Spanish Teenager’s Pronunciation of English as a Second Language

espanolLos hablantes espanoles tienden a mostrar dificultades al pronunciar fonemas ingleses (Alcaraz & Moody 1984). La mayoria de dichas dificultades se basan en una influencia inter-linguistica, pero tambien existe debate sobre si la edad es un factor crucial (Munoz 2010; Bongaers, Planken & Schils 1995). El objetivo de este estudio es analizar las dificultades que experimentan los hablantes de espanol a la hora de pronunciar el ingles como segunda lengua, prestando atencion a factores linguisticos y extralinguisticos. La metodologia adopta dos perspectivas. Por una parte, me centrare en las posibles dificultades para diferenciar cuatro pares de sonidos: los fonemas vocalicos /ӕ/-/ʌ/ e /ɪ/-/iː/, y los fonemas consonanticos /s/-/z/ and /d/-/ð/. Por otra parte, contrastare la adquisicion de dichos sonidos en tareas de habla y de escucha. Los/as participantes en este estudio son 20 hablantes con lengua nativa espanol y con una media de edad de 15.2 anos, quienes han estudiado ingles durante 12 anos. El estudiantado esta en su cuarto ano de Educacion Secundaria (nivel A2), en un colegio del area urbana de Vigo. Los datos se recogeran en cuatro actividades (dos de escucha y dos de habla) y una encuesta biografica. Los resultados parecen indicar que la mayor parte de errores producidos al distinguir los fonemas se dan a causa de la influencia de la primera lengua. La posicion del fonema dentro de la palabra tambien parece tener relevancia. Otro factor condicionante parece ser el (poco) tiempo que se dedica en clase ensenando pronunciacion. Esto me lleva a la conclusion general de que hacen falta mas ejercicios de pronunciacion en el aula y de que esta practica ayudaria al alumnado a mejorar su habilidad de produccion. EnglishNative Spanish speakers tend to show difficulties when pronouncing English phonemes (Alcaraz & Moody, 1984). Most of these difficulties are due to cross-linguistic influence, but there is also a debate on whether age is a crucial factor (Munoz 2010; Bongaers, Planken & Schils 1995). The aim of my study is to explore the difficulty experienced by Spanish speakers in the acquisition of the pronunciation of English as a second language, attending to linguistic and extralinguistic factors. The methodology is two-fold. First, I will examine the difficulty in differentiating four sets of sounds: the vowel phonemes /ӕ/-/ʌ/ and /ɪ/-/iː/, and the consonant phonemes /s/-/z/ and /d/-/ð/. Second, I will compare the acquisition of the selected phonemes in speaking tasks versus listening tasks. The subjects in my study are 20 Spanish-native speakers with a mean age of 15.2 years-old and who have been studying English for 12 years. The students are in their fourth year of high school (A2 level), located in the urban city of Vigo (Spain). The data are based on four skill tasks (two listening, two speaking) and a biographical survey. The results suggest that most of the inaccuracies observed between the pairs of phonemes examined are due to the influence of the students’ first language. The position of the phoneme in the word also seems to have an effect on the students’ production and perception. Another conditioning factor seems to be the (little) time devoted to teaching pronunciation skills in the classroom. This leads me to the general conclusion that more pronunciation exercises are needed and that these are likely to yield better production and perception skills.