ENGLISH VOWEL PRONUNCIATION AND LANGUAGE TRANSFER:
A Methodological Investigation through Brazilian pronunciation 

Abstract:

This article shall analyse concepts of Second Language Acquisition such as Language Transfer in order to shed light on the reasons why Brazilian adults, on the one hand, find it difficult to pronounce some English vowels and, on the other, find it easier. A brief examination of likely Brazilian pronunciation errors using English vowel phonemes will be carried out so that its reasons can be displayed. To conclude, I shall explain how Language Transfer interferes in Brazilian adult pronunciation.

Keywords: Pronunciation – Acquisition – Language Transfer – Brazilians 

Introduction

“No community has ever been found to lack spoken language, but only a minority of languages have ever been written down.” (David Crystal)

“... speech is therefore the basic form of language. This leads to the conclusion that speech should be emphasized in second language teaching ...” (Hector Hammerly)

Such quotations display the vital relevance of the spoken language in our world. As pronunciation is the vehicle through which spoken language is expressed, it is beyond dispute that pronunciation is crucial to any spoken language and, as far as English pronunciation is concern, vowels are equal essential since there are no English words which do not have one.

In our first language, pronunciation usually does not cause any problems; since one was born, he learns how to produce the sounds of the language. However, when he is learning a second language, pronunciation may give rise to an array of problems.

Problems like these and many others have been studied by a field of Applied Linguistics called Second Language Acquisition – SLA. According to Ellis (1997:3) SLA can be defined as the way in which people learn a language other than their mother tongue. In order to carry out such task, SLA investigates the description of the learner, external and internal factors which affect students’ learning, individual differences in SLA and instruction in SLA.

In this article, I shall examine the English vowel pronunciation spoken by adults Brazilian speakers in the light of Second Language Acquisition.

Second Language Acquisition and Language Transfer

The way in which acquisition takes place in a second language is the crux of the matter in SLA. Knowing how it is done can promote successful learning with less time and effort. Language transfer accounts for one way to explain how second language acquisition occurs.

According to Odlin (1989:27), “Transfer is the influence resulting from the similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired.” 

Drawing on this definition, Ellis (1994: 302) points out that it is possible to identify a number of transfer manifestations. He analyses four of them: negative transfer, positive transfer (facilitation), avoidance (underproduction), and over-use. As the focus of this article is on English vowel pronunciation, I shall analyse only the first two.

Negative transfer occurs when a learner attempt to make use of their L1 knowledge while using a second language. It happens because a learner transfers items and structures that are not the same in both languages. On the other hand, facilitation takes place when learners’ L1 knowledge facilitates L2 learning. This is possible because the two languages share a number of cognates and, therefore, they can be used in both languages. For example, French and English share a large number of cognates as so Chinese and Japanese.

In addition to this, Ellis highlights an important distinction between adult and child learners saying that transfer errors are more common in the former than in the latter.

Such concepts will play a vital role in the explanation of why adult Brazilian speakers have difficulties in pronouncing some English vowels and do not have in others.

Vowel Pronunciation of Adult Brazilian Speakers

In order to cast light on the problems found by adult Brazilian speakers when pronouncing English vowels, I shall investigate differences between Portuguese and English vowel phonemes.

The dissimilarities between these two languages are, at first sight, illustrated by the number of vowel phonemes existing in each one. In Portuguese, there are only seven vowel phonemes whereas in British English there are twelve and in American English eleven.
 
In this regard, Shutz (2008) highlights a very interesting difference between English and Portuguese\Spanish languages:


 In less compact languages [Portuguese/Spanish], with a higher average of syllables per word, the number of phonemes does not need to be large and the difference between each vowel can be bigger. This is the case of Spanish (5 vowel phonemes) and Portuguese (7 vowel phonemes). English, however, is a language extremely economic on the phonetic level, very compact, with a large number of 1-syllable words. Naturally, this requires a larger number of phonemes to supply the bigger "demand" of a system with a reduced number of possible combinations.


He continues to skillfully illustrate such differences in an inventory of vowel phonemes:

Shutz (2008)

Taking into account this illustration, it is by no means difficult to notice the problems which Portuguese speakers have to face when trying to pronounce English vowels.

Shutz (2008) accurately provide examples of the most vowel pronunciation problematic areas of Brazilian speakers:


The English phonemes /iy/ and /I/ are very likely to be perceived and produced as Portuguese /i/, thus neutralizing the contrast between words like beat and bit…

The English phonemes /a/ and /j/ will be perceived and produced as Portuguese /é/, which is in fact a little closer to English /a/ than /j/. This will neutralize the contrast between words like bed and bad …

The English mid-central /J/, especially when stressed, has no counterpart in Portuguese.  Words like “but”, “does”, “blood” and “color” will easily be mispronounced.

Portuguese native speakers will also experience difficulty distinguishing between English /b/ and /O/.  Most of the times /b/ will be perceived as Portuguese /ó/.  This is reinforced by the fact that the English /b/ is many times spelled with the letter “o”, often corresponding in Portuguese to /ó/ as in pó, which is very similar to English /O/ as in law. This will cause foreign accent, with the possibility of misunderstandings in minimal pairs like collar and caller…

The Portuguese /u/ falls right between English /U/ and /uw/.  As a result, perception and production of these phonemes will follow the single pattern of Portuguese /u/, neutralizing the contrast between words like full and fool…

Vowel Pronunciation errors and language transfer
Pronunciation is, more often than not, neglected by a great deal of teachers who think that they cannot teach it. In order words, they believe that students have to acquire it. However, although some areas are quite difficult to teach, it is by no means impossible to do. In contrast, teachers should be very concern about this subject as its neglect can have serious consequences such as communication breakdown, listener’s irritation, etc.

In order to teach English pronunciation more effectively, we should pay close attention to the English vowels on account of the subtle differences among them. Shutz (2008) states that English requires a large number of phonemes to compensate for a reduced number of possible combinations. As a consequence, the dissimilarities among the phonemes will be minimal.

On the other hand, he points out that Portuguese do not requires a large number of phonemes since it has a higher average of syllables per word and the difference between each vowel can be bigger. In this case, unlike English, the full capacity of the human speech articulatory system is not used.

Such fact has serious implications for Brazilian adults since they have been speaking Portuguese throughout their lives and, therefore, using their speech articulatory system in a much lower capacity comparing to English.  This means that they are not only accustomed to not using the full capacity of their speech articulatory system but also they do not know how to do so.

Consequently, when they are learning the new sounds, that is, the English vowel phonemes, they might perceive the difference between the two language’s vowels, however, as they do not know how to use their speech articulatory system, they will transfer the Portuguese phonemes to English.

According to Selinker (1972:31), “Learners do not construct rules in a vacuum; rather they work with whatever information is at their disposal. This includes knowledge of their L1”.

Therefore, a pronunciation errors will emerge as a consequence of a negative transfer. The Brazilian adults will need training to expand the capacity of their speech articulatory system in order to pronounce the English vowels correctly.

Following the same principle, however, in the other way round, the positive transfer will help the Brazilian adults to pronounce the English vowels right. The L1 knowledge, that is to say, the Portuguese vowel pronunciation will coincide with the English vowel pronunciation. It would be an excellent news for Brazilian adults but for the fact that only one vowel phoneme fits in this situation; the phoneme /o/.

In conclusion, pronunciation is a very relevant issue in Second Language Acquisition and, therefore, should be considered as such. In order to cater for the students’ pronunciation effectively, teachers ought to be aware of the differences between their students’ mother tongue and English since their students’ pronunciation errors are very likely to be caused by negative transfer, as it is in Portuguese (in the cases above). It is equal important to know the coinciding areas within the languages so that the teacher can guide the learners in the right direction without wasting time.      

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