Abstract
This study focuses on exploring the pronunciation problems faced by native Arabic speakers who learn English as a second language (ESL) especially in the area of Jubail Industrial City. It is commonly observed that even after perfecting the English language in written form, most students struggle with proper pronunciation of English words. It is assumed that the reason for this difficulty stems from the fact that certain consonants of English language are replaced by others which are natural for native Arabic speakers. This effect will be observed by conducting a research involving the pronunciation of certain target words and the selected pool of subjects who are learning English as a second language will be surveyed to get the results.
Introduction
English is considered to be the universal language which is spoken and understood almost all over the world. This is one language that can be used to communicate with the locals while travelling to another country. English is also the primary language of choice for negotiating business deals between people from different countries. For this reason, learning the English language is considered as an important aspect of education. People all over the world learn English as a second language, and due to its widespread use, the pronunciation part of this language has picked up many variations in dialects under the effect of the region’s prevalent native language. The correct pronunciation often gets undermined and altered which sometimes gives rise to confusions in communication as this change in pronunciation can even distort the original meaning of certain words. In order to effectively communicate in English language and to establish an impressive first image, it is imperative that in addition to having a good command over the language the speaker also exhibits proper pronunciation and effects while communicating in English.
Just like the rest of the world, English is commonly learned in Saudi Arabia as well. While most of the learners are proficient in writing in English, but it has been observed that most of the learners do not use the correct pronunciation for the language, and during communications the accent is under heavy influence of the Arabic accent. The struggle with correct pronunciation is quite apparent here as the accent of the native language Arabic is markedly different from that of English and when native Arabic speakers attempt to communicate in English, the accent shows a great influence of the mother tongue’s accent. Learning the correct pronunciation as well as the correct syntax while writing in English is very important for all the learners of English language to be able to effectively use the language for communication for personal,official and business purposes in a way that delivers a clear and concise meaning while avoiding any misunderstandings that can be generated by wrongly pronouncing a word and inadvertently altering the desired meaning and context.The best pronunciation is considered to be the one that native speakers don’t feel any difference while listening to it.
Literature review
In their book The Least You Should Know About Arabic: Implications for the ESL Writing Instructor published in 1983, the authors Thomas-Ruzic and Thompson-Panos explore the dynamics of difficulties faced by Arabic native speakers when learning English as a second language. Although its focus is mainly on written skills but it can be considered as a guide for understanding the underlying weaknesses related to language learning in the case of native Arabic speakers learning English language (Koch, 1984).
Hayes-Harb (2006) carried out a study on the pattern of Ryan and Meara’s (1991) study. In this study the participants included ten L1 Native Arabic speaking, ten L1 non-Arabic speaking, and ten L1 Native English speaking participants. In order to test the sensitivity of certain vowels, she deleted some to use it as a control to study the extent of effect of the deleted vowels and consonantson Arabic speaking people who are learning English as a second language. Her study concluded that the vowels she deleted were recognized more by most of the test subjects as compared to the deleted consonants, the other subjects of the study including the non-Arabic speaking and native English speaking group also showed similar results but it was noted that the native Arabic speakers were significantly slow in processing and identifying the missing vowel or consonants as compared to the other groups. She was of the view that vowels are more salient for Arabs than consonants (Hayes-Harb, 2006).
In the journal titled ‘Effects of orthographic forms on pronunciation in experienced instructed second language learners’ published in 2015, the authors observed as a result of four of their studies that the spellings of a second language’s words have an effect on the way the learners of that language pronounce it but it produced little or no results about its effect with known words when subjected to experienced learners. In their four studies, they observed and compared the results of spellings and their effect on how the participants who are learning it as a second language pronounce these words. In the first study, they tested how the silent letters are pronounced, in the second study they focused on the way they pronounced the vowels when represented by a singleton letter as compared to when represented by a digraph. In the third study, they studied the effects of the marker for past tense (‘-ed’) while the fourth study was to figure out if the ESL learners will pronounce homophonic words in a different way if the spellings were changed. As a result of their extensive studies, they were able to concluded that change in how a word is spelled does have an effect on the ESL learner’s way of pronouncing the word, and this effect is more noticeable when the subjects are given the words to read them aloud as compared to when they are subjected to consecutive repetition (BASSETTI & ATKINSON, 2015).
In the article ‘Linguistic dimensions of second language accent and comprehensibility’, published in the Journal of Second Language Pronunciation in 2016, the authors focused on the non-native listeners’ perspective. Their study had native and non-native listeners from two different language backgrounds. This study revealed that the listeners with different language backgrounds attributed their understanding with different language cues while there wasn’t much variances in different subsets of test subjects(Crowther, Trofimovich, & Isaacs, 2016)
Significance of Research
Proper pronunciation of any language is crucial in ensuring that the intended message is conveyed without any distortion or confusions. Here in KSA we learn English which is used in important official communications and business dealings, so it is very important that other than written proficiency we should learn proper pronunciation as well to be able to communicate easily and effectively in English even while dealing with native English speakers. This research is important as it aims to identify the focal points where Arabic accent influences the pronunciation of English words. Identifying the problem areas will help us focus on improving pronunciations by repeatedly listening to and practicing the correct sounds of the identified consonants.
Research Question
It is assumed here that Saudi learners face difficulty pronouncing certain English consonants because of the influence of their Arabic native tongue. The purpose of this study is to establish if the people in Jubail Industrial Area actually change the following consonants /p/, / v/, / r/ to their correspondences /b/, /f/, trilled /r/, respectively?
Research methodology
The methodology applied to carry out this research is the qualitative method. It involves a survey to be conducted on the target sample of native Arab residents of Jubail Industrial Area. A sample test was made as a list of target words involving the said consonants to be pronounced by the respondents, it will be recorded and analyzed to test the research question.
Ethical Considerations
The willingness of the participants to get their voice recorded and their personal information to be recorded for the purpose of this study. Some people might not be very comfortable with pronouncing the words to be recorded especially if they feel that they are not pronouncing the words correctly. For the quality of this research, it is imperative that the subjects are inhabited and pronounce the words naturally as they would do normally.
Limitations of Study
The subject pool was not as random as I was hoping as some of the subjects chosen were hesitant in participating. Another limitation is the fact that there is no fixed standard to compare the responses against in order to gauge if the responses recorded are as close to how they naturally pronounce the words or if they are trying to improvise during the test to pronounce the words better which they wouldn’t do in a natural setting.
Expected Results
At the conclusion of this study, I expect to shortlist the words which are commonly mispronounced under the influence of Arabic accent. I also expect to identify the consonants that get altered from their original form due to the native Arabic accent.After having identified the problem areas, these results can be used to make an effective plan for teaching correct pronunciations to ESL learners in the Jubail Industrial Area.
References
BASSETTI, B., & ATKINSON, N. (2015). Effects of orthographic forms on pronunciation in experienced instructed second language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 36(01), 67’91. doi:10.1017/s0142716414000435
Crowther, D., Trofimovich, P., & Isaacs, T. (2016). Linguistic dimensions of second language accent and comprehensibility. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, 2(2), 160’182. doi:10.1075/jslp.2.2.02cro
Hayes-Harb, R. (2006). Native speakers of arabic and ESL texts: Evidence for the transfer of written word identification processes. TESOL Quarterly, 40(2), 321. doi:10.2307/40264525
Koch, B. J. (1984). Comments on Karyn Thompson-Panos and Maria Thomas-Ru”i’s ‘the least you should know about arabic: Implications for the ESL writing instructor’. A reader reacts. TESOL Quarterly, 18(3), 542. doi:10.2307/3586725