A conversation between a librarian and a student was recorded and analysed.

The
student was being warned by the librarian about the rules in library. Both were non-native
English speakers as their first language (L1) was Bahasa Melayu. Asmah Haji Omar (1983)
said that English is the second most important language and a compulsory subject in school.
English becomes the second language (L2) for them. Both of them also speak Sabah and
Terengganu dialects. An analysis on the speakers segmental and supra-segmental aspects
of pronunciation errors has been done and the causes of errors have also been detected.

One of the errors made by the speakers was the pattern of stress. Stress and
intonation are supra-segmental features. Backman & Ellen (1979) said most of the L2
speakers will have problems with correct placement of stress and intonation. The Malaysian
will tend to stress on penultimate or last syllable regardless it is a verb or a noun (Alias Abd.
Ghani, 1995). Stress placement in English language does not have specific patterns but
there are some rules that can be followed. As for nouns, the stress is on the first syllable
while we stress the second syllable for verb. From the text, the speakers tend to stress on
the last syllable. For example, the word architecture was stressed on the fourth syllable,
/ktk/. Another mistake found is the word working as she stressed on the first
syllable /wk/ instead or /wk/ since working is a verb. Through those examples, we
can see that the speakers do not have sufficient knowledge on stress placement. Moyer
(2007) said that most of the speakers are not exposed with the stress rules. The speakers
might not see the importance of using correct stress and intonation. Incorrect usage of stress
and intonation might lead to misunderstanding.

Another error spotted was related to features of connected speech. Native speakers
have various devices for dealing with indistinct utterances caused by connected speech.
They take account of the context and assume they hear words with which they are familiar
within that context. Non-native speakers, like both of the speakers however,were rarely able
to predict which lexical item may or may not appear in a particular situation ( Zhang & Yin,
2009). They depended almost solely on the sounds which they heard. In this case, as they
stressed on too many words, the cause of this error might be the inability to recognise and
cope with the weak forms. For instance, the sentence was Its got my lunch in it. From this
example, we can see that the main point or the focus was on the word lunch, and the rest of
the words were obviously only as helpers to make the sentence grammatically correct.
However, the speaker stressed on every word where she pronounced /n t/ instead of /nt/.
It sounded unnatural because when word boundaries involving a consonant and a vowel are
linked, we tend to drag final consonants to initial vowels or vice versa. Learners whose
instruction has focused heavily on accuracy suffer a "devastating diminuation of phonetic
information at the segmental level when they encounter normal speech." (Brown 1990.) Too
many stressed words and strong forms can make it difficult for the listeners to identify the
points of focus and at the same time, the speakers language will sound unnatural and over
formalised. The degree to which connected speech contributes towards "naturalness" or
"intelligibility", is a useful starting point from which to measure the value to students of the
different features of connected speech (Wan, 2007).

Another clear mistake done by the speakers was when they pronounced the word
the and they. The sound / / in the word the was substituted with the sound /d/. Analysis
of the errors frequently made by non-native English indicates that among the problematic
sounds is //, the voiced /th/. This is a sound that is not found in Malay besides the sound //,
the voiceless /th/. Similarly, Yamaguchi (2014) stated that both of these sounds (// and //)
are not found in the sound inventory of any local languages in Malaysia. Hence, the speakers
made these mistakes as these sounds were unfamiliar, and therefore faced problems in
pronouncing these unfamiliar sounds without even realising it. A particular sound which does
not exist in the native language can therefore pose a difficulty for the second language
learners to produce or sometimes to try to substitute those sounds with similar ones in their
mother tongue. Research findings also suggest that the degree of perceived similarities and
differences between native language and second language segments might determine how
second language segments are produced (Baker & Trofimovich, 2005; Guion et al., 2000). In
this case, it can be seen clearly that the difference between the sounds in English and Malay
language was one of the causes of the errors made by the speakers.

In short, lack of knowledge and exposure, the inability to recognise and cope with the
weak forms, and the unfamiliarity with a few of English consonants, are some of the reasons
for the pronunciation errors made in the conversation by both speakers. In Malaysia,
teaching is not emphasized to achieve native-like-pronunciation as the intelligibility is more
important (Munro & Derwing, 2011). They emphasize more on fluency rather than accuracy;
as long as message delivered are socially accepted and understandable. Levis (2005) states
that aiming to sound like a native speaker is an unrealistic burden for both teacher and the
students. However, the teacher should expose and apply the knowledge in the classroom
and not just focussing on grammar and vocabulary.
References

Alias Abd Ghani. (1995). Variability in Interlanguage Phonology of Malaysian Learners of

English. Thesis Ph.D. The University of Leeds.

Asmah, Haji Omar (1983).The Role of English in Malaysia in the Context of National
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Backman & Ellen, N. (1979). Intonation errors in second language pronunciation of eight
Spanish speaking adults learning English. Interlanguage Studies Bulletin, 4(2), 239
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Baker, W. & Trofimovich, P. (2005) Interaction of native and second language vowel language
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Levis, J. (2005). Changing contexts and shifting paradigms in pronunciation teaching.

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Moyer, A. (2007). Do language attitudes determine accent? A study of bilinguals in the USA.
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Munro, M. J. & Derwing, T. M. (2011). The foundations of accent and intelligibility in

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Wan Aslynn Salwani Wan Ahmad. (2007). Vowel length discrimination among Malay
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Yamaguchi, T. (2014). The pronunciation of TH in word-initial position in Malaysian English.

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