The Pronunciation of English Segments by Bahdini Kurdish Learners of English

Section: Research Paper
Published
Jun 24, 2025
Pages
25-55

Abstract

This study investigates the production of English segments by Bahdini Kurdish (BK) learners of English in the 2nd and 4th years of their study. The study aims at identifying the type or subtype of English sounds that are considered problematic for BK learners of English and examining whether there is an improvement in the production of the 4th year in comparison to that of the 2nd year. 50 undergraduate students from College of Languages, Duhok University purposively are selected from second and fourth years of their study. From each level, twenty-five students are taken and their ages range between 20 and 23. A production test composed of (118) words is employed as an instrument to collect the required data from the respondents. The respondents are asked to read the whole wordlist then the data is transcribed using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols. To fulfil the aims of the study, both descriptive and statistical analysis methods are used to describe the findings of the data analysis of both levels. The findings reveal that vowels, in general, are more problematic than consonants for BK learners of English and the diphthong class is more difficult for both groups compared to that of the monophthong class. Furthermore, the results of the statistical independent sample test reveal that statistically the 4th years production of both types of sounds is better compared to that of the 2nd year. The means of the 4th year learners correct production of consonants as well as vowels are 1.91 and 1.73 respectively; whereas 2nd year learners scored the means 1.90 and 1.63 for consonants and vowels respectively. Learners mispronunciation of English sounds is mainly due to some linguistic factors such as L1 transfer, the disparity of the sound system between Kurdish and English, inconsistency of vowel sounds. Finally, some ideas are recommended by the researcher for BK learners to improve their pronunciation of English sounds

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How to Cite

Mohammed Hasan, A., آفين, Ibrahim, K., & خالد. (2025). The Pronunciation of English Segments by Bahdini Kurdish Learners of English. Adab Al-Rafidayn, 54(99), 25–55. https://doi.org/10.33899/radab.2024.147455.2097