Review of Related Studies
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vocalic language does not allow any consonant phoneme to occupy the final position of its words. In Nataia, even a syllable is not allowed to have a
consonant phoneme in the final position. Theoretically, therefore, a Nataia speaker will find it difficult to study English, a language which allows a huge
number of its syllables and words to have consonants in the final position. The second problem may appear from the fact that the syllable structures of Nataia
have only CV and V types. Thus, Nataia speakers will find it difficult to learn English, a language which has richer combinations of vowels and consonants such
as CC and CCC in the initial and final positions of its words. In an attempt to answer the second research question i.e., “What
segmental phonemes of English may cause difficulties for Nataia speakers in learning English phonology?”, the writer went to the theory of CA on language
interference. According to Kersten 2002:3, there are at least two possible sets of L2 target language phonemes. The sets include sounds identical to those of L1
first language and sounds unknown to L1. When both L1 and L2 have the same phonemes, they are said to be identical. This type of sounds do not cause problems
or errors in pronunciation. Unknown sounds, Flege 1987: 48 explains, are “L2 phones which have no counterparts in the L1”. The English consonant sounds
that are unknown to Nataia speakers include ʃ, θ, Ʒ, ð, dƷ, and tʃ. Since the Nataia system does not have these characteristic English phonemes, a
Nataia speaker tends to look for their substitutes from the inventory of the local language, resulting in phonological errors.
Finally, in order to answer the third research question i.e., “What suprasegmental phonemes of English may cause difficulties
for Nataia
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speakers in learning English phonology?”, the writer relied on a CA theory about language interference. In this case, the present writer directed his attention
specifically to problems stemming from the difference in ‘stress and rhythm’ between Nataia and English. A Nataia speaker may find it difficult to learn
English phonology because ‘stress’ in the local language is not phonemic i.e., it does not differentiate words, whereas in English, it is to a limited extent
phonemic Giegerich, 1992: 181. Besides, stress in the Nataia is not systematic. Stress in the local language is generally assigned to the next to the last syllable of a
word penultimate. In actual practice, however, speakers may assign stress on any syllable, depending on the communication effect they want to create. On the
opposite side, English stress can be phonemic i.e., it can differentiate words and systematic i.e., every English word has a single possible stress pattern.
More importantly, Giegerich asserts, the main function of stress in English is to maintain rhythm in connected speech. Rhythm is also problematic because in the
Nataia, the length of an utterance depends on the number of its syllables. On the opposite end, the length of an utterance in English depends entirely on the number
of its stressed syllables. This is the reason why Nataia is referred to as a syllable-timed language and English is a stress-timed language. The logical
consequence is that a Nataia speaker cannot easily get used to the rhythmic patterns of English and finally speaks the foreign language with a syllable-timed rhythm.
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