Contents:

Task 1:.................................................................................................................... 2
a)

Record and Transcribe:.................................................................................... 2

b)

Report:........................................................................................................... 6

Task 2:................................................................................................................. 9
References:........................................................................................................... 10

Task 1:
a) Record and Transcribe:

Sam: You know when we snack; we have

simple homemade food or, even the stuff
we get on the streets. Its way healthier
than this sometimes, I think.

Situation: A group of Indians exchange

students from University Putra Malaysia
(UPM) was gathered to discuss and
comments on American snacks and
sweets

Andy: Is it?
John: Im really excited to try out all these
exotic American unknown things like chips
and more chips.

Note* names given are not real

*The students were given a packet of Cool

Ranch and Tapato Dorito
s

Zack: Not bad

Henry: This doesnt has a Mexican, I

mean, what the hell? This has a Mexican

Jack: Well, its so good!

Christie: This is a better one, this is the
winner!

Zack: They really dont get the point of

making Mexican flavours and call it
American. Again it says hot sauce and its
not spicy.

*The students were given Turkey Jerky

Carol: I only have cooked meat.

Andy: This is really, really spicy man.

Christie: I dont know if want to put this in

my mouth.

Zack:
I
think
you
guys
really
underestimate us. We can have a lot of
spice.

John: It doesnt look extremely appetizing

at all.

Sam: Im saying that, as an Indian, this is

spicy.

Carol: Its like a chicken that I bought and I

kept it in the fridge, and I forgot about it.

Christie: Ranch. I dont why ranch has to

do with it?

Christie: I think Im gonna break a tooth.

John: Let me just concentrate on the
chewing for a bit.

Sam: I know flavours like apple or banana,

but I dont know what a cool ranch flavour
is. Hehhh

Christie: I give up!

Zack: Not bad

Sam: It tastes It tastes normal but

Jack: *Munching

Andy: It tastes good, but its like

Zack: Not bad

Jack: *Talking with mouth full

Sam: Its tough man. Its like chewing

through rocks and then you realizing that
theres nothing soft inside.

John: See, its quite cheesy and its, its

lacking some flavours

Sarah: Give me a tissue paper, give me a

tissue paper! Its so bad!
2

Henry: Yeah. Its basically raw meat. I like

it!

Sarah: I genuinely like this one compared

to the others.

*The students were given Flamin Hot

Cheetos

Christie: Well, others are good.

Zack: How do you have fun with this? I
still

Andy: We got Cheetos here, but never

heard of Flamin Hot Cheetos in my life.

Jack: Bro, like this.

Carol: Its exceptionally and alarmingly

red.

Zack: Bro, its, its like

Zack: like a a baby dragon.

Jack: Bro! Lets go like thug!

Jack: *Chuckling

Andy: Yeah. I could like snack on this for

hours.

Carol: It does looked like Kurkure.

Jack: I want some more raises.

Andy: Somebody put a lot of Schezuan

sauce on Kurkure.

Zack: No, no, no. I dont think this is

Jack: Plastic again more plastic.

Henry: If I, I probably I eat too much of

this, Im gonna die.

Zack: With cheese.

*The students were given Pop Tarts.

Jack: With cheese.

Christie: It looks like bread, jam and icing.

Sam: I love this. Mmm its good.

Its a proud sponsor of the American

Olympics. I cant see Michael Phelps
winning gold medals, eating this one
*smiling

Andy: Its not flaming hot though.

Zack: The fire wants to come out
Jack: Yeah
Zack: But it just cant.

Christie: Oh my God. That is so sweet.

This is the cause of obesity in America.

*The students were given Funyuns

Sam: That is so sweet.

Henry: Onion rings and fun.

Andy: This is what Ive been waiting for.

Kate: Okay, they better be fun. They dont

look fun.

Jack: I will eat this when Im really high or

something. I mean like (Making smoking
gesture) Perfect!

Sarah: There are no onions.

*The students were given Pop Rocks.

Christie: Emm they have onions!

Henry: Taste the explosion. What are you

going to blast in my mouth?

Sam: Smell of onions?

Kate: (Rattling the Pop Rocks) I love how

they sound like. Only want to eat them.

Andy: No.
Kate: I think its Funyuns or Pringles?

Henry: Youre making me have washing

powder?
3

Sam: I mean the only thing Ive seen is

Breaking Bad, but this seriously looks like
meth.

Sam: Its good man.

Sarah: 1, 2, 3 go. *putting the Pop Rocks

in her mouth with Christie

Carol: Nice, but very sweet.

Andy: Yeah I liked it man.

Henry: I thought itll be horrible. Like it will

be really heavy and dense and disgusting,
but its damn tasty.

John: Woah!
Andy: Oh my God!

Andy: I think I need to brush my teeth.

Kate: Its like Diwali in my mouth.

*The students were given Butterfinger

Christie: I kinda taste like toothpaste a bit.

Henry: Butterfinger. (Reading the label)

Crispety, crunchety, peanut buttery

Amir: My mouth is having a battle with

itself and theres like rockets flying all over.

Kate: (Bites the bar) Oh wow!

Andy: (Pop Rocks popping in his mouth) I

wish I could sound like this always.

Henry: I dont expect it to be err so hard

inside.

John: Although I cant really make out any

flavour, but Im just enjoying the
experience of err stuff popping in my
mouth.

Kate: This is really crunchy!

Amir: Crispety and crunchety.
Kate: These are good.

Amir: Yeah ok I do like this. This is this

is awesome.

Carol: It tastes like Chikki.

Zack: The explosion was good. Boom

boom

*The students were given Laffy Taffy

Jack: Yeah like (Making explosion sound)

Its like (Making fire alarm sound)

John: Im really excited about this because

I love Charlie and The Chocolate factory
as a kid.

*The students were given Twinkies

Sarah: This is like Play Dough.

Henry: Twinkies. What kinda name is

Twninkies?

Amir: Yeah it is really chewy.

John: This is gonna take a while.

Andy: I heard about this in Zombieland.

Sarah: It really feels like youre eating clay.

Kate: Individually wrapped cakes, that

makes me feels important forcedly.

John: This is probably take me the entire

cricket match to eat.

Carol: Looks very creamy.

Amir: It kind of tastes like Center Shock.

Mmm Im getting like this real sour taste
but its also a nice sour taste.

Andy: Thats a lot of cream man.

Sam: Thats a lot of cream

Christie: Thumbs up for American process

food!

Kate: Ok seriously, this is Mawa cake.

Mawa cake is that Twinkies but better,
made by local bakeries in India.
4

John: Ouff Oh wait. I think one of the

earlier Pop Rocks just popped again.

Jack: Nahh nahhh Indian snacks all the

way I like my Samosas and my Jalebis.

Andy: Do you guys have this every day?

Sam: Possibly kind of imagining myself

having this again and again and again.

Sam: Yeah because if you guys have this

every day, I really cant imagine like how
your, your lifestyle must be like.

Andy: Yeah.
Amir: You know the packaging that these
guys have is so umm like in your face.

John: Yeah, Im just imagining a bunch

of really hyperactive kids man. What I
really like though was was uhhh those
Pop Rocks which are really, I mean they
just blew my mind apart from my mouth.

Carol: Its very in your face.

Andy: I hope you guys have rice and stuff
somewhere in your diet, because if you
having Doritos every day boy

Zack: What do you think about the

American snacks that you just tried?

b)

Report:

Pronunciation is very difficult to correct if you have been speaking English for a long
time. As you know, practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent. That means if you
practice incorrectly, it will become permanent. You need to correct this problem before
moving forward because having bad pronunciation is one of the most difficult aspects of
speaking to someone who does not speak English well.
Based on the transcription, I could notice that the speakers having difficulties in
pronouncing the consonant v without confusing it with w in some words like the word over
to ower. These common pronunciation spoken by the Indian speakers is considered to be
called Indian English. Indian speakers familiar with the phonetic languages often have a
tendency to replace English sounds by their Indian equivalents. Wrong accentual patterns
prevail leaving important words unaccented in connected speech. There are also the faulty
rhythmic patterns, faulty division of a long utterance into tone group, wrong location of the
nucleus or the tonic syllable in the tone group which are part of the causes. These are some
main reasons of the unintelligibility of Indian English to foreigners.
Then, I also notice that the Indian speakers having difficulties in pronouncing the
consonant th //. They pronounce the sound of the consonant to t and d. This is because
the speakers tend to pronounce the word that contains the consonant th // to the
pronunciation that they are familiar with. For instance, the word like think they tend to
replace the pronunciation to tink.
The other problem encountered by the Indian speakers is stressing on the individual
words incorrectly. This problem is due to the influencing of their first language, in this
situation, their first language in speaking is Hindi language. This problem will be one of the

reasons why the native English speakers misunderstand to the words spoken by the nonnative speakers. For example, the word calendar. The Indians pronounce the word and
stress as caLENdar to the way the native speakers would stress and pronounce it,
CALendar.
One of the possible causes for the pronunciation problems is ethnicity. It can
influence the interference of second language pronunciation. Every ethic or race will usually
have their own language or dialect. Furthermore, there is a wide difference between the
consonant in Hindi language and in English language (Deterring, 2005). In Hindi language,
there is no long consonant.
Mother tongue interference is a common occurrence among second language
speakers (Swan, 2008). As for the subjects, English is not their first language but they have
been exposed to English language since they was in primary school. Supposedly there
should not have been any problem with their pronunciation. But, the speakers still face with
some pronunciation problems. This is most probably due to the fact that they use their
mother tongue widely in their daily life communication activity. The spelling or pronunciation
patterns and habits of first language can influence the pronunciation of English learner
(Dechert, 1983 and Ellis, 1997 as cited in Baljit Bhel,1999).
Other than that, the differences in written and spoken English language can also
cause problems to English learners that have the tendency in speaking English language.
Mohammad Maher Jesry (2005) mentioned in his research that the lack of a simple
correspondence between the spelling system and the pronunciation system in English tends
to cause problems for second language learners in which it can lead them to initially or
repeatedly misspell words and mispronounce them.
After that, Geographical demographic can also be one of the causes of interference
in the speakers pronunciation. As for the speakers who happen to be Indians and also
raised in India, their Hindi language is highly influence with the local dialect. For example,
the dialect spoke in Tamil dialect is totally different from the one spoken in Urdu dialect.
There is a possibility that when they learnt new language the accent interfere with their
learning. As for the speakers, who are an Indian who lives in India, when they be likely to
speak in English language, the pronunciation of the English words may be influenced by
their first language. Therefore, their English language pronunciation more likely sounds like
Hindi language.
Moreover, the subjects educational background can also affect the speakers
pronunciation. As I mentioned earlier, the speakers are Indians and most of the schools in

India do not have enough facilities to accommodate to students needs. Many of the schools
in India were built in the rural area. Besides, in rural area it is difficult to have enough and
good teaching forces to teach English in school. Compare to urban area where people can
easily get access to the teaching forces.
Pronunciation can be one of the most difficult parts for a language learner to master
and one of the least favourite topics for teachers to address in the classroom. There are
many reasons why the teaching of English as Second Language (ESL) pronunciation is
currently less than optimally effective, and certainly it is wrong to blame anyone group,
whether teachers, pronunciation specialists, or academics. Second language pronunciation
is a topic of great theoretical interest and practical relevance which unfortunately has been
out of fashion for some decades. It seems that a few well-publicized interesting
developments would help to swing this topic back into fashion among a range of people with
relevant skills and interests and put English as First Language (EFL) learners in a position to
contribute impressively to worldwide developments in this area.

Task 2:
Nowadays, pronunciation errors have been expanding globally. People tend to use
English language without minding the accurate pronunciation. As we know, most of the
communications have been misunderstood because of pronunciation errors. For some
words, different pronunciation carries different meaning.
Firstly, from the transcription, Indian speakers acquainted with the phonetic
languages often tend to replace English sounds by their Indian equivalents. Wrong accentual
patterns prevail leaving important words unaccented in connected speech. For the Indian
speaker the voiceless plosives /p/, /t/, /k/ are always not aspirated in Indian English. Then,
they also have difficulties in pronouncing of the consonant r. When pronouncing the
consonant r, they pulled their tongue slightly back from the alveolar ridge, whereas the
correct pronunciation of the consonant r is the tongue should be at the alveolar ridge.
On the other hand, from my own experience, for words that I do not know how to
pronounce, I can always find the accurate pronunciations on Google. Besides, YouTube and
online dictionary also helps a lot in order to use correct pronunciation. They will usually
provide audio clips to give you some aids. Moreover, if you are really having difficulties in
pronouncing some words, you can always ask others to correct you and learn earnestly on
the correct pronunciation. The most important part is never be ashamed to make mistakes
and to learn from them.
Furthermore, bad pronunciation can result in a failure to deliver the message and it
also can cause troubles in communication with others. The people that we communicate with
will probably do not understand at all of what we are talking about. Then, it is said that you

only have one chance to make a first impression and with bad English pronunciation, it can
ruin that chance, since people making pronunciation error are often considered as less
intelligent or illiterate. For instance, this can affect the chances of getting a promotion or
better job opportunities.
Lastly, correct pronunciation is very crucial to use in daily communications. I hope
that people will be aware of the pronunciation of the words used and realize the importance
of correct pronunciation.

References:
Dechert. (1983). Retrieved from
http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/iej/articles/v1n1/bhela/bhela.pdf
Detering, D. (2005). Retrieved from
http://www.ubd.edu.bn/academic/faculty/FASS_V2.1/staff/papers/DD/esea-comm.pdf
Ellis. (1997). Retrieved from
http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/iej/articles/v1n1/bhela/bhela.pdf
Swan, M. (07 09, 2000). English as Second Language. Retrieved from
http://www.mikeswan.co.uk/elt-applied-linguistics/influence-second-language.htm
wiseGEEK. (2 5, 1998). Retrieved from The Reasons for Mispronunciation:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-most-common-reasons-formispronunciation.htm