الأربعاء، 5 سبتمبر 2012

Pronounciation Problems of Sudanese Learners of English

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Pronounciation Problems of Sudanese Learners of English
By: Sanaa Izzaldin Hassan
Supervised by: Omer Elsheikh Hago
Chapter One
Introduction
1-0 Over view
This chapter presents the statement of the problem, the aims, objectives of the study, the research questions and the hypotheses in addition to the significance of the study, the methodology, the procedures of the study, population and sample of the study. Limitations are also presented.
According to the wide spread, of English language remains the most important language among the other languages there are a lot of people all over the world who have strong desire to learn and speak English language .In the Sudan there is a large number of interested grouping the subject, among them are the student of English language at Sudan university of science and technology.
In order to learn or to study any language, must be aware to pronunciation skills, among other skills which is great of importance for studying English language, it is similar grammar lexis and literature in order to do a worthwhile piece of research.
Many studies have demonstrated that the errors made by the speakers of other language who speak English, are something systematic rather than random. For instance demonstrated that Arab students face problem in pronunciation of sound which the students are not familiar with e.g./v/ , /p/, / ð / noted that the errors of pronunciation that learners of English from different language backgrounds make are systematic and not accidental. They substitute sounds that they don't have in their native language with other sounds which are close to them. In the place of articulation they replace /p/ with /b/ and /θ/ with /s/.
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1-1 Statement of the problem
A close observation of English learners at (SUST) disclosed that learners confused the pronunciation of some set of words. e.g. most of the English words that have sounds which don't exist in Sudanese spoken Arabic e.g. /p/in 'experience' / θ / in 'thank' and /ð/ in 'this'. It also observed that English learners at SUST don't differentiate between some vowel sound s which have more than one way of pronunciation e.g. vowel in 'mat' and 'mate'.
The replacement of bilabials (b and p) with each other so they usually use /b/ instead of /p/ and rarely /p/ instead of /b/ for instance word like (pupil, paper, apple) they pronounce them as /bju: bl/ /beib / / ble /. According to this observation the researcher thought of studying the pronunciation errors and factors that caused them.
1-2 Aims and objectives of the study
The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between pronunciation errors and factors such as mother tongue interference differences in sound system between L1 and L2 inconsistency between spelling and sound English sound specially Arabic and English the study mainly aims to:
1- Identify the errors pronunciation among the English learners at (SUST) and their major reasons, and find the suitable solution.
2- To find an experimental evidence of pronunciation problems by Sudanese learners of English.
3- To discover reasons behind these problems.
4- To suggest a method of pronunciation which important to Sudanese learners of English.
5-To encourage learners of English, teachers and curriculum designers to pay more attention to pronunciation way of teaching /learning.
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1-3 Research questions
1- Which English vowels cause problems to Sudanese English learners?
2- Why are English vowels pronounced with some difficulty by the Sudanese English learners?
3- Why are English consonant pronounced with some difficulty by the Sudanese English learners?
4- Which consonant are pronounced with difficulty by the Sudanese learners of English?
5- What are the suitable ways that help Sudanese English learners improve their pronunciation?
1-4 Hypotheses of the study
1- Many of the Sudanese English learners don‟t pronounce the following consonants correctly /p/, /v/, / θ /, / ð /
2- Some of Sudanese English learners confuse between the different pronunciations of some English sound.
3-Many of Sudanese English learners mispronounced (а, e, i, o, u) because they are inconsonant.
4- Sudanese learners have difficulty in pronouncing (/p/ , /v/, / θ /, / ð.
5- The spelling of some words misleads Sudanese learners of English to wrong pronunciation.
6- Listening to English sounds and words from the audio, CD, Radio, TV channels and sound dictionary help Sudanese learners to improve their language.
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1-5 Significance of the study
Pronunciation is very important because it is the first thing people notice when one speaks English. This study will be significant for Sudanese English learners because it discovers the problematic areas of pronunciation and identifies the exact sounds that Sudanese learners of English mispronounce and the reasons of this.
1-6Methodology and procedures
The researcher followed the descriptive and analytic statistic method in this study. Descriptive researches attempt to describe the problems and the phenomenon as it is i.e. describes the phenomenon and explains it.
Tools of data collection
1- Observation: Observation was the first tool, which was used in this research. To obtain information about errors, the researcher engaged in direct conversations with the learners inside the classroom during their university day
2- Questionnaire the second tool used in this study was a structured questionnaire, which was prepared in collaboration with some English learners at SUST
1-7 limitation of the study
This study will consider the pronunciation problems encountered by Sudanese learners of English language at final year in Sudan University 2012.
1-8 definition of terms
Affect
A term referring to a number of emotional factors that may influence language Learning and use.
Alveolar
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Describes a speech sound (a consonant) which is produced by the front of the tongue touching or nearly touching the gum ridge behind the upper teeth .
Consonant
A speech sound where the airstream from the lungs is either completely blocked (stop), partially blocked (lateral) or where the opening is so narrow that the air escapes with audible friction (fricative).
Consonant cluster
A sequence of two or more consonants at the beginning of a syllable (e.g.
/splæ∫/ in splash) or the end of a syllable (e.g. /sts/ in tests. In English, with clusters of two, either the first sound is /s/ or the second one is an approximant (l, r, w, or y); in initial clusters of three, the first sound is always /s/, the second is a voiceless stop (/p,t,k/), and the third is an approximant
Error analysis
The study and analysis of the errors made by second language learners.
Error analysis may be carried out in order to:
Strategies which learners use in language learning
a- identify
b- try to identify the causes of learner errors
c- obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an
aid to teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials..
Intelligibility
The degree to which a message can be understood. Studies of speech perception have found that the intelligibility of speech is due to various Factors including accent and intonation, the listener‟s ability to predict parts of the message, the location of pauses in the utterance, the grammatical Complexity of sentences, and the speed with which utterances are produced.
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Language achievement
A learner‟s mastery, in a second language and foreign language, of what has been taught or learned after a period of instruction. Language achievement may be contrasted with language aptitude, which is measured before a course of instruction begins.
Language transfer
The effect of one language on the learning of another. Two types of Language transfer may occur. Positive transfer is transfer which makes
Learning easier, and may occur when both the native language and the Target language have the same form. For example, both Arabic and English have the word table, which can have the same meaning in both languages. Negative transfer, also known as interference, is the use of a native-language pattern or rule which leads to an error or Inappropriate form in the target language.
Pronunciation
The way a certain sound or sounds are produced. Unlike articulation, which refers to the actual production of speech sounds in the mouth, pronunciation and stresses more than the way sounds are perceived by the hearer.
1-9 ABRIVIATION
L1: first language
L2: second language
SLA: Second Language Acquisition
RP: Receive Pronunciation
MTI: Mother tongue interference
SSA: Sudanese spoken Arabic
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Chapter Two
Review of Literature
2-0 over view
The researcher will present the relevant literature on this topic. She will discuss some factors that influence learning English as general e.g. mother tongue interference, systematic differences between First language L1 and second language L2, inconsistency of some English sounds and the influence of spelling on pronunciation.
The previous works on second language Acquisition (SLA) specially that concerning English pronunciation problems, all greed “that the error committed by speakers of other languages are something systematic rather than random. Arabic speakers according to their language background, face some difficulties in their English pronunciation. These difficulties lead to mispronunciation” (O‟Connor 2003).
A conclusion about the reasons of this errors are said to be factors such as linguistic, psychological and socio- cultural factors (Brown, 2000). In addition to that, some researchers say teaching system and strategies and the time of exposure plays significant role in (SLA) (Yule, 2003). On the other hand, researchers of English as a second or a foreign language in Sudan according to different topic have put language skills such grammar, vocabulary and literature in the first place and have rarely dealt with pronunciation. Inside classroom, grammar, vocabulary, and literature are consequently given more time, pronunciation lessons are almost non-existent.
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2.1 Mother Tongue Interference
Several works have been conducted on the influence of First language L1 in learning English language (Moosa1972:44) and Swan; Smith, 2001) reported that /p/ and /b/ sounds are two different phonemes and each one is distinguished by native speaker. In Arabic language, the situation is different, because there is only the phoneme /b/ so is the reasons why most Sudanese speakers mispronounce words with this sound Sudanese student face the same problem. Student confuse between /p/ and /b/ e.g. words like (“park” “bark”), (“pen” “ben”) if ask student to say these word they pronounce /b/ instead of /p/and sometimes /p/ is used in the place of /b/this rarely happens. Many other sounds are influenced by the mother tongue of foreign learners
In the near past (Brown,2000) found that a second language learner meets some difficulties , because his/her first language L1 affects his/her second language L2 specially in adulthood, and this effect is a result of L1 transfer so it is significant source of making errors for second language learners (Carter and Nunan.2001:58) showed that mother tongue has influence on learning L2 pronunciation. Where L1and L2 rules are in conflict, errors are expected to be committed by foreign learners. All that can be linked to what is known as the interference between L1and L2 .so many leaner‟s use /p/ as/b/, other use /s/ for /θ/ and /z/ for /ð/and /b/ for /v/e.g.(face/faith), (clothe/close), (very /berry).
In addition to the past works, (O‟Connor 2003, Yule 2003, power, 2003) have studied pronunciation problems and the influence of L1. So many sounds such as /p/ and /b/, /s/ and /ɵ /, /z/ and /ð /, /ʧ /and /ʃ / /v/ and /b/ are confused e.g. (pit /bit), (thin/sin), (question/action), (leaser/bather), (very /berry).
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The mispronunciation of the previous sounds that mention sounds is the result of over practice of the first language. Process of fossilization the adults vocal musculature is the set to pronounce foreign sound with an accent (Yule; O‟Connor 2003) reported that the main problem of English pronunciation is to build a new set of sounds corresponding English, and to break down the arrangement of sound which the habits and the systems of our L1 have strongly built up.
The points mentioned above altogether share concept that learners confuse such sounds and replace each of them with other sounds that are said to be nearest ones to them(O‟Connor 2003:24) here are some examples of such replacement of sound :
/s/ and /θ/
Face / feis / faith /fei ð /
Pass /pæs / path /pæɵ/
Sink /siᶇk / think /ɵiᶇk/
/p/ and /b/
rip / rip / rib /rib /
pack /pæk / back /bæk /
pull /pul / bull /bul /
/ɵ / and /ð /
Breathe /bri:ð/ breeze /bri:z /
Clothe /kl∂uð/ close /kl∂uz/
/ʧ/ and /ʃ /
Which /wiʧ / wish / wiʃ /
March /mа:ʧ / marsh /mа:ʃ /
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/v/ and /f/
Cover /kʌv∂r / suffer /sʌf∂r /
Have /hæv / half /hа:f /
2-2 Comparison between English phonology and Arabic phonology
The Arabic and English phonological systems are very different, not only in the range of sounds used, but in the emphasis placed on vowels and consonants in expressing meaning. While English has 22 vowels and diphthongs to 24 consonants, Arabic has only eight vowels and diphthongs (three short, three long and two diphthongs) to 32 consonants.
The three short vowels in Arabic have very little significance: they are almost allophonic. They are not even written in the script. It is the consonants and long vowels and diphthongs which give meaning. Arabic speakers tend, therefore, to gloss over and confuse English short vowel sounds, while unduly emphasizing consonants, avoiding elisions and shortened forms. Among the features of Arabic which give rises to an „Arabic accent‟ in English are:
More energetic articulation than English, with more stressed syllables, but fewer clearly articulated vowels, giving a dull, staccato ‘jabber‟ effect.
- The use of glottal stops before initial vowels, a common feature of Arabic, thus breaking up the natural catenations of English.
- A general reluctance to omit consonants, once the written form is known, e.g. / klaimbed/ for climbed
Vowel Table no (2-1)
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i׃ i
Е æ ∂
ᴐi ᵅ׃

ᴐ׃ ᶷ әᶷ
iә ᵤ׃

ᴣ׃
ә
ᶷә
аᶷ∂
Shaded phonemes have equivalents or near equivalents in Arabic and should therefore be perceived and articulated without great difficulty, although some confusion may still arise. Unshaded phonemes may cause problems. As in Table no (2-1).
While virtually all vowels may cause problems, the following are the most common confusions:
1. / i / and/e/ are often confused: bit for bet.
2. /a/ and / / are often confused: cot for caught.
3. Diphthongs /ei/ and /ᴐ׃/ are usually pronounced rather short, and are confused with /e/ and /a:/ red for raid; hop for hope.
Consonants
Table no (2-2)
p B f
v θ ð t d s Z ∫
ʒ t∫ ᵈᴣ k g m N
ᶇ 1
r j w h
Shaded phonemes have equivalents or near equivalents in Arabic, and should therefore be perceived and articulated without great difficulty, although some confusion may still arise. Unshaded phonemes may cause problems. As clearly stated below:
1. Arabic has only one letter in the /g/-/ʤ/ area, which is pronounced as /g/ in some regions, notably Egypt, and as / ʤ/ in others.
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2. Arabic speakers tend, therefore to pronounce an English g, and sometimes even a /ʤ/, in all positions according to their local dialects.
3. / t∫/ as a phoneme is found only in a few dialects, but the sound occurs naturally in all dialects in juncture of /t/ and /ʃ/
4. There are two approximations to the English /h/ in Arabic. The commoner of them is an unvoiced, harsh aspiration; Arabic speakers tend therefore to pronounce an English /h/ rather harshly.
5. /r/ is a voiced flap, very unlike the RP /r/. Arabic speakers commonly over pronounce the post-vocalic r, as in car park.
6. /p/ and /b/ are allophonic and tend to be used rather randomly:
I baid ten bence for bicture of Pig Pen.
7. /v/ and /f/ are allophonic, and are usually both pronounced as /f/.
It is a fery nice fillage.
8. /g/ and /k/ are often confused, especially by those Arabs whose dialects do not include the phoneme /g/. Pairs like goat/coat and bag/back cause difficulty.
9. Although /θ/ and /ð/ occur in literary Arabic, most dialects pronounce them as /t/ and /d/ respectively. The same sounds tends to happen in students’ English.
I think dat dey are brudders
10. The phoneme / ŋ / is usually pronounced as /n/ or /ng/ , or even /nk/.
2-2-2 Consonant cluster
The range of consonant clusters occurring in English is much wider than in Arabic. Initial two-segment clusters not
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occurring in Arabic include: pr, pl, gr, gl, thw, sp. Initial three-segment clusters do not occur in Arabic at all, e.g. ; spr, skr, str, spl. In all of the above cases there is a tendency among Arabic speakers to insert short vowels to ‘assist’pronunciation:
‘perice ’ or ‘pirice’for price
‘ ispring’ or ‘sipring’for spring
The range of final clusters is also much smaller in Arabic. Of the three-segment clusters and fourteen four-segment clusters occurring finally in English, none occurs in Arabic. Arabic speakers tend again to insert short vowels.
‘ arrangid’ For arranged
‘ monthiz’ For months
‘ neckist’ For next
Teachers will meet innumerable examples of such pronunciations, which also carry over into the spelling of such words in Arab students’ written English.
Note: For a detailed comparative analysis of English and Arabic consonant clusters (and much other useful information) .
2-3Rhythm and Stress
Arabic is a stress-timed language, and word stress in particular is predictable and regular. Arabic speakers, therefore, have problems grasping the unpredictable nature of English word stress. The idea that stress can alter meaning, as in a toy ‘factory and a ‘toy factory or con’vict (verb) and ’convict (noun) is completely strange.
Phrase and sentence rhythms are similar in the two languages, and should cause few problems. Primary stresses occur more frequently in Arabic, and unstressed syllables are
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pronounced more clearly, with neutral vowels, but not ‘swallowed‟ as in English. Arabs reading English aloud will often avoid contracted forms and elisions, and read with a rather heavy staccato rhythm.
2-3-1 Intonation
Intonation patterns in Arabic similar to those of English in contour and meaning .Questions, suggestions and offers are marked much more frequently by a rising tune than by any structural markers, and this is carried over into English.
When reading aloud, however, as opposed to conversing, the Arabic speaker tends to intone or chant, reducing intonation to a low fall at the ends of phrases and sentences.
2-3-2 Juncture
As the glottal stop is a common phoneme in Arabic, and few words begin with a vowel, there is resistance in speaking English to linking a final consonant with a following initial vowel.
Junctures producing consonant clusters will cause problems, as described under the section ‘Consonant clusters’. A juncture such as next spring produces a number of extra vowels.
The many instances of phonetic change in English through the juncture of certain phonemes, e.g. /tʃ/ /ʤ/ as in what you need / wat∫u: ni:d /, or /d/ and / ʤ/ as in Did you see him? / / are resisted strongly by Arabic speakers, who see any loss of or change in consonant pronunciation as a serious threat to communication.
2-4 Influence of English spelling on pronunciation:
While there are no similarities between the Arabic and English writing systems, Arabic spelling within its own system is
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simple and virtually phonetic. Arabic speakers tend, therefore, to attempt to pronounce English words phonetically. Add to this the reverence for consonants, and you get severe pronunciation problems caused by the influence of the written form:
’ istobbed‘ For stopped
‘ forigen’ For foreign
2-5 General Problems of Arab Learners of English
Arab learners of English encounter problems in both speaking and writing. This fact has been clearly stated by many researchers, e.g. Abdul Haq (1982), Harrison, Prator and Tucker (1975), Abbad (1988) and Wahba (1998). The students in Jordan, for example, learn English in their home country where the native language is Arabic. The only way to learn English in Jordan is through formal instruction, i.e. in the classroom where language teachers are native speakers of Arabic. There is little opportunity to learn English through natural interaction in the target language which is only possible when students encounter native speakers of English who come to the country as tourists.
Many studies have been conducted in Jordan to investigate lexical, syntactical and phonological errors made by Jordanian school learners of English (e.g., Abdul Haq, 1982; Zughoul and Taminian, 1984). Abdul Haq (1982: 1) states that "One of the linguistic areas in which students in the secondary cycle commit errors is in the writing skill". He adds "There are general outcries about the continuous deterioration of the standards of English proficiency of students among school teachers, university instructors and all who are concerned
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with English language teaching." In support of Abdul Haq's view, Zughoul (1984:4) finds that "Jordanian EFL students commit serious lexical errors while communicating in English."
The Ministry of Education in Jordan has specified goals of teaching English at the secondary stage. Among such goals, students should be able to write English passages that are grammatically correct, properly punctuated and effectively organized. They are also expected to understand and communicate using a variety of notions and linguistic functions based on everyday situations. Accordingly, all Jordanian secondary school graduates are expected to develop native–like facility in English, which will enable them to communicate spontaneously, effectively and confidently about a broad range of topics (Jayyusi et al, 1990). The results of the studies conducted in Jordan lead to the conclusion that the goals set by the ministry of education are ambitious and have not been achived,
In the Sudan, Kambal (1980) analyzes errors in three types of free compositions written by first- year Sudanese University students. The study gives an account of the major syntactic errors in the verb phrase and the noun phrase made by these students in an attempt to improve the quality of the remedial English program in the context of the Arabization in the Sudan.
Kambal (ibid.) reports on three main types of error in the verb phrase: verb formation, tense, and subject-verb agreement. He discusses errors in tense under five categories: tense sequence, tense substitution, tense marker, deletion, and confusion of perfect tenses. With regard to subject-verb
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agreement, three types of error were identified. These involve the third-person singular marker used redundantly, and the incorrect form of verb to be.
Similarly, Egyptian learners of English face problems, but the majority of these problems is related to pronunciation. Wahba (1998:36) summarizes these problems:
Egyptian students face certain problems related to pronunciation. Some of these problems are related to stress, others are related to intonation. However, most of these problems can be attributed to the differences in pronunciation between English and Arabic.
In Yemen, the situation is almost the same as in the other Arab countries. Abbad (1988:15) admits the weakness of Yemeni learners of English, and adds that "in spite of the low proficiency level in English of most applicants, they are accepted into the department." This is what happens in most of the Arab universities. English language departments accept high school graduates without taking into consideration their proficiency level and whether or not they will be able to manage in a program of English studies. Above all, another important area of difficulty that Arab learners of English have is communication. Arab learners find it difficult to communicate freely in the target language. This may be due to the methods of language teaching. It can be also due to the learning environment which some judge to be unsuitable for learning a foreign language. This is noticeable in Jordan where the formal language of communication is Arabic.
Every language has a rule for combining sound segments to make meaningful words. Children adopt these sound rules
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through listening followed by trial and error. Later they develop a linguistic competence through which they recognize and produce meaningful sounds.
On the other hand, when students learn a second or foreign language, they face some overlaps because of the very different phoneme systems of both languages. So, when they try to speak a second language, they produce the sounds which are closest to the sounds and also exist in their mother tongue. For example, most Arab speakers pronounce the words play and cheap as blay and sheep. This kind of pronunciation problem creates a big hindrance in the process of communication amongst speakers. Moreover, it spoils the teaching and learning efforts in second language learning settings.
―Trubetzkoy (1939, as cited in Rakas, 2008) said that the phonological system of a language is like a sieve through which everything that is said passes….. Each person acquires the system of his mother tongue. But when he hears another language spoken he intuitively uses the familiar "phonological sieve" of his mother tongue to analyze what has been said. However, since this sieve is not suited for the foreign language, numerous mistakes and mispronunciations are the result. The sounds of the foreign language receive an incorrect phonological interpretation since they are strained through the "phonological sieve" of one's own mother tongue‖. (p.2)
In the author’s two and half years of experience teaching English to Saudi students at the Preparatory Year level, it has been found that the students are hardly able to pronounce certain consonant sounds correctly. For example, the voiceless bilabial plosive /p/ has no counterpart in the phonemic system of Arabic
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language, thus, its voiceless-ness is not easily realized by Saudi students, and it is always replaced by its voiced counterpart /b/, which has a phonemic value in the Arabic phonemic system.
The same case is noticed with the palato-alveolar affricates /tʃ/, palato-alveolar fricatives /ʒ/ and labio-dental fricatives /v/. The sounds / tʃ /, /ʒ/ and /v/ don’t have counterparts in the Arabic consonantal system and are not normally realized by Saudi students, consequently these are often replaced by the sounds /ʃ/, /dʒ, ʃ or z/ and /f/ respectively—for example, the sound /tʃ/ as in cheap is replaced by the sound /ʃ/ as in sheep; the sound /ʒ/ as in leisure is replaced by the sound /dʒ/ as in ledger or by the sound /z/ as in laser and finally the sound /v/ as in vine is replaced by the sound /f/ as in fine.
The alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/ are not the cause of major obstacles, but they are pronounced by Saudi students as inter-dental, rather than alveolar plosives.
The researcher has observed that the velar nasal /ŋ/, which is a single consonant represented in English writing by two letters (-ng), is also mispronounced by many Saudi students. As a result, they pronounce the word (heating = /hi:tiŋ/) as /hi:ti-n-g/, (visiting = /visitiŋ/ ) as /visiti-n-g/ etc.
2-6 Inconsistency of English Vowels
One of the important problems faced by the students of English in the general and the Sudanese student of English is that each English vowel sound has more than just one pronunciation. So this causes many difficulties to the learners and leads them to mispronunciation (cruttenden, 1994) noted that “the main difficulty for all those whose own languages have a less complex
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vowel system, lies in the establishment of the qualitative opposition. Instead of using exact quality and quantity of a special sound, the learner erroneously changes either the quality or the quantity off the sound, so in certain word the learner tends to use the variant sound e.g. in words like son /sᴧn/ ,come /kᴧm/ ,among /∂mᴧᵑ/, monkey /mᴧᵑki/, blood /blᴧd/, flood /flᴧd/. in all these words /o/ and /oo/ stand for the same sound of /ᴧ/, but most of the learners, unless they have mastery of the pronunciation of such vowels , they pronounce/ᴐ/ or /ᴜ:/ in the place of /ᴧ/ this is because of their first background about each sound, so they picture this thought in their minds as if each vowel has only one type of pronunciation and if that is true the learner can easily know and expect how to pronounce each word even if is seeing for the first time, that if each letter represents only one phoneme, but in fact the situation is not like this and that is one of the basic problems of English” .
(O‟Conner, 2003:8) reported that it is not simple to know the exact sounds the letters stand for represent in ascertain word for instance in the words city /siti/, busy /bizi/, women /wimin/, pretty /priti/, village /viliʤ/, English /iᶇgliʃ / the letter y, u, o, a, e, all of them stand for the same vowel /i/ in words like banana /b∂nɑ׃n∂/, bather /beið∂(r)/ the (a) stands for five different vowels sound. The learner, who doesn‟t have sufficient knowledge of different pronunciation of the vowels above, meet same difficulty, since he use different variants of their pronunciation. (Power, 2003) found that there are 23 common pronunciation problems, some of them are related to vowels e.g. the student confuse /i/ with /i:/ as in sit , seat , and /ᴝ/ with /∂ᴜ/ as in not , note, and /æ/ with /еi/ as in mat , mate and /e/ with /ei/
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as in let ,late.
Researchers and linguistic always connect such problems with the complexity of the vowels system that exists in English and the inconsistency of its pronunciation. (Crittenden, 1994) noted that the inconsistency of English vowels causes difficulties for other language e.g. if we take for instance “o” sound in some words like some, move, home, women, in each word it is has different pronunciation as /ʌ/, /u: /, /∂ᴜ/,/i/ so the English learners who don‟t have the mastery of the pronunciation of such words the letter will also face difficulties. On the other hand word such as book, butcher, could wolf etc in all these words the letters oo, u, ou, o, are all pronounced the same /u:/ so in the first example we have same letters with different pronunciation of the letter a consider water, same, fat, the letter (a) has three different pronunciation as /ᴝ:/,/ei/ ,/æ ð / ,so many of Sudanese student of English tend to pronounce /ei/ instead of /æ/ e.g. /feit for /fæt/. Also in word such as rich, symbol, English, private, woman, the litters i, y , e, a ,o .all of them are pronounced as /i/ so we have /riʧ / , /simbl/ ,/iᶇgliʃ/ ,/praivit/ ,/wimin/ .in such word ,errors expected to be committed by the Sudanese students of English are unless they are already taught and trained in their different pronunciations. each of the litters we use to show pronunciation may stand for instance in banana /b∂ɑ:n∂/, bather /bei ð(r)/ , man /mæn/ ,many /meni/ the letter (a) stand for five different vowel sounds ;if the learner has no knowledge about this inconsistency , this will lead him to wrong pronunciation (O‟Connor,2003).
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2-7 The Problems and the Reasons
According to the results of the previous research, it can be said that many of Sudanese learners mispronounce the above problems in the pronunciation of /p/ , /θ/ ,/ð/ ,/ʧ/ , /v/originally , the researcher assumed that some Sudanese learners mispronounce the above consonant , because they do not exist in their L1(Sudanese learners). The findings support the view and go in the same way with the theory that Sudanese learners mispronounce the above consonant, because they do not exist in Sudanese spoken Arabic L1 language e.g. sound like /θ/, /ð/ are found in Arabic, so Arab learners do not find a problem to pronounce them .on other hand these sounds are not present in Sudanese spoken Arabic so the learners tend to produce the sounds nearest to them e.g. /z/ for /ð/ and /s/for /θ/ ,/b/ for /p/ this is because their tongue accustomed to pronounce such sounds, or their tongue are not able to achieve the exact movements to utter such sounds, on the other hand their tongues get stiff from pronouncing particular sound of their L2.that‟s why many speakers of other language mispronounce the sounds that do not exist in their L1(O‟Connor,2003:85) .
2-8 Phonetics and Pronunciation
In order to learn any language, a person must be aware of its different skills; because this helps in understanding the language mastering phonetics is great importance for a person who is seeking success in learning English language or any other language. Knowing the production of sounds combines and function …etc help the learner a lot to progress and develop in his pronunciation reported that “people who are going to work with
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language at advanced level as teachers or researchers need the deeper understanding provided by the study of grammatical theory and related areas of linguistic”. So to understand the principles and the system that organizes and rules the sounds in spoken English, the learner need to master phonetics, in order to expect a good English pronunciation from the learners, they must be able to identify the different English sounds (orthography and phonology) and these small units of sound (vowels and consonants) are known as ( phonemes).
“The learner should be able to differentiate between the vowels in pen and ben and the consonants at the beginning of the words like pet and bet because this is something confusing, it is very important for the learner to think of English pronunciation in terms of phoneme rather than letters. The learner must know that the words such as enough and inept begin with the same phoneme /i/, and the word enough ends with the same phoneme as in stuff. The Learner, who is aware of phonetics transcription, transcribes it and pronounces it correctly. Many of the students suffer from this problem, because of their lack of knowledge of phonetics and phonology” (O‟Connor, 2003:79) showed that in the learning of pronunciation there are two stages, which the learner must know to be unworried when dealing with English sounds. The first one is that the learner should be able to pronounce different 44 vowels and consonant, so that the words and other longer utterances do not sound the same, so feel /fi:l/ is different from fill /fil/ and heat /hi:t/ is different from eat /i:t/ in the second stage, the learner must be able to use as many different sound so as to represent particular phoneme. If the learner has good mastery of phonetics, then he
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will be able to transcribe word and pronounces them or check their pronunciation on the dictionary.
2-9 Speech Intelligibility Problems of Sudanese EFL leaner’s
The primary function of language is social contact, which takes place between human beings anywhere they are. A person speaks to influence the actions of his/her fellows, i.e. to involve them into interactions. In all situations of language use, there are two major roles, which are played by the speech participants – speaker and hearer. Normally, these two functional roles are present either actually or implicitly in every speech act when the speech participants achieve successful communication: i.e. when the hearer understands what the speaker says, the speech act is described as intelligible. However, when a speech participant fails to understand the speaker‟s message, the speech is said to be unintelligible. Failure to understand or produce intelligible speech has recently been classified by linguists as speech intelligibility problems which may result from the hearer‟s or the speaker‟s side or from both due to linguistic factors. Moreover, linguists assume that most speech intelligibility problems occur between L1 and L2 speakers coming from different language environments.
2-10 Sound system differences between L1and L2
As it has been mentioned by many linguists and researches, there is conflict between the sound systems of L1 and L2 (Moosa, 1972) noted that Arab learners of English from habits of their mother tongue (Arabic), so they strongly build the phonological features of Arabic, this makes them encounter many difficulties in distinguishing sound system between a native language and the second language. For the SSA we discuss the problem from two
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perspectives, the first one that there is difference between the sound systems in Sudanese spoken Arabic and the sound system in other forms of Arabic language and the second one is that there is also a difference between the sounds system in Sudanese spoken Arabic, and the sound system in English language.
Another study on the effect of sound system on learning pronunciation showed that the main problem in teaching and learning English pronunciation results from the differences in the sound system of English and the native language, so a speaker of Sudanese spoken Arabic is not accustomed to pronounce for instance /θ/ and /ð/ sound because they do not in his native language. This means that the organs of speech of the leaner are not trained to produce such sound systems because they are unfamiliar to him; that is way he uses the nearest sounds such as /s/ and /z/.about the same area of the study that in the field of (SLA), learners with different linguistic backgrounds would of course face different difficulties in order to produce English sounds. Because of the differences between the two languages (e.g. English and Arabic).
These differences between the sound systems are regarded as a barrier against competence in the pronunciation of English, because the new sounds still remain strange for their organs of speech specially if they start learning English after the age of adulthood, but this problem is expected to be solved after along time of regular practice and hard work.
A study about the same literature is found in Better English Pronunciation which, in further details, the book discusses the problems of English pronunciation for other languages speakers,
- 26 -
accompanied with the some trains and techniques that the help students improve their English pronunciation.
A similar research showed that as if all sounds we use when we speak exist inside boxes, each sound has certain box; when a speaker won‟t to speak, he takes the sound he needs, and when he hears the speech from another speaker, he receives the sounds and put each one inside the right box. If this speaker doesn‟t have /p/, /θ/, /ð/ boxes, this is a problem, but he solves this problem by going to the nearest box each sound e.g. /b/, /s/, /z/ (O‟Connor, 2003:79).
The above example is also true for the Sudanese students of English because /p/, /θ/, /ð/ do not exist in Sudanese spoken Arabic. So the difference in the sound systems between theL1 and L2 is his significant reason of this shifting from each sound to the other sound close to it. The main difficulty for all the foreign learners whose own languages have less complex vowel lies in the in the establishment of the qualitative opposition. Although /ŋ/ is a phoneme in English, in Italian however the velar nasal /ŋ/ is an allophone /n/, which occurs before /k/ and /g/ (Cruttend , 1994) in Arabic and Sudanese spoken Arabic there is no sound such as /ŋ/, so that is why tend to pronounce it as /n/ in words such as spelling/speliŋ/ they pronounce it /spelin/.
Most of the Sudanese students of English face such problem because in Arabic the vowel system is very simple and the learner can read an Arabic word easily without any confusion, but in English he may pronounce /i/ for /e/ for example /sit/ , /set/. Also about sound system differences between L1 andL2. In English the /r/ after is distinctly pronounced only before a vowel e,g. the /r/
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after a vowel is not pronounced. In Arabic however, the /r/ -sound is distinctly pronounced in all positions, before or after a vowel. So the Sudanese students of English pronounce /r/ in any position of an English word for instance in words like red, room, and river in Arabic, each letter represents only one sound so it`s easy to read any word from a written text. Also there is no sound which is not pronounced (silent), as it happen so much in English. When there is a difference in the sound system in the L1 and L2 (Nunan, 2001) showed that errors are expected to be committed because the learners transfer their mother tongue sound system into the target language.
The Sudanese learners of English as speakers of Arabic tend to replace /v/ by /f/ or /b/ because this sound dose not exists in their native language sound system. So their speech organs are not trained to produce such sound.
They pronounce very as berry or ferry and van as fan. The learners difficulties in a L2 could be predicted based on systematic differences of the two languages, and those learners from different first language backgrounds would experience different difficulties when attempting to learn a L2. It was also reported that it is essential to understand which sound in a language are phonemes because they express the differences in meaning and the learner should be able to pronounce them, otherwise he commits errors. In Spanish sound system for instance there is no distinction between /b/ and /v/ which makes it difficult for Spanish learners of English to perceive and pronounce the difference between /b/ and /v/ as in berry, very (Nunan; Carter, 2001). The same example is true for Sudanese students of English, and it is not a matter of no distinction but in
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fact there is no /v/ sound in Sudanese Spoken Arabic, that is also true of / ð / and / θ/ so the Sudanese learners tend to pronounce such sounds by replacing them with the close sounds to them in the place of articulation.
(O`Connor,2003:79) showed that in English language there are twenty –four consonants and twenty vowels ; that means there are forty-four phonemes in English the learner should be able t produce them while he is learning English. Learners of different language backgrounds will of course face some difficulties to pronounce them because of their language background; for instance in Arabic language the whole number of the sounds is less than the one in English language, so the total sounds of Arabic language are twenty-eight letters each of them represent only one sound. So there are only twenty-eight movement of the organs of speech, so to produce any sound that means to perform the exact organs movement of the sound. If the learner`s language sound system has not any of the forty-four English sounds, he will face a difficulty to produce it e.g. (ð, θ, p, v) sounds which do not exist in Sudanese Spoken Arabic sound system, so Sudanese students pronounce them incorrectly and the reason for that is the differences between the sound system in the L1 and L2. 2-11 Predictions of Learning Problems of English Vowels
Linguists believe that learning problems of L2 phonemes experienced by a second language learner can be predicted to some extent from differences of phonemes, allophones, absence of a sound, the distribution of these sounds within syllable and the functional load of these sound units in the two languages.
This section provides linguistic information about the similarities and differences that exist between English and Arabic language sound systems. The section will attempt to survey the types of learning errors
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which may occur due to phonetic and phonological differences between English and the learners’ L1 (Arabic) using the data of the related studies.
Table 2.1 below provides some patterns of phonemes which exist in the English vowel inventory but which may or may not exist in the Arabic inventory. This information is useful in making predictions of the learning problems which Sudanese learners of English are assumed to face.
Table (2-3) some predictions of learning problems of English vowels. It provides accounts for the sort of errors assumed to be made by Sudanese EFL learners.
Vowel
Learning problem or error
/ æ /
Different from that of Arabic; often realized as /a:/.
/ɑ/
Absent in Arabic inventory; may be confused with other English
Vowels. It may be confused with Sudanese /a:/ and /o/.
/ʌ/
Distinctive for English and totally absent from Arabic. Learners may
find difficulty to learn this sound or confuse it with English vowels
Such ᴐ/, ᴐ: / or Arabic /a/.
/ ׃ /ᴣ
Absent from Arabic. It is expected to be replaced by English sounds
Like /e/ or / ᴐ:/.
/ᵉᴵ/
Standard Arabic has/ ᵉᴵ/. The vowel inventory of Sudanese Arabic
Has /e/ but it does not have /ᵉᴵ/. So, this diphthong might be reduced
To /e/ or confused with / ᴣ:/.
/ ׃ /ᵤ
Different from Arabic /u/. It may be substituted for tense vowels
like / ᴐ: / or /u:/
/ᵅ׃ /
Almost absent from Arabic as there is no qualitative opposition to it
It may be difficult to recognize or pronounce.
/ ׃ /ᴐ
Different from Arabic. It may be difficult to recognize or pronounce
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And is often substituted for English/ ׃ /ᴐ /. Learners may also substitute
it for Arabic ׃ /ᴐ :/ which should be articulated with more open
Mouth. In RP the vowel is slightly higher while the lips are closely
Rounded.
/ ᴐ ׃ ,әᶷ /
Absent from Arabic. It may be difficult to recognize or pronounce.
Learners may find it difficult to distinguish between these vowels
Particularly in words such as taught, saw and ought which share / ᴐ ׃ /.
/ₑₔ/
Absent from Arabic vowel inventory. It may be difficult to recognize
Or pronounce.
/ᶷ, u:, ᴵ, i /
Similar to Arabic high front /i/ and back /u/. However, learners
May substitute these vowels due to cross-language differences.
These English vowels often require quality, quantity or both.
/ₑ, æ , ʌ/
the combination of these short vowels can cause perception or
pronunciation problems which lie in the establishment of the qualitative
Opposition between /e~æ/ in bed ~ bad, /æ~ ʌ / in pat ~ putt.
Resource: Michael, S .and Bernard, S. (2001)
2-12 Theses and dissertation
1- An Analysis of Syntactic Errors In Written And Oral Productions By: Gamar Addawla Abbas Mohammed Al.Booni(2003) PhD .
The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze the syntactic errors in the written and oral performance in English language made by students of the fir year at the Faculty of Arts, University of Khartoum, who were enrolled in the university required intermediate English course
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which covers the two semesters .The study is based on the following hypotheses: the students will improve in both written and oral production at the end of the second semester, the students’ average performance in written and oral production will increase at the end of the second semester, students’ performance in writing is expected to be better than in speaking in the two semesters, female students will make improvement in both written and oral production. articles, prepositions, verbs will be the areas of difficulties in the students’ learning process and the interference of the mother tongue will be the obvious source of many errors made by students during the two semesters, particularly, verb to be, prepositions, articles, and repetition of subject and object. The sample of the study consists of 250 students. They were selected randomly. Of this number 102 were males and 148 females. Two tests were used to collect the data, Oral test and written tests. For the purpose of the oral tests the students were divided into small groups and they were asked to talk about a given topic. The students’ oral production was recorded at the end of each semester. For the purpose of the written production the subjects’ composition were taken from their answers to the first and second semesters’ final exams. The errors were classified and tabulated in both written and oral production .Two statistical approaches of data analysis have been employed in this study, namely the descriptive and inductive approaches. The Descriptive analysis is concerned mainly with
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describing the performance of the students as well as the numbers and types of errors found in the written and oral production at the end of the first and second semesters for the whole sample (250). This has been provided in forms of frequencies, percentages, measures of control tendency (mean), measures of dispersion (standard deviations) and coefficient of variation. With regard to inductive analysis, it has focused mainly on testing the hypotheses of the research. Two types of tests were used: (Binomial test) and (T. test). The binomial test was used to test the equality of percentage of errors achieved by students in written and oral production at the end of the first and second semesters. The main objective of the test is to show if there is significant improvement being achieved in written and oral production in the second semester. The T. test, on the other hand, was used for two reasons. First, to see if there is significant difference in average performance of students in oral and written production at the end of first and second semester second, it was used to compare and contrast between the average performance of the male and female students in written and oral production in the two semesters. The results of this study have almost confirmed the hypotheses.
This study takes difference between male and female language and my studies did not address the gender difference depending on sex, but the differences between first language Arabic and second language
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English sample of the study was takes first year students and I took last year that students have studied sounds.
2-Speech intelligibility problems of Sudanese learners of English An experimental approach By: Ezzeldin Mahmoud Tajeldin Ali( 2011)
This is a study on the pronunciation and perception of English sounds and words by university students of English in Sudan, whose native language is Sudanese Arabic. The study aims to establish the intelligibility of Sudanese-Arabic (SA) accented English for native English (British and American) listeners and Dutch listeners who use English as a lingua franca. The intelligibility of SA-accented English is compared with that of native English. The study also investigates how well the SA students of English identify English sounds and recognize English words in simple sentences spoken by a native English speaker. The perception tests show that the intelligibility of SA-accented English is predominantly compromised by incorrect pronunciation of the English vowels. This finding was predicted from a contrastive analysis of the Arabic and English sound inventories. The SA learners of English produced the vowels consonants and consonant clusters of English in controlled materials. Acoustic analyses were carried out in order to establish the differences in pronunciation between SA-accented and native British pronunciation. The comparison revealed substantial discrepancies between the native and non-native varieties, which can be used to explain the degraded intelligibility of SA-accented English. Written questionnaires were administered in which both SA students of English and their instructors were asked to identify strengths and weaknesses in the students’ production and perception of English sounds and words, and to speculate on the underlying causes of the difficulties.
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The results show that the SA learners as well as their instructors have clear intuitions on where the weaknesses are, and that these intuitions correspond closely to the experimental findings of the perception experiments and the acoustic analyses. This book is of relevance to (applied) linguists and language teachers in general and to specialists on the teaching of English pronunciation and listening skills to university students with an Arabic native language background.
3- Pronunciation problems By: Alkhier M .E.(2007) master degree
This study investigates the problem in English pronunciation experienced by learners whose first language is Sudanese spoken Arabic in other words to find the problematic sounds and the factors that cause this problem. Then find some techniques that help the Sudanese student of English improve their pronunciation the subjects for the study were fifty students from university of Sudan of Science and Technology (SUST) and thirty university teachers of English language from some university.
The instrument used for collecting the data were observation recording and structured questionnaire the data collected were analyzed both statistically and discretely. The findings of the study revealed that Sudanese student of English whose language background is Sudanese spoken Arabic, had problems with the pronunciation of English vowels that have more than one way of pronunciation in addition to the consonant sound contrasts e.g. /z/ and /ð / ,/s/ and /θ/, /b/ and /p/ /ʃ / and /tʃ/.
Based on the findings, the study concluded that factors such as interference, the differences’ in sound system in the two languages, inconsistency of English sounds and spelling militate against Sudanese student of English competence in pronunciation.
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Much research has been conducted discussing the various problems of Sudanese learners of English but there has been very little discussion to the various way s of solving these problems or taking the importance of the development of foreign language learners.
Therefore in this research I intend to present pronunciation problems encountered by Sudanese of English then, I briefly discuss language problems specific to English department in Sudan University of science and technology, I also highlights the reason behind such problems, finally I present the solution to such present problems with special reference to the significance of strategic competence and the use of pronunciation strategies in language teaching.
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CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES
3.0 Introduction
The previous chapter has presented review of related literature to the topic. Some factors that influence learning English were discussed. This chapter introduces methodology of the study, tools of the study, population, sample of the study, and reliability and validity.
The tools used for collecting the data and the information needed for this study were observation, tape recordings and questionnaire. All the data were analyzed later on statistical and descriptive basis.
3.1 Methodology of the Study
3.1.1 Population and Sample of the Study
The original population of this study was all the students of English at all the sample of the study contained two parts, the first part was (50) of the students who were chosen from Sudan University of Science and Technology - SUST. The (80) students were chosen to do the recording for the study test. The second part of the sample was (20) of the teachers of English. The, teachers responded to a questionnaire on the exact sounds which the students mispronounce and the reasons for pronunciation problems of students at SUST.
The researcher followed the descriptive and statistic method in this study. And as it is known the descriptive researches attempt to describe the problems and the phenomenon as it is. i.e. describes the phenomenon and explains it. Then offer the recommendations for solving the problem. Also the analytical method was used in this study, to test the hypotheses of the study by using suitable statistical procedures.
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3.2 Tools of Data Collection
It is known that the tool of any study is the instrument which any researcher uses for collecting the required data for the study. There are many types of tools used in the field of scientific research. In this research, the researcher depended on observation; to collect the data from the sample of the learners. On the other hand, a structured questionnaire was used to collect the information from the sample of the students. The questionnaire contained (23) items reflects the opinions and ideas of the students about the pronunciation of some Sudanese learners of English. In the questionnaire each learners was asked to choose one answer according to the Tri Regression Measurement, which contains five levels (strongly agree -agree-not sure-disagree- strongly disagree).
3.2.1 Observation
Observation was the first tool, which was used in this research. To obtain information about errors, the researcher engaged in direct conversations with the learners inside the classroom during their university day A number of topics, which are of particular interest to the students, were discussed The learner s first day at the university, unforgettable story and Sudanese traditions and customs While the students were doing this, the researcher was taking notes about some particular sounds he expected that the students cannot pronounce correctly, or which the learners may replace with other sounds which may be close to them in the place of production.
The hypotheses were that the Sudanese learners pronounce /b/instead of /p/, /s/ instead of /θ/, /z/ instead of /ð/, /f / instead of /v/ Most of the students were very interested and they were very happy to express
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themselves in English, while they were doing that, the researcher was writing notes carefully about their errors
At the end of the process of the observation it was found that many of the Sudanese learners face such problems for instance most of them pronounce /b/ instead of /p/ for example in words such as “pen”, “happy”, also they pronounce /s/ instead of /θ/ in words such as “thank”, “both” etc Some notes were written about the Sudanese learners pronunciation of some English vowels for instance they pronounce /ai/ instead of/i/ in words such as “infinite”, “service”, and some of them pronounce /ei/ instead of /ʒ: / in words such as “also” and “fall” Errors of pronunciation in the same sounds were tested using observation of a chosen number of sentences It is noteworthy that observed.
3.2.2 Questionnaire
The second tool used in this study was a structured questionnaire, which was prepared in collaboration with some learners of English at SUST and refereed by five doctors from different universities. five lechers at the Sudan University of Science and Technology, faculty of Education Dr. Montasir Hassan mubark, Mr. Hassan Mahil, staff members at the department of English language Dr.Mohmed alamin elshingete the dean of college of languages in Alribat University and Dr Abdul Mahmoud Idriss Ibrahim from Elzaim Alazhry University and Dr.Sayed Arbab form Africa international university. For the faith validity, the questionnaire was designed to collect the data that support the study and to confirm findings from the preceding tools used in collecting the data. For the validity of the questionnaire before distributing it to the whole members of the sample, a number of ten questionnaires were given to five teachers of‟ English as pilot group; all of them answered the questions easily. After that these five questionnaires were taken as a sample and analyzed
- 39 -
statistically to make the reliability and the validity coefficient so each questionnaire inconsistency of some English vowels and consonants; also weather the sound system differences between Arabic and English have a role in such problems of pronunciation. And finally the last part of the questionnaire asked the respondents to say their opinions about the recommending solutions for such errors e.g. weather looking up words in the dictionary and listening to the English sounds and words in the audio aids help Sudanese learners of English improve their English pronunciation.
The statistical treatments used for the questionnaire were the median, standard deviation and Chi-square test was also used to confirm the figures. The result was very acceptable, and all the statistical procedures were done by a specialist university scholar using a computer and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). All that helped a lot to obtain very accurate results and findings and to make sure of the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. After that, the results and the findings of the questionnaire were analyzed descriptively and statistically of the questionnaire also did the reliability and the validity and all the statistical treatments. The results and the information of the questionnaire and the recordings will be reviewed with a short comment in the next chapter and discussed in farther details in the last chapter at the end of the study.
3.4.0 Reliability and Validity of the questionnaire
It is meant by the reliability of any test, to obtain the same results if the same measurement is used more than one time under the same conditions. Also the reliability means when a certain test is applied on a number of individuals and the marks of every one were counted; then the same test applied another time on the same group and the same marks were
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obtained; then we can describe this test as reliable. Also reliability is defined as the degree of the accuracy of the data which the test measures.
They have some of the most used methods for calculating the reliability
-split-half using Spearman-Brown equation
-ataractic parallel
-parallel
Reliability coefficient =
3.4.1 Validity of the questionnaire
To ensure the questionnaire meets its face value, it was submitted to five lechers‟ at the Sudan University of Science and Technology, faculty of Education Dr. Montasir Hassn Mubark, Mr. Hassan Mahil, staff members at the department of English language. They expressed their opinions and advised me to make some addition, omissions, and some modifications concerning the scale the items and the statements. Also Dr.Mohmed Alamin Elshingete the dean of college of languages in Alribat University and Dr Abdul Mahmoud Idriss Ibrahim from Elzaim Alazhry University and Dr.Sayed Arbab form International University Africa.
The questionnaire is composed of twenty three statements. Each one tests and measures specific area of the study. The statements concentrate on the exact area to be investigated. The statements divided into two parts to cover the various, essential aspects of the topic to ensure efficiency and validity of the questionnaire, and the observation divided into two parts one of them about the techniques and the other about the method of pronunciations problem.
Validity =
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Chapter Four
Data analysis
This chapter will present the analysis of the results and to make sure that these results have been proved as mention earlier in chapter three
1- Sudanese Learners of English pronounce /f / instead of / v / in words like
‘‘have‟‟ ’’ Van‘‘ ‘‘marvel‟‟.
Table No (4-1)
Figure No (4-1) shows the result of statement No (1)
The calculated value of student answer of the first items English consonant which do not exist in Sudanese spoken Arabic while Sudanese learners encounter problems with pronunciation of thesis consonant of the first learners marvel have van.
According to the result above that strongly agree 26% agree 52% at the end the items are confirmed. The result is that (78%) have a problem in translation /v/.
2- Sudanese Learners of English pronounce / b / instead of /p / in words like ‘‘pen’’ ‘‘map ’’ „„happy‟‟.
26%
52%
12%
2%
8%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
26
52
12
2
8
100
Percentage
26%
52%
12%
2%
8%
100%
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Table No (4-2)
Figure No (4-2) shows the result of statement No (2)
The calculated value of student answer of the first items English consonant which does not exist in Sudanese spoken Arabic while Sudanese learners encounter problems with pronunciation of thesis consonant/p/ replaced it by /b/.
According to the result above that strongly agree 48% agree 41% at the end the items are confirmed. The result is that (89%) have a problem in translation /p/.
3- Sudanese Learners of English pronounce /S/ instead of /θ/ in words like‘‘think’’ „‟math‟‟ „‟mathematics‟‟.
Table No (4-3)
48%
41%
8%
3%
0%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
48
41
8
3
0
100
Percentage
48%
41%
8%
3%
0%
100%
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
46
37
5
10
2
100
Percentage
46%
37%
5%
10%
2%
100%
- 43 -
Figure No (4-3) shows the result of statement No (3)
The most incorrectly sound is dental – fricative /θ/ in the sample the student field to utter the target sound correctly they replaced it with /s/.
According to the result above that strongly agree 46% agree 37% at the end the items are confirmed. The result is that (83%) have a problem in translation / θ /.
4- Sudanese learners of English pronounce / ∫ / instead of / t ∫ / in words like ‘‘much’’ ‘furniture’’.
Table No (4-4)
Figure No (4-4) shows the result of statement No (4)
The most difficult consonant, according to the table post- alveolar affective / t ∫ / it is miss pronounced some of the student replaced it with / ∫ /. In words like much‟‟ „furniture‟‟
46%
37%
5%
10%
2%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
24
33
27
13
3
100
Percentage
24%
33%
27%
13%
3%
100%
24%
33%
27%
13%
3%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Disagree
- 44 -
According to the result above that strongly agree 24% agree 33% at the end the items are confirmed. The result is that (57%) have a problem in translation / ∫ /. 5- Sudanese learners of English pronounce / dʒ / instead of /g/ in words
like‘‘engagement’’.
Table No (4-5)
Figure No (4-5) shows the result of statement No (5)
Sudanese learners of English pronounced / dʒ / instead of /g/ in words like „engagement‟ because this sound has more than one pronunciation.
According to the result above that strongly agree 31% agree 42% at the end the items are confirmed. The result do not means all of sample agree some learners disagree 13% and some learners not sure12%. The result is that (73%) have a problem in translation / g /.
6- Sudanese learners of English pronounce / z / instead of / ð/ in words like ‘‘then’’ „„weather‟‟.
Table No (4-6)
31%
42%
12%
13%
2%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
31
42
12
13
2
100
Percentage
31%
42%
15%
13%
2%
100%
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
38
39
10
3
10
100
Percentage
38%
39%
10%
3%
10%
100%
- 45 -
Figure No (4-6) shows the result of statement No (6)
Most difficult sounds in the pronunciation for the Sudanese learners according to table is voiced dental –fricative / ð/ which 39% of the learners pronounced in correctly as you can see in the table most of them replaced by / z / .
According to the result above that strongly agree 38% agree 39% at the end the items are confirmed. The result do not means all of sample agree some learners disagree 3% strongly disagree 10% and some learners not sure 10%. The result is that (77%) have a problem in translation / ð /. 7- Sudanese learners of English pronounce /gh/ as / ɔ: / instead of / f / in words such like ‘‘cough’’ „„rough‟‟.
Table No (4-7)
Figure No (4-7) shows the result of statement No (7)
The “gh” is not a letter or consonant which has special reprehensive phoneme that student can recognized and master , so here we aimed to
38%
39%
10%
3%
10%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
20%
36%
25%
16%
3%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
20
36
25
16
3
100
Percentage
20%
36%
25%
16%
3%
100%
- 46 -
test pronunciation in particular words like „„cough‟‟ „„rough‟‟ in this word as we know the sound / f / and the error is committed is not case of interference such sounds as /θ/ and /S/ or / ð/ and /z/ the pronunciation of /f/ in this case is not related to the impact of the L1 Sudanese learners the pronunciation because /f/ exist in Sudanese spoken Arabic so we may related such errors to the influence of spelling on pronunciation we concerned “gh” as consistent to see if Sudanese learners pronounced the sound correctly.
According to the result above that strongly agree 20% agree 36% at the end the items are confirmed. The result do not means all of sample agree some learners disagree 16% strongly disagree 3% and some learners not sure 25%. The result is that (56%) have a problem in translation / ɔ: /.
8- Sudanese learners of English pronounce / k/ instead of / s/ in words like
‘‘concern’’.
Table No (4-8)
Figure No (4-8) shows the result of statement No (8)
The consonant C in which we are dealing with inconsistency of some English consonant as we see from table above the subject pronounced with the target sound /k/ correctly in the word “concern” number of subject have a problem with the pronunciation of the soft C /s/ and hard “C” /k/.
27%
36%
10%
19%
8%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
27
36
10
19
8
100
Percentage
27%
36%
10%
19%
8%
100%
- 47 -
According to the result above that strongly agree 27% agree 36% at the end the items are confirmed. The result dose not means all of sample agree some learners disagree 19% strongly disagree 8% and some learners not sure 10%. The result is that (63%) have a problem in translation /s/. 9- Sudanese learners of English pronounce / e/ instead of / i / in
Words like ‘‘experience’’ women’’.
Table No (4-9)
Figure No (4-9) shows the result of statement No (9)
The most SSE pronounced /ai/ instead of /i/ in words like “service” /e/ instead of /i/ in word such as “experience” and “women”.
According to the result above that strongly agree 26% agree 38% at the end the items are confirmed. The result do not means all of sample agree some learners disagree 11% strongly disagree 3% and some learners not sure 22%. The result is that (64%) have a problem in translation /i/.
10- Sudanese learners of English replace / θ / by / s /, / ð / by / z /, / p / by / t ∫ / by / ∫ / because / θ /, / ð /, / p /, / t ∫ / do not exist in Sudanese spoken Arabic.
26%
38%
22%
11%
3%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
26
38
22
11
3
100
Percentage
26%
38%
22%
11%
3%
100%
- 48 -
Table No (4-10)
Figure No (4-10) shows the result of statement No (10)
These items putted to insure the above result it is reliable. According to the result above that strongly agree 34% agree 40% at the end the items are confirmed. The result do not means all of sample agree some learners disagree 8% strongly disagree 4% and some learners not sure 14%. 11- Sudanese learners of English replace / g / by / d ʒ / as engagement because this is inconsistent.
Table No (4-11)
Figure No (4-11) shows the result of statement No (11)
Sudanese learners of English pronounced / dʒ / instead of /g/ in some words such as “engagement”
34%
40%
14%
8%
4%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
12%
36%
35%
13%
4%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
34
40
14
8
4
100
Percentage
34%
40%
14%
8%
4%
100%
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
12
36
35
13
4
100
Percentage
12%
36%
35%
13%
4%
100%
- 49 -
According to the result above that strongly agree 12% agree 36% at the end the items are confirmed. The result do not means all of sample agree some learners disagree 13% strongly disagree 4% and some learners not sure 35%. The result is that (48%) have a problem in translation / d ʒ /.
12- The pronunciation errors among Sudanese learners of English are due to the sound system differences between Arabic language and English
language.
Table No (4-12)
Figure No (4-12) shows the result of statement No (12)
Student support and believe the pronunciation error among the Sudanese learners at due to the differences between Arabic and English.
According to the result above that strongly agree 34% agree 53% at the end the items are confirmed. The result do not means all of sample agree some learners disagree 5% strongly disagree 3% and some learners not sure 5%. According to the result we can see the statement is confirmed. The result is that (87%) have a problem of sound system difference between Arabic and English.
34%
53%
5%
5%
3%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
34
53
5
5
3
100
Percentage
34%
53%
5%
5%
3%
100%
- 50 -
13- Sudanese learners of English mispronounce some English sounds because they predict the pronunciation from the spelling.
Table No (4-13)
Figure No (4-13) shows the result of statement No (13)
According to the result above that strongly agree 33% agree 47% at the end the items are confirmed. The result do not means all of sample agree some learners disagree 5% strongly disagree 2% and some learners not sure 13%.In words like “know” “city”.
14- Looking up in the dictionary help the Sudanese learners of English improve their English pronunciation.
Table No (4-14)
Figure No (4-14) shows the result of statement No (14)
33%
47%
13%
5%
2%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
62%
28%
5%
3%
2%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
33
47
13
5
2
100
Percentage
33%
47%
13%
5%
2%
100%
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
62
28
5
3
2
100
Percentage
62%
28%
5%
3%
2%
100%
- 51 -
The student agrees that looking up words in dictionary helps them to improve their pronunciation.
According to the result above that strongly agree 62% agree 28% at the end the items are confirmed. The result do not means all of sample agree some learners disagree 3% strongly disagree 2% and some learners not sure 5%.
15- Listening to the English words and sound in audio aids e.g. :( CD, tape, TV, sound dictionary etc) help Sudanese learners of English to speak with better pronunciation.
Table No (4-15)
Figure No (4-15) shows the result of statement No (15)
The most students agree that listening to English sound on audio aids improve the pronunciation. According to the result above that strongly agree 69% agree 24% at the end the items are confirmed. The result do not means all of sample agree some learners disagree 2% strongly disagree 2% and some learners not sure 3%.
Section 2 Influence of mother tongue and lack of pronunciation knowledge of the learners
(A) Mother Tongue transfer
69%
24%
3%
2%
2%
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Learners answers
Strongly Agree
agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Total
Frequency
69
24
3
2
2
100
Percentage
69%
24%
3%
2%
2%
100%
- 52 -
1- To what degree are pronunciation errors caused by mother-tongue transfer [Arabic} Of the Sudanese university learner of English?
Table No (4-16)
Learners answers
Never
Rarely
Frequently
Often
Permanently
Total
Frequency
2
12
22
49
15
100
Percentage
2%
12%
22%
49%
15%
100%
Figure No (4-16) shows the result of statement No (A-1)
The phonological differences that exist between English and Sudanese Arabic. It seeks evidence of phonemic contrasts between these languages discussing the potential of how these contrasts affect the learning of the target language It is assumed that there are differences in the inventory of each of these languages that compromise the learners‟ perception and production of English speech sounds.
2- The largest number of pronunciation errors committed by the subjects as result of Mother-tongue transfer appears on the level of:
Table No (4-17)
Learners answers
Consonants
Clusters
Vowels
Both..&..
All
Total
Frequency
15
5
39
3
38
100
Percentage
15%
5%
39%
3%
38%
100%
Figure No (4-17) shows the result of statement No (A-2)
2%
12%
22%
49%
15%
Never
Rarely
Frequenctly
Often
Permanently
15%
5%
39%
3%
38%
Consonants
Clusters
Vowels
Both
All
- 53 -
It is worth noting that the feedback of the students questionnaires reflect the same judgment. That English vowels are more difficult to understand than the consonants.
On the other hand, the results of both the students and the language teachers suggest that the English single and cluster consonants are comparatively better perceived and produced by the Sudanese learners than the vowels. This is probably because the learners are more familiar with consonant sounds than vowels According to the result.
3-To what extent does the mother-tongue transfer influence the learner‟s perception of intelligible speech negatively?
Table No (4-18)
Learners answers
Never
Rarely
Frequently
Often
Permanently
Total
Frequency
6
18
9
49
18
100
Percentage
6%
18%
9%
49%
18%
100%
Figure No (4-18) shows the result of statement No (A-3)
The phonological differences that exist between English and Sudanese Arabic. It seeks evidence of phonemic contrasts between these languages discussing the potential of how these contrasts affect the learning of the target language It is assumed that there are differences in the inventory of each of these languages that compromise the learners‟ perception and production of English speech sounds.
4- To what extent does the mother-tongue transfer influence the learner‟s production of intelligible speech negatively?
6%
18%
9%
49%
18%
Never
Rarely
Frequently
Often
Permanently
- 54 -
Table No (4-19)
Learners answers
Never
Rarely
Frequently
Often
Permanently
Total
Frequency
11
18
17
44
10
100
Percentage
11%
18%
17%
44%
10%
100%
Figure No (4-19) shows the result of statement No (A-4)
(B) The lack of the learner’s pronunciation knowledge
1- To what degree are pronunciation errors caused by the lack of knowledge and skills of the English sound system on the part of the student?
Table No (4-20)
Learners answers
Never
Rarely
Frequently
Often
Permanently
Total
Frequency
10
17
11
44
18
100
Percentage
10%
17%
11%
44%
18%
100%
Figure No (4-20) shows the result of statement No (B-1)
It seems that, generally, many of intelligibility problems are due to either L1interference or lack of explicit L2 knowledge. Thus, L1 interference leads to errors Production Errors caused by incorrect perceptual representations, wrong acoustic features, incorrect implementation of L2 rules, etc. On the other hand, the lack of explicit L2 knowledge causes
11%
18%
17%
44%
10%
Never
Rarely
Frequently
Often
Permanently
10%
17%
11%
44%
18%
Never
Rarely
Frequently
Often
Permanently
- 55 -
problems such as intra-lingual (partial learning) errors, errors due to insufficient practice, orthographic errors, wrong implementation, training transfer and errors due to unfamiliarity. Linguists attribute the former group of errors to competence and the latter group to performance.
2- The largest number of pronunciation errors committed by the subjects as result of the lack of the pronunciation knowledge appears on the level of:
Table No (4-21)
Figure No (4-21) shows the result of statement No (B-2)
3- To what extent does the learners‟ lack of pronunciation knowledge negatively influence the learner‟s perception of intelligible speech?
Table No (4-22)
Learners answers
Never
Rarely
Frequently
Often
Permanently
Total
Frequency
4
7
11
56
22
100
Percentage
4%
7%
11%
56%
22%
100%
Figure No (4-22) shows the result of statement No (B-3)
19%
14%
25%
2%
40%
Consonants
Clusters
Vowels
Both
All
4%
7%
11%
56%
22%
Never
Rarely
Frequently
Often
Permanently
Learners answers
Consonants
clusters
Vowels
Both…&..
All
Total
Frequency
19
14
25
2
40
100
Percentage
19%
14%
25%
2%
40%
100%
- 56 -
4- To what extent does the lack of the learner‟s knowledge of pronunciation negatively affect the production of intelligible speech?
Table No (4-23)
Learners answers
Never
Rarely
Frequently
Often
Permanently
Total
Frequency
11
17
10
34
28
100
Percentage
11%
17%
10%
34%
28%
100%
Figure No (4-23) shows the result of statement No (B-4)
The table presents the types of problems the students experience in producing the English speech sounds. It also gives background information on the level of success these students think they achieved in learning English speech sounds and the effect of their L1.
Research questions
1- Which English vowels cause problems to Sudanese English learners?
2- Why are English vowels pronounced with some difficulty by the Sudanese English learners?
3- Why are English consonant pronounced with some difficulty by the Sudanese English learners?
4- Which consonant are pronounced with difficulty by the Sudanese English learners?
5- What are the suitable ways that help Sudanese English learners improve their pronunciation?
1- Which English vowels cause problems to Sudanese English learners?
Virtually all vowels may cause problems; the following are the most common confusions:
/ i / and/e/ are often confused: bit for bet.
11%
17%
10%
34%
28%
Never
Rarely
Frequently
Often
Permanently
- 57 -
/a/ and / / are often confused: cot or caught.
Diphthongs /ei/ and /ᴐ׃/ are usually pronounced rather short, and are confused with /e/ and /a:/ red for raid; hop for hope. This it was mentioned at p (11) table no (2-1) confirmed by the result on table no (4-17) figure no (4-17) p. (52) and table no (4-21) figure no (4-21).
Why are English vowels pronounced with some difficulty by the Sudanese English learners?
The related literature it was in p (19) under title inconsistency of English vowels and sound system differences between L1 and L2 p (24) this literature confirmed in statement no (4-17) table no (4-17) figure no (4-17) p. (52) and table no (4-21) figure no (4-21).
Why English consonant pronounced with some difficulty by the Sudanese English learners?
According to the literature review in p(11 )table no (2-2) and p (21 ) under title of the problems and the reasons and p( 24) sound system differences between L1 and L2 indicated on the result of table of statement no(4-10) figure no (4-10) p(47).
Which consonant are pronounced with difficulty by the Sudanese learners?
According to the results of the previous research, it can be said that many of Sudanese learners mispronounce the above problems in the pronunciation of /p/ , /θ/ ,/ð/ ,/ʧ/ , /v/originally , the researcher assumed that some Sudanese learners mispronounce the above consonant , because they do not exist in their L1(SSA). The findings support the view and go in the same way with the theory that Sudanese learners mispronounce the above consonant, because they do not exist in Sudanese spoken Arabic L1 language e.g. sound like /θ/, /ð/ are found in Arabic, so Arab learners do not find a problem to pronounce them .on other hand these sounds are not present in Sudanese spoken Arabic so the
- 58 -
learners tend to produce the sounds nearest to them e.g. /z/ for /ð/ and /s/for /θ/ ,/b/ for /p/ this is because their tongue accustomed to pronounce such sounds, or their tongue are not able to achieve the exact movements to utter such sounds, on the other hand their tongues get stiff from pronouncing particular sound of their L2.that‟s why many speakers of other language mispronounce the sounds that do not exist in their L1 statement no(4-10)figure no (4-10) p (47).
What are the suitable ways that help Sudanese English learners improve their pronunciation?
These question was mentioned in statement no (4-15) figure (4-15) and in the recommendation in chapter five p no (67).
Hypotheses
Hypotheses 1- Many of the Sudanese learners don't pronounce the following consonants correctly /p/, /v/, / θ /, / ð /, 4- Sudanese learners have difficulty in pronouncing (/b/, /p/ , /v/, / θ /, / ð/ And /t/. the aim of hypotheses‟ is to confirm or reject that many of Sudanese learners don‟t pronounce the following consonant correctly /p/,/v/,/θ/,/ð/ the hypotheses is confirm by the questioner result were as bellow in the table no(4-1)-(4-2),(4-3),((4-4),(4-5),(4-6),(4-8),(4-10) the statement represent 5 items strongly agree –agree- not sure- disagree –strongly disagree. According to what have been mentioned we can say that the hypotheses of the study no 1-4 was confirmed
Hypotheses 2- Some student of English language confuses the different pronunciation of some English sound the aim of hypotheses‟ is to confirm or reject that hypotheses is confirm by the questioner result were as bellow in the table no(4-16)- section A the statement represent 5 items never, rarely ,frequently ,often permanently. According to what have been mentioned we can say that the hypotheses of the study no 2 was confirmed.
- 59 -
Hypotheses 3- some Sudanese learners mispronounced (а, e, I, o, u) because they are inconsonant. the aim of hypotheses‟ is to confirm or reject that hypotheses is confirm by the questioner result were as bellow in the table no(4-17)- section A table no(4-21) section B p(54) the statement represent 5 items never, rarely ,frequently ,often permanently. According to what have been mentioned we can say that the hypotheses of the study no 3 was confirmed.
Hypotheses5- The spelling of some words misleads Sudanese learners to a wrong pronunciation. the aim of hypotheses‟ is to confirm or reject that many of Sudanese learners mispronounce some English sound because they predict the pronunciation from the spilling the hypotheses is confirm by the questioner result were as bellow in the table no(4-13) the statement represent 5 items strongly agree –agree- not sure- disagree –strongly disagree. According to what have been mentioned we can say that the hypotheses of the study no 5 was confirmed.
Hypotheses 6- Listening to English sounds and words in the audio at CD, Radio, TV Channels and sound dictionary help Sudanese learners to improve their language. . the aim of hypotheses‟ is to confirm or reject that many of Sudanese learners mispronounce some English sound because they predict the pronunciation from the spilling the hypotheses is confirm by the questioner result were as bellow in the table no(4-15) the statement represent 5 items strongly agree –agree- not sure- disagree –strongly disagree. According to what have been mentioned we can say that the hypotheses of the study no 6 was confirmed
- 60 -
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0 Introduction
This chapter introduces findings, conclusions and their implications. Recommendations are made and suggestions have been offered. It presents a broad look at the results of the questionnaire. It presents the analysis and discussion of the data collected from the SSE in the questionnaire. The performance of the subjects with aspect to each of the target sounds in the words it was statistically stated in the tables in the previous chapter. The actual pronunciations of some words in sentences, which were given to the Sudanese learners of English, will be descriptively explained. Responses to the questionnaire which was answered by (100) university students will also be discussed. From all of these emerges a complete picture of some pronunciation problems as well as the causes of these problems among the Sudanese learners.
5.1 Summary of the findings
This research attempted to identify the exact sounds that cause pronunciation problems to the Sudanese learners of English when they pronounce English sounds and words and find the main causes behind this in addition to suitable ways that help Sudanese learners improve their English pronunciation .So at the beginning of this research the researcher assumed that the pronunciation errors among most of the Sudanese learners of English are due to a number of factors such as mother tongue interference (MTI), inconsistency of many English sounds, the influence of spelling on the pronunciation the sound system differences between Arabic and English. The findings of the research support the hypothesis that mother tongue interference, inconsistency, spelling and sound system /differences between L1 and L2 affect pronunciation and lead the learners of other languages to
- 61 -
mispronunciation. The results are confirmed with the findings of the previous works (O‟Connor, 2003; Yule, 2003; Ted Owner, 2003), (Brown, 2000), (Alkhuli, 1983), (Moosa, 1972). Referring to the results of the main tool of this study (the recorded test), we find that the results support the hypothesis because the test results show that many Sudanese learners of English face difficulty in the pronunciation of some English sounds.
There are five English consonants which are not present in Sudanese spoken Arabic (SSA). As you can see in table no. (4-10) in p (47) all of the Sudanese learners of English have problems with the pronunciation of these consonants (/p/ ,/b/,/f/, / v/, /s /, /z/,/ θ /, /ô/).
As it is shown in table (4-2) only 3 (3 %) of the Sudanese learners of English out of 100 subjects pronounced the voiceless bilabial plosive. /p/ correctly, while 48 (48%) of the subjects failed to pronounce it correctly. pronounce the voiced bilabial plosive /b/ instead of /p/.
One possible explanation is that most of the Sudanese learners, mispronounce this sound because it is not present in the Sudanese spoken Arabic, so the students tend to replace /p/ with /b/ as the closer sound in the place of production; so in many words such as map, pupil the pronounce them as map pupil. Another which we assumed that SSEs mispronounce when they are speaking or reading English is the labiodentals /v/ so we expected that replace this sound with If in words like have, van, marvel. The finding of the previous studies support the view that such sound is difficult or students of other languages mispronounce it, because they don„t have it in their mother tongue (Yule, 2003; O‟Connor, 2003; 2005). The results support the view because in the recorded we have only (2%) subjects out of (100) who were able to produced the sound /v/ correctly in the above words ,while (26) (26%) of the subjects failed to pronounce it correctly they replaced it with /f/.
- 62 -
By referring to results of the questionnaire, we found that (52%) of learners agree that Sudanese learners replace /v/ sound with /f/. It was also assumed that they replace /v/with /f/.The findings of the study confirmed the view, pronounce /θ/ correctly. Also the result of the questionnaire showed that (46%) of the students support the view that Sudanese learners of English replace / θ / with /s/ and only five of the students were not sure and tow subject strongly disagree. Other difficult sounds for the Sudanese learners of English are /θ/ and /s/. So in words like much furniture the students replace /ʃ/ with /tʃ/. In the words weather, then, this, the sound / ð/is pronounced as /z/ by most of the Sudanese learners. The findings of the study support the hypotheses; also there was a significant support that mother tongue affects pronunciation. These results are •consistent with previous researches (Akande, 2005), (Ladefoged, 2001), (O‟Connor, 2003). Referring to the result many Sudanese learners have problem in the pronunciation of / ð/ in words such as weather, then, this, and in the pronunciation of /ʃ / sound so in words such as much, furniture most of the learners tend to pronounce / ð/ instead of / tʃ/. According to the results of questionnaire we got (24%) (33%) of the subjects with incorrect pronunciation for the sound This indicates that there is a real problem facing the Sudanese learners in these two separate sounds. The same is true for the real problem sounds / ð/ and /z/. The final results show that (46) subjects which represents (46%) pronounced the sound incorrectly, while (10) subjects of the sample pronounced the target sound correctly, so most of the Sudanese learners of English replaced /ð/ with /z/. The results of the questionnaire also show that many students support the view that Sudanese learners of English have problem in the pronunciation of( /b/ /p/ /ð/ /θ/ / ʃ / tʃ/) (see table no.(4-10), also the practical test results support the view that Sudanese learners of English mispronounce these consonants We there
- 63 -
for conclude that many of the students mispronounce them or tend replace them with sounds that are close to them in the place of duct ion. This happens among the learners according to their background (O‟Connor, 2003), (Ted Power, 2005). According to our findings, it can be said that Arab learners in general have problems with sounds this is supported Sudanese learners of English in particular have further problems.
This study was initiated by the observation of some learners who mispronounce some English words e g /b/ and /p/ ,/ s/ and /θ/ Although some scholars e g (Ted Power, 2007) argued that such problems it may not sometimes lead to a misunderstanding because, he continued to say “if someone said to me tomorrow I am going to London to visit Pig Pen would know from the context he meant “Big Ben” He further argued that Arabic consonants are more than :English ones, so Arab students are expected to be quite good in 4Eng1ish consonants The researcher however believes that such problems still considered as big ones for a person who wants to speak with correct or intelligible pronunciation, and for someone whose career in the future is related to the field of English language.
It was noticed that many Sudanese learners have problems with the pronunciation of monophthongs that have more than one way of pronunciation, Ted power considers the mispronunciation of vowels are of minor importance if compared with the long vowels, diphthongs, stress and intonation .However the researcher believes that it is a serious error to mispronounce /servis/ as /servais/ or/meiklas /mk/ Confusing /s/
and / θ/, /z/ and / ð / /p/ and/ f/, / v/ and /f / ʃ /,/ tʃ/ usually lead some Sudanese learners to a mispronunciation and they may lead the listener to a misunderstanding The mispronunciation of the Sudanese learners is due to lack of the problematic phonemes in Arabic The phoneme
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contrasts affect many common English words, so poor production of these sounds will be very noticeable.
Based on the results of this study it can be concluded that many Sudanese learners have problems in the pronunciation of the voiceless bilabial / p/ and the voiced bilabial / b / According to the results, many Sudanese learners substitute / p/ with / b/in words such as „pen‟ „map‟, „happy‟ and rarely replace /b/ with /p/Other consonant sound contrasts which Sudanese learners mispronounce are the dental fricative / θ/ and the alveolar fricative / s /, so in words such as „think‟, „math‟, „mathematics‟ the Sudanese learners of English replace / θ/ with /s/ Sudanese learners also have problem with the voiced dental fricatives / ð/and /z /, so many of the Sudanese learners pronounce/ θ/in the place of /z/ for instance in words like „then‟, „weather‟ more consonant contrast sounds like / f/ and /v /, /ʃ/ and / tʃ/ are mispronounced by most of the Sudanese learners, e g in words like „van‟, „seven‟, „have‟ they pronounce / f / instead of /v/ Also the substitution of /i/ and lift is noticeable in the pronunciations of many in word Sudanese learners such as „much‟, „furniture‟, „teacher‟ Other of mispronunciation of English sounds by the Sudanese learners is the soft „C‟ /s/ and hard „C‟ /k! In some words like „concern‟ some Sudanese learners pronounce /k! instead of / s / Also soft‟ g‟ /d3/ and hard‟ g‟ /g/ are problematic for the learners, so they sometimes pronounce /g/ it instead of /d3/ as in‟ engagement‟. Pronunciation problems such as :the ones mentioned above are linked to factors such as interference of the mother tongue on the second language, also differences and the sound systems between Arabic (generally) and Sudanese Spoken Arabic (particularly) are behind many pronunciation errors Also the spelling of some English words lead many Sudanese learners to wrongly guess the pronunciation just by looking at the word and its letters and produce incorrect pronunciation Finally, the
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inconsistency of some English consonants makes the learners unable to decide what the exact sound they should pronounce is, in addition to that there are some sounds represent a combination of more than one letter e g „gh‟ which is sometimes pronounced /f/ and other times pronounced ‟ ch‟ which is pronounced / k / and / tʃ/ or / ʤ/ The notes mentioned are considered to be the most recognized reasons for such pronunciation problems.
On the other hand, many Sudanese learners mispronounce vowels because each English vowel has more than one way of pronunciation Many Sudanese learners confuse the different pronunciations of each of the vowels (a, e, 1, o, u) In a word like „obstacle‟ many students pronounce /ei/ or /i / „or // instead of /a/. Also the pronunciation error by the SSEs is noticeab1e in a word such as „women‟, so they fail to pronounce the target sound of the two vowels / i /. Also in words such as „service‟, „city‟, „promise‟ the students tend to pronounce the short vowel hi as the diphthong /ai/ as it is pronounced in „invite‟. So many students fail to identify the exact pronunciation of a particular vowel, which has more than one pronunciation in a particular word If we take the words such as „put‟, „cut‟, „tutor‟, we find that there is three different pronunciations for the same vowel which is /pᶷt/, 1kM!, It in tô(r) so these different ways of pronunciation of this vowel causes difficulty to many SSEs. The same problem is faced by the Sudanese learners in the pronunciation of the vowel sound in the words „come‟, „women‟, „home‟ which is /kim/, /women/, /hi3UmI also we have three different pronunciations for the same vowel. On the other hand there are some English words which are spelt differently ,but pronounced the same e g in „city‟, „private‟ „English‟, „women‟, „busy‟ we have five different vowels (y, a, e, o, u) all of them are pronounced the same as hi This inconsistency in the English sounds leads many Sudanese learners to a
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mispronunciation If each English vowel or consonant has just one way of pronunciation, then the learners will be able to produce the precise pronunciation. Finally, we can conclude that such pronunciation errors are related to factors such as the inconsistency of many English sounds on the one hand on the other hand the sound system differences, which have phonological basis (depend, on variation in speech organ positions or breath control.
5.2 Implications
Pronunciation is a motor skill that needs practice by the learners, therefore strongly recommended to have regular practice and muscle training using cassettes, CDs and sound dictionaries, listening and repeating pronunciation of different sounds.
The importance of Listening to Spoken English. If the learners have internet access, it is better to listen to the BBC Radio 4 Listen again page at http:Ilwww bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/hstenagain.shtml also watch English TV channels such as BBC World, Euro News
5-3 Conclusion
Colleges should be conducted. The primary focus of spoken language is communication, where listening represents the most important skill in both listening to understand and listening to imitate. Skills such as these can successfully be developed through language laboratory exercises that train learners to achieve accurate perception and production of the sounds of the new language. Moreover, when listening to a foreign language, it is necessary to know the sounds, rhythms, tunes and stress patterns of that language. A language laboratory will provide the right environment where the learners can practice such pronunciation tasks, which will benefit the students‟ intelligibility.
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Further study is also needed to investigate the possibility of giving more space to English pronunciation in the curriculum. The materials and classroom activities included in secondary and tertiary syllabi in Sudanese EFL settings scarcely incorporate Pronunciation teaching.
5-4 Recommendations
In the following subsections, a number of recommendations will be made for the teaching of perception and pronunciation of English in the context of the English Curriculum taught at Sudanese universities. It should be pointed out at this juncture that not all of the recommendations follow from my experimental work in a strict sense.
Focus on speech sound production in isolation and in context, higher priority should be given to the production of English speech, which represents a major learning problem for Sudanese EFL learners. In this respect, the emphasis in production should be on getting the sounds right at the word level, dealing with words in isolation and with words in controlled sentence environments. This way of speech production enables learners/instructors to recognize which sounds are the most difficult to distinguish, e.g. in minimal pairs like /s-θ/ as in Pass /pæs /path /pæɵ/ and /b-p/ as in pack /pæk / - back /bæk /which can have a negative impact on intelligibility when not properly distinguished. Moreover, production instructions should place more effort on language as Communication, as this will motivate successful production. Pronunciation must be as necessary component of intelligibility in which the learners should surpass the threshold level so that their production does not hinder their communicative abilities.
EFL teachers need specific assistance Sudanese EFL learners who are specialized in ELT at teacher colleges and education faculties, should
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obtain a high level of intelligibility, since they represent a model for English input to their students. Therefore, they should receive special assistance that enables them to do their job properly. For example, listen-and-imitate techniques, language laboratory exercises, free conversations, minimal pair drills, etc. are required. Phonetic description of the articulator system of the target language is also important since it offers the learners an opportunity to develop explicit knowledge about the perceptual representations of L2 sounds. This is because learners cannot produce speeches sound correctly unless they acquire correct perceptual information about the L2.
Future researchers should pay more attention to speech intelligibility problems, teaching pronunciation n, perception listening skills, etc., as issues that receive relatively little attention. Their investigations should use experimental evidence to account for the learning problems concerned, rather than using impressionistic views. Results which are obtained by means of experiments have some degree of certainty and are scientifically more credible than impressionist judgments, especially when the impressions are voiced by observers who are not native speakers of the target language.
Use of language labs to teach foreign languages Language laboratories are needed to maintain a high level of training in foreign or Second language learning. Learners need to acquire an accurate perceptual representation of the speech sounds of the target language, which is a necessary Prerequisite for pronouncing the foreign speech sounds adequately. The language Laboratory forms the most suitable place to practice phonetic exercises.
Difficulty of production should not be too great because the above consonant sounds are produced at the front of the mouth, this motor skill is not too difficult to learn for practicing, correcting and developing the
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pronunciation error we strongly suggest for the Sudanese learners to listen regularly to English sounds and words using audio aids like cassettes, CDs and sound dictionaries these tools are very useful for practicing pronunciation.
It is also worth looking at the dictionary for checking the correct pronunciation of words.
5-5 Suggestions for further studies
Taking cues from the results, further large-scale and comprehensive investigations should be conducted to cover other areas that have to do with the speech intelligibility issue in the Sudanese EFL classroom. Therefore, research will be required in the Following themes insufficient practice, wrong implementation and partial learning represent major causes of such problems. So, a further study that treats the use of the language laboratory to teach English phonetics and listening comprehension skills in Sudanese EFL teacher is recommended.
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BIBLOGRAPHY
1. Ann B.Shoron G. (2002) Pronunciation pairs Cambridge
University press.
2. Baker, A. (1981) ship or sheep? Cambridge University
press.
3. Alkhier M .E.(2007)Pronunciation problems master degree
Sudan university of since and technology.
4. Brown, H.D (2000) principles of language learning and
teaching Longman. Sanfrancisco State University.
5. Carter, R. and Nunan (2001) the Cambridge guide to
teaching English to speakers of other languages,
Cambridge university press.
6. Ezzaldin, M.T. (2011) Speech intelligibility problems of
Sudanese learners published P HD degree.
7. Gamar Addawla Abbas Mohammed Al.Booni(2003) un
Published PhD an Analysis of Syntactic Errors In
Written And Oral Productions, University Of Khartoum
8. Ghalib. R. Communication problem facing learners of
English JURNAL OF LANGUGE AND LEARNING
voi3no1 issan1740-4983 king Saud University.
9. Mark, H. (2003) English pronunciation in use Cambridge
University press.
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10. Martin, H. (2007) English pronunciation in use (advance)
Cambridge University press.
11. Michael, S .and Bernard, S. (2001) Learn English teacher
guide to interference and other problems Cambridge
university press.
12. O‟Connor J. D. (1980) Better English Pronunciation
Cambridge University presses.
13. O‟Connor J. D. (2003) Better English Pronunciation third
edition, Cambridge University presses.
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Appendix
Sudan University of Science and Technology
Dear colleague - student, all thank you for doing this questionnaire for me it will help a great deal with my study to identify the exact reasons behind pronunciation errors among Sudan university student, also to find suitable ways that help improving their pronunciation.
Section 1: Put a tick (√) in the box that shows your choice:
The statement
Strongly agree
Agree
Not sure
Disagree
Strongly disagree
1
Sudanese student of English pronounce /f / instead of / v / in words like ‘‘have’’ ’’Van‘‘
‘‘marvel’’.
2
(SSE) pronounce / b / instead of /p / in words like ‘‘pen’’ ‘‘map ’’
‘‘happy’’.
3
(SSE) pronounce / S / instead of / θ / in words like ‘‘think’’ ‘‘math’’ ‘‘mathematics’’.
4
Sudanese student of English (SSE) pronounce / ∫ / instead of / t ∫ / in words like ‘‘much’’ ‘furniture’’.
5
Sudanese student of English (SSE) pronounce / dʒ / instead of /g/ in words like‘‘engagement’’.
6
Sudanese student of English (SSE) pronounce / z / instead of / ð/ in words like ‘‘then’’ ‘‘weather’’.
7 (SSE) pronounce /gh/ as / ɔ: / instead of / f / in words such like ‘‘cough’’ ‘‘rough’’.
8
Sudanese student of English (SSE) pronounce / k/ instead of / s/ in words like‘‘ concern’’.
9
Sudanese student of English (SSE) pronounce / e/ instead of / ɪ / in words like ‘‘experience’’ women’’.
10
(SSE) replace / θ / by / s / , / ð / by / z / ,/ p / by /b / , / t ∫ / by / ∫ / because / θ /,/ ð /,/ p /,/ t ∫ / do not exist in Sudanese spoken Arabic.
11 (SSE) replace / g / by / d ʒ / as engagement because this is inconsistent.
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12
The pronunciation errors among (SSE) are due to the sound system differences between Arabic language and English language.
13
(SSE) mispronounce some English sounds because they predict the pronunciation from the spelling.
14
Looking up in the dictionary help the (SSE) improve their English pronunciation.
15
Listening to the English words and sound in audio aids e.g. :( CD, tape, TV, sound dictionary etc) help (SSE) to speak with better pronunciation.
Influence of mother-tongue and lack of pronunciation knowledge of the learners:
[A] Mother-tongue transfer
1- To what degree are pronunciation errors caused by mother-tongue transfer [Arabic} Of the Sudanese university learner of English?
a. Never b. Rarely
c. Often d. Frequently
e. Permanently
2- The largest number of pronunciation errors committed by the subjects as result of Mother-tongue transfer appears on the level of:
a. Consonants b. Clusters
c. Vowels d. Both …&…
e. All
3-To what extent does the mother-tongue transfer influence the learner‟s perception of intelligible speech negatively?
a. Never b. Rarely
c. Often d. Frequently
e. Permanently
4- To what extent does the mother-tongue transfer influence the learner‟s production of intelligible speech negatively?
a. Never b. Rarely
c. Often d. Frequently
e. Permanently
[B] The lack of the learners’ pronunciation knowledge:
1- To what degree are pronunciation errors caused by the lack of knowledge and skills of the English sound system on the part of the student?
a. Never b. Rarely
c. Often d. Frequently
e. Permanently
2- The largest number of pronunciation errors committed by the subjects as result of the lack of the pronunciation knowledge appears on the level of:
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a. Consonants b. Clusters
c. Vowels d. Both…&…
e. All
3- To what extent does the learners‟ lack of pronunciation knowledge negatively influence the learner‟s perception of intelligible speech?
a. Never b. Rarely
c. Often d. Frequently
e. Permanently
4- To what extent does the lack of the learner‟s knowledge of pronunciation negatively affect the production of intelligible speech?
a. Never b. Rarely
c. Often d. Frequently
e. Permanentlyv

هناك 9 تعليقات:

  1. Hi;
    really it is a good ! I hope you continue doing so useful studies
    Though it is hard to read it as soft copy, I managed to.
    Thanks& regards,

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  2. I need a help in English language, add me on Wechat.

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  3. Hello.
    The problem with English today, is the fact, Phonetics does NOT teach the correct English sounds. Take the letter "U", in English it has two sounds, it's name "U" pronounced just like the word "YOU", and it's sound "u" like in the words Cup and Sun.
    The Correct Proper English letter "U" does NOT have the Phonetic sound of "oo".
    Take the word TUNA, pronounced T YOU NA, in proper English! While with the French/American Phonetics it is pronounced TOONA! Which in fact is NOT English!
    People being taught Phonetics will never be able to pronounce correct proper English words!
    The whole problem comes from the Phonetic rubbish being taught today!
    Phonetics does NOT have paired letter sounds, or syllables.

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  4. Truly remarkable information allocated by you. I am genuinely contended reading this piece of information here. Additionally, I'd like to appreciate the way you write your thoughts keeping it easy for the readers to understand. Keep sharing and continue updating us.
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