ESL for Arabic Students - Assignment Example

ESL for Arabic s Linguistics Department Comparative analysis of English and Arabic language in the context of ESL teaching Acquisition of the second language’s skills depends greatly on the native language of the learner, as the norms of his/her first language, its grammar, peculiarities of lexical structure and distinctive features of phonology and prosody. The level of similarities between the learner’s native language and English predefines the extent, to which the former will experience difficulties in learning and helps the teacher define the strategy that should be used in the process of English teaching. English and Arabic are rather different in their nature and structure and, as the result, in their phonological features – and general differences can be easily perceived aurally even by individuals who do not speak Arabic. Therefore, prosody of these two languages will be compared in order to define certain points an ESL teacher should be aware of, as language differences in phonemes are taken into account more often, while prosodic features of Arab and English deserve attention, too. The combination of intonation (tone), rhythm and stress laid on certain syllables form vocal characteristics of the language and define the meaning and perception of the utterance be a recipient. Words Stress Generally, word stress “refers to the relative prominence that is given to particular words in phrases and to particular syllables in words” (Defense Language Inst., Monterey, CA, 1974, p.1). Particularly, in English, the way stresses are placed determines timing pattern of syllables (Pennington, 1996, p.1). Placement of stress in Arabic depends on the structure of the word in terms of vowel-consonant arrangement in it. In terms of stress, both English and Arabic are defined as stress-timed languages (Smith, 2001, p. 198). However, the stress in Arabic sentences is more regular and clear with stressed syllables recurring in a predictable way. Moreover, stressing in Arabic coincides with the tonic of the utterance rather often, the tonic stress being located mainly at the end of the sentence yet shifting in special cases, when emphasis is needed. In English, intervals between stressed syllables are more sporadic and less predictable; thus, this feature can impose certain difficulties on Arab English learners. Another distinctive feature is that practically every word can have both primary and secondary word stress in Arabic. While each English phrase has only one stressed syllable in each phrase, which emphasizes the sense of the utterance, Arabic sentences include stressed syllables forming the rhythm in each word. However, in both languages, syllables given less stress are passed over by the speakers quickly. Finally, the difference that is very likely to puzzle Arab learners is interdependence between where stress is placed and the meaning of the word in English. In other words, the position of word stress can change the meaning of the word or the part of speech, whereas it is not typical for Arabic and thus might be unusual for Arab learners. Moreover, the latter often use primary word stress for monosyllabic English words in colloquial speech and find it difficult to place a right word stress in words consisting of four or more syllables. Rhythm The peculiarities of rhythm as of the feature closely connected to stressing are rather similar in both languages, hence ESL learners are unlikely to have considerable difficulties with it. Arabic involves more primary stresses and does not weaken unstressed sounds to the same extent as English does. This means that Arabic speakers tend to pronounce unstressed syllables clearly, using neutral vowels (Smith, 2001, p. 198), while English speakers are prone to “swallowing” them. At the same time, under the influence of the native language, Arab learners pronounce English words, avoiding elisions or contractions and thus the rhythm their speech is characterized is rather heavy and staccato-like. Tonic and intonation Tonic structure of English incorporates three main tones characterizing an utterance: sustained, rising and falling. As a rule, rising intonation is typical for interrogative sentences, while falling one is used in affirmative and negative statements. Falling intonation indicates end of the phrase and falls on the last word of the utterance. Moreover, depending on the type of the sentence, there can be two different intonation groups inside the phrase. The three typical kinds of intonation are similar in Arabic, too. Nevertheless, falling ittonationi n Arabic is different as it “does not fall as low as in English” (Defense Language Inst., Monterey, CA, 1974, p.6). At the same time, patterns of pitch for two languages can be entirely different. Points of difficulty for a learner The study of Al-Khatib et al. (2015) point out that there are systematic difficulties on the level of pronunciation faced by Arab students learning English as a foreign language: according to their findings, Arabic learners tend to insert extra vowels between consonants because of differences in syllable structure. As far as word stressing rules are more complex in English, the learners are less likely to adapt to them quickly. For instance, some unusual word stressing cases are related to the roots of words (Germanic, Latin etc.) and Arabic speakers may need more explanation of specific cases in addition to general rules. Furthermore, in speaking English, Arabs are prone use weak stress instead of primary or secondary ones. In placing stress in lengthy words with four or more syllables, Arab learners may face difficulties due to differences in rules of word stress distribution: for instance, in Arabic, one of the three last syllables must be stressed, yet this rule is not relevant for English. In addition, the common mistake is to shorten syllables having secondary stress and lengthening those having primary stress. However, this is often wrong, as stress placement does not influence the length of the vowel contained by the syllable: for instance, in the word roommate, where the first syllable has secondary stress, the phoneme [u:] cannot be shortened. Generally, the main difficulty faced by Arab learners of English is shifting from phonological principles used in their native language to those typical for English, as rules of prosody coincide only in few aspects. Therefore, it is important to help them adjust themselves to prosodic rules of English. (2) Group of learners: overview The group of EFL learners I would like to deal with is students of high schools in Saudi Arabia. Learning English is a rather relevant and important issue, because, according to experience in teaching English as a foreign language indicate that “non-native speaker populations of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia need efficiency in English language for either job purposes or for communicating with other NNS populations, or pursuing higher studies” (Al-Asmari & Khan, 2014, p.316). Therefore, with English being the most widespread and powerful language of global communication, education of Saudi Arabia pays much attention to improvement of EFL teaching efficiency. English is a compulsory subject in schools in KSA and children are to start learning it at the primary level of education and proceed with the same number of sessions throughout tuition process, yet studies state certain aspects of curriculum to be rather insufficient (Alhmadi, 2014, p.38). At the same time, Alhmadi (2014) reports that major difficulties and pitfalls are encountered on the way to speaking skills acquisition; therefore, phonological aspect is among the key aspects to be taught. Another problem arising for these students is that they must have been speaking Arabic with their previous teachers too much. This error of the tutor gives too little place for practicing English speaking and pronunciation (Abu-ghararah, 2014, p.283). The students I will be dealing with study at high schools and thus have average background of English learning, yet, as Saudi education system pays little attention to oral phonological aspect of learning, focusing rather on grammar and lexical aspects. Therefore, the students have to be taught foundations of English phonology including proper pronunciation of English phonemes and use of prosodic means. Teaching proper English is especially important, as my high school students will be expected to speak good English, as tuition in most Saudi universities is in English, let alone foreign universities. Even with developed writing, reading and listening skills, poor speaking skills would be a problem, and pronunciation is an integral part of the speaking skill. Thus, as far as assistance in development of proper English pronunciation is one of the teacher’s crucial tasks, the ESL teacher should select materials for teaching carefully, choosing those that are the most likely to help Arabic students overcome their barriers in speaking and particularly in phonology. (3) The resource for teaching prosody to ESL/EFL learners Generally, as far as English teaching process is found under strict control of Saudi Ministry of Education, the core textbook series used in ESL teaching was edited and supervised by it, too. The book series is English for Saudi Arabia. The textbook was originally aimed at development of all receptive and productive English skills, yet it received rather controversial response concerning its efficiency and students found it rather inefficient (AlShumaimeri, 1999, p.3). Therefore, we will focus on another book specializing on the phonological aspect of English, English Pronunciation in Use, Intermediate authored by Mark Hancock and published by Cambridge University Press in 2003. This book is considered one of the most authoritative and efficient in phonological aspect of English and therefore, deserves attention of ESL teachers. Being constituted by 60 units devoted to different topics, the book covers all necessary aspects of phonology and prosody in particular. The way the material is presented is rather reasonable, as the first part of the textbook – 20 units – is focused on purely phonological aspect, as it is the core part of pronunciation acquisition. After phonological section incorporating learning material for the most difficult phonemes including diphthongs and monophthongs, the sections covering syllables structure, word and sentence stress, intonation and use of prosody in conversation. The language used in the book is fairly comprehensible and appropriate, as the tasks are written in a rather understandable way and examples of words illustrating various phonemes and prosodic patterns are chosen with care. The context provided for most exercised included in the book is limited, yet both monologues and dialogues are presented in the examples, however, context is not of so great significance in the textbook focusing on prosody, as it could be if the book was focused on lexical aspect. Moreover, the materials are often accompanied by visual support, i.e. pictures. Looking from the prosodic perspective, we can – first of all – mention that the greatest strength of the book is that it is combined with audio material duplicating examples presented in the book. This is a great advantage, as this gives potential Saudi students to improve the skills absorbed in class at home and train their intonation and word stress use. Language-teaching studies indicate that formation of appropriate productive language skills is always preceded by development and repetition of receptive skills like listening. Continuous and frequent listening to the examples of correct pronunciation and application of prosodic and phonological skills is likely to form proper productive skills and reduce possibility of errors like incorrect placement of word stresses. What is also peculiar about the text book is the following: while learning the rules of pronunciation, the student is also likely to absorb and memorizes certain lexical units and even grammatical patterns as they are recurrent in some sections of the book, for example, in units “Pronouns and contractions” and “Pronouncing the verb to be”. Therefore, the book seems to be rather efficient for practicing, listening correct prosodic patterns, and form good pronunciation – of course, with assistance of a good experienced teacher understanding the needs of the students, and focusing on solutions for their specific pronunciation problems typical for speakers of their native language. The peculiar advantage of this textbook for Saudi students is that it dedicates the entire section to word stress, as it is one of the most puzzling issues for Arabic speakers. The rules of stress placement are presented in a simple and comprehensible form and followed by a set of exercised that enable reinforcing the material. Of course, here, the support of audio material and in-class communication practice is necessary. To express my personal opinion on this textbook, I would say that it provides a powerful basis for pronunciation learning and elimination of prosodic as well as phonemic difficulties, being completely appropriate for the intermediate level and extremely relevant for English learners of Saudi Arabia, for it grants much attention to phonological issues of the students, who are not beginners in English. Instead, this book would be rather helpful in teaching Saudi high school students, who are already quite familiar with English at the levels of grammar and vocabulary, yet have not formed adequate pronunciation skills yet. Finally, it would be apropos to mention that the textbook’s design makes it possible to use it for ESL students with different native languages, as the methodology unfolded in it is rather universal and has no language specifics. However, with addition of the teacher’s knowledge about his/her students and problems in learning of ESL typical for their nation, the book will be extremely effective for teaching phonology and prosody in particular. To add even more, the textbook contains a very useful guide for speakers of specific languages, indicating the units that can be either omitted by Arabic, Chinese etc. speakers or paid more attention by them. References ABU-GHARARAH, B. A. (2014) Problems with Speaking Activities in the Saudi EFL Classroom. Arab World English Journal, 5, 4, pp. 276-287. [Online] Education Source, EBSCOhost. Available from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.adams.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=3b189197-c2e2-48f0-8543-6140eedb460f%40sessionmgr112&vid=0&hid=117 [Accessed April 8, 2015] AL-ASMARI, A., & KHAN, M. (2014) World Englishes in the EFL Teaching in Saudi Arabia, Arab World English Journal, 5, 1, pp. 316-325. [Online] Education Source, EBSCOhost. Available from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.adams.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8b3ea599-56fa-4692-a4e1-5ab6668c1553%40sessionmgr113&vid=0&hid=117 [Accessed April 8, 2015] ALHMADI, N. S. (2014) English speaking learning barriers in Saudi Arabia: A case study of Tibah University. Arab World English Journal, 5, 2, pp. 38-53. [Online] Education Source, EBSCOhost. Available from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.adams.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=beb84e11-8b40-4775-ba0e-9dad407fe98e%40sessionmgr115&vid=0&hid=117 [Accessed April 8, 2015] AL-KHATIB, H., MALAK, M. A., SLEIMAN, R. & ZADORIAN, H. (2015) Difficulties that Arab Students Face in Learning English. [Online] Available from http://arabou.edu.kw/files/lebanon/Lebanon%20branch%20research%20study.pdf [Accessed April 8, 2015] ALSHUMAIMERI, Y. A. N. (1999) Saudi Students’ Perceptions of Their Textbook: English for Saudi Arabia, (EFSA), Secondary Year One. [Online] Available from http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/yousif/Master%20Dissertation/Cover%20page%20and%20abstract.pdf [Accessed April 8, 2015] DEFENSE LANGUAGE INST., MONTEREY, CA. (1974) A Contrastive Study of English and Arabic. Available from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED105761.pdf [Accessed April 8, 2015] HANCOCK, M. (2003) English Pronunciation in Use: Intermediate. Cambridge University Press. PENNINGTON, M. (1996) ‘Vowels’. In Phonology in English Language Teaching. Addison Wesley Longman, Harlow. SMITH, B. (2001) ‘Arabic Speakers’. In SWAN, M. & SMITH, B. (eds.) Learner English: A teacher’s guide to interference and other problems. Cambridge University Press. Read More