Abstract:

The mother language of the learners plays an essential role in teaching German as a foreign language. The influence of the mother language on the acquisition of a foreign language is proven. In our paper, we concerned with phonetic mistakes. They related to the use of the mother language. We dealt with the term mistake in pronunciation and defined the term mistake. We have distinguished simple phonetic mistakes that do not interfere with communication in a context. An important concept within phonetics and phonology is the phonetic deviation from the norm, where the norm is known as a standard pronunciation.

The identification of deviations can be determined according to the standard and the rules of pronunciation. Therefore, we characterized the term phonetic understandableness - that is, to what extent communication in a foreign language can be successful. We limited the evaluation of pronunciation mistakes by selecting one phonetic phenomenon, namely assimilation. We described assimilation and its rules in German. We also compared assimilation in Slovak and German and pointed out the differences in both languages.

Our paper aimed to find out whether Slovak students transfer Slovak assimilation rules into German. We observed the pronunciation of problem progressive assimilation in the text. We have recorded twenty Slovak students during the aloud reading of the text. Then we analysed the recordings. The assimilation in the German language is defined by rules which can be checked. We have divided the assimilation rules into five groups for simple analysis, then explored the assimilation phenomena in each recording. We found that in each assessed group the assimilation phenomena were 65% incorrect. 30% of the assimilation phenomena were pronouncing correctly. In 5 % of the assimilation, phenomena were pronounced with low deviations from the norm.

As a result, Slovak students transferred the rules of Slovak assimilation into German. In some cases, the use of German assimilation has significantly influenced Slovak pronunciation - it was about the final syllable -en. It does not occur as often in Slovak at the end of words as in German, which has caused deviations from the standard German pronunciation. From the above results, we concluded that the phenomenon of assimilation needs to be paid more attention to the practice of correct German pronunciation. Assimilation belongs to such phonetic phenomena, the incorrect use of which can cause a deterioration of communication, loss of the listener's interest in the speaker, concentration of the listener only on pronunciation and not on the content of the communication.

It has a demotivating effect on German learners. Therefore, finding deviations in pronunciation should serve as a mirror for the teacher to know what his students need to practice being more confident in using a foreign language. It is predetermined to serve as a mirror for the teacher to understand what his students need to practice being more confident in using a foreign language. One of the ways to decrease deviations in practice is to devote space to teaching phonetics and phonology. The abovementioned is not at the expense of other language skills but with the implementation of grammar, lexis, and orthography.

Keywords:

Phonetic deviation, phonetic mistakes, communication, assimilation, correct German pronunciation.