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Filipino Students' English Pronunciation Issues

The document discusses the challenges that non-native English speakers, such as Filipinos, face with pronouncing words in English. It notes that Filipinos often substitute or fail to pronounce certain consonants and vowels, like substituting 'p' for 'f', 'v', or 'b' sounds. This can cause misunderstandings for native English listeners. The document also mentions that some students at the University of Rizal System in Rodriguez, Philippines similarly mispronounce or fail to enunciate certain English phonemes, which can hinder effective communication.

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Norina May Mejos
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23 views2 pages

Filipino Students' English Pronunciation Issues

The document discusses the challenges that non-native English speakers, such as Filipinos, face with pronouncing words in English. It notes that Filipinos often substitute or fail to pronounce certain consonants and vowels, like substituting 'p' for 'f', 'v', or 'b' sounds. This can cause misunderstandings for native English listeners. The document also mentions that some students at the University of Rizal System in Rodriguez, Philippines similarly mispronounce or fail to enunciate certain English phonemes, which can hinder effective communication.

Uploaded by

Norina May Mejos
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

CHAPTER 1

PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

English is deemed as a universal language or lingua franca that allows a

variety of individuals with different linguistic backgrounds and nationalities to

communicate; This universal language is spoken by 1.38 billion people which

is about 20% of the world population as their native, second, and third

language. According to Jennifer Jenkins who is the Chair Professor of Global

Englishes at the University of Southampton, despite having the said language

as their second or third language, non-native English speakers struggle the

most with pronunciation; This kind of error causes more misunderstanding

than vocabulary and grammatical mistakes.

One of the countries that make up 20% of the world population that speak

English is the Philippines. The Philippines is also one of the countries that

have the highest number of English speakers, and to attain quite an

astonishing English Proficiency Index (EPI) score which is about 67.4. The

country was able to rank as one of the countries that have the most English

speakers and to achieve a high EPI score probably because English is its

second language. The universities, colleges, and most of the schools in the

country require and encourage the students to be fluent and preeminent in

speaking English thus most textbooks and workbooks are in the mentioned

language, and teachers interact with students using the said language.
Proficiency in the mentioned language is believed by most Filipinos to be a

cutting edge and significant for employment and allows them to be globally

competent.

Despite being able to score high in the EPI, non-native English speakers

such as Filipinos struggle with pronouncing words of the said language. Most

Filipinos speak with what they commonly refer to as a "Filipino Accent," which

can be very challenging to understand for native English speakers. The

probable explanation behind this misunderstanding is that when they speak,

individuals from the Philippines mix up many consonants and vowels in

English terms, making it incredibly hard for native listeners to comprehend.

They substitute /p/ for /f/, /v/ and /b/ sounds and /i/ and /e/ in a word, specially

if these sounds happen to be side by side together. A /th/ sound is another

sound that Filipino students fail to say so they mostly replace it with either a /t/

or a /d/.

This circumstance can be also observed in the University of Rizal System

(URS). Similar to other Filipinos, some students of URS Rodriguez

mispronounce or fail to enunciate phonemes of English words which can be

quite a notable error because it may lead to some misunderstanding and

failure to communicate effectively. This research will determine the factors

and of the circumstance where students of URS fail to enunciate some

English words and allow the people who deem this research significant to

formulate a solution for the said circumstance.

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