Phonology of English (TE10003)

Article Review

Sem 1 2014/2015













Name : Siti Aisyah Binti Abdul Rahman
Matrix No : BP14110612
Lecturer : Yoon Sook Jhee








Summary.
This paper focuses on the attitudes of Asian learners toward the pronunciation of their
English variants. The objective was to see if these participants are more likely open to
accept their variants of pronunciation or they much prefer the native speaker accent. There
were three main findings. Firstly, the findings showsJapanese have the highest score that
said they dont have non-native accent. While Koreans come second and Malaysia have the
lowest score that stated they dont have non-native accent.. Secondly, the second findings
investigate about how the non-native speakers can understand theiraccented English.
Japanese shows the highest rating following Korea and Malaysia has the lowest percentage
that they believe that the non-native speaker can understand their accented English. Thirdly,
through this investigation, we get to see whether they were effectively attached to their
Englishpronunciation. The Japanese has the lowest mean when being compared with
Koreans and Malaysian. While Malaysian has the highest level of confidence when it came
to the level of confidence they have towards their pronunciation.
In conclusion, through all these findings, we can see that the Japanese are not very
confident about their English accent while Koreans have slightly more confidence towards
their accented English and Malaysian has the highest level confidence among those two
countries in term of confidence towards accented English.


















This article investigates about the attitudes towards pronunciation among Asian varieties of
English. Mina Takumoto and Miki Shibata had done quite a thorough work in investigating
the Asian attitudes towards their accented English. They have executed this investigation on
Asian peoples targeting 3 Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and Malaysia.

his article is quite good in a sense of having opinions that the attitudes towards
language are beinginfluenced by how you are being left uncovered about that language and
how everyone differs in their ideal type of accented English. The authors throw to us a
statement that it is not fair for those who learn English as their second language or as a
foreign languageand have achieved the status as fluent and proficient users but are still
labelled as non-native speakers.
The investigation shows that Malaysian have more level of confidence towards their
accented English compare to Japanese and Koreans. Through

Do you want to speak like native speakers? Those are the question that being asked.
In my opinion, I would not want to sound like a native speaker because I value my accented
English and I believe that people will still understand my accented language not just through
language but also body language and signs that I make when I talk to foreigners. As a
Malaysian I do not see that having accented English is a problem. This may be because I
learn and speak English as my second language. While Japanese and Korean learn their
English as a foreign language. This could be one of the reasons why Malaysian has the
highest level of confidence with their accented English. For example, if you meet a foreigner
that is asking for the road, you could still explain and show him the way using your body
language and your accented English because when doing a conversation you could only
have to understand the key words and you do not have to understand every word. That is
why I believe that it is fine to have accented English and not have to speak and sound like
native speakers.
On the other hand, through the research Japanese and Korean are more likely tend
to devalue their accented English and would want to speak and sound like a native speaker.
This is because they learn English as a foreign language and it is rare to use in their daily
conversation. In my opinion, one of the reasons would be because they have never been
invaded by the British, so they tend to worship the western more and everything that comes
from the western is good;everything is good in white. Another reason why they want to
achieve status as native speakers because they would like to pursue their studies overseas.
For example, if you want to continue your studies in overseas, you would want to speak like
native speakers so that you will be confident in conversing and studying there.