Another problem is that, many Kurdish learners as EFLs have deficiency pronunciation performance. They tend to use Kurdish speech patterns or styles when ...
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Statement of the Problem
Although teaching pronunciation is one of the significant features of EFL and ESL teaching but English pronunciation still receives little attention in most EFL/ESL classrooms throughout the region .This lack of interest is due to the fact that adequate English pronunciation teaching strategies or techniques are not available to teachers in the classroom. Therefore, English pronunciation should be paid more attention by both teachers and learners whether it is learnt as a second or a foreign language since an English learner with a limited pronunciation performance may lose his/her self confidence in social interactions. The majority of non -native English pronunciation teachers, including Kurdish teachers, do not know how to help EFLs to acquire self- monitoring and self- confidence in pronunciation classes in order to prevent, or at least reduce the factors affect their production skills and performance accuracy. Another problem is that, many Kurdish learners as EFLs have deficiency pronunciation performance. They tend to use Kurdish speech patterns or styles when speaking English. Some will not speak out because of the factors that affect their pronunciation such as: Interlingual transfer, this sort of error occurs due to effect of the students’ first language into the foreign one, intralingual transfer, this sort of error occurs due to the complexities and irregularities of the target language itself. Such errors may be the result of the influence of one target language item upon another, such as: rhythm & vowel reduction, word stress or because of external factors such as, lack of motivation and aptitude, etc. Here, the study clarifies that the application of the Phonetic training and pronunciation Learning Strategies, henceforth (PLS) increase confidence and improve Kurdish learners to become intelligible speakers or to have native-like speech feature. 1.2 Research Questions: The study is expected to find answers for the following research questions: 1. What is the impact of phonetic training on Kurdish EFL students’ performance accuracy? 2. To what extent does phonetic training enhance students’ performance? 3. To what extent does pronunciation learning strategy helps to increase Kurdish learners self -confidence and self-monitoring in learning English pronunciation?
1.3 Hypotheses:
This study hypothesizes that: 1. Phonetic training leads to positive improvement in students’ performance. 2. The application of phonetic training programme has greater influence on learners’ speaking skill than reading skill. 3. Pronunciation learning strategy will increase Kurdish learners’ self- confidence and selfmonitoring and help learners to gain accurate pronunciation and fluent abilities in both recognition and production levels.
1.4 Aim of the study The study aims at: 1. Assessing and evaluating the impact of the phonetic training, to detect how and to what extent the training course raises learners’ awareness of their improvement in recognition and production levels. 2. Assessing the use of a pronunciation learning strategy framework, and investigating how it enhances the communicative performance through self- monitoring and self- confidence. 3. Proposing a training package for teaching English pronunciation at university. 1.5 Procedures: To achieve the aims of the study the following procedure is taken: 1. Presenting theoretical background on phonetic training and pronunciation learning strategies. 2. Conducting literature review. 3. Constructing tests and other study tools( a questionnaire). 4. Collecting data from the selected samples of the study through the study tools. 5. Analysing the data through SPSS. 1.6 Scope of the study: This research will be undertaken as an experimental study. The study is limited to first year Kurdish Learners, Department of English, College of Basic Education, University of Salahaddin University-Hawler during the academic year(2016-2017). To fulfill the phonetic training, a
course designed by Celce-Murcia , Brinton , Goodwin, Griner (2010) is used with application of PLS which is attached to steps of Dickerson’s Covert Rehearsal Model, under the instructions of the teacher / researcher.
1.7 Data Analysis: Data are analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The descriptive statistics are utilized to run for frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation. In order to find out significant differences the variables were compared through the use of independent samples t-tests.
1.8 The Significance of the Study: It is hoped that this study will fill the gap in the literature on speaking, reading comprehension by suggesting a new way to apply in order to develop Kurdish EFL learners‟ performance accuracy”. Moreover, it will provide opportunities for Kurdish learners to practice pronunciation by receiving relevant information on target language sounds through a coverage in articulatory phonetics, speech acoustics, speech perception, and phonetic transcription tasks and appropriate teacher feedback. Finally, and on top of that the study will give the stakeholders; the educational administrators, syllabus designers, material developers, and English language teachers the opportunity to draw on the findings in order to, create a suitable syllabi, develop the pervious materials, and conduct classes accordingly. 1.9 Key terms: The following definitions shed tights on the most prominent key terms of the study:
Phonetic Training is defined as a series of lessons used to teach the pronunciation skills to help English learners to become intelligible speakers or to have native-like speech feature development. (Erwin ,1991)
Pronunciation Learning Strategies are “specific actions taken by the learner to make learning [pronunciation] easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective and more transferable to new situations”. (Oxford,1990)
Performance Assessment is a type of alternative assessment reflects student performance on instructional tasks and relies on professional rater judgment in its design. (Aguirre-Munoz, et al. (2006)).
