3.2Participants
The participants are all of French origin, all of them have been receiving their education at university, or their education had been completed. Most of them have been very confident about their English pronunciation and have not been aware of the mistakes they made. The questionnaire they were asked to fill in is shown in the section Appendices.
The table of their personal data is shown in the table below.
Table 8 – Respondents’ data
No.
|
First name
|
Age
|
Learning E since
|
Self-assessed level
|
Mistakes aware of
|
1
|
Jérôme
|
25
|
Around 15 y. o.
|
Intermediate
|
Not aware of any
|
2
|
Sébastien
|
22
|
3 y. o.
|
Advanced
|
Final devoicing
|
3
|
Yoan
|
21
|
10 y. o.
|
(Upper-)intermediate
|
/h/, /ɒ/, stresses
|
4
|
Jean-Pierre
|
41
|
Around 15 y. o.
|
Upper-intermediate
|
No mistakes
|
5
|
Stéphanie
|
30
|
Collège
|
Beginner
|
Accent too distinct
|
6
|
Andreas
|
47
|
Around 15 y. o.
|
Upper-intermediate
|
Issue with accents
|
The French speakers have not evinced any doubts about their level of English. They all had started to learn English in collège or lycée17, one of them, Sébastien, even earlier, as he has been taking private courses since he was three years old. Nevertheless, the younger generation unanimously complained about the French teachers in English and their pronunciation, mostly their accents have been pointed out – the teachers who are native speakers of English were praised. Jérôme also mentioned that the English courses in France are getting better and better and the youngest teachers prepare more interesting courses.
Generally speaking, the younger participants (respondents 1–3) have been in contact with English more often than the rest of the respondents (approximately 2–3 times a week, daily when abroad). They also have not felt that their pronunciation of English is problematic whatsoever. Only a few of them have been aware of the mistakes they make. Further, when they were asked about what the typical mistakes of French speakers are, their answers were very diverse. Speaker two said that French speakers are not able to pronounce reduced vowels, or make a difference between /w/ and /v/, speaker three uttered that French speaker do not think about the mistakes they make.
The older generation started to learn English a few years later, usually at high school (around the age of fifteen). The influence of French on their pronunciation of English has been significant, nevertheless, their confidence about it has not been lesser in any way. They have not made efforts to imitate the accent of English whatsoever, and in many cases, their accent prevented them from being understood. The only exception is speaker 6, whose French accent has been almost completely eliminated.
3.3Outcome 3.3.1Respondents under 30 years old
Below, a transcription of an average pronunciation of the speakers under 30 years old is shown. The mistakes they made are highlighted in bold. For the purposes of this thesis and in order to make the arrangements clear, spaces have been written in between the words in the transcription.
[waɪ dʊ dɪ 'ɪŋgliʃ 'eɪt d 'frent͡ʃ
ɪts 'præktɪklɪ ə 'fækt əf 'laɪf hɪər ɪn 'ɪŋglənd / laɪk 'reɪn 'hɑ:f d 'sʌmə / 'peɪnfulɪ kən'dʒestɪd 'tju:b̥ 'træfik ən ̩kɒnvə'seɪʃənz ə'baʊt d 'wedr / dɪ 'ɪŋglɪʃ 'eɪt d 'frent͡ʃ
bɪ'kɔz d 'frent͡ʃ ɑ: 'ru:t
dɪ ɪŋgliʃ ə kwɪk tʊ prə'dju:s 'evɪdens əv̥ frent͡ʃ ru:dnes / ɪn 'lʌnən restərɒnts / ɪt 'teɪks ən 'əvrɪd͡ʒ əf fri: pɔɪnt fɔ: 'mɪnɪts tə get ə glɑ:s ə wɔ:tər ɑ:ftə d weitər əz bɪn ə'lɜ:t / kəm'pæd̥ tə sevən'ti:n pɔɪnt 'naɪn mɪnɪts ɪn 'Pæris / 'menɪ 'frent͡ʃ 'pi:pl 'dɔnt 'kli:n ʌp 'ɑ:ftə də 'dogz 'li:viŋ ə'raʊnd 'sɪks 'faʊzənd 'fɔ: 'hʌndrəd 'fɜ:tɪ eɪt ju: 'es 'tɔuns ɔf 'kenɪn 'kræp ɔn də 'stri:ts 'i:t͡ʃ 'jɪr / en wif 'sʌm / 'de:z n 'ɔdə 'prɒbləm / 'fɔ:tɪ pə'sent ə 'frent͡ʃ 'men ən 'twentɪ faɪv̥ pə'cent ɔf 'wumɪn 'dɔnt 't͡ʃent͡ʃ de'r ʌndəwe'r evrɪ 'deɪ n 'ɔnlɪ 'fɔ:tɪ sevn pə'sent 'bɑ:θ 'evrɪ 'deɪ
'dɪ 'aɪdɪə dæt 'frent͡ʃ 'pi:pl ɑ: 'ru:d əz bɪ'kʌm 'sɔu ɪn'doktrineɪtɪd ɪn 'ɪŋglɪʃ 'kult͡ʃə dæt ə 'resnt 'ri:meɪk əv d 'mɪstə 'men 'kɑ:tu:ns (mɪstə 'grʌmpɪ mɪstə 'tɪklz) 'fi:təd ə 'kærəktə neɪmd mɪstə ru:d hu: 'fɑ:ts / 'blɔuz 'rɑsberɪz / n 'spiks wɪf ə 'frent͡ʃ 'æksent / ɔu 'snæps
ənt den derz d 'fækt dət der ɪz ən 'ækʃʊəl 'rekənaɪzd 'medɪkl 'sɪndrɔm dɪs'kraɪbiŋ d 'ps(a)ikəlɒd͡ʒɪkl 'breɪkdaʊn dæt ə'kɜ:z wen ə 'fɒrən 'trævələ tə 'pæris dis'kɒvəz dæt d 'sɪtɪ əv 'rɔuməns n 'laɪt 'izn 'ɔ:l ɪts 'krækt ʌp tə bi: / its cɔld 'pærɪs 'sɪndrɔm ən it ʌ'pɪəz tə pʌ'tɪkjələlɪ ʌ'fekt 'd͡ʒæpəni:z 'tu:rɪsts nɒt ə'kʌstəmd̥ tʊ ə sə'saɪətɪ weər ɪts ə'kseptəbl fər ə 'weɪtə tu 'jel et ə 'kʌstɔmər ɪf deɪ 'dɔnt 'spik 'flu:ənt 'frenʃ]
As the transcription shows, these French speakers have had problems with pronouncing the dental fricatives. The voiced /ð/ sound has been changed into /d/ in most of them (respondent 2 sometimes used the /v/ sound, as in [ən ven verz v 'fækt vət ver ɪz]), similarly, most of them mispronounced /θ/ as /f/, the only exception was speaker 1, who managed to pronounce it correctly most of the times. The /h/ sound was never pronounced in the word hate, but, curiously, the word hundred was usually pronounced correctly. The affricate /t͡ʃ/ was sometimes pronounced as /ʃ/ in final positions (demonstrated on the last occurrence in the transcription), but also as /t/ in medial positions, as in featured [fi:təd]. Some consonant clusters were also reduced, for instance London [lʌnən], and all of the speakers stumbled on the clause „all its cracked up to be“ as it is full of consonants.
All of the speakers did not reduce the vowels in unaccented positions, like in words affect [ʌ'fekt], to yell at a customer [tu 'jel et ə 'kʌstɔmər], or are [ɑ:]. In some words, the final voiced sounds were devoiced (respondent 1 inclined more to this mistake), but it did not usually pose problems. Two of my respondents were rhotic, because they expressed the desire to approach the American standard of pronunciation, however, this feature of theirs was not corrected in the IPA transcription above. This also contributed to the fact the linking r was mostly used correctly.
The vowels that were mispronounced were /ɪ/, which was replaced by [i] in most of the cases, and the diphthongs /əʊ/, which became [ɔu], or was even reduced to [ɔ]; /eɪ/, which was regularly reduced to [e], but not in all occurrences. Moreover the long vowel /i:/ was shortened and pronounced as [i], however, the speakers were very inconsistent in pronouncing the length of [ɔ:], [ɑ:] [u:]. The words like rude or half, the long vowel has not been reduced, however, in longer words, such as produce, the vowels have been significantly shortened.
There were a few words that happened to be mispronounced mostly because the French speakers have not been acquainted with the correct pronunciation. Among those words were tons [tɔuns], canine [kenin], and recent [resnt], and further, there were words that appear in the French language, but bear different pronunciations, such as culture [kult͡ʃə] or psychological [psikəlɒd͡ʒɪkl] or [psaikəlɒd͡ʒɪkl]. The only word which was audibly stressed incorrectly was Japanese ['d͡ʒæpəni:z]. Speaker 2 also mispronounced the word society [sɔ'ʃieti], speaker 3 stumbled on words produce [prə'sju:d], men [min], grumpy [grympi], et cetera [eksetərʌ] – which is, curiously, a very common mistake of the native speakers too; the English [dʔiŋgliʃ] and accustomed [ʌ'kustɔmit].
As far as the suprasegmental features are concerned, they have been quite well imitated. The intonation has not resembled to the one of a groupe rytmique in most of the respondents’ discourse. Nevertheless, there have been some instances of wrongly used intonation in respondent 3’s off hand speech. Further, the stresses were not very significant in their speech, however, generally speaking, they have not been used in wrongly. Their discourse has been smooth and the glottal stop has been successfully avoided (with the exception of the word hate).
3.3.2Respondents over 30 years old
In this section, the reader is to find a transcription of speaker 5’s pronunciation. Speaker 4 skipped many words from the article and speaker 6’s speech was almost identical to that of a native speaker of RP (if the foreign accent is not taken into account). He rarely made mistakes in the consonant sounds (excluding the | sounds), and even the vowel sounds were very well imitated. The speaker comes from a bilingual family and his education was multilingual. He also travels around the world as an art performer, therefore, English is the language that he uses the most every day.
The offhand discourses of all three speakers are evaluated in the commentary below. The mistakes made are highlighted in bold. For the purposes of this thesis and in order to make the arrangements clear, spaces have been written in between the words in the transcription.
[waɪ dʊ zɪ 'ɪŋgliʃ 'eit z 'frent͡ʃ
its 'praktɪkəlɪ ə 'fɛkt əf 'laɪf hɪər ɪn 'ɪŋglənd / laɪk 'reɪn 'hɑ:f zə 'səmə / 'peɪnfulɪ kɔn'dʒe:stɪd 'tju:b̥ 'trafik ən ̩kɒnvəʁ'seɪʃənz ə'baʊt zə 'wezə / zɪ 'ɪŋglɪʃ 'eɪt zə 'frent͡ʃ
bɪ'kɔz zə 'frent͡ʃ ɑ: 'wu:t
zɪ 'ɪŋgliʃ ə 'kwɪk tʊ 'prɔdju:s evɪ'dens əv̥ 'frent͡ʃ 'wu:dnes / ɪn 'lɔndən 'restərɒnts / ɪt 'teɪks ən 'əvrɪd͡ʒ əf sri: pɔɪnt fɔ: 'mɪnyts tu 'get ə 'glɑ:s ɔf 'wɔ:tər ɑ'ftɜ:χ zə 'weitəχ əz bɪn ə'lɜ:χt18 / kɔm'pɛχd̥ tu sevən'ti:n pɔɪnt 'naɪn 'mɪnyts ɪn 'pawis / 'menɪ 'frent͡ʃ 'pi:pəl 'dɔnt 'kli:n ʌp ɑ'ftɜ:χ zəχ 'dogz 'li:viŋg ə'waʊnd 'sɪks 'saʊzən 'fɔ: 'hʌndrəd_ 'sɜ:tɪ eɪt ju: 'es 'tɔns ɔf 'kɛnɪn 'krɛp ɔn də 'stri:ts 'it͡ʃ 'jɜ:χ / en wi 'som / 'ze:z n 'odə 'probləm / 'fɔ:tɪ pə'sent əf 'frent͡ʃ 'men ən 'twentɪ faɪv̥ pə'cent ɔf 'wɪmɪn 'dɔnt 't͡ʃent͡ʃ ze' ʔʌndəwe'ə evri 'dei n 'ɔnli 'fɔ:tɪ sevn pə'sent 'bas 'evri 'dei
'zɪ 'aɪdɪə zət 'frent͡ʃ 'pi:pəl ɑ: 'wu:d əz bɪ'kʌm 'sɔu 'ɪndɔktrineitit ɪn 'ɪŋglɪʃ 'kult͡ʃuə zət ə 'risent 'rimeɪk əv zə 'mɪstəχ 'men 'kɑχtu:ns (mistə 'grʌmpi mistə 'tɪkəlz) fi't͡ʃɜ:d ʔə 'kɛwɛktə 'neɪmd 'mɪstə 'wud / ʔu: 'fɑts / 'blo:z 'rasberɪz / ən 'spiks wɪs ə 'frent͡ʃ 'aksɛnt / o 'snaps
ən 'dzen 'dzəz d 'fakt dzət 'zer ɪz ən 'ɛkt͡ʃʊəl 'rekənaɪzd 'medikl 'sɪndrɔm dɪs'kraɪbiŋg z 'psikɔlɔd͡ʒɪkəl 'breɪkdoun zɛt ə'kjuəz wen ə 'fɔwein 'travələ tə 'pawis disko'vɜ:z zət zə 'siti ov 'rɔmens n 'laɪt 'izənt 'ɔ:l its 'krekt ʌp tu bi: / its cɔ:ld 'pawis 'sindrom ən it ə'pɪəz tə 'pʌʁtikələχli ə'fekt 'd͡ʒapani:z 'tu:wists nɔt ə'kʌstʃomd̥ tu ə sə'saɪətɪ weər ɪts ə'kseptebəl fəə ʔə 'weɪtə tu 'jel et ə 'kʌstɔməχ ɪf zeɪ 'dɔnt 'spik 'flu:ənt 'frent͡ʃ]
As the transcription shows, there are many areas that were problematic for these respondents. As far as the consonants are concerned, the dental fricatives have been replaced with various sounds; the voiced dental fricative was mispronounced as [v], or [z]; the sound [d] and sometimes even [dz] have not been uncommon in the offhand speech either. The voiceless fricative has been changed into [f] by respondent 4 or into [s] by respondents 5 and 6.
Another problematic sound has turned out to be /r/. These speakers have not managed to imitate the English variety of this sound; they often tend to mispronounce it as [w] or they use the fricative [ʁ]. When this sound does not precede an accented syllable, it loses its sonority and is pronounced as voiceless uvular fricative [χ]. The friction is almost unnoticeable but it is one of the most distinct features of the French accent in these speakers. In many cases, it has been used as a linking element.
Further, these speakers do not make mistakes in pronouncing the affricate sounds. They are slightly more rounded, but it does not prevent the speakers from being understood. A typical mistake was also the ending –ing, which was usually realized as [iŋg]. Many voiced consonants were devoiced in the final positions.
The glottal stop has been overused in these respondents’ speech. The sound /h/ was not manifested in speaker 4’s speech at all, speaker 6 has been able to pronounce it but in some occurrences, it has been replaced with glottal stop. Speaker 4 omitted the /h/ sound only in the word hate. Nevertheless, the indefinite article a has been very often preceded by a glottal stop; the speech has not been properly linked.
The consonant clusters appear to cause more troubles to this generation of speakers than to the younger one. The words like people, Tickles, psychological were intruded by an additional neutral [ə] sound in order to make the pronunciation easy: ['psikɔlɔd͡ʒɪkəl], ['pi:pəl] and ['tɪkəlz]. Sometimes, the speakers moved the primary stress to the particular syllable, for example [pi'pəl], and imitated the French pattern of stress. This mistake was very typical for speaker 4.
The most problematic area was the vowels. The speakers 4 and 5 seem to apply the French system of vowels to the pronunciation of English, therefore almost all the vowels that are not shared by the two systems were mispronounced. The diphthongs were usually reduced to simple monophthong; the long vowels have also been reduced, but curiously, when a stress in a word was moved to another syllable, the vowel in that syllable was slightly longer, as in after [ɑ'ftɜ:χ], for instance. The reduced vowels /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ have been replaced by [i] and [u] in most of the occurrences. The vowels that are originally reduced in unaccented positions have not usually been reduced in these respondents’ speech. The closed [o] has occurred many times instead of /ɒ/, /ɔ/ or even /ə/. The open /æ/ has not disappeared completely, but mostly, it was replaced by [ɛ] or [a]. The nasal sounds have appeared very rarely in their pronunciation, but indeed, speaker 4 used it, especially in the words of French origin, for example evidence [evidɑ̃ns]. The word minutes was also pronounced as if it was French: [minyts].
There have been many words that happened to be completely mispronounced, e.g. produce, accustomed, foreign, women, bathe and underwear. Again the stress in the word Japanese was misplaced: ['d͡ʒapani:z], but furthermore, there were many other words which contained the same mistake; the accent has been usually moved to the last syllable in order to imitate the French pattern of rhythmical groups.
The speaker 4’s intonation was influenced very much by the French one, he has not respected the English suprasegmentals most of the time. In this respect, speaker 6 was the closest to the RP model of intonation and stress. Speaker 5’s skills have been in a transitional stage. Some of the expressions were stressed and intoned correctly, some were articulated wrongly.
3.3.3Final comparison
In the following table, a comparison of the two groups of respondents is made. In the first column, a problematic sound/item is presented, in the other two, the most common mispronunciations are listed.
Table 9 – Comparison of mistakes
Item
|
Respondents 1–3
|
Respondents 4–6
|
/θ/
|
[f], [θ]
|
[f], [s]
|
/ð/
|
[d], [v]
|
[v], [z], [d], [dz]
|
/h/
|
[h], [ʔ]
|
[h], [ʔ]
|
/t͡ʃ/
|
[t], [ʃ], [t͡ʃ]
|
correct, but slightly rounded
|
/w/ vs. /v/
|
correct
|
correct
|
/r/
|
correct
|
[w], [ʁ], [χ], [ɹ]
|
devoicing
|
rarely
|
sometimes
|
<-ing>
|
correct
|
[ɪŋg]
|
clusters
|
mostly correct
|
usually interrupted with [ə]
|
diphthongs
|
sometimes reduced
|
mostly reduced
|
reduced vowel when unaccented
|
full vowels
|
full vowels
|
/ɪ/
|
both [ɪ] and [i]
|
[i] and [y], sometimes [ɪ]
|
/ʊ/
|
both [ʊ] and [u]
|
usually [u]
|
/i:/
|
[i:], [i]
|
[i]
|
long vowels
|
sometimes reduced
|
mostly reduced
|
/æ/
|
usually correct, or [a]
|
[a], [ɛ]
|
/ɒ/
|
[ɒ], [ɔ], [a]
|
[ɔ], [o], [a], [ə]
|
liaison
|
no problems
|
sometimes interrupted with [ʔ]
|
stresses
|
'Japanese, otherwise well done
|
groupe rytmique imitated very often
|
intonation
|
small deviations, generally ok
|
groupe rytmique imitated
|
most commonly mispronounced w.
|
accustomed, psychological, canine, tons, culture
|
accustomed, bathe, evidence, foreign, psychological, canine, culture
|
Generally speaking, the foreign accent of the respondents 4–6 was more perceivable than of the younger generations. The groupe rytmique has tended to be imitated more often, as far as the suprasegmental features are concerned. As for the vowels, the older speakers have tended to substitute them with vowels from the French system, namely /æ/ and /ɒ/ have been replaced by /a/, /e/, /ɛ/ and /a/, /ɔ/ or /o/ respectively. Further, the reduction of the vowels has been neglected greatly by both groups.
It is necessary to point out that the dental fricatives were mispronounced by both groups but in different manner. The respondents 1–3 often used plosives as a replacement, whereas the older respondents’ choice was a fricative pronunciation.
The pronunciation of certain sound was inconsistent in their discourse. Whereas speakers 4–5 always pronounced /ɪ/ wrongly as [i], the younger generation (and speaker 6) were switching between these sounds. The same problem occurred while trying to pronounce /æ/ and /ɒ/; these sounds were altered by both generations depending on the context.
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