Pedagogical Grammar: Analysis of a Spanish Speaker's Mastery of English as a Second Language

Pedagogical Grammar 1
PEDAGOGICAL GRAMMAR
Student By (Name)
Professor’s (Name)
College
Course
Date

Pedagogical Grammar 2
PEDAGOGICAL GRAMMAR
Introduction
Pedagogical grammar is grammar developed for learners who study a foreign language.
The foreign language in most cases is normally a second language. Pedagogical grammar
basically interrelates descriptive models and theories into the learning of a second language.
The essay is therefore focusing on a pedagogical analysis of a Spanish speaker who has
learnt English as a second language. The Spanish speaker is a Venezuelan native. The video
record that is used in the analysis is acquired from http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=HNgC_gqkEkU. The recording was acquired from ELTS. The pseudonym name for the
chosen student is Orlando.
The analysis will focus on the following pedagogical grammatical features. The
production of grammatical features that include phonemes and how the sound patterns combine
to determine if the individual has mastered English as a second language. The essay seeks also to
identify the influence of the Spanish language as a first language on the mastery of English.
Considering that in this case English is the second language.
The essay also focuses on sentence structures. This will be very essential since; sentence
structure is the traditional grammatical way of examining mastery of a language. The analysis
will therefore focus on the student’s ability to form grammatically correct sentences. The
analysis will therefore seek to determine if the grammatical rules are used deductively.
Deductive use of grammar can only be determined if the person uses grammatical features
without referring to an external assistance.

Pedagogical Grammar 3
The analysis is also focusing on communicative grammar. Communicative grammar
looks to analyze the use of grammatical forms to communicate well. The communicative
effectiveness that is achieved through the different forms of grammar used by the individual in
his speech.
The last grammatical pedagogy of the essay exploits a theory. The Stephen Krashen
monitor model theory will help explain how the individual has gained English as a second
language. The theory will also explain the learning outcomes and the comprehensible input that
might have been used to ensure the Spanish speaking Venezuelan has learnt English as a second
language.
Discussion
Analysis of spoken language.
Orlando speaks English as a second language. However, there are analysis from his
language that we cannot avoid. These provide proof that he is not a monolingual English speaker
but has acquired the language after having acquired Spanish (Richards 2015).
Phonological analysis.
Phonology is grammatical pattern that is focused on sound patterns of a language.
Orlando has a lot of phonological transference from Spanish to the English that he speaks. These
is analyzed in both his vowel and consonant pronunciation (Cook 2016).
Consonant transference
The English stops are produced with explosions at the end. This means a lot if air
pressure is expelled when pronouncing the stops. These stops include /d/ /g/ and /t/. Spanish
stops are less explosive. By nature of being less explosive it makes it difficult for monolingual

Pedagogical Grammar 4
English speakers to differentiate the voiced and voiceless stops when produced by a Spanish
English speaker (August and Shanahan 2017).
It is easier to confuse their voiced stops in their speech for voiceless stops. Example from
the case of Orlando he severally says /dɪˈsaɪd/ but the sound /d/ is given a slight expulsion so that
it sounds like /tɪˈsaɪt/. This is caused by the influence of the Spanish language as a first language
on English as a second language (Larsen-Freeman and Long 2014).
A second example of the voiced sound is when Orlando says /ˈbɒdi/. He sounds
like /ˈpɒdi/. This is another example where he doesn’t put a lot of pressure on the consonant
explosive /b/ so that it sounds liked a /p/ for a monolingual English speaker. This is analyzed as
an effect of the first language transferred to the second language. Therefore, Orlando is affected
by phonological transference of the voiced consonant (Tobin,Nam and Fowler 2017).
The second phonological differences arise from the stops. Voiced stops in English are
produced for a longer time so that they are different from the devoiced sounds. However, in
Orlando’s speech he takes almost the same time in producing both the devoiced and the voiced
sounds. The effect of his speech is that it is difficult to identify the two sounds when he produces
them. Therefore, the effect it has on a monolingual English speaker is that the two will sound the
same for example; sound /d/ sounds /t/ while the speaker means the latter.
Another notable phonological difference in the production of sounds by the speaker is
place of articulation. Orlando produces the sound /d/ and /t/ from the upper part of the tongue
placed on the teeth instead of the alveolar ridge like it is done in English. Example when he says
internet, it easier to note that the tongue is touching the upper part of teeth. This makes the /t/
sound quite dental produced than it should be an alveolar stop (Keffala, Barlow and Rose 2018).