The development and acquisition of English pronunciation in learners of English is a much neglected area of linguistic study. Research predominantly focuses on the pronunciation skills in adult English learners. However, there is no relevant data pertaining to the pronunciation skills in young English learners. Studies pertaining to pronunciation and oral proficiency are needed in order to fully assess the development and promotion of English language pronunciation in educational settings. It is necessary to encourage the active learning of pronunciation skills in young learners, in order for them to under pin the phonetical and phonological structures of the English language at the earliest stages of their language acquisition. The natural curiosity that young children display for sounds, rhymes and words is a resource that should be exploited by teachers in order to promote and encourage proficient pronunciation at the earliest stage of a child’s Second Language Acquisition (SLA). The current study focuses on the use of nonsense language in Second Language educational settings in order to introduce phonology and phonetics at the earliest stage of English language acquisition to encourage correct pronunciation in young L2 learners of English. The materials chosen for the study are selected verses from Edward Lear’s nonsense ABC. The nonsense ABC is introduced as a teaching/learning tool to help young primary school children in Sweden develop their pronunciation skills and avoid fossilized language patterns at a later stage of Second Language Acquisition. Young language learners need a solid foundation on which to build their language skills in order to develop as mature Second Language learners. The findings of this investigation showed that the introduction of nonsense language as a practical and didactical tool for the development of pronunciation had a positive effect on the development of pronunciation skills in the beginner English Language Learners (ELL) who actively participated in the study.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hkr-8517 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Wallace Nilsson, Margaret |
| Publisher | Högskolan Kristianstad, Sektionen för lärande och miljö |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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