English Vowel Sounds Contrasted to Arabic Vowel Sounds

Abstract

Abstract It is known that foreign language learners often struggle to accurately pronounce unfamiliar sounds in the target language. This study under the title of "The production of English vowel sounds contrasted to Arabic vowel sounds: A case study of Al Neelain third year EFL majors' pronunciation problems", investigates the difficulties Sudanese third year students of English language at Al Neelain University face in producing English vowel sounds. This study contrasts Arabic and English vowel sounds in order to identify the differences between these two vocalic systems. These differences are considered to be the chief source of difficulties for the students. The effect of mother tongue interference on pronunciation is also examined in this study. The experimental and Analytical model of methodology is followed to undertake this study and the data are collected through the Written and oral experiments. Forty five Sudanese third year EFL students at Al Neelain University who are native speakers of Arabic and undergone the same background studies have been chosen as subjects to participate in these experiments. The results of the experiments reveal that the significant numbers of the students mispronounce and misidentify the vowels that do not have Arabic counterparts. They face difficulty, for example, in producing long vowels /32/, /32/, and /02/, short vowels /D/, /U/, /æ/, /A/ and /9/, and the diphthongs which glide to /9/ and those which glide to /U/. Whereas, the vowels that are similar to Arabic ones do not pose serious problems for the student to pronounce. The results show also that the student substit11te the vowel /U/ for /u I/, /Cl I/ for /æ/, /D2/ for /D/ and /A/ for /D/ in many contexts. The reasons for this erroneous iv

pronunciation, in researcher point of view, could be: the differences between Arabic and English vowel sounds in terms of quality and quantity, the mother tongue interference, inconsistence between spelling and pronunciation, and students' inadequate knowledge about English articulation system. At the end, the researcher suggests conducting further researches in this area that investigate the effect of other factors, such as, the syllabus, the number of students in the classroom, the teaching hours and competency of English teachers, on English pronunciation, The researcher recommends providing universities With language labs with Multimedia to improve students' production and perception of English vowel sounds.