PHONOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FARSI SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH AND L1 AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH SPEAKERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF PROFICIENCY Mahnaz Hall A Research Project Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Master of Arts (TESOL) November 2007 This study has been approved by the Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee. If needed, verification of approval can be obtained by writing to the Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee, C/-Office of Research and Development, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth, 6845, or by telephoning 9266 2784. ABSTRACT This study investigates the extent to which phonological characteristics of Farsi speakers of English interfere with their intelligibility when they interact with L1 Australian English speakers. Many students who are learning English within Iran, as well as Farsi speakers of English abroad, have difficulties in pronunciation that have an effect on their intelligibility when they interact with L1 English speakers. This study examines L1 Australian English speakers’ perceptions of the effect of pronunciation on intelligibility of Farsi speakers of English. A sample of four Farsi speakers of English and five L1 Australian English speakers participated in this research. The research method included an unstructured interview, twenty sentences that contained specific phonemes, and ten sentences including consonant clusters. The Farsi speakers of English were invited to participate in the process by attending an interview and reading aloud the two sets of sentences whilst being tape recorded. Then, the L1 Australian English speakers were invited to listen to the tape recording of the Farsi speakers of English and answer the three sets of questions accordingly. The findings demonstrated that the phonemes and consonant clusters which do not exist in the Farsi sound system and syllable structure caused difficulties for Farsi speakers of English to a varying degree. i DECLARATION This project contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. This project contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text. Signature: Mahnaz Hall Date: November 2007 ii DEDICATION This language project is dedicated to my beloved husband John for his constant support and encouragement of my academic pursuits. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to express her sincere appreciation and gratitude to those who have advised and assisted throughout this research project. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Chris Conlan, for his practical advice and patience in answering every question that I could ask, and for his continued encouragement and invaluable input into this research. Secondly, I would like to thank all the Iranian and Australian participants who gave up their time to be involved in my research project. Finally, a special word of appreciation to my father who has always supported and encouraged me in my academic pursuits. iv PREFACE This study stems from an understanding of the difficulties experienced by Farsi learners of English from the author’s perspective as an EFL teacher within Iran, at Government High Schools and English Language Institutes over a period of seven years. Further to this, after immigrating to Australia, the author found that Farsi speakers of English who had lived here for many years still had similar difficulties in pronunciation that were prevalent in Farsi learners of English in Iran. On many occasions, the author overheard them complaining that they were often asked by Australians to repeat themselves in conversation, or were treated impatiently by those who could not understand the questions or requests that they had expressed. By noting the extent of these problems, the author decided to conduct a research project to identify the phonological errors by focusing on the ‘segmental features’ of Farsi speakers of English in Australia. It is hoped that the findings of this research present to EFL teachers, specifically Iranian EFL teachers, a set of general ideas about the possible problems that Farsi speakers of English may encounter in pronunciation. Furthermore, by teachers being aware of the likely problems to be incurred by the students’ lack of familiarity with certain phonemes, EFL teachers can accommodate these problems by allowing more time to focus on phonemes that are likely to cause problems. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………i DECLARATION….……………………………………………………………….. ii DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………...iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....………………………………………………………iv PREFACE...................................................................................................................v TABLE OF CONTENTS………….……………………………………………….vi LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………… ix LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………….. xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION..……………………………………………….. 1 1.1 Aim of the Research …………………………………………………………… 3 CHAPTER 2 BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH AND LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………… 5 2.1 Background of Farsi Language Syllable Structure and Sound System……………………………………………………………... 5 2.1.1 Farsi Syllable Structure ...……………………………………………… 5 2.1.2 Farsi Sound System …………………………………………………….. 7 2.1.2.1 Consonants …………………………………………………….. 7 2.1.2.2 Vowels …………………………………………………………. 9 2.2 Background of English Language Syllable Structure and Sound System……………………………………………………………. 12 2.2.1 English Syllable Structure ……………………………………………. 12 2.2.2 English Sound System…………………………………………………. 13 2.2.2.1 Consonants……………………………………………………. 13 2.2.2.2 Vowels…………………………………………………………. 16 2.3 Contrastive Analysis………………………………………………………….. 18 vi 2.4 Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH)…………………………………….. 19 2.5 Contrastive Analysis of English and Farsi Syllable Structures and Sound Systems …………………………………………........26 2.5.1 Farsi and English Syllable Structures in Contrast……………………27 2.5.2 Farsi and English Sound Systems in Contrast………………………...31 2.5.2.1 Consonants…………………..…………………………………31 2.5.2.2 Vowels…………………………………………………………. 35 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY……………………………………….. 39 3.1 Objectives of the Research………………………………………………….... 39 3.2 Significance of the Research…………………………………………………. 39 3.3 Participants ……………………………………………………….................... 40 3.4 Instruments ……………………………………………………………............ 41 3.4.1 Instruments for Farsi Speakers of English……………………………42 3.4.2 Instruments for L1 Australian English Speakers…………………….43 3.5 Data Collection Procedure………………………………………………….... 44 3.6 Limitations of the Research………………………………………………….. 45 CHAPTER 4 PRESENTATION AND THE ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS…………………………………………… 46 4.1 Section A: Findings of the Four Unstructured Interviews………………….46 4.1.1 Australian Participant 1………………………………………………. 46 4.1.2 Australian Participant 2………………………………………………. 47 4.1.3 Australian Participant 3………………………………………………. 47 4.1.4 Australian Participant 4………………………………………………. 48 4.1.5 Australian Participant 5………………………………………………. 48 4.2 Section B: The Analysis of Twenty Multiple Choice Questions including Minimal Pairs……………………………. 49 4.2.1 Consonants Perceived by the Australian Participants ..……………. 51 4.2.2 Vowels Perceived by the Australian Participants ..…………………. 57 vii 4.3 Section C: The Analysis of Ten Sentences with Missing Words including Consonant Clusters …………………………. 64 CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION...………………….. 69 5.1 Discussion….………………………………………………………………...... 69 5.2 Implication of Findings………………………………………………………. 73 5.3 Recommendations for Future Research .………………………………….... 74 5.4 Conclusion ……..……………………………………………………………... 75 REFERENCES …......................................................................................... 76 APPENDIX 1: Instruments for Farsi Speakers of English ...................... 79 APPENDIX 2: Instruments for L1 Australian English Speakers............ 82 APPENDIX 3: Information Sheet .............................................................. 86 APPENDIX 4:Consent Form ...................................................................... 87 APPENDIX 5: Results of Four Unstructured Interviews......................... 88 APPENDIX 6: Results of Twenty Limited Multiple Choice Questions Tabulated in Four Separate Tables (1,2,3, and 4)............ 93 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Farsi Syllable Structure……………………………………………….. 6 Table 2.2: (Farsi Consonants), International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)……….. 7 Table 2.3: Examples of Farsi Consonants in Words with English Meanings …. 8 Table 2.4: (Farsi Vowels), International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) …………… 10 Table 2.5: Farsi Vowels …..…….………………………………………………... 11 Table 2.6: English Syllable Structure………….………………………………... 13 Table 2.7: (English Consonants), International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) …… 14 Table 2.8: (English Vowels), International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) ………… 16 Table 2.9: English Vowels …….………………………………………………..... 17 Table 2.10: Farsi and English Syllable Structures in Contrast .......................... 27 Table 2.11: Overlay of the Farsi Consonants on the English Inventory ……… 31 Table 2.12: Comparison between English and Farsi Vowels ………………….. 36 Table 4.1: Summary of the Findings of Four Unstructured Interviews ……… 49 Table 4.2: Summary of the Analysis of Twenty Multiple Choice Questions (Minimal Pairs) ………………………………………………………. 50 Table 4.3: Consonants Spoken by the Farsi Speakers of English (Speaker ‘A’) …………………………………………………………. 52 Table 4.4: Consonants Spoken by the Farsi Speakers of English (Speaker ‘B’) ………………………………………………………….