Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1,7, , language: English, abstract: Nowadays, it seems perfectly normal to many Germans using English words in daily conversations, however, on the level of pronunciation, it is common to stick to the German sound system. Yet, there are language learners who know about the different phonological patterns of the two languages. To understand the reasons why German second language learners face difficulties pronouncing English sounds, this term paper focuses on potential areas of concern. English words are placed into the context of the native language and are characterized by its foreign-sounding accent. This accent is defined as a which give information on a person’s social background and indicate. At the same time, pronunciation itself while the pronunciation of individual sounds does not make a difference in meaning in the German language, it can have a distinctive function in the English language. Many language learners, however, are not aware of this contradiction between their first language and the target language and therefore, tend to pronounce English words incorrectly.

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject Learning materials - English, grade: 1.3, University of Cologne, language: English, abstract: This paper firstly compares and contrasts the phonetic and phonological systems of English and German and then goes on to describe some frequently occurring problems concerning pronunciation and non-native accents of German ESL students. Some of the factors leading to the problems that will be scrutinized are interference of German, learners’ attitudes and insufficient knowledge of phonetics and phonology systems of the English language, among others. Moreover, the concept of what is commonly referred to as the aptitude for (phonetic) mimicry will be illuminated and discussed from different viewpoints, taking into account the origin of the term and its applicability to linguistics, particularly within the fields of phonetics and phonology. One of the objectives of this paper will thus be to determine possible factors affecting learners’ pronunciation competence and to examine to what extent formal instruction in phonetics and phonology can alleviate certain pronunciation difficulties. To that end, a small-scale study was designed and conducted at the University of Cologne with first- and second-year English students, five of whom had not yet taken the Practical Phonetics & Phonology (PPP) course that forms an obligatory part of the English Studies Bachelor’s Degree Program and five who had taken it during the previous semester and had passed the end-of-module exam.

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 2,0, University of Augsburg (Phil-Hist Fakultät), course: Teaching and Learning English Pronunciation, language: English, abstract: In the course of the last three decades a whole new prominence has been granted to the significance of foreign language (FL) learning. Due to the recent development of globalization, further emerging of multi-national enterprises and the coalescence of the European Union, this appears to be the logical consequence. Because of its nowadays widely accepted status as a lingua franca (Acar 2006) the learning and teaching of English as the most frequently spoken second language has gained importance – in Germany as well as in most industrialized countries speaking prevalently another first language (L1). In the recent past, since the end of the 19th century, changing trends have focused on different methods of language teaching, such as the ability to translate texts, correct use of grammar, or wide range of vocabulary. However, the teaching of English pronunciation finally has come back into the focus of interest since the second half of the 1980s due to the mentioned economic and social changes. Nowadays the ability to (net-) work internationally – and thus reach the “ultimate goal of communication with other speakers of the second language” (Brown 1994: 226) seems to be one of the highest goals of achievement of second language (L2) learning. During the time of almost one century of pronunciation teaching the attitude towards the issue has changed as well: as Chun (1991: 179) states in her article, the development started from a segmental and comparative sound repetition learning strategy, followed by a period of simply ignoring the topic completely from the 1960s to the early 1980s, leading finally to the up-to-date approach of teaching suprasegmentals, sentence intonation as well as other aspects of connected speech. The most current approach towards second language teaching lies, according to Neri, Cucchiarini and Strik (2006: 357), in “the achievement of communicative effectiveness”. This means that learners do not necessarily have to eradicate the slightest traces of foreign accent in their productions of L2 speech but are trained to avoid serious pronunciation errors.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, grade: 2,7, University of Vechta, language: English, abstract: The linguistic differences between German and English are going to be researched and compared, in order to light upon the reasons for mispronunciations and difficulties for German speakers of English. Learning a language or a skill in general, naturally needs practice and commitment to be able to master it. However, this text is going to leave this aspect aside and will concentrate on differences which emerge from the languages themselves. German and English are two different languages with the same Latin alphabet and different grammar for the naked eye, but beneath the surface are further differences and similarities which can be described in order to understand why German speakers of English seem to produce the same mistakes when no practice for correct pronunciation is given. The importance of English has increased over the past years and is one of the most spoken and important languages. It is needed in business relations, to read manuals, can be used in almost all foreign countries for communication and is generally important for every working citizen in terms of a business language, as former European Commissioner Günther Oettinger stated in his interview with German broadcast channel SWR in 2005. In 2010 a speech of Oettinger was published, which was held in the Columbia University of Berlin and showed, after his contribution in the broadcast, that his English proficiency was not appropriate when considering the circumstances. Especially in terms of politics, an individual wants to be taken seriously and act superior in all tasks given to comply with the role of a representative politician. After Oettinger held his speech, it was naturally connected to what was originally said by him, with the obvious connotation that he failed to meet his own expectations in English acquisition by far, although it was of utmost importance. The English language however can be difficult for foreign speakers. Although being of the same Germanic origin as German, many foreign speakers experience a hard time when trying to achieve native-like pronunciation. Words such as squirrel, all words with a 'th-' and minimal pairs (e.g. hat and had) are often difficult to pronounce and distinguish for foreign learners, due to phonetic and phonemic differences, which cannot easily be translated into the German system due to their non-existence.

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Grammar, Style, Working Technique, grade: 14, University of Marburg, course: Problems of English Grammar, language: English, abstract: This work is titled “A Contrastive Analysis of the English and the German Sound System. Problems and Suggestions for Teaching.” The features of sound in a language are systematically structured. They are divided into two main branches: (a) the branch of segmental features including consonants and vowels, and (b) the branch of supra-segmental features including stress, intonation, pause, juncture, and rhythm (Nasr 1997: 2). My paper refers to branch (a) and illustrates the differences between the English (RP) and German consonant and vowel systems. The resulting contrasts reveal the main difficulties German learners of English are confronted with, therefore, these need to be exposed in teaching (Kufner 1971: 36). After contrasting the sound systems, I will comment on the aim and importance of learning English pronunciation, and then I will explain the error degrees caused by the sound contrasts. Later, there is an overview of the most important qualifications of a phonetic teacher, and finally I will provide suggestions for teaching the pronunciation difficulties caused by the differences between the two languages.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: B+, University of Education, language: English, abstract: This research work is an educational material that highlights pronunciation; specifically, the pronunciation of English sounds. The research was undertaken for the purposes of improving the pronunciation difficulties of the voiced and voiceless interdentals in English language of the form 2A students of Assemblies of God SHS. As a vital component or aspect of the English language, pronunciation difficulties cuts across all linguistic borders due to one reason or the other and is therefore a major barrier to effective communication. I used the framework of an action research, against the background of carefully selected intervention strategies, the research work was successfully conducted and also yielded good results. It was discovered by the researcher that the difficulty that the form 2A students of Assemblies of God SHS was mainly attributed to the influence of the learners’ first language (L1) and inadequate oral lessons alongside different cultural and societal background. The researcher therefore engaged the students with practical teaching techniques that will helped them do away with their cultural and social markings on pronunciation in English.

Pronunciation teaching has sometimes been referred to as the 'Cinderella of language teaching', implying that, like Cinderella in the folk tale, it has come to be neglected, compared to her 'jealous sisters' lexis, grammar and culture. One reason for this neglect is that many teachers do not feel adequately equipped to teach pronunciation beyond giving a few simple instructions like 'Put your tongue between your teeth to form the th-sound'. This book is an accessible introduction to many of the aspects that are involved in teaching English pronunciation. It starts out with the question of why pronunciation matters in the first place, looks at the models to be aimed at, reviews the factors that influence pronunciation, introduces methods and tools for pronunciation teaching and discusses the most important specific problems that learners of English with a German-language background (be it L1 or L2) have. It comes with a CD that contains a number of samples of German-influenced English for discussion and research.

Common Pronunciation Difficulties Observed among Native Arabic Speakers Learning to Speak English is about the linguistic qualities involved in teaching the science of phonetics. Pronunciation is a concept in English language teaching that has been long overlooked and undertaught. Nevertheless, its importance is the difference between being understood and considered literate or being misunderstood and illiterate.

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1,3, University of Freiburg, language: English, abstract: An accent almost always makes the conversation partner come to any sort of prejudgement of the speaker. It might sound unpleasant, as in the case of German accents from the view of some English speakers, or can lead to misunderstandings. Therefore, it is important for learners of English as a second language to pay attention to their pronunciation from the beginning. I will analyse which contrasts between English and German exist and further look into the most common mistakes of learners and misperceptions that lead to a characteristic German accent. We can assume that there are mispronunciations with different degrees of ‘graveness’, depending on the probability to cause misunderstandings. So in the following, I will turn to the question why pronunciation should not be neglected in teaching and what corrections language teachers should give priority to in the teaching of phonology. The chapter on teaching mainly refers to the teaching of German students in secondary schools. The assumptions can however be transferred onto other teaching situations. I will show that the teaching of pronunciation will always have to be adapted to the learners’ individual language environment as this is bound to strongly influence their accent.