Understanding Fatal Errors in Speech: Impact of Mother Tongue Influence and Trainable Errors

Hi All,

I am researching a bit about the BPO sector and am confused about some aspects of it. Specifically, I am confused about what constitutes a fatal error and what the difference is between a fatal error and Mother Tongue Influence (MTI). Also, I would like to know what trainable and non-trainable errors are and whether non-trainable errors are equivalent to fatal errors.

Thanks,
Nitesh

Fatal Error: An error in speech that is very difficult to overcome within a speculated training time is called a fatal error. For example, a person has a /sh/ error. He says, "Soe" instead of "Shoe." This is a fatal error as it takes a lot of time for a person to overcome this problem. Another example would be a /z/zh/ error. A person says "Pleajure" instead of "Pleasure." Fatal errors are also called non-trainable errors. On the other hand, a strong T or D sound is a non-fatal error as a person can overcome it in 10-15 days of training.

The three dimensions of accent are articulation, pronunciation, and intonation. Articulation is how we produce the speech sounds - vowels and consonants. For example, a person says "joo" instead of "Zoo." A person says "Another" instead of "Unother" (phonetically).

Pronunciation is how we stress the right part of the word (syllable). A person says "CommunicaTION" instead of "CommuniCAtion."

Intonation is the music of the language (the ups and downs in a sentence).

Mother Tongue Influence (MTI) could be any aspect of articulation, pronunciation, or intonation that is reflected from the mother tongue in speech. Listen to this speaker (<link no longer exists - removed>) and you shall notice the MTI in the speaker's accent.

Hope you got your answer. You may write or call me for more information.

Thank you for your response. I would like to ask one more question: Is there any intersection between MTI and fatal errors? Also, is there a list of phonemes that are accepted as causing fatal errors? For example, you listed "s/sh" and "z/zh."

Thanks,

Nitesh

MTI is a broad term where we look at all three aspects of accent: Articulation, Pronunciation, and Intonation.

When we hire agents in BPO, we primarily look at five parameters: Speech Clarity, Flow, Grammar, Accent, and Intonation.

Fatal errors could be present in any of these five parameters. A lisp is a fatal error in speech. Stammering is a fatal error in flow. Subject-verb agreement issues are fatal errors in grammar.

I can't post the complete list of Phonemes (44 of them) here as it is copyright information of the company I worked with. Generally, s/sh and z/zh are considered fatal errors; however, if the list of errors in phonemes exceeds 10, that person is rejected.

To specifically address your question regarding the intersection of MTI and fatal errors:

If a person has accent issues (aspects of MTI) in articulation (s/sh or z/zh error or more than 10 errors) or pronunciation (errors in common words, e.g., coPY, laTER, taBLE) and their intonation pattern is influenced by their mother tongue to a degree that is non-trainable, then it can be considered fatal errors.

Vowel/Consonant and Swap Errors

Vowel/consonant (v/c) and swap/is (s/wap) errors, such as "school" becoming "ischool," "e/a" (t/east) where "test" becomes "taste," and "ee/i" (m/eet) where "meet" becomes "mit," are also on the list of fatal errors.

Please let me know if you need further assistance.

Thank you for your answers. Regarding the error phonemes you listed, such as s/sh or z/zh, will the (fatal) error occur in all words having these phonemes, or will the error be detectable only in some specific words?

Thank you,

Nitesh

Dear Nitesh,

Atul has contributed a deep understanding of fatal errors. In addition to what he said, here are a few more:

- Punching words: Using words from different languages in one sentence. If words from any regional language or even gibberish are used while framing a sentence in English, it's a fatal error.

- Dead air: Making sounds such as 'aaaa....' while speaking just because the speaker is either framing the sentence in his mind or is thinking.

- Fillers: We have repeatedly heard people using fillers such as 'like' or 'you know' or 'Okay,' even when it wasn't required. This shows the speaker isn't trained in using connectors.

- Framing sentences: An automotive mode of thinking affects the pattern. Hence, while framing sentences, it might result in almost a transliteration!

- Repetition: This might not be as significant a challenge as the others are. Yet, the usage of the same words or phrases leads to negative marking.

All the fatal errors are trainable, depending on the effort and investment a talent is ready to put in.

Hi Nitesh,
It purely depends upon the speaker. Some people commit these errors in all the words while others commit these errors in some specific sound combinations.
Repetition of the same accent error is not counted as multiple errors. For example: ‘listen' becoming ‘lizzen', ‘excitement' becoming ‘egzitement', ‘decide' becoming ‘dezide' etc are not three errors but one (the ‘s' sound becoming ‘z').
In the BPO world fatal errors are considered non-trainable as the speculated time frame of 5-10 days is not sufficient to make a person overcome the fatal errors. As Nebomita has mentioned and I have written in my previous post, apart from articulation related fatal errors, there could be in fatal errors in pronunciation, speech or grammar too.