Discusses phonological errors and their causes in the language performance of beginning to advanced Slovak grammar school students learning English as a foreign language under conditions suggested by G. Nickel (1989). Errors in perception, production, and perception/production are shown to be of different quality and distribution; interferential…

The inability to focus on the rhythmic pattern as a whole is one of the main deficiencies in the teaching of English rhythm, and it is partly responsible for syllabic rhythm in the speech of learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). A technique is proposed that isolates the segmental phones and sequences so that EFL learners recognize them.…

This study describes the development of a minimal-pairs word list targeting phoneme contrasts that pose difficulty for Mandarin Chinese-speaking learners of English as a second language. The target phoneme inventory was compiled from analysis of phonetic transcriptions of about 800 mono- and polysyllabic English words with examples of all the…

The following are discussed as the main reason for English spelling mistakes among non-native speakers: interference from the native writing system, lack of auditory discrimination, misapplying analogy and direct translation. Techniques for handling spelling errors are also discussed. (AG)

This book is intended to serve as a practical introduction both to the phonology of English and to the general practices and techniques used in teaching and learning pronunciation. It is written primarily for the teacher who has had little or no formal exposure to the field of linguistics, but who has an interest in becoming acquainted with some…

Help young students master concepts of print, phonemic awareness, and alphabet knowledge--the key predictors of early literacy success and school readiness. This resource will show what children need to know about print in order to become successful readers, how to connect children's development with learning about print, and how to provide a…

Articles in this special issue include the following: "Allophonic Splits in L2 Phonology: The Questions of Learnability" (Fred R. Eckman, Abdullah Elreyes, Gregory K. Iverson); "Native Language Influence in Learners' Assessment of English Focus" (M. L. Garcia Lecumberri); "Obstruent Voicing in English and Polish. A…

Argues that most pronunciation problems encountered by Cantonese learners of English may be adequately accounted for by contrastive differences. The phonological differences between the two languages are examined, ranging from their phoneme inventories, the characteristics of the phonemes, the distributions of the phoneme syllable structure, to…

There is broad agreement as to many of the segmental features of the Hong Kong accent of English: neutralisation of vowels which contrast in Standard Southern British English or General American, non-release of final stops, simplification of consonant clusters and devoicing of coda consonants. However, while it is apparent that there is no reason…

The importance of training second language learners in the patterns of occurrence of certain phonemes is discussed, focusing on the use of spelling as a primary predictor of pronunciation. Four different pronunciations of "ng" in English (as in "engaging, singer, changing, dangle") are used to illustrate this principle. A review of pronunciation…

Examination of the role of duration in the perception of phonemic contrast (English /r/-/l/) by Cantonese speakers (N=5) showed that increased duration was not sufficient to facilitate perception; differences in the perception of the two sounds by Japanese and Cantonese speakers were partially explained by differences in the phonological…

The purpose of this study was to examine which of three instructional modalities was more effective in enhancing the ability of nonnative English speaking children to read during the first grade. In this study, sixty-three first-grade children were randomly selected from four first grade classes from two primary schools in a university town in a…

A distinctive feature analysis of consonant phoneme production in Arabic, Farsi, Japanese, and Spanish is reported. The analysis is based on a model incorporating psychometrics and on one producing a three-point system for the features of place, manner, and voicing. Implications for teaching pronounciation are discussed. (PMJ)

Investigates the acquisition of selected English short and long vowel spellings by German learners of English in order to answer the questions: who acquires the short and long vowel spellings (a,e,i), and when and what governs their order of acquisition? Statistical data is included. (Author/OD)

Aims to heighten teacher awareness of the semantic, syntactic, and phoneme-grapheme transfer problems that Chinese students face. Provides teaching suggestions involving phonology, vocabulary, syntax, and morphology. Urges reading teachers to use the visual modality to help make the transfer to the English script system more successful. (RS)