Comparing phonetic difficulties by EFL learners from Spain and Japan

Abstract

After decades of improving language learning methods, English as a Foreign Language (hereafter EFL) still makes Spanish and Japanese learners struggle with the correct pronunciation. Each country focused on its own lack of phonemes in relation to the target language and, despite years, of research the problem is as present as ever. This article approaches this border-crossing problem by means of the moderate version of the contrastive analysis hypothesis (henceforth CAH) and compares and analyses the phonetic problems of both languages against the target language, English. By expanding the focus, the resulting data could serve as a starting point for further studies that down the way could facilitate EFL learning all around the world.