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In any country where English is not the primary spoken language, there are bound to be issues in pronunciation resulting from differences between the phonology of the native language and the phonology of English. In Italy, there are a number of such differences, which explain and predict typical pronunciation errors. These can be due to a number of factors: some sounds exist in English but not in Italian, some sounds are similar in English and Italian but not identical, and there are patterns in intonation and stress in English which are not the same in Italian. The most obvious problems will occur when a sound is brand new to the language learners. This is the case with the ‘h’ sound in English. In Italian, ‘h’ is always silent, so students will often fail to pronounce the ‘h’ sound when learning English. Similarly, the ‘th’ sound does not exist in Italian, and so students tend to substitute other sounds that are more familiar to them. Additionally, English has a greater variety of vowel pronunciations than Italian. As Italian is a phonetic language, this can lead to a number of problems in pronunciation if one is not careful. Sometimes there are sounds that seem to be present in both languages, but there are notable differences which must be emphasized. For example, Italian and English both have an ‘r’ sound; however, the Italian ‘r’ is rolled, differing in place and manner of articulation from the English sound. Although this difference is itself notable, this type of pronunciation problem will be further emphasized depending on the context of the sound, as the final position of the tongue will affect the sound of any subsequent vowels. Another such difference in language lies in the aspirated consonants in English. In Italian, there is no aspiration on ‘k,’ ‘p,’ or ‘t.’ One of the most notable differences between Italian and English is that Italian is a syllable timed language with little stressing and no de-stressing, whereas English is a stress timed language with a great deal of stressing and de-stressing. This results in frequent problems in rhythm and stressing for students. So for an student from Italy, it is completely novel to shorten the duration and volume for function words, because in that student’s L1, all syllables receive roughly the same duration, and although there is a stressed syllable for each word, there are no de-stressed syllables. These three core sources of pronunciation problems can be analyzed in any language, and though this is not the full extent to the pronunciation problems that one might encounter while teaching English in Italy, this does constitute the bulk of the problems, and the pronunciation errors mentioned here, if exaggerated, characterize the stereotypical Italian accent. While some of these problems are unlikely to affect communication, they are certain to affect perception, and many of these problems, especially when combined, can lead to serious problems in communication. As a result, it is worth addressing these issues directly to improve both the students’ communicative abilities as well as the impression they will make on native speakers.
