Difficulties with vocabulary word form: The case of Arabic ESL learners

Abstract

Abstract There is a large body of research indicating that L2 learners often have trouble with the word form. Learners often transfer their L1 processing routines over to the L2 in their attempt to process the L2 forms, whether those routines are appropriate to the L2 form system or not. This study explores the problems of learning L2 vocabulary word form by focusing on Arabic-speaking ESL learners. These learners have been shown to have difficulties with the spelling of English vowels in general (‘vowel blindness’). This study explored the relative difficulty of short and long English vowels for these learners. Our results show that Arabic speakers have more problems with short vowels than long ones. The results also show that they are able to notice spelling errors in which the English vowel is missing ( conclsion ) somewhat better than when the vowel is represented by the wrong letter ( imprave ). These results suggest that Arabic speakers process English short and long vowels in a way similar to their L1, which affects their ability to spell and recognize English words. The study concludes by providing an additional analysis of the participants’ overall spelling errors.