The Pronunciation Problems among Kurdish Learners of English

Abstract

The goal of this study was to examine the pronunciation issues of different speakers of English and especially Kurdish speakers, and various perspectives on native vs foreign pronunciations. The research showed that Kurdish speakers had difficulties pronouncing several English vowels and some English consonants. The research results demonstrate that Kurdish English speakers understand the value of pronunciation compared to native and non-native English speakers. Kurdish speakers may hesitate to speak in a manner that seems natural to a native speaker, and their last consonants in words are almost always unaspirated and unvoiced. Given that Kurdish learners of English have difficulty pronouncing some English words, some suggested solutions include providing pronunciation instruction classes to language instructors, having educators speak in English, and giving students examples of native tongue sounds compared and contrasted with the target language sounds. With minimal exposure to cooperation with native speakers and variations in L1's phonological organization compared to English, the difficulty posed by pronunciation is evident. All the updated studies clearly show that these issues affect English speakers in general and rely less and less on their original tongue.