Analysis of Tamil Speaker (ESL)
Task 1: Language Analysis of Tamil Speaker
Tamil Language
The Tamil vowel system consists of:
— Five pairs of short vowels: /ʌ/, /ɑ/; /ɪ/, /ɪː/; /e/, /eː/; /o/, /oː/; /u/, /uː/.
— Two diphthongs: /aɪ/ (like the vowel in buy) and /aʊ/ (like the vowel in cow).
— All vowels are undiphthongised.
— For the vowels /o/ (rounded, short) and /oː/ (long equivalent), there is no equivalent in standard British English. (Swan and Smith, 2001)
Targeted learning needs of Tamil speaker
Phonemic:
1. Pronouncing ‘th’. --The consonant /θ/ (thought) and its voiced equivalent /ð/ (this) cause great difficulty for Tamil learners of English, since the approximate Tamil equivalents are dental (articulated by placing the tip of the tongue between the upper incisors) rather than interdental (articulated by placing the blade of the tongue against the upper incisors). (Swan and Smith, 2001) For example: ‘tings, tursday, John smit,. On a broader level, this is interupting sentence flow, particularly when /t/, are closely linked within a phrase.
2. Confusing /ɪ/ with /e/. Mispronouncing diphtong /ie/ --A common problem for Tamil speakers learning English is that vowels may be shortened or lengthened in accordance with native pronunciation patterns. For example, vegetable is commonly pronounced /ed ɪʊʒ/. In the case of the speaker analysed, the vowel /e/ in words such as umbrella is being replaced with the vowel /ɪ/, sounding the word as umbrilla. She is also tripping up over sentences containing the diphthong /ei/. As all vowels in the Tamil system are undiphtongised, this is unsurprising. (Swan and Smith, 2001)
Prosodic:
3. Conveying meaning through stress. -- As opposed to the stress-timed patterns of English, Tamil and other Dravidian languages are syllable-timed. Tamil has a distinctive stress pattern
Tamil Language
The Tamil vowel system consists of:
— Five pairs of short vowels: /ʌ/, /ɑ/; /ɪ/, /ɪː/; /e/, /eː/; /o/, /oː/; /u/, /uː/.
— Two diphthongs: /aɪ/ (like the vowel in buy) and /aʊ/ (like the vowel in cow).
— All vowels are undiphthongised.
— For the vowels /o/ (rounded, short) and /oː/ (long equivalent), there is no equivalent in standard British English. (Swan and Smith, 2001)
Targeted learning needs of Tamil speaker
Phonemic:
1. Pronouncing ‘th’. --The consonant /θ/ (thought) and its voiced equivalent /ð/ (this) cause great difficulty for Tamil learners of English, since the approximate Tamil equivalents are dental (articulated by placing the tip of the tongue between the upper incisors) rather than interdental (articulated by placing the blade of the tongue against the upper incisors). (Swan and Smith, 2001) For example: ‘tings, tursday, John smit,. On a broader level, this is interupting sentence flow, particularly when /t/, are closely linked within a phrase.
2. Confusing /ɪ/ with /e/. Mispronouncing diphtong /ie/ --A common problem for Tamil speakers learning English is that vowels may be shortened or lengthened in accordance with native pronunciation patterns. For example, vegetable is commonly pronounced /ed ɪʊʒ/. In the case of the speaker analysed, the vowel /e/ in words such as umbrella is being replaced with the vowel /ɪ/, sounding the word as umbrilla. She is also tripping up over sentences containing the diphthong /ei/. As all vowels in the Tamil system are undiphtongised, this is unsurprising. (Swan and Smith, 2001)
Prosodic:
3. Conveying meaning through stress. -- As opposed to the stress-timed patterns of English, Tamil and other Dravidian languages are syllable-timed. Tamil has a distinctive stress pattern