Transcript Phonetics and Syntax

Malka Dagan
An introduction to her life and our
linguistic observations
Background Information
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
Born in Russia in 1944
Russian was Malka’s first and fluent language until age 3; she
moved to Israel at the age of 3 and Russian was completely
erased; Hebrew replaced Russian as L1

Mother spoke to her in Yiddish, and she communicated to her
mother in Hebrew

Moved to the United States in 1985

Never had formal training in English; took a few ESL classes at
Santa Fe Community College to help her learn English

She uses both Hebrew and English to communicate at home, but
Hebrew is predominant language used to converse with her
husband
The Fluency Question
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Malka’s English is still considerably
broken, but VERY understandable to a
native English speaker.
Is she fluent or not?
--Smooth flow of speech and coherent
words groups but at a loss sometimes for
a specific vocabulary word
--Considerable pronunciation, syntactic,
and morphological problems
Affective Factors


Malka is very self-conscious of her speech. Before we could
start to teach her correct pronunciations and syntax, she had
to feel very comfortable with us.
Ways we lowered affective filters:
Not treating her as a subject, but as a person
Having normal conversation with her, and never bringing up
problems outside of our sessions
Meetings were held in her office where we were not in front of
a large group of people
Making her aware of her the issues she was struggling with,
but not pushing her too far as to induce hypercorrection
Linguistic Issues

Phonetics
• Problem sounds include: [
] [] []
• Hebrew language uses voiced uvular fricative
• voiced and voiceless interdental fricatives
• Malka replaces these fricatives with either
[t] [d] or [z]
There is NO NOTICEABLE PATTERN as to
what she will replace the sound with
Example Words
Malka’s Pronunciation English Spelling
[

 Agriculture
t]
[
Conjugation

]
[h

 Helicopter
t]
[

d
 Illegitimate
t ̚]
[z]
Them
Lesson Plans

With practice, Malka can pronounce almost any word in
slow speech. Her problem comes when she must produce
them in normal speech.
How we practiced with her:
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Word Lists with difficult sound combinations
Making her more aware of the words and sounds she was having trouble
with
Showing her where to place her tongue in her mouth
Having her a repeat a word slowly at first, and then faster and faster until
she could properly produce it
Learning Issues and Styles

Both negative and positive transfer of her L1
have occurred:
Hebrew and English do have many sounds in common.
Because of this, Malka was able to pronounce English words
that might be hard for learners of English coming from a
different culture. However, English and Hebrew do have
quite a few different sounds, and Hebrew continues to
influence the way that Malka pronounces these sounds.


Malka’s Learning Styles:
Malka seems to have tendencies toward the following
styles: Field Dependent, Auditory, Reflectivity (not a risk
taker)
Summary of Phonetic Issues
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Dominant problem lies with three sounds: [ɹ] [ɵ] [ɕ]
Has problems using these sounds in fast speech…but she can produce all
of them in slow speech
Also has problems with certain sound combinations in English (ex. [g e]
becomes [g ɹ e])
Uses Hebrew and English equally on a daily basis; therefore, neither one
receives more practice than the other
She is interested in correcting her phonetic problems, but has indicated that
she would rather work on her syntactic problems right now. In her opinion,
competence in syntax is more important that proper pronunciation.
Syntax and Grammar
Analysis
Variances from Non-Native Performance
Word Order
Adverbs
Adverbials
Verbs
Auxiliaries
Modals
Linking Verb: Be
Other
Articles
Plural Marker
Prepositions
Word Order

Adverbs and adverbials
Some of Malka’s sentences:
 You meet here people. (adverb)
 Tomorrow you are getting in the classroom questions. (adverbial PP)
 Some people are putting in the stew eggs. (adverbial PP)
 He was attending last year faculty meetings. (adverbial PP)
‫שאלותץ‬
questions
‫בכיטה‬
in-the-classroom
‫מקבלים‬
‫אתם‬
receive
you (pl)
‫מחר‬
Tomorrow
Word Order
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Source of Error: L1 to L2 Interlingual
Transfer
Suggested Correction:
Recognition that English adverbs and adverbial PP’s are normally
post-nominal as in:
“You meet people here” and
“Some people are putting eggs in the stew,” etc.
Verbs

Aspect, Modals, Auxiliaries, and Linking Verb “to be”
Malka’s translation:
English version:
I (am) today without the time.
I don’t have time today.
My son (is) today in Peoria
My son is in Peoria today .
We (are) studying Hebrew already six
months
We have been studying Hebrew for six
months. (Present Perfect Progressive)
By this time tomorrow, we drove
already 400 miles.
At this time tomorrow, we will have driven
400 miles. (Future Perfect)
The children finished to eat when I got
home.
The children had eaten when I got home.
They (were) about to to leave when
the phone rang.
They were walking out the door when the
phone rang. (Past Progressive)
( aux “do”)
(linking verb)
(Past Perfect)
Tense/Aspect Comparison
Tense/Aspect
English
Infinitive
To learn
Present Tense
Learns
Past Tense
Hebrew
Hebrew translation
Hebrew Tense
To learn
Infinitive
‫לומד‬
Learns, is learning
Present
Learned
‫למד‬
Learned
Past
Present Participle
Is learning
‫לומד‬
Learns, is learning
Present
Past Participle
Has learned
‫למד‬
Learned
Past
Present Perfect
Has learned
‫למד‬
Learned
Past
Past Perfect
Had learned
‫למד‬
Learned
Past
Future Perfect
Will have learned
‫למד‬
Learned
Past
Present Progressive
Is learning
‫לומד‬
Learns, is learning
Present
Past Progressive
Were learning
‫למד‬
Learned
Past
Future Progressive
Will be learning
‫ילמד‬
Will learn
Future
Present Perfect
Progressive
Past Perfect
Progressive
Future Perfect
Progressive
Has been learning
‫לומד‬
Learns, is learning (already)
Present
Had been learning
‫למד‬
Learned
Past
Will have been
learning
‫ילמד‬
Will learn
Future
‫ללמוד‬
Verbs
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Source of Error: L1 – L2 Interlingual
Transfer
• Hebrew lacks modals and auxiliaries as used in English: (can, may, shall,
will, has, am, do);* therefore, it can not express Aspect in the same manner
as English.
• A one-to-one transfer is not always possible—some phrasal capabilities are
embedded in the verb; such as, “about to”, “go out”, go down”, plus use of
“support words”; such as “already”

Suggested Correction:
• Additional formal grammar instruction:
http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
Courses at UF, ESL, SLA, etc.
• Self-monitoring
* Hebrew expresses “can” and “shall” as a separate verb always followed by an infinitive
form. “Will” is expressed as a future tense affix to a verb. “Am” is embedded in the
present tense form of a verb.
Other Issues
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Articles & Plural Marker
• Example: “Some day(s) I sit and think for a bit in (the) shade.”
• Hebrew has gendered plural markers: “ot” or “im”
• Hebrew defines what is “definite” differently than English
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Prepositions
• Examples: Help to (indirect object), request from, talk with (not to), say to,
marry with, observe on, answer to, fear from, etc.
• Similar to English, but, unlike English, use not optional:

English could say: The teacher helped Mary with her homework.
Hebrew must say: The teacher helped to Mary with her homework.
Summary of Syntax Issues
Relevant Factors:
•Little formal training in English (-)
•Spoke only English until mid-Adult years (-)
•Learned English through immersion more out of necessity (extrinsic
motivation/instrumental orientation) (-)
•Strong affinity to native language and culture (-)
•Fossilization evident (-)
•Stated desire to improve (+)
Observations:
•Has admitted to paying more attention to syntax/grammar of her speech (+)
•Has not taken advantage of training/education available, nor indicated any
intentions to do so. (-)
•Has given indications that she thought our sessions very helpful. (+)