The English language made its journey into India when India was transformed into a colony by the British. From then on, English continues to be the second language in India. English has the position of a connecting language, and in fact, it is the most significant language in India. English is the most usually spoken language in India after Hindi and it is almost certainly the most extensively read and written language in the country. India uses the English language for both intra- and inter-state communication, in addition to contact with the outside world. The English Language is taught in education right from the beginning onwards to graduation. In their career, teachers of English in institutions are expected to understand phonetics and phonology to teach the students pronunciation of the English language which they learn as a second language. Language specialists promote and stress that teachers should have sound knowledge of phonology and phonetics and be thorough with the approach, techniques, and methods to practice articulation in the classrooms. Baker and Murphy (2011) recognized that “an overall neglect of pronunciation teaching has been felt in teacher training programs”, and “scarcely any research has been conducted that explores pronunciation and teachers’ knowledge of phonology.”

Indian English represents one of the most prominent new types of English language (Mesthrie & Bhatt, 2011). Most of the 125 million people who speak it consider it to be a second language, one they learned in school and throughout their higher education. According to data gathered from the 2001 Census of India results, English is the primary language for about 200 thousand people, which is a very small number in India. Indian English speakers pronounce and articulate the language differently depending on the region, educational level, and media of instruction. This makes it easy to distinguish between distinct varieties of English, such Tamil or Hindi English. English as a medium education, as well as higher education, has helped in the reduction of the variation to the extent that a particular style as a variety has emerged as an acceptable set across the subcontinent, which of late has gained the name General Indian English (G.I.E.). This minor project aims to illustrate the significant features of teaching phonetic aspects of English to students. It also seeks to assist students in recognizing and resolving phonetical difficulties they may have when speaking English.

Common Problems in Classrooms

Students are bored, inattentive or unmotivated

In the world today, students have many distractions in science and technology. Today’s students feel increasingly unbearable because practically everything outside of the Classroom has evolved a lot in recent times. On the other hand, it is also clear that engaging students’ minds is getting harder and that monotony is becoming an unfortunate stressor that can have important consequences for health and well-being in the future.

Lack of participation or the Barrier of hesitation

In India, students are usually encouraged to partake in the Classroom enthusiastically. On the other hand, many of the students still need to learn to speak up in language classes in English. Teaching phonetics in a class will be difficult if students do not speak up in the class. Language in general and spoken language in particular can only be developed with oral practice. Theoretical knowledge of any language will only succeed if practical developments support it. It is necessary to find an interactive procedure to develop phonetic accuracy.

Silent participants or introverted learners

It is very important for introverts not only to distinguish their learning style preference along with its strengths and limitations but also to make the students’ needs clear.

The use of mother tongue

The function of mother tongue in second language acquirement has been the topic of much dispute.

Faulty methods of teaching

Many of our teachers who teach English in India need to learn the practice of English language teaching. English Language teachers of late have started to use technology, but the technology still needs to catch up to their counterparts in the rest of the world.

Phonetics

The English alphabet needs to be revised to stand for all the existing 44 sounds through 26 letters. Though there are 44 phonemes, it is rather intricate for a second language learner particularly who has Tamil language as his or her mother tongue. According to researchers, English does not use a different letter to entail one sound.

Phonetic Patterns and Errors

In every place where non-native speakers live, the way one pronounces English has a big impact on their mother tongue when they try to speak it. This is also true in India. So, when a beginner who speaks Tamil talks English, he pronounces it in the same way as he speaks Tamil, using the Tamil variant.

Errors

For example, it would be not easy to make a clear distinction between the following words for beginners of the Tamil language:

Principle – Principal

Lost – Last

Cot – Cart

God – Guard

One – won

Adopt – adapt

1. It was observed that students commit Errors Related to Vowels during Speaking and Writing.
2. The substitution of one vowel for another was noted. Now and then, one vowel is confused for another.
3. The use of diphthongs is one of the challenges faced by a Tamil learner of English. Glide vowels, or diphthongs, have a single initial sound that gradually transitions into another vowel.
4. Errors that occur in the production of affricates. The students tend to substitute uttered affricates in the position of unvoiced affricates.
5. Most of the students feel that Phonetics is a very difficult subject.
6. It was observed that students at the college level are facing challenges to speak fluently a second language because of Phonetics issues.
7. While acquiring a second language, students have the complexity that they studied in Tamil Medium.
8. Students from the rural side have grammar anxiety.
9. It was noticed that during the conversation in a second language, Students mixing Mother tongue and English.

• Eg: Veedu Nikalchi (Tamil)
• Function House (Engl sh)
• But the word they are uttering Veedu Function

10. There is no Awareness of the Importance of Pronunciation.
11. Southern region Tamilnadu college students add their Mother tongue sounds along with English in a maximum of English spoken words.

• E.g.: Have you completed? (Correct)
• Have you Completed ah? (Incorrect)
• Come /k/\m/ (Correct)
• Comeu  /k/\mu/ (incorrect).

The objectives of the study aims at

• Unearthing the common mistakes made by students of this region
• Examining the common errors.
• Correcting the issues of the students while articulating
• To establish the issue identified with a test
• To offer solutions for the students

Methodology Phases

Part I

1. Picking the sample.
2. Preparing the profile of the students.
3. Preparing questionnaire for the test.
4. Conducting the test.

Part II

1. Referring to the related research done in this area and drawing inferences.
2. Learning the principle methods of teaching sounds and systems of phonetics.
3. Evolving the responses.

Part III

1. Evaluating and consolidating the results.
2. Stating the need for analysis and interpretation of the data.
3. Stating the method of computation of the data and finding out the results.

Part IV

1. Presenting the summary of the findings based on the results arrived at.
2. Drawing conclusion.
3. Discussing the findings.

Recommendations

The I.P.A. is a useful thing to learn, especially for non-native speakers. In the I.P.A. chart, different sounds are represented by particular letters and symbols. Once you by heart the I.P.A. chart, you will be able to pronounce any word in English.

The use of the Internet makes the Phonetics studies process with fun, so the teacher should use the Internet as a tool for rural students.

Make students Record themselves while they speak. Sometimes, they need to learn exactly how they sound.

Pronunciation is not like spelling or grammar. Pupils should not expect to be able to pronounce everything correctly only by memorizing a few rules.

The more exposure to English that student gets, the better. Watch English television shows (with subtitles) and follow the News on B.B.C., paying attention to the way people speak.

It was decided that during the training, trainers should recognize the pronunciation errors and correct them and teach the students how to articulate these sounds properly.

The teacher should give maximum importance to the mother tongue to seek attention and good communication with students.

The teacher,  while teaching Phonetics students, can use Audio-visual aids, a Language Lab, and a Sound recorder.

In the present scenario, students are using mobile phones individually, and they have an easy recording option also.

There are many English pronunciation applications which might make it easy for you to study Phonetics.

Example:

ELSA SPEAK

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=us.nobarriers.elsa&hl=en_IN&gl=US

PRONUNROID

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hoardingsinc.pronunroid&hl=en_IN&gl=US

SAY IT

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oup.elt.sayit&hl=en_IN&gl=US

SOUNDS

https://www.google.com/search?q=sounds+pronunciation+app&sxsrf=AOaemvK5h-

The teacher should conduct Group Discussions, Role Play, Minutes Speaking, Prayer handling, and News reading aloud.

Conclusion

As most of the studies suggest, there should be articulation lessons ranking the same as education in other skills like grammar, vocabulary and structure of sentences to draw attention to the significance of articulation in learning English.