The Perception of English Stress by North Sinai Bedouins

Abstract

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate the effect of Bedouin dialect of Arabic on producing English word stress and how it can influence the comprehensibility of the perceived words. The study investigates the phenomenon of English word stress based on an auditory analysis. The participants of the study are 30 Bedouin speakers of English as a foreign language and three English native speakers. Bedouin speakers are asked to produce 36 words which consist of two syllables, three syllables, four syllables and five syllables. Their production of the words is recorded, then English native speakers are asked to listen to the recorded words and mark the perceived syllable and their comprehensibility of each word. Finally, the raters are asked to answer a questionnaire to measure their comprehensibility of all that they listen to. The results show that English native speakers perceive the primary stress as it is produced by the Bedouins and can comprehend more than half of the words produced by Bedouin speakers of EFL. English listeners explain that the misplacement of stress can cause incomprehensibility and it is somewhat hard to communicate with them. Furthermore, Bedouin speakers of EFL pronounce English words and produce stress influenced by their Bedouin dialect of Arabic.