Division of City Schools

Victorino Mapa High School

Manila

Improving the English Pronunciation for Filipino Speakers

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements in English 10

A Library Research Paper

Submitted to Mrs. Gloria F. Galindo

Grade 10-3

Colonia, Lloyd P.
 APPROVAL SHEET

This library research paper entitled IMPROVING THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

FOR FILIPINO SPEAKERS, prepared and submitted Mrs. Gloria F. Galindo by Lloyd P.

Colonia, in partial fulfillment of the requirements in English 10, has been examined and

recommended for acceptance and approval.

Mrs. Gloria F. Galindo

English Teacher
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The researcher would like to express his sincerest gratitude to the following people who

greatly contributed on making this library research paper possible to accomplish:

to the renowned teacher, Mrs. Gloria F. Galindo, the researcher's excellent English teacher

that patiently guided the researchers of the class, as a whole, as they endeavor to finish this

requirement;

to the chief librarians and staffs of the different libraries for letting him gather factual

resources that helped in completion of his paper;

to his classmates, friends, and all who allotted their time for proofreading his paper

although they are also working with their own fruitful library research paper;

to his supportive family, especially to his wonderful parents who provided him motivation

and financial support to keep him going throughout the processing of his work;

to your reader who will patiently take time to read our work; and

to the Divine presence of God whom he can lean on during his hard times in the process of

accomplishing this thesis paper.

The Researcher
 Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

There is hard time in learning or speaking new language such as English because the first

language always comes in our way. This is evident on our grammar slips in our clutch words, and

our proper pronunciation lapses. The word we speak is not in proper pronunciation. Most of the

Filipino speakers do not know the proper pronunciation in English speaking. There is sound that

they interchangeably pronounce like/p/ with /f/ or vice versa. There is time that we don't

understand other to what they say because the word/s they speak is not clearly. Sometimes other

makes fun of you in speaking the English language. This may cause to have low self-esteem.

Some Filipino citizens do not have interest in speaking this language because they are scared that

other people make fun of them. Also there are people believe that you do not need to know the

proper pronunciation. They do not know the significance of learning proper pronunciation.

I choose this topic because the English pronunciation of Filipino speakers is not well. I

want to help them the way of pronouncing the words. My objective is to help them to speak

clearly the English words also to show them why we had a hard time in speaking language. This

will help them to improve their pronunciation skill.

Learning new language is difficult. Our first language affects our learning in speaking new

language. Filipino speakers do not know the importance of pronunciation. They do not speak

clearly. The proper pronunciation is significance because it helps to have a clear idea in speaking,

to easily understand by others and to learn a new idea that is helpful for your career.
B. Research Question

This study is was undertaken to find out the ways of improving the English pronunciation

for Filipino speakers.

Specifically, this study seeks to answer the following research question:

1. What are the common mispronounce words?

2. What are the causes of these mistakes?

3. How to improve our pronunciation skill?

4. What are the important of learning the proper pronunciation?

C. Purpose of the Study

The goal of this study is to help the Filipino speakers to improve their pronunciation skill

in English language. This will be the key to surpass the hard time speaking this language.

D. Significance of the Study

The researcher will list the proper pronunciation of different sounds of English. Thus, this

study in the researcher's viewpoint, will be beneficial to the following:

Filipino speakers - they will know the way of pronouncing the different sounds of English

language that will help them for future use.

Students - this will enhance their pronunciation skill that is essential for their career.

Parents - this will help them to teach their child in proper pronunciation.
 Teachers - they will develop effective teaching in class.

E. Definition of Terms

The following definitions are provided to ensure uniformity and understanding of these

terms throughout the study. These terms are conceptually or operationally defined to enhance the

understanding of the readers of this paper.

Acquisition - the learning or developing of a skill, habit, or quality.

Affricate - a phoneme that combines a plosive with an immediately following fricative or spirant

sharing the same place of articulation, e.g., ch as in chair and j as in jar.

Altering - change or cause to change in character or composition, typically in a comparatively

small but significant way.

Approximant - are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not

narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow.

Articulators - any of the vocal organs above the larynx, including the tongue, lips, teeth, and

hard palate.

Aspiration - the action or process of drawing breath.

Cluster

- a succession of two or more contiguous consonants in anutterance, as the str- cluster of strap.

Dialects - a particular form of a language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group.
Diphthong - a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the

sound begins as one vowel and moves toward another (as in coin, loud, and side ).

Disregard - pay no attention to; ignore.

Distinguishing - characteristic of one thing or person, so serving to identify it; distinctive.

Drastically - extremely; very.

Endeavour - try hard to do or achieve something.

Flexible - ready and able to change so as to adapt to different circumstances.

Fricative - a fricative consonant, e.g., f and th.

Glide - a speech sound having the characteristics of both a consonant and a vowel, especially w

in wore and y in your, and, in some analyses, r in road and l in load; semivowel.

Glottal - of or produced by the glottis.

Glottal Stop - a consonant formed by the audible release of the airstream after complete closure

of the glottis. It is widespread in some nonstandard English accents, and in some other

languages, such as Arabic, it is a standard consonant.

Impeded - delay or prevent (someone or something) by obstructing them; hinder.

Inadequate - lacking the quality or quantity required; insufficient for a purpose.

Intelligibility distinct articulation.

Monothong - a vowel that has a single perceived auditory quality.

Nasal - refers to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy.

Omission - someone or something that has been left out or excluded.

Plosives - a plosive speech sound. The basic plosives in English are t, k, and p (voiceless)

and d, g, and b (voiced).

Resemble - have qualities or features, especially those of appearance, in common with (someone

or something); look or seem like.

Sibilant - (of a speech sound) sounded with a hissing effect, for example s, sh.

Sorting - is any process of arranging items systematically, and has two common, yet distinct

meanings: ordering: arranging items in a sequence ordered by some criterion; categorizing:

grouping items with similar properties.

Vernaculars - the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or

region.

Voiced the vocal cords are vibrated as you produce sound

Voiceless no vibration of the vocal cords as you produce sound

 Chapter II

MAIN BODY

This chapter includes the review of related literature and studies which the researchers

have pursued to shed light on the topic under their study.

Common Mispronounce Words

The words listed below are the words that Filipino have been mispronounced

(Mata, pp.8-100):

bit boat nerve beat botany bat

bet ball stadium trifle culture bar
day able but fir boot dollar
put black burn front articulate teacher
ball harbor bare pea fee beer
veer tick thick den then heave
come up sugar wash bunts bunch pass
heart kill zoo seizure age zinc

Causes of Mispronunciations

Between different sound of vowels the Filipino had a hard time distinguishing the sound of

vowels. They have faulty substitutions to the vowel sounds. (Mata, p. vi)

Many mistakes in English pronunciation result from a lack of knowledge of the English

sounds. The Filipino will have to adjust from the spelling pronunciation wherein the five vowel

letters represent fifteen different vowel sounds. The untrained Filipino speaker generally

substitutes for many of the English sounds of any of the five vowel sounds of the vernaculars

that sound bit similar. (Mata, p. vi)

 F, V, voiceless TH, and voiced TH are among the ten consonant sounds in English which

are not found in the Filipino's dialects. So the Filipino sounds in his own dialects that very

closely resemble to them. Instead of F, he uses P, instead of V, he uses B, instead of voiceless

TH, he uses T and instead of voiced TH, he uses D. (Mata, p.171)

S, z, , are sibilants because they are hissing sounds. The hissing sound is caused by the

forcing out of air through a very narrow passageway. The Filipino has no difficulty with s. His

problem with is an omission problem. What he finds particularly difficult are z and because

has to voice these sounds. He likewise finds the cluster includes the voice sibilant . (Mata,

p.259)

The voicing problem of the sibilants is not unique to the Filipino who speaks English. It is

a problem that all English speakers face when they produce the s, and d. But the Filipino, in

particular, is easily discouraged by the difficulties of voicing z, and d and is more prone to

disregard voicing these sibilants because nyone of the English vowel sibilants are present in the

vernacular, the spelling symbols used to represent the voiced sibilants are varied and there are no

fixed rules on the voicing of sibilants. Most of the time it is only the dictionary which can

provide the student with the correct pronunciation. ( Mata, p.259)

Instead of voiced z, ? and ?, the Filipinos readily substitutes the voiceless counterparts s, ?,

ts and ? which are more faithfully represented in the English speaking, do not demand the extra

effort of vocal cord vibration and have equivalence in the vernacular, namely s and ts. (Mata,

pp.259-260)

The consonant s in the English sound system is identical to the consonant s in the

vernacular, but the consonant ? is the consonant that is not found in the vernacular. The Filipino
will either omit the sound h and just produce the s or he will add the glide ? after the s. (Mata,

p.209)

The h sound is the easiest consonants to produce since it does not require a particular

position of any of the articulators. However the influence of the dialect, specifically

Kapampangan, causes the Filipino to omit the sound h when it is spelled out and then to insert

the sound h whenever a syllable begins with a vowel letter. (Mata, p.203)

Some of the Filipino's peculiar mistakes in pronunciation are due to mainly to certain

combinations of the consonant sounds. Because the consonant clusters do not occur in the

vernacular, the Filipino naturally finds them difficult. (Mata, p.vi)

The three voiceless plosives P, T, and K are present in the vernacular. However they are

not articulated in the same place and manner. The Filipino's form of mispronunciation of these

voiceless plosives are inadequate aspiration, substitution of the glottal stop and omission of the

closure of the articulators. (Mata, pp.233-234)

The Filipino accent often has similarities to the Spanish accent, largely due to the Spanish

influence. So some words may find challenging for you. (Posey, n.p.)

Another source of difficulty is the English spelling system itself. As soon as learners are

exposed to written English, they start to make the generalization about how the system works.

Since English is an alphabetic system, this means basically sorting out which letter corresponds

to which sound. But we have seen, English spelling is not strictly regular alphabetic system in

which one letter always stands for one sound and one sound only. (Kenworthy)
 Unlike most modern languages, English is not phonetically written. This means that if you

say words in the way they are written you will make pronunciation errors. (Hedson)

In pronouncing a sound the Filipino student encountered a problem with place and

articulation. (Dal Vera. n.p.)

Your mouth is basically lazy. It wants to speak in the easiest way possible, so it blends

all the sounds together. (Celce-Marcia, etc.)

Techniques in Pronouncing Words

IPA Chart can help you to know the different sounds of English alphabet also the type of

sound produce when pronouncing the sounds.

Remember for vowel sounds it may be a monothongs or diphthongs. Monothongs require

one mouth position while diphthongs require two mouth positions. For consonant there are six

type of sound and they are plosive, fricative, affricate, nasal, approximant and glottal. Plosive is

made by completely blocking the air in mouth followed by an explosion of air. Fricative is made

by pushing the air through a gap in mouth, creating a friction sound. Affricate is plosive followed

by fricative. Nasal is made partly through the nose. Approximant is made in between a vowel and

a consonant, as their air is not fully blocked. Lastly, glottal is produced in the glottis. The

consonant sound is made by blocking air as it leaves the mouth. (Hedson)

Also dictionary is useful tool for improving our pronunciation skill. You can look it up in a

dictionary and read about how it is pronounced. Dictionaries tell you about pronunciation

through a special system called phonetic transcription. (Hepplenhite)

 Learn the correct articulation technique for pronouncing a words. In pronouncing a word

make sure to produce the last sound of each word because it may change the meaning. This is

particularly the ease in terms of verb tense, subject/verb agreement, and plurality. In learning you

don't need to speak too fast. The best way to slow down your speech is to pause between ideas.

The simple technique will help you speak with clarity. Make sure to pause after commas and

periods. This is essential. By doing so, your listener will know that a new thought or ideas is on

its way. Use correct syllable stress. Syllable stress is a very important part of English

communications. If you put the stress on the wrong syllable, people might not understand what

you are saying. Practice five minutes a day to rapidly improve your pronunciation. With practice,

we literally change the motor memory of the speech apparatus as we acquire this new sounds on

a permanent basis. This is where practice becomes fundamental in the speech and language

acquisition process. By practicing, your mouth will begin to memorize the new speech pattern.

Soon this will fell natural and sound accurate. (Ravin)

In speaking you should use sufficient strength to be easily heard. Also use average pitch

which one produces the best voice with the less effort. Have a agreeable voice quality. It should

be have a flexibility, intelligibility, acceptable pronunciation and ease of bearing. The good

speaker is capable of varying of changes, distinct articulation and proper pronunciation. (Mata,

p.17)
Importance of Learning the Proper Pronunciation

Speech is an activity which is carried on in numerous events; language is knowledge, a

code which is known and shared by people who uses their knowledge for transmitting and

interpreting messages in these events. (Kreidler, p.11)

From the statement it was stated that language is essential because this is the way of

transferring the ideas to other person and learn from it. The idea will help you to be able to face

the challenges in life for achieving your goal.

There are many important reasons all students need to focus on correct form and

pronunciation. First, Perceived Competence, many native speakers will think a second language

English speaker has a low level of fluency if their pronunciation is incorrect. This can cost you a

job, a relationship or just be plain frustrating. Next, Clarity & Intelligibility, communication,

especially in today's international world of school and business is so important. Your

pronunciation mistakes imped you from being understood and affect your results at school and in

business. Lastly, Pronunciation helps you acquire English faster. The earlier you focus and

master the basis of English pronunciation, the faster you'll become fluent. Our ear is important in

this process and focusing on clearly hearing and then speaking the sounds of English leads to

large gains in fluency later on. (English Central, n.p.)

Pronunciation is vital to proper communication because the incorrect use of pronunciation

inevitably leads to the message being misunderstood by the recipient. Pronunciation of the letter

sounds in words as well as syllable emphasis on parts of words will more often than not change

the words meaning and context drastically thereby irreversibility altering the meaning of the
sentences being communicated. Another important aspect is the proper use of English

pronunciation inclines to highlight and add value to an individual speaking English. Consider the

following in a situation where a student's grammar and vocabulary is exceptionally good, he or

she may be able to write good English, but, if the same lacks a fundamental knowledge of

pronunciation despite having an excellent knowledge of grammar, etc. his or her communication

in English will be severely impeded. He or she will be able to write in English, but will not be

able to construct a meaningful sentence when speaking and they fails at communicating a

message. At the very least, students studying English as a second language, should give all the

aspects of English an equal importance. At best, however, those who wish to excel at the English

language will always have to give the knowledge of pronunciation a higher priority. They should

also endeavor to learn this aspects of the English language more thoroughly if they wish to be

recognised as effective communications. (English Club TV Ltd, n.p.)

Synthesis

Mispronunciation among Filipino student is due to our first language Filipino. Filipino

student has to adjust their pronunciation because in English sounds has no exactly a vernacular

sound of Filipino language. (Mata, p.v)

Language is knowledge... (Kreidler)

Pronunciation is very important to us because this will help you to communicate with

other. With proper pronunciation it will help you to transfer knowledge to other people and

received knowledge from others. This will make information transfer easily.
 Chapter III

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

A. Summary

There are words that Filipino student mispronounce. This is because of unfamiliar sounds

need to produce that is do not have exactly vernacular sound to Filipino language. (Mata p.v).

Also there is other dialects of Philippines that sometimes insert other sound when producing a

sound. (Mata, p.203). In addition, the English language itself has a problem to its spelling of the

word and pronouncing this words. Spelling of the words do not have exact one sound that is

needed to produce.

In learning the proper pronunciation it has hard time to learn it. But there are ways to

properly pronounce a different words. First, you need to know the different sounds of English.

This will help you in pronouncing. IPA chart is the one who can help you. Second, dictionary is a

tools for proper pronunciation. It will guide you to how to pronounce words. Lastly, the most

important is the willingness of student. Student will easily understand the pronouncing of words

if he or she focus on it.

Pronunciation is important because it will help for better communication and also you can

use it for career.

B. Conclusions

The following listed below are the conclusions that researcher made:

Filipino student have a hard time speaking in pronouncing words. This is due to

unfamiliar

sounds.

The main cause of mispronunciation is the English language system itself. Letters had no

exactly

one corresponding sounds.

IPA chart and dictionary is useful for learning proper pronunciation.

Pronunciation is important for conversation that will aid misunderstanding.

C. Recommendation

This research paper is recommended for:

Students - this will have a great motivation for them to learn proper pronunciation. They

will know what are the causes of their mispronunciation so that they will correct it. They will get

an idea for producing a sound that is essential for pronunciation.

Teachers - this may help them to their teaching skills. They will have new ideas for them

that they can apply for teaching their students.

 Bibliography

Hedson, Joseph. An English Accent. Pronunciation Studio, 2010.

Hepplenhite, Debble. Pronunciation Guide for English. Phonics International, 2013.

Kenworthy, Joanne. Teaching English Pronunciation. Long man Inc., 1987.

Kreidler, Charles W. The Pronunciation of English. Black Well Publishing Ltd., 2004.

Mata, Lourdes S., Isabel S. Soriano. English Pronunciation. Ken Incorporated, 1967.

Ravin, Judy. Enhancing Communication Skills. Accent Reduction Institute., n.d.