Pronunciation for the Arab Learners of EFL: Planning for Better Outcomes (original) (raw)
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Pronunciation is an area of L2 learning that has long been relegated to the status of secondary skill. However, it is a mistaken belief or wrong notion that correct pronunciation plays little role in communication. It is observed that in many cases, mispronunciation leads to unintelligibility of speech and/or misinterpretation of the message/information: a barrier to communication. This premise prompted the researchers to study the difficulty in pronunciation experienced by Saudi students. This paper is also an attempt at exploring the pronunciation problems faced by the Saudi students of English and aims to propound possible remedial measures. The researchers have included students enrolled in the English departments and their teachers at two universities in Saudi Arabia. Primary data was collected from the students and their teachers using surveys, interviews, and classroom observation of students' presentations. The study made some suggestions regarding materials that can help rectify the pronunciation of English among Saudi learners of English.
Factors That Affect Arab EFL Learners' English Pronunciation
2017
Majority of Arab EFL students reach the university with generally poor English and bad pronunciation in particular. Students in Arab countries have little opportunities to speak English where Arabic is their native language. Since correct pronunciation is very important to avoid misunderstanding when communicating with others and to build self-confidence when trying to speak in front of other people, the current paper investigates the reasons for Arab EFL students to face problems in English pronunciation. The participants were 10 Preparatory Intensive English (PIE) students of University Malaysia Pahang (UMP). Using an in-depth qualitative methodology which is individual interviews, all interviews were audio-recorded with the participants’ consent. The participants were undergraduate Arab EFL students who completed their high school and they do not have exposure to English language. All recorded interviews were analyzed manually. From the data analyzed some emergent themes were fou...
Saudi EFL Learners Views on English Pronunciation
Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies, 2014
The current study attempts to find out the main causes of errors Saudi EFL learners make in English pronunciation. The participants in the study are students who passed their secondary school and were enrolled in the Preparatory Year Program at Najran University. The results show that lack of proper attention towards teaching English pronunciation, and lack of motivation among the learners towards learning pronunciation lead the EFL learners into faulty pronunciation. The results also demonstrate the students' unawareness and ignorance regarding the sound system of English that is equally important component in the situation of EFL pedagogy. This study works as an eye opener and suggests EFL teachers and material designers to focus on teaching the sound system of English to the students. Teaching the sound system of English to the students will reduce problems of English pronunciation among Saudi EFL learners. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Wahba (1998) investigated the problems faced by Egyptian learners of English as a second language. His study was basically on stress and intonation. Barros (2003, as cited in Al-saidat 2010) studies the difficulties encountered by Arabic speakers when pronouncing English consonants. The researcher found eight English consonants, namely,
The Pronunciation Problems Faced by Saudi EFL Learners at Secondary Schools
Education and Linguistics Research, 2015
This study investigates the difficulties of English pronunciation encountered by Saudi secondary school learners when pronouncing English consonants. It also aims to shed light on the area of English consonant clusters system. The instruments used for collecting data and information included were questionnaires, classroom observations and document collections. The results show that the participants had difficulties to pronounce eleven consonant sounds. The results also demonstrate that a great number of the participants, unintentionally insert a vowel sound in English syllable to break up consonant clusters. This study provides some useful pedagogical implications to prevent and cure English pronunciation problems.
Review of the Importance of Teaching Pronunciation in the Arab Society
In spite of the long history of teaching English in the Arab world, little interest has been shown to English teachers. They usually consider teaching pronunciation in the EFL Arab classroom is less important than the other language skills such as reading and writing skills. This research is guided for three objectives. First: to describe the impact of pronunciation on the communication process in the classroom. Second: to illustrate the role of teaching segmental and suprasegmental features in the EFL classroom. Third: to provide some of classroom strategies through propounding some of pedagogical implications. The researchers depend on the secondary data sources. The researchers also suggested some pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research. Through second data analysis, the researchers tried to figure out the reasons that led to inefficiency in pronunciation among the Arab learners, to trace the effects of wrong pronunciation on the communication process. As long as showing the pedagogy that can be effective in teaching pronunciation.
2011
This study attempts to investigate the difficulties Saudi students encounter when pronouncing certain English consonant sounds. All participants in the study are adults who graduated from secondary schools and joined the Preparatory Year Program at Najran University. The participants have never been to any of the English speaking countries, so they do not have any kind of exposure to a native English environment. The results show that the Arabic speakers in this study had difficulties in pronouncing certain English consonant sounds, such as: /p/, /d/, /v/, /tʃ/, /ʒ/, and /ŋ/. This study also provides an insight and assists ESL/EFL teachers with some helpful suggestions and teaching strategies that will reduce future problems regarding English consonant pronunciation among Arab learners.
Difficulties Encountered by Arab Students in Pronouncing English Correctly
Australian International Academic Centre PTY. LTD. (AIAC PTY.LTD.) , 2018
Since spoken language is the most important channel of communication, it is supposed to be the first skill to master when learning a language. However, in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, learners encounter various problems limiting their abilities. One of the remarkable phenomena in English as a foreign language (EFL) learning is the inability of most students to utter English correctly and fluently. The present study investigates the difficulties that hamper high school students from pronouncing English vocabulary and simple sentences correctly and fluently. This research was carried out in an attempt to assess the English course outcomes that were reflected in learners disabilities of correct and fluent English pronunciation. The data were collected through surveying second-year high school students’ responses to two instruments. A questionnaire was addressed to a sample of 100 Saudi male students from 4 secondary schools, and semi-structured interviews with 5 students from the population were conducted to provide deeper diagnosis regarding problems of English pronunciation. In order to provide further details about the subject studied, analyses of the syllabi are presented. The study recommends remedial pronunciation activities, practice of confusing words, and phonics practices throughout the course.
THE EFFECT OF IRAQI EFL LEARNERS' PROFICIENCY LEVEL ON THEIR PRONUNCIATION OF NON-ARABIC CONSONANTS
Volume 8(2) September, 2021
The effect of EFL learners' proficiency level on their pronunciation has been a debatable issue as some scholars reported a positive effect of proficiency level on pronunciation learning process, while others did not report any positive effect. Previous researches have investigated the impact of experience on the pronunciation of EFL learners, who belong to various linguistic and dialectal backgrounds; yet, Iraqi EFL learners have not been examined in terms of their pronunciation of consonants that are not found in their L1 sound system. Hence, the current study investigated the effect of Iraqi EFL learners' proficiency level on the pronunciation of the non-Arabic consonants (/ŋ/, /ӡ/, /p/, /g/, /v/, and /tʃ/). The study aimed to identify the sounds that are difficult to pronounce, the error patterns shown by learners, and the effect of learners' proficiency level on their performance. To this end, thirty Iraqi learners were divided into three groups (advanced, intermediates, and beginners) based on their results in a general English proficiency test. A production test was administered to ask learners to produce words containing the six non-Arabic sounds. Their pronunciation was directly recorded via mobile phones. The results showed that /ŋ/, /ӡ/, and /p/ sounds were problematic for Iraqi learners, while /g/, /v/, and /tʃ/ sounds were not. These results can be accounted for based on learners' dialect transfer, which makes the pronunciation of non-Arabic consonants easier than expected. The results also showed that proficiency level did not have statistically significant effect on Iraqi learners' pronunciation of non-Arabic consonants.
Teaching Pronunciation for Arab learners of English: Using Gilberts' Prosody Pyramid
Developing proficiency in the target language requires sharpening one's repertoire in several competencies, including, linguistic, discourse, sociolinguistics as well as strategic competence which enable language learners to compensate any breakdown that usually occurs as a result of learners' limited knowledge whether in the system or pragmatic of the target language. However, all the above elements together play a major role in developing learners' overall communicative competence, they all be useless if the learners have not developed intelligible pronunciation in the target language. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate some of the pronunciation problems that Arab learners of English encountered regardless whether they belonged to the Arabic language interference or as a result of poor development in the intra-language systems. Henceforth, the paper depends on secondary data gathered from previous studies to reach a clear understanding about such problems and suggest some pedagogical techniques for teaching pronunciations to Arab learners of English, specifically with more focus to teaching the suprasegmental elements of phonology. The researcher recommends for English language teachers at secondary or tertiary levels to apply the Gilbert's Prosody Pyramid for teaching pronunciations to Arab students. Finally, the researcher explains how such model can be implemented in the classroom.
2021
Intelligible pronunciation is an essential component of communicative competence as learners who have adequate pronunciation can easily improve their speaking skills better than those who have weak pronunciation. Pronunciation is, therefore, vital to achieving successful communication. A large number of learners believe that the main difficulty they encounter when speaking a second/foreign language is pronunciation and consider this difficulty as the main source for their communication problems. Despite the fact that pronunciation is key to communicative competence, it is neglected in many Arabic teaching programmes. In view of this, the motivation for this presentation is the increasing unpopularity of the pronunciation aspect of teaching Arabic as a foreign language. This has caused a fewer efforts to be taken in improving learners' pronunciation skill despite this being quite a concern among professionals in educational environments that demand intelligible spoken Arabic. Accordingly, this presentation aims to provide both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the issue. It will present the latest data exposing learners’ perception of pronunciation instructions as well as teachers’ view on the un/necessity of teaching pronunciation and the lack of teaching materials that help them in teaching phonetic and phonological aspects of Arabic. This will be followed by discussion on the impact of pronunciation on other language skills, namely writing, reading, listening and speaking. A further focus will be on the phonetic and phonological difficulties encountered by learners such as the production and perception of Arabic sounds, scrutinising various factors and variations contributing to such difficulties and thus proposing the most appropriate methods and approaches that are recommended for Arabic teachers to tackle such challenges. This is concluded by examining how technology can help with teaching pronunciation inside and outside of the classroom and the latest technology tools utilised in language classrooms to meet pronunciation teaching and learning goals.