THE EFFECT OF IRAQI EFL LEARNERS' PROFICIENCY LEVEL ON THEIR PRONUNCIATION OF NON-ARABIC CONSONANTS

Abstract

The effect of EFL learners’ proficiency level on their pronunciation has been a debatable issue as some scholars reported a positive effect of proficiency level on pronunciation learning process, while others did not report any positive effect. Previous researches have investigated the impact of experience on the pronunciation of EFL learners, who belong to various linguistic and dialectal backgrounds; yet, Iraqi EFL learners have not been examined in terms of their pronunciation of consonants that are not found in their L1 sound system. Hence, the current study investigated the effect of Iraqi EFL learners' proficiency level on the pronunciation of the non-Arabic consonants (/ŋ/, /ӡ/, /p/, /g/, /v/, and /tʃ/). The study aimed to identify the sounds that are difficult to pronounce, the error patterns shown by learners, and the effect of learners' proficiency level on their performance. To this end, thirty Iraqi learners were divided into three groups (advanced, intermediates, and beginners) based on their results in a general English proficiency test. A production test was administered to ask learners to produce words containing the six non-Arabic sounds. Their pronunciation was directly recorded via mobile phones. The results showed that /ŋ/, /ӡ/, and /p/ sounds were problematic for Iraqi learners, while /g/, /v/, and /tʃ/ sounds were not. These results can be accounted for based on learners' dialect transfer, which makes the pronunciation of non-Arabic consonants easier than expected. The results also showed that proficiency level did not have statistically significant effect on Iraqi learners' pronunciation of non-Arabic consonants.