ACADEMY OF LANGUAGE STUDIES

EPC530
ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION IN USE

ASSIGNMENT: SPEECH ANALYSIS REPORT

PREPARED BY:

GROUP:

PREPARED FOR:

DATE OF SUBMISSION:
 TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT 2
1.0 INTRODUCTION 2
2.0 METHODOLOGY 3
2.1 Research Participant 3
2.2 Research Instrument 3
2.3 Research Procedure 3
2.4 Data Analysis 4
3.0 FINDINGS 4
4.0 DISCUSSION 8
5.0 CONCLUSION 11
REFERENCES 13
APPENDIXES 15

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ABSTRACT

There is no denying that the English language is the lingua franca of the day and most of
the world population today is able to converse in English to some degree of proficiency. In
Malaysia, the English language is officially considered a second language and its usage extends
to more than just for administrative or business purposes. As a result of years of colonialism by
the British, the English language has integrated itself into the Malaysian culture and has given
birth to the localised version of the English language: the Malaysian English (ME). The
Malaysian English follows the British English standard (BrE), but it is heavily influenced by the
native languages of the land, especially in terms of pronunciation. Therefore, the purpose of this
report is to identify and analyse the speech features that are commonly pronounced differently in
the Malaysian English as opposed to the standard pronunciation in the British English. This
study was done by conducting an auditory analysis on a speech sample of an interview taken
from The Breakfast Grille show. Based on the analysis conducted, the sounds which were
commonly mispronounced were vowels (vowel reduction and monophthongization of the
diphthongs), consonants (plosives and fricatives), as well as errors in suprasegmental speech
(stress, intonation, pauses) and connected speech (elision, assimilation, intrusion). Poor
pronunciation may cause misunderstandings and disrupt communication. Hence, this study
recommends that the education system develop instructions that focus on the proper English
pronunciation of words in order to educate future Malaysian English speakers to pronounce
words correctly and improve communication efficiency.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In general, the Malaysian English is a form of the English language used and spoken in
Malaysia. That kind of English used has undergone substantial change from the time of its
introduction in the 18th century. English in Malaysia has many varieties, ranging from the more
colloquial to the standard form of English, spoken in many different local accents, and used in a
variety of social and professional contexts (Pillai, 2010). The British introduced English into
schools; they started using English and Malay as media of instruction, and the Roman script was
added to the Jawi script that was already in use at that time (Hashim, 2020). According to Pillai
(2008), early studies on Malaysian English pronunciation tended to describe it together with

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Singapore English (e.g. Brown, 1988; Platt & Weber, 1980; Tongue, 1974), with most of the
focus being on colloquial and learner varieties of Malaysian English. With regards to all of that,
our objective of this report is to analyse the Malaysian English use by Mr. Muazzam Mohamed
in the podcast that we had chosen. We will focus on the words that he had mispronounced and
divide it into the four features which are vowels, consonants, suprasegmental features and
features of connected speech.

2.0 METHODOLOGY

2.1 Research Participant

Our participant was Mr. Mohd Muazzam Mohamed. Commonly known as the Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) of Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad. Mohd Muazzam had a Bachelor’s
Degree in Accounting at International Islamic University Malaya (IIUM) before becoming the
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Bank Islam in May 2012. Later on, became the CEO of the
organization from July in 2018 until present.

2.2 Research Instrument

The research instrument that was used was through a podcast. The podcast was conducted
using the program that is widely known as The Breakfast Grille, with the source of BFM 89.9, an
interview for about 24 minutes was conducted in which the interaction of verbal questions were
posed by an interviewer to elicit verbal responses from Mr. Muazzam. A focus interview was
conveyed where it was emphasised on Mr. Muazzam’s subjective, observation and personal
responses on the topic, which was “Islamic Banking has Gone Mainstream”.

2.3 Research Procedure

Firstly, we chose a podcast from the BFM website that featured a Malaysian English
speaker entitled ‘Islamic Banking has Gone Mainstream’. After that, we then began the
transcription of the podcast on temi.com and correction was made for any false transcription.
Once we had the final transcription, we divided the work in doing the analysation amongst the
group members into individual parts. Finally, the data, which is the podcast was analysed using a

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wide variety of phonology elements which are vowels, consonants, suprasegmental features and
features of connected speech.

2.4 Data Analysis

For data analysis, we carefully analysed the podcast in order to identify mispronounced
words by the speaker according to the components listed which are vowels, consonants,
suprasegmental features and features of connected speech. Then, we listed some of the salient
features that we managed to identify. After listing, we transcribed the words he pronounced to
compare it with the pronunciation following the British English standard (BrE) using an IPA
phonetic transcription website (https://tophonetics.com/). Past studies were used as a guidance
for us to analyse and identify the features for our data. These past studies also helped us to
identify the differences or similarities of the Malaysian English (ME) speakers and the standard
British English (BE) speakers.

3.0 FINDINGS

Vowels
● Vowel Reduction

WORD RECEIVED SPEAKER’S ANALYSIS

PRONUNCIATION PRONUNCIATION

seeing ˈ/siːɪŋ/ /sɪŋ/ The speaker fails to pronounce

the word ‘seeing’ clearly
resulting in it being heard as
‘sing’.

created /kri(ː)ˈeɪtɪd/ /krɛtɪd/ The speaker pronounced the

phoneme /ɛ/ instead of /i(ː)/

● Monophthongization of the Diphthongs

WORD RECEIVED SPEAKER’S ANALYSIS

PRONUNCIATIO PRONUNCIATION
N

though /ðəʊ/ /ðaʊ/ ‘Though’ is pronounced with

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 phoneme /əʊ/ in RP but the
speaker replaced it with /au/
instead

regulations ˌ/rɛgjʊˈleɪʃənz/ /rɛɡuːleɪʃənz/ It can be heard that he used

the phoneme /u:/ instead of
/ʊ/ in pronouncing the word
‘regulations’

created /kri(ː)ˈeɪtɪd/ /krɛtɪd/ ‘Created’ is pronounced with

phoneme /eɪ/ in RP but the
speaker replaced it with /ɛ/
instead.

Consonants

● Absence of the voiced fricative /ð/ sound

WORD RECEIVED SPEAKER’S ANALYSIS

PRONUNCIATION PRONUNCIATION

the /ðə/ /də/ The English native frivative

that /ðæt/ /dæt/ /ð/ is replaced with the dental
them /ðem/ /dem/ plosive /d/ sound.
then /ðen/ /den/
they /ðeɪ/ /deɪ/
within /wɪˈðɪn/ /wɪˈdɪn/

● Deletion of plosives

WORD RECEIVED SPEAKER’S ANALYSIS

PRONUNCIATION PRONUNCIATION

impact /ˈɪm.pækt/ /ˈɪm.pæk/ The alveolar stop /t/

product /ˈprɒd.ʌkt/ /ˈprɒd.ʌk/ and /d/ sound is
balanced /ˈbæl.ənst/ /ˈbæl.əns/ dropped when it is
focused /ˈfəʊ.kəst/ /ˈfoʊ.kəs/ placed at the end of the
prolonged /prəˈlɒŋd/ /prəˈlɒŋ/ words.

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Suprasegmental Features

● Different Stress Pattern

WORD RECEIVED SPEAKER’S ANALYSIS

PRONUNCIATION PRONUNCIATIO
N

Structure The second syllable was

/ˈstrʌkʧə/ /strʌkˈʧə/
stressed

The third syllable was stressed

/pɔːtˈfəʊliəʊ/ /pɔːtfəʊˈliəʊ/
Portfolio instead of the second syllable

Buffer The second syllable was

/ˈbʌfə/ /bʌˈfə/
stressed

● Intonation

PHRASE RECEIVED SPEAKER’S ANALYSIS

PRONUNCIATION PRONUNCIATION

might take a bit /maɪt teɪk ə bɪt /maɪt teɪk ə bɪt ˈlɒŋɡə̌/ Speaker used a rising
longer ˈlɒŋɡə/ tone

goes up in /gəʊz ʌp ɪn kənˈvəːs/ /gəʊz ʌp ɪn kənˈvə̌ːs/ Speaker used a high-rise

converse tone

● Inappropriate Pauses

PHRASE RECEIVED SPEAKER’S ANALYSIS

PRONUNCIATION PRONUNCIATION

Look forward /lʊk ˈfɔːwəd ænd /lʊk ˈfɔːwəd | ænd Sudden pause making
and looking at ˈlʊkɪŋ æt ðə ˈlʊkɪŋ æt ðə sɪˈnɑːrɪəʊ/ the phrasing of the
the scenario sɪˈnɑːrɪəʊ/ whole sentence sound a
bit off.

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Features of Connected Speech

● Assimilation

WORD RECEIVED SPEAKER’S ANALYSIS

PRONUNCIATIO PRONUNCIATIO
N N

The abbreviation for “it’s a”

and replaces the "t" and the
it’s a /ɪts//ə,eɪ/ /ɪssa/
apostrophe with an "s" to
sound more trouble-free.

The word /ɪn/ followed by the

in Bank word “Bank” that starts with a
/ɪn/ /ɪm/ /b/sound which makes the /ɪn/
Islam
changes to /ɪm/.

● Elision

WORD RECEIVED SPEAKER’S ANALYSIS

PRONUNCIATION PRONUNCIATIO
N

environment /ɛnˈvʌɪrənm(ə)nt/ /ɛnˈvʌɪrənm(ə)n/ The final /t/ sound is lost

management /ˈmanɪdʒm(ə)nt/ /ˈmanɪdʒm(ə)n/ because the speaker used
segment /ˈsɛɡm(ə)nt/ /ˈsɛɡm(ə)n/ the words fast in a
efficient /ɪˈfɪʃ(ə)nt/ /ɪˈfɪʃ(ə)n/ sentence.
doesn’t /ˈdʌz(ə)nt/ /ˈdʌz(ə)n/

The final /d/ sound is lost

and /ənd,(ə)n,and/ /ən,(ə)n,an/ which makes the word
/ənd/ becomes /ən/.

● Intrusion

WORD RECEIVED SPEAKER’S ANALYSIS

PRONUNCIATION PRONUNCIATIO
N

we’re /wɪə/ /wɪ(j)ə/ The speaker used the

they’re /ðɛː,ˈðeɪə/ /ðɛ(j)ː,ˈðeɪ(j)ə/ feature of Intrusion, in

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 which the sound /j/ was
added to link the words.

4.0 DISCUSSION

Vowels
The first feature in vowels that can be seen from the findings is vowel reduction. Vowel
reduction can be defined as the lack of vowel lengthening distinction. It is known that ME
speakers tend to not make a distinction between short and long vowels when they speak. This
tendency was discovered regardless of whether the speakers were more fluent or spoke English
as a first or second language (Pillai, 2017). The speaker, Mr. Muazzam is considered as a fluent
ME speaker due to his educational and work background. In the findings, the RP for the word
seeing is pronounced with syllable /i:/, /ɪ/, and ŋ but the speaker the speaker failed to pronounce
the /i:/ before the /ɪ/ resulting in it being heard as ‘sing’ instead. Perhaps this happened because
the speaker was speaking quickly. Another word that can be seen is “created”. The /i(ː)/ was not
pronounced and was replaced with /ɛ/ instead. This shows the speaker’s problems in identifying
whether the vowel needed to be lengthened or not which resulted in lack of vowel lengthening.

Moving on to the next feature, monophthongization of the diphthongs. Monophthong is a

vowel with only one perceived auditory quality whereas diphthong is a syllable containing two
vowel sounds. In short, a monophthong is a single vowel and a diphthong is a double vowel.
Hence, monophthongization of the diphthong is a changing sound of a double vowel to a single
vowel. For ME speakers, it is expected for them to have difficulties in realising some of the
English monophthongs, taking into account that Malay contains only six vowels (Suhaila Sulong,
2016). In the findings, Mr. Muazzam had mispronounced the diphthong /əʊ/ and replaced it with
/au/ for the word ‘though’. It shows that his mother tongue language, Malay has an impact on his
pronunciation.‘Created’ is pronounced with phoneme /eɪ/ in RP but the speaker replaced it with
/ɛ/ instead. This might be because of his unfamiliarity with diphthongs in the English language.
Another one is ‘regulation’, where the phoneme /u:/ was used instead of /ʊ/. However, this is
considered as a special case since the word involves glide /jʊ/, but when the speaker spoke, the
glide was missing. This tends to happen when the speaker is speaking in a fast manner.

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Consonants

In the English language, there are three forms of the consonant sounds: the place of
articulation, the manner of articulation and the presence of voicing. The place of articulation
refers to the place where the sounds are produced within the vocal tract. There are 7 places of
articulation altogether which are bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal.
On the other hand, the manner of articulation informs the speaker on the production of the words
in which the consonants are pronounced. They consist of the fricative, affricate, stop,
approximant and nasal. The presence of voicing helps speakers to register whether the vibration
on the vocal cords has taken place. In the English language, there are 24 consonant sounds
conveyed by 21 letters of the regular English alphabet.

Based on the speech sample, it can be found that the interviewee tends to delete the final
/t/ and /d/ sounds, which are the plosive consonants, when they are placed together at the end of a
word. In the English language, it is common to find two or more consonants grouped together. In
the Malay language however, the /t/ and /d/ consonant sounds do not appear in consonant
clusters, except in borrowed words. In addition, they would usually appear in the beginning and
the middle of the word and they are either preceded or followed by a vowel (Shak et al., 2016).
An example of this are the Malay words ‘tidur’ and ‘duta.’ The interviewee also had a tendency
to replace the voiced fricative /ð/ sound in words with the dental /d/ plosive sound instead. The
/ð/ and /θ/ sounds do not exist in the Malay language. In fact, these sounds are not found in the
sound inventory of any local languages in Malaysia (Yamaguchi, 2014). Hence, it is
understandable why many Malaysian English speakers would find it difficult to pronounce
certain words properly due to the influence of their L1, and in this case, it is the Malay language.

Suprasegmental Features

According to Britannica (2020), suprasegmental, also called prosodic feature, in

phonetics, a speech feature such as stress, tone, or word juncture that accompanies or is added
over consonants and vowels; these features are not limited to single sounds but often extend over
syllables, words, or phrases. One of the suprasegmental features that the speaker had used is a
different stress pattern. It is important for words to be stressed correctly in order for their

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meaning to be transmitted clearly. There are pronunciations where the reduction of the
unaccented vowel in the antepenultimate syllable results in the shift of accent to the following
unreduced vowel. It has been surmised that this may be influenced by Malay, where stress tends
to fall on the penultimate syllable (Hashim, 2020). This can be seen in how most of the different
stress patterns that the speaker, Mr. Muazzam, had done are all in the latter syllable.

The second suprasegmental feature that the speaker had done differently is the intonation
that is used to further stress a word or a phrase as the focus of a sentence. Based on the findings,
the speaker had used a rising tone that made him sound uncertain and also used a high-rise tone
that made him sound in disbelief. According to Fadhilah et al., (2011), although Asian varieties
tend to have a high frequency of rising tones, as found in SgE (Singaporean English), ME, and
HKE (Hong Kong English), the high occurrence of rising tones in the MSE (Malysian Speakers
of English) data is quite significant. He should have used a falling tone to indicate that he is just
talking normally.

Last but not least in the topic of suprasegmental features is the inappropriate pause that
the speaker had performed in the form of the wrong usage of pause. Pauses are usually used to
get the listener's attention and focus. The speaker had put a short pause on the phrase “look
forward (pause) and looking at the scenario” This minor and unintentional pause had made his
phrasing sound a bit odd. There should not have been a pause as he is not trying to stress on any
word thus, making the phrase sound off.

Features of Connected Speech

Connected speech is known as the continuous stream of sounds in a spoken language

where it usually has clear boundaries between words or by way of explanation, it occurs when in
making a pronunciation to flow smoothly. In the interview, Mr. Muazzam indicated some of the
features in connected speech, which were assimilation, elision and intrusion. Firstly, assimilation
according to Taylor (2021), is meant by belonging to one word that can cause change in sounds
belonging to neighbouring words. For example, the word “in” could be clearly heard as /ɪm/
rather than /ɪn/ as the speaker focuses on the sounds of the nearby words rather than the current
words which was due to the /b/ sound in Bank Islam.

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 As a non-native speaker, Mr Muazzam’s efforts in tongue movements were minimized
when he tried to connect words while conveying his message. Hence, the effect of terribly
weakened articulation can make a sound disappear altogether where in other words, this is the
process of the second feature, elision.This feature could be heard in quite an amount of times
where the speaker has regard for making the final /t/ and /d/ sounds disappear. For instance,
mostly the words that end with /t/ sound such as environment, management and segment tend to
lose the final /t/ sound as Mr. Muazzam speaks the words fast in a sentence. Be that as it may,
this is natural to be used as with digestion and casual discourse, elision is normal of fast because
one might express this in a more specialized dialect by saying that in certain circumstances, a
phoneme may be realized as zero, or have zero realization or be erased (Ismail Al Abbasi, 2019).

Lastly, the final feature is intrusion. As mentioned in the vowels, Mr. Muazzam is
considered a fluent speaker. The usual sounds inserted are mainly the /r/, /j/ and /w/ sounds.
Along with Mr. Muazzam’s pronunciation, it is focused on the /j/ sound where he oftens uses this
feature in the word “we’re”. As it occurs when a certain word ends with a vowel sound and the
next word begins with a vowel sound. Thus, the /j/ sound was added to help the speaker link the
word “we” with the word “are” together, which from /wɪə/ becomes /wɪ(j)ə/. In this feature, it
could be identified even Malaysian English (ME) fluent speakers often insert a mild consonant
sound to make the flow of the sentence more smoothly as this feature is expected from the name,
an extra sound “intrudes” into the spoken utterance (Taylor, 2021).

5.0 CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, the Malaysian English (ME) and the standard British English (BrE) may
be similar but in spoken use, they vary phonetically in the pronunciation of vowels, consonants,
suprasegmental features and connected speech. The speaker reduced his vowels, caused
monophthongization of diphthongs, dropped fricatives and plosive consonants, made awkward
stresses, intonations and pauses and made other errors in the connected speech feature in terms of
elision, intrusion and assimilation. Most of the time, it can be observed that these errors occur
due to the influence of his L1. ME speakers tend to assume that there is nothing wrong with their
pronunciation (Baba, 2013) and some would even argue that as long as the intended message is
understood, there is no need for proper pronunciation as English is not the native language of the

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land. Often, mispronounced words are unintentionally made but are passed down as the truth
through generations and as a result, the cycle of mispronounced words does not end. In time, this
will cause the English language to deteriorate, rendering Malaysians unable to be understood by
foreigners and hence, disrupting communication and further preventing future collaborative
opportunities. This matter should not be taken lightly as phonology plays a big role in conveying
meaningful messages to others. Therefore, it is recommended that the local education system
increase their efforts to develop instructions that focus on the proper pronunciation of English
words in order to educate future ME speakers to pronounce words correctly and improve
communication efficiency.

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Consonants, Syllable, and Stress. US-China Foreign Language, 11(4).

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Mainstream. BFM 89.9. Retrieved from

https://www.bfm.my/podcast/morning-run/the-breakfast-grille/islamic-banking-has-gone-

mainstream

Britannica, T. E. E. (2020, February 28). Suprasegmental. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved

from https://www.britannica.com/topic/suprasegmental

Fadhilah, N., Nayan, M., Setter, J., & Malaysia, U. (2011). The Intonation Patterns of Malay

Speakers of English: A Discourse Intonation Approach. The Intonation Patterns of Malay

Speakers of English: A Discourse Intonation Approach, 17–21. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228748390_The_Intonation_Patterns_of_Malay

_Speakers_of_English_A_Discourse_Intonation_Approach

Hashim, A. (2020). Malaysian English. In K. Bolton, W. Botha, & A. Kirkpatrick (Eds.), The

Handbook of Asian Englishes, 373–397. Retrieved from

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118791882.ch16#

Ismail Al Abbasi, Muhammad (2019). Aspects of Connected Speech in English language.

Research Gate. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336825468_Aspects_of_Connected_Speech_in

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 _English_language

Pillai, S. (2017). Local features of English pronunciation: to embrace or ignore in the ELT

classroom? J-ELLiT (Journal of English Language, Literature, and Teaching), 1(1).

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Pillai, S. (2008). Speaking English the Malaysian way – correct or not? English Today, 24(4),

42–45. Retrieved from

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malaysian-way-correct-or-not/E00BA8EC8F6F599CC2AEF9D1F84059CB

PILLAI, S., MOHD. DON, Z., KNOWLES, G., & TANG, J. (2010). Malaysian English: an

instrumental analysis of vowel contrasts. World Englishes, 29(2), 159–172. Retrieved

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Taylor, K. (2021). 5 Features of Connected Speech. Eslbase. Retrieved from

https://www.eslbase.com/tefl-a-z/connected-speech

APPENDIXES

Image 1: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad

Image 2: The Breakfast Grille’s logo

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