Phonological Aspects of English Teaching and Learning #2 Research Paper

Phonological Aspects of English Teaching and Learning #2 - Research Paper Example As the number of non-native English speakers rises due to globalization, there is a growing interest in phonology as the original language, which is fundamentally Standard English, has undergone some modifications (Mohammed and Alzughaibi, 2012). The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the phonological aspects of teaching and learning English by Arabic students who are not native English speakers. The several variants of English make it a wide area of research. Most ESL (English as a second language) teachers agree on the necessity of teaching explicit pronunciation in language courses (Montrul, 2010). While confidence in pronunciation facilitates the learners’ interactions with native speakers and improves their linguistic development, poor pronunciation masks good language skills and condemns learners to less academic, social, and professional advancement than they deserve (Clark, Yallop & Fletcher, 2007). When learners interact more with native speakers, they will greatly improve their pronunciation, but their hindrance stems from the fact that such interactional skills do not come naturally. As Kavaliauskiene (2009) points out, foreign language is influenced by their mother tongue and learners analyze and digest the information they receive from the perspective of their mother tongue first and then the new foreign language. Acknowledging this observation, it can also be said that the Arabic L1 phonological system can either facilitate or interfere with the learning of the L2 English phonological system. More specifically, it can be demonstrated that Arab learners insert vowels unintentionally in the onset and coda of some English syllables. For example, the syllable structures in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) did not allow clusters of the type CCC initially as English language did. So, as a result, the Arabic learners of English will insert the high front short