1.

0 INTRODUCTION

Language and communication is a very important tool in today’s fast and growing

world. It is a tool that every individual has to have in order to succeed in life. As they

say, if you have the language you can go far. Language can be defined as the method

of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a

structured and conventional way. A language consists of different parts, which are

semantics, sounds and symbols (phonology), and grammar, which can also be broken

down into smaller parts, such as morphology and syntax, (Burquet, Donald &

Payne,1993). The scientific study of language is called linguistics. There are many

languages in the world, and one of the most commonly use language is the English

Language, (Gregory & Baugh, 1996). However, in many countries the English

language is used as a second language. In Malaysia, English is a second language.

In Malaysia, we have three main ethnic groups, which are the Malays, Chinese

and Indians and we also have other smaller ethnic groups such as the Punjabis, baba-

Nyonya, the Sabahans and the Sarawakians (which consists of hundreds of smaller

ethnics groups). These groups have their own mother tongue, their own language.

Therefore, the English language for us is a second language. When the English

language becomes the second language, there are many variations of pronunciations

of the language. Different ethnic group, have different ways of pronouncing English

words.
 Therefore, the purpose of this project coursework is to identify variations of

pronunciations among Malaysian students as well as to describe and illustrate

phonemes that cause these variations and the factors that cause these variations.

Once the variations and the factors have been identified, we are to devise and analyse

a relevant activity to improve the student’s pronunciations.

This project coursework was carried out in Sekolah Kebangsaan Kampung

Nangka , Kuala Besut , which is the school selected to perform practicum. This school

is situated in a village named, Kampung Nangka. It’s a small school with about 350

students. The students here are all from the Malay ethnicity. There are no other ethnic

groups of students here. The students are mostly from an average social economical

background, whereby their parents are mostly farmers and vendors. A few of students

from here are teacher’s son and daughter. The language commonly spoken here is

Bahasa Malaysia. However, the students here speaks the language with a local

ascend. The English language is rarely spoken and is only used during the English

Language lessons. The student’s competency of the English Language is poor to

average. There are also students who cannot read and write in the English Language.

The students chosen for this project coursework are Standard 5 students from 5

Bestari (which is the first class). These students were chosen from different social

economical backgrounds and based on their monthly English test results (OTI) which

was held recently in February.

 2.0

A Brief Description of Students Background

&

An Oral Activity to Identify Pronunciation

Variations
 2.1 Students Background

Below is a table of a brief description of the student’s background. The table

shows the biodata of the students which consists of their age, occupation of parents,

number of siblings and hobbies. The language backgrounds of the students are also

seen in the table below, which shows the students exposure to the English language at

home. The table also shows their proficiency of the language in terms of their

examination results which they obtain during their monthly test held in March recently

and fluency of the language (reading, speaking, writing, and listening).

Student Biodata Language English Language

Background Proficiency

Elya Nabiha bt Roslan  Aged 11 years old.  Speaks only  Obtain 71% for
Bahasa Melayu at her English
 Born in Kuala Besut, home, her parents Language monthly
Terengganu. and herself prefer test in February
to use their (the highest in the
 Father is a mother tongue at class).
fisherman, mother is home.
a housewife.  Quite fluent in the
 Speaks English language.
 The only child in the with a local
family. ascend.
 Able to read and
 Hobbies are reading write well.
(prefers books in
Bahasa Malaysia)  Good command of
and watching the language
television.

 Represents the
school for English
Language
competitions such as
choral speaking,
storytelling, etc.
Muhammad Afiq Azrai  Aged 11 years old.  Speaks only  Obtain 69% for his
Bin Amri Bahasa Melayu at English Language
 Born in Kuala Besut, home as both his monthly test in
Terengganu. parents speak February.
their mother
 Both parents are tongue.
teachers.
 Speaks English  Able to speak the
 The second from with a local language well.
four children. ascend.
 Able to read and
 Has one older  Had minimal write well.
brother and two exposure to the
younger sisters. language before  Average
coming to school. command of the
language.
 Hobbies are playing
football.

 Represents the
school for English
Language
competitions such as
action song.

 Aged 11 years old.  Speaks only  Obtain 49% for

Nor Khairiah bt Bahasa Melayu at her English
Mohamad  Born in Kuala Besut, home as both his Language monthly
Terengganu. parents speak test in February.
their mother
 Father is a tongue.  Not able to speak
mechanic, mother is the language well.
a housewife.  Speaks English
with a local  Able to read and
 Youngest in the ascend. write well.
family, has two elder
sisters.  Had minimal  Poor command of
. exposure to the the language.
 Hobby is playing language before
singing. coming to school.
2.2 An Oral Activity to Identify Pronunciation Variations

After collecting all the suitable data of the students such as their biodata,

language background and their proficiency in the language, it gave a clearer view of the

student’s command of the language. Therefore, with the information collected, it was

easier to prepare an oral activity which can cater to the student’s ability. The activity

which was carried out was reading a poem. A poem was chosen because it was easier

to identify the variations in pronunciation as the students had to read aloud the poem

word by word. In this way it was clearer to identify the variation in pronunciation and the

students were able to carry out the activity well as they were not shy to read. There is

only one poem were prepared for the three students according to the suitable level of

their language proficiency.

The students were given a same poem because it will make me easier to analyse

the pronunciation. Below is the poem given to them:

 CLEAN IT UP

Clean up the earth,

So it could be a sparkling clean place for us all.

Clean up the earth,

So we can see the gorgeous blue and green on our

planet.

Clean up the earth,

So that we do not see any garbage.

So clean up the earth,

And live in a world of happiness.

 They were ask to read the poem by individually at twice. This was done in order

to see if the students had variations in pronunciation. The students were able to read

the poem given, including Nor Khairiah , even though her command of the language

was poor, but she was able to read the poem. This activity was carried out smoothly.
 3.0

Phonemes that Cause Variation in Pronunciation

&

The Causes of this Variation

3.0 Phonemes that Cause Variation in Pronunciation

The purpose of carrying out the activity of reading the poem was to identify the

variation in pronunciation among the three students. This was to fulfill the main purpose

of this project coursework which is to identify variations of pronunciations among

Malaysian students as well as to describe and illustrate the phonemes that cause these

variation and the factors that cause these variations. Therefore, with the completion of

the oral activity, which was reading the poem, the variations of pronunciation among

these students were able to be identified, together with its phoneme which causes these

variations. Before the variation of pronunciation is listed, together with its phonemes, a

deeper understanding of what phonemes is all about will be explained.

A phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language,

(Burquest and Payne 1993). A phoneme is a minimal unit that serves to distinguish

between meanings of words. A phoneme is also one of the set of speech sounds in any

given language that serve to distinguish one word from another. A phoneme may

consist of several phonetically distinct articulations, which are regarded as identical by

native speakers, since one articulation may be substituted for another without any

change of meaning. Thus /p/ and /b/ are separate phonemes in English because they

distinguish such words as pet and bet, whereas the light and dark /l/ sounds in little are

not separate phonemes since they may be transposed without changing meaning,

(Collins English Dictionary, 2003).

 There are approximately 44 phonemes in the English language, (L.F. Brosnahan

& Berfil Malmberg, 1970). These phonemes can be divided into 3 groups, which are the

Vowel Phonemes, the Consonant Phonemes and the Diphthong phonemes. Below is an

example of the list of consonant and vowel phonemes.

IPA Phonetic Chart

Consonants

hot - shut - vet -

sit - think - win -

tell - other - sing -

man - vision - zen -

nut - chat - but -

dig - get - fig -

king - pet - yes -

lit - run - just -

Vowels
bird - bought -

bait -
wet - about -

father -
bite - boy -

bat -
boat - hut -

wear -
food - pig -

beer -
foot - computer -

feet -
hot - pure -

In conclusion a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to

form meaningful contrasts between utterances. It’s the most important aspect of one’s

speech as a phoneme distinguishes the sound and meaning of a word. Therefore, if the

pronunciation of a phoneme is wrong, than the meaning of a word may vary.

Thus, by performing this project coursework, one is able to identify the variation

of pronunciation due to the wrongly pronounced phoneme, by the three students chosen
 above. Below is a list of the words which were wrongly pronounced by the students

during the oral activity which was carried out:

3.1 Elya Nabiha bt Roslan

Student Words Wrongly Phonetics of Words Phonetics of

Pronounced the Words Correctly the Words
Wrongly Pronounced Correctly
Pronounced Pronounced

Elya Nabiha bt Roslan

gorgeous jojes gorgeous

garbage garbesh garbage

world word world

happiness hapeness happiness