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ELT Journal 2003 57(2):113-121; doi:10.1093/elt/57.2.113
© 2003 by Oxford University Press
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Music and mondegreens: extracting meaning from noise

Geoff P. Smith1

1 The English Centre at the University of Hong Kong. Email: gpssmith{at}hkusua.hku.hk

This paper looks at some attempts by advanced learners of English in Hong Kong to identify words while transcribing song lyrics. It includes a number of misinterpretations recently dubbed ‘mondegreens’. Although interest in this phenomenon among native speakers has been primarily for its amusement value, the words chosen by second language speakers show evidence of a serious attempt to create order out of the chaos born of an inadequate awareness of the full range of English phonological distinctions. Implications for the teaching of English, especially phonology and listening skills, are explored.

Received May 2001.


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