A COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION OF THE ARTICULATION OF ENGLISH FRICATIVES BY TEACHERS AND STUDENTS: A STUDY ON SELECTED SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KADUNA METROPOLIS
A COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION OF THE ARTICULATION OF ENGLISH FRICATIVES BY TEACHERS AND STUDENTS: A STUDY ON SELECTED SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KADUNA METROPOLIS
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Date
2014-01
Authors
DADO, NOAH HABU
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Abstract
English language pronunciations in ESL are a problem to both the teachers and the
students. The study made a comparative investigation of the English fricatives by
teachers and students of Senior Secondary School in Kaduna metropolis. Some of
the English fricatives do not exist in the first language of the teachers and students,
and a researcher being a teacher noticed a great variance in the articulations of the
English phonemes by teachers and students in their spoken English. The various
English fricatives (labio-dental, dental, and alveolar, palatal alveolar and glottal)
were looked into, to investigate the difference in the teacher’s articulation of the
nine fricative phonemes. A test was designed, of individual words, ten (10)
sentences and a reading passage with fricatives in the initial, medial and final
position to assess their articulations in the various environments. Fifty (50)
students and twenty (20) teachers were sampled and each was presented with the
task of articulating ninety (90) fricatives in different positions of the words.
Descriptive analysis and comparison of two population proportions were used. The
findings show that the wrong articulations of the fricatives by teachers and students
are often the replacement of the voiceless with the voiced phonemes of the same
fricative. The voiced dental fricative / ð / is often replaced by the voiceless alveolar
plosive /t/, the voiceless palatal alveolar fricative is replaced by voiceless palatal
alveolar affricative /t/ and voiced alveolar fricative //. The wrong articulations
of the fricatives by the teachers and students were the same except the students
have a greater percentage of wrong articulations. Finally, learning of oral English
should be made compulsory in all the teachers training programmes and
pronunciation should be given emphasis in the teaching and learning of English at
all levels of education.
Description
A RESEARCH THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF
POSTGRADUATE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTERS OF EDUCATION, TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND
LANGUAGE (TESL)
DEPARTMENT OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE EDUCATION
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA
JANUARY, 2014
Keywords
COMPARATIVE,, INVESTIGATION,, ARTICULATION,, ENGLISH,, FRICATIVES,, TEACHERS,, STUDENTS:, STUDY,, SELECTED,, SENIOR,, SECONDARY,, SCHOOLS,, KADUNA,, METROPOLIS.