Iraqi Students' English Consonant Pronunciation Mistakes: An Analytical Study

Abstract

In order to determine what kind of training is required for second language (L2) learners, it is helpful to diagnose the challenges they have with pronunciation. This study aimed to fill a gap in our understanding of Arab students' English pronunciation challenges by determining which English consonant phonemes and clusters Iraqi EFL students struggle with, and by exploring the ways in which the students' degrees of language proficiency impact their performance on these tests. The research included forty Iraqi female college students, twenty from each of two groups with varying degrees of English ability (20 from lower-intermediate to intermediate). A four-part productive pronunciation exam helped them see where they were going wrong while pronouncing certain clusters of consonants in different word positions. The participants' largest proportion of mistakes while pronouncing the following sounds were found in the data analysis: /ŋ/, /ʒ/, /p/, /ɹ/ and/ʧ/; /t/ and /d/ of the regular past tense morpheme -ed; and the three and four consonant clusters. In addition, students at the lower-intermediate level were more likely to make a mistake when pronouncing clusters and consonant sounds than those at the intermediate level. What's more, mistakes made by learners were more likely to vary in initial positions than in medial or final ones in words. According to the research, consonants which are located at the beginning or end of words are more likely to be problematic for pronunciation than those that are located in the middle of words.