Impacts of supra-segmental phonemes in learning Speaking in English as a foreign language: A Case Study at faculty of education - Kordofan University

Abstract

The present study was carried out in University of Kordofan at Faculty of Education during the period 2016-2018. The study aimed to investigate the impacts of supra-segmental in learning speaking in English language as foreign language, to identify the difficulties of pronunciation of the supra-segmental features “stress, intonation, pitch and rhythm”. The descriptive and deductive methods were followed. The primary data was collected through different sources including questionnaire, recorded oral test and personal interview for taking notes observation. Comprehensive sampling was used to select the English language lecturers in Faculty of Education and Faculty of Arts where the sample size compromises18 lecturers to answer the questionnaire where 100 students in the department of English at Faculty of Education who were taught supra-segmental programs were selected from population size of 400 students to be given the oral test to measure segmental and supra-segmental features. The data were analyzed by Excel program using Chi-squire Test to measure the differences. The results revealed that 94 % of lecturers stated that supra-segmental affect learning speaking in English language,80 % mentioned that supra-segmental features are not well applied by the students whereas the supra- segmental phonemes according to oral test, students scored mean percent of 77% in the level of stress, 45% in intonation, 55% in rhythm and 44% in pitch. The difference between students score at level of stress and intonation was significant at 0.05 level with calculated and critical χ2 values of 8.39 and 3.84 respectively, the difference between level of stress and rhythm was not significant at 0.05 level with calculated χ2 value of 3.66 and critical value of 3.84 and the difference in scores between level of stress and pitch was significant at 0.05 level with calculated χ2 value of 9.0 and critical value of 3.84.The difference between intonation and rhythm was not significant at 0.05 with calculated and critical χ2 values of 1.0 and 3.84 respectively and between intonation and pitch was not significant at 0.05 with calculated χ2 value of 0.011 and critical value of 3.84. The difference between rhythm and pitch was not significant at 0.05 level where the calculated value of χ2 was 1.22 and the critical value was 3.84. It was concluded that most students faced difficulties in pronouncing the segmental consonant phonemes and have problems in segmental vowel phonemes due to mother tongue language interference. The highest scores were recorded by the level of stress and to some extent the rhythm while intonation and pitch recorded the lowest scores. It is recommended that instructors should raise students' awareness about the importance of learning supra-segmental features. In addition, students should be encouraged to use internet to communicate with English native speakers. Furthermore, supra-segmental must be considered in the teaching and included in the curriculum of English language.