes, there are many cases where the decision is not so easy to make. (English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 10). 11

Vowels

There are many ways of classifying the English vowels. The most basic distinction is based on their length2 (the length of the produced sound): long vowels /ɑː/, /i:/, /ɔː/, /uː/, /ɜː/ short vowels /ɪ/, /æ/, /ɒ/, /ʌ/, /ɛ/, /ʊ/, /ə/ diphthongs /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /aʊ/, /oʊ/, /ɪə/, /eə/, /ʊə/

Roach explains that the five long vowels are the vowels which tend to be longer than the short vowels in similar contexts3 (Roach, English Phonetics and

Phonology: A Practical Course 16).

The English vowels are further classified considering the following physical variables (classification and descriptions based mostly on Roach,

English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course, 2009):

1. Tongue shape

a. close vowels (if the upper tongue surface is close to the roof of the

mouth)

e.g. /i:/ in fleece

/uː/ in goose

b. open vowels (made with an open mouth cavity, with the tongue far

away from the roof of the mouth)

e.g. /æ/ in trap

/ɑː/ in palm

2 Roach makes a distinction between length and duration, which is, unlike the length, physically measurable. (Introducing Phonetics 65) 3 Roach finds it essential to mention “in similar contexts”, because the length of all English vowel sounds varies very much according to their context (such as the type of sound that follows them) and the presence or absence of stress (English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 16). 12

2. Part of the tongue which is raised

a. front vowels (the front part of the tongue is raised)

e.g. /æ/ in trap

b. back vowels (the back of the tongue is the highest point)

e.g. /ɑː/ in calm

c. central vowels (the central part of the tongue is raised)

e.g. /ʌ / in but

3. Lip shape and position

a. rounded vowels (where the corners of the lips are brought towards

each other and the lips pushed forwards)

e.g. /ʊ/ in put

b. spread vowels (with the corners of the lips moved away from each

other as for a smile)

e.g. /æ/ in bat

c. neutral vowels (where the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread)

e.g. /ʌ/ in cut

Monophthongs

Monophthongs are single vowels (Roach, Introducing Phonetics 71). “In

the production of monophthongs, the tongue remains in a relatively unchanging

position throughout articulation” (Pennington, 92).

13 a. English short vowels (description of the vowels based mainly on

Cruttenden, 2014 and Roach, 2009):

/ɪ/ the lips are slightly spread, pronounced with a part of the tongue nearer to

the centre than to front raised just above the close-mid position, close position

e.g. bit, fish

/e/ the lips are slightly spread, front vowel, the front of the tongue is raised

between the close-mid and open-mid positions

e.g. bet, men

/æ/ the lips are neutrally open, front vowel, the front of the tongue is raised to

a position midway just above open

e.g. hand, pack

/ʌ/ the lips neutrally open, central vowel, the centre of the tongue is raised

just above the fully open position

e.g. cut, drug

/ɒ/ the lips are rounded, back vowel, the back of the tongue is in the fully

open position

e.g. dock, was

/ʊ/ the lips are rounded4, central vowel, a part of the tongue nearer to the

centre than to back raised just above the close-mid position

e.g. put, push

/ə/ schwa the lips are in neutral position, central vowel, the centre of the

tongue is raised to a position halfway between close and open5

e.g. about, oblige

4 Crutteden notes that there is an increased tendency for this vowel to be unrounded these days (125). 5 The quality of schwa may vary depending on context. 14 b. English long vowels (description of the vowels based mainly on Cruttenden,

2014 and Roach, 2009):

/i:/ the lips are spread, front vowel, the front of the tongue is raised to a

height slightly below and behind the front close position

e.g. beat, tree

/ɜ:/ the lips are in a neutral position, central vowel, the centre of the tongue

raised between close-mid to a mid position

e.g. bird, purse

/aː/ the lips are neutrally open, between central and back vowel, a part of the

tongue between the centre and back is in the fully open position

e.g. part, last

/ɔː/ the lips are medium rounded, back vowel, the back of the tongue is

raised between the open-mid and close-mid positions

e.g. war, court

/uː/ the lips are moderately rounded, close back vowel

e.g. use, group

Diphthongs

Diphthong is “a sound in which there is a glide from one vowel quality to

another within one syllable” (Roach, Introducing Phonetics 31).

They may be said to have both:

a. a first element – the starting point (usually /ɪ/, /e/, /a/, /ə/, /ʊ/)

b. a second element – the point in the direction of which the glide is made

(usually /ɪ/, /e/, /ʊ/)

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Most of the length and stress associated with the glide is concentrated on the first element, the second element is only lightly sounded6 (Cruttenden, 134). In other words, the first element is much stronger than the first. Their length is similar to that of the long syllables. There are 8 diphthongs in English, and they can be classified into three groups as in the following table.

Table 1: Classification of the English diphthongs, based on Roach, 2009, created by the author

CENTRING CLOSING

ending in /ə/ ending in /ɪ/ ending in /ʊ/ /ɪə/, /eə/, /ʊə/ /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/ /əʊ/, /aʊ/

Centring diphthongs (description based on Roach, 2009)

They glide towards the /ə/ (schwa) vowel.

/ɪə/ /ɪ/ is in a closer position than the monophthong /ɪ/

e.g. beard, material

/eə/ /e/ is more open than the monophthong /e/

e.g. care, aerobic

/ʊə/ /ʊ/ is similar to the monophthong /ʊ/ 7(half-close position)

e.g. poor, tour

6 Exception: “falling” diphthongs /ɪə/ and /ʊə/ 7 Roach notes that many speakers pronounce /ɔː/ instead (English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course, 18). 16

Closing diphthongs (description based on Roach, 2009)

They all end with a glide towards a closer vowel. They often do not reach a close position, a glide from a relatively more open towards a relatively closer vowel is produced (Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical

Course 18).

a. Diphthongs gliding towards /ɪ/

/eɪ/ /e/ is the same as the monophthong /e/

e.g. paid, waste

/aɪ/ begins with an open vowel that is similar to the monophthong /ʌ/

e.g. time, die

/ɔɪ/ the first part is a little more open than the monophthong /ɔ:/

e.g. boil, oyster

b. Diphthongs gliding towards /ʊ/

/ə ʊ/ begins with a vowel with the same position as for the “schwa” vowel, the

lips are quite rounded

e.g. load, soul

/aʊ/ begins with a vowel similar to /aɪ/, the tongue often does not reach the

/ʊ/ position due to the large movement of the tongue needed, the lips are

slightly rounded

e.g. house, browser

Triphthongs

Roach describes the triphthongs as the most complex English sounds of the vowel type, rather difficult to pronounce and even more difficult to recognise

(English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 18). He defines a

17 triphthong as “a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption” (Roach, English Phonetics and

Phonology: A Practical Course 18-19) They can be viewed as consisting of the five closing diphthongs, with /ə/ added on the end (Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 19).

/eɪ/ + /ə/ = /eɪə/

e.g. player, layer

/aɪ/ + /ə/ = /aɪə/

e.g. liar, fire

/ɔɪ/ + /ə/ = /ɔɪə/

e.g. royal, employer

/əʊ/ + /ə/ = /əʊə/

e.g. lower, mower

/aʊ/ + /ə/ = /aʊə/

e.g. power, hour

The English triphthongs will not be further analysed due to the variation in their pronunciation, considering the differences in the amount of vowel movement and other aspects.

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Consonants

A consonant is “a speech sound which obstructs the flow of air through the vocal tract” (Roach, Introducing Phonetics 25).

There are 24 consonants in English, and they can be classified considering the following criteria:

1. Place of articulation, i.e. the place of obstruction to the flow of air at

some point in the vocal tract

(the description based mostly on Roach, 1992 and Cruttenden, 2008)

a. bilabial – articulated with both lips

b. labio-dental – the lower lip is in contact with the upper teeth

c. dental – the tongue placed between the front teeth

d. alveolar – articulated with tongue tip and alveolar ridge 8

e. post-alveolar – articulated with the tongue blade and back of the

alveolar ridge

f. palato-alveolar – articulated with the front of the tongue between

the upper teeth and the front part of the hard palate

g. palatal – the tongue makes contact with the highest part of the

high palate

h. velar – articulated with a closure between the back of the tongue

and the soft palate

i. glottal – articulated with glottis9, the narrowing that produces the

friction is between the vocal folds¨

8 The hard, bony ridge behind the upper front teeth. 9 The space between the vocal folds (cords) 19

2. Manner of articulation and presence or absence of voicing. i.e. the

way the air flow is obstructed

(description based mostly on Roach, 1992 and Cruttenden, 2008):

a. plosive – complete closure; air is released with a noise called

plosion

b. fricative – air is forced through a narrow gap; create a hissing

noise

c. affricate – begin as plosives, end as fricatives with the same

place of articulation; complete closure

d. nasal – the soft palate (velum) is lowered, complete closure; the

air escapes only through the nose

e. lateral – there is obstruction to the passage of air in the centre,

partial closure, the air flows to the side of the obstruction

f. approximant – there is very little obstruction to the air flow; the

articulators do not touch

The terms fortis and lenis are often used in order to describe voiceless and voiced consonants in the respective order.

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Table 2: Classification of the English consonants

Alveolar Glo

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Palato- Pala

Velar

ttal

t

alveolar al

Voicing -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V+V -V

Plosives p b t d k g

Fricatives f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h

Affricates tʃ ʤ

Nasals m n ŋ

Lateral l

Approxi- w r j w mant

V+ (voiced)

V- (voiceless) w has two positions in the table due to the fact that it is a labial-velar consonant

The following description of the English consonants, besides the English

PMV chart being used, is mainly based on Cruttenden, 2008 and Roach, 2009.

/p/ bilabial, plosive, voiceless (fortis), aspirated

e.g. pea, petrol

/t/ alveolar, plosive, voiceless (fortis), aspirated

e.g. toll, writer

/k/ velar, plosive, voiceless (fortis), aspirated

e.g. coal, bicker

/b/ bilabial, plosive, voiced (lenis)

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e.g. bowl, rubber

/d/ alveolar, plosive, voiced (lenis)

e.g. dole, ride

/g/ velar, plosive, voiced (lenis)

e.g. goal, rig

/f/ labio-dental, fricative, voiceless (fortis)

e.g. feel, leaf

/θ/ dental, fricative, voiceless (fortis)

e.g. thigh, wreath

/s/ alveolar, fricative, voiceless (fortis)

e.g. slow, racer

/ʃ/ palato-alveolar, fricative, voiceless (fortis)

e.g. sheet, niche

/tʃ/ palato-alveolar, affricate, voiceless (fortis)

e.g. leech, watch, nature

/ʤ/ palato-alveolar, affricate, voiced

e.g. juice, gem, adjacent

/v/ labio-dental, fricative, voiced (lenis)

e.g. veal, proving

/ð/ dental, fricative, voiced (lenis)

e.g. thy, worthy

/z/ alveolar, fricative, voiced (lenis)

e.g. zeal, peas

/ʒ / palato-alveolar, fricative, voiced (lenis)

e.g. genre, vision

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/h/ glottal, fricative, voiceless (fortis)

e.g. who, hot

/m/ bilabial, nasal, voiced (lenis)

e.g. morning, comb

/n/ alveolar, nasal, voiced (lenis)

e.g. new, know, innocent

/ŋ/ velar, nasal, voiced (lenis)

e.g. sing, sink, longing

/l/ lateral, approximant, voiced (lenis)

e.g. deal, allow

/ɹ / post-alveolar, approximant, voiced (lenis)

e.g. red, carry, wrist

/j/ palatal, approximant, voiced (lenis)

e.g. senior, year, avenue

/w/ 10labial-velar, approximant, voiced (lenis)

e.g. weather, whether

2.1.1.2 Stress in English

In English, the words are usually stressed on the first syllable, however, there are some exceptions. These usually concern prefixes and suffixes. It is crucial to identify whether a word is morphologically simple or morphologically complex, the grammatical category of the word, the number of syllables and the phonological structure of the syllables (Roach, English Phonetics and

Phonology: A Practical Course 76).

10 The consonants /j/ and /w/ are sometimes referred to as “semi-vowels”. 23

Single-syllable words

If they are pronounced in isolation they are pronounced with primary stress (Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 76).

e.g. ˈpull, ˈsee

Two-syllable words

Only one of the syllables can be stressed. “There is a general tendency for verbs to be stressed nearer the end of a word and for nouns to be stressed nearer the beginning” (Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical

Course 77).

Nouns

The first syllable is stressed. The exceptional case is when the first syllable is weak and the second strong (Roach, English Phonetics and

Phonology: A Practical Course 78). e.g. ˈproduct, baˈloon

Verbs

The first syllable is stressed when the final syllable is weak (Roach,

English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 77). e.g. ˈopen, ˈenvy

The final syllable is unstressed if it contains /əʊ/ (Roach, English

Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 77). e.g. aˈttract, aˈpply

If the final syllable is strong then it is stressed even if the first syllable is also strong (Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 77): e.g. mainˈtain

Adjectives

24

Simple adjectives are stressed according to the same rule as verbs11

(Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 77): e.g. ˈlovely, diˈvine

Three-syllable words

Verbs

If the final syllable is strong it is stressed (Roach, English Phonetics and

Phonology: A Practical Course 78): e.g. ˈentertain, ˈresurrect

If the last syllable is weak, the penultimate syllable is stressed if that syllable is strong (Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course

78): e.g. enˈcounter, deˈtermine

If the second and third syllables are weak, the initial syllable is stressed

(Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 78): e.g. ˈparody, ˈmonitor

Nouns

Generally, the first syllable is stressed unless it is weak (Roach, English

Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 78): e.g. ˈemperor, ˈcustody

If the first syllable is weak, the next syllable is stressed (Roach, English

Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 78): e.g. syˈnopsis, poˈtato

11 Roach notes that there are some exceptions such as the adjectives ˈhonest and ˈperfect (77). 25

When the final syllable is strong, it will not usually receive the main stress

(Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 78): e.g. ˈintellect, ˈmarigold

Adjectives

When the final syllable is strong, it will not usually receive the main stress

(Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course 78): e.g. ˈinsolent, ˈopportune

The system of stresses in English is much more complex, however, it is not necessary to analyse it any further for the purpose of this work.

2.1.2 The Spanish Sound System

As mentioned before, the Spanish language belongs to the Romance languages, unlike English, which is a West Germanic language, therefore, great pronunciation difficulties for the learners, caused by the differences among the two sound systems, are to be expected. There are many varieties and dialects of Spanish, however, this thesis takes into consideration Peninsular Spanish, i.e. the varieties of Spanish spoken in the Iberian Peninsula, often referred to as

“Spanish of Spain”.

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2.1.2.1 Consonants and Vowels

The Spanish consonants

There are many English consonantal sounds that are absent in Spanish.

Nevertheless, this causes the difficulty of their pronunciation for the Spanish speakers.

The Spanish consonantal sounds, like the English consonants, can be classified by manner of articulation, place of articulation and presence or absence of voicing as shown in the following table:

Table 3: Classification of the Spanish consonants (Hualde, 53)

labial dental alveolar (pre)palatal Velar plosive voiceless p t k

voiced b d g fricative voiceless f (θ)12 s x

voiced (ʝ)13 affricate voiceless tʃ

Nasal m n ɲ

Lateral l (ʎ)14 rhotic tap ɾ

trill r

12 Occurs only in Peninsular Spanish. 13 Is of questionable character as a phoneme. 14 Occurs only in Argentinian Spanish. 27

Spanish has two rhotic phonemes: the alveolar tap /ɾ/ and the trill /r/.

The tap “is produced with a single rapid contact of the tip of the tongue against the alveolar region” (Hualde, 181).

The trill “is produced with several such rapid contacts, generally two or three” (Hualde, 181).

These two are usually in contrast as minimal pairs, e.g. in the words pero

(but) and perro (dog).

The Spanish vowels:

“Spanish has a simple, symmetrical, five-vowel system” (Hualde, 120).

This system is much less complex than that of English. The vowels can be easily divided based on the same criteria as the English vowels as shown in the following table.

Table 4: The vowel phonemes of Spanish (Hualde, 121)

Front Central Back

High i u

Mid e o

Low a

Nonround Round

Hualde notes that none of the Spanish vowels is exactly identical to any

English vowel (124). This fact in connection with the much simpler vowel

28 systems may cause great difficulties to the Spanish speakers regarding the pronunciation of the English vowels.

2.1.2.2 Stress in Spanish

Stress in Spanish is phonologically contrastive, meaning that it is possible to get words with different meaning by altering the stress position

(Hualde, 221). This indicates that Spanish is a language with “free” stress

(Hualde, 221).

e.g. ˈnúmero (number), nuˈmero (I number)

General restraint is that one of the last three syllables of the word must be stressed (Hualde, 221). The only exceptions to this generalization are verb forms with attached enclitic pronouns, because the enclitics have no effect on the stress position (Hualde, 221). The verb form “canˈtándomelo” (singing it to me) could serve as an example for this phenomenon (Hualde, 221). Different word classes naturally have different rules for the stress position.

2.1.2.3 Possible Pronunciation Mistakes

The following list of possible English pronunciation errors of Spanish speakers is comprised based on the previously identified and studied pronunciation difficulties that the Spanish speakers might encounter while learning and speaking English. The list is mainly based on the study of Moore and Marzano´s “Common Errors of Spanish Speakers Learning English” and

Helman´s “Building on the Sound System of Spanish: Insights from the

Alphabetic Spellings of English-Language Learners”, however, it includes some

29 of the author´s own observations of the Spanish speakers´ pronunciation of

English.

1. /d/ substituted for /ð/

In Spanish, unlike in English, /d/ and /ð/ are never contrasted and they

are considered members of the phoneme /d/, even though both these

sounds occur in Spanish (Moore and Marzano, 164). As a result, the

speakers of Spanish make no distinction between such pairs of English

words as dare-there (Marzano and Moore, 164).

2. No final /d/

In some of the Spanish words, the final /d/ is often deleted, which

might cause the same result while pronouncing English words (Marzano

and Moore, 164).

3. Confusion between /ɪ/ and /i:/

As Spanish does not have so many vowel sounds as English,

there is no distinction between these two sounds and the speaker might

not be able to distinguish them, therefore, tries to substitute them with

the closest sound of Spanish, e.g. beat vs. bit (Marzano and Moore,

164).

30

4. No final /t/

Not many words in Spanish end with /t/, therefore, the speaker

might not pronounce them in English words either (Marzano and Moore,

164).

5. Confusion between /n/ and /ŋ/

The sounds /n/ and /ŋ/ both occur in Spanish; however, they are

both part of the same phoneme /n/. Therefore, speakers often fail to

make any distinction between these two. This leads to substitution of /ŋ/

for /n/ and confusion between e.g. sing and sink (Marzano and Moore,

164). The orthography might be misleading as well, resulting in the

speakers trying to pronounce the final g, often saying something as sink

instead of sing (Marzano and Moore, 164).

/n/ in Spanish is influenced by the following consonant, which

sometimes leads to its mispronunciation as /m/, e.g. in “it cam be”

(Marzano and Moore, 165).

6. Mispronunciation of /m/

In Spanish, /m/ usually does not occur in final positions and its

pronunciation is influenced by the following consonant, therefore, it is

sometimes pronounced as /n/ instead as in sometime, pronounced as

sometine (Marzano and Moore, 164).

31

7. /t/ for /d/ and /d/ for /t/

The reason for this mistake could be that the English /t/ is

pronounced with a strong puff of air in initial position in contrast with

Spanish, where it is not such, therefore, Spanish speakers may hear /d/

where it does not occur, such as in feet, pronouncing feed instead

(Moore and Marzano, 166).

8. /s/ substituted for /ð/ and /θ/

This phenomenon usually occurs in the initial positions and it may

result in speakers pronouncing sin instead of thin or say instead of they

(Moore and Marzano, 165). This occurs frequently even though there is

an equivalent of the English phoneme /θ/ in Spanish.

9. Omitted /ð/

/ð/ in Spanish exists only as a variant of /d/ in final and medial

positions and this fact may lead to its substitution with /d/ as in there

(Marzano and Moore, 165).

10. Omitted /h/

In Spanish words, the initial and medial /h/ is not pronounced,

therefore, Spanish speakers tend to omit its pronunciation in the English

words as well (e.g. house pronounced as /aʊs/) or they replace it with the

closest vowel sound of Spanish that is comfortable for them at the

moment, which is usually the Spanish consonant sound /ʝ/.

32

11. Prosthetic /e/ added to the consonant clusters beginning with /s/

(st, sp, sk/sc, sm, sl, sn, sw. scr, spl, spr, spr, str, squ)

In Spanish, these consonant clusters never occur in initial

positions of words, therefore, it is more natural for speakers to add /e/ at

the beginning of the word. This results in pronouncing espeak or esmall

instead of speak and small.

12. Confusion between /b/ and /v/

In Spanish, /v/ in initial and medial positions is pronounced as /b/,

which causes the confusion between these sounds in English. Examples:

van pronounced as ban, serve pronounced as serbe.

33

2.1.3 The Italian Sound System

The Italian language, just like Spanish, belongs to the Romance languages. This fact puts it in opposition to English, being a West Germanic language. Nevertheless, the sound systems of Italian and English diverge in many aspects. There are many varieties and dialects spoken in Italy. This work focuses on standard Italian.

2.1.3.1 Vowels and consonants

The Italian vowels

Standard Italian has seven vowel phonemes in total, which is much less than in English. Seven of these occur in stressed syllables: /i/, /e/, /ɛ/, /a/, /ɔ/,

/o/, /u/; however, only five of the vowel phonemes occur in unstressed syllables:

/i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, /u/ (Radimský, 52).

The vowel sounds can be classified in the same way as the English and

Spanish vowels as show in the table below.

Table 5: The vowel phonemes of Italian, based on Radimský, 54; created by the author

Front Central Back

High i u

Mid (open) e o

Mid (close) ɛ ɔ

34

The Italian consonants

As in Spanish, in Italian, some of the English consonantal sounds are absent, therefore, it may cause difficulty for Italian speakers while pronouncing

English words. The Italian consonants can by classified by the same criteria as the English and Spanish consonants, as show in the table below.

Table 6: Classification of the Italian consonants, based on Radimský, 32; created by the author

Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Palato- Palatal Velar

alveolar

Voicing -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V+ V

Plosives p b t d k g

Fricatives f v s z ʃ

Trills r

Affricates ʦ ʣ tʃ ʤ

Nasals m n ɲ

Lateral l ʎ

Approximant w j w

V+ (voiced)

V- (voiceless)

35

2.1.3.2 Stress in Italian

Firstly, it is important to note that in Italian, stress is much more easily

perceptible and stronger than that of English, for it results in speakers

pronouncing the stressed syllable as “longer”. As Radimský argues, the

stress in Italian cannot be clearly derived from the phonological structure of

words (85). However, there are certain generalizations, based on which it is

possible to at least estimate the stress position (Radimský, 85).

In most Italian words, the primary stress falls on the penultimate syllable

of the word. Extremely rare are the words in which stress falls on the fourth,

fifth or sixth syllable from the end (Radimský, 86). One of the exceptions are

verbs with attached enclitic pronouns that, like in Spanish, do not affect the

position of stress, e.g. ˈindicamelo (show it to me) (Radimský, 86). The last

syllable of the word is often stressed as well.

2.1.3.3 Possible pronunciation errors

While learning English, Italian speakers encounter many pronunciation challenges that are in connection with the differences between these two sound systems. The following list of possible pronunciation errors is based on Anne

Wheelock´s study “Phonological Difficulties Encountered by Italian Learners of

English: An Error Analysis” and the author´s own observations.

1. /t/, /f/ and /d/ substituted for /ð/ and /θ/

As phonemes /ð/ and /θ/ do not occur in the Italian sound system, pronouncing these sounds is difficult for Italian speakers and they tend to form

36

/t/ or /f/ instead, e.g. /θæŋk/ becomes /tæŋk/ (Wheelock, 45). /ð/ is frequently formed as /d/ instead.

2. /k/ and /g/ substituted for /ŋ/

In Italian /ŋ/ is an allophone of /n/ which occurs before velar stops

and, unlike many cases in English, the velar stops are always

pronounced in these cases (Wheelock, 45). This difference leads to

pronunciation mistakes such as pronouncing think instead of thing.

3. /z/ substituted for /s/ in the consonant clusters sl, sm and sn

Unlike in English, in these consonant clusters in Italian, the initial

/s/ is voiced, creating a /z/ sound (Wheelock, 46). This indicates that

Italian speakers will pronounce words such as small and sleep with the

/z/ sound at the beginning.

4. Adding a redundant /ə/ to words ending in a consonant

Since many Italian words end in a vowel, Italians tend to add a

short vowel, often /ə/, to the words in English ending in a consonant

(Wheelock, 47).

5. Confusion between /a/, /æ/, /ɑ/and /ʌ/

Italian has only one open unrounded vowel /a/, unlike English that

has three, therefore, sometimes it might be confusing for Italian learners

and, e.g. both words cat and cut are pronounced the same way, as cot

/kat/ (Wheelock, 47).

37

6. Confusion between /ɪ/, /ʊ/ and /i/, /u/

Italian does not have the English high vowels /ɪ/ and /ʊ/, therefore,

Italian speakers tend to replace these vowels with /i/ and /u/. resulting in

fit and feet or cook and kook sounding the same when pronounced

(Wheelock, 47).

7. Mispronunciation of ʤ followed by schwa

Even though Italian possesses the vowel phoneme /ʤ/, its

combination with /ə/ (e.g. as in words such as soldiers) may cause

hardships for Italian learners for it does not exist in Italian.

8. Absence of /h/

As in Spanish, the /h/ in Italian is silent, unlike in English. This

results in not pronouncing /h/ when it should be pronounced (e.g.

history).

9. /n/ substituted for /m/ in final positions

As in Spanish, almost no words end in /m/, therefore, it leads to its

omission or substitution with /n/ as e.g. in time, pronounced as tine.

10. Confusion between /ʃ/ and /tʃ/

Italians use these interchangeably and this leads to confusion

while pronouncing words such as shy, chest, harsh, watch.

38

11. No final /d/

Italians tend to omit the final /d/, because not many Italian words

end in /d/.

39

2.2 Second Language Acquisition and Learning

This thesis focuses mainly on pronunciation, which is one of the main features of second language acquisition, i.e. second language learning.

Firstly, it is crucial to define some of the basic terms concerning second language acquisition. According to the online version of the Cambridge

Dictionary, second language (L2) is a language that a person can speak that is not the first language they learned naturally as a child. The Collins dictionary provides another definition: “a non-native language officially recognized and adopted in a multilingual country as a means of public communication”.

Lightbown and Spada define second language as any language other than the first language learned, however, it is not necessarily only the second language speakers learned. This term may refer to the third or fourth language they learned (223). Even though there are several possible definitions, this thesis will consider the definition by Lightbown and Spada, by the reason of its relevancy to the topic. Another term that needs to be defined is language acquisition.

Common sense seems to dictate that this term is a synonym of language learning and many linguists view it as such and use it in their works interchangeably, however, Stephen D. Krashen introduces a different point of view in his work Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning

(1981). In his 1981 book, this well-known and often quoted linguist provides the readers with an elaborate theory that delivers an unconventional point of view on the matter.

Krashen believes that language acquisition is very similar to the process children use in acquiring first and second languages. It requires meaningful interaction in the target language-- natural communication--in which speakers

40 are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding (1). The essence of Krashen´s argument is that language acquisition requires communication in speaker´s target language with the emphasis on the message they want to convey, therefore, strict rules of the language are secondary here.

According to a study by Krashen and Seliger (qtd. in Krashen),

“conscious language learning, on the other hand, is thought to be helped a great deal by error correction and the presentation of explicit rules”. Krashen´s point here is that, in contrast with language acquisition, language learning is characterized by putting emphasis on language rules and teaching, rather than on the sole purpose of language acquisition, which is conveying the message.

To sum up the introduction to his theory, Krashen further states: “In general, utterances are initiated by the acquired system--our fluency in production is based on what we have "picked up" through active communication” (2). He further claims that our "formal" knowledge of the second language, our conscious learning, may be used to alter the output of the acquired system, sometimes before and sometimes after the utterance is produced (Krashen, 2). Krashen explains that the difference between language acquisition and language learning is that language acquisition is the primary process during which we acquire the target language based on what we hear from others when we communicate with them, and language learning is the process of “refinement” of these acquired language skills through error correction and conscious application of the learnt language rules. In this thesis,

I will focus on both language learning and language acquisition combined, therefore, I will use these two terms interchangeably.

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2.2.1 First Language Interference

As defined by Lightbown and Spada, first language (L1, mother tongue, native language) is the language first learned (217). Since many children learn more than one language from birth, it is important to note that children do not have necessarily only one first language (Lightbown and Spada, 217).

When it comes to the topic of first language interference, most of us will readily agree that our first language as such is a big influence on the learning process of the second language and, subsequently, its outcome. From this fact originate terms such as Spanglish, Czenglish, etc. These are blends of the names of the two languages that were created to demonstrate the mutual influence of the two languages on each other but are also used when referring to code-switching or code-mixing. Interference is also called language transfer or cross-linguistic influence, though these terms refer to a broader phenomenon and are often used interchangeably (Allard et al, 679). As their article further indicates, “it is a process in which the learner tends to assume that the system of L2 is more or less the same as his L1, until he discovers that it is not” (Allard et al, 679). In other words, the group of authors believe that the learner´s learning process of L2, having their L1´s system in mind, is strongly influenced by it. This influence, however, does not always have to be negative: “Such influence may be called positive when it facilitates the learning of a skill, given similarities between two languages, or negative when a skill transferred from the L1 results in production that is different from target language expectations”

(Allard et al, 679). Conventional wisdom has it that the knowledge of more than one language contributes positively to the process of learning of another language and helps the brain maintain its activity. Since this thesis takes into

42 consideration the pronunciation mistakes made by the learners of English as

L2, I will use the term L1 interference in the negative sense.

2.2.1.1 L1 interference – Pronunciation

As Lightbown and Spada indicate in their study, we know less about the learning and teaching of pronunciation than about other aspects of language, e.g. grammar or vocabulary (68). However, it is safe to say that we can build on examples of the learners´ speech. Regarding the L1 pronunciation interference

(commonly referred to as negative transfer), their study further states that “it is hypothesized that a greater difference between the learner´s native language and the target language can lead to greater difficulty” (69). This negative kind of interference is easily explainable on a following example. The L1 interference is clearly visible in the pronunciation of most of the Spanish speakers, who usually pronounce e.g. the sentence “I speak Spanish” incorrectly: “I e-speak e-

Spanish”. The reason for this frequent error is that Spanish words do not have consonant clusters beginning with s at the beginning of a word (Lightbown and

Spada, 68). Therefore, the prothetic e is added at the beginning of the word. As noted before, on examples like this it is noticeable that the L1 interference greatly influences pronunciation skills of the speakers, in this case in a negative manner. Richards defines this kind of mispronunciation as interlingual errors, i.e. errors caused by negative transfer from the learner´s first language (qtd. in

Celce-Murcia et al, 23).

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2.2.2 English Teaching and Learning in Spain

As in the most European countries, agreement had been made that two foreign languages should be taught in schools from a young age, English being the compulsory one as it is undoubtedly the fastest growing and most widely used language in the world. This decision had been made for many obvious reasons, e.g. globalization and the ever-growing use of English as the world´s lingua franca15. Even though significant education policies have been changed overtime in order to improve the English language proficiency of the Spanish citizens, the English language skills of Spaniards still has not reached the desired level.

2.2.2.1 Students´ Motivations

Besides the student´s motivation behind learning English, the educational environment and teaching methods are also important factors of the second language learning and the acquisition of language pronunciation, therefore, it is vital to examine the English education system in Spain.

English, for many cultural and political reasons, had not been taught as the first foreign language in Spain until the last quarter of the 20th century. It had been French by the reason of its geographical proximity and politics at the time

(Vina Rouco, 258). However, Criado and Sanchez explain in their article that

“teaching and learning English did not receive any emphasis well until the seventies, when Spain opened up to Europe and initiated a significant economic development” (2). In 2002, following the EU members´ agreement about teaching at least two foreign languages from an early age, Spain introduced reforms related to the teaching of foreign languages. Spanish children begin

44 learning English as a compulsory subject from the age of 6 (Caraker, 27).

Caraker addresses the effectiveness of the English language teaching in Spain.

According to findings of Caraker´s research, only 24% of the respondents thought that public language education is effective and none of them strongly agreed with this assertion (30). What is more, all of the teachers who participated acknowledged that teaching methods need to be improved. To sum up, the English teachers see the biggest problem in English language teaching still being oriented towards grammar, accuracy and subsequent frequent national examination while a more communicative approach to the language teaching and learning is being neglected (Caraker, 31). Caraker´s study covers the opinion of the chosen teachers. Nevertheless, the student opinion will be covered in the case studies of this thesis.

2.2.3 English Teaching and Learning in Italy

As Italy belongs to the European Union, the common agreement of teaching at least two foreign languages from an early age (primary school level) applies in this country as well as in Spain. Even though the rules about what languages should these be are not strict, there is a general agreement that the first foreign language taught should be English by the reason of its growth in popularity and importance for many purposes in today´s world.

Farahnaz Faez, in his research paper “English Education in Italy:

Perceptions of Teachers and Professors of English”, conducts research into teachers´ views on teaching and learning of foreign languages in Italy, which uses methodology similar to Richard Caraker´s research paper introduced in subchapter 2.2.2, having high school teachers and university professors of

45

English as respondents. He analyses foreign language education in Italy, the role of English in the Italian education system and the Italian society.

At the European level, Italy is among those countries (after Spain) in which students are taught English earliest during their education (Faez, 36).

They usually start learning English at the age of 6. In primary schools, English is often taught by general teachers who do not receive initial training to teach foreign languages but participate in in-service professional development activities. However, at the secondary level, more qualified language teachers teach foreign languages (Faez, 36). Educational authorities and institutions in the EU recommend the use of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching and Assessment (CEFR). It is used mostly as a tool for assessment and understanding of levels of language proficiency

(Faez, 37).

2.2.3.1 Students´ Motivations

Twenty-nine high school teachers and university professors of English participated in Faez´s study, native speakers of English as well as native speakers of Italian. Data for this study were gathered through an online survey and interviews (Faez, 38). Similarly to Caraker´s research among the teachers in Spain, the respondents teaching in Italy unanimously agreed that Italians need to learn English in order to participate in the global economy and, therefore, successfully meet the trend of globalization (Faez, 38). According to the teachers´ answers, “79.3% of respondents believed that Italian citizens were motivated to learn English” (Faez, 38). Despite the high percentage of motivation, “only 6.8% of the respondents felt that Italians possessed

46 acceptable levels of language proficiency compared with other European citizens” (Faez, 38). In other words, majority of the respondents did not think that the language skills of Italians could compare to other countries at the

European level. Concerning the student motivation, the teachers expressed an opinion that “students were generally motivated to learn English as they are surrounded by English through the internet, exposure to music and movies as well as for their aspirations for future employment”, believing that “knowledge of

English language increases employment opportunities within Italy and that

English proficiency increases such opportunity abroad” (Faez, 38). One of the teachers, speaking under a pseudonym Ryan, further elaborates his opinion on the matter of motivation:

Average Italians are motivated to learn English in order to travel, to

enhance their employment opportunities and to understand movies and

music. However, Italian citizens are generally not motivated at a

“fundamental deeper” level because of two things: (a) they can be quite

successful without knowing English, and (b) there is a strong healthy

Italian culture that Italians appreciate and enjoy. (Faez, 38-39)

Again, as in Caraker´s study about the Spanish learners of English, the prime minister is being used an example of an individual, who is successful, but his English skills are not very good (Faez, 39).

As to the Italian culture, the TV programmes are mostly dubbed without using English subtitles, there is a wide range of music in Italian and books and movies are translated into Italian, therefore, one can easily get by and enjoy culture without having a high level of English proficiency. Individual motivation is needed in order to access a greater variety of cultural means in English, and

47 subsequently, the possibility of improving one´s language skills (vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.).

2.2.3.2 Effectiveness and Methods of Education in English

When asked about the effectiveness of public language teaching, only a quarter of respondents (25.9%) agreed that public language education is effective and no one strongly agreed with this statement (Faez, 39). Even though the teachers stated that English instruction is highly available and accessible in the public school system, only half of the respondents agreed that teaching methods used for English instruction at the primary and secondary levels are effective (Faez, 39). Almost all participants (92.6%) agreed or strongly agreed that “teaching methods need to be improved or further developed” (Faez, 39).

Regarding their opinion about the public English teaching in Italy, the teachers named many problems connected with it, such as bureaucracy

(especially filling in many kinds of forms), lot of marking at home and testing the students in a written form and orally at least once a month and expressed an opinion that “English language teaching focused more on traditional ways of teaching”, i.e. focus on grammar and accuracy with communicative skills being of secondary importance (Faez, 40).

To sum up Faez´s study, which could serve as a tool for further research into this topic despite the coverage of a small group of people, the Italian learners of English fall behind most of the other European countries due to the shallow motivation of the students and generally ineffective methods of public

48 teaching. In comparison with Caraker´s research into the English teaching and learning in Spain, the results of these works are fairly similar.

2.2.4 Exposure to the English Language and Native Speakers of English

in Spain and Italy

As mentioned in the previous subchapter, Spain offers its citizens English programmes, however, only on cable TV. This is a very effective way of exposing Spaniards to the English language, because it is possible to watch any film in the original English version (Luján-García, 10). This is progress is significant, because ‘it allows Spanish speakers to be in closer contact with the

English language than they were a decade ago” (Luján-García, 10). In Italy, the

TV situation is very much alike. According to Jacqueline Aiello, an Italian linguist, “the implementation of dubbing to this day remain an obstacle to access to English input despite the unrivalled popularity of English-language media among Italian youth” (140). It is needless to mention the quantity of content in English accessible on the Internet. Besides the Internet and TV,

English is massively present in Spanish radio stations (Luján-García, 11). The radio stations besides playing Spanish hits also widely play hits in English and

Spanish performers and composers write music in English. Again, the situation in Italy is similar.

Apart from mass media, English is gaining importance and popularity in other aspects of the Spanish society. Like in other European countries, when applying for a job, “there is an increasing tendency to require a proficient level of English from candidates, especially for positions addressed to highly qualified

49 professionals” (Luján-García, 13). In other words, a certain level of English is required in order to have a successful professional career. Due to the growing importance of English in the present-day world and economy, the hiring policies in Italy are changing as well and the companies are starting to realize that they need English speaking staff.

When considering the exposure of Spaniards and Italians to English, it is important to note that both Italy and Spain, due to their geographic position, belong to the most visited countries in Europe, and tourism influences their economy significantly. What is more, some of the Spanish cities are being visited almost exclusively by British tourists, e.g. Benidorm in the Valencian

Community. The ever-growing tourism in Spain and Italy enables the citizens to encounter native speakers of various world languages with English among them.

Erasmus student mobility programmes are worth mentioning as well. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, due to their geographic position

(beaches, warm and sunny weather), Spain and Italy attract students from the whole world and Spanish and Italian students tend to participate in these exchange programmes with great frequency, too. Apart from the possibility of travelling that is provided to the chosen students, it is a useful tool of meeting new people from different countries. This applies to the exchange students and to the local students as well. The common language of these groups of students is most frequently English. Even though their English skills are not always exemplar, these interactions provide them with the possibility of developing their communicative English skills.

50

Despite all these forms of exposure to English, Luján-García argues that

“traditionally, Spaniards have been considered to have a relatively low proficiency in English”, because “there has not been a co-existence of Spanish with any other foreign language” (14). This statement is also applicable to the

Italian speakers of English. She is comparing Spain to countries such as

Denmark, Sweden, Finland, etc., where English plays a more significant role in society, being used in textbooks, official documents and on television and radio actively. This naturally gives the learners of English from these countries a certain advantage regarding the acquisition of their English language skills.

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3 Case studies

3.1 Methodology

In order to compare English pronunciation of Spanish and Italian speakers, three native speakers of each language kindly agreed to participate in this research as respondents. They are all students in their twenties and their levels of English do not diverge drastically. Their task consisted of two parts.

Firstly, they were asked to fill in a questionnaire that included two sets of questions, both informative and open, that focused mainly on their history of learning English and their opinion and personal feelings about it. Secondly, they were asked to record their speech while reading an assigned text and, subsequently, answer an open question.

The purpose of the informative questions in the questionnaire is to learn the speakers´ levels of English, the number of years they have been studying it, whether they have ever been taught by a native speaker of English, etc. The open questions examine, among other factors, the speakers´ motivations regarding learning English, their history of learning English as a second language and the cultural factors that influence the English language acquisition in their country.

The assigned text was retrieved from esolcourses.com and slightly adjusted for the purpose of this work. All the respondents were asked to read the same text in order to objectively measure their pronunciation skills. Then they were asked to answer the following open question without preparation to further analyse their pronunciation based on a speech without preparation.

52

Their answers to this question also serve as a source for finding more about the speakers´ motivation for learning English.

After having recorded their speech, the respondents´ speeches were converted into IPA transcriptions of General American (GA) variety of English and contrasted with the model GA transcription of the text in order to identify the occurrence of the recurrent pronunciation errors listed in the possible pronunciation errors in the Theoretical Framework, but of other non-listed errors as well. The respondents´ answers from the questionnaire were analysed for the purpose of identifying factors which, apart from the L1 interference, influence the speakers´ pronunciation of English and their English language proficiency in general.

Finally, a comparison of the English language pronunciation proficiency of Spanish and Italian speakers was performed based on the occurrence of the pronunciation mistakes as identified in this thesis, while considering the cultural factors identified earlier.

The questionnaire template and the assigned text for the recordings are to be found below:

53

Table 7: Questionnaire template (created by the author)

INFORMATIVE QUESTIONS:

Nationality:

Country of residence:

First language:

Sex:

Age:

1. How many years have you been studying English?

2. Have you ever been taught English by a native speaker of English?

3. Have you ever been to an English-speaking country? If so, where

was it, how much time did you spend there and what was your

occupation?

4. Except for state school education, have you ever taken private

English lessons or any English classes in a language school?

5. Do you possess any English language certificate?

OPEN QUESTIONS:

1. Describe your history of learning English in a few sentences

(anything interesting, out of the ordinary).

2. What has been the most difficult aspect of learning English for you

(e.g. pronunciation, vocabulary, use of tenses)?

54

3. What are the mistakes in pronunciation you are aware of making

while speaking English if any?

4. Do you struggle with learning English? Do you enjoy it? Why?

5. Evaluate the level of teaching you received at your local primary

and secondary state schools.

6. Describe the level of exposure to the English language in your

country (TV, literature, native speakers, etc.)

55

Table 8: Assigned text template

(retrieved from https://www.esolcourses.com/; changes made by the author)

Read the following short text, please:

(you can prepare your speech before you start recording it)

Historical records speak of two Valentines. One of them was a Christian priest.

The other Valentine was an Italian bishop who lived around the same time. Poor young men were forbidden to marry until they had served as soldiers. It is believed that this Valentine was imprisoned because he secretly married couples, contrary to the laws of the Roman emperor. He was also reportedly beheaded, becoming a martyr for the cause of love.

Read and answer the following question in approximately 3-5 sentences without preparation, please:

Do you think your pronunciation of English could be better? If so, why do you want to improve it?

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3.2 Analysis of the Recordings and Questionnaires

Table 9: Model transcription of the assigned text in General American

| ˌhɪˈstɔːrɪkl̩ rəˈkɔːrdz ˈspiːk əv ˈtu: ˈvælənˈtaɪnz | wʌn əv ðəm wəz ə ˈkrɪstʃən ˈpriːst |

ði ˈʌðr̩ ˈvælənˌtaɪn wəz ən əˈtæljən ˈbɪʃəp ˈhuː ˈlɪvd əˈraʊnd ðə ˈseɪm ˈtaɪm | pʊə ˈjəŋ men wər fərˈbɪdn̩ tə ˈmeri ʌnˈtɪl ˈðeɪ həd ˈsɝːvd əz ˈsoʊldʒəz |

ˈɪt ɪz bəˈliːvd ðæt ðɪs ˈvælənˈtaɪn wəz ˌɪmˈprɪzn̩ d bɪˈkɒz ˈhi: ˈsiːkrətli ˈmerid

ˈkʌpl̩z |

ˈkɑːntreri tə ðə lɔ:z əv ðə ˈroʊmən ˈempərər |

ˈhi: wəz ˈɔ:lsoʊ rəˈpɔːrtədli bəˈhedəd | bɪˈkʌmɪŋ ə ˈmɑːrtər fər ðə ˈkəz əv ˈlʌv |

57

3.2.1 Spanish Speakers

In order to maintain anonymity, the Spanish speakers are called by some of the most common Spanish names; Pablo, Enrique and Manuel. For all the transcription, General American model of pronunciation had been used due to the speakers´ preferences.

Pablo

Table 10: Pablo – speech transcription

| ˌhɪstɔːrɪkʌl̩ rəkɔːrdz spi:k əv tu: væləntaɪnz | wʌn əv ðəm wəz ə krɪstʃən priːst |

ði ʌðr̩ vælənˌtaɪn wəz ən ətæljən bɪʃəp huː lɪvd əraʊnd ðə seɪm taɪm | pʊə jəŋ men wər fərbɪdn̩ tə meri ʌntɪl ðeɪ həd sɝːɹvd əz soʊldʒəz |

ɪt ɪz bəliːvd ðæt ðɪs vælən taɪn wəz ɪmprɪzn̩ d bɪkɒz hi: siːkrətli merid kʌpl̩z | kɑːntreri tə ðə lɔ:z əv ðə roʊmən empərər | hi: wəz ɔ:lsoʊ rəpɔːrtədli bəhedəd | bɪkʌmɪŋ ə mɑːrtər fər ðə kəz əv lʌv |

Mispronunciation of /h/ /ʌ/ substituted with /o/

Addition of a redundant /ʌ/ /ə/ substituted with /e/

Mispronunciation of /dʒ/ Addition of a redundant /ɹ/

/z/ substituted with /s/ /ə/ substituted with /ɪ/

Shortening /ə/ substituted with /ʌ/

/e/ substituted with /eɪ/ Mispronunciation of /tʃ/

/ð/ substituted with /d/ or /t/ /i:/ substituted with /e/

/e/ substituted with / ʌ/ /i/ substituted with /e/

58

/æ/ substituted with /ʌ/

In Pablo´s prepared speech, as demonstrated in the table above, the following errors from the list of possible pronunciation errors occur:

1. /d/ substituted for /ð/

2. Confusion between /ɪ/ and /i:/, i.e. shortening of the long vowels

3. Omitted or mispronounced /h/

As to the pronunciation errors not listed above, the most recurrent errors are:

1. /ə/ substituted with /ʌ/, notable e.g. in pronunciation of the indefinite

articles

2. /z/ substituted with /s/, mostly in the final positions

Other errors occurred as well, but they were not frequent.

The speaker displayed the most notable struggle with the pronunciation of the words /soʊldʒəz/ and /bəhedəd/ for these words contain sounds that do not occur in Spanish.

Considering the speaker´s placement of stresses, his speech does not possess any stress misplacements besides stressing the initial syllables of some of the words when it is not necessary.

When answering the assigned question without preparation, there were other discrepancies besides the errors identified in this research. The speaker displayed a notable mispronunciation of the word /proˌnənsiˈeɪʃn̩ /, caused by the non-existence of the English consonant /ʃ/ and its pronunciation in consonant clusters and schwa in Spanish. He also mispronounced /æ/, which

59 is also non-existent in Spanish, in words such as /æt/ or /præktɪs/, substituting it with /ʌ/.

The filled in questionnaire of the speaker is to be found below:

Table 11: Pablo – questionnaire

INFORMATIVE QUESTIONS:

Nationality: Spanish.

Country of residence: Spain.

First language: Catalan.

Sex: Male.

Age: 21.

1. How many years have you been studying English? 12 years.

2. Have you ever been taught English by a native speaker of English?

Yes.

3. Have you ever been to an English-speaking country? If so, where

was it, how much time did you spend there and what was your

occupation? No.

4. Except for state school education, have you ever taken private

English lessons or any English classes in a language school? Yes.

5. Do you possess any English language certificate? Yes, the First

Certificate (B2).

60

OPEN QUESTIONS:

1. Describe your history of learning English in a few sentences

(anything interesting, out of the ordinary). The first time I tried to get

the First Certificate, I did not approve for one point. I needed 160 points

and I got 159.

2. What has been the most difficult aspect of learning English for you

(e.g. pronunciation, vocabulary, use of tenses)? The listening,

because I was not able to follow the speakers.

3. What are the mistakes in pronunciation you are aware of making

while speaking English if any? To repeat several times a word

because they do not understand me because of my pronunciation.

4. Do you struggle with learning English? Do you enjoy it? Why? I

enjoyed it because during the classes I really had a good time with my

mates and my teacher.

5. Evaluate the level of teaching you received at your local primary

and secondary state schools. I was well taught, but I learned more and

better in the English academy.

6. Describe the level of exposure to the English language in your

country (TV, literature, native speakers, etc.) In my opinion, the

teaching of English should be taken more seriously, as politicians of

Spain have no idea about speaking it. I would add subjects in English in

schools in order to make easier the learning of English in the future.

61

According to the speaker´s answers, his history of learning English has been a pleasant one so far and he is interested in further improvement, however, he does not evaluate the level of teaching English in Spain in a positive manner. He indicates that politicians in Spain do not give it enough importance, which coincides with the statement of one of the professors from the theoretical part of this thesis, who indicates that it is possible to be successful in Spanish politics without speaking English as the Spanish Prime

Minister is.

The biggest difficulty for the respondent is listening comprehension and he notes that sometimes people have hard time understanding him. This could be justified by the fact that more emphasis is put on the grammatical aspects of

English rather than on the aspects of communication. According his statement in the recording, he wants to improve his pronunciation in order to make a better impression on other speakers.

Enrique

Table 12: Enrique – speech transcription

| hɪstɔːrɪkʌl̩ rəkɔːrdz espi:k əv tu: væləntaɪnz | wʌn əv ðəm wəz ə krɪstʃən priːst |

ði ˈʌðr̩ vælənˌtaɪn wəz ən ətæljən bɪʃəp huː lɪvd əraʊnd ðə seɪm taɪm | pʊə jəŋ men wər fərbɪdn̩ tə meri ʌntɪl ðeɪ həd sɝːɹvd əz soʊldʒə ɹ z |

ɪt ɪz bəliːvd ðæt ðɪs vælənˌtaɪn wəz ɪmprɪzon̩ ed bɪkɒz hi: siːkrətʌli merid kʌpl̩z | kɑːntreri tə ðə lɔ:z əv ðə roʊmən empərər | hi: wəz ɔ:lsoʊ rəpɔːrtədli bəhedəd | bɪkʌmɪŋ ə mɑːrtər fər ðə kəz əv lʌv |

62

Mispronunciation of /h/ /ʌ/ substituted with /o/

Addition of a redundant sound eɪ/ and /aɪ/ pronounced as /e/ and /ʌ/

Addition of a prosthetic /e/ /ə/ substituted with /e/

/ə/ substituted with /ʌ/ Shortening

/ð/ substituted with /d/ or /t/ Mispronunciation of /dʒ/

Mispronunciation of /tʃ/ /oʊ/ substituted with /o/

Addition of a redundant /ɹ/ /e/ substituted with /ʌ/

/ə/ substituted with /ɪ/ /ʌ/ substituted with /o/

/ʊə/ substituted with /u:/ /z/ substituted with /s/

/i/ substituted with /e/ /æ/ substituted with /ʌ/

In Enrique´s prepared speech, as demonstrated in the table above, the following errors from the list of possible pronunciation errors occur:

1. /d/ substituted for /ð/

2. Confusion between /ɪ/ and /i:/, i.e. shortening of the long vowels

3. Omitted or mispronounced /h/; the speaker mostly just omits it

4. Prosthetic /e/ added to the consonant clusters beginning with /s/

As to the pronunciation errors not listed above, the most recurrent errors are:

1. /ə/ substituted with /ʌ/, notable e.g. in pronunciation of the indefinite

articles

2. /z/ substituted with /s/, mostly in the final positions

63

3. /ə/ substituted with /e/

The speaker displayed the most notable struggle with pronunciation of the words /soʊldʒəz/, /seɪm/, /taɪm/ and /pʊə/, for these words contain sounds that do not occur in Spanish (e.g. diphthongs /eɪ/ and /aɪ/ are absent in

Spanish).

The words /sɝːvd/ and /mɑːrtər/ were difficult to pronounce for the speaker as well. Moreover, the speaker also often adds redundant vowel sounds where they do not belong as it is hard for him to pronounce some of the consonant clusters. Shortening of the long vowel sounds is evident, too.

As to the speaker´s placement of stresses, there are no serious abnormalities; the speaker sometimes stresses the first syllable of the words when it is not necessary.

When answering the assigned question without preparation, there were other discrepancies besides the earlier identified errors. Besides the shortening of long syllables, the speaker displayed a notable mispronunciation of the word

/proˌnənsiˈeɪʃn̩ /, caused by the non-existence of the English consonant /ʃ/ and its pronunciation in consonant clusters and schwa in Spanish.

64

Table 13: Enrique – questionnaire

INFORMATIVE QUESTIONS:

Nationality: Spanish

Country of residence: Spain

First language: Spanish Age:25

1. How many years have you been studying English? 7 years

2. Have you even been taught English by a native speaker of English?

No

3. Have you ever been to an English-speaking country? If so, where

was it, how much time did you spend there and what was your

occupation?

1 week for holidays

4. Except for state school education, have you ever taken private

English lessons or any English classes in a language school? Yes

5. Do you possess any English language certificate? Yes, A2

OPEN QUESTIONS:

1. Describe your history of learning English in a few sentences

(anything interesting, out of the ordinary). Out of the school, I decided

to learn English by myself following online courses or watching movies or

TV shows in English, because I think I can learn more and I found it more

interesting.

2. What has been the most difficult aspect of learning English for you

65

(e.g. pronunciation, vocabulary, use of tenses)? Pronunciation.

3. What are the mistakes in pronunciation you are aware of making

while speaking English if any? I pronounce the vowels with the wrong

sound.

4. Do you struggle with learning English? Do you enjoy it? Yes Why?

Because with English you can do a lot of things, travel, work, read and

watch things, etc.

5. Evaluate the level of teaching you received at your local primary

and secondary state schools. The level of teaching was very basic

and boring, they always followed the same program until you get in some

point stuck so the method was not efficient.

6. Describe the level of exposure to the English language in your

country (TV, literature, native speakers, etc.) Low, everything is

translated to Spanish, TV, books… but there are shops of second hand

where you can buy cheap English books if you are interested. Also in the

most touristic places you can get in touch with a lot foreigners if you work

in the hospitality sector.

Overall, this respondent enjoys learning English and puts individual effort into it. He evaluates the teaching methods in Spain as uninteresting and repetitive and he considers pronunciation the most difficult aspect of English.

Considering the fact that he has never been taught by a native speaker of

English adds up to the pronunciation problems, however, he states that there is

66 a possibility of exposure to the native speakers of English in the touristic areas of Spain (these are popular among British tourists), which is an example of a positive cultural factor regarding learning of English and, therefore, greater pronunciation skills can be acquired

As he states in the recording, he would like to improve his pronunciation skills in order to be understood better by other people.

Manuel

Table 14: Manuel – speech transcription

| hɪstɔːrɪkl̩ rəkɔːrdz spi:k əv tu: væləntaɪnz | wʌn əv ðəm wəz ə krɪstʃən priːst |

ði ʌðr̩ væləntaɪn wəz ən ətæljən bɪʃəp huː lɪvd əraʊnd ðə seɪm taɪm | pʊə jəŋ men wər fərbɪdn̩ tə meri ʌntɪl ðeɪ həd sɝːvd əz soʊldʒəz |

ɪt ɪz bəliːvd ðæt ðɪs væləntaɪn wəz ɪmprɪzn̩ d bɪkɒz hi: siːkrətli merid kʌpl̩z | kɑːntreri tə ðə lɔ:z əv ðə roʊmən empərər | hi: wəz ɔ:lsoʊ rəpɔːrtədli bəhedəd | bɪkʌmɪŋ ə mɑːrtər fər ðə kəz əv lʌv |

/ə/ substituted with /ʌ/ /z/ substituted with /s/

Mispronunciation of /h/ /i/ substituted with /aɪ/

Mispronunciation of /tʃ/ /ʌ/ substituted with /o/

ð/ substituted with /d/ or /t/ /ə/ substituted with /e/

Mispronunciation of /dʒ/ /æ/ substituted with /ʌ/

ɔ:/ pronounced as /oʊ/ /ə/ substituted with /ɪ/

67

In Manuel´s pronunciation, while reading the assigned text, the following errors from the list of errors occur:

1. /d/ substituted for /ð/

2. Omitted or mispronounced /h/

Other recurrent errors are:

1. /z/ substituted with /s/

2. /ə/ substituted with /e/

3. /ə/ substituted with /ʌ/

While speaking off-hand, besides the earlier identified errors, these

occur:

1. Shortening of the long vowels

2. Mispronunciation of the word /proˌnənsiˈeɪʃn̩ /

Regarding the speaker´s placement of stresses, there are no major errors apart from occasional stressing of the initial syllables when it is not necessary to do so.

The questionnaire filled in by the speaker is to be found below:

Table 15: Manuel – questionnaire

INFORMATIVE QUESTIONS:

Nationality: SPANISH

Country of residence: SPAIN

First language: VALENCIAN (CATALAN) AND SPANISH

Sex: MALE

Age: 21

68

1. How many years have you been studying English? 7 YEARS AT

HIGH SCHOOL, 1 YEAR AT UNIVERSITY

2. Have you ever been taught English by a native speaker of English? I

CAN NOT REMEMBER

3. Have you ever been to an English-speaking country? If so, where

was it, how much time did you spend there and what was your

occupation? YES, ONE WEEK IN ENGLAND, FOR HOLIDAYS.

4. Except for state school education, have you ever taken private

English lessons or any English classes in a language school? NO

5. Do you possess any English language certificate? YES

OPEN QUESTIONS:

1. Describe your history of learning English in a few sentences

(anything interesting, out of the ordinary). I STARTED AT HIGH

SCHOOL WHEN I WAS 11 YEARS OLD, THEN I DID ONE YEAR

MORE AT COLLEGE, BUT I THINK THAT I' VE LEARNED MUCH

MORE BY MEETING PEOPLE FROM OTHER COUNTRIES AND

GOING TO LANGUAGE EXCHANGES.

2. What has been the most difficult aspect of learning English for you

(e.g. pronunciation, vocabulary, use of tenses)? VOCABULARY

AND THEN THE PRONUNCIATION.

3. What are the mistakes in pronunciation you are aware of making

while speaking English if any? WHEN ONE LETTER OR PAIR OF

69

LETTERS CAN BE PRONUNCED IN DIFFERENT WAYS, TO DO IT

RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.

4. Do you struggle with learning English? Do you enjoy it? Why? I

DON'T STRUGGLE THAT MUCH NOW, MAYBE MORE AT HIGH

SCHOOL WHEN IT WAS A MANDATORY SUBJECT.

5. Evaluate the level of teaching you received at your local primary

and secondary state schools. FROM 1 TO 10, IT WOULD BE A 7.

6. Describe the level of exposure to the English language in your

country (TV, literature, native speakers, etc.) FROM 1 TO 10, IT IS A

4

Even though the speaker has not spent much time in an English- speaking country, probably has not been taught by a native speaker of English and his history of learning English is not very long, his pronunciation proficiency is satisfactory. This could be justified by him meeting foreigners and attending language exchanges.

He evaluates the level of teaching and exposure to the English language in Spain as relatively low.

70

3.2.2 Italian Speakers

In order to retain anonymity of the respondents, we will call them by some of the most common Italian names; Sara, Chiara and Marco.

The speakers´ pronunciation will be assessed according to the GA model due to its preference by the speakers.

Sara

Table 16: Sara – speech transcription

| hɪstɔːrɪkʌl̩ rəkɔːrdz spiːk əv tu: væləntaɪnz | wʌn əv ðəm wəz ə krɪstʃən priːst |

ði ʌðr̩ vælənˌtaɪn wəz ən ətæljən bɪʃəp huː lɪvd əraʊnd ðə seɪm taɪm | pʊə jəŋ men wər fərbɪdn̩ tə meri ʌntɪl ðeɪ həd sɝːvd əz soʊldʒəɹz |

ɪt ɪz bəliːvd ðæt ðɪs vælən taɪn wəz ɪmprɪzn̩ d bɪkɒz hi: siːkrətli merid kʌpl̩z | kɑːntreri tə ðə lɔ:z əv ðə roʊmən empərər | hi: wəz ɔ:lsoʊ rəpɔːrtədli bəhedəd | bɪkʌmɪŋ ə mɑːrtər fər ðə kəz əv lʌv |

Addition of a redundant sound /ɔ:/ pronounced as /oʊ/

ð/ substituted with /d/ or /t/ /ə/ substituted with /e/

Mispronunciation of /tʃ/ /z/ substituted with /s/

/ə/ substituted with /ʌ/ Mispronunciation of /dʒ/

/ʊə/ substituted with /u:/ /i:/ substituted with /e/

/æ/ substituted with /ʌ/ /ə/ substituted with /ɪ/

71

In Sara´s prepared speech, as demonstrated in the table above, the following errors from the list of possible pronunciation errors occur:

1. /d/ substituted for /ð/, this sound is non-existent in Italian

2. Confusion between /æ/ and /ʌ/, this sound is non-existent in Italian

3. Mispronunciation of /dʒ/ followed by schwa, this combination does

not occur in Italian

Recurrent errors not listed before were:

1. /ə/ substituted with /ʌ/, shwa does not exist in Italian

2. /z/ substituted with /s/ in the final positions

Apart from these errors, the speaker did not express any significant

struggle with the pronunciation of the text. The biggest difficulties were

caused by the words /soʊldʒəɹz/ and /pʊə/, which the speaker

mispronounced due to the non-existence of the sound combinations in

Italian.

Despite a different pattern of the stress placement in Italian, the speaker´s

placement of stresses is satisfactory, apart from the occasional stressing of

the first syllables when it is not necessary.

When speaking off-hand, no other errors than the ones listed before were

found in the speech.

The questionnaire filled in by the speaker is to be found below:

Table 17: Sara – questionnaire

INFORMATIVE QUESTIONS:

Nationality: Italian

Country of residence: Italy

72

First language: Italian

Age: 23

1. How many years have you been studying English? 13 years at

school. After the high school I often studied on my own.

2. Have you even been taught English by a native speaker of English?

yes

3. Have you ever been to an English-speaking country? If so, where

was it, how much time did you spend there and what was your

occupation? Yes. I went to England and Ireland for vacations many

times. I spent one month in Belfast and one month in Waterford

volunteering in hostels.

4. Except for state school education, have you ever taken private

English lessons or any English classes in a language school? I took

some free classes from an American “teacher” who was a friend of mine

in Belfast.

5. Do you possess any English language certificate? IELTS B2

OPEN QUESTIONS:

1. Describe your history of learning English in a few sentences

(anything interesting, out of the ordinary). In my gap year I wanted

to improve my English I always considered very poor. So I went to

Ireland to improve my English taking advantage of the possibility to

speak with native people and I met a Texan man who started giving me

English lessons in the spare time

73

2. What has been the most difficult aspect of learning English for you

(e.g. pronunciation, vocabulary, use of tenses)? Phrasal verbs,

conditional.

3. What are the mistakes in pronunciation you are aware of making

while speaking English if any? I confuse the pronunciation of I.

Example: delivery. If I didn’t know this word I wouldn’t know if I had to

say delivery or delaivery

4. Do you struggle with learning English? Do you enjoy it? Why? I

enjoy it because I enjoy learning every language.

5. Evaluate the level of teaching you received at your local primary

and secondary state school. 5/10

6. Describe the level of exposure to the English language in your

country (TV, literature, native speakers, etc.). We deal with English

just at school.

This respondent displays a high level of interest in learning English. What

, she puts individual effort into learning this language and seeks company of the native speakers. She has been taught by a native speaker of English and that, besides her self-education, might be one of the reasons why her speech is not so symptomatic despite the low level of teaching at the local schools and low exposure to English in Italy. She wants to improve her pronunciation in order to be well understood by other people.

74

Chiara

Table 18: Chiara – speech transcription

| hɪstɔːrɪkl̩ rəkɔːrdz spiːk əv tu: væləntaɪnz | wʌn əv ðəm wəz ə krɪstʃən priːst |

ði ʌðr̩ vælənˌtaɪn wəz ən ətæljən bɪʃəp huː lɪvd əraʊnd ðə seɪm taɪm | pʊə jəŋ men wər fərbɪdn̩ tə meri ʌntɪl ðeɪ həd sɝːvd əz soʊldʒəɹz |

ɪt ɪz bəliːvd ðæt ðɪs væləntaɪn wəz ɪmprɪzn̩ d bɪkɒz hi: siːkrətli merid kʌpl̩z | kɑːntreri tə ðə lɔ:z əv ðə roʊmən empərər | hi: wəz ɔ:lsoʊ rəpɔːrtədli bəhedəd | bɪkʌmɪŋ ə mɑːrtər fər ðə kəz əv lʌv |

/ɪ/ or schwa substituted with /i/ Addition of a redundant sound

ð/ substituted with /d/ or /t/ /ə/ substituted with /e/

Mispronunciation of /tʃ/ /z/ substituted with /s/

/ə/ substituted with /ʌ/ /i/ substituted with /e/

/ʌ/ substituted with /o/ /i:/ substituted with /e/

Omission of /d/ /æ/ substituted with /e/

In her speech, Chiara makes the following listed errors:

1. /d/ substituted for /ð/

2. Confusion between /ɪ/ and /i/

3. No /d/ in final positions

As to the non-listed mistakes, the following are recurrent:

1. ə/ substituted with /e/

2. /ə/ substituted with /ʌ/

75

The speaker obviously struggled with the word /bəhedəd/, pronouncing it as a completely different word. Apart from this word, no other struggles on the word level were observed.

Regarding the placement of stresses, there are no serious discrepancies in the respondent´s speech, it sounds rather natural.

No other pronunciation errors were found in the improvised speech.

The questionnaire filled in by the speaker is to be found below:

Table 19: Chiara – questionnaire

INFORMATIVE QUESTIONS:

Nationality: Italian

Country of residence: Italy

First language: Italian

Age: 23

1. How many years have you been studying English? 15 more or less

2. Have you even been taught English by a native speaker of English?

Yes

3. Have you ever been to an English-speaking country? If so, where

was it, how much time did you spend there and what was your

occupation? In Australia for 10 months, it has been my gap year. I

worked like a waitress, baby-sitter and travelled.

4. Except for state school education, have you ever taken private

English lessons or any English classes in a language school? Yes,

76

in Australia I went to an English school for 3 months.

5. Do you possess any English language certificate? The Cambridge

Advanced (CAE).

OPEN QUESTIONS:

1. Describe your history of learning English in a few sentences

(anything interesting, out of the ordinary). It has been not efficient in

high school but very in Australia where I could use the idioms, the

grammar rules, verbs and so on right after having heard them in class.

2. What has been the most difficult aspect of learning English for you

(e.g. pronunciation, vocabulary, use of tenses)? Use of tenses.

3. What are the mistakes in pronunciation you are aware of making

while speaking English if any? I don’t really have a specific mistake in

pronunciation, sometimes I tend to mispronounce some words in long

sentences.

4. Do you struggle with learning English? Do you enjoy it? Why? At

the beginning yes but after sometimes I got used to it. I personally liked it

in Australia but not in high school.

5. Evaluate the level of teaching you received at your local primary

and secondary state school. I don’t remember well, but mediocre I

guess.

6. Describe the level of exposure to the English language in your

country (TV, literature, native speakers, etc.) Very low, especially on

the tv and the use of English subtitles quite not-existent. For literature

77

very difficult to find, in the local libraries there are just few books in

English.

As the other respondents, she evaluates the level of English teaching in

Italy as fairly low and that it is difficult to access movies or books in English. Her motivation, as expressed in the recording, is to be understood better by native speakers of English.

Marco

Table 20: Marco - speech transcription

| hɪstɔːrɪkl̩ rəkɔːrdz spiːk əv tu: væləntaɪnz | wʌn əv ðəm wəz ə krɪstʃən priːst |

ði ʌðr̩ væləntaɪn wəz ən ətæljən bɪʃəp huː lɪvd əraʊnd ðə seɪm taɪm | pʊə jəŋ men wər fərbɪdn̩ tə meri ʌntɪl ðeɪ həd sɝːvd əz soʊldʒəɹz |

ɪt ɪz bəliːvd ðæt ðɪs væləntaɪn wəz ɪmprɪzn̩ d bɪkɒz hi: siːkrətli merid kʌpl̩z | kɑːntreri tə ðə lɔ:z əv ðə roʊmən empərər | hi: wəz ɔ:lsoʊ rəpɔːrtədli bəhedəd | bɪkʌmɪŋ ə mɑːrtər fər ðə kəz əv lʌv |

Addition of a redundant sound /ɔ:/, /ə/ and /oʊ/ pronounced as /o/

ð/ substituted with /d/ or /t/ /ə/ substituted with /e/

Mispronunciation of /tʃ/ /z/ substituted with /s/

/ə/ substituted with /ʌ/ /i/ substituted with /aɪ/

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/ʊə/ substituted with /u:/ /ə/ substituted with /ɪə/

/æ/ substituted with /ʌ/ /ə/ substituted with /ɪ/

/e/ substituted with /eɪ/ /ʌ/ substituted with /o/

/i:/ substituted with /e/

In Marco´s prepared speech, as demonstrated in the table above, the following errors from the list of possible pronunciation errors occur:

1. /d/ substituted for /ð/, this sound is non-existent in Italian

2. Confusion between /æ/ and /ʌ/, this sound is non-existent in Italian

3. Adding a redundant /ə/ to words ending in a consonant

The non-listed recurrent errors are the following:

1. /z/ substituted with /s/

2. ɔ:/, /ə/ and /oʊ/ pronounced as /o/

3. /ə/ substituted with /e/

Besides these errors, no other occurred with frequency. The speaker sometimes pronounces monophthongs as diphthongs, e.g. in /bəhedəd/ or

/priːst/, and replaces schwa with other sounds as in /mɑːrtər/. He also tends to add a redundant schwa vowel to words ending in a consonant, which is common among Italian speakers of English, because not many words in Italian end in a consonant.

While speaking off-hand, the only recurrent error not listed above is /k/ and /g/ substituted for /ŋ/ and stressed unnecessarily.

The speaker´s placement of stresses sounds rather unnatural and he often stresses syllables that should not be stressed at all. This discrepancy

79 occurs due to the fact that the Italian stress is much stronger than that of

English and it is placed differently.

Table 21: Marco – questionnaire

INFORMATIVE QUESTIONS:

Nationality: Italian

Country of residence: Italy

First language: Italian

Age: 25

1. How many years have you been studying English? 18

2. Have you even been taught English by a native speaker of English?

Yes

3. Have you ever been to an English-speaking country? If so, where

was it, how much time did you spend there and what was your

occupation? No, never been for a long period, just on vacation.

4. Except for state school education, have you ever taken private

English lessons or any English classes in a language school? Yes,

during high school

5. Do you possess any English language certificate? Yes, IELTS level 7

OPEN QUESTIONS:

1. Describe your history of learning English in a few sentences

(anything interesting, out of the ordinary). From primary school up to

secondary school, I attended almost every year extra course to become

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more confident when speaking. I think Italian school level in teaching

language is quite weak.

2. What has been the most difficult aspect of learning English for you

(e.g. pronunciation, vocabulary, use of tenses)? For sure the

vocabulary and I think that the main cause is because we do not watch

movies in original language

3. What are the mistakes in pronunciation you are aware of making

while speaking English if any? Our R is quite strong.

4. Do you struggle with learning English? Do you enjoy it? Why? I like

it because it is very useful, even for my work

5. Evaluate the level of teaching you received at your local primary

and secondary state school. Poor, we care too much of literature and

history instead of focusing on speaking and listening, I think we should

improve our vocabulary too.

6. Describe the level of exposure to the English language in your

country (TV, literature, native speakers, etc.) Personally, the only

common way I speak English is when I am at work, I force myself to

watch movies or series in English, but I started just few months ago. I

noticed it is really useful.

The respondent evaluates the level of English teaching in Italy as poor, emphasising the fact that it is focused on literary and historical aspects rather than communication and vocabulary. Therefore, Marco attended many extra

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courses, which shows his motivation to improve his English, besides watching

movies and TV. He considers the exposure to English in Italy as very low.

3.3 Comparison

The following table is comprised based on the pronunciation mistakes as

identified in this thesis (the X symbol indicates that the error occurred in the

respondent´s speech).

Table 22: Overview of the pronunciation errors

Spanish speakers Italian speakers

Pablo Enrique Manuel Sara Chiara Marco mispronunciation of /h/ X X X

/ʌ/ substituted with /o/ X X X X X

/ə/ substituted with /e/ X X X X X X

/ə/ substituted with /ʌ/ X X X X X X

/ð/ substituted with /d/ X X X X X X

/z/ substituted with /s/ X X X X X X

/ə/ substituted with /ɪ/ X X X X X mispronunciation of /tʃ/ X X X X X X

Mispronunciation of X X X X

/dʒ/ shortening of long X X X vowels /e/ substituted with /eɪ/ X X X

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/ʊə/ substituted with X X X

/u:/

Addition of a prosthetic /e/ X X

or other redundant

sound at the

end/beginning of words

eɪ and aɪ pronounced X

as /e/ and /ʌ/

/ɔ:/ pronounced as /oʊ/ X X X

/i:/ substituted with /e/ X X X

omission of /d/ X

/i:/ substituted with /aɪ/ X X

/æ/ substituted with /e/ X X X X X X

As shown in the table above, the speakers of Spanish and Italian

naturally share many areas of difficulty regarding the pronunciation of English

by the reason of these two languages belonging to the Romance language

phylum and sharing a significant number of common phonetic features.

Therefore, their pronunciation skills should not diverge drastically and,

according to the table above, they do not indeed. There are, however,

pronunciation errors that occur among the speakers of one language and do not

occur among the speakers of the other.

The area of difficulty for the Spanish speakers was the pronunciation of

/h/ that was either mispronounced or omitted by all the Spanish speakers,

however, pronounced correctly by the Italian respondents.

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Another difficulty for the Spanish speakers was caused by the pronunciation of /dʒ/ that all of them mispronounced. On the contrary 2 out of the 3 Italians pronounced it correctly.

The Spanish speakers also displayed tendency to shorten long vowels, which is not so evident in the Italian speakers´ pronunciation.

On the other hand, the Italian speakers struggled with the pronunciation of the diphthong /ʊə/, which only 1 out of the 3 respondents pronounced correctly and the Spanish speakers, except for one of them, pronounced it in a correct way.

As for the number of mistakes on the segmental level, the Italian speakers displayed a slightly lower occurrence of pronunciation errors.

As for the suprasegmental features of speech, such as stress and intonation, the Spanish speakers delivered a slightly better speaking performance. Their placement of stresses did not contain any serious discrepancies except for the occasional stressing of syllables when not necessary. On the other hand, the Italian speakers displayed higher occurrence of stress misplacement and their speech sounded less natural than that of the

Spanish speakers. A possible explanation behind this phenomenon is that stress in Italian is much stronger than in English or Spanish, therefore, the speakers tend to transfer these stress patterns and intensity into their speech in

English.

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3.4 Socio-Cultural Factors

The purpose of the respondents answering the questions of the assigned questionnaire was to find out more about the social and cultural factors that influence the speakers´ English pronunciation skills.

To sum up, none of the respondents evaluated the exposure to English in their country as satisfactory or sufficient. It takes individual effort to access media in English, because every TV programme is dubbed into local language and, as one of the speakers indicated, books in English are not widely available.

Nevertheless, there is a possibility of encounters with native speakers of

English as both Italy and Spain are countries that are popular among tourists from English-speaking countries, mostly from England.

As to the level of English teaching at local schools, the respondents did not express content either and most of them evaluated the language education in a negative manner with adjectives such as boring, repetitive or poor.

According to them, there is not enough focus on communication, grammatical structures are given more importance.

Despite these negative opinions, the respondents do not give up on learning English and they all want to further improve their pronunciation. Their goals are to be better understood by other speakers and make a better impression regarding their speech.

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4 Conclusion

This thesis deals with pronunciation mistakes of Spanish and Italian speakers who are both members of the Romance language phylum. Being a

West Germanic language, English and its pronunciation causes significant difficulties to these speakers due to the differences between the sound systems of their languages and English. Moreover, there are other factors that influence the English pronunciation proficiency of these speakers, such as exposure to

English and native speakers of it, teaching environment and methods and speakers´ own motivations. This thesis compares the pronunciation skills of these two groups of speakers and also aims to connect the results of this research with socio-cultural factors that influence language acquisition.

Even though these two groups of speakers share many pronunciation difficulties due to the similarity of the sounds systems of their languages, the proposed hypothesis of this thesis, stated in the Introduction, is that the Italian speakers in this research will deliver a better speaking performance regarding the segmental features of speech; however, the Spanish speakers will perform better on the suprasegmental level. Furthermore, the presupposed explanation of the speakers´ lack of pronunciation proficiency is the insufficient exposure to the English language in their country and low effectiveness of the methods of teaching at local schools with focus on the grammatical aspects of English rather than communication.

The first part of theoretical framework consists of the introduction to the sound systems of English, Spanish and Italian. For this purpose, the works of respected linguists, such as Gimson, Cruttenden, Roach, Hualde and

Radimský, are the biggest source of information. Moreover, this part also

86 includes a list of possible pronunciation errors that are recurrent among Italian and Spanish speakers of English.

The second part examines second language acquisition and learning in general. Furthermore, it deals with first language interference and other factors that influence language proficiency in Spain and Italy. The English teaching, learning and exposure to this language in both countries in particular are examined in this part as well.

The case studies of this thesis consist of analysis of the recorded speeches of three respondents from each language group and identify the previously listed errors as well as errors not mentioned before and connects them to the differences between the sounds systems of these two languages and the sound system of English. In this part, the filled-in questionnaires are introduced and the findings from information on the matter of the socio-cultural factors influencing acquisition of English provided by the respondents are concluded.

Furthermore, the case studies include comparative study of the errors made by the speakers in the recordings and conclusions about the speakers´ pronunciation skills are drawn.

Even though Spain and Italy share similar educational environments and levels of exposure to the English language; according to the results of this research, the Italian speakers in this research display slightly lower occurrence of errors on the segmental level of pronunciation; however, the Spanish speakers in the present research deliver a slightly better speaking performance on the suprasegmental level of speech and they sound more natural. Findings about the socio-cultural factors influencing the English pronunciation proficiency of the speakers confirm that some of the possible reasons behind this lack of

87 skills are the insufficient exposure to English, as it is not a part of Italian and

Spanish daily life, and also the insufficient effectiveness of the teaching methods that put emphasis on the grammatical structures rather than on the aspects of communication. This thesis can serve as a tool for improvement of

English pronunciation of non-native speakers of English from Spain and Italy and future avoidance of the errors as identified in the present research.

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5 Bibliography

5.1 Sources

“Advanced English Reading – Valentine´s Day.” ESOL Courses. 2016. Web 5 Mar. 2019.esolcourses.com/content/reading/advanced/graded- readers/valentines-day.html.

Collins, Beverley, and Mees, Inger M. Practical Phonetics and Phonology: A Resource Book for Students. London: Routledge, 2008. Print.

Helman, Lori A. “Building on the Sound System of Spanish: Insights from the Alphabetic Spellings of English-Language Learners.” The Reading Teacher 57. 5 (2004): 452-60. JSTOR. Web. 10 Apr. 2019.

5.2 Works Cited

Allard, Daniele, et al. “Addressing Cultural and Native Language Interference in Second Language Acquisition.” CALICO Journal 28. 3 (2011): 677-98. JSTOR. Web. 10 Mar. 2019.

Caraker, Richard. “Spain and the Context of English Language Education.” Nihon University. 2016. Web. 15 Mar. 2019.

Celce-Murcia, Marianne, et al. Teaching Pronunciation: A Course Book and Reference Guide. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.

Criado, Raquel, and Sánchez Aquilino. “English Language Teaching in Spain: Do Textbooks Comply with the Official Methodological Regulations? A Sample Analysis.” International Journal of English Studies 9. 1 (2009): 1- 28. University of Murcia. Web. 2 Mar. 2019.

Cruttenden, Alan. Gimson´s Pronunciation of English. London: Hodder Education, 2014. Print.

Faez, Farahnaz. “English Education in Italy: Perceptions of Teachers and Professors of English.” Canadian and International Education 40. 4 (2011): 31-44. The University of Western Ontario. Web. 15 Mar. 2019.

Hualde, José Ignacio. The Sounds of Spanish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print.

Krashen, Stephen. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Pergamon Press Inc, 1981. Books and Articles by Stephen D Krashen. Web. 5 Mar. 2019.

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Krashen, Stephen, and Seliger Herbert. “The Essential Contributions of Formal Instruction in Adult Second Language Learning.” TESOL Quarterly 9 (1975): 173-83. Print.

Lightbown, Patsy M., and Spada Nina. How Languages are Learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.

Luján-García, Carmen. “The Impact of English on Spanish Daily Life and Some Pedagogical Implications.” Nordic Journal of English Studies 11. 1 (2011): 1-21. Google Scholar. Web. 1 Apr. 2019.

Moore, Fernie Baca, and Marzano, Robert J. “Common Errors of Spanish Speakers Learning English.” Research in the Teaching of English 13. 2 (1979): 161-7. JSTOR. Web. 27 Mar. 2019.

Pennington, Martha C. Phonology in English Language Teaching: An International Approach. Harlow: Pearson Education, 1996. Print.

Radimský, Jan. Fonetika Italštiny. Prague: Univerzita Karlova, Nakladatelství Karolinum, 2018. Print.

Roach, Peter. Introducing Phonetics. London: Penguin English, 1992. Print.

Roach, Peter. English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Print.

Viña Rouco, Mar. “The Teaching of Foreign Languages in Europe: A Historical Perspective on Foreign Language Teaching in Spain.” CAUCE 25 (2002): 255-80. Centro Virtual Cervantes. Web. 11 Mar. 2019.

Wheelock, Anne. “Phonological Difficulties Encountered by Italian Learners of English: An Error Analysis.” Hawaii Pacific University TESOL Working Paper Series 14 (2016): 41-61. hpu.edu. Web. 10 Apr. 2019.

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Summary

The thesis deals with pronunciation errors of Spanish and Italian non- native speakers of English. It aims to compare these two pronunciations and subsequently prove or disprove the hypothesis that the Italian speakers will deliver a slightly better speaking performance on the segmental level of pronunciation and the Spanish speakers will perform better on the suprasegmental level.

The theoretical framework contains an overview of the English, Spanish and Italian sound systems as well as lists of possible pronunciation errors frequently made by Spanish and Italian speakers of English. It further deals with second language learning in general and in Spain and Italy in particular.

The case studies of this thesis consist of analysis of the recorded speech of the Spanish and Italian respondents, identification of the previously listed mistakes in their speech and identification of mistakes not listed before. The pronunciation skills of these two groups of speakers are objectively measured, compared and conclusions are drawn. The case studies also include findings regarding the socio-cultural factors that influence acquisition of English in these two countries, retrieved from the questionnaires filled in by the speakers.

The proposed hypothesis is confirmed in the case studies. The Italian speakers in the present research deliver a better speaking performance on the segmental level of pronunciation; however, the Spanish speakers perform better on the suprasegmental level. Findings from the questionnaires confirm that some of the reasons behind the speakers´ lack of English pronunciation proficiency are the insufficient exposure to English in their country and the low effectiveness of the teaching methods at local schools.

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Shrnutí

Tato práce se zabývá chybami ve výslovnosti, kterých se v angličtině dopouštějí rodilí mluvčí španělštiny a italštiny. Cílem této práce je porovnat jejich výslovnost a následně potvrdit nebo vyvrátit hypotézu, že rodilí mluvčí italštiny mají lepší výslovnost angličtiny v oblasti segmentálních (hláskových) jevů a rodilí mluvčí španělštiny si počínají lépe na suprasegmentální

(prozodické) úrovni.

Teoretická část práce se zabývá jednak fonetickými systémy angličtiny,

španělštiny a italštiny a také obsahuje seznam chyb, kterých se mluvčí z těchto dvou zemí v angličtině často dopouští. Dále se zabývá výukou cizích jazyků všeobecně, ale především pak výukou angličtiny ve Španělsku a Itálii a faktory ovlivňujícími ovládnutí angličtiny v těchto státech.

Praktická část práce obsahuje analýzu nahraného mluveného projevu respondentů v angličtině. Dále je provedena identifikace výslovnostních chyb.

Výslovnost těchto dvou skupin mluvčích je dále porovnána a jsou vyvozeny závěry. Praktická část také obsahuje dotazníky vyplněné respondenty, které poskytují informace o sociálně-kulturních faktorech ovlivňujících proces ovládnutí správné výslovnosti angličtiny.

Původní hypotéza je v praktické části potvrzena na základě analýz uvedených nahrávek. Respondenti z Itálie mají lepší výslovnost, co se týče segmentálních jevů a Španělé podávají lepší mluvený projev na suprasegmentální úrovni. Informace získané z dotazníků potvrzují, že mezi důvody nedostatečného ovládání anglické výslovnosti těchto mluvčích patří nedostatečný kontakt s angličtinou v běžném životě a nízká efektivita učebních metod místních státních škol.

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Appendix

A Compact Disc with all the recordings used for the purpose of this thesis

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