Exploring the Relationship between EFL Learners’ Phonetic Knowledge and their Pronunciation Performance

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia University, Jijel

Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of Letters and English

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Master Degree in English Didactics

Submitted by Supervised by

Ilham KECHOUD Dr. Zahia BOUCHAIR Chahira DJENHI

Board of Examiners:

Chairperson: Miss. Rafika MELEK Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia University Examiner: Mrs. Radia KHERBOUCHE Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia University Supervisor: Dr. Zahia BOUCHAIR Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia University

2019

Exploring the Relationship between EFL Learners’ Phonetic Knowledge and their Pronunciation Performance

The Case of Second Year Students at the Department of English,

Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia University, Jijel

Dedication

In the name of Allah the most Gracious, most Merciful, all the praise is due to Allah alone, the sustainer of all the world.

I dedicate this work to all those who helped and supported me to complete this work:

To my beloved mother „Fatima‟, to my dear father „Ibrahim‟,

to my sisters Souheir, Mannel and my brothers Choayb,

to my fiancé Samir for his endless support and to all my friends.

<< Ilham >>

In the name of Allah the most Gracious, most Merciful, all the praise is due to Allah alone, the sustainer of all the world.

This humble work is dedicated to:

My father, who taught me how to learn, my mother, who taught me how to love,

my brothers and sisters; from the eldest one to the youngest one.

my beautiful niece Aya and all my friends

<< Chahira >>

Acknowledgements

First and foremost we thank Allah the almighty for giving us strength to complete this work.

We would like to express our gratitude to our supervisor Dr.BOUCHAIRZahia who accepted to supervise us. We thank her for her guidance, assistance, patience, kindness and encouragement to complete this work.

We would also like to extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to the board of examiners Mrs. KHERBOUCHE Radia and Miss. MELEK Rafika for devoting their precious time and effort to read and evaluate this research work.

Special thanks must go to second year students at the department of English, Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia- jijel Unuversity for their cooperation.

Profound thanks go to Aymen for his unbounded help.

We are also grateful toMrs. Boubrioua for her help and pieces of advice.

Abstract

The present research work investigates pronunciation as one of the most necessary skills in learning and teaching English as a foreign language. It aims at evaluating university students’ phonological knowledge and their pronunciation skills. It also aims at exploring the relationship between the two aspects. This research is based on the hypothesis that if the students have sufficient phonological knowledge, their pronunciation would be accurate. In order to test the validity of the aforementioned hypothesis, an oral test was used to check the learners’ pronunciation accuracy and a written test was used to identify the degree of the students’ phonological knowledge. Both tests were administered to 30 second year students at the department of English, Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia, Jijel University. The findings revealed that not only do students encounter serious pronunciation problems, but they also lack phonological knowledge. They also demonstrated that there is a weak correlation between the students’ phonological knowledge and their pronunciation performance. In the light of these results, some pedagogical recommendations are suggested.

Key words: pronunciation, phonological knowledge, pronunciation performance,

correlation.

List of Abbreviations and Symbols EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language L1: First Language

IPA: The International Phonetic Association N: Number

%: Percentage

L2: Second Language

List of Tables

Table 3.1: Students’ General Performance in the Written Test………..55

Table 3.2: Individual Students’ Performance in the Written Test……… 55

Table3.3: Individual students’ performance in the Oral Test………..56

Table 3.4: Students’ Responses Regarding final /ed/………..59

Table 3.5: Students’ Responses Regarding final /s/………57

Table 3.6: Students’ Responses Regarding Word Stress………58

Table 3.7: Students’ Responses Regarding weak/ strong forms……….59

Table 3.8: The Analysis of Students’ Justification of final /ed/and final /s/ Task………..59

Table 3.9: The Analysis of Students’ Justification of Word Stress Task………59

Table 3.10: The Analysis of Students’ Justification of Weak/ Strong Forms Task………61

Table 3.11: The Correct and Incorrect Pronunciation given by the Students………62

Table 3.12: Students’ General Performance on the Oral Test……….64

Table 3.13: Individual students’ Performance on the Oral Test ……….64

Table 3.14: Students’ Performance Regarding Final / ed / ……….65

Table 3.15: Students’ Performance Regarding Final / s/……….66

Table 3.16: Students’ Performance Regarding Word Stress ………...67

Table 3.17: Students’ Performance Regarding weak/ strong Forms………...68

List of Figures Figure 1.1: Basic Features of Pronunciation

Figure 1.2: The classification of English Consonants Regarding their Place of Articulation, Manner of Articulation and Voicing

Figure 2.1: Levels of Phonological Awareness

Figure 3.1: Scattegram of the Relationship between the Students’ Performance in the Oral and Written Tests

Figure 3.2: Scattergram of the relationship between the students’ performance regarding final –ed in the oral and the written tests

Figure 3.3: Scattergram of the relationship between the students’ performance rfinegarding final –s in the oral and the written tests

Figure 3.4: Scattergram of the relationship between the students’ performance regarding word stress in the oral and the written tests

Figure 3.5: Scattergram of the relationship between the students’ performance regarding

strong/ weak forms in the oral and the written tests

Contents

Dedications………01

Acknowledgements………...02

Abstract ………...03

List of Abbreviations and Symbols………04

List of Tables ……….05

List of Figures………...06

Contents ………...07

General Introduction 1. Statement of the Problem………....11

2. Aims of Study……….12

3. Research Questions and Hypothesis………12

4. Means of Research..………13

5. Structure of the Study………..13

Chapter One: Pronunciation Learning and Teaching Introduction………14

1.1.Definition of Pronunciation ……….14

1.2. Aspects of Pronunciation……….16

1.2.1.Segmental Features………16

1.2.1.1. Consonants………17

1.2.1.2. Vowels……….18

1.2.2. Suprasegmental Features………..21

1.2.2.1. Stress………21

1.2.2.2. Intonation……….22

1.2.2.3. Rhythm……….23

1.2.2.4. Connected Speech………23

1.3. The Importance of Teaching and Learning Pronunciation……….25

1.4. Teacher’s and Learner’s Role in Teaching and Learning Pronunciation…………26

1.5. The Role of Pronunciation in Different Approaches and Methods………28

1.6. Efficacy of Pronunciation Instruction……….30

1.7. Common Pronunciation Problems Faced by EFL Learners………31

1.7.1. The Inter-Lingual Problems……….32

1.7.2. Intra-Lingual Problems……….33

Conclusion………..34

Chapter Two: Phonological Awareness, Phonetic knowledge and Pronunciation Performance Introduction………....35

2.1. Phonological Awareness……….35

2.1.1. Definition of phonological awareness………..35

2.1.2. Levels of Phonological Awareness ……….36

2.1.2.1. Word Awareness………..37

2.1.2.2. Syllable Awareness………..38

2.1.2.3. Onset-rime Awareness………...38

2.1.2.4. Phoneme Awareness………39

2.1.3. The Importance of Phonological Awareness………...41

2.1.4. Factors Affecting the Development of L2 Phonological Awareness…………...42

2.2. Phonetic Knowledge Vs Phonetic Performance………..44

2.3. Review of Previous Studies Investigating the Role of Phonological Awareness in Pronunciation……….46

2.4. Testing of Pronunciation……….48

2.4.1. Diagnostic Evaluation/ Ongoing Evaluation/ Classroom Achievement Testing..50

2.4.2. Production and Perception Tests………...51

2.4.3. Tests of Phonetic Knowledge………51

Conclusion………...51

Chapter Three: Field Work Introduction……….52

3.1. Research Design ………..52

3.1.1. The sample and Population of the Study……….52

3.1.2. Means of Research ……….. 53

3.1.3. Description and Administration of the Research Tools……….53

3.2. Data Analysis………54

3.2.1. Analysis of the Written Test………..54

3.2.1.1. General Analysis………...54

3.2.1.2. Detailed Analysis………..55

3.2.2. Analysis of the Oral Test………61

3.2.2.1. General Analysis………61

3.2.2.2. Detailed Analysis………64

3.2.3. The Relationship between Students’ Phonological Knowledge and their Pronunciation Performance………68

3.2.3.1. General Results………68

3.2.3.2. Results per Exercise……….70

3.3. Overall discussion of the Results………75

3.4. Pedagogical Recommendations ……….76

3.5. Limitations of the Study ………...77

Conclusion ………...78

General Conclusion………..79

References………81

Appendix

Résumé

صخلم

General Introduction 1. Statement of the Problem

2. Aim of the Study

3. Research Questions and Hypothesis 4. Means of Research

5. Structure of the Study

1. Statement of the problem

English contributes significantly to the developments happening in the world, especially in the cultural aspect. More specifically, people communicate with each other from different places of the world using English as a medium for communication. That is why the demand for learning English has become remarkably increasing. In fact, English learners are required to master its skills and sub-skills. Despite the fact that pronunciation plays a fundamental role in learning English as a foreign language, it has received little attention in many classroom settings until recently. As a response to globalization and to the emergence of English as a lingua franca, an increasing attention has been paid to provide pronunciation instruction that meets the communicative needs of the learners.

In the Algerian context, pronunciation has been assigned an important role in the new syllabuses brought by the competency-based approach. In fact, pronunciation is introduced starting from the first year middle school and taught until the final year of secondary education. Nevertheless, there are many indications that EFL learners have experienced tremendous difficulties in pronouncing English accurately either at the segmental or at the suprasegmental level.

At the university level, it is expected that the EFL students majoring in English have accurate pronunciation and show sufficient phonetic knowledge. In addition to the pronunciation lessons provided to them throughout at least seven years of instruction (four at the middle school level and three at the secondary school one), these students are exposed to English phonetics and phonology as a compulsory subject in their courses;

however, it is noticed that the students attitudes toward the module are varied: some like it,

others find it difficult, still others are not aware of the importance of studying the module

on their own pronunciation and listening comprehension. It is also observed that despite of

the fact that some of these learners have sufficient phonetic knowledge, for example, they

know how final –s is pronounced, they do not apply the rule when they speak. Because it is generally believed that there is a relationship between the degree of phonological knowledge that EFL learners have and their accurate pronunciation (Souza, 2015) the current study is an attempt to shed light on the learners’ phonetic knowledge and their pronunciation competency and to investigate whether there is a relationship between the two aspects.

2. Aims of the Study

As an attempt to highlight the importance of having sufficient phonological knowledge in order to perform correct pronunciation, this study aims mainly at examining the relationship between EFL learners’ phonological knowledge and their pronunciation. It also attempts to explore whether the phonetic knowledge of EFL learners is sufficient and whether their pronunciation is accurate or not.

3. Research Questions and Hypothesis

This study addressed the following research questions:

1. To what extent is the university students’ phonetic knowledge sufficient?

2. To what extent is the university students’ pronunciation accurate?

3. Is there a relationship between the pronunciation of university students and their phonological knowledge?

In order to answer the aforementioned research questions, it has been hypothesized

that if second year EFL learners have sufficient phonetic knowledge, their pronunciation

would be accurate.

4. Means of Research

In order to test the hypothesis of the present study, a combination of an oral and a written test is used. The tests have been given with 30 second year students at Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia University. The two tests aim to examine their pronunciation performance and the extent to which their performance on the written test reflects their oral performance.

5. Structure of the Study

This research work is divided into three main chapters in addition to a general

introduction and a general conclusion. The first two chapters represent the theoretical part

of the research. While the first chapter provides an overview about pronunciation, its

definition, main features and its importance, the second chapter highlights the notion of

phonological awareness, its definition, main classes, its importance and a review of

previous studies. The third chapter covers the practical part; it is devoted to the

methodology and the analysis, interpretation and discussion of the main results obtained

from the written and the oral tests.

Chapter One

Pronunciation Teaching and Learning Introduction

1.3.Definition of Pronunciation 1.4. Aspects of Pronunciation 1.2.1.Segmental Features

1.2.1.1. Consonants 1.2.1.2. Vowels

1.2.2.Suprasegmental Features 1.2.2.1. Stress

1.2.2.2. Intonation 1.2.2.3. Rhythm

1.2.2.4. Connected Speech

1.3. The Importance of Teaching and Learning Pronunciation

1.4. Teacher’s and Learner’s Role in Teaching and Learning Pronunciation 1.5. The Role of Pronunciation in Different Approaches and Methods 1.6. The Efficacy of Pronunciation Instruction

1.7. Common Pronunciation Problems Faced by EFL Learners

Conclusion

Introduction

Learning a second language is not an easy task. It does not require mastering grammar rules and vocabulary lists only; it also implies achieving a proper and correct pronunciation. Correct pronunciation is one of the goals that EFL learners are seeking to achieve. In fact, pronunciation has received attention, since it is considered as important as grammar, vocabulary, and semantics and so on. This chapter covers some important issues about pronunciation including its definition, the distinction between pronunciation and phonetics and its main features. In addition, it discusses the importance of pronunciation in teaching/learning, the role of pronunciation in the major approaches and methods, the teachers and learners’ roles in teaching and learning pronunciation. Finally, some pronunciation problems facing EFL learners are highlighted.

1. Definition of Pronunciation

Pronunciation is one of the fundamental skills that learners need to develop.

Researchers in the field defined pronunciation in various ways. GOH and Burns (2012(defined pronunciation as

Pronunciation,the term used to capture the idea of how sounds are used in communication, plays a very important role in gettingmeaning across. Pronunciation, however is not the whole story inspoken interaction, as speaking is a movement, facial expression,and gesture (p. 94).

Another definition, which is found in the Oxford student’s dictionary (2015), says that pronunciation is “the way in which a language or a particular word or sound is said”

(p. 579).In the same vein; Fraser (2001) claimed that

pronunciation includes all those aspects of speech which make for an easilyintelligible flow of speech , including segmental articulation, rhythm,intonation, and phrasing, and more peripherally even gesture, body languageand eye contact. Pronunciation is an essential ingredient of oralcommunication, which also includes grammar, vocabulary choice, and cultural consideration and so on. (p.6)

In other words, pronunciation is used to refer to the process of producing sounds that are combined to convey meaning in communication.

An important distinction between pronunciation, phonetics and phonology is drawn.

The difference between them, by definition, is that pronunciation is the mental activity

which depends on the ability of the brain to process sounds of language. In contrast,

phonetics is about the physical properties of sounds which studies the production and

perception of sounds, called phones. Moreover, the notion of phonetics refers to the

scientific study of speech sound. For Rogers (2000) “phonetics studies the sounds used in

human language. Phonetics is part of the wider field of linguistics which studies language

as a whole“(p.1). It has three main branches which are: articulatory phonetics, acoustic

phonetics, and auditory phonetics. Consequently, phonetics focuses on the features of the

sounds and their influence on one another. On the other hand, phonology is another sub

discipline of linguistics which deals with the study of how sounds are combined to form

the system of languages. Gut (2009) stated that “While phonetics deals with the

production, properties and perception of speech sounds of human language, phonology is

concerned with how these speech sounds form patterns in a particular language” (p. 7). In

other words, phonology studies the way speech sounds are organized in language.

1.2. Aspects of Pronunciation

Specialists in the field of phonetics (Kelly, 2000) divide sounds into two main categories: segments and suprasegmentals. On one hand, segments are units of sounds which can be analyzed. They are also known as phonemes. On the other hand, suprasegmental features are features of speech which generally apply to groups of segments or phonemes (Kelly, 2000, p. 3). They are interrelated in the sense that all work in combination in the communication context. As a result, both of them are important, that is, learners have to be aware of using both of those features in their speech production in order to achieve an effective oral communication .The diagram bellow illustrates the features of English pronunciation (Kelly, 2000).

Figure 1.1 Basic Features of Pronunciation (Kelly, 2000) 1.2.1. Segmental Features (Phonemes)

According to Kelly (2000) “phonemes are the different sounds within a language“(p.1). Phonemes comprise two basic categories: consonants and vowels.

Phonemes Suprasegmental Features

Consonants Vowels Intonation Stress

Diphthong s Single

vowel

Long Short

Unvoiced Voiced

Sentence stress

Word stress

1.2.1.1. Consonants

Consonants are phonemes that are usually considered to be one segment of speech.

Roach (2001) stated that “all true consonants are the result of observing the flow of air through the vocal tract“(p. 20). Furthermore, in order to produce a consonant, this involves making the vocal tract narrower at some location than it usually is, this narrowing is called constriction. In other words, a consonant is a speech sound in which the air is at least partly blocked during its production. There are 24consonant sounds in most English accents.

Fig 2: The Classification of English Consonants regarding their Place of Articulation, Manner of articulation, and Voicing

The classification of consonants is made along three main dimensions: the place of

articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing. Place of articulation indicates the location

of the consonant in the vocal tract. In other words, it specifies where in the vocal tract the

consonant occurs. There are eight chief places of articulation in English: bilabial,

labiodental, dental, alveolar, palate-alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal. Manner of articulation refers to the type of the obstruction made by the articulators. Rogers (2000) claimed that “the manner of articulation is the degree and kind of constriction in the vocal tract“(p. 23). The manner of articulation includes the following: plosives or stops, fricatives, approximants, affricates, and nasals. Voicing is considered as the last category for the classification of consonant sounds. The latter is classified either voiced or unvoiced (voiceless). The distinction to be made between voiced sounds and voiceless sounds requires the level of vibration of the vocal cords. Voiced sounds are produced when the vocal cords are vibrated. Whereas, in producing voiceless sounds there is no vibration in the vocal cords. Consequently, voiceless sounds are called fortis and they are produced with much force and energy, while voiced consonants are called lenis because they are produced with little force and energy.

1.2.1.2. Vowels

The second category of speech sounds is vowels. They are different from consonants in the way of how they are produced. Rogers (2000) claimed that “in making vowels the vocal tract is more open than consonants“(p.28).

O’Connor (1980) pointed out that “vowels are made by voiced air passing through different mouth shapes; the differences in the shape of the mouth are caused by different positions of the tongue and of the lips“(p. 45). Phoneticians used a precise system for describing vowels that is made the cardinal vowel system which is elaborated by Daniel Jones and adopted by the International Phonetic Association (IPA) (Rogers, 2000, p.176).

The cardinal vowel system does not represent any particular language.

The English vowel sounds are categorized as monophthong (pure vowel),

diphthongs, and triphthongs. Firstly, the pure vowel sounds refer to vowels that have one

single sound (monophthong), this kind of vowel sounds are different from diphthong that has two sounds. They differ in terms of their articulation. Knight (2012) claimed that “a monophthong is a single sound, with the articulators is one position throughout and therefore no change in the sound quality“(p. 64).

Basically, height, backness and rounding are the three dimensions for categorizing vowels. Vowels may be close or open; front or back; rounded or unrounded. Both height and backness are used to describe the shape of the tongue. The last dimension is concerned with the shape of the lips. For close vowels the tongue is raised to be close to the roof of the mouth, without creating an obstruction. Moving from ̸ i:̸ through to ̸ u :̸. It can be noticed different position of the tongue, ̸ i:̸ is a front vowel and ̸ u:̸ is a back vowel. For mid vowels the tongue is placed mid way between an open and a close vowel. In other words, the tongue is neither high nor low. Vowels that are concerned are moving from ̸ e̸ through to ̸ ↄ :̸. For open vowels the tongue is lower as much as possible from the roof of the mouth. They are mainly from ̸ æ ̸ to ̸ ɒ ̸. Finally, it can be summarized that there are seven short vowels and five long vowels in which they differ not only in terms of length rather in quality. (Kelly, 2000, p. 5).

On the other hand, “diphthong is a gliding movement from one vowel to another ˮ

(Roach, 2001, p. 48). Rogers (2000) added that “a diphthong can be defined for the time

being as a sequence of a simple vowel and a glide ˮ (p. 31).Generally, diphthongs are the

result of a combination of two vowels that involves a movement from one vowel to another

in which the first part is stronger than the second one. They are varying in phonetic quality

bat held to be a single sound or phoneme. For instance the diphthong in the word ̔ fame ̓

has the phonemic symbol ̸ еɪ ̸ consists of the ̔ e ̓ vowel indicating a glide to ̔ ɪ ̓ vowel.

In English there are eight diphthongs that are divided into two sections ; centring diphthongs and closing diphthongs ; which are grouped according to their second element . Centring diphthongs end with a glide toward the central vowel ̸ ә ̸. The following are the three centring diphthongs:



̸ ɪә ̸: like in area, beer, clear.



̸ ʊә ̸: in words such dour, moor.



̸ еә ̸: as in chair, there.

For closing diphthongs the glide is towards either ̸ ɪ ̸ or ̸ ʊ ̸. Diphthongs ending with ̸ ɪ ̸ includes ̸ еɪ ̸ , ̸ ↄɪ ̸, and ̸ aɪ ̸. While, diphthongs ending with ̸ ʊ ̸ includes ̸ әʊ ̸ and ̸ aʊ ̸.

(Kelly, 2000, pp. 35-36).

Triphthongs are made when a diphthong is followed by ̸ ә ̸. Kelly (2000) stated that

“triphthongs are the combination of three sounds ˮ (p. 2). For Roach (2009) “a triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption ˮ (p. 18-19).

Consequently, triphthongs are the combination of the following five closing diphthongs plus ̸ ә ̸ at the end:

1. ̸ еɪ ̸ + ̸ ә ̸ → ̸ еɪә ̸ : as in player.

2. ̸ aɪ ̸ + ̸ ә ̸ → ̸ aɪә ̸ :as in higher . 3. ̸ ↄɪ ̸ + ̸ ә ̸ → ̸ ↄɪә ̸: as in lawyer.

4. ̸ әʊ ̸ + ̸ ә ̸ → ̸ әʊә ̸ : as in slower.

5. ̸ aʊ ̸ + ̸ ә ̸ → ̸ aʊә ̸ : as in power.

1.2.2. The Suprasegmental Features of Pronunciation

Suprasegmentals are not limited to single sounds; rather, these features are highly concerned with larger unites such syllables, words, sentences as well as phrases. Goh and Burns (2012) claimed that “suprasegmental features are the elements of pronunciation that occur at the macro-level ˮ (p. 95). These features include word/sentence stress, intonation, and rhythm as well as the other aspects of connected speech (assimilation, elision and linking).

1.2.2.1. Stress

Stress may refer to the prominence given to a particular part or syllable in a word, sentence or phrase. Rogers (2000) claimed that

Stress is a complex auditory impression which the listener perceivesas making one syllable more prominent than its neighbours.

A numberof different things, either individually or in combination greater loudness,higher pitch, greater length contribute to the perception of stress. A stressedsyllable in English often has all three of these characteristics. In otherlanguages, stress maybe created by using just one or two of thecharacteristics (p. 94).

This means that stressed syllable is stronger and louder than the other ones.

Moreover, words with more than one syllable include both stressed and unstressed syllables.

Word stress refers to the degree of emphasis given to certain syllable in a word

(Underhill, 1994, p. 51). It is usually hard to determine which syllable in a word must be

stressed. Thus, in order to determine where stress should be spotted, it is important to take

into consideration the following information: whether the word simple or complex, its

grammatical category (noun, verb…), and the number of syllables that the word contains (Roach, 2009).

On the other hand, sentence stress is considered as a difficult aspect of language learning to work on for both teachers and learners. Dale and Poms (2005) stated that “in English, specific words within a sentence are emphasized or spoken louder to make them stands out ˮ (p. 90). In other words, English words do not receive the same degree of emphasis within a sentence. This emphasis is determined by whether a word is as a content word or a function word. On one hand, content words are stressed. They include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. On the other hand, function words are considered as unstressed words. They include articles, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions and pronouns. Baker and Goldstein (n, d) concluded that “the words that are stressed are words that are important for the meaning of the sentence-usually words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and Wh-words ˮ (p. 18).

1.2.2.2. Intonation

English speakers perform different kinds of melodies in their speech in which they

use pitch variation over sentences and, that is what intonation is concerned with. The

notion of intonation has always been considered as a difficult term to be defined, since

there is no general agreement on what exactly the word means. Basically, intonation

indicates the attitudes and emotions of the speaker in which it reflects what they feel from

what they are saying. Davenport and Hannahs (2005) claimed that “intonation is used for a

variety of functions including distinguishing between clause types (e.g. statements Vs

questions) or signaling speaker attitude (p. 84). Also, speakers use intonation to list certain

items. Reetz and Jongman (2009, p.221) defined intonation as “the distinctive use of pitch

over larger than a single word”. They added that “intonation may convey linguistic

information by making the boundaries of syntactic units or by distinguishing different sentence types such as statements, questions and commands”.

In short, intonation is used to indicate whether the speaker is making a statement or asking a question, whether he/she is in a good mood or bad mood. Falling and raising intonation are two basic patterns of intonation in English. Falling intonation is common in declarative sentences, commands, wh-questions, imperatives. On the other hand, raising intonation is used with yes/no questions, tag questions, and statements that indicate doubt or uncertainty.

1.2.2.3. Rhythm

Ball and Rahilly (1999) defined rhythm as “a pulse that occurs at more or less equal intervals of time ˮ (p. 119). According to Skandera and Burleigh (2005)

the rhythm of a language is the recurrence of prominent elements of speech at what are perceived to be regular intervals of time.Depending on the particular language, the prominent elements areusually either stresses or syllables (p. 87).

This means that rhythm is highly concerned with syllable in words which indicates stressed or unstressed, weak or strong syllables or words. In other words, rhythm can be defined as the attempt to make some part of words or words stronger and clearer than the others.

1.2.3. Aspects of Connected Speech

When people speak, they do not pronounce words separately. They use to speak fast

which result an effect of one sequence sounds on the other. Underhill (2005) pointed out

that “continuous connected speech consists of flow sounds which are modify by a system

of simplifications through which phonemes are connected, grouped and modified ˮ (p. 58).

In short, connected speech is a continuous sequence of sounds that speakers utter with one breath airstreams. Assimilation, elision, and linking are the key aspects of connected speech.

Roach (2001) defined assimilation as “the process by which a segment is modified by its neighbours ˮ (p. 53). Underhill (1994) gives a similar definition saying that

“assimilation occurs when a phoneme changes its quality to influence of a neighbouring sound. It changes to become more like the neighbouring sound. It changes or even identical to it ˮ (p. 60). While, for Cristal (2008) assimilation is “A general term in Phonetics which refers to the influence exercisedBy one sound segment upon the Articulation of another, so that theSounds become alike, or identical “(p. 39).

In other words, assimilation refers to the process of making sounds more similar to each other. This process occurs as a result of co-articulation. There are two types of assimilation which are progressive and regressive assimilation. For example good by ̸ɡʊd bæɪ ̸ becomes ̸ ɡʊbbæɪ ̸.

Elision refers to process of omitting one or more sounds in a word or phrase during speech in order to make words or phrases easier for the speaker to pronounce them. Kelly (2000) claimed that “elision describes the disappearance of a sound ˮ (p.110).The following are some examples of the English elision including /t/ and /d/. I don̓ t know ̸ aɪdәʊnәʊ ̸, they and me /ðеɪәnmi: /. Furthermore, sounds are often omitted in words such as temperature becomes / tәmpеtʃеә / or / tәmprәtʃә /.

Linking is also a fundamental aspect of connected speech. Due to the importance of

linking, using it help speakers to be more comfortable and natural in their speech. Roach

(2009) claimed that

In our hypothetical mechanical speech all words would be separate units placed next to each other in sequence; in real connected speech, however, we link words together in a number of ways. The most familiar case is the use of linking r; the phoneme does not occur in syllable-final position in the BBC accent, but then the spelling of a word suggest a final r, and word beginning with a vowel follows, theusual pronunciation is to pronunciation with r (p.115).

Low (2015) added that “linking commonly occurs when one word ends with a consonant and the other begins with a vowel ˮ (p. 81). In short, linking refers to the process of making words sound like one unit. More specifically, the last sound of a word often linked with the first sound of the next word.

1.3. The Importance of Teaching and Learning Pronunciation

Pronunciation is one of the necessary skills in learning English, and it is a fundamental art of one’s oral ability in the target language. Yet, pronunciation is very important for speaking as well as listening and even for the other skills. Fraser (2000) asserted that

Skills, involve vocabulary, grammar, pragmatics, etc. However,by far

the most important of these skills is pronunciation. With Good

pronunciation, a speaker is intelligible despite other errors; with poor

pronunciation, a speaker can be very difficult to understand despite

accuracy in other areas. Pronunciation is the most important aspect

that affectshow the speaker is judged by others, and how they are

formally assessedin other skills (p. 7).

At the communication level, correct pronunciation is useful for effective communication. Learning pronunciation is very important for the simple reason that English learners with good pronunciation may result good communication and their speech be comprehensible and understandable. In this regard, Mirza (2016) asserted that

In process of communication, students need to be able to pronounce and produce phonemes clearly and correctly in order to avoid Misunderstanding. They must be able articulate words and create thephysical sounds that carry the correct meanings (p.10).

Whereas, learners with poor pronunciation are considered as incompetent and may lead to occasional misunderstanding as well as inhibiting successful communication, and therefore, this may cause problems for the speaker and the listener alike. In short, successful oral communication is mainly based on accurate pronunciation.

In addition, pronunciation has a direct link to language skills especially for listening and speaking. In fact, understandable speech production is very important for effective pronunciation and speaking. Learning the different aspects of pronunciation helps learners to speak comfortably as well as it enhances their listening comprehension. That is, learners with the ability to pronounce words that are distinctive in one phoneme as in ̏ noise ̋ and ̏ nose ̋, they will be able to recognize the difference when another person uses those words in their speech.

1.4. Teachers’ and Learners’ Role in Teaching and Learning Pronunciation

Both teachers and learners have a crucial role in the process of teaching and learning pronunciation. There is a wide range of roles that teachers have to perform during the process of teaching English as a foreign language particularly teachers of phonetics.

Harmer (n.d) stated that “part of a good teacher’s art is the ability to adopt a number of

different roles in the class ˮ (p.25). Kenworthy (1987) has listed the possible roles for teachers in teaching pronunciation as: helping learners hear, helping them make sounds, providing feedback, pointing out what’s going on, establishing priorities, devising activities, and assessing progress (pp.1-2). On the other hand, the idea that teacher of phonetics is a facilitator was introduced by Morley (1991) who claimed that “teachers do not teach but facilitate learner’s learning pronunciation (p.507). Yates and Zeilinski (2009) asserted that

If teachers don’t present the general rules and principles toward comprehensible pronunciation to their EFL learners,nobody will certainly do it. This is the responsibility of EFLteachers to do this by teaching the new sounds, sentences,and phrases and arranging appropriate materials for understandable pronunciation in their EFL classes (p. 2).

Thus learners can get immediate guidance and feedback from the teacher.

Furthermore, teachers should be sensitive to the needs of their students in the areas of pronunciation.

Learners are also claimed to be responsible of their learning process, particularly in

learning pronunciation. Successful pronunciation learning is based heavily on the degree of

efforts that the learner is expected to put into his learning (Kenworthy, 1987, p. 2). This

means that learners are expected to make efforts in acquiring the rules and the principles of

English pronunciation that they have received from the teacher. In this respect, Kenworthy

(1987) argued that “the teacher maybe highly skilled at noticing mispronunciation and

pointing these out, but if the learners take no action and do not try to monitor their own

effort, and then the prospects of chance or improvement are minimal ˮ (p. 3). This

illustrated that learners have to take part in their learning process and respond to the teacher’s instructions.

1.5. The Role of Pronunciation in Different Approaches and Methods

The role of pronunciation has varied as a result of the shift in the methods and approaches in language teaching. Murphy (2003) proposed that “the place of pronunciation teaching in the ESL/ EFL classroom has gone through periods of dramatic change over the past 50yearsˮ(p. 112).

The Grammar Translation method is an old method. It was known as classical method because it was used in the teaching of classical language. The aim of this method is to enable learners to read foreign literature as well as to make learners learn the grammar of their native language. Its principles were around mastering grammar rules and vocabulary lists. Freeman (2004) holds that an emphasis was given to reading and writing over speaking and listening. He claimed that “the primary skills to be developed are reading and writing. Little attention is given to speaking and listening, and almost non to pronunciation ˮ (p. 16). In short, pronunciation is almost neglected and seldom taught, because the ability to communicate in the target languages was not a goal of foreign language teaching and learning at that time.

However, from 1980’s to 1930’s, there has been a shift in emphasis away from using

foreign languages to read rather to communicate. In fact, the direct method was initially

introduced as a reaction the shortcomings of the grammar translation methods, which

failed in preparing learners to use the target language; as an attempt to prepare learners for

spontaneous use of the target language. The direct method emphasized correct

pronunciation in the teaching instruction in which it was taught through the use of intuitive

and imitative a native model (Celce-Murcia et al., 1996, p. 3). Freeman (2004) added that

“pronunciation should be worked on right from the beginning of language instruction ˮ (p.

27). On the other hand, Krashen (1982) wrote about the direct method as “the goal of the instruction is for the students to guess, or work out the rules of the language ˮ (p. 153). The direct method is considered as a starting point for introducing pronunciation in the teaching instruction, although the methodology was used was primitive.

Noticeably, the emergence of the reform movement in 1880’s was a significant event in the history of the field of second language teaching in general and pronunciation in particular. In 1886, Henry Sweet, Wilhelm Vietor, and Paul Passy founded what was called the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) which is used for describing and analyzing the sound systems of languages (Celce-Murcia et al., 1996, p.3). The reform movement also contributed to the development of both audiolingualism in (USA) and the oral approach in (UK) from the 1940’s to the 1950’s. In fact, pronunciation has received higher attention.

Indeed, it was taught explicitly. Freeman (2004) argued that “speech is more basic to language than the written form ˮ (p.44).

With the rise of communicative language teaching (CLT) from 1970’s to 1990’s;

teaching pronunciation was introduced in language teaching and learning. It emphasized more on learners’ communicative competence rather than linguistic competence, and on the language functions as well as its forms. Murcia et al. (1996) claimed that “this focus on language as communication brings renewed urgency to the teaching of pronunciation, since both empirical and anecdotal evidence indicates that there is a threshold level of pronunciation for non native speakers of English ˮ (p. 19).

In addition, this method is mainly focuses on suprasegmentals and prosodic aspects

of language. Freeman (2004) asserted that “students should work with language at the

discourse or suprasegmentential (above the sentence) level. They must learn about

cohesion and coherence, those properties of language which bind the sentences together ˮ (p. 126).

In brief, with the development of the communicative approach, the importance of pronunciation has been raised, and then, it is granted a significant role for the oral communication success.

1.8. Efficacy of Pronunciation Instruction

Pronunciation instruction is considered as a controversial issue in English language teaching. In fact, there have been different researchers’ views over pronunciation instruction. Some researchers such as Purcell and Suter (1980) were against pronunciation instruction. These two researchers conducted a study in which they examined the effectiveness of explicit pronunciation instruction. They included 61 EFL learners from different first language backgrounds taking into consideration a wide range of factors such age of arrival, length of residence in an English speaking country, amount of English used in conversation, motivation, aptitude for oral mimicry, strength of concern for pronunciation, amount of general English instruction , and number of weeks focused specifically on pronunciation instruction. As a result, they proved that pronunciation instruction had no positive effect on EFL learners’ pronunciation accuracy (as cited in Bouchair, 2018, p. 35).

However, there are other researchers who have supported teaching pronunciation

instruction including Pennington (1998), Derwing, Munro, and Weibe (1998),

Couper(2003), Derwing and Munro(2005) , Saito(2013). Basically, these researchers claim

that pronunciation instruction is effective in improving EFL/ ESL learners’ oral production

and their speaking skills (as cited in Bouchair, 2018, p. 36). In this respect, Morley (1991)

stated that “understandable pronunciation is a main objective of pronunciation instruction ˮ (as cited in Gilakjani, 2016, p. 1).

Penning (1998) pointed out that explicit pronunciation instruction helping in raising EFL learners’ phonological awareness as well as reducing their pronunciation problems.

Moreover, Derwing, Munro, and Weibe (1990) investigated the effects of segmental and suprasegmentals instruction on ESL students pronunciation. The results of this study revealed that there was a noticeable improvement among students who received 20 minutes per day of pronunciation instruction in intelligibility. This finding was similar to what other studies have reported such as Pennington and Ellis’ study (2000) who concluded that explicit instruction contributed in enhancing sentence stress production. In addition to the previous mentioned studies, there were other studies which were devoted to learners’

attitudes towards receiving explicit pronunciation instruction as well as the effect of individual corrective feedback on pronunciation. In Couper’s (2003) study, it was concluded that most of the participants showed positive attitudes towards pronunciation instruction. This may result positive effect in improving students oral production. Also, Dlaska and Klekler’s (2013) study asserted that individual corrective feedback is an effective tool more than listening only to activities (p. 37).

Despite the fact that pronunciation instruction plays an important role in learning English as a foreign language, it does not receive special attention.

1.9. Common Pronunciation Problems Faced by EFL Learners

Learning a second language is not an easy task. Thus, second language learners

experience difficulties in their learning process. Problems facing EFL learners can be

categorized as inter-lingual and intra-lingual problems. The inter-lingual difficulties refer

to the influence of first language (L1) on learning a second language (L2). Whereas, the

intra-lingual problems refer to the difficulties involving in a second language learning .i.e, problems encounter within the language itself (Yoshida, n. d, p. 10).

1.7.1. The Inter-Lingual Problems

As it is mentioned above, the inter-lingual difficulties usually refer to the interference, the transfer, and cross-linguistic interference of the mother tongue in learning a foreign language. According to Brown (1980:160) “the learners’ errors in the second language result from the learner’s assumption that the second language forms are similar to the native language ˮ (as cited in Sari, 2016, p. 88). Corder (1981) added that “(…) these kinds of error occur when the learner’s habits (patterns, systems or rules) interfere or prevent him or her, to some extent, from acquiring the patterns and rules of the second language ˮ (as cited in Sari, p. 89). With regard to the difference between L1 and L2 system, learners are led to commit errors. Hartoto (2010) claimed that “learners find that English is difficult to pronounce because there different sound system between English and their language ˮ (p. 2). In this respect, and based on a study that was conducted in order understand a Chinese English learners pronunciation problems. Lili (2005) stated that

“errors were made due to the fact that some of these English sounds do not exist in the Chinese sound system and due to the transference from the Chinese sound system ˮ . (p.79).

Lili provided an example of which it illustrates the substitution of the ̸ s ̸ phoneme instead of the ̸ ɵ ̸ phoneme, because the latter does not exist in Chinese language such in words…

Similarly, Chelli (2013) pointed out that “(…) at the phonological level, this may be

characterized by inter-lingual transfer, the learner substitute a familiar phoneme from the

mother tongue , like Arabic students who substitute ̏ p ̋ with ̏ b ̋ , like saying ̏ broblem ̋

instead of ̏ problem ̋ ˮ (p. 44). Ronald Carter and David Nunan (2001), O’Connor (2003)

concluded that

The main problem of the speakers of other languages who speak English, is substitution of sounds i.e. they substitute the sounds That they don’t have in their native language, with other sounds Which are close to them in the place of articulation e.g they replace / p/ with / b/, /Ө/ with /s/ etc (as cited in Hassan, 2014, p. 31).

On the other hand, EFL learners encounter problems at the level of prosodic features including stress patterns and intonation. They fail in placing word stress and confusing in determining noun/verb placement. Moreover, they fail in adopting the English stress-timed rhythm as well as adopting weak vowels in continuous speech (Bouchair, 2018, p. 91).

Further, for many students intonation is considered as a difficult suprasegmental feature to deal with, because they find difficulty at the level of identifying the different patterns of rising and falling tone because these patterns are different from their language.

1.9.2. Intra-Lingual Problems

In most languages, each letter represents only one sound. Thus it is easy for learners to pronounce words just by looking at the spelling of the word. But, English language is not the case. One of the biggest difficulties for non native speakers particularly EFL learners is the English spelling and pronunciation. It is difficult to know from the spelling of the word how to pronounce it because the letters can be pronounced differently in

different words . For example , the letter ̏ c ̋ in w ord ̏ cat ̋ is pronounced / k/but that is

different to word ̏ face ̋ that is pronou nced / s /, and when a ̏ c ̋ is next to a ̏ h ̋ is often

pronounced / tʃ / like in church. According to Khansir and Tajeri (2015) “pronunciation is

occasionally affected by the way in which a word is spelt ˮ (p. 58). O’Connor (1980)

confirmed that “in ordinary English spelling it is not always easy to know what sounds the

letter stand for ˮ (p. 7). In short, each English letter does not correspond to one specific sound. That is English learners experience problems in learning English pronunciation.

Conclusion

In the area of pronunciation, English language is considered as a difficult language

which requires much efforts and sufficient care to be mastered. That is, developing

proficiency and accuracy in English pronunciation is not regarded as an easy task; rather it

seems as a difficult aim to be achieved. Thus, teaching pronunciation is one of the most

complicated aspects of EFL teaching and learning. That is why learners of English have to

work on themselves in improving their pronunciation. From the other hand, teachers can

help them by highlighting the different aspects of pronunciation such as segments,

suprasegmentals including (stress, intonation) and so on. Yet, pronunciation is very

important and crucial part of the EFL learning process. It can be concluded that,

pronunciation should be incorporated and integrated into classroom activities, since it

enables learners to communicate effectively and improve their intelligibility.

Chapter Two

Phonological Awareness, Phonetic knowledge and Pronunciation Performance Introduction

2.1. Phonological Awareness

2.1.1. Definition of phonological awareness 2.1.2. Levels of Phonological Awareness 2.1.2.1. Word Awareness

2.1.2.2. Syllable Awareness 2.1.2.3. Onset-rime Awareness 2.1.2.4. Phoneme Awareness

2.1.3. The Importance of Phonological Awareness

2.1.4. Factors Affecting the Development of L2 Phonological Awareness 2.2. Phonetic Knowledge Vs Phonetic Performance

2.3. Review of Previous Studies Investigating the role of Phonological Awareness in Pronunciation

2.4. Testing of Pronunciation

2.4.1. Diagnostic Evaluation/ Ongoing Evaluation/ Classroom Achievement Testing 2.4.2. Production and Perception Tests

2.4.3. Tests of Phonetic Knowledge.

Introduction

One of the aims of teaching a foreign language is raising learner’s awareness of the target language which embraces all language aspects. In fact, phonological awareness is one of the important areas of language learning and speaking of which is used to raise the awareness of pronunciation features as well as pronunciation development. A significant source of correct pronunciation is said to be the amount of phonological knowledge that learners of the target language have. Thus the language learner should be familiar with the phonological rules, levels of phonological awareness…etc. Noticeably, numerous researches have emphasized the role of phonological awareness in developing learners’

pronunciation skills.

The present chapter tackles phonological awareness, including its definition, its levels and its importance. It also deals with the main factors that may affect the development of L2 phonological awareness. Finally, it reviews a range of researches that have tackled the relationship between the learners’ phonological awareness and their pronunciation enhancement.

2.1. Phonological Awareness

2.1.1. Definition of Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is regarded as a basic education concept in recent years.

Many researchers tackled this issue and provided various definitions of that term. Gillon (2004) claimed that

Phonological awareness is the widely used term that describes as a

person’s explicit knowledge about the detail contained in underlying

phonological representations of spoken words (i.e. syllables, onsets,

rimes and phonemes). Phonological awareness abilities are

considered sub-component of broader language-based skills such as

meta-linguistic awareness and phonological processing skills (as cited in Sutherland, 2006, p.3)

Another definition was given by Gillon (2004) saying that “phonological awareness is the awareness of sound structure of spoken words ˮ (as cited in Hill, 2007, p.1).

Torgesen and Mathes (1998) added that

Phonological awareness is most commonly defined as one’s Sensitivity to, or explicit awareness of, the phonological structure Of words in one’s language. In short, it involves the ability to notice,Think about, or manipulate the individual sounds in words (p.

2).

From the above definitions, it can be concluded that phonological awareness refers to the learner’s knowledge of the phonological structure of words in one’s language including syllables, onset-rime and phonemes. (Lombardino, Bedford, Forties, Carter & Brandi, 1997, p.333) emphasized that phonological awareness refers to “the ability to recognize that a spoken word consists of smaller components such as syllables or phonemes and that these units can be manipulated ˮ (as cited in NC, 2003, p. 5).

2.1.2. Levels of Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is organized in terms of a series of levels that are ordered in

an adjacent manner from the easiest to the most difficult as following: Word awareness s syllable awareness onset-rime awareness phoneme awareness. In this

respect, Snow et al (1998) described phonological awareness as “a speakers sensitivity to the phonological system of a language, including sounds, syllable structure, and phonotactics of the language ˮ (as cited in p. Wagner, p. 106).

Basically, speech is governed by certain rules. In this regard, Wagner and Togresen

(1987) claimed that

Speech involves phonological rules (e.g., the vowel shift rule responsible for the change in pronunciation of the second ̏ e ̋ in the word ̏ extremity ̋ Compared to its pronunciation without the suffix in the word ̏ extreme ̋ ) to transfer the abstract phonemes into surface phones, that, in tern, relate to the articulatory gestures we know as speech (p. 194).

Figure 2.1.: Levels of Phonological Awareness (adopted from Martha Hougen, 2016)

2.1.2.1. Word Awareness

Word awareness is considered as a basic level of the umbrella term phonological

awareness. Mohammed (2014) claimed that “word awareness is the knowledge that

sentences consists of words and that these words can be manipulated ˮ (pp. 102-103).

Teachers may find words easy to use at first. Thus, word awareness level is considered to be the easiest level for learners to develop. Consequently, learners are expected to be able to identify and isolate words that are made up the sentences. Basically, words are divided into two main types namely content and functional words. Content words are regarded to assess the functional words. As an illustration, content words are described to be understood by learners more readily than functional words and considered as the important words in sentences, whereas, the functional words are optional. Tomas and Richard (2009) confirmed that “use of content words in simple sentences will facilitate the learners understanding of the concept of word awareness ˮ (as cited in Mohmmed, 2014, p. 103). In short, word awareness refers to the ability of recognizing the different words in a sentence and how these words work.

2.1.2.2. Syllable Awareness

Learners develop syllable awareness through recognizing that words are analyzed into a range of syllables. Roach (1991) stated that “in phonology we must try to analyze what the restrictions and regularities are in a particular language, and it is usually found helpful to do this by studying the syllables of the language ˮ (p. 44). In other words, syllable awareness can be defined as the ability or knowledge of how words are segmented into syllables, even with unfamiliar words, learners can segment and recognize speech patterns with the help of their knowledge.

2.1.2.3. The Onset-Rime Awareness

Another part of phonological awareness that learners are expected to develop is the

onset-rime awareness. Once learners have developed word and syllable awareness that are

described as the largest parts of the sentence, and then, they tend to emphasized and focus

their attention to the smaller parts syllables. Yet, the onset-rime is the result of a syllable

division. Generally, the onset can be defined as the part of syllable that precedes the vowel.

i.e., it is the initial consonant or consonant cluster that comes before the vowel . In this context, it is important to mention that the onset is different from the initial sound in the sense that the onset can be a consonant cluster such as in word ̏ sp ort ̋, the onset is the ̏ sp ̋ but the initial sound is the ̸ s ̸ sound . The rime is the vowel and all the consonant(s) follow it (as cited in Mohammed, 2014, p. 104). Treiman and Zukowski (1991) stated that

“syllables do not necessarily have an onset (e.g., it) but they must have a rime ˮ (p.69). It is also important to shed light on the role of phonotactic knowledge on developing the onset- rime awareness. Phonotactics is the part of phonology which deals with the rules governing the possible combination consonants at the level of onset-rime (Skandera & Burleigh, 2005, p 67). Gut (2009) claimed that “languages vary as to which type of speech sounds are allowed to occur in which position of the syllable ˮ (p 75). He added that “the type of consonants that can occur in English syllable onsets and codas and their order is restricted, which can be formulated in phonotactic rules ˮ (p.77).

As it is mentioned above, the onset-rime awareness refers to the ability to segment the syllable into onset and rime. “Onset-rime awareness requires students to be aware of initial consonants, up to the vowel (onset), and then the vowel and following letters (rime) ˮ (Hougen, 2016, p. 3). In brief, it is necessary for learners to understand the structure of syllables in the process of segmenting the syllable into onset-rime. i.e., they may find syllables that they have more than one letter which stands for one sound, and with the rules of phonotactics, they experience it easily.

2.1.2.4. Phoneme Awareness

Learning English can be a challenge particularly for learners whose English is not

their mother tongue. They may face problems with the new hearing phonemes of the target

language that are different from those in their native language.

Phoneme awareness is another subset of phonological awareness which is considered as the most difficult level among the other levels, because children or even adults have to deal with more abstract concepts (Mohammed, 2014, p. 104). In the same vein, Kleidler (2004) claimed that “phonemes are abstract units which are realized as specific articulations, momentary gestures or positions of the vocal organs in the stream of speech ˮ (p. 108). Hougen (2016) added that “the most complex level of phonological awareness is phonemic awareness, or the awareness of the individual sounds in words ˮ (p. 2).

Basically, phonemes are said to be the smallest distinctive units that make up a word. They are distinctive in the sense that they are sounds that distinguish one word from another and of which result difference for a word’s meaning. Catford (2001) claimed that

“every language uses a particular set of phonemes for the purpose of building up the phonological forms ˮ (p. 187). On the other hand, Wager and Torgesen (1987) asserted that

“learning to read new words involves segmenting the letter string into units that correspond to individual sounds together to pronounce the word ˮ (p. 195). This means that the language system is based on the wide range of phonemes that are required to build up words that are introduced in speech production.

According to Mohammed (2014) “phoneme awareness is the ability to identify,

isolate, blend and segment the sounds that are representative of letters in a certain language

ˮ (p. 104). In other words, phoneme awareness refers to the ability to match the hearing

sounds in the speech with their symbols that represents phonemes. i.e., it refers to a

person’s knowledge of words at the level of individual sounds. In short, learners should be

able to master the sub-skills of phonemes awareness including phoneme isolation,

blending, segmentation and manipulation.