An Acoustic Analysis of The English Vowels Produced by Iraqi University EFL Learners Speaking Two Iraqi Dialects

Abstract

Pronunciation is considered as one of important features of spoken language. It is crucially important as it is usually the first thing people notice about English language learners. the present study is a phonological one that tries to answer a nagging question asked by both Iraqi teachers and learners of English whether or not the colloquial Iraqi Arabic has an impact on the pronunciation of English and to find out the reasons behind the mispronunciation of Iraqi learners of English. To answer such a question an experiment is administered at the University of Anbar for twelve learners (six girls and six boys) at second stage who are at the same age ranged from 20 to 28 (mean 24). The experiment includes two parts: a protest of English proficiency and a protest which includes recording learners reading a Standard English text and a colloquial Iraqi one. In terms of vowel duration, HIA speakers produced slightly longer short vowels than RIA speakers did. There were more gender variation patterns among HIA than among RIA speakers. For short and long vowels, RIA speakers produced higher and more retracted vowels than HIA speakers