Assessing ESL students' pronunciation in the Pakistani context

Abstract

The present study is an investigation of ESL secondary school students’ pronunciation. A sample of 440 ESL students of grade 10 was randomly selected from the Southern Punjab, Pakistan. A test was developed to assess the ESL students’ pronunciation. The test consisted of monosyllabic, disyllabic, trisyllabic, quadrisyllabic, and multisyllabic words, diphthongs, triphthongs, stress and intonation, tongue twisters, voiced and unvoiced sounds, and interrogative, declarative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences. The students’ overall performance in pronunciation was computed using appropriate statistical analysis. The mean scores of male and female students, urban and rural students and public and private school students were compared through t-values. It was concluded, based on the findings, that ESL students’ pronunciation was good in articulating monosyllabic, disyllabic, trisyllabic, and quadrisyllabic words, stress and intonation, tongue twisters, voiced sounds, and imperative and exclamatory sentences. On the other hand, the participants poorly pronounced multisyllabic words, diphthongs, triphthongs, unvoiced sounds, interrogative sentences, and declarative sentences. Calculated t-values indicated that there was no significant difference in mean scores of male and female students, urban and rural students, and public and private school students. Some recommendations were made to improve the ESL students’ pronunciation.