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TEFL Wasta South Dakota

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This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned:

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Pronunciation problems in Malaysia (37) Since I intend to soon be embarking on a move to Malaysia, the childhood home of my wife, I decided that researching some of the common pronunciation problems for Malaysian esl students would be most appropriate. Since 1960 english has been taught in Malaysia, but it has only been compulsory at certain time periods. It is currently taught as a second language in all Malaysian school and is required throughout primary and secondary school. Even upon completion of this compulsory english education, many students are still uncomfortable speaking english to their teachers or friends at the university level. Through a survey of 46 students who scored in the moderate range of the Malaysian University english Test (MUET), Wendy Hiew found that 18 students hesitated to speak english because they felt embarrassed by their low language ability or they were afraid of a negative physical response from the listener. 16 other students surveyed said that they felt self-conscious speaking english because they believe fluent speakers to think of them as dull or incompetent. Both of these categories of students said that they consistently withheld speaking in class or participating in group activities because of these feelings. Of course, many of the issues of fear or low-self confidence can be dealt with in the classroom through a proper method of encouragement and teaching, but there are certain pronunciation problems that seem to be common among many Malaysian speakers of english. Many Malaysian classrooms may be multilingual, with Malay, Tamil, and Mandarin influences. Each student from these backgrounds will present his/her own set of pronunciation difficulties. Many of the pronunciation problems are due to one sounds just being slightly easier than another. Some of the pronunciation problems exist between two phonemes like /v/ and /f/, /z/ and /s/, and /?/ and /?/. The word “move” is pronounced as “moof,” “is” is pronounced as “iss”, and “usual” is pronounced as “yoo shoo ul”. These pronunciation results happen simply because of the ease with which they are produced by the speaker. Other pronunciation problems that stem from an ethic language difference would be as follows. The Malay Malaysian frequently pronounces the /f/ as a /p/, thus making “farm” “parm”. The chinese Malaysian pronounces the /r/ as /l/ making “red” “led” and also /z/ as /d?/ making “zipper” “d?ipper”. The Tamil Malaysian makes the /v/ as a /w/, therefore “never” becomes “newur.” Also, the Tamil Malaysian frequently drops the /h/ sound at the begging of words, so “hot” becomes “ot”. Malaysian esl students may also have difficulties with differentiating between some vowels. Eugene Wei points out that special attention will need to be placed on working with “bid” vs. “bead”, “rain” vs. “ran”, “step” vs. “stop” and “nut” vs. “note.” He suggests that one of the best ways to help the students recognize these differences is through listening to recordings of native english speakers. Though it is frequently the case that teaching in a classroom outside of an english speaking country will turn out to be a monolingual experience, it seems that teaching in Malaysia may present the joys and challenges of a multilingual class. An awareness of these common pronunciation issues in Malaysia will help in formulating lessons to emphasize extra practice in certain areas and it will help me attend to the specific needs of my students in whatever classroom I end up in. Hopefully, by addressing these students' specific pronunciation needs, I will be able to encourage confidence to speak freely among their teachers and peers.


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