AMBIGUITY RESULTING FROM MISPRONOUNCED ENGLISH MINIMAL PAIRS AMONG GWANDARA SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

This research work explored the features of Gwandara pronunciation of the English minimal pairs, thereby analyzing the influence that a first language may have on the learning or use of a second language at the phonological level, particularly in the area of minimal pair. The work, having compared the minimal pairs in English and in Gwandara in order to identify areas of similarity and dissimilarity, displayed the mispronounced English minimal pairs by the Gwandara speakers of English as a second language and the resultant effect of ambiguity inherent in the mispronunciation by the speakers (especially of words, in isolation of sentimental stretches). For instance, a Gwandara speaker of English who said “I have pen” to mean “I have pain” posed the semantic implication of ambiguity which only the context can disambiguate. Using the recorded field data (as transcribed), the study followed a theoretical model of the weak version of contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH) to present, analyse the sourced data and explain in the research findings as to why the following and many more of the English minimal pairs receive similar pronunciations by the Gwandara speakers of English, which is obviously not appropriate with the original or native pronunciations of the pairs: get and gate; met and mate; sell and sale; let and late; cope, cop and cup, fame and firm; boat, bought and but; advice and advise; fell and fail; heard and had; pot and port; mother and murder; fun and phone; hell and hail; foam and form etc. The major part of the research findings revealed that apart from the consonants /s/ and /z/; /d/ and /ð/ (often misused for one another), most, if not all the problems the Gwandara speakers of English seem to have with English minimal pairs pronunciation are vowel related, and that too is as a result of differences in the two phonemic systems. Furthermore, it revealed that mispronounced English minimal pairs by the Gwandara speakers of English as a second language pose the problem of ambiguity which affects effective communication. It is therefore recommended that the Gwandara natives should endeavor to be aware of their English minimal pair problems as explored here, so as to improve on them and also to avoid making ambiguity explicit in the course of their communicative efforts