Pronunciation of English Dental Fricatives by Slovak University EFL Students

Abstract

The article attempts to explore the difficulties in pronunciation of English dental fricatives by Slovak EFL university students. The primary objective of the study is to examine to what extent Slovak university students mispronounce [θ] and [ð] and which sounds act as substitutes for the two consonants. A total of 44 Slovak first-year university students whose major was Teaching English Language and Literature delivered unprepared English monologues, which were recorded on a computer. Subsequently, the files were sent to an English native speaker from Canada who performed an auditory analysis of pronunciation errors in the participants' utterances. The results indicate that English dental fricatives pose problems for Slovak EFL learners since a considerable number of participants mispronounced both voiced and voiceless dental fricative consonants. Finally, the study emphasizes the immense significance of pronunciation instruction as this area still appears to be rather neglected in the context of English language teaching in Slovakia.

Interlingual Errors in Indonesian EFL learners' Pronunciation: From Minimal Pairs to Speaking Ability

“…When the point of articulation to pronounce the dental fricative consonant /θ/ is incorrect, the consonant /θ/ is also put as the consonant /f/ in by the students (Putra, 2019). This occurrence is also seen in Slovakian students (Metruk, 2017), and it appears that in this study, the percentage of students who chose consonant /f/ as a replacement for / θ/ is greater since both are in the form of a minimum pair. The consonants /d/ and /s/ have the same place of articulation, which is in the alveolar ridge in the mouth (the area where you can feel a slight non-flat thing behind your rabbit teeth) (Fuchs & Birkholz, 2019), and this is the tricky part for English language learners, because the place of articulation between the two is the same.…”

Students’ Perceptions Toward Learning Material of Pronunciation

“…First-year students were asked to speak in English and recorded and then the recordings were analyzed by native speakers in Canada. The results show that dental fricatives in English speaking skill pronunciation cause problems because EFL students mispronounce voiced and unvoiced dental fricative consonants [20,21].…”

“…Poor pronunciation adversely affects communication comprehension and distracts listeners. As a result, knowledge of correct pronunciation is considered a key component of communicative competence [20,34]. The purpose of learning pronunciation is not to ask EFL students to pronounce like a native speaker.…”

Conjunctive Adverbials Used by Charlotte Brontë in the Novel “Jane Eyre”

“…Intelligibility is a critically important aspect of communication (Metruk, 2017), and one of the most significant factors necessary for any kind of text or discourse to be understandable and intelligible is its coherence. There are various language tools and devices that contribute to the textual coherence (Metruk, 2018) and, undoubtedly, linking elements are one of them.…”