Amir Bayoumi

Common pronunciation errors
in the speech of undergraduate Egyptian Students
at Ain Shams University and ways of dealing with them

Done by: Amir Bayoumi

Peer edited by: Aya Elhawary

Ain Shams University, Faculty of Arts, English Department.

Abstract

This study aims towards stating the common pronunciation errors undergraduate Egyptian students of the faculty of arts, English department, Ain Shams University do, along with discussing the suggested ways in dealing with them. Forty students from the four study years answered questionnaires and twelve of them recorded samples of live English language pronunciation. After collecting and analyzing the data, the results were that /P/, /dᴣ/ and /d/ are the three sounds which the students “believe” they usually mispronounce. However, after recording live English language pronunciation the results were a bit different: /ŋ/, /d/ and /ð/ are the sounds that are commonly mispronounced.

The questionnaire also shows that many students are very motivated to improve their pronunciation, but they don’t know how or where they can do it. They tried some ideas like “Listening to English music,” “Talking to native English speakers” and “practicing the language with themselves and with their friends.” Some of them succeeded and some failed. And when discussing the factors or experiences that helped in improving the English language pronunciation, we found out different issues which are discussed in the research paper. Moreover, students were asked about the subjects that helped in improving their pronunciation along with their suggestion about what subjects that may and are not currently included in their curriculum.

Introduction

This research investigates the common pronunciation errors -with a focus on the consonant sounds (p/, /θ/, /ð/, /v/, / ᴣ/, /t∫/, /dᴣ/, /ŋ/ and /t /) only – that Egyptian undergraduate students do. Although very few, after checking previous studies in this field, I found out that Arabic speakers generally mispronounce 10 consonant sounds only, mentioned above. The main reasons behind these errors are that these consonants are not found in the Arabic language or, if found, the consonant clusters (i.e. two or more consecutive consonants or vowels in a segment of speech) are not familiar to the Arabic speaker. This study is narrowed to investigate these errors more along with an attempt to find out how can we deal with them and what are the most effective ways that might enable us to correct these mispronunciations.

Forty students were asked to fill in a questionnaire of 15 questions; the kind of questions that answers the research questions directly. And 12 of these students were chosen to record with. The recording included four kinds of live English pronunciation (i.e. text reading, sentence reading, minimal pairs reading and general conversation). Minimal pairs means: two linguistic units that differ in a single distinctive feature or constituent. The findings of the two methods of data collection were similar to each other. However, they contradicted each other at some points which show that students are not fully aware of the pronunciation errors they do.

Review of literature

Although few the studies are in this area, especially in the Arabic speaking countries and the Middle East, we managed to collect some opinions about the common pronunciation errors of the English language done by Arabic speakers, the ways to deal with them, its mechanism and theory and some other general sayings about it.

Most of the studies claimed that there are 10 consonants which Arabic speakers usually mispronounce:

Error	Explanation	Example
/t /	Replacing /t / with /d/ especially at the end of words.	Pronouncing “pickd” instead of “pickt”
/dᴣ/	Replacing /dᴣ/ with /ᴣ/especially at the beginning of words.	Pronouncing “jump” instead of “djump”
/p/	Replacing /p/ with /b/	Pronouncing “bark” instead of “park”
/ŋ/	Replacing /ŋ/ with /nk/ or /ng/ especially at the end of words.	Pronouncing “sing” instead of “siŋ”
/θ/	Replacing /θ/ with /s/	Pronouncing “sink” instead of “think”
/ð/	Replacing /ð/ with /z/	Pronouncing “mozer” instead of “mother”
/ᴣ/	Replacing /ᴣ/ with /∫/	Pronouncing “meashure” instead of “measure”
/t∫/	Replacing /t∫/ with /∫/	Pronouncing “share” instead of “chair”
/t∫/	Replacing /t∫/ with /t/	Pronouncing “cat” instead of “catch”
/v/	Replacing /v/ with /f/	Pronouncing “fery” instead of “very”

Table I

These sounds, represented in table I, are replaced with another near sounds of them in the native language of the speaker (in this case: the Arabic language). Avery & Ehrlich (1992) believe that the native language of the speaker can affect the pronunciation of the second language in 3 different ways as Barros states them (2003):

“When a learner encounters sounds in English that are not part of the sound inventory of the learner’s native language. As mentioned before, the pronunciation of sounds depends on the proper use of the musculature in the mouth. Therefore, if the muscle needed for a certain sound is not exercised, the learner may not be able to produce it.”
“When the rules of combining sounds into words are different in the learner’s mother tongue. Sometimes the sound present in the second language is also present in the native language, however, the rules of combining this sound into 22 words may be different, causing a problem for the pronunciation of English.”
“The rhythm and melody of a language determine its patterns of stress and intonation. Learners may transfer the rhythm of their first language into English.”

Later on Ahmad (2011) states that: “Every language has a rule for combining sound segments to make meaningful words. Children adopt these sound rules through listening followed by trial and error.” This emphasizes the previous idea: these rules are acquired by children and causes the formation of the native language of the person. Ahmad (2011) continues to say: “when students learn a second or foreign language, they face some overlaps because of the very different phoneme systems of both languages. So, when they try to speak a second language, they produce the sounds which are closest to the sounds and also exist in their mother tongue. For example, most Arab speakers pronounce the words play and cheap as blay and sheep,” which emphasizes Avery & Ehrlich idea about how the native language affects the pronunciation of the second language.

And since we talked about this idea of learning a second language pronunciation, we can refer here to The Brain Plasticity Theory. Barros (2003) explained this theory: “[The Brain Plasticity Theory] suggests the existence of a critical period for second language pronunciation acquisition. However, some authors still claim that there is no critical period for any language components, not even for accent acquisition, and that the period should be called optimal period. When it is more favorable for younger learners (and not impossible for older learners) to acquire a native accent.” And that is what can be very simply written: attaining a native-like pronunciation after the age of puberty seems to be very difficult. However, with appropriate training this goal may be reached.

Significance of the study

This study is done as an attempt to specify the common pronunciation errors Egyptian undergraduate students do and discussing the most appropriate ways how to deal with them. English pronunciation has become a very crucial criterion in the field of work nowadays in Egypt. And on the other hand, many undergraduate students find it a problem to speak English fluently. That is why, I find this study very important; specifying the problem is half way of solving it. And in this study, we do not just specify the problem, but also we discuss ways of dealing with them; meaning that we go the extra mile for students to help them improve their pronunciation.

The study is a specified one; it is focused only on the consonants errors. Being a small study, it was better to be concentrate on the consonants errors, because if we opened the doors for the vowels errors the quality of the research will be lowered. So, it was better to focus on one major problem (consonants mispronunciation) to get the most accurate results we can get.

Methodology

Subjects of the study are 40 Egyptian undergraduate students (Ain Shams University, Faculty of Arts, English Department) from second, third and fourth study years- their age varies between 18 and 22 years old. They were contacted through academic groups on Facebook and Multiply (i.e. NewEnglizy, Think and American Literature, ASU English Arts [2009-2013]). The first group (NewEnglizy) is around 850 members from different study years. The second group’s (Think) capacity is around 300 members from third year students only. The third group is American literature which is the fourth year group with around 350 fourth year members. The fourth group (ASU English Arts [2009-2013]) is around 350 members of second year students. Out of the four groups, 40 students (i.e. 35 females and 5 males) responded to the questionnaire; 12 students from the second year, 20 students participated from the third year and the fourth year participated with 8 students only.

The replies were gathered and then were analyzed, later on we will discuss the results! Out of the 40 students, only 12 were contacted to make a recording with; this recording included four kinds of live English pronunciation (i.e. text reading, sentence reading, minimal pairs reading and general conversation). On our process of choosing students to record with we were focusing on choosing students who are very motivated to improve their pronunciation and this was known through the questionnaire.

Through the questionnaire we managed to know what pronunciation errors students are aware of, their ways of dealing with them, their attempts and whether it succeeded or not, how much they are motivated to improve their pronunciation, the obstacles they face in the process of improving their pronunciation, information about the college such as to what extend it helped in improving their pronunciation and the subjects they study and how it helps, suggestions about how it can help them more and other general information about the students.

On the other hand, the recording helped in specifying the real pronunciation errors and whether it is the same as they said in the questionnaire or not. Moreover, the recording was done on four different styles; the text reading style which were focusing on the pronunciation errors of students while they are reading generally (focusing on the text but not on a specific error), the minimal pairs reading which were simple sentences that contain minimal pairs (this kind helped the student more to avoid doing the error by making it obvious), the sentence reading which were simple short sentences that helped the student more by making the area of reading even smaller to let him/her focus more and avoid doing the error. And finally, the general conversation style which was a simple chatting with students in the English language about their views and opinions about improving their pronunciation and just taking their opinions about the study and how far they think it is going to be an add to help students deal with their pronunciation errors.

Results and discussion

Now we reached the point where we can view the results of the study and discuss them later on. As we said before, the data were collected through two ways (questionnaire and recording). This means that we are going to have two results: one of the questionnaire and the other of the recording. And then we are going to merge them together and get the overall results. Then we can discuss them together.

As for the questionnaire, its main aim was to find out the common consonant pronunciation errors. Let’s see what the students have said:

Error	Explanation	Example	Freq.	Per.
/t /	Replacing /t / with /d/ especially the end of words.	Pronouncing “pickd” instead of “pickt”	18	45%
/dᴣ/	Replacing /dᴣ/ with /ᴣ/especially the beginning of words.	Pronouncing “jump” instead of “djump”	15	38%
/p/	Replacing /p/ with /b/	Pronouncing “bark” instead of “park”	13	33%
/ŋ/	Replacing /ŋ/ with /nk/ or /ng/ especially the end of words.	Pronouncing “sing” instead of “siŋ”	9	23%
/θ/	Replacing /θ/ with /s/	Pronouncing “sink” instead of “think”	7	18%
/ð/	Replacing /ð/ with /z/	Pronouncing “mozer” instead of “mother”	7	18%
/ᴣ/	Replacing /ᴣ/ with /∫/	Pronouncing “meashure” instead of “measure”	3	08%
/t∫/	Replacing /t∫/ with /∫/	Pronouncing “share” instead of “chair”	3	08%
/t∫/	Replacing /t∫/ with /t/	Pronouncing “cat” instead of “catch”	0	00%
/v/	Replacing /v/ with /f/	Pronouncing “fery” instead of “very”	0	00%

Table II

As seen, in table II, students believe that the sounda they mispronounce most are /t/, /dᴣ/ and /p/; 18 students said that they do mispronounce the /t/ (they replace it with /d/. And 15 students said that they replace the /dᴣ/ with / ᴣ/. Moreover, 13 students checked the /p/ saying that they mispronounce it with /b/. In addition, other sounds which they said they mispronounce are /ŋ/ (9 students), /θ/ (7 students), /ð/ (7 students), /ᴣ/ (3 students) and /t∫/ (Replacing /t∫/ with /∫/) only 3 students marked. Moreover, there are two sounds (i.e. /t∫/ replaced with /t/ and /v/) which not a student said he/she mispronounce.

And this chart explains it even more:

Figure I

Those were the common consonants errors undergraduate students believe they do and work on solving them using different ways. When we asked them about those ways, their answer was:

Way	Freq.	Per.	Succeeded	Per.	Failed	Per.
Talking to native English speakers	20	50%	14	70%	6	30%
Reading English books	31	78%	11	35%	20	65%
Listening to English music	33	83%	22	67%	11	33%
Watching English Videos	26	65%	24	92%	2	8%
English courses	2	05%	2	100%	0	0%
Listening to Professors attentively	1	03%	1	100%	0	0%
practice with myself and with my friends	3	08%	2	67%	1	33%
Video games	1	03%	1	100%	0	0%
Listening to native English records	2	05%	2	100%	0	0%
Depending On My Faculty	1	03%	0	0%	1	100%
Memorizing words and sentences without practicing	1	03%	0	0%	1	100%

Table III

Students attempts to deal with their pronunciation errors using different ways. As you can see above (table III), they used 11 different methods (some of them failed and others succeeded from their own point of view in helping them deal with their mispronunciations). The most frequently used method with a percentage of 83% is “Listening to English music”. 22 students said that it helped in improving their pronunciation and 11 said that it failed. “Reading English books” comes the second as 31 out of 40 students marked that they use it, but it seems that it didn’t work with most of them as 11 said it helped and 20 denied its efficiency in helping them improve their pronunciation. 26 students said that they used to “watch English movies,” and it seems that it worked out with most of them as 92% of them declared that it worked out, while the rest denied its benefit. “Talking to native English speakers” comes fourth with a percentage of 50% (20 students) and it helped 14 of them, but didn’t help the rest. Then comes another 7 methods which students used that were not mentioned in the choices, but wrote on the “others” box (namely, English courses, listening to Professors attentively, practice with myself and with my friends, Video games, listening to native English records, depending on my faculty and memorizing words and sentences without practicing). The first 5 methods worked out perfectly with those who mentioned them, except “practice with myself and with my friends” did not help one student out of three who mentioned it. But the last two methods didn’t help at all and students just mentioned them as a warning for anyone not to use the; do not entirely depend on your faculty and do not memorize words and sentences without practicing.

I know it might be a little bit confusing, but the following chart will make it clearer:

Figure II

So, it seems that there are 4 methods that students used and found efficient in improving the pronunciation skills, namely listening to English music, watching English videos, talking to native English speakers and practicing speaking English with one’s self and one’s colleagues.

Now we come to the point where we can see what students said when they were asked about the obstacles that hinder their pronunciation improvement:

Obstacle	Freq.	Per.
Shyness	20	50%
The huge number of students in class	21	53%
Lack of tools	18	45%
Professors are not willing to assist me	9	23%
our fears of making mistakes	1	03%
Lack of correct pronunciation resources	1	03%
prevention from entering the lab	1	03%
having alternative language (Arabic)	1	03%

Table IV

Table IV shows the obstacles that students believe hinders the improvement of their pronunciation. It appears that the big number is the biggest problem students have with a percentage of 53%. Shyness comes after it with a percentage of 50%. And then comes the lack of tools with a percentage of 45%. Professors seem to be very helpful to all students; however 9 out of 40 students denied it. There are 4 more obstacles which students suggested in the others box of the questionnaire (i.e. our fears of making mistakes, lack of correct pronunciation resources, prevention from entering the lab and having alternative language, Arabic). Each of them was mentioned only once, however we cannot ignore them as they were written by students voluntarily (meaning that they really represent a problem for those who wrote them).

Let’s see this table in a chart, it might be clearer:

Figure III

Shyness, the huge number of students in class and lack of tools seem to be the biggest problems that students have while trying to improve their English pronunciation.

Now, going to the recording part, the following table shows the results of analyzing it:

Error	Text reading	Minimal pairs	Sentence reading	General conversation	Total number of students	Total occurrences
/t/	5	6	7	2	9	20
/dᴣ/	3	1	1	0	5	5
/p/	2	0	2	4	4	8
/ŋ/	9	8	8	9	11	34
/θ/	3	5	0	3	7	11
/ð/	4	5	6	5	8	20
/ᴣ/	0	0	0	0	0	0
/t∫/ with /∫/	0	0	1	0	1	1
/t∫/ with /t/	0	0	0	0	0	0
/v/	0	0	0	0	0	0

Table V

In table V, we find the results of the analysis of the recording part. It is represented in numbers and each number represents one students. /ŋ/ is the sound which students mispronounced most as 11 out of 12 students mispronounced it, and it was noticed that it’s mispronounced with equal sums in the four recording styles. It is also noticed that the total number of its occurrences is 34 times. The /t/ was mispronounced 20 times by 9 students with different numbers in the four styles (i.e. 5 times in text reading, 6 times in the minimal pairs style, 7 times in sentence reading and only 2 times in the general conversation). The third most mispronounced sound is /ð/ with a total number of 20 times by 8 students with almost equal sums in the four styles. Then comes the /θ/ with a total number of mispronunciation 11 done by 7 students with different values in the four styles (i.e. 3 times in text reading, 5 times in the minimal pairs style, 3 times in the general conversation and not a single error in sentence reading). The /p/ sound comes next with a total number of 8 times done by only 4 students; 2 times in text reading, zero times in the minimal pairs style, 4 times in the general conversation and 2 times in the sentence reading. And then comes the /dᴣ/; 5 students mispronounced it 5 times (3 in text reading, 1 in minimal pairs and 1 in sentence reading). The /ᴣ/ was pronounced /∫/ by only 1 student in the sentence reading. The /v/ and the /t∫/ (instead of /t/) were never mispronounced.

The following chart shows those errors in a different way that might be easier:

Figure IV

Figure IV shows that the most problematic consonant sounds that the recording analysis shows are /ŋ/, /ð/, /t/ and /θ/.

Going back to the questionnaire, there are some other issues which the students mentioned as an answer to the questionnaire’s questions which may help a lot in stating and dealing with consonants pronunciation errors, but are minor.

The first point which I would like to discuss with you now is “other factors that affected the students’ pronunciation positively.” Not all students answered this question, only 21 students did and I am going to mention only the most important ones: a third year student (20 years) said “Practicing speaking English anytime I could;” a fourth year student (Shahenda, 22 years) mentioned that voluntarily teaching helps a lot in improving my English pronunciation; Injy Gubashi (21 years old and a third year student) said that “student activities” alone can do a lot in improving the pronunciation, because it always involves interaction with other colleagues about issues that we study and extracurricular activities which come to be mostly in English; also Islam Magdy (21 years old and a third year student) declared that “attending lectures at the university regularly” helps a lot in improving his pronunciations; Michael Mourice (a third year student and 21 years old) wrote that “talking to the professors and colleagues in English and peer editing with my colleagues” helped a lot in improving my pronunciation; Nouran Mohsen (second year and 19 years old student) said that “Focusing on how English people pronounce words” helped me a lot be better in English pronunciation.

Now, it is time to talk about college and its role in improving our pronunciation: when students were asked about whether the college helped in improving their pronunciation, their answer was:

Degree	1 (least)	2	3	4	5 (most)
Students answer	6	11	14	6	2

Table VI

And if we wanted to present it in a clearer way:

Figure V

It is very obvious, especially after seeing figure V, that students see that college did not help much in improving their pronunciation. That is why, it was important to ask them about how they can make the best out of college or to make college help them more. And it was very necessary to talk about the subjects they study; we started by talking about the current subject that helped them in improving the English pronunciation and they were as follows:

Current Subject	Freq.	Reasons
Phonetics	24	“Shows the standards of pronunciation.” “It gives the rules and basics for the correct pronunciation.” “Our professor was so professional in pronunciation and in the way he talks that we learn a lot from his experience in both pronunciation and talking [in] English.” “We learn a lot about the branches of linguistics in this course and how to make a transcription for every word we may meet.” “This course has helped us so much in knowing the transcription symbols, how the English sounds are produced, and what the intonation is and so on.” “Knowing the sounds and the sound system.”
Poetry	4
Linguistics	12	“Taught me a lot about words.” “It helps me to break the shyness, by concentrating on sounds.” “In order to write correct English.”
Essay	1
Practical criticism	1	“I usually imagine myself as a critic and begin 2 discuss the material.”
Culture	3
Literary criticism	1
Translation	6	“You express your thoughts and when you… [do] not remember a word you… search for it. Thus by this the word will be stuck… [on] your mind.”
Grammar	2
Novel	4	“New vocabulary with new pronunciation.” “By reading and listening to the novels.”
Drama	1	“By reading and listening to the plays.”
Years work	1	“It was about search and learning new techniques; simply it was like how we should study.” By listening and watching English songs and movies then write and comment on them as a sort of assignment.”

Table VII

Table VII shows us the students views about the subjects they study in college from the perspective of improving their English pronunciation. It clarifies that phonetics is the subject that helps much in improving the English pronunciation as 24 students out of 40 said so. Linguistics comes after it with 12 marks. And then comes the rest of subjects as shown above (i.e. poetry, essay, practical criticism, culture, literary criticism, translation, grammar, novel, drama and years work). Students were also given the option of adding the reasons of their choices and the reasons they gave are really to the point, such as phonetics helped in improving my pronunciation because “it gives the rules and basics for the correct pronunciation.”

The following chart will help us see the parentage of each subject and to what extend it helped students in a better view:

Figure VI

In figure VI, we can see that phonetics and linguistics are the two most important subject or rather the two most important helping subjects to students in respect of English language pronunciation.

And after showing you the current subjects and students opinions about them, it’s time to see the subjects that they recommend to be added to the curriculum:

Recommended Subject	Freq.	Reasons
Conversation	14	“Has to be added to the studies of this department, because most of us graduate from this faculty with many Wrong pronunciation.” “Gives a huge care to identify the problems [of pronunciation], then to fix it.” “It will help them in improving their language and knowing their errors. In addition to acquiring self confidence in speaking the language.” “It obliges interactivity.” “Learning skills in English for example how to introduce yourself when you are going to an interview.” “We should take a conversation course in our college in order to improve our pronunciation and to make presentation in front of people in order not to be shy.”
Presentation	6	“Should be a subject where every student or let us say every group of students talk about a topic in front of their colleagues. So they feel free while speaking in front of others & the doctor will be able to correct the pronunciation mistakes easily.” “I think that may help in the problem mispronunciation”
Poetry recitition	2

Table VIII

In table VII, we find that 14 out of 40 students suggest adding the conversation subject to the curriculum, 6 students suggest adding presentation subject to the curriculum and 2 students suggest adding poetry recitation subject. And many of them have their reasons which you can check above, like “It obliges interactivity.”

The following chart shows the numbers in a clearer shape:

Figure VII

From figure VII, we may say that there is an urgent need to add conversation subject to the curriculum. Moreover, we cannot deny that other students want presentation and poetry recitation subjects. As a start, we may combine both of the 3 subjects in only one, it seems that what students need is to practice speaking in English, and this can be acquired in a conversation course where students might be enabled to speak English together and with their professors through making games, competitions, presentations, poetry recitation and other activities.

The next point to be discussed concerning the college and how it may improve our pronunciation is the laboratory and its use. We asked students about whether the current English language laboratory helped in improving their English pronunciation or not, and what we got is:

Does the English lab. Help in improving your pronunciation?	Yes	No
Students answer	5	35

Table IX

It is really a very significant difference, 88% of students see that the English laboratory is useless!!! Check the following chart:

Figure VIII

Now, the difference is even clearer in figure VIII. This brought the urgency of listening to students opinions about how to make use of the English laboratory. We got many answers and suggestions (almost all participants responded to this question). We gathered the most important of them all in the following table:

Study year	Age	Why the English laboratory is important and suggestions about how to make use of it
Third	20	Said:

“We should go to the lab, listen to English conversations & try to learn from it with the assistance of the doctors.”
“We should also go through an oral exam to determine each one’s level.”
“The lab I guess is made to serve English students in pronouncing & improving their way of speaking, phonetics course is not enough to be taken in a book. We should apply what we take in the book practically because who am I suppose to pronounce good & I don’t practice the phonetics sings?”
“We should use the lab it’s our right instead of it being closed all the time!

Fourth

Mentioned:

“Taking the chance To use it More because I’m In the Senior year And i feel As if I have Entered this faculty just to learn English literature with no pronunciation Skills or conversation.”

Third

Declared:

“Use it the way it should be. In courses like phonetics and linguistics for example.”

Third

Said:

“By allowing students to have two hours in the English lab a week , their English speaking will be definitely improved.”

Third

Suggested:

“To use it in the conversation course that it should to be in small groups to enable each one of students speak the language with the doctor and with his colleagues and this will help us in improving our language in the college and doesn’t need to any courses outside the college to improve our language such as in American University.”

Fourth

Wrote:

“The faculty should make lab courses for each year every week in order to improve students language, help them to be familiar with native language, make them good listeners.”

Second

Suggested:

“Listening to any English material.”
“Everybody have the chance to talk (as possible) so that we practice what we learn about the correct pronunciation.”

Second

Said:

“I think that the number of the students is the main problem of our department. It is impossible to such a number to use the English lap. I feel also that it is forbidden to use it. What about dividing us to three sections to be able to make use of it?”

Third

Suggested:

“This must be through Phonetics and Linguistics courses through dividing us into sections which will enable us to practice more and specify more time for it.”

Table X

As we can see in table X, all students are very unhappy because they have a lab which they is almost closed all the time (only in their faces,) and they cannot make use of it at all although all of them are very motivated to improve their pronunciation, but they don’t have the chance to improve it; they don’t have the tools. All of the students’ suggestions are to let them enter the lab in groups; make a schedule that includes different activities in which they can interact with each other in English and can use the English language; and practice what they study theoretically in subjects such as phonetics and linguistics.

Now, we reached the last point in our discussion which is the general comments of students about how the faculty can improve their English language pronunciation:

Study year	Age	How can the faculty improve our English language pronunciation, suggestions.
Third	20	Said:

“preparing some English courses that help in improving the students’ conversation skills and not just for improving the students’ knowledge of the grammar rules.”

Third

Mentioned:

“By focusing more on practicing English in class with students instead of just focusing on the curriculum books of the subjects and letting students participate in the learning process.”

Third

Declared:

“The faculty should divide each class into small sections with maximum 40 students, this way it will a lot [make it] easier for us to learn and express ourselves. It will also help us with our group work activities.”

Third

Said:

“Well the English department in my opinion must pay more attention to language courses. I think that most of us in the department face the problem of language either in speaking (pronunciation) or in writing (essay). Every year we focus more on the literature side while, language courses are just given to us as a part of the curriculum and that’s it. We need more intensive courses on language because literature is something important no one can deny this, but now in our age language is much more important. Besides, what distinguishes an English department graduate from anyone else is his/her way of speaking as well as writing . Also I suggest that the department should give first year student a kind of book that includes how to speak English? Who to write well? And this stuff. I guess by this we won’t have a problem with English graduates like doctors said every year.”

Third

Suggested:

“providing more English labs for the students.”

Third

Wrote:

“By making constant meeting between the doctors and the students in order to practice the language more.”
“By giving more financial support to make the class rooms suitable for such an improvement.”

Fourth

Suggested:

“by making courses for Pronunciation. They only depend on the Linguistics and so although we don`t understand what is the aim of this!”

Second

Said:

“May be by adding more practical courses and make the lab available more.”

Third

Suggested:

“Maybe by providing us by a new course concerned only with the pronunciation skills, or by hosting foreign students (who are studying in Egypt) in a public discussion about the cultural differences between us, monthly mutual discussions between our department and the English department in Cairo university with their students and doctors and we can also organize competitions between our department and theirs and so on.”

Second

Said:

“The number of the students in one class should be decreased.”
“We should get a practical part in our study and of course have practical exams.”
“We should start to understand the subjects and seize saving it like computers then delete it after the exams.”

Third

Said:

“Producing one lecture weekly to all years through which they gather and just talk with each other using the English language . Professors could attend, but cannot participate, just take notes about common mistakes & fix it for them during normal lectures.”

Second

Said:

“The faculty focuses more on the literature more than the language.
There are doctors with a bad accent and language. Moreover, They (not all of them for sure) are mocking on us when we commit mistakes.”

Second

Said:

“May be by adding more practical courses and make the lab available more.”

Third

Mentioned:

“The professors have to pronounce very well and focus on correcting to the students all the time and make them participate in class as much as possible.”

Third

Mentioned:

“Create discussion groups.”
“Decrease the number of students.”
“Create conversations between students.”

Table XI

After checking table XI, we can easily understand what students really need from their faculty and how the faculty can help in improving their English pronunciation. It all can be summarized in just one word: “interaction” in English; through making different activities, providing caring and helping professors and going the extra mile with students. Actually, the nature of our faculty is to teach English literature, but because the work field nowadays requires native English speakers and to a great extent ignores literature, students are hungry for learning the English language. But why can’t we understand the students and provide for them what they need along with teaching them the value of literature at the same time!!!

Conclusion

Thus, this study has shown us the common pronunciation errors of the consonant sounds that Egyptian undergraduate students do. They are /ŋ/, /ð/, /t/ and /θ/. It has also clarified to us that most students are not fully aware of the pronunciation errors they do. The ways which students tried and it seemed to help them a lot in improving their pronunciation are listening to English music, watching English videos, talking to native English speakers and practicing speaking English with one’s self and one’s colleagues. However, the obstacles which really seem to hinder the improvement of students pronunciation are shyness, the huge number of students in class and lack of tools.

Going to college and its rule in improving the English pronunciation, it seems that most students see the faculty and its curriculum not efficient in helping them improve their English pronunciation: first, they don’t make use of the English laboratory which was build for practical exercising of English pronunciation. Moreover, they suggest adding more subject (like conversation) as they found the subjects they study do not help them in improving their pronunciation.

Appendix 1

Questionnaire

Name (optional)
*Year of study (1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th)
*Age
*Gender

The correctness of my English pronunciation is (1 is the least and 5 is the best) :

1	2	3	4	5

I am a graduate of:

Arabic school	English school

What are the pronunciation errors you think you do?

Phonetic transcription	Example	Mark here!
/b/ instead of /p/	Pronouncing “bark” instead of “park”
/s/ instead of /θ/	Pronouncing “sink” instead of “think”
/z/ instead of /ð/	Pronouncing “mozer” instead of “mother”
/f/ instead of /v/	Pronouncing “fery” instead of “very”
/∫/ instead of /ᴣ/	Pronouncing “meashure” instead of “measure”
/∫/ instead of /t∫/	Pronouncing “share” instead of “chair”
/ᴣ/ instead of /dᴣ/	Pronouncing “jump” instead of “djump”
/t/ instead of /ʧ/	Pronouncing “cat” instead of “catch”
/n/ instead of /ŋ/	Pronouncing “sing” instead of “siŋ”
/d/ instead of /t/	Pronouncing “pickd” instead of “pickt”
		Others, please specify

To what extent are you motivated to improve your English?

Extremely motivated	Very motivated	motivated	Somewhat motivated	Not motivated at all

Did you try to overcome them?

Many times	Sometimes	I tried	Only once	Never

What are the ways you used?

Listening to English music	Watching English Videos	Talking to native English speakers	Reading English books	Others, please specify

What are the ways that succeeded in improving your pronunciation?

Listening to English music	Watching English Videos	Talking to native English speakers	Reading English books	Others, please specify

What are the ways that failed in improving your pronunciation?

Listening to English music	Watching English Videos	Talking to native English speakers	Reading English books	Others, please specify

What are the obstacles that you face in the process of improving your pronunciation?

Shyness	Lack of tools	The huge # of students in class	Professors are not willing to assist me	Others, please specify

What other experiences or factors that influenced your English pronunciation skills?

#	Experience or Factor
1
2
3

What are the subjects you studied, you think helped in improving your pronunciation? What subjects you suggest to add to the curriculum

#	Subject	Kindly Explain Why (optional)
1
2
3
4
5

To what extend do you think the faculty helped in improving your pronunciation (1 is the minimum and 5 is the maximum)?

1	2	3	4	5

Did you make use of the English lab?

Yes	No

If “No”, how can we make the most of it?

How can the faculty, in your opinion, help in improving your pronunciation?

Appendix 2

Recording texts:

Text reading:

“His word is his mighty power given to people to open their minds to comprehend the unseen God with his depth of riches, both of wisdom and knowledge. His word that changes man’s heart from deep inside, makes peace, generates hope and joy and is always available in obeying His commands. After living apart from Him, striving to run one’s own life and pursue own ambitions and goals without reference to God or His purpose for humanity, man is handicapped unable to know or please Him. The knowledge of God is a complete virtue which makes man a good worshiper, citizen and friend. It’s that virtue which makes man an expert in the technique of living well in godliness. Man can correctly worship God and give Him His due. On the other hand, he should be in a right relationship with his fellowmen in brotherly concern and affection as he acknowledges a double duty to God and others.

Finally, man loves by exercising faith and trust in God, gaining virtues and appreciating God’s free mercy and unmerited grace but at the same time making every effort to acknowledge Him through His Word. By God’s help and in spite of all toil, He will enable us to keep going in knowing Him until we reach our journey’s end; His approval and pleasure.” Yousef (2011)

Sentence reading:
1. “Illusion is the first of all pleasures.” Oscar Wilde
2. “This man, the defendant, picked up his hunting rifle, got the bullets, loaded it and pointed it at his own flesh and blood. He still had a chance to back out. But he didn’t. Instead, he pulled the trigger and shot her in her cheek, in her face. Nobody deserves that, especially an innocent child.” Memarie Dhillon
3. “A gun was nothing really, without a person behind it.” Jodi Piccoult.
4. “He was a fair and honest judge. He will be missed by many.” Roy Barnes

Minimal pairs reading:
1. Very few enjoy such a view.
2. Critics never refuse to write reviews.
3. The leaf was really green, and that’s why we didn’t want to leave.
4. The thin woman went to the church directly after committing the sin.
5. It makes the situation even worse knowing that it was worth doing it.
6. Though they were too tired, they went to the zoo.
7. The night’s bride is showing too much pride.
8. She grabbed and wrapped her fur coat closely about herself.
9. “Do not smoke more than two cigarettes a day.” The doctor advised.
10. They bet the bed is not going to cost more than $200.

References

Ahmad, J. (2011) Pronunciation problems among Saudi learners: A case study at the preparatory year program, Najran University Saudi Arabia. Retrieved August 2, 2011, from http://www.languageinindia.com/july2011/jalalsaudilearnersfinalpaid.pdf

Barros, A. (2003). Pronunciation differences in the consonant system experienced by Arabic speakers when learning English after the age of puberty. Retrieved June 8, 2011, from http://wvuscholar.wvu.edu:8881//exlibris/dtl/d3_1/apache_media/L2V4bGlicmlzL2R0bC9kM18xL2FwYWNoZV9tZWRpYS82NTk1.pdf

O’Connor, J. D. (1996). Better English pronunciation. Great Britain: Athenaeum Press.

Yousef, N. (2011). Knowing God. Beyond, 1, 4-5.

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Common pronunciation errors in the speech of undergraduate Egyptian Students at Ain Shams University and ways of dealing with them

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