Analyzing the Impact of Confusing English Words Sounds on University Students’ Correct Spelling (An applied study in Gezira, Sennar, White Nile States)

Prepared by the researche : Dr. Ali Fadlalla Ahmad AL Basheer, – Assistant professor, English Language Department, Faculty of Arts, –  White Nile University, Kosti, Sudan.

Democratic Arabic Center

Journal of Afro-Asian Studies : Twenty-First Issue – May 2024

A Periodical International Journal published by the “Democratic Arab Center” Germany – Berlin

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Abstract

This paper aimed to analyze the effect of confusing sounds of English words on students’ spelling words correctly” A students’ diagnostic test was designed and subdivided into three main cores (short vowels, long vowels and diphthongs. The diagnostic test represented a tool to collect data. The data was analyzed by adopting (SPSS) program. The results revealed the following: Sudanese university students confused English sounds. Sudanese university students write down words with accordance to what they hear not according to spelling rules. The most areas of challenges are the long vowel sounds. The researcher recommended that: Teachers and tutors need to draw students’ attention to spelling rules, suitable lessons plans and homework tasks should be designed, and immense efforts have to be made to apply spelling rules.

Introduction

Although English language in general and teaching it in particular have been taking place for many years in universities, surprisingly, it is observed that university students are still facing real problems in the area of writing skills, to be more precise, in the concern of spelling rules and techniques. Some students do not gain spelling success. The reasons why university students   do not mastering pronunciation and phonetics learning techniques were pointed out by Sárosdy J. etal  (2006: 78) “ Most English teachers make students study grammar and vocabulary, practice functional dialogues but they make little attempt to teach pronunciation in any overt way”. Therefore, concentration on investigating and analyzing the difficulties that face learners in such areas is highly needed. It is so difficult for learners, specially beginners, to observe that the long vowel /i:/ has different spelling graphemes that represent it, take for example, these words (see – sea – niece – perceive – people) although the sound is always long vowel /i:/ but the spelling is different in each word, it is double ee in see, ea in sea, ie in niece, ei in perceive and eo in people. University student’s weakness in writing correct spelling words drew the researcher’s attention to investigate in this important grammatical area, carrying in his mind the difficulties that encounter learners to write spelling words accurately. It is observed that when learners write words the way they sound they end up with bad and strange spellings, not only this, but also they fail to read the words they have written because they look like unreal words.

Statement of the problem

This paperwork, under the title “Analyzing the effect of confusing English words sounds on university students’ correct spelling” investigates the challenges that face university students in writing spelling correctly, focusing on short vowels, long vowels and diphthongs which are expected to be the most areas where university students encounter to spell English words correctly.

Questions of the study

1. To what extents do university learners able to spell English vowel words correctly?
2. What areas of English vowel sounds do learners encounter most difficulties?
3. What are the main reasons behind learners’ weakness in spelling techniques?

Importance of the study

This study is important because it is expected to help university students to overcome the difficulties that encounter them to master English spelling rules, as well as it is significant for professors to select the best strategies and approaches of teaching English phonetics and pronunciation. Above all this, the results of this paper are expected to solve the problem of confusing English vowel sounds.

The aims of the study

1. To expand students’ knowledge about the ability to spell words.
2. To acquire various ways of having proficiency of spelling techniques.
3. To focus on areas where students need to write words accurately.
4. To help students to refresh their spelling skills and rules.

Hypothesis of the study

1. Some learners are disable to spell English vowel sounds words correctly.
2. Long and short vowels in English are the most difficulties that face learners.
3. Some learners write words according to their sounds not to spelling rules.

Methodology of the study

The researcher conducted a descriptive analytical approach. A diagnostic test was designed as a tool to collect data from learners. Learner’s performance of the designed test was being analyzed statistically through (SPSS) Statistical Package for Social Sciences.

Population and sample of the study

The total population of this study are students of three Sudanese universities, Gezira University, Sennar University and White Nile University. A sample of eighty male and female students had been chosen to sit a diagnostic test, which consists of three cores, they are the short vowels core, the long vowels core and the diphthongs core with fifteen different English sounds, each core represents five sounds respectively. All the activities concerning the diagnostic test as a tool to collect data from the learners took place during the academic year 2023.

Validity and Reliability of the research

Nunan (2001) pointed out ”Reliability refers to the ability of the instrument to give the same result on repeated application of the same subjects”. Based on this concept, student’s diagnostic test was given to five experts who are university professors. They gave suggestions and opinions on content, structure and design of the diagnostic test, their opinions, views and recommendations were confidential and highly respected and applied.  They recommended that the diagnostic test is expected to give nearly the same result whenever it is given twice to the same subject, and it will measure the objective it is constructed for. To measure the reliability of the diagnostic test, the researchers used the (SPSS) statistical packages for social sciences, coefficient of consistency in respect to Cronbach’s alpha.

Definitions:

1. Spelling: Learning Express, LLC (2006:1) “Spelling is the vehicle that carries the thoughts in your mind to paper. Therefore, if you want to communicate your thoughts on paper for others to read, you need to spell correctly.
2. Phonetics: Philip C. (2008) pointed out “The study of human speech sounds often subdivided into articulatory phonetics (the study of how human speech sounds are made) and acoustic phonetics (the study of the acoustic properties of those sounds). There is no universal consensus on the distinction and relation between phonetics and phonology”.
3. Phonetics (n.): Crystal D. (2008:361) stated “The science which studies the characteristics of human sound making, especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. Three branches of the subject are generally recognized: (a) articulatory phonetics is the study of the way speech sounds are made (‘articulated’) by the vocal organs; (b) acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sound, as transmitted between mouth and ear; (c) auditory phonetics studies the perceptual response to speechunds, as mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain“.
4. Phone (n.): Crystal D. (2008:361) “a term used in phonetics to refer to the smallest perceptible discrete segment of sound in a stream of speech (phonic continuum or phonic substance). From the viewpoint of segmental phonology, phones are the physical realization of phonemes; phonic varieties of a phoneme are referred to as allophones“. Teschner R. V. and Evans E. E. ( 2007: 19) pointed out that “A phone is the actual sound itself”
5. Phoneme (n.): Crystal D. (2008:361) defined the term phoneme as “The minimal unit in the sound system of a language, according to traditional phonological theories. The original motivation for the concept stemmed from the concern to establish patterns of organization within the indefinitely large range of sounds heard in languages”. Whereas Teschner R. V. and Evans E. E. (2007: 19) pointed out “a phoneme is an abstract unit of sound that serves to distinguish meaning.”

Literature Review:

The Rule-Governed Nature of Language

Linguists agree that language should be used scientifically, it is not like a basket full of words and people just need to stretch their hands and to take words randomly from this basket, when they need to speak or write, in fact, treatment of languages has its special system and rules, we have to carry in minds the three main cores of using language: naturalness, accuracy and fluency. To make this concept more clearly, Brinton L. J. (2000:6) explained, “Language consists of signs occurring not in a random collection, but in a system. A system consists of smaller units, which stand in relation to each other and perform particular functions. These smaller units are organized on certain principles, or rules. For this reason, language is said to be rule-governed”.

English spelling

Based on a long period of teaching experience, the researcher observed that, generally university students end up with frustration as soon as they come across spelling words that have vowel sounds, the main reason is expected to be the inconsistency between English sounds and English phonemes, they discover that the sounds they hear are not exactly the signs and drawings they made on their papers.  Brinton L. J. (2000:18) Explained that “Writing is often an imperfect means of representing speech is perhaps most obvious in the well-known inadequacies of English spelling. If we compare the actual sounds of English with the orthography, the graphic symbols or letters used in writing, we find the following discrepancies: One sound can be represented by a variety of letters, as with the vowel sound in meat, meet, city, key, ceiling, people, niece, one letter can represent a variety of sounds, as with d in damage, educate, picked; a letter or letters may represent no sound at all, as in knee, lamb, receipt, right, honor, rhyme.  two or more letters may represent a single sound, as in throne, chain, edge, a single letter may represent two or more sounds, as in box (x=ks).”

English graphemes and phonemes:

The number of letters in any language is not necessary be the same  as  the number of the sounds in the same language, in English language the sounds are more than forty, whereas letters are only twenty six. This concept is proved by McGuffey’s (2003:3) who pointed out “ The English Alphabet consists of twenty-six letters: a, b, c, d, e,f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z. Letters are divided into Vowels and Consonants.. When only one of the vowels is sounded, the diphthong is called improper, because then, as one of the vowels is silent, it is not properly a diphthong, though it takes that name; as, oa in boat, ui in suit, where a and i are silent.’’

Sound system and spelling system

Some learners find it very confused to differentiate between the three different sounds of the letter (d) in these words: understand, finished and started. Those who are specialized in phonetics and phonology know well that the letter (d) sounds /d / in understand, /t / in finished and /id / in started. This is why some students write the spelling of the word (finished) like this: [finisht] of course it is incorrect but learners write the sound they hear.  Teschner R. V. and Evans E. E. (2007: 19) explained “When several phones—such as [ t t t¯ D]—do not change the meaning of a word when they are substituted for one another, we say that these sounds constitute allophones of the same phoneme. So [th t t¯ D] are all  phones of the phoneme /t/. In most of the world’s written languages, the relationship between the sound system (phonology) and the spelling system (orthography) is not a perfect one.’’

Phonemes and graphemes inconsistency

Teschner R. V. and Evans E. E. ( 2007: 20) pointed out that “ If a written language enjoys perfect orthographic fit, then each individual phoneme is spelled with just one grapheme (letter of the alphabet), and, conversely, each individual grapheme represents just one phoneme. Perfect fit means a one-to-one relationship: for each grapheme, just one phoneme, and for each phoneme, just one grapheme. English orthography’s fit is not especially good. To a great extent that is because most varieties of English have twelve vowel phonemes but the English alphabet contains only five vowel graphemes.

The areas of pronunciation

In some countries where English language is considered foreign or second language, learners often encounter challenges in the concern of the area of pronunciation. One of the reasons is that old school disciplinarians do not focus on the determination of such areas. Sárosdy J.etal (2006: 79) stated ” There are four major areas of pronunciation: the area of individual sounds, that of word stress, intonation and connected speech. If intelligibility is the goal of teaching pronunciation, speakers are to get their message across. For example, [q] and [p] may not cause a lack of intelligibility if they are confused, so mixing the words ‘free’ and ‘three’ can lead to misunderstanding. Stressing words and phrases correctly is vital if emphasis is to be given to the important parts of messages and if words are to be understood correctly.”

Vowel combinations, Challenges of C, and G

In English language, there are some letters, which have more than one sound, and sometimes the sound itself is changed because of the existence of another grapheme. Here are some examples from Learning Express, LLC. (2006:20) “The letters c and g can sound either soft or hard. When c is soft, it sounds like s; when it is hard, it sounds like k. When g is soft, it sounds like j; when it is hard, it sounds like g as in guess. Vowel combinations, as well, represent another challenge, when two vowels are together, the first one is usually long, or says its own name, and the second one is silent. For example, in the word reach, you hear long e, but not the short a. Similarly, if you know how to pronounce the word caffeine, you stand a chance at spelling it correctly because you hear that the e sound comes first. If you know what sound you hear, that sound is likely to be the first of two vowels working together.

  Silent and doubling consonants

Learning Express, LLC. (2006:18-19) “Many English words include silent consonants, ones that are written but not pronounced, for examples: answer, rhetorical, knight, and write. Unfortunately, there is no rule governing silent consonants; you simply have to learn the words by sight. On page 20 “Most of the time, a final consonant is doubled when you add an ending. For example, drop becomes dropping, mop becomes mopping, stab becomes stabbing. But what about look/looking, rest/resting, counsel/counseled? There are two sets of rules: one for when you are adding an ending that begins with a vowel (such as -ed, -ing, -ance,-ence,-ant) and another set for when the ending begins with a consonant (such as -ness or -ly).

Studying strategies for spelling improvement 

Generally, university learners have little ability to organize their study skills, some of them even do not put any plan to improve his level in any branch of his studies, and sometimes repetition of a specific habit can do well. Sárosdy J. etal (2006: 356-357) “Repetition strategies are required to study words for spelling test, or learn multiplication facts that are used daily in the classroom. Lack of organization is common among students with poor study skills. Learning Express, LLC. (2006:15-16) listed some tips for studying spelling:  Use your eyes. Look at words carefully, with a marker or pen, highlight the part of the word that is hard to remember. Visualize the word with your eyes closed. Use your ears. Listen for the sound of words you hear in conversation or on the radio or television. Listen to the sound of the spelling of words. Ask someone to dictate the words and their spelling, and listen as the word is spelled out.”

When to teach pronunciation?

To determine what time to teach a particular educational situation is not an easy process because many factors should be in the instructor’s mind. One of these factors is that to what extent students are ready to respond to such lessons. Tutors have to make a decision when to comprise pronunciation teaching into lesson arrangements. It may impose students to be boring if teachers designate the whole lesson activities to pronunciation. If the teacher coerces students to listen to a longer piece of listening, this may again result in boring and frustration, particularly if they are beginners. Any way it depends on a combination of activities as well as on teachers’ mastering of both rules and strategies of teaching pronunciation in general and spelling strategies in particular. 

Table No. 1: Individual students’ performance according to the cores.

Table No. 2: Number of students passed or failed on the bases of cores.

Table No. 3: Short vowels mean and standard deviation

Table No. 4: long vowels mean and standard deviation

Table No. 5: Diphthongs vowels mean and standard deviation

Data analysis: source: Tables 1,2,3, and 4 above

1. (50) of the students, represent 63% of the sample failed to write the correct spelling of words that contain short vowels. The rest of the students (30) represent (37%) face no difficulty in writing words that have short vowel sounds.
2. (69) of the students, represent (86%) of the sample failed to write the correct spelling of words that contain long vowels. The rest of the students (11) represent (14%) face no difficulty in writing words that have long vowel sounds.
3. (35) of the students, represent (44%) of the sample failed to write the correct spelling of words that contain diphthongs. The rest of the students (45) represent (56%) face no challenge in writing words that have diphthong sounds.
4. As far as students’ performance is concerned, particularly in obtaining marks, they collected only ( 178 ) out of (400) marks when they dealt with short vowel sounds, (124) out of (400) marks concerning long vowel sounds- it is the least in the three cores-, and (224) out of (400) marks concerning diphthongs, it is the best in the three cores.

Hypotheses Discussion

Hypothesis (1): “Some learners are disable to spell English vowel sounds words correctly”. It is clear in table number one that students obtained only (526) marks out of (1200) marks which represents 43.8 % of the total marks in the three cores, short, long vowels and diphthongs. These percentages stand as evidence that learners are disable to spell English vowel sounds words correctly

Hypothesis (2): “Long and short vowels in English are the most difficulties that face learners” Tables (2) and (3) show that (50) students represent 63% of the sample with 2.2 as the mean and 1.1 as the standard deviation, failed to write words contain of short vowel sounds. In tables (2) and (4) (69) students represent 86% of the sample with 1.5 as the mean and 1.05 as the standard deviation, students failed to write words contain of long vowel sounds. These percentages stand as evidence that learners are disable to spell English short and long vowel sounds words correctly.

Hypothesis (3): “Some learners write words according to their sounds not to spelling rules”. As the researcher went on marking the students test, he observed that most of the students made mistakes because they write English words in accordance with their sounds, they write blindly and giving no attention to spelling rules, here are some examples taken from students’ answer paper: [fot  for  foot] [sow  for  saw] [tee  for  tea] [noz  for  nose] [fif  for  five]

Conclusion

The focus of this study is that it tackles a very important issue, specifically analyzing the impact of confusing English words sounds on university students’ correct spelling”. The main finding are as follows: Sudanese university students confused English words sounds. Sudanese university students write down words with accordance to what they hear. The most areas of challenges are the long vowel sounds, surprisingly; the least difficulties are the diphthongs. The researcher recommend that: Teachers and tutors need to enforce student’s skills in spelling techniques, suitable lessons plans and homework tasks should be designed, and immense efforts have to be imposed to introduce spelling rules.

List of References

1. David Crystal (2008) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Sixth Edition. Blackwell Publishing -Malden, USA. Oxford, UK
2. Judith Sárosdy- Tamás Farczádi Bencze-Zoltán Poor – Marianna Vadnay (2006) “Applied Linguistics I for BA Students in English” Bölcsész Konzorcium.
3. Laurel J. Brinton (2000)” The Structure of Modern English- A linguistic introduction “John Benjamin’s Publishing Company Amsterdam /Philadelphia.
4. Learning Express, 2003). Vocabulary and Spelling Success in 20 Minutes a Day, third Edition
5. McGuffey’s (2003) ‘Geffrey’s Eclectic Spelling Book Revised Edition.
6. Nunan, D. (1991) ”Research Method in language teaching” Cambridge University press, Cambridge, Great Britain.
7. Paul R. Kroeger (2005) “Analyzing Grammar an Introduction ’’
8. Philip Carr (2008) “A Glossary of Phonology” Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh.
9. Richard V. Teschner and Eston E. Evans (2007) Analyzing the Grammar of English, Georgetown University Press | Washington, D.C 3^rd edition.