Understanding if native English speakers can win over their Spanish pronunciation problems

3
Research Proposal
Title: Understanding if native English
speakers can win over their Spanish
pronunciation problems
Table of Contents
Introduction..................................................................
...............................2
Chapter 1 Comparison between Spanish and English
Phonetics.........2
Chapter 2
Methodology................................................................
............2
Chapter 3 Interviewing
process................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................
..................................3
Sources........................................................................
..................................3
Working
Schedule.....................................................................
...................4
References..................................................................
..................................5

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Research Proposal
Introduction
This study aims to find and analyze native English speakers’ difficulties in
Spanish pronunciation and understand if these can be mitigated after a
year of language exposure in a Spanish speaking country.
This research wants to carry forward the phonetic and phonological
theories of comparison between Spanish and English phonetic system
through the analysis of a specific group of learners of Spanish individuals.
Besides being all native English speakers, all of them will be from England
and would have studied Spanish for at least five years. Also, they will all
come from the University of Westminster environment which is a premier
institute in England.
Chapter 1 -
Comparison between Spanish and
English Phonetics
● There are many differences between Spanish and English phonetics.
Spanish includes five vowels and five diphthongs (Lejot, 2017). This has
been recognized as a significant problematic factor among the English
students (Garcia-Sierra, Ramírez-Esparza & Kuhl, 2016).
● There are mainly seven Spanish sounds absent in English: [r] Guerra,
[ɾ] Cara, [x] Jugar, [ʝ]Lluvia, [ɣ] Hago, [β]Alba, [ɲ] Puño.
●The perception of stress contrasts is a problematic challenge for English
speakers (Romanelli-Menegotto, Journal of Language Teaching and
Research, 2015)
●The phonemes of Spanish and English are mainly pronounced differently
(Shoebottom, 2019). These differences between the Spanish and the

3
Research Proposal
English lead to creating difficulties for English students in spelling and
pronunciation.
Chapter 2- Methodology
Besides analyzing primary and secondary sources for chapter one, two
Spanish’s learner groups will be interviewed.
The aim is to observe if learners who spent a year in a Spanish speaking
country are now able to reproduce those sounds which are not present in
their mother tongue’s phonetic system.
The research methodology will be qualitative, interview-based and, ideally
and at least five members for each group will be found and assessed.
The first group will be made of learners who have been studying Spanish
for at least five years but have never lived in a Spanish speaking country,
whereas the second group has people who have not studied the language
but will be in in the Spanish speaking country since five years
The interview will be composed of two parts: part one will have the
students answering two specific questions about their Spanish speaking
difficulties whereas in part two students will be asked to read a passage in
Spanish.
Hence, the research method will be a mix of self-assessment and
assessment tests.
Chapter 3 - Interviewing process
In this chapter, a script of the most significant interview’s answers will be
prepared and the data collected and the most relevant observations for
the study’s question answer will be analyzed.Conclusion