The pronunciation of English low vowels by Iraqi EFL learners : an intralingual analysis
Iraqi EFL learners of English are reported to show accented pronunciation on the segmental level, which might affect their speech intelligibility. This study aimed to identify problems encountered by Iraqi EFL learners in the production of English low vowels and account for them from an intraling...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2021
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18128/1/46228-165023-1-PB.pdf http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18128/ https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1417 |
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| Institution: | Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | Iraqi EFL learners of English are reported to show accented pronunciation on the segmental
level, which might affect their speech intelligibility. This study aimed to identify problems
encountered by Iraqi EFL learners in the production of English low vowels and account for
them from an intralingual perspective. The study also aimed to identify the effect of Iraqis'
English language proficiency level on their pronunciation of English low vowels. Thus, learners
were divided into beginners and advanced groups to determine differences between them based
on their proficiency level in English. A production test was conducted to identify error patterns
of twenty Iraqi EFL learners in producing low vowels. Learners’ recordings were acoustically
analysed to validate the difficulties identified via the production test. Independent-samples ttests
were conducted to identify any significant differences in performance for the two groups.
The results showed that learners encountered problems in the production of low vowels,
especially /ɒ/, /æ/ and /ʌ/. The study concluded that these problems are probably ascribed to the
complexities of the L2 vowel space, where vowels are close to each other and thus difficult to
produce. Significant differences were identified between the two groups in terms of error
means. Nonetheless, the comparison between the vowel chart obtained in this study and the
charts offered in previous studies revealed that Iraqi EFL learners are still far from attaining
approximant pronunciation. This requires reconsidering current texts, methodologies, and
techniques used in teaching English pronunciation to allocate more attention to spectral
differences among vowels. |
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