6) Discuss the causesof pronunciation problems faced by Malaysian non-native English speakers and how can the problems

be overcome. Causes of pronunciation problems faced by Malaysian 1) mother tongue interference common occurrence among second languagespeakers (Swan, 2005) use mother tongue widely in daily life communication activity. The spelling or pronunciation patterns and habits of first language (L1) can influence the pronunciation of English learner Dechert, 1983 and Ellis, 1997 as cited in Baljit Bhel, (1999).

The differences in written and spoken English language can also cause problems to English learners. 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.

"When learning a foreign language an individual already knows his mother tongue, and it is this which he attempts to transfer. The transfer may prove to be justified because the structure of the two languages is similar - in that case we get 'positive transfer' or 'facilitation' - or it may prove unjustified because the structure of the two languages are different - in that case we get 'negative transfer' - or 'interference'. (Wilkins, 1972: 199)

There is mother tongue interference in the areas of syntax, grammar, lexis and pronunciation.

An example of how mother tongue interference could affect the pronunciation of certain words in English is the way some Malay students pronounce "film". They pronounce it as "filem" - the BM equivalent. Some students speak English with a strong vernacular accent, for example, as in India, Hong Kong, Ghana, etc.* An asterisk indicates an erroneous item.

2)

Ethnicity/ races Influence by language and dialect the variety of accents stemming from multi-ethnic and multi-lingual speakers with different educational experiences makes the choice of a particular accent as a model a challenging task in Malaysia. Example: when it comes to the type of preferred English accent and speakers own accents studies in second language contexts have shown that there is often a struggle between speakers wanting to sound like themselves and an attested preference for a native model ( Crismore, Ngeow & Soo, 1996; Soo, 1990). This is evident in Pillai (2008b, p. 33), where only 29% of the 89 respondents surveyed felt that a local accent was acceptable when speaking in English, although nearly half of them agreed that they sounded Malaysian. Yet, most of them disagreed that they did not sound professional or that people would not take them seriously if they used colloquial Malaysian English

3)

educational background teachers tend to speak in their mother tongue as well when teaching more often than not, the teaching of pronunciation is largely ignored, or gets side-lined as teachers scramble to deal with all the other elements in the English language syllabus and to prepare students for examinations (Pillai (2008a: 42), not enough emphasis is being given to the teaching of pronunciation in the classroom example: in a study comprising 12 ESL instructors in Malaysia, found that the respondents felt that they did not have enough time to teach pronunciation and that they did not know how to do so effectively. the type of standard of English to be used in the classroom example: issue of accent and identity, that is wanting to sound Malaysian when speaking English (Anis Ibrahim, 2005; The Case for Manglish, 1999) rather than wanting to sound British or American (Pillai, 2008b) teachers emphasize other components in English, such as writing, grammar and literature, as they want their students to excel in their exams which focus on these components example: they are not fond of role-play as a means to teach pronunciation because they feel that it is time-consuming and takes up the time needed to cover other aspects that students need to master in order to obtain good grades in the examination. In other words, as expected, the focus of language teaching appears to be heavily influenced by the exams where teachers teach the test (Brindley, 1998, p. 52)

How to overcome the problems 1) guide the learners of English towards ensuring that their pronunciation is comfortably intelligible to both native and non-native speaker listeners since the case today is no longer concerned primarily with native speaker listeners. Should adopt a native speaker English so that the non-native ebglish speaker will get clearer information of pronunciation 2) English has developed from a foreign language used between native speakers and non-native speakers to an international language, or to a means of global communication so, spoken far more often by non-native speakers among themselves than between native speakers 3) increase awareness of the significance of pronunciation as an integral part of the teaching of English as a second language, provide opportunities for practice, and give encouragement and advice to learners as they work towards intelligibility example: a) carried out is listening activities, followed by language games, choral speaking and the use of the language laboratory b) use dialogues as they are more conversational, and use read-aloud techniques to teach pronunciation