| Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF.; This thesis is an analysis of pronunciation errors (at the segmental level) made by Nande native speakers learning English. It is organised into two parts: each part comprising four chapters.; Part One introduces the phonology of Nande (segmental level) which illuminates some causes of errors in Nande pronunciation of English.; The first chapter is an introduction to Nande in general, giving the linguistic classification as well as the morphological structure of the noun in Nande.; The second chapter surveys relevant phonological models (Structural and Generative) and presents the model for the description of Nande phonology.; Chapter three deals with the phonological system of Nande, looking into the relationship between the underlying level and the surface level to see how each underlying element is represented at the surface level.; Chapter four deals with phonological processes across morpheme boundaries within a phonological word: e.g. vowel merger, vowel assimilation, vowel deletion, semi-vocalization, nasal prefix deletion or palatalization, and prenasalization. While these processes are motivated by phoneme sequential constraints, at the surface level, processes such as vowel harmony, devoicing, palatalization are motivated by phonetic sequential constraints.; Part Two describes and classifies Nande speakers' English pronunciation errors.; Firstly, after the reader is introduced to the kind of data we needed for the phonological aspect as well as for the analysis of pronunciation errors, the linguistic situation in the educational system of Zaire is also dealt with.; Secondly, four approaches, Contrastive Analysis, Error Analysis, Interlanguage and the Psycholinguistic approach, related to the study of errors in second/foreign language are surveyed. After pinpointing merits and shortcomings for each approach, Nande speakers' pronunciation errors are approached within the framework of Interlanguage.; Thirdly, the most striking category of errors are described: vowel segment errors, consonant segment and consonant sequence errors, and stress errors.; Finally, a methodological framework within which English pronunciation should be taught/learned in Zaire in general as well as a pronunciation teaching syllabus for Nande native speakers in particular are proposed. |
