Phonological Differences Between Persian and English-libre

7/25/2019 Phonological Differences Between Persian and English-libre

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Phonological Differences between Persian and English:

Several potentially problematic Areas of

Pronunciation for Iranian EFL Learners

Adrisor: Dr. Gorjian

Written by : M . Bakhtiarvand

M. A In TEFL

Research and science center of

Islamic Azad university

Of Ahvaz

2005-2006


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Acknowledgement

This article has grown out of different classes in foreign language teaching, contexts ,

that I have taught at Gotvand Junior high- schools. My first debt of gratitude is

therefore to my studentsfor their insights, enthusiasm , and support.

I am also grateful to faculty colleagues at Research and Science

Center of Islamic Azad university of Ahvaz .

And my Best to my professor Dr . Gorjian who like an honest father help me in this

way.

The last not the least, to sommayehmy wife,life time companion , and best friend

thanks for believing in me and her enthusiasm.

Morteza Bakhtiarvand

December 2005

Andimeshk


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Abstract:

In light of the fact that L2 pronunciation errors are often caused by the transfer of

well-established L1 sound systems, this paper examines some of the characteristic

phonological differences between Persian and English. Comparing segmental and

suprasegmental aspects of both languages, this study also discusses several

problematic areas of pronunciation for Iranian learners of English. Based on such

contrastive analysis, some of the implications for L2 pronunciation teaching are

drawn.


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Introduction

The fact that native speakers of English can recognize foreign accents in ESL/EFL

learners' speech such as Spanish accents, Japanese accents, Persian accents, Arabic

accents , Chinese accents, etc. Is a clear indication that the sound patterns of structure

of their native languages have some influence of the speech or production of their

second language. In other words, it is quite reasonable to say that the nature of a

foreign accent is the determined to a large extent by a learner's native language

( Avery & Enrich, 1992) . thus , the pronunciation errors made by second language

learners are considered not to be just random attempts to produce unfamiliar sounds

but rather reflections of the sound inventory, rules of combining sounds, and the

stress and intonation patterns of their native languages ( Swan & Smith, 1987) .

Such observation of L2 pronunciation errors above, in turn , naturally suggests the

critical need for ESL/EFL teachers to become more aware of the impact that learners'

L1 backgrounds would bring to the learning of English pronunciation. In order to

identify specific areas of pronunciation difficulties caused by L1 phonological

transfer , teachers need to cultivate a firm understanding of the differences between

English and the native language of the learners.

Of course it is practically impossible for teachers working in an ESL situation as in

the U.S. to understand all the phonological differences between English and the

native languages of all the students , but it is also true that having such knowledge

can be quite an advantage especially for teachers working in an EFL situation as in

Iran.

Although contrastive analysis has often been criticized for its inadequacy to predict

the transfer errors that learners will make in actual learning contexts ( Whitman &

Jackson, 1972 ), it cannot be easily denied that " such interference those exist and can

explain difficulties" ( Brown,1994, P . 200) ,especially in the phono logical aspects of

second language learning .In this sense , the significance of contrastive analysis may

not necessarily lie in the predictability of transfer errors, but rather in the explanatory

potential of learner errors that teachers encounter in their daily practices (Celce-

Murcia & Howkins , 1985).


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This paper thus, examines some of the characteristics phonological differences

between Persian and English by focusing on segmental and suprasegmental aspects of

both languages, and through comparison between the two languages , this study also

points out several problematic areas of pronunciation for Iranian learners of English.

Segmental Aspects of English and Persian .


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Contents :

PageContents

Topic

Acknowledgement

Abstract

Introduction

Experiments And data analysis

Tests

Scores

Statistics

Tables and Graphs

Analysis

Results

Pedagogical implications

Conclusion

References


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Vowels

Comparing the Persian vowel system with that of English reveals some significant

differences in the following two areas : 1) The number of vowels and 2) Tense / lax

distinctions .

In the English vowel system, there are 15 different vowels identified, which include

several diphthongs such as /aw /,/ay/, and /oy/. On the other hand , Persian has only 5

vowels in its vowel inventory, a system quite common among many natural

languages in the world ( Kenworthy , 1987) . Although the number vowels that can be

identified in English and Persian can differ depending on different analysis of

linguists or phoneticians , it is obvious that there are considerably more vowels in

English than in Persian(see table 1).

Table 1 : vowel charts

Persian

backcentralFront

U:I:high

emid

aaelow

English

backcentralFront

u

U

i

I

high

O

e

e

c

mid

aaelow


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Another characteristic that typically differentiates the English vowel system from the

Persian vowel system is whether there exists the distinction between lax and tense

vowels in either of the two system .

The differentiation between tense and lax is made according to how much muscle

tension or movement in mouth is involved in producing vowels(Ladefoged ,1982)

Thus, vowels produced with extra muscle tension are called tense, and vowels

produced without that much tension are called lax vowels. For example, /i/ as in

English /it/ " eat" is categorized as a tense vowel as the lips are spread (muscular

tension in the mouth) and the tongue moves toward the root of the mouth.

On the other hand, /I/ as in English " it " is considered to be a lax vowel as there is

little movement of the tongue or muscular tension of the lips involved in its

production, compared to the manner in which the tense vowel /i/ as in " eat " is

produced .

As shown in table 1&2 ,the tense/ laxvowels pairs of English / , do not exist in the

five- /, /u/Vs./such as /i/ Vs. /I/, /e/ Vs /

Vowel system of Persian as there is no tense /lax differentiation. It should be noted,

however, that although long vowels of Persian are sometimes analysed as having the

same quality as English tense vowels, this claim is difficult to support ,

Because those vowels of Persian are not always contrastive in nature as English tense

/lax vowel pairs (Vance, 1987) .


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Consonants

As with the differences in the vowel systems, there are also noticeable differences in

consonantal distributions between

Persian and English. The table3 , which shows the consonant system of each

language, clearly illustrates the fact that there are more consonants in Persian than in

English (Avery & Ehrlich , 1992; Kenvorthy , 1987) . In the vertical column of

manner of articulation, we can notice that there is no (***) affricate found in Persian .

Then,looking at the horizontal column of place of articulation, there is a variety of

fricatives and nasal which are much more widely distributed in English than in

Persian .

/, (***),and (***) do not exist in the Persian consonantal /w/, /

System .

Table 3: classification of consonants according to place and manner of articulation

Persian aud Euglish

English & persian

Another difference in the consonantal in the distribution between Persian and English

is that there exist some consonants found in the consonant inventory of Persian but

not in that of English , such as the voiceless uvular stop /gh/ and voiced uvular stop


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/q/ as in the Persian words "qasr" (casstle) and "gham"( sadness ) respectively

( ladefoged, 1982 ).

Although Persian has a semivowel consonant as shown in the Table 3, the semivowel

dose not exactly correspond to the English semivowels /v/, /w/ , but rather it is

considered to be an in between sound of English(***) and /w/ . The exact articulation

point is not specified for the Persian /w/ sound .

Thus, the most characteristic difference between Persian and English consonantal

systems lies not in the number of consonants found in each of the two languages but

rather in the unique distribution patterns of consonants in both languages.

Syllable types

Comparing several words from English and Persian can tell us some of the

characteristic differences in the way that each language utilizes syllables for froming

a word . some of the examples that illustrate English syllable types are :

Word . Transcription . syllable type

... see .[siy] c(onsonant) v (owel)

... sit . [sit] cvc

spit ...[spit] .. ccvc

spits .[spits] . ccvcc

sprint [sprint] .. cccvcc

From these examples, we can say that English allows a wide variety of syllable types

including both open and closed syllables: CV (open syllable), CVC CCVC, CCVCC,

CCCVCC (closed syllables). On the other hand , the syllable types that allows seem

to be restricted to one open syllables/ and two close syllables.

word meaning . Syllable

ba with .. CV

... toop . Ball .. CVC

satr .. line CVCC

The fact that Persian words of more than one syllable always follow the CV syllable

sequence clearly shows significant characteristics of Persian syllables, which are

different from

those of English (Reiney & AndersonHsieh, 1993).


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1) Persian does not allow a word to start with a vowel.

2) Persian does not permit both two initial and two final consonants

clusters(i.e.,CCVCC syllable).

Thus, in general, English has a wider range of syllable types thanPersian and also it

allows the occurance of consonant clusters both at the word initial and final position

( Avery and Ehrlich, 1992).

It should be noted , however, that although English permits initial and final consonant

clusters, there are some restrictions on the possible combinations of consonants when

realized in consonant clusters. For example, the two nonsense words "blick" and "

bnick" both contain initial consonant clusters /bi/ and /bn/ but the only permissible

consonant combination is /bi/ , not / bn /;thus native speakers of English would

consider "bnick" to be a very odd word

.

5.SYLLABLE STRUCTURE

The sounds that result from one chest pluse from a syllable. In its minimal from, a

syllable consists of a vowel. In addition to the vowel a syllable may consist of one or

more consonants that appear on either or both sides of the vowel. In some languages

like Japanese , most often the syllable is composed of one consonant followed by one

vowel. These languages are called syllabic languages. In syllabic languages, each

syllable is represented by a symbol ( called syllabary) in the writing system. The

word TOYOTA from the Japanese language for example includes three syllables:

TO , YO, and TA . Therefore

the syllable structure of most Japanese syllables is very simple: Consonant+ vowel

(CV ). Most languages are, however, alphabetic in that symbols( called characters or

letters ) in their orthography represent sound segments or phonemes rather than

syllables. In these languages, the consonants and vowels are arrayed in a linear

fashion to represent the syllables , words , sentences, etc . Arabic and Hebrew ,

however , tend to arrange their consonants in a linear fashion , and superscribe or

subscribe their vowels as diacritics or sporadic features above or under their

consonants. As such, Arabic and Hebrew can ironically be called betagamic rather

than alphabetic languages. Many of the most famous languages of the world,

including English, are, however, alphabetic in the sense that they represent both their


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vowels and consonants in the form of lettrs in their orthography. In such languages,

words are composed of one or more syllables . A syllable is aphonological unit

composed of one or more phonemes . Every syllable has a nucleus,which is usually a

vowel( but which may be a syllabic liquid or nasal) .

The nucleus may be preceded by one or more phonemes called the syllable onset and

followed by one or more segments called the coda.Englisjh is an alphabetic language

which has a complex syllable structure . the syllable structure of English has been

presented in table 2.4 below .

EXAMPLESYLLABLE STRUCTURE

l/aI/V

key /ki:/CVtree/tri:/CCV

spree/spri:/CCCV

seek/si:k/CVC

speak/spi:k/CCVC

scram/skraem/CCCVC

striped/straIpt/CCCVCC

an/aen/VC

ant/aent/VCC

ants/aents/VCCC

pant/paent/CVCC

pants/paents/CVCCC

/splints/splIntsCCCVCCC

Stamp/staemp/CCVCC

Table 2.4 : Syllable structure of English

Table 2.4 has used the symbol C to represent consonants and the symbol V to

represent vowels . Notice that the syllable structure of English includes at least fifteen

different types of syllables.:

In yhis connection , it is interesting to notice that in alphabetic languages , the number

of vowels that appear in a word can be used as an index for determining the number

of syllable that make that word . A close look at the syllable structures presented in

table2.4 above reveals that , in English, consonant clusters can occuer in both syllable

initial and syllable-final positions(i.e.,as onest or coda ). Moreover , consonant


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clusters are not limited to two consonants in English. In a word like street three

consonants cluster together at the beginning of the syllable to produce a CCCVC

syllable. Another interesting observation is that vowels can initiate syllables in

English.

The syllable structure of Persian is, however , different . on the one hand , Persian

syllables cannot be initiated with vowels; even words that seem to start with a vowel

include the glottal stop /?/ as the syllable on a onset . on the other hand, syllable-

initial consonants clusters are impossible in Persian. In addition , syllable- final

consonant clusters in Persian normally take no more than two consonants in their

structures . As such ,most Persian syllable belongin one of the three syllable

structures( I.e., CV,CVC,or CVCC) presented in table 2.5 below . take the following

Persian examples:

PERSIAN SYLLABLES EXAMPLE

ba/ba: / meaning withCV

toop/tu:p/ mening ballCVC

satr/saetr/ meaning lineCVCC

abr/?aebr/ meaning cloud

Table 2.5 : Persian syllable structure

The differences between thesyllable strucvture of Persian and English are responsible

for a good portion of Iranian EFL learners' pronunciation problems.

In fact, many Iranian EFL learners tend to insert the vowel / e/ in many monosyllabic

English words to make yhem readily pronounceable. In addition, since Persian

syllables cannot be initiated by vowls, many Iranian EFL learners start pronouncingvowelinitial English syllables with the consonant /?/ . The term Penglish is

sometimes used to refer to Persian pronunsiatian of English words. The result of such

mispronunciation is that many monosyllabic English words are rendered as bi- or tri-

syllabic by some Iranian EFL students. Take the following example:

EXAMPLE PRONUNSIATION MISPRONUNSIATION

Out /aut/ /?aut/

Tree /tri:/ /teri:/Dress /dres/ /deres/


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Street /stri:t/ /?esteri:t/

Sky /skai/ /?eskai/

English Phonem es -Consonants

(*(*(**(**(**(**(***)Manner

K

g

T

D

p

b

voiceless

Voiced

Stops

C

j

Voiceless

voiced

Affricates

h

Z

S

S

z

F

v

Voiceless

voiced

Fricatives

IvoicedLateral

nmVoicedNasals

yrwVoicedSemivowels

KeywordPhonemePhoneme Key wordPhoneme Key Word

TagtM Manb bat

VatvN Nord Dog

WewP PatF Fat

YesyR RatG Go

ZoozThinH Hat

Azure(***)ThisJ Jump Church(***)S seeK Kick

Sing(***)shoe(***)L Lump


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English Phonemes - Vowels

RoundUnround

Iy =(***) ay = (***) ow =

Ey = uw =

Figure 8.10

z

s

v

f

n

m

g

k

d

t

b

p

segments

features

-----------------Vocalic

+++++++++++++++++Consonantal

++++++++---------continuant

--------+++------nasal

--------+++++++++

Abrupt

release

-----------------lateral

+-+-+-+-++++-+-+-voice

-+-+-+-+----+-+-+tense

BackCentralFront

High

Mid

Low

u

(good)

(***)

i

(bi

+1

O

(ball)

(but)

e

(bet)

(bought)

a

(pot)

(***)

(bat)


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-----------------aspiration

++++--++---------strident

--++++++-++--++++anterior

++++++---+---++--coronal++------+--++----high

-----------------low

--------+--++----back

-----------------round

Segments

features

vocalic+++++++++++---++--

consonantal--------------++++

Continuant++++++++++++++++--

nasal------------------

Abrupt release------------------

Lateral---------------+--

voice+++++++++++++++++-

Tense+-+-+---+-+--+---+

Aspiration------------------

Strident----------------++

Anterior--------------++--

coronal--------------++++

High---++----++++---++

Low+-----+------+----

Back++++++------+-----

round-++++-------+-----


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Test of the vowels sound/n/,/u/and/u:/

Exercises

1. Listen to this student. Do the underlined words have an

Sound? Write them in the corre part of the table.Or/U: / //

/u: ///

schoolStudied

Follow up: listen again and repeat sentence by sentence.

2. Complete these sentences with words from the box. The vowel sound is given.

Listen, check and repeat.

Brother wood moon juice won

Month June would full cup Son good

I was there forsummer.lastLondoninchoolEnglish at a sstudiedI

andfood. England is famous for badJune: May andtwo months

were verypub lunchesweather, but I thought the food was good. The

rain for me!Too mushabout the weather.truenice. But it's


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Example

Two things you can../u/ on a foot is a shoe and a.../u: /

After/u:/is July. / 1. The /

. // Is my . / 2. My mother's other ./

In 2002. // The world.. // 3. Brazil ..

4. Fruit ./u:/ is ./u/ for you.

5. There is a /u/ /u: /once a month.

6. Youpronounce . /u/ exactly the same as ..../u/.

3. Circle the word with the different vowel sound. You can use a dictionary if you are

not sure.

Example foot look blood push

1. soon book boot room

2. rude luck run but

3. shoes does true blue

4. pull full put rule5. group could would should

6.done move love son

7. south young couple won

4. Listen and circle the word you hear. If you find any of these difficult, go to section

D4 sound (***) for further practice.

1.Cut or cat? There 's a cut /cat on the arm of the sofa.

2. come or calm ? you should try to come / calm down .

3. gun of gone ? He's taken his dog and gun/gone.

4. shoes or shows? I've never seen her shoes /shows on TV.

5.pool or pull? It said ' pool ' / ' pull' on the door .

6. luck or look? It's just her luck/look !

7. shirt or shut ? The hairdresser's shirt /shut.

8. A gun or a gain? He shot a gun /again.


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Test of vowel sounds /3:(r)/and / / (r)/

Exercise

1. write these numbers out in full. Which of the two vowel

/:/or /:/ sounds do they contain? Write

/:/ Example 3rd.third.

...4

11.

2. 30

3.4th.

4. 1st.

5. 14

2. Find 14 words in the puzzle ( every letter is used once) and write them in the

correct part of the table . the words are written

). ) or vertically (horizontally

/:/Words with/: Words with/

Bird

3. Listen to these sentences. Is the accent from Britain or America? Write B or A

EXAMPLE The girl's first birthday. A

1 Its hard work, of course. ..

2 Are you sure? .


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3 Law and order . ..

4 I walk to work. ..

5 I saw thebird fall. .

6 He was born on Thursday the thirty-first.

the

7 she taught German.

8 I learned to surf in Brazil. 9 'Caught' and 'court' sound the same in my accent. ...

4. Listen and circle the word you hear. If you find any of these difficult, go to Section

D4 sound pairs for further practice.

1. Four or far? It isn't four/far.

2. Worst or west? It's on the worst /west cost.

3. Walk or woke? I walk/ woke the dog.

4. Shut or shirt? The butcher's shut/shirt.

5. Port or pot? There's coffee in the port /pot.

6. Bird or beard? He has a black bird /beard.

7. Her or hair? Is that her /hair?

8. Worked or walked? We worked/walked all day.

b b t c o u r s e

i a u h w s w a r

r i r e o o h g m d i n

a r r e i o s a w r d t

r r r

I a w d a i i i e


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Test of consonant sounds /0/and/0/:

Exercise

1. Find a way from start to finish . You may pass a square only . . You can move

horizontally // if the word in it has the sound

Only.)vertically (or)(

thosebreatheweathereithernorthernnorth

youthbreaththoughtbathebathsouth

thumbtoughtroughteirtirdsuthern

worthwthffthpthcothtailandteehtatbothertesecothesmnth

wealthteyoherathortingthrow

2. Complete this rhyme using words from the box. Then listen and check.

Earth heather neither mothers brothers together birth

either

Arthur had a brother.. They wanted was a .

So Arthur's mother And he didn't want another

And of the brother's , . Got them both

And told them all good..Wanted sisters .. .

The last thing on this .. . Should learn to share their ..

Follow up : listen to the poem again . Pause the recording after each line and repeat it.

3. Think of a computer which people speak in to and it writes what they say. This

computer wrote the sentences down wrongly. Correct the underlined mistakes.

EXAMPLE It's free o'clock. ....three.

1. A bat is more relaxing than a shower.

2. The train went true the tunnel.

3. Dont walk on the ice; it's very fin .

START

FINISH


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4.You need a sick coat in winter .

5. I don't know ; I haven't fought about it . .

6. it's a matter of life and deaf . ..

4.listen and circle the word you hear . if you find any of these difficult, go to section

D4 sound pairs for further practice .

1. youth or use ? there's no youth / use talking about that .

2. thought or taught ? I dont know what she thought /taught.

3. free or three ? Free/ three refills with each packet?

4. closed or clothed ? They weren't fully closed /clothed.

5. Breeding or breathing? They've stopped breeding /breathing.

6. these are our visa ? These are / visa problems we can deal with later.


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Test of the consonant souds /m/, /and/

Exercises

1. read this conversation . it contains 19 examples of the sound

/ does itm) . How many examples of the sound /n/ and /(

Contain? Write your answers. Then listen and check.

2. Find away from start to finish. You may pass a square only / .if the word in it

has the sound /

) only. ) or vertically ( You can move horizontally (

rungwrongstrongthickthinksing

combstrangedrugunlessunclesign

fingerEglishdranksignalangrythanks

youngmoneymonkeysingleangelanxious

inkcameskinskiingtonguelanguage

wingswimdreambanddangerlounge

3. Complete this conversation using words from the box .then

What , is that the moment, the

monument or the man you meant?

I met a man near the monument this morning. He

was a singer and sang a song for me. I'll always

remember that magic moment. Like something out

of a dream!

FINISH

START


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Listen and check. Worn warm thing thin

Sid: Hey, Joe, your coat is very worn.

Joe: No, it isn't .. .I always feels cold in this coat.

Sid: No, not ! I said ., with an N!

Joe: oh , . .with an N!

Sid: yes, the cloth is

Joe: What do you mean " the cloth is .. " ?

Sid:No,..with an N at the end , not . With a G at the end!



1. Robin or robbing? My friend likes Robin Banks / robbing banks.

2. Ran or rang? Tom ran /rang yesterday.

3. Swing are swim? She had a swing/ swim in the garden.

4. Warned or warmed? The son warned / sun warmed me.

5. Singing or sinking? The people were singing / Sinking fast.


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Test of the sounds /h/,/w/and/j/:

Exercise

1. Add on of these sounds to the start of these words to make other words: /h/, /j/, /w/.

Think of sounds and spelling!

Example air hair, where.. .

1. Earth 6. eyes 11.I'll

2. ear 7. all.. 12. eat .

3. Or. 8. aid 13. ache

4 . in ... 9.ill 14. eye..

5. eight .. 10. art . 15. Old .

2. In these groups of words, three of the words begin with the same consonant sound.

You can use a dictionary.

Example hour half home high

1. union used under university

2. water whale whole window

3. when who where which

4. year euro uniform untie

5. how honest healthy happy

6. one write world waste

3. each sentence contains four or five examples of one of these sounds : /h/ , /w/, /j/.

write the phonemic letter under the sounds in the sentences .

Example A fusion of Cuban and European music . / j/

jjjj

1. Your uniform used to be yellow. / j/

2. Haley's horse hurried ahead / h/

3. This is a quiz with twenty quick questions. /w/

4. We went to work at quarter to twelve./w/

5. New York University student's union . /j/

6. The hen hide behind the hen house. / H/

7. Which language would you like to work in? / w/


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1. Art or heart? This is the art /heart of the country.

2. Hearing or earring? She's lost her hearing / earring.

3. West or vest? The west / vest is very warm.

4. Aware or of air? They weren't made aware / of air.

5. Use or juice? What's the use / juice?

6. Heat or sheet? I can't sleep in this heat / sheet


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Suprasegmental Aspects of English and persian

Suprasegmental asoects of aspects of the English sound system such as

rhythm,stress, and intonation are often distinguished from the segmental aspects such

as consonants and vowels

Discussed earlier. These suprasegmental aspects of English are also considered to be

different from those of Persian in many respects.

Rhythm : Stress Timed / Syllable Timed

According to Ladefoged (1982) , the term " stress- timed / syllabletimed " is used

to characterized the pronunciation of languages that display a particular type of

rhythm in stress

Timed languages, there is a tendency that sressed syllables recur at regular intervals,

regardless of the number of unstressed syllables that intervene in a sentence . In other

words, the amount of time it takes to say a sentence in stressed- timed language

depends on the number of syllables

That receives stress, either minor or major ,not on the total number of syllablrs

( Avery & Ehrilch, 1992).

In syllable-timed languages on the other hand, the syllables are said to occuer at

regular intervals of time , and the amount of time it takes to say a sentence dependes

on the number of syllables in the sentence, not on the number of stressed syllables as

in stressed- time languages.

According to Catford (1977) , English in categorized as a stresstimed language and

syllabletimed language . For example , it would take approximately the same

amount of time to say the following two English sentences, even though the number

of syllables in each sentence differs .

.Birds /eat/worms.

.... The birds / will have eaten / the worms.

.1 .. 2......3

That is ," the intervals between stressed syllables in speech are either equal or at least

more nearly equal than the intervals between the nucleus of each successive syllable

and next " (Matthews, 1997, p. 355). Although vance (1987) has raised some doubts

as to whether stressed syllables in English are indeed isochronal , Ladefoged (1982)


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notes that such a general tendency of stress-timed languages might be applicable to

English as well.

In Persian , however , each of the equivalent sentences of English examples above

would take different amount of time to complete each of the sentences:

(**********).......(**********)

(16 syllables)

(********)

As is apparent from these examples, the amount of time to say a sentence in Persian

differs , depending on how many syllables the sentence contains' not how many

stressed syllables it contains as in the English examples.

anguage/ Stressed Accent LanguageStressed: pitch Accent l

Although both English and Persian are similar in having word

Stressed, they differ in terms of how word stressed is realized

In creating characteristic stress patterns of each language. In English, sressed

syllables are marked primarily by making vowels longer and louder, while in Persian

syllable stressed in vowels simply saying vowels at a higher pitch. Such difference in

stress realization between Persian and English is often referred to as the distinction

between pitch accent and stress

accent languages ( Gimson,1989). The notion of stressed accent seems quite relevant

to the existence of reduced or unstressed vowel called "shwa" in English , for it is

considered a natural phenomenon that if significantly strong stress is placed on a

particular single vowel or syllable in a word, other vowels or syllables in the same

word become less significant and their reduction process is facilitated. In addition , it

can be said that this way of making stress greatly contributes to creating a stress-

timed rhythmic pattern of English(Dalton& Seidlhofer, 1994) . In contrast to English

stress patterns , Persian use of pitch in making stress can explain in the syllable timed

rhythmic patterns of Persian, in that using slightly higher pitch to mark stress does not

make a particular vowel or syllable in a word prominent in quality, compared to other

vowels or syllables uttered at a slightly lower pitch. Thus, the amount of time to say a

sentence in Persian is not restricted to the number of stressed vowels or syllables as in

English.


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Intonation

Introduction patterns of English and Persian have some characteristics in common

such as final rising intonation pattern as used in yes- no question or final rising

falling as used in statements, commands , and wh- questions , but the difference

between the two languages is the degree of pitch

changes utilized in creating rising or falling intonation contours ( Wong, 1987) . For

example Persian is often said to use less pitch variation than English. In other words,

Persian and English have different pitch functions in uttering a sentence. English

pitch changes occur in conjunction with the major sentence stress which is usually

placed on a stressed syllable in the final content word , to convey the meaning of

sentences, while Persian mainly uses pitch changes to mark stress on the word level,

whitch results in producing a so-called "monotonous" intonation contours typical of

Peresian speech patterns (Avery & Ehrlich, 1992).

Problems:ronunciationPor Iranian learners of Englishreas fSpecific Problem A

Segmentals

Segmental differences between Persian and English sound system reveal several

potentially problematic areas that Iranian learners of English encounter in their

production of English consonants and vowels.


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Vowels

As is pointed out in the earlier sections on the English and Persian vowel system,

there are apparently more vowels present in English than in Persian . The fact that the

Persian vowel inventory is characterized as a typical five-vowel system

,suggests that Japanese students would have difficulty producing English vowels that

do not exist in the Persian vowel system ( Vance, 1987). In English, there are five

front

/ /a/ / / //ae/ and five back vowels /u/ /U/ //vowels, /i/ /I/

While in Persian there are only three vowels /i:/ /e/ /***/made in the front and one

vowel /u:/ In the back and one vowel in /do not // center. In addition , the English

central vowels /

Exist in the five vowel system of Persian . thus, it is quite probable that vowel

distinctions made by the change of tongue positioning between the five front vowels

and the five back vowels of English may pose problems for Iranian learners of

English, who are accustomed to making only three distinctions on tongue positioning

in the front and back of the mouth.

Furtheremore , the tense /lax distinctions made in English, which contribute to

creating the wider variety of vowels of English, seem to be one of the most

problematic areas in pronunciation for Iranian students. For example, Iranian learners

often produce the tense/lax vowel pairs of English almost identically as if they were

the same vowels; for example, words such as " sleep", "taste" and " stewed" may be

pronounced in the same way as such words as "slip" , "test" and "stood" are

pronounced respectively. thus, it is quite conceivable that such failure to distinguish

between tense and lax vowel pairs of English can cause misunderstandings or

miscommunications between Iranian students and native English speakers.

Furthermore, the Persian lack of a mid /

/and a low front vowel/ ***/ as present in central vowel/

English and the different tongue positioning of the vowel /a/

between the two languages(i.e.,/a/ is a low back vowel in English,while it is a low

central vowel in Persian ) can bring about a great confusion to Iranian students in

producing such words as " hut ", " hat" , and "hot" , or " putt" , " pat", and " pot" . that

is , Iranian students might end up producing these three vowel sounds in such a

similar or interchangeable manner that a native English speaker cannot tell which

words they are trying to say .


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Consonants

As I painted out earlier , the Persian consonantal inventory dose not contain such a

wide variety of consonants as its English counterpart , although allophonic

realizations of some Persian consonants can cover some of the consonants present in

English but not in the Percian consonantal system( Riney & AndersonHiseh ,

1993;Ladefoged ,1982) . such voiceless //voiced pairs of fricatives and affricates in

English as / ***//

And /v/ /w/ usually do not occur as distinct phonemes in Persian, but when /v/and

/w/ appear before the vowels /I/ and /u/ , they are pronounced /v/and /w/

allophonically.

It should be noted , however, that because these allophonic realizations are

constrained by the environments in which they occur, the specific settings for such

Persian allophonic realizations might not always be appropriate for English Phonemic

realizations(Kenworthy, 1987). For example, Persian students may pronouns such

pair of words as " they " and" thin" or " wear" and" was" like(***) and (***) or

"veer" and "vak" respectively. Thus, these problems are considered to be a clear

illustration that Iranian students might be transferring the sound patterns of Persian in

to English and producing allophonic consonants that are appropriate in Persian but

not in English .

Another problem that comes from the lack of particular consonants in a Persian but

which exist in English is the pronunciation of labiovelar approximant /w/. while

Persian has a similar counterpart of /v/ sound , it is a labiodental as in English .

because of the particular lack of /w/ sound, Iranin learners often substitute the voiced

labiodental fricatives/ v/ for/w/ . this strategy of substitution might cause some

miscommunication between Iranian students and native speakers of English; for

instance, such words as " was" and wea" might be wrongly perceived as "vase" and

"veer" ."

As a similar example of substituting a particular consonant with other similar

consonants available, Iranian students often // employ such substitution strategy in

producing the English

And (***) sounds . Although Persian has not a interdental // fricative sound similar

to both English


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And (***), the Interdental/fricative doesnot exactly correspond to either of the

English interdentalfricative and they are often pronounced as a kind of in- between

sound of the English / t/ and /d/ and /s/ and /z/. Thus, Iranian students often substitute

/t /

/at another. Because of this For (***) at one time and /s/ for /

/ , words such as "they" Interchangeable use of both(***) and/

And " thin" may sound like "day" and "sin" to English native

Speakers . still another problem of pronunciation that needs to be addressed for

Iranian students is that they often has difficulty producing English words with

consonant clusters and closed syllables. Such difficulty is caused by the fact that

Persian doesnot allow a word to end with three consonants nor permit two initial

consonants clusters (e.g. , CCVCC types of syllables as found in English words )

( Avery and Ehrlich 1992) . Thus, aword with initial consonant clusters and a closed

syllable such as " street" may be pronounced as "estrees" or /estri:t/ , by inserting a

vowel before consonants, so that the word can conform to the Persian syllable pattern

(CVC). Furthermore , this vowel insertion strategy usedby Iranian students seem to be

a natural reaction to the difficulties pronouncing consonant clusters, but at the same

time quite difficult to amend by themselves, because usually students are not aware

consciously of the fact that they are inserting a vowel before consonants in

pronouncing consonant clusters. Although they might recognized the problem when

pointed out by others at the time, there is no telling whether the problem will be

corrected in the future.

Stress,Rhythm, and Intonation

Since Persian is a syllabletimed language , Persian learners of English may have

difficulty producing English words and sentences in the way that corresponds to the

characteristic rhythm of English. The reason behind this difficulty seems to be two

fold : 1) there is no reduced or short vowel equivalent to English shwa 2) In a

syllable-timed language like Persian , each syllable is assigned an equal amount of

weight , regardless of whether the syllable is stressed or unstressed . As aresult,

Iranian speakers' pronunciation of English words and sentences may sound strange to

the native speakers' ears , and this particular type of rhythm can adversely affect the

comprehen sibility of their English to the native speakers. In addition , the difference


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in the way of stress markings between Persian and English, also contributes to the

difficulty fore Iranian Students in both producing and receiving the characteristic

stressed patterns and the overall rhythm of English. Finally, the issue of difficulty that

Iranian students might face in realizing the characteristic intonation patterns of

English should also be addressed . although both Persian and English utilize the basic

intonation patterns such as rising intonation for yes- no questions or finalrising-

falling for statements in conveying the meaning of sentences and also the intend of

the speaker , the difference between the two rests not in the way of creating intonation

patterns but rather in the degree of pitch change or pitch ranges employed differently

in creating appropriate intonation contours in each language ( Avery &

Ehrlich ,1992). AS a result , Iranian students would often fail to display the wider

pitch range utilized in creating English Intonation patterns, relying heavily on their

use of the narrower pitch range of Persian intonation patterns (Maccarthy ,1978)

For example, even if a Iranian student intends to say a sentence as a statement, a

native English speaker might misinterpret the statement as a question or assume that

the speaker has not finish speaking yet. This example of misinterpretation as to the

intent of the speakers utterances clearly illustrates one of the most common problems

that Iranian learners of English may encounter in communication. When a speaker

fails to lower the pitch level far enough at the end of a sentence, the utterance might

be perceived as a continuation of the speech, in spite of the speaker's initial intention

to finish the line.

Furthermore, it should be noted that since pitch changes can convey not only the

meaning of sentences but also the speaker's attitude toward a topic of conversation,

narrower use of pitch ranges by Iranian students in their speech might be( mis)

interpreted as a sign of boredom or lack of interest by the native

English speakers (Avery & Ehrilch ,1992).


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Conclusion

As we have seen in the preceding section ,many of the potential pronunciation

difficulties for Iranian / EFL learners are found to be a clear reflection of the L1

phonological transfer. Through detailed examination of Persian and English sound

systems, some of the specific problem areas have been identified, especially in

reference to some of the characteristic phonological differences between the two

languages.

Pronunciation difficulties for Iranian learners of English may arise;

1) When they encounter sounds in English that are not part of / /, (***) , /w/, the

sound inventory of Persian such as ; /

2) when the rules of combining sounds into words in Persian are different from those

in English (i.e.; different syllable types) .

3)When the characteristic patterns of stress and intonation in English , which

determine the overall rhythm or melody of the language, are different from those in

Persian (I.e., pitch accent vs. stress accent and syllabletimed vs., stress-timed).

It should be noted, however, that identifying specific pronunciation difficulties for

Iranian learners of English do not necessarily lead to the dramatic improvement of

their pronunciation, but rather that such knowledge can only constitute a prerequisite

for teachers in creating actual teaching activities . In other words , whether the

pronunciation teaching can become effective or not largely depends on how teachers

can utilize such knowledge in designing the teaching materials or activities that help

students become aware of the difference between English and Persian sound systems

and improve their pronunciation by themselves (Kelly , 2000 ; celce-Murcia, Brinton

& Goodwin , 1996).

Although it is almost a clich that the better the Pronunciation, the more effective the

communication becomes, it is equally true that even if L2 learners could attain perfect

pronunciation of sepsrate sound items , that does not guarantee smooth

communication with native speakers nor effective presentation of the idas that they

intend to convey. Communicative aspects of language learning, which involves many

other competence requirements such as grammatical , strategic, sociolinguistic , or

discourse knowledge , should not be neglected for the sake of nativelike accuracy

of pronunciation (Morley , 1987;Celect-Murcia,1987).


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With this regard , the tasks for ESL/EFL teachers inteaching pronunciation should not

be limited to eradicating all traces of a forein accent from the students' speech. But

rather, instead of expecting" precise accuracy" through tedious pronunciation drills or

repetition, more emphasis should be placed on raising communicative value of the

students ' pronunciation so that what they produce would be more comprehensible to

others.


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References

Birjandi/P& Salmaninodoushan / M.A.(2005) . Ax Introduction to

phonetics .Tehran: Zabankadeh publications .

Hancock/M.(2003). English pronunciation in use . Cambridge : Cambridge

university press.

Falk/s.j.(1973). Linguistics and Language (second ed.)Michigan : Michigan state

university.

Fromkin /V and Rudman / R . ( 1988) . An Introduction to language . ( 4 th ed .) .

Holt , Rinhart and Winston , Inc .

Ladefoged/ p. (1987) . A course in phonetics . New york: Harcout Brace.

CeleMurcia / M. (1987). Teaching pronunciation as communication. In J. morely

(ED.)/Current perspectives on pronunciation (pp. 1-12) .Washington /DC: TESOL

Ohata /k . ( 2005) Phonotogical Difference between Japanese and English .[Article].

Pensylvanya:

Indiana University of Pensylvania .

Brown/H.D.(1994). Principles of language learning and teaching ( 3rd

ed.0.

Englewood cliffs /NJ: Prentice Hall.

O'connor /J.D.(1954).A curse of English pronunciation .London : The British

Broadcasting Corporation in London.

Lyons/J. (1981). Language and Linguistics . Cambridge : Cambridge Univerity Press.

Roach/ P . (2000). English Phonetics and Phonology A practical course (3rd

ed.).

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.


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Table "1"

Score of Students with

remedia course

{Experimental group}

Post-TestPre-test

scoreScoreName -FamilyVOL

1812.75Roshanak Siahpoosh1

2018Fatemeh ShahAbadi2

1711.25Nahid Bossak3

1814.5Maryam Behdarvand4

14.259.5Zeinab Jamshdi5

2019.75Ashraf Behdarvand6

15.512Khadijeh Molla -Ahmadi7

2018.5Somayeh Monjezy8

1613Mahnaz Babaee9

16.2514.5Maesoomeh Javdaneh10

2017.25Elham Eghbali11

13.58.75Mahtab Shadmehr12

15.513.25Forogh Baba - Hosseini13

1816.25Ahzam Mokhtar-zadeh14

1511.5Elaheh Hasanvand15


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Table "2"

Scores of Students with out

Remedial course

{coutrol group}

Post-Testpre-Test

scoreScoreName-FamilyVOL

109.5Mina Gomari1

6.57.75Leila Ahmadi2

1110.5Maryam Amiri3

13.2516.5Mona Sardar- zadeh4

1012.25Foroozan Mokhtari5

-5-4.5Shabnam Mokhtari6

-8-7.25Roya Hafezee7

1618.25Sahar Emam- gholizadeh8

7.759.5Asma Gorjian9

-8-5Fatemeh Bossak10

1310Nahid Bakhtiari11

-7-8.5Zahra zalaki12

85Zeinab Lorestani13

10.58.25Sommayeh Adineh14

1110.25Sakineh Mohammadi15

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Phonological Differences Between Persian and English-libre