Teaching Tips

Introducing French Nasal Vowels at the Beginner Level: A Demystification

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Abstract

Although they make for only a fraction of the French phonological repertoire, nasal vowels represent a notorious challenge in the acquisition of French pronunciation by second language (L2) learners (Dansereau, 1990; Harlow and Muyskens, 1994). As nasal vowels are in phonemic contrast both with oral vowels (bain/baie, banc/bas, bon/beau)10 and with one another (bain/banc/bon), their inaccurate perception and production can significantly impact intelligibility. Therefore, an introduction to – and the practice of – these sounds in French pronunciation is warranted. The results of the informal polls I have conducted as an instructor of French over the years seem to indicate that one initial obstacle to feeling comfortable with French nasal vowels is linked to the notion held by some learners that these sounds represent an entirely foreign concept, that they simply do not exist in the native English sound repertoire. Consequently, these learners are unable to relate French nasal vowels to familiar sounds and find it very difficult to process them. The present teaching tip focuses on the introduction of French nasal vowels, i.e., the stage preceding any practice with the perception and production of these sounds. Its goals are to “demystify” French nasal vowels by demonstrating to students that vowel nasality exists in English (Ruhlen, 1973) and by guiding learners to pair unfamiliar French sounds with familiar English sounds (Levac, 1991), so that they can resort to these referents when processing French nasal vowels during perception and production practice.

How to Cite:

Ruellot, V., (2013) “Introducing French Nasal Vowels at the Beginner Level: A Demystification”, Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Proceedings 5(1).