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Date Posted: 14:19:54 05/02/07 Wed
Author: Joyce
Subject: Task Two

Task Two - Classification Essay


Pronunciation problems for Brazilian learners of English

Correct pronunciation represent a very common difficulty to learners of English as a second language. In most cases, people never achieve the same level of fluency and comprehension in their second languages as in their first language. Besides, the use that people make of their phonemic system varies considerably from one language to another, what explains the fact that the interference between two languages is more evident in the pronunciation, according to Schütz (2006). When it comes to English and Brazilian Portuguese it is possible to say that the two languages are very contrasting regarding pronunciation. The major pronunciation problems that Brazilian learners of English have are due to the following: spelling and word stress.

The English and Brazilian Portuguese phonological systems differ in many ways, therefore learners of English may have difficulty in correctly pronouncing words from a written text. Many students are been influenced by spelling. This is because, in Portuguese, it is relatively easy to know how to pronounce a word by looking at it, being phonological and also having a number of diacritical marks. English pronunciation and spelling, however, have evolved at differing rates over the centuries, with a general reluctance to modify old-fashioned spellings (Bryson, 1990), and with the sounds of the language constantly evolving (Gimson & Cruttenden, 1994). It is important to remember that English is not "phonetic". That means that a word is not said the same way it is spelled. Besides, English is also very irregular, some words can have the same spelling but different pronunciation, for example: "I like to read [ri:d]", "I have read [red] that book" Some words have different spelling but the same pronunciation, for example: "I have read [red] that book. " and "My favorite color is red [red]".

Another challenge for Brazilians is word stress, however it's a magic key to understanding spoken English. Some languages are heavily characterized by the way words are normally stressed, Brazilian Portuguese is a syllable-timed language, whereas English is stress-timed. According to Ramajayam (1997), from the standpoint of the native speaker of Portuguese, whose words are predominantly (around 70%) paroxytone (stress on the syllable before the last), English word stress poses a problem because of the larger number of possibilities, the nonoccurrence of one predominant pattern, and the absence of indication in spelling. Native speakers of English use word stress naturally. Word stress is so natural for them that they don't even know they use it. Non-native speakers who speak English to native speakers without using word stress, encounter two problems: they find it difficult to understand native speakers, especially those speaking fast and the native speakers may find it difficult to understand them.

As shown, spelling and word stress represent great problems regarding Brazilians pronunciation. The absence of correlation between spelling and pronunciation and the difficulties learnes have understanding word stress serves as a strong argument against what predominates in English as Second Language teaching: great concern and premature contact with the written language. Moreover, it is important to intensify the contact with spoken English right from the beginning of the learning process in order to improve pronunciation and deal with its problems as earlier as possible.


References:
Bryson, B. (1990) Mother Tongue: English & how it got that way pp 86-97, New York: Avon Books Inc.

Gimson, A.C. & Cruttenden, A. (1994), Gimson’s Pronunciation of English pp77, London: Edward Arnold

Ramajayam, Kumar. Welcome to Learn Word Stress in English. Internet: 1997

Schütz, Ricardo. Diferenças de Pronúncia entre Inglês e Português. English Made in Brazil . Online. 21 de novembro de 2006.

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