Date of Award

4-2010

Thesis Type

PhD

Document Type

Thesis

Divisions

Faculty of Languages and Linguistics

Department

Department of English Language

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

This study was undertaken to investigate the similarities and differences of the Malay and French sound systems and to identify what are the problems faced by Malay students when pronouncing the French words. This research also aims to help teachers involved in the teaching of French in Malaysia to have better understanding of what and why Malay students have problems in producing the French sounds. The Contrastive Analysis was conducted based on the approach proposed by Robert Lado (1957). The phonetics and phonological systems of both languages are described systematically and then compared to see the similarities and differences between the two. The hypothesis that the students might encounter problems in the learning of the target language are made based on these similarities and differences. Next, Error Analysis approach proposed by S.P. Corder (1967) was then conducted to investigate the real problems faced by the students. Data for the Error Analysis is gathered from a group of Malay learners of French at a private higher institution in Selangor, Malaysia. Besides confirming the predictions made utilising the Contrastive Analysis, the Error Analysis shows that errors in language acquisition were not only caused by the differences between source and target languages but may also come from other factors. Findings of the research showed that Malay students also have difficulties in pronouncing French sounds which are similar to the sounds of their first language. This problem arises due to the various French spelling systems and also because of the influence of English pronunciations. The findings of the Contrastive and Error Analyses of the phonetics and phonological systems of Malay and French have shown that these two approaches complement each other at identifying problems in teaching and learning of second or foreign languages. These two approaches are still relevant because they have proven to be very useful and have given a great contribution to the area of applied linguistics.

Initial

khm

Additional Information

Thesis (PhD) – Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya, 2010.

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