Transcript of my EFL interview and analysis of certain phonemes

Transcript of interview with “Cindy” aka Lee Jieun.

Interview and research: Andrew Cutler

Class: SLA

Objective: Analysis of two habitual phonemic problems and also incidents where they are pronounced correctly. Discuss problems and differences in speech patterns.

The two phonemes analyzed are /b/ and /ð/. There are other phonemic problems, but these are excluded in this study.

Incorrect usage will be in bold. Correct usage will be underlined.

A: Hello, can I ask what your name is both in Korean and your adopted Western name?

C: Sure. My name is Jieun Lee and I’m using my English name, which is Cindy. And you mean, uh… the age?

(Interviewer’s note: the /ð/ is not enunciated enough when she verbalizes articles. Instead it sounds like a hard ‘d’ sound. )

A: Sure, what is your age?

C: I’m 23 years old in international age.

A: Where did you go to University? Or where are you going to University?

C: I’m going to Seoul Women’s University and I’m majoring in Japanese language and literature.

A: How long have you been studying English?

C: Well…. Since I was in elementary school I guess. Because as you know, from elementary school student and high-school student it’s mandatory to learn English in school. So it’s been over 10 years.

A: Okay, have you lived or studied in an English speaking country?

C: Yeah, actually I live- I studied in New York for a year to improve my English skills and it helped me a lot.

A: Okay.  Um, do you ever talk in English with your family or with your friends?

C: With my family or friends…? Um… yeah, I have. With my younger brother. Or just for fun. But with my friends?  Maybe in the class I’ve talking (sic) to them in English. Or with my foreign friends…. Who doesn’t (sic) speak my mother-tongue (trails off slightly)… we should communicate in English.

(Interviewer’s note: again, the /ð/ is not enunciated enough when she verbalizes articles. Additionally, she hesitates when saying “mother” perhaps trying to concentrate on verbalizing the /ð/.  The instance where she talks about her “brother” also suffers from this problem )

A: Good. Um, in your opinion what do you think is the most difficult aspect of learning English?

C: Of learning English…? Um, I think compared to Korean the structure is totally different. Like in Korean, the verb comes at the end. But the structure of English is subject, verb and something like (trails off)… and so this makes me, um, distracted or frustrated sometimes.

(Interviewer’s notes: In both instances, Cindy dropped the /b/ sound at the end of “verb.” Instead it sounds like she’s saying “verve.”)

A: Okay, thank you so much for speaking to me, Cindy.

C: My pleasure. Thank you.

Conclusion:

/b/

When /b/ is at the end of a word it is problematic for Cindy. As a borderline intermediate/advanced EFL speaker, she pronounces words that begin with /b/ fine, such as “but.” However, when a word ends in /b/, especially when said word begins with a soft consonant sound like /v/, then the /b/ is dropped and in this instance replaced with the /v/ consonant that started the word. I believe this is a case of assimilation. According to the consonant phoneme chart we received in class, /b/ is a bilabial sound that is primarily formed with our lips and is voiced. As mentioned I could not notice any problems when /b/ started a word.

Incorrect:                                                      Correct:

Verb                                                                But

                                                                        Because          

/ð/

She seems to have trouble with /ð/ with articles that she rushes out, but words such as “think” are pronounced clearly and deliberately, perhaps because she puts more thought (no pun intended) into a more significant and/or meaningful word. Several times when she said “the” it sounded more like “duh.” With some other words such as “mother” I think the placement of the /ð/ in the middle of the word causes problems for her.

Incorrect                                                                               Correct                                 

The                                                                                          Think

Mother                                                                                   

Brother

The influence of other words on sound production:

When Cindy says “mother tongue” as a compound word, I believe the different hard and soft sounds make this a challenge to pronounce properly. She assimilates the /ð/ in “mother” with the /t/ in “tongue” causing “mother” to sound like it has a /t/ sound instead. When she mispronounces the /ð/ in “Maybe in the class” and “comes at the end”, it could point to a pattern of problems with prepositions that lead to articles. At least with “at the”, the hard ending of “at” could be influencing how she pronounces “the.” When /ð/ words are isolated or she has time to consider them, she seems to be more successful in pronouncing them, such as with “thank you” and “think.”

With /b/ in isolation and at the beginning of a word, it’s pronounced correctly. Here is something interesting I noticed with the second “verb” though. While the /b/ sound requires a tightness with the lips, the “and” with its /æ/ beginning requires the lips to be spread. Perhaps sandwiched between the /v/ at the beginning of verb and /æ/ with “and” the /b/ sound is completely neglected or assimilated.