UNIVERSITÉ ALASSANE OUATTARA

UFR: Communication, Milieu et Société

Département d’Anglais

Spécialité: Didactique et Linguistique

MEMOIRE MASTER II

MISPRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH SHORT

VOWEL /I/ AND THE GLOTTAL FRICATIVE /H/ CASE
STUDY OF L3 STUDENTS AT THE ENGLISH
DEPARTMENT OF ALASSANE OUATTARA
UNIVERSITY

Présenté par: Sous la direction de:

Supervisé par:

Année Académique: 2023 - 2024

To my beloved parents

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure A……………………………………………………………………..19
Figure B……………………………………………………………………..20
Figure C……………………………………………………………………..21
Figure D……………………………………………………………………..36
Figure E……………………………………………………………………...41
Figure F………………………………………………………………………77
Figure G……………………………………………………………………....79

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 LIST OF TABLES
Table 1………………………………………………………………………….57
Table 2..........................................................................................................…...58
Table 3………………………………………………………………………….64
Table 4………………………………………………………………………….65
Table 5………………………………………………………………………….65
Table 6………………………………………………………………………….66

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 LIST OF ABREVIATIONS

- L1: First Language

- AOU: Alassane Ouattara University
- EFL: English as Foreign Language
- IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet
- EA: Error Analysis
- ESL: English as Second Language
- L3: Licence Three
- L2: Second Language

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………...iii

LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………...iv

LIST OF TABLE……………………………………………………………………………v

LIST OF ABBREVIATION……………………………………………………………….vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………….....vii
INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………..1

PART I : CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK……………………………....………………8

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………...……………..9

1.1. Pronunciation a Sound Communication Facilitator…………………………… 9

1.2 Mispronunciation as Source of Misunderstanding in Communication………... 11

1.3. Vowels and Consonants Sounds in the English Language……………………... 11

1.3.1 Specificity of Vowel Sounds………………………………………………….. 11

1.3.2. Characteristics of Consonant Sounds………………………………………. 14

1.4. Stress and Rhythm as Characteristic of the English Language……………….. 15

1.5. Pronunciation Instruction in English…………………………………………… 15

1.6. Influence in the Domain of Pronunciation……………………………………… 17

1.7. Factors Influencing Pronunciation……………………………………………… 17

1.7.1. Mother Tongue Interference………………………………………………... 18

1.7.2. Influence of the English Spelling……………………………………………. 18

1.7.3. Influence of Other Languages on the English Language Learning and Lack of
Clear Cut Pronunciation Instruction in Curricula ………. 19

1.8 Pronunciation Fossilization………………………………………………………. 20

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK………………………………..……22

2.1. Background Information of Error Analysis Theory…………………………… 22

2.1.1. Theoretical Foundations and Main Assumptions of the Contrastive Analysis

Theory ……………………………………………………………………………… 22

2.1.2. Shortcomings of the Contrastive Analysis Theory…………………………... 24

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 2.2. Theoretical Foundations of Error Analysis Theory……………………………. 25

2.3. Theoretical Assumptions of Error Analysis Theory…………………………… 26

2.4. Second Language Errors Investigation…………………………………………. 27

2.5. Main Steps for Error Analysis…………………………………………………... 29

2.5.1. Collection of a Sample of Learner Language………………………………. 29

2.5.2. Identification of Errors……………………………………………………… 30

2.5.3. Errors Description…………………………………………………………… 31

2.5.4. Errors Explanation………………………………………………………….. 34

PART II: METHODOLOGY DESIGN AND DATA ANALYSIS…………………….36

CHAPTER III:METHODOLOGY DESIGN…………………………………..………37

3.1. Method of the Research…………………………………………………………….37

3.1.1. Mix Method…………………………………………………………………….. 37

3.2. Descriptive Research Design……………………………………………………... 37

3.3. Interpretative Research Design………………………………………………….. 39

3.4. Data Collection Processes………………………………………………………... 39

3.5. Qualitative Data…………………………………………………………………... 40

3.6. Source of Data…………………………………………………………………….. 41

3.7. Corpus or Targeted Population Justification…………………………………... 42

3.8. Instrument of Data Collection…………………………………………………… 44

3.8.1 Interviews in Data Collection…………………………………………….44

3.8.2. Observation Method…………………………………………………………. 45

3.8.3. Case study……………………………………………………………………. 46

3.8.4. Oral Pronunciation Test…………………………………………………….. 46

3.9. Data Collection Strategy…………………………………………………………. 47

3.10. Data Collection Difficulties……………………………………………………... 48

3.11. Data Analysis Guideline………………………………………………………… 48

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS……………………………………………………...51

4.1 Data Presentation…………………………………………………………………. 51

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 4.1. 1 Data Presentation of Oral Test……………………………………………… 51

4.1. 2. Data Presentation of Questionnaire……………………………………….. 53

4.1. 3. Statistics on the Data Presented……………………………………………. 57

4.2. DATA ANALYSIS……………………………………………………………….. 59

4.2.1 Analysis of the Oral Test……………………………………………………... 59

4.2.1.1. Errors on Fricatives……………………………………………………….….60

4.2.1.2. Stress Placement Issues………………………………………………………..60
4.2.2. Analysis of the Questionnaire………………………………………………….. 61

PART III: RESULTS AND INTERPRETATIONS:……………………………………64

CHAPTER V: RESULTS………………………………………………………………..65

5.1. Types of Pronunciation Errors…………………………………………………... 66

5.1.1. English Short Vowel /ɪ/ Pronunciation Difficulties………………………… 67

5.1.2. Glottal Fricative /h/ Pronunciation Issues…………………………………. 72

5.1.3 Dental Fricative /θ/ Pronunciation…………………………………………... 74

5.1.4. Stress Placement Errors…………………………………………………….. 75

5.2. Solution to Mispronunciation Problem…………………………………………. 76

5.2.1. Audio listening……………………………………………………………….. 76

5.2.2. Research on Phonetic and Phonological Rules…………………………….. 77

5.2.3. Online Native Correspondents……………………………………………… 77

CHAPTER VI: INTERPRETATIONS…………………………………………………78

6.1 Pronunciation Issues and their Implication………………………………………. 78

6.2. The English Short Vowel/I/ and Glottal Fricative /h/ Pronunciation
Difficulties……………………………………………………………………………... 80

6.3. Drawbacks on Oral Communication of L3 students…………………………… 81

6.4. Drawbacks on the community and Potential non-mastery of phonetics and phonology
………... …………………………………………………………………………………82

6.4.1. Phonetic errors……………………………………………………………….. 83

6.4.2. Segmental errors……………………………………………………………... 86

6.4.3. Supra segmental errors……………………………………………………… 88

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 6.5. Revision on phonetics and phonology principles and rules……………………. 89

6.6. Feedback on Students’ Errors…………………………………………………… 90

6.7. Confirmation of the Errors Analysis Theory’s Assumptions (Students’ L1 Impact their
L2 Learning Process)…………………………………………………... 91

6.8. Lack of research from L3 Students……………………………………………... 92

6.9. Help of Dictionaries………………………………………………………………. 92

6.10. Use of Videos and audio Materials……………………………………………... 93

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………...94

BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………….101

APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………………….. 109

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INTRODUCTION

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 English is one of the key language in the world. It is an unavoidable and
attractive language in the worldwide. That is to say, English language is
regarded as a password to enter the world’s affairs. As B. Comrie (2009, p.59)
states English language has “a wider dispersion than any other language”. For
that, it is learned as second foreign language in some African francophone
countries. So, it is a perfect means of communication. Communication is the
interaction between people. It is a way by which one vehicles his message. To be
able to communicate means to exchange freely with others. In African
francophone countries, most of the time, the aim of learning English is to teach
and translate but beyond that English language is used to discuss ideas of the
world’s affaires. In the context transforming the world as one, those who desire
to join this world should have the ability for a successful communication,
students should master English basic elements such as grammar, idioms, and
pronunciation.

In a second foreign language, pronunciation is one of the difficult tasks for

students to achieve during their academic years. Indeed, the speaking skill
improvement is one of the learners’ goal as far as their future profession is
concerned. For that, they should be acquainted with its phonetics to ease their
pronunciation skill. Pronunciation is the way of articulating sounds. In English,
pronunciation is compulsory, it somehow represents the ‘heart’ of English. In
speaking English, when a word is distorted, it gives another sense that makes
understandings difficult. To have an intelligible pronunciation, learners should
pass through the mastery of pronunciation aspects.

Phonetics is a linguistic branch that studies speech sounds and the way
those sounds are articulated. It is one of the undeniable subfield in English. It is
the source of fluency in English. A learner cannot be fluent without it. It allows
understanding in communication when it is perfectly mastered. P. Skandera et al.
(2005, p. 5) consider phonetics as “an integral part of all introductions to
linguistics”. Phonetics is the core element of every language but English
specifically. It has three main sub-branches (articulatory, auditory and acoustic

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phonetic) that students should be acquainted with. As we communicate, the
interlocutor should be able to catch clearly what we are saying. This idea is even
furthered by Finch (2003, p. 35) when he states that while “using a language to
express” ourselves, we need at the same time “to be understood”.

Vowels mispronunciation is an issue encountered by many learners,

specifically non-native speakers. So, undertaking a research on vowels
mispronunciation is important for various reasons. First of all, it enhances
students’ communication abilities. In fact, an effective communication is
important for the professional and personal growth. Understanding the causes and
patterns of vowels mispronunciation, the researcher can develop targeted
interventions and resources to help students in improving their articulation and
communication skills. Second, it facilitates the English language learning and
promote cross-cultural understanding. Indeed, as students struggle with
pronunciation, it hinders their ability to understand and be understood by native
speakers. This research can help identify common difficulties faced by students
and develop strategies to overcome these challenges. However, it can be used to
create language teaching resources and tools for improving students’ language
proficiency. Moreover, this research drives away myths and misconception about
non-native speakers and promote cross-cultural understandings.

This research improves speech technology and contribute to linguistic

knowledge. In fact, speech recognition and synthesis technologies are increasingly
important in many applications. This research helps speech technology developers
identify and correct errors in their systems and ensure an accurate and reliable
performance. For linguistic scale, it can help researchers to gain valuable insights
into the workings of the human speech production and comprehension systems
enrich students’ knowledge of language and communication.

Students’ pronunciation difficulties are discussed by many researchers. In

fact, for some scientists, learners’ mispronunciation is due to their mother tongue
or age factors meanwhile little state that students’ errors are caused by the fact
that they do not put much interest in pronunciation skills. Vowels’ way of

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teaching and acquisition is controversial. In fact, while some researchers are
focusing on conducting analysis on mistakes of learners, trying to see which kind
of error learners make while producing diphthongs, however, little highlight the
causes of mispronunciation. Nurwahida (2020) conducts a descriptive research on
the realization of English diphthongs in English education study program
Tarbiyah and teacher training Faculty state, Ian Apolopo. To achieve his research
goal, the researcher uses a random sampling of thirty students with sixteen words
oral test and sentences containing diphthongs were recorded and analyzed. It
comes out that all the students pronounce diphthongs like monosyllabic words.

P. Dosia1 and A. Rido (2017) conducted a research on the production of

English diphthongs in which the researcher analyzes the official speech of Mr.
Joko Widodo known as Jokowi, the seventh President of Republic of Indonesia, in
APEC forum 2014 in China, based on the production of vowels. The researcher
conducts his work on the basis of the qualitative method and collects his data
through a library research. It is found that many second language learners have
difficulties in pronouncing vowels. However, some research tries to know the
causes of vowels mispronunciation. In fact, for O. Maxwell and J. Fletcher (2010,
p.6) L2 learner’s error is due to their L1 or their ages while Nurwahida finds that
they are related to learners willing and motivations.

O. Maxwell and al., (2010) present the factors of vowels

mispronunciation. They select three L1 speakers of Hindi and four L1 speakers of
Punjabi. Here, the data is collected and analyzed in a corpus of citation-form
words. It comes out students L1 is one of the main factors of their misarticulation
because their L1 interfere a lot. Moreover, H. Huda and Col. (2022) undertake
also a research from which it comes out that students’ mistakes lie in interlingual
transfer, words similarity, educational background and students’ lack of practice.
N. Kamarudin and al. (2021) conduct a research on the bases of descriptive
qualitative method to collect the data. They were 30 Malay native speakers
participate in a pronunciation test. it is found that young have the potentiality to

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well pronounce vowels sounds than elders. So, all these results show that L1 and
age factors have great influence on L2.

These ideas are not shared by Nurwahida. According to him L2 learners do

not pay much study attention to the pronunciation skills. He emphasizes that
learners do not find necessary to learn the way L2 is articulated but they learn it
for specific purpose. Nurwahida (2020) conducts a descriptive research one the
realization of English diphthongs in English education program Tarbiyah and
teacher training faculty state, Ian Apolopo. To achieve his research goal, the
researcher uses a random sampling of 30 students with 16 words oral test and
sentences containing vowels are recorded and analyzed. It comes out that the
students pronounce vowels like diphthongs. He concludes that learners’ errors are
due to the lack of interest and motivation to learn correct pronunciation.

License 3 students face a lot of difficulties in speaking skills. AOU’s

Students vowels mispronunciation is due to the timing of learning and their lack
of interest. They do not pay attention to phonetics and phonology studies that
causes communication difficulties and can impact their future profession. This
view is stressed by F. OMOLU (2019, p.17) when he states that students’ vowel
mispronunciation is due to their lack of reading and the orientation of school does
not focus on English phonetics studies. These issues lead the researcher to
develop and examine the way L3 students learning context impact pronunciation
skills.

This study sheds light on the way students encounter mispronunciations. It

deeply analyzes and examine factors that impact students’ vowels pronunciations.
In fact, most of L3 students experience difficulties in pronouncing the vowel
sounds. So, to explain how different factors such as L1, the environmental impact
and the learning context affect licence 3 students’ English pronunciation. It also
stresses how the learning context and L1 influence English pronunciation of L3
students of AOU. It draws the attention to students’ mispronunciation and
possible causes of their difficulties in learning the language.

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 Thus, this study goes from the following hypotheses: The type of
mispronunciation made by L3 students is the substitution, Students
mispronunciation of English short vowel /I/ and the glottal fricative is related to
the influence that their first language has on English one, Students
mispronunciation is due to the learning context, Students mispronunciation is
linked to their lack of interest. In addition, the paper addresses the following
research questions: First, what are the pronunciation mistakes made by L3
students? Second, what kind of mispronunciation students make? Third, is their
mispronunciation of short vowel and the glottal fricative linked to their learning
context? Finally, what can be done to cope with this pronunciation difficulties?

This research analyses the issue of English language pronunciation by L3

of AOU and investigate their environmental and mother tongue influence on
vowels pronunciation. The main objective of this work is to describe the way
vowels are produced and also to describe and analyze errors that students make.
This study examines licence3 students’ errors and investigate factors that
influence students’ speaking ability. Then, it establishes the way mispronunciation
factors affect the performance of L3 learners speaking skills of AOU.

M. Sánchez and al., (2019) define vowels as simple phonemes which are
not accompanied by a glide movement. They are clustered into two categories
such long and short vowels. But some short are substituted by diphthongs or
mispronounced. Short vowels are not always easy for learners to identify and
pronounce intelligibly. As example some learners stead of reading dɪ’tз:mɪnə(r))
one can hear dɪtзmaɪ’nər or even some pronounce it categorically in French as
/déterminər/. O. Kang et al. (2013, p.2) assert that English words’
mispronunciation have “large effect on perceptual” skill. Students pronunciation
causes a kind of confusion in the mind of the listeners when for example, in the
word ear/hear/here which are represented phonetically as /ɪə/. They have a
particular way of production. With ear/ɪə/ in which the glide starts in position
for /ɪ/ that is harder than /ə/ then it goes backwards and downwards toward /ə/ at
center is pronounced the same way like hear and here, where for P. Rogerson

6
(2018) in articulating /h/ the airstream produce “friction in the glottis” before the
sound /ɪə/. In pronunciation, the /h/ is omitted by those students. This research
focus on the main factors that hinder L3 students English pronunciation
proficiency.

The study leans on Error Analysis as theoretical framework. As

Mohammad (2010, p.42) states that “Error Analysis is a kind of linguistic study
that focuses on the errors that learners make”. It is considered as an integral part
of second language learning. This theory helps to investigate the role, learners
play in their learning process. It also aims at searching the roots of L2 learners’
mistakes. According to Latifah (2017), “in Error Analysis, the language learners
produce is compared with the target language and the error analyzed”. And in the
same thesis, she states the difference between Error and Mistake. In fact, she
defines Error as deviation that happens as a result of lack of knowledge while
Mistake refers to performance factors such as fatigue, emotions. So, in short
words Error Analysis describes the way learning occurs by examining L2 learners
output which takes into account their correct and incorrect utterances.

In her thesis, L. Nur (2017) classifies the different kind of errors which
are substitution, insertion and omission. Indeed, she clusters them as follow:
Substitution which is seen as a sentence in which the speaker uses the wrong
form of pronunciation like in hear /hɪə/ which is pronounced the same way as
ear /ɪə/ and for the Insertion, she refers to it as a word in which one extra sound
has been added. Then, Omission is stated as a sound that should normally be
produced but is not pronounced. So, in all Error Analysis can be seen by Dulay
et al. (1982 in Ali Akbar 2012) as the systematic deviation that learners make
while pronouncing a foreign language. Otherwise, Error Analysis is based on
learners’ errors and represents one of the most reliable theory in second
language learning for it reveals error areas.

To fulfill the goal of the research work, it is necessary to follow some

scientific instructions. The research is subdivided into three major parts. Each
part is composed of two chapters. The first part is concerned with the conceptual

7
framework mainly the literature review and theoretical framework. The next part
is entitled methodology design and data analysis. The last part of the research
focuses on the results and interpretation of findings.

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PART I : CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

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CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

Learning a language entails learning it in all its aspects going from

vocabulary to grammar passing by pronunciation. Pronunciation is a crucial aspect
in linguistics as well as in the mastery of any kind of oral language. Unfortunately,
this aspect of the language is a little bit put aside by learners in their process of
foreign language learning and even if some tend to consider it, they always face
some problems while speaking the language. This recurrent situation is dealt with
by several researchers in their process of understanding the main causes of the
issue and the possible solutions they can come up with in order to cope with the
issue at stake. Their works are analysed in order to elaborate on the aspects which
have already been done and the ones that need to be investigated in further
researches.

1.1. Pronunciation a Sound Communication Facilitator

Pronunciation remains an essential part of an effective communication. It

is crucial aspect in the mastery of a language. J. Harmer (2007) recognizes that
crucial aspect of pronunciation when he points out that pronunciation
encompasses more than simply making sounds; it encompasses the nuances of
stress, pitch, and intonation that give words their distinctive character. All these
elements related to pronunciation contribute to the overall intelligibility and
comprehension of oral communication.

Contrarily to J. Harmer (2007), Cook (1996) analyses pronunciation as the

production of English sounds. The mastery of pronunciation then goes through the
process of repeating sounds. Correction happens in this process of mastery of
pronunciation in case a sound is produced inaccurately. O. tlowski, (1998) points
out that pronunciation is the way of uttering a word in an accepted manner. As for
Richard and Schmidt (2002), they view pronunciation as the method of producing
certain sounds. however, Seidlhofer (2001) insists on the fact that pronunciation is
“ the production and perception of the significant sounds of a particular language

10
in order to achieve meaning in contexts of language use”. Pronunciation is viewed
from different perspectives by researchers since the early ages of linguistics by
researchers due to several reasons.

Pronunciation is born following a process. It all starts with the concept

of "phonemes", which are discrete units of sound that have meaning in the
language. The concept is proposed by Jones in 1918. His work then gives rise to
the study of pronunciation in subsequent years. Following the birth of the study
of pronunciation, an important development in that field of pronunciation remains
the creation of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA, first
introduced by the International Phonetic Association (IPA) in 1888, brings a
standardized system for representing the sounds of human language. Later on the
IPA chart is initiated by P. Ladefoged and W.Maddison (1996). This initiation
aims at ameliorating its applicability in different language context. This finding,
leads some British American linguists to create the APA standing for American
Phonetic Association.

These findings play a predominant role in the process the mastery of a

language today. It facilitates pronunciation of words in English to both teachers
and students giving them the ability to sound like natine speakers without even
travelling to an English speaking country. Chomsky and Halle (1968) later
elaborate on both the segmental and suprasegmental features of pronunciation.
They initiate in their work, the notion of distinctive features, which serves as the
phonetic and phonological properties of speech sounds. Suprasegmental features,
such as stress, intonation, and rhythm, are investigated by M. Liberman and J.
Pierrehumbert (1984), who put an emphasis on their role in conveying meaning
and expressing emotions. Some of these features are dealt with in this work in
order to provide more understanding.

The study of pronunciation stretches to second language acquisition

(SLA), a domain in which researchers look for the challenges learners encounter
in the process of acquisition of new phonetic systems. J.E. Flege (1988) in his
investigations, comes up with the Speech Learning Model, which favor the

11
examination of the influence of the native language on second language
pronunciation acquisition. Some years later, M. J. Munro and T. Derwing (1999)
put their interest on the investigation of the factors influencing second language
learners' ability to achieve native-like pronunciation. All these findings contribute
to the literature of the domain of pronunciation in linguistics.

1.2 Mispronunciation as Source of Misunderstanding in

Communication

Mispronunciation falls as a recurrent error in the process of foreign language

learning by learners. This fact creates usually misunderstanding in a conversation
in which the locutor is a learner and the interlocutor is a native speaker or vice
versa. L. Anna (2012), defines mispronunciation in her own terms when she says:
“as a student embarks on learning a new language, the most common errors are at
the phonetic level, such as a substitution, insertion, or deletion of one or more
morphemes”. In the meanwhile, D. Augustine et al., (2022) conceive
mispronunciation as a critical issue that the majority of the young people learning
the English language go through and which brings about low proficiency in
spoken English. Several methods or systems are now available to help people
detect mispronunciation. W. Hu et al., (2014) propose the Neural Network (NN)
based, Logistic Regression (LR) classifier for the improvement of phone
mispronunciation detection rate in a Computer-Aided Language Learning (CALL)
system. Other systems like Deep Neural Network (DNN), Goodness of
Pronunciation (GOP) classifier system and Computer Assisted Pronunciation
Teaching system (CAPT) also intervene in mispronunciation detection process.
They are also used in order to improve pronunciation.

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 1.3. Vowels and Consonants Sounds in the English Language
1.3.1 Specificity of Vowel Sounds
Vowels are sounds in the production of which there is no obstruction in
the air flow as it goes from the larynx to the lips, vowels are produced without any
obstruction of air. In phonology, vowels usually occupy the center of a syllable (P.
Burleigh, 2005). According to Scarcella and Oxford (1994), vowels are said to be
of “a free passage of air”. Pronunciation of English vowels depends on the
variation in the position of the tongue. The different criteria used to describe
vowels in concrete speech sound are classified in terms of loudness, pitch, tone of
voice, and duration. Those criteria are also important in phonemic description.
Vowels are most easily described in terms of: frontness or backness, tongue
height and lip-rounding. As for the length, it is a rather unreliable feature, and so
is voicing since all the English vowels are typically voiced. Consequently, the
voicing feature is not considered as a distinctive feature when talking about
vowels.

Research in phonetic also clusters vowels in terms of types. This categorization

of vowels in types ranges from Pure or cardinal vowels, Diphthongs to
triphthongs. The first category of vowels is pure vowel. Pure vowels are sounds
composed of a single element like /e/, /i/. English pure vowels pronunciation is
generally represented in a diagram just like the one below.

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 Figure A: BBC Pure Vowels Diagram

The second category of vowels is diphthongs. Diphthongs are vowel

sounds made of two distinct vowel sounds pronounced at a time. These sequences
of vowels are also known as vowel glides. Just like pure vowels, diphthongs can
also be placed in a chart. Diphthongs can be divided into two main groups: (1)
Closing diphthongs, they are : /ei/ like in Race , /ai/ like in Rice , /ɔi/ like in Voice
, /əʊ/ like in Go /aʊ/ like in Loud . (2) Centring diphthongs, these are: /iə/ like in
Ear, /ʊə/ like in Pure, /eə/ like in Fair. In all, one counts a total number of 8
diphthongs in English phonetics. These two different groups of vowels can be
represented in a diagram like the preliminary Cardinal Vowel Diagram.

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Figure B: The eight English Centring/ Closing diphthongs U Kyaw Tun from
(http://www.tuninst.net )

The third category of vowels are triphthongs. Triphthongs are not pure English
phonemes. They rather are combinations of some diphthongs with the English
schwa sound /ə/. In English, 5 triphthongs are distinguished. These triphthongs
are: /aiə/ like in ‘tired’ /ɔiə/ like in ‘lawyer’ /aʊə/ like in ‘our’ /eiə/ like in
‘player’/əʊə/ like in ‘lower’.

1.3.2. Characteristics of Consonant Sounds

Consonants are sounds in the production of which the movement of air
from the lungs is obstructed as a result of narrowing or a complete closure of the
air passage. This obstruction may occur at the level of the lips, teeth ridge or
velum. Consonants in English are generally described taking into account three
features. These features are voicing, place of articulation and manner of
articulation.

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 Voicing is a variable triggered by the movement of the vocal cords. If the
vocal cords vibrate in the production of the consonant, it is then said to be voiced.
The English voiced consonants are (d, b, m, n, ŋ, l, r, ð, z, g, dӡ, v, 5, z, j). In case,
the consonant does not vibrate, the consonant is characterized as Voiceless. The
voiceless consonants in English language are: (Ɵ, t, p, s, t, tꭍ, w, h, ꭍ, k,). This
classification of the English consonants facilitate the teaching of the English
phonetic of foreign language as well as second language learners.

Another feature of the consonants in English is the place of Articulation.

It indicates the point at which the organ of speech or articulator touches or is at
the closest as the sound is uttered. As for the other feature of consonants in
English, which is the manner of articulation, it shows the type of obstruction of air
caused by the narrowing or closure of the organ of speech. The table below
contains the existing places and manners of articulation of English consonants
sounds.

Figure C: IPA CHART FOR ENGLISH CONSONANTS.

1.4. Stress and Rhythm as Characteristic of the English Language

The rhythm is the melodic focus that is given to a speech which makes it
more vivid. According to H. Magnus and M. Joybrato (2009), the particular
placing of stressed and unstressed syllables in English is known as speech rhythm.

16
Stress and rhythm are important in English since they give particular aspect to the
English language in terms of perception. The regular pattern in which the stressed
and unstressed syllables occur in English confers a rhythmic aspect to the
language. D. Abercrombie (1967) testifies the idea that English language is a
rhymed language when he asserts that English language is traditionally recognized
as a 'stress-timed' language. This time interval lying between two stress
occurrences in stress-timed languages is called isochronous, i.e. roughly equal in
time. It is important to note that not all languages are stress-timed languages. H.
Magnus and M. Joybrato (2009) share that idea. They posit that languages like
French and most African local languages are supposed to be ‘stressless’ but they
are rather seen as syllable-timed with each syllable occurring at regular intervals.

1.5. Pronunciation Instruction in English

Pronunciation is an important issue in linguistics and in didactics. It is

discussed by scholars and authors and continues to be discussed in order improve
learning and teaching process as well as the improvement of speaking skills of
foreign and second language learners. While some of the researchers focus their
attention on the position this aspect of the English langue should occupies in the
teaching and learning of the English language, other researchers are keen on the
different methods they should use to best teach and learn pronunciation. Some
other researchers already give some instructions in their researches in order to
master pronunciation.

According to P. Gilakjani (2016) English Pronunciation instruction is

challenging because of several reasons. As usual, English Teachers are without
clear guidelines and audio materials when it comes to practicing pronunciation
with their students. Teachers handle that task alone and sometimes with the wrong
way since the teacher himself does not matter as the aspects of pronunciation. P.
Gilakjani (2016) goes in the same line with that idea that there is no precise
conceived method that show the substance to teach, the level or the time at which
a particular student should receive a particular pronunciation course. As for Celce-

17
Murcia et al. (2019), they suggest that pronunciation instruction should be
integrated into an approach just like the communicative approach to language
teaching in order to teach the language in all its aspects. They add that learners
should be taught the best way of making use of pronunciation as a means of
communicating meaning and for that reason, the teaching of pronunciation should
target the amelioration of learners’ ability to convey the exact message he / she is
willing to deliver.

English is taught everywhere in the world as soon as students reach

secondary school till university. In other part of Africa and even in Cote D’Ivoire,
English is taught in primary private schools. Unfortunately, pronunciation session
are most of the time missing in those English classes or often neglected.
According to A. Alshehri, (2002) this reality goes against the fact that learning
and mastering a language includes the consideration of all the part of that
language being learned. For him, pronunciation plays such a vital role in the
comprehension of the spoken language but, it is put unconsciously aside by many
language actors.

In the process of looking for the best way of teaching the English
language more effectively, T. Derwing and M. Munro (2015), assert that effective
pronunciation instruction should be conducted and that teaching must be based on
individual learner needs in order to make the instruction more consistent. To reach
that objective, they suggest that teachers should conduct a needs analysis in order
to come out with learners' specific pronunciation difficulties. For them, the
instruction should turn around the most important features of pronunciation, which
they think are stress and intonation.

R. Major and S. Fitzmaurice (2016) argue that the good pronunciation

instruction gives a clear and explicit model of the target pronunciation. That is the
one that goes deeper in explaining the sounds, stress patterns, and intonation
patterns of the target language. J. Levis and Sonsaat (2016) go further by saying
preceding instructions are meaningless in terms of great impact on the learner if
the opportunity is not given to them to practice in context. That means that

18
activities like reading, speaking, and more specifically listening should be
integrated at higher rate in order to allow learners to be exposed to a variety of
real life contexts that present natural and accurate examples of pronunciation.

As R. Major and S. Fitzmaurice (2016), O. Kang and Moran (2018)

propose that the instruction of pronunciation should focus on the perception, as
well as production of sounds. That entails that learners should be able to perceive
the target sounds accurately then they should be capable of producing them
accurately by practicing with teachers and among learners themselves with the use
of audio materials.

1.6. Influence in the Domain of Pronunciation

According to A. James (2008), influence is the knowledge that one
language has on an individual’s learning or use of another language. He goes
further to say that influence refers to the togetherness of impacts someone or
something may have on a learner’s language during the learning process. This
influence can stretch to various aspects of the language being learned. Along with
the definition of influence, the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English,
stipulates that influence calls for the power to affect the way someone or
something develops, behaves or thinks without using direct force or orders.
1.7. Factors Influencing Pronunciation
For M. Elkhair (2014), most linguists and researchers on sociolinguistics
think that pronunciation difficulties of English learners, who have other languages
as native language, are the same. But, the real matter lies in each language
background. In fact, along with a given language, there is a reality in terms of
existence of some consonants and vowels that needs to be taken into account. So,
to account for this influence of those languages on English learners, some aspects
need to be investigated.

19
 1.7.1. Mother Tongue Interference
M. Swan and B. Smith (2001), show that the sound /p/ and /b/ are two
different phonemes and each one is distinguished by a native speaker. English
thus, has 44 distinct sounds which are different from French (L1) sounds in some
ways. As a matter of logic, French which is a language spoken by Ivorian students
has some influences on them and that is due to the fact that many sounds which
exist in the English language do not exist in the French language. In terms of
illustration of that idea, some English sounds like /ə/, /Ʊ/, /ð/ are very specific to
the English language and as such, represent some difficult tasks for French
speaking people intending to learn the English language. To go deeper, ultimately
all the Ivorian English learners also have their Local Languages like Baoulé ,
Senoufo , Bété , Dida, etc. , that most of the time represent their mother tongues.
Those local languages in general lack the most of the English sounds complicating
thus the effective learning of the English pronunciation features.

P. Ladefoged (2001) as well as R. Carter and D. Nunan (2001) share that idea
when they argue that a student’s mother tongue has clear influences on the
acquisition of any other language including the L2. In the same token, A.
Dilshoda .R. Nafisa, (2022) say that: ‘Where L1 and L2 rules are in conflict,
errors are expected to be committed by foreign learners’. That means the
coexistence of at least two languages, which have two pronunciation systems,
makes the acquisition of one of them more complex and challenging for it
learners.

1.7.2. Influence of the English Spelling

In the development process of a speaker’s identity, many factor may
influence his way of pronouncing. This influence includes the pronunciation of
homophones in English which are pronounced the same way but are not written
the same way. O. Connor (2003) sees this reality of homophones but fails to
reveal the term when he argues that: ‘The learner who still doesn’t have the
mastery of pronunciation of such words, pronounces each of them by looking at
its spelling, and he is expected to mispronounce them’. That says words like (rain,

20
rein, reign), which are homophones and hence spelt differently, but sound the
same, that is pronounced /rein/ mislead speakers making them pronounce those
words differently.

C. Easton (2005) goes in the same line with O. Connor (2003) when
talking about spelling of sounds in English. He asserts that in silent /gh/, the
second language learners may encounter problem because written /gh/ has no
sound of its own as such it is never pronounced as the way it is written /gh/, but it
is pronounced as /g/ in some words as, Afghanistan, Ghana, ghost, ghetto. In
some cases, the written /gh/ is pronounced as the sound /If/. This falls true with
words like cough, trough, enough while in other cases, it is silent as in some other
words such as light, night, high, weigh, weight, thorough, bough. All of these
facts related to the spelling of the English sounds constitute a challenge for the
second language learners of English.

1.7.3. Influence of Other Languages and Lack of Clear Cut

Pronunciation Instruction in Curricula
S. Brown (2000) thinks that students learning English as a second
language in general come across difficulties. He explains that during the process
of the second language learning, the first language naturally affects the second
language being learned. And this fact drives most of the learners to make
pronunciation errors. This is a fact that can be checked by using African local
languages where some sounds in English do not exist.

A. Gilakjani (2016) finds that the lack or the non-sufficient pronunciation

instructions in textbooks and material in school programs are the main causes of
mispronunciation at the level of learners. As a matter of fact, most of teachers of
English as a foreign language or second language do not have precise instruction
guidelines for the teaching of pronunciation in their different classrooms.
Consequently, they manage with a contradictory practice of pronunciation and
this fact creates students who are ineffective, subject to a lot of pronunciation

21
errors in their speeches or daily conversations. M. Hismanoglu and S.
Hismanoglu (2011) go further than A. Gilakjani (2016), when they say that some
curricula do not even include pronunciation and as such, teachers themselves
manage to add pronunciation to their teaching arsenal while many other teachers
teach grammar, vocabulary, and the four language skills to their learners without
incorporating English pronunciation into their curriculum. All of those facts
influence then their learning process of the English language at different aspects
and mainly pronunciation leading them to mispronounce some words or sounds.

1.8 Pronunciation Fossilization

According to E. Tarone (2007), fossilization occurs when insufficient input
in the target language is received by the learner or when the learning of the
language occurs in a context that does not favor sufficient practice of the
language. Fossilization of pronunciation is a non-native language acquisition in
which a learner has acquired certain features of the language in a wrong way.
Through time, these errors become permanent, and recurrent in the speech of the
learners due to their acquaintance with those errors.

For E. Tarone (2007), errors should be corrected in the view of preventing

occurrence of fossilization in learner’s habits. Following the same idea, P. Jenefer
and O. Rhonda (2008) acknowledge the challenge that it implies when it comes to
overcoming fossilization. So, as solution, P. Jenefer and O. Rhonda (2008)
suggest motivation and willingness to change the situation of fossilized
pronunciation from the learner. By doing so, this wrong pronunciation is on the
way to disappear. In a nutshell, a lack of motivation from the learner to change his
pronunciation, the struggle against fossilized pronunciation is devoted to a waste
of time. J. Murphy (2017) corroborates the idea of correction of fossilized
pronunciation. He thinks that error correction and self-motivation put together,
gives the opportunities to practice in a supportive learning environment. This
addition naturally eradicates fossilization in the learner’s speech.

22
 L. Selinker (2018) interest is on how fossilization occurs in language
learning. But, most of the researchers are interested in reducing the effect of
fossilization. L. Selinker (2018) finds that fossilization occur naturally in the
process of foreign language learning. He goes on to say fossilization happens
when learners' interlanguage systems become stable and that this fact can be
caused by a set of factors, including motivation of the learner, his age and his
degree of exposure to the target language. As for fossilized pronunciation, it is
caused by some factors like lack of practice, insufficient input, and negative self-
beliefs.

All this literature sets the path for this work to be conducted in a sound
way. It displays the idea behind the term mispronunciation in the first position. In
the second position, it elaborates on the different aspects of the English language
in terms of consonants and vowels sounds. Then, it tackles the general guidelines
related to the field of pronunciation along with the different factors influencing
the learning of the English language. Finally, it casts an eye on the issue of
fossilization. This allow the research conductor to have a clear overview of the
literature of the topic in order to well orient his work.

23
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Error analysis theory remains a significant theory in the study of second

and foreign language acquisition due to the sounds principles underpinning the
theory and its methods of analysis. Teaching and learning a foreign and second
language is a process that is most of the time challenging because of the different
difficulties teachers as well as learners face during this process. Those challenges
faced both by teachers and learners need some sound explanations not just for
them to understand those challenges, but also to overcome them by some actions
and decisions. Error analysis theory comes out in this way to bring an elucidation
to the different errors made by second and foreign language learners in order to
ease the teaching and learning process of both teachers and learners. But, before
Error Analysis Theory comes into existence, there is another theory doing the job
of explaining learner’s errors. That theory is the contrastive Analysis theory. Due
to the shortcomings of this theory that is the Contrastive Analysis theory, Error
Analysis theory takes over the control of the field of learners’ errors analysis.

2.1. Background Information of Error Analysis Theory

The study of second language as well as foreign language takes its origins
in the years 1960s. It all starts with teachers who are the ones in direct contact
with learners before stretching scholars. M. Al-Khresheh (2016, p.49)
corroborates this idea when he asserts that: ‘studying second language acquisition
in terms of the language learners’ errors is something that foreign and second
language teachers have already done’. After teachers, linguistic scholars give
impetus to the field by coming out with theories. Their first explanation of
learners’ errors starts with the birth of Contrastive Analysis theory.

2.1.1. Theoretical Foundations and Main Assumptions of the

Contrastive Analysis Theory
Contrastive Analysis theory is a theory developed by C. Fries in the year
of 1945. M. Al-Khresheh (2016) argues that it is a theory that can be broken down
into five steps allowing a systematic comparison and contrast of any two
languages. These steps are selection, description, comparison, prediction, and

24
verification. According to M. Al-Khresheh (2013), this theory is considered as an
integral part of the methodology of foreign language teaching. He continues to say
that in that theory, it is considered that the learner of a foreign language in his
process of learning that language, comes with the knowledge of the first language
that is his mother tongue and that should be taken into account by teachers of
foreign languages. This means that the prior learning of the foreign language
learners should be considered in their subsequent learning and this fact is the
psychological foundation of the Contrastive Analysis theory.

According to the foundations of that theory as restated in M. Al-Khresheh

(2013), the most effective materials that should be considered or selected in the
process of teaching a second language are the ones that are rooted in the scientific
description of that second language that is being taught and learnt, and which a
sound parallel description is made between that language being learnt and that of
the learner that is the learner’s first language or native language. That process is
achieved by making a comparative analysis of both the foreign language and the
native language. After that analysis, the Contrastive analyst assume that similar
elements of both languages are easily learnt by learners and the difficult ones are
challengingly learnt. Accordingly, materials are recommended to be designed
taking into account those difficulties discovered during the comparative analysis
in order to facilitate the learning process of the target language.

Contrastive Analysis theory is based on the assumption that second

language learners are accustomed to transferring the formal features of their first
language or mother tongue to their second language oral output or utterances. M.
Al-Khresheh (2016) explains that ‘the notion transfer means carrying over the
habits of the mother tongue into the second language’. This transfer eases the
learning process of the foreign or second language to the learners as such, it is
used as a learning strategy by some second language learners. According to M.
Al-Khresheh (2016, p.50), this language transfer begins with a semantic transfer
that is the transfer of some sounds and meanings and continues with the transfer

25
of rules and structures found in pragmatics and words order. Errors then occur
once negative transfers are made.

Contrastive Analysis theory is made up of two versions and C. James

(2005) discusses those two versions. There are the strong and the weak version. In
the strong version in the view of M. Al-Khresheh (2016), researchers think that
errors related to the learning of a second language could be linked to the patterns
in the second language being learnt. As such, it is possible for those researchers to
predict in theory, the errors the second language learners can make basing on the
different structures and sounds of the first and second language of learners after a
careful comparison. Differences between those languages are most of the time the
main causes of potential errors according to the adepts of the strong version of
Contrastive analysis. As for the weak version of Contrastive Analysis according to
C. Mair (2005), it is based on explanation that is errors are considered by the
researchers of this trend once those errors are combined and given an explanation
based on the grammatical sphere they appear.

The strong version of Contrastive analysis can also be linked to the areas
of complexity. Those areas of contrast are the basis of the teaching materials
according to the adepts of this version of Contrastive analysis. In the meanwhile,
researchers in accordance with the weak version of the theory, accounts for the
observed errors by taking into account classroom data and differences between the
two linguistic systems. According to B. Bell (1981), the strong version of
Contrastive Analysis serves as resource of exploring errors but also as a method
for expecting them while M. Al-Khresheh (2016) sees the weak version as a
method of explanation of errors drawing then a similarity between the weak
version of Contrastive Analysis theory and the Error Analysis theory in which
both of them start their analyses with learners’ errors.

2.1.2. Shortcomings of the Contrastive Analysis Theory

Despite the important role played by the Contrastive Analysis theory in the
field of second language learning in terms of learners’ errors and its ability to
come up with the similarities and differences between two languages, virulent

26
critics are made on it. In the view of some of those critics as reframed in M. Al-
Khresheh (2016), none of the assumptions put forwards by both the weak and
strong version of Contrastive Analysis theory is valid. Others like Y. Chao (2003)
and M. Al-Khresheh (2013), think that taking into account the assumptions made
by the weak version of the Contrastive Analysis, teachers are required to have
adequate knowledge about the language in order to be able to address the
challenges or difficulties encountered in the process of second language learning.
S. Johanson(1973) as restated in M. Al-Khresheh (2016, p.50) also criticizes this
theory when asserts that ‘Contrastive Analysis cannot account for everything
within its domain since, for example, it cannot formally indicate which of these
differences will lead to difficulties and which will not’. Due to these shortcomings
of the Contrastive Analysis theory, Error Analysis theory arises as a reaction to
those critics.

2.2. Theoretical Foundations of Error Analysis Theory

Second language acquisition or second language learning remains an
ongoing issue in linguistics in general and in applied linguistics in particular. Due
to this diachronic feature of the issue of second language acquisition, several
theories of language learning are available. These theories of language learning
range from behaviourism to constructivism to quote some of them up to
contrastive analysis theory and to error analysis theory. Behaviourism and
constructionism give a holistic view of how learners of a second language or
foreign language learn the language that is the process that go through when
learning the language.

Learner’s errors are non-considered issues in the theories of language

learning giving a holistic view of the process or the way a second language is
learned. This fact in those theories is viewed as a mere influence of the learners’
mother tongue habits on the second language, which is being learned. As such, no
other explanation is given to this linguistic fact. It is up to 1945 that attentions of
scholars come on the issue with the birth of Contrastive analysis theory. This
theory explains errors made by second language learners through the comparison

27
of some areas of two languages faces some challenges. Those challenges are
related to the shortcomings of the theory. Due to those shortcomings, error
analysis theory arises not as counterpart of the theory, but as a complementary
element of contrastive analysis theory in the view of M. Al-Khresheh (2016).

2.3. Theoretical Assumptions of Error Analysis Theory

Error Analysis is grounded on some principles and assumptions. Following
the way paved by Contrastive Analysis theory, Error Analysis goes in a
systematic description and classification of second language learners’ errors. But,
Error Analysis differs from Contrastive Analysis on several aspects such as the
fact that interference of the first language on the second language is the only
source of errors of second language learners. According to M. Al-Khresheh
(2016), on that point, Error Analysis theory says that the interference of the first
language on the second language learning is not the only cause of errors of the
foreign or second language learners but it might be caused by the intralingual
interference from the second language or target language itself. This is the first
assumption of Contrastive Analysis theory challenged by the Error Analysis
theory.

Error Analysis theory assumes that the majority of the errors made by
second language learners resemble each other in case their mother tongues are not
taken into account. According to C. James (1998), this fact is due to the
intralingual interference from the target language. He insists on the fact that this
intralingual transfer or interference from the second language or the target
language is the main cause of errors made by second or foreign language learners
while learning the second language or the foreign language. Based on this
assumption, H. Dulay et al., (1982) as restated in M. Al-Khresheh (2016), indicate
that Error Analysis has two purposes. The first purpose is ‘to provide data from
which interferences about the nature of the language learning process can be
made’. The second purpose is ‘to indicates to teachers and curriculum developers
which part of the target language students have most difficulty producing

28
correctly and which error types detract most from a learner’s ability to
communicate’.

According to S. Corder (1973), Error Analysis theory has two major objectives.
He assumes that the objectives of Error Analysis theory are both theoretical and
applied. The theoretical objective aims at checking the validity of the theories in
the domain of understanding errors made by second or foreign language learners
in the process of second language learning. This theoretical objective can check,
for example, the validity of the theory of transfer. Checking the validity of
theories means for Error Analysis, understanding the way and what a foreign or
second language learner learns while learning that language. As far as the second
objective of Error Analysis is concerned, M. Mahmoodzadeh (2012, p.735)
stipulates that this applied objective of Error Analysis ‘concerns pedagogical
purposes’.

The second objective of Error Analysis theory plays two significant roles
in the teaching and learning process of a second language. For M. Al-Khresheh
(2011), it gives learners the ability to learn the second or foreign language with
efficiency and effectiveness basing themselves on their prior knowledge of their
dialects. That is the first role played by this objective. For the second role, M. Al-
Khresheh (2011) asserts that the identification of learners’ difficulties by the
analysis of second language errors enables EFL/ESL teachers to understand
students’ weaknesses and therefore readjust their teaching methods and their
learning materials.

In a nutshell, Error Analysis not only describes second language learners’

errors by describing and classifying languages but also facilitates the design or
selection of teaching materials. This endeavour of Error Analysis enables the
teachers and curriculum designers to understand both the patterns in the mother
tongues of learners and those in the target language. It also allows teachers of
second or foreign languages to be aware of the potential errors of their learners
and therefore be ready cope with them without blaming them.

29
 2.4. Second Language Errors Investigation
Error Analysis differs from Contrastive Analysis theory in their ways of
being, investigating, describing and analysing learners’ errors in a holistic view.
Contrastive Analysis gives an explanation of errors committed by second
language learners by making a comparison between the systems of the first
language and second language of learners. At the end of that comparison,
Contrastive Analysis theory assumes that negative interference from the native
language is the only source of errors in the second language acquisition. Error
Analysis does not agree on that point put forwards by Contrastive and stipulates
that there are other sources of second language errors. According to Error
Analysis, those sources of second language errors are interlingual and intralingual
interference that effect of the target language itself.

Second language errors sources exploration is an important fact in second

language acquisition. This allows the understanding of the nature of the language
being learnt. Contrastive Analysis theory tries to explain the sources of those
errors but does not give a sound and exhaustive one because it fails in
investigating all the aspects the languages it compares. Error Analysis goes
beyond the analysis made by Contrastive Analysis by exploring syntactic,
grammatical and phonological patterns of languages it compares and describes.
By doing so, Error Analysis not only succeeds in giving a sound explanation of
second language errors but also succeeds in coming up with other sources of
errors committed by second language learners. It can therefore be concluded that
Error Analysis theory is the theory that gives an effective explanation of second
language learners’ errors.

Error Analysis theory validity is proved by several researchers.

According to M. Al-Khresheh (2016), the theory of Error Analysis is proved to be
valid in explaining foreign or second language syntactic, grammatical, and
phonological errors. Researchers like M. Al-Khresheh (2010), A. Samra (2003)
prove that validity of Error Analysis through their investigation of the different
types of grammatical, syntactic, lexical errors and word order errors by following

30
the Error Analysis approach. According to R. Ellis (1994) as restated in M. Al-
Khresheh (2016), this approach proposes some steps to be followed while
investigating second language errors. These steps are collection, identification,
description, and explanation of errors.

2.5. Main Steps for Error Analysis

R. Ellis (1994) proposes four consecutive steps or stages in the process of
error analysis. The first stage is ‘collection of a sample of learner language’, the
second stage is ‘identification of errors’, the third one is ‘description of errors’,
and the last or fourth one is ‘explanation of errors’. Each stage plays a crucial role
in the process of error analysis that is the reason why none of them should be
ignored failure to come up with wrong results of analyses. It is also important to
master those steps or stage in application in order to generate credible results
coming from any kind of analysis based on Error Analysis theory.

2.5.1. Collection of a Sample of Learner Language

This part of the stages concerns data collection methods when it comes to
error analysis. As such, it creates a kind of divergences amongst researchers. M.
Al-Khresheh (2016) testifies that idea when he asserts that ‘researchers are
different from each other in their choice of data collection methods’. Besides, this
stage warns that learners’ errors are influenced a set of crucial factors and for that
reason, researchers need to consider those factors when collecting their sample of
learner language. R. Ellis (1994) insists on the importance of those factors when
he says that those factors are important in ‘collecting a well-defined sample of
learner language so that clear statements can be made regarding what kind of
errors the learners produce and under what conditions’. R. Ellis (1994), does not
stop at that level, but continues to give those factors to be considered in the
collection of the sample of learner language. Those factors are summarised in the
table.

31
Figure D: Factors to Consider when Collecting Sample of Learner Language,
R. Ellis (1994, p.49)

Factors Description

A. Language …………………………………………………………………
Medium Learner production can be oral or written
Genre Learner production may take the form of a conversation, a lecture, an
essay, a letter, etc.
Content The topic the learner is communicating about

B. Learner …………………………………………………………………
Level Elementary, intermediate, or advanced
Mother tongue The learner L1
LanguageLearning This may be classroom or naturalistic or mixture of the two.
experience

2.5.2. Identification of Errors

Before going any further, it is important to make a distinction between an error
and a mistake. M. Al-Khresheh (2016), makes this distinction in these terms:

‘There are certain ways to distinguish between an error and a mistake. The
first one is associated with checking the consistency of the L2 learner’s
performance. If a learner sometimes uses the correct form of a certain
structure or rule and later on uses the wrong one, then it is a mistake and can
be self-corrected. However, if he/she always uses it wrongly, then it is an
error. The second way is associated with asking an L2 learner to correct
his/her deviant utterance. In case that he/she is unable to, the deviations are
errors, and where he/she is successful, they are definitely mistakes’ .
Following the distinction made between an error and a mistake, it can be
concluded that an error is committed in an unconscious manner. It is recurrent and

32
cannot be corrected by the person or the individual that commits it while a
mistake is something that can be corrected by the individual who commits it. But,
H. Brown (2000), S. Corder (1981), and R. Ellis as restated in A. Al-Tamimi
(2006, p. 39) ‘consider any deviation from what a native speaker would produce,
as an error’. Anyway, those are not intending to contradict each other, but to bring
a sound definition of what an error is or looks like.

For Al-Khresheh (2016), error identification is different from explanation

of error. Error identification is the fact of detecting an error while error
explanation is the fact of giving the reason why an error occurs. S. Corder (1981),
provides with a common model of errors identification in the utterances of second
or foreign learners. This model suggests that ‘every sentence is to be regarded as
idiosyncratic until shown to be otherwise’. In that model, S. Corder (1981, p.21),
distinguishes two types of errors. There are the ‘overt’ and ‘covert’ errors. This
brings people to consider any sentence that is ill-formed in terms of the target
language rules as ‘overtly idiosyncratic’, and any other sentence that is well-
formed on the surface but does not convey what the learners intends to mean as
‘covertly idiosyncratic’.

Learners’ errors identification therefore bypasses the consideration of what

meaning lies behind the utterance of those learners. S. Corder (1978, p. 56)
confirms that idea. He puts forwards that ‘to identify the presence and nature of an
error, an interpretation of the learner’s utterance is necessary’. By doing what S.
Corder (1978, p.56) requires, it is possible to come up with the difference between
what a learner intends to say or mean and ‘what a learner has said’. Corder’s
model enables the identification of the error of literal translation where mother
tongue interference appears in a clear way. The same model can be used to
identify any kind of errors.

33
2.5.3. Errors Description
Description of errors remains the subsequent step of error identification in
error analysis. This description of learners’ errors is the prior condition of a sound
error explanation. M. Al-Khresheh (2016, p.52), distinguishes three major
purposes while describing errors. The first purpose is to ‘expound all that is
unstated’ in order to check an individual instinct. The second purpose is to count
learners’ errors and the third purpose is ‘to create categories and subcategories for
errors which can help in the process of developing a comprehensive taxonomy of
L2 errors’.

According to S. Corder (1973) foreign language learners’ errors can be

grouped in terms of the differences that lies between their oral production or
utterance and the reconstructed version that is the written version. This setting of
errors in groups gives the four categories of errors that are ‘omission, selection,
addition, and misordering of some elements’. Every category of error is given a
definition and dealt with by R. Ellis (1997).

According to R. Ellis (1997) as restated in M. Al-Khresheh (2016, p.52),

the first category of error which is ‘omission appears when a student leaves a
required item for an utterance out of a sentence that he/she constructed’. In plain
words, omission is the fact of ignoring an important linguistic unit that deserves it
place in a syntactic structure that is a sentence. Omission can be viewed as a kind
of deletion. But, the difference between both facts is that, deletion is done on
purpose while omission is done in an unconscious manner due to the lack of
knowledge of the syntactic or morphological rules. Omission happens at two
levels. It can either happen at the morphological level or at syntactic level. This
gives the terms of morphological omission and syntactic omission.

To elucidate the phenomena of morphological and syntactic omission, these

example are to be considered.

Sentence1: ‘the teacher teach his lesson perfectly’.

Sentence2: ‘do love potatoes?’

34
 Taking into account the first sentence, one can talk about morphological
omission. This appears at the level of the word ‘teach’, which represents the verb
of the sentence at the third person of singular and as such need to bear the bound
morpheme ‘es’ designating the third person of singular in English in this
particular case. As for the second sentence, it is related to the syntactic omission
due to the omission of the subject of the sentence.

The second category of error, selection, happens when an individual select

an incorrect element within a linguistic structure. Selection also happens in
morphology and in syntax. In morphology, selection can happen when, for
example, an individual chooses the wrong form of the comparative of superiority.
It may also happen in syntax when, for example, an individual adds a ‘to’ right
after a modal verb in a sentence. For a good understanding, consider these
sentences:

Sentence 3: my cars is beautifuler than yours.

Sentence 4: my father can to play football.

The third category of error referred to as addition occurs by adding

unnecessary elements to a linguistic unit or structure. This category of error
appears in morphology, syntax, and lexicon. In morphology, it may happen when,
for example, an individual adds an ‘s’ to the subject of verb in singular. In syntax,
it can occur when an individual, for example, adds the article ‘the’ to the name of
a city. In lexicon, it appears when an individual adds a word that conveys the
same idea as another word in a linguistic structure leading to a kind of tautology.
V. Erdogan (2005, p.264) gives a sound explanation of adding through his
examples. Consider these examples from V. Erdogan (2005, p.264) for a good
understanding of addition.

Addition:

In morphology: ‘The books is here’

In syntax: ‘The London’

35
In lexicon: ‘I stayed there during five years ago’.

For R. Ellis (1997) as recited in M. Al-Khresheh (2016, p.52), the fourth or

last category of error, misordering, happens when an individual misplaces or puts
the item in the wrong place. This time, misordering occurs in pronunciation,
syntax, morphology, and in lexicon. These examples from V. Erdogan (2005,
p.264) provide a sound understand of this fact in pronunciation, syntax,
morphology, and in lexicon.

Ordering:

In pronunciation: ‘fignisicant for ‘significant’

In morphology: ‘get upping’ for ‘getting up’

In syntax: ‘he is a dear to me friend’.

In lexicon: ‘key car’ for ‘car key’

This classification of errors into categories enables teachers and

curriculum designer to know learners serious problems anytime. This also allows
them to design good teaching materials in order to improve the quality of second
or foreign language learning. Along with that categorisation of errors, H. Brown
(2000) insists on the fact that errors may vary from a phoneme to a paragraph
passing by a morpheme, a word and a sentence. In view of the idea that errors
vary, V. Erdogan (2005, p.264) as restated in M. Al-Khresheh (2016, p.52),
‘distinguishes global and local errors’. he stipulates that global errors can
deteriorate communication by ‘preventing understanding of the intending
meaning’ while local errors might not.

2.5.4. Errors Explanation

This main objective of Error Analysis theory is to explain the errors made
by second or foreign language learners. As such, explanation of errors falls as a

36
 crucial step in Error Analysis research. It is important because it allows
researchers to know the sources of those errors and to give the reason why those
errors occur. According to F. Sanal (2007), researchers in error analysis should
know the causes of each type of error in order to find effective solutions to those
errors. R. Ellis and G. Barkhuizen (2005, p.62) define what explaining errors
means in these terms: ‘explaining errors involves determining their sources in
order to account for why they were made’.

R. Ellis (1994) gives an explanation of the psycholinguistic sources of the

kind or nature of second language learners’ errors through the distinction of errors
in two forms as errors of performance and errors of competence bringing a
dichotomy in the processs of error analysis. This table gives an illustration of
Ellis’s explanation of the psycholinguistic sources of the nature of second
language learners’ errors.

Competence (errors)
Error
Performance (errors)
Performance (errors)
Transfer
Intralingual
Unique
Processing Problems
Communication strategies
Processing problems
Communication strategies

Figure E: Psycholinguistic Sources of Errors (R. Ellis, 1994, p.58)

Interlingual errors (transfer) are caused by the influence of the first

language of learners while intralingual errors are caused by overgeneralisation,
ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules, and false concepts
hypothesised. Error Analysis focuses on those aspects to explain foreign or second
language learners’ errors.

37
38
PART II: METHODOLOGY DESIGN AND
DATA ANALYSIS

39
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY DESIGN

3.1 Method of the Research

This part of the research is composed of several parts. These parts are
related to the method used in the work.

3.1.1 Mix Method

This paper is about the analysis of mispronunciation of English short
vowel /I/ and the glottal fricative /h/ at the level of License 3 students of Alassane
Ouattara University. This chapter deals with the methodology that is used to
conduct the study. As a matter of fact, methodology in research is perceived as the
systematic method used to solve a research problem through data gathering
techniques. For this study to be effective, qualitative method as well as
quantitative method are used. Qualitative means that the data are gathered in non-
numerical form and quantitative conveys the idea of gathering data in numerical
form. Descriptive conveys the idea of description. This means that the study
strives to describe the way the vowel/I/ and the glottal fricative /h/ are pronounced
by those L3 students and to describe the factors behind their way of pronouncing
them.

3.2. Descriptive Research Design

Knowing the way L3 students pronounce the English short vowel /I/ and
the glottal fricative /h/ as well as knowing the factors behind their way of
pronunciation passes by descriptive research. The name of this type of research
implies two notions: the notion of description and the notion of research. There
are several types of research like the explanatory research, exploratory research
and predictive research. All those types of research do not allow the conduction of
this inquiry for many purposes. The explanation of the two notions of description
or descriptive and research justifies the choice of this type of research.

The notion of research is a broad topic to be dealt with. This topic is the
interest of some scholars. According to them, research is a systematic and
scientific approach to the study of a specific theme or topic or subject. This

40
endeavor leads to the discovery of fresh or new knowledge contributing thus to
the development of the existing knowledge in a specific domain or discipline.
Research calls for the processes of gathering data, analysing them by sometimes
formulating hypotheses and testing them or often answering directly to the
research questions after analysis.

According to E.Babbie (2016) Research is an organized, systematic, and

objective process by which we gain knowledge about the world. Cooper and
Schindler (2014) go in the same line with E.Babbie (2016) when they argue that
research takes the idea of logical and systematic inquiry in order to come up with
new knowledge and comprehension of events or phenomena. A.Bryman and E.
Bell (2015) definition of research joins those of E.Babbie (2016) and Cooper and
Schindler (2014). According to them, research is the process of conducting a
systematic and objective inquiry into a specific topic or problem, with the
intention of generating new insights or knowledge. With regards to the definitions
of research given by E.Babbie (2016), A.Bryman and E. Bell (2015) and
D.R.Cooper and P.S Schindler (2014), a small summary can be made on what
research means. Research is a systematic and logical process that generates new
knowledge.

The notion of description to which the adjective descriptive is related, is

also essential to the conduction and understanding of this research. The word
‘descriptive’, put into correlation with research gives a type of research. This type
of research is the descriptive research. According to E. Babbie (2007), the notion
of description in science is typically based on accuracy and precision rather than
on casual description in other domains. He states that this enterprise passes by a
careful and deliberate observation of facts, events or issues. T. Voordt (2002)
stipulates that descriptive research is characterized by its objectivity. On this level,
Voordt (2002) joins E. Babbie (2007) when objectivity calls for accuracy and
often precision.

Descriptive research, considering the different definitions of scholars, is a

systematic, logical, accurate and objective inquiry that aims at finding a new and

41
fresh knowledge in the scientific world. In the case of this study, it is all about
describing the way L3 students pronounce the English short vowel /I/ and the
glottal fricative /h/ as well as describing the factors that lead them to pronounce
them that way.

3.3. Interpretative Research Design

Interpretative research and qualitative research are sometimes
interchangeable. Both of them are used in social sciences and they use qualitative
data in their processes of data collection. As for interpretative research, it very
often uses quantitative data in its processes of data collection to bring more
precision. This type of research has its roots in anthropology, sociology,
psychology, linguistics, and semiotics. In the view of interpretative research, truth
is not unique and meaning depends on the context. Interpretative research includes
people in their natural social settings and multiple explanations of facts are
something accepted. According to S. Shea and D.Yanow:

Interpretive research is based on the assumption that social reality is not

singular or objective, but is rather shaped by human experiences and social
context (ontology), and is therefore best studied within its socio-historic
context by reconciling the subjective interpretations of its various
participants (epistemology). (S. Shea and D. Yanow, 2012, p.5)
Interpretative research is selected in addition to qualitative research for the
possibilities its gives to interpret social realities diversely focusing on the
context. For this work, it allows the interpretation of the variety of
pronunciation among students of the same level of study (L3).

3.4. Data Collection Processes

The sample of this inquiry is the students of license 3 of the English
department of Alassane Ouattara university. For the study to reach its final result,
it is a must to obtain data. The data are not in numerical form and no
questionnaire is designed to obtain the data. This fact justifies the use of
qualitative method as the method of data collection.

Qualitative method is a method of data collection used in social sciences

and particularly in linguistics. In pragmatics, this method serves to obtain data

42
through the study of interactions, speeches and texts. Qualitative method is a
research method that gathers data in non-numerical form. The right opposite of
this method is quantitative method in which one finds his data by grouping them
in numerical form. Numerical form means the data are set in huge number and
most of the time through questionnaires.

According to S. Merriam (2009), qualitative researchers’ interest rests on

the meaning built by people. In other word, their interest is on the way they find
their world and the different experiences they have acquired in their world. But,
according to Parkinson and Drislane (2011), qualitative research is a type of
research in which research methods like participant observation or case study are
used to account and describe a setting or practice. Many other scholars define
qualitative research. A definition given by one of them is:

Qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in the

world. It consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that makes the
world visible. These transform the world. They turn the world into a series of
representations, including field notes, interviews, conversations,
photographs, recordings, and memos to the self. At this level, qualitative
research involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world. This
means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings,
attempting to make sense of, or interpret phenomena in terms of the
meanings people bring to them. (N.K.Denzin and Y.S.Lincoln, 2005, p.3)
Using qualitative method to conduct a research has several advantages.
Qualitative research enables the person conducting the study to save time. It
permits the research conductor to save money and avoid a lot of travelling. The
research conductor saves his energy by using qualitative method. It is different
from quantitative methods in which money, time and the presence of the
researcher on the field is required. Using qualitative method to conduct a study is
endowing the research conductor with the capacity of finding data in a natural
way. The data of this work are obtained from the L3 students of Alassane
Ouattara University.

3.5. Qualitative Data

Data can be clustered in two categories. The first category is qualitative
data and the second category is quantitative data. In the case of this study, both

43
types are concerned. According to Ryan and Bernard (2000), qualitative data can
be classified into three groups. The first group is audio. Audio refers to oral
linguistic productions in for example a radio set or a telephone. This type of
qualitative data can be turned into the second group of qualitative data. The
second group of qualitative data is text. The text is the group of data that leads to
the conduction of several types of analysis. Ryan and Bernard (2000) find two
roles for text. They argue that text can be viewed as ‘proxy for experience’ and
text as ‘object of analysis’. According to them, this analysis is about conversation,
performance, grammatical structures and narratives. The third and last group of
qualitative data is video. Video can be turned into a text. In the case of this study,
text and audio are the types of data to be considered

The data are first of all some audio records made by L3 students of the
English department of Alassane Ouattara University. Those data are
transformed into some texts. This is done because it is hard to use or represent
audios in the body of the work. Once turned into texts, it is easy to use those
data in the work in order to justify the ideas and thoughts the research
conductor is displaying. Data are important in the process of a research paper
in the sense that they are the elements that make the work possible. It can be
said that without data, the implementation of a scientific study is not possible.

3.6. Source of Data

This part deals with the origin of the data. The study is about
mispronunciation of the English short vowel /I/ and the glottal fricative /h/ by L3
students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara University. For this study
to be done there is a condition to be filled in. That condition is the availability of
data. Data are the elements of a study that give credibility to the study itself. They
bring special information that enable to understand an issue or a phenomenon. K.
Thakur (2018) agrees with that assertion when he assumes that data generate
specific information.

44
 Data can be gathered by using two ways. The first way of gathering data is
the primary source data. In this way of gathering the data, the research conductor
is the one who is in charge of gathering first the data. Nobody has already
gathered some data that the research conductor may use to carry out the study.
The second way of gathering the data is the secondary source data. This time, the
research conductor uses the data already gathered by other researchers in order to
make his study effective. For the case of this study, primary source data are the
one opted for.

Scholars have their viewpoint on the two ways of gathering data in terms
of their status and their advantages. According to D. Matho (2016) primary source
data are data that are fresh. Nobody has gathered them in advance. For, R. Thakur
(2018), primary data are gathered through interviews, case studies, observations
and surveys. These types of data are more credible since they avoid the use of
incongruent data in a study. Contrarily to D. Matho (2016), K. Thakur (2018)
states that secondary source data can be clustered into two groups. There are the
published and unpolished data. The published data can be viewed as public data
and the second group that is the unpolished data can be considered as private data.

The primary source data better fits in this study. In fact, the primary source
data are data gathered through interviews, observations, surveys, and case studies.
The descriptive case study that is embedded in qualitative data collection method
is the instrument of data collection in the case of this study. As such, the primary
data source appears to be the best of option for there is no room for the research
conductor to use public data or private ones gathered by others researchers. Those
fresh data are gathered from the L3 students of the English department of
Alassane Ouattara University.

3.7. Corpus or Targeted Population Justification

Research in human sciences requires a corpus. Corpus plays a fundamental
role in the process of a scientific study of a phenomenon. The corpus enables to
have the needed information in the conduction of a study. It also testifies the

45
results of a study through the different data that are driven through it. The corpus
of a scientific study can be clustered into two groups. The first group can be the
type of corpus like text, literary productions. The second group can be talks.
Anyhow the type of corpus, it is relevant for the study. G. Bennett (2010) testifies
the importance of corpus in the process of scientific study. This study does not use
a corpus as such, which conveys the idea of a collection of writings used to carry
out a study. The study instead considers the targeted population (the L3 students
of the English department of the Alassane Ouattara University) as the source of
the data. It is from this sample that the data for this work are driven. A
questionnaire and an oral pronunciation test are submitted to them to obtain data.

The students at the English department of Alassane Ouattara University

range from license 1 to the last year of doctorate. The choice of L3 students
among them depends on several facts. The first fact that explains this choice is
that those students are at the end of the first cycle of university. As such, some of
them may put an end to their studies and opt for teaching in private schools. So,
they are chosen to be tested on the basis of phonetics in order be assured that they
do not make mistakes when it comes to pronouncing some vowel and consonant
sounds.

The second fact that motivates the research conductor to choose the
students of this level is an observation made on a group of students of this level.
During a session of debate among them, a series of mispronunciation is noticed.
That fact draws the attention of the research conductor, which then decides to
investigate on this group as well as their friends of the same level. This is to check
the way they pronounce the English short vowel /I/ and the glottal fricative /h/,
which are the recurrent pronunciation errors made during their session of debate.

The third reason for the selection of this sample lies on the availability of
the students and their total number as well as the amount of phonetic rules given
to them. License 1 and 2 students are new comers at university and as such they
do not have any solid background knowledge in phonetics. For this reason, they
cannot be selected as sample of this work. As for the students of master 1 and 2,

46
they not numerous and are most of the time at home due to their timetable or their
schedule. For that reason too, they cannot be the sample of this work. License 3
students with the consistent number and their availability along with an assumed
solid background knowledge in phonetics fit in this study as sample.

3.8. Instrument of Data Collection

Instruments are devices used to carry out a work. In the domain of
research, they are the means used to collect data for the research conductor in
order to carry out his endeavour. S. Arikunto (2006) testifies the importance of
data collection instrument when he argues that instrument in research enables the
researcher to collect data in the view of obtaining suitable results from the study.
There are several qualitative data collection instruments. The most prominent ones
are interviews, case studies and observations.

3.8.1 Interviews in Data Collection

Interviews are set of data collection instruments used in qualitative

research. Interviews are used to generate qualitative data. There are several types
of interviews depending on the type of inquiry one want to conduct. According to
N. Fox (2016), there are several types of interview. The first type of interview is
the structure interview. This type of interview is used to question all the
participants with the same questions and the same procedures. In other words, the
structured interview is an interview in which all the questions are established in
advance. The researcher designs the different questions to be asked before the day
of the interview. In the structured interview, there is no room for the interviewer
to ask an unplanned question and the questions are of the type of open-ended
question in the structured interview.

N. Fox (2016) postulates that the second type of interview is the

unstructured interview. In this type of interview, the questions are not pre-
established. This gives room to the interviewer to ask any unprepared further
questions. The unstructured interview gives right to the interviewer to be flexible

47
while asking questions. The interviewer can decide to deepen the inquiry by using
the answer to a question to ask any further question. By this way, the interviewer
can have some relevant information that can serve him in his inquiry.

The third type of interview is the semi-structured Interview. The semi-

structured interview is the combination of the structured interview and the
unstructured interview. This type of interview gives little room for some
unprepared questions. The interviewer designs some questions to be asked to
respondents some days before the day of the interview. On the spot of the
interview, some unprepared questions can emerge like in the unstructured
interview depending on the types of answers the respondents give. All those type
of interview are common in didactics but in the case of this study, the structure
interviewed is selected for collecting the necessary data for the inquiry.

3.8.2. Observation Method

Observation is an instrument of qualitative data collection. It is an
instrument that is used in several domains of study like education and other social
sciences like sociology. Observation is a qualitative method of data collection that
can be subdivided into three groups. According to M. Ciesielska et al., (2018), the
first type of observation is participant observation. This type of observation is
frequent in applied linguistics researches in which the data are driven in
classroom. The observer seats in the classroom to observe the pedagogical
relationship happening between the teacher and the learners. This type of
observation most of the time does not reflect the true classroom realities. Apart
from the classroom realities, the observation may be targeted to the observation of
the lifestyle of a group of people. In this case, the observer is trying to understand
possibly the culture or the lifestyle of the selected sample.

The non-participant observation is the second type of observation

stipulated by M. Ciesielska et al., (2018). This type of observation does not call
for fieldwork as such. The observer already has an understanding of the

48
phenomenon without carrying out a fieldwork investigation. He does not need to
attend humans’ interactions to have his data. The last type of observation is the
indirect observation. This one focuses on the former observations carried out by
researchers. The indirect observer does not need to accomplish a new observation
like participant observation because he has some documents and the observations
made by others on similar situation that enable him to have his data. In the case of
data collection in this study, none of them is used.

3.8.3. Case study

Case study is another instrument of data collection. It consists in selecting
a sample of a population to carry out the study. Case study enables the
examination of data in context in order to understand a phenomenon. According
to R. Yin (1984), there exist three categories of case study. The exploratory case
study explores the data of a phenomenon for the study. This category of case
study calls for a pre-study in order to better guide the research. The second
category of case study is the descriptive case study. According to (Z. Zainal,
2007, p. 4), this category describes the situations naturally by using a descriptive
theory. Failure to use a descriptive theory, the descriptive case study is no more
effective. Explanatory case study is the last category of case study. The
explanatory case study carries out a holistic study. That is, it takes into account
both the surface realities and the deep structures of data to do the study.

Following the elaboration of the most common and qualitative instruments

of data collection, the descriptive case study is suitable for the collection of the
data on the study on mispronunciation of the English short vowel /I/ and the
glottal fricative /h/ by L3 students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara
University. In fact, the theory subtending this study can be qualified as a
descriptive theory. The theory is all about the description of the way language
learners’ errors occur and the factors behind those errors. As such the descriptive
case study is in congruence with the study.

49
3.8.4. Oral Pronunciation Test
This tool of data collection is used to obtain data from a sample by means
an audio recorder. Once the audio recorded, it is transcribed into text. It can
happen under different formats. It can be some sentences, phrases or single words
the submitted people in order to check their oral performance. For this study,
some words containing the English short vowel /I/and the glottal fricative /h/ are
selected and used as the subject of the oral pronunciation test. This test is
submitted to the L3 students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara
University. Each participant pronounces those words from the beginning to the
end and a chance is given to them to retake the pronunciation in case he/ she
realises he makes an error. The test is designed in order to have data on their way
of pronouncing the English short vowel /I/ and the glottal fricative /h/. After the
oral test, a small conversation is launched just to see if those mispronunciation
errors occur in their casual speeches.

3.9. Data Collection Strategy

Data are special information one needs to testify the validity and
credibility of a research paper. Collecting data is thus a crucial step in the process
of the conduction of a research. The data collected play an important role in the
sense that they enable the research conductor to check his hypotheses or to answer
to the different research questions. On the basis of what the collected data have
generated as results, a conclusion can be drawn. To arrive at the level of result and
interpretation, it is a must to use a technique to collect the different data.

In the quest for obtaining good and right data for the conduction of this
study, several strategies are used. It all starts with a pilot study. This consists in
collecting similar data as the ones needed for the real study. This happens with a
little amount of the targeted population, which is the L3 students of the English
department of Alassane Ouattara University. For the academic year 2023-2024,
over 250 students are registered in L3. Among them 75 are selected as sample of
this study with the equal chance given to anyone in the group of L3 students to be
part of the sample. This choice of the sample is based on the technique of simple

50
random sampling. The fact of giving equal chance to all the members of the target
population is essential and recommended by Barnett (1992). He states that ‘each
individual element of the statistical population must have the same chances of
being selected or not in the sample’.

3.10. Data Collection Difficulties

Collecting data entails encountering difficulties. This falls true for the
collection of the data of this work. The difficulty faced while collecting the data is
the fact that students are not available. Due to the variability of their timetable, it
was very hard to have the total number of students easily. Some of the students
refuse to be interviewed because they think their oral productions are not so
accurate. They think that mockery is the result of their oral productions in case
they are wrong and therefore refuse to collaborate with the research conductor.
For the questionnaire, some of them refuse to do the task because they believe it
can reveal their knowledge in terms of phonetic. At last, the research conductor
succeeds in obtaining the data from the selected sample either for the
questionnaire or the oral pronunciation test.

3.11. Data Analysis Guideline

Data analysis is an important aspect in qualitative researches. It is
important in the sense that it constitutes the place where the data are gathered and
linked to find out specific realities or issues. In this study, the data are in forms
of figures and graphs. According to M. B. Miles and J.Saldana (2014) as restated
in S. Ramos (2021), there are three flows of activity in the process of data
analysis. The first part is data condensation. This part deals with the processes met
in the transformation of the data. In this work, the data undergo the same
processes of selecting, focusing, simplifying, abstracting and/ or transforming
data. The second flow of activity is data display. This is about the organization of
the data in the body of the work in the manner that can allow conclusion drawing.
The third flow of activity is conclusion drawing or verification. This part deals
with the interpretation of the data organized through different processes.

51
 In the case of this work, the data follow the same procedures before being
analyzed. That means that the primary data gathered are transformed into a formal
data. Then they are displayed in the body of the work in a logical way to ease their
analysis as well as the conclusion drawing. The display of the data starts by those
gathered through the questionnaire and finishes by those gathered by the oral
pronunciation test or the interview.

Quantitative as well as qualitative data methodologies are the ones selected

in the process of data analysis. This selection gives a sound and varied analysis of
the issue under study. Each element selected in the process of the analysis of the
data has its own purpose. The use of quantitative research is to deepen the event at
stake in order to comprehend its intricacies lying beyond a mere representation of
a sample. On the opposite side, qualitative research put the emphasis on
measurable characteristics of a phenomenon and makes a thorough description of
that phenomenon. Using the two methodologies in the analysis gives an effective
explanation of facts.

Dealing with quantitative research, questionnaire falls as the primary tool

of data collection. Through the questionnaire, data are gathered from participants
giving the opportunity to the research conductor to have the means to carry out his
or her research endeavor. Once the data gathered, a meticulous examination and
interpretation follows. This gives rise to the understanding of the issue at stake.
Table and other types of figures containing specific data from the questionnaire
are used to prove what is said about the use of the questionnaire in this study.

Likewise, quantitative research uses questionnaire to collect data,

qualitative research is carried out through interviews. Interviews serves as primary
method or tool of data collection. Both the interview and the questionnaire show a
set of words used to check participants’ way of uttering those words. The table are
represents participants capacity of to pronounce those words selected for the test.
The aim of this is to come up with L3 students’ challenges when it comes to
pronunciation of English words in their everyday conversation. Telephone is the

52
instrument used to record the utterances produced by the participants. Both
Qualitative and quantitative strategies are used to analyse and discuss those data.

The explanation given for the method of data analysis can be said to be
theoretical. This paragraph displays the different practical steps to be followed in
the analysis of data. Once qualitative and quantitative data are displayed in the
work, practical phase follows. That is after data presentation, data analysis falls as
logical step. In this part of the work, one reveals what the figures and other
numerical symbols represent. This starts by observing those figures and numerical
symbols. After this stage in the analysis process, the activity of categorization
comes. This consists in putting the elements that are similar together and the
dissimilar ones apart in order to ease the analysis. Next to the activity of
categorization, one has to say in concrete terms the meaning of the different
elements categorized.

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS

4.1 Data Presentation

4.1. 1 Data Presentation of Oral Test
For this part, a list of words is given to the L3 students of the English
department of Alassane Ouattara University. They have to pronounce it the way
they think these words could be pronounced. The results are displayed in order to
ease the analysis and make readers understand the analysis that is made.

TABLE 1: Students’ English Short Vowel /I/ Pronunciation

Words Correct IPA Pronunciation Students’ Wrong Pronunciation.

1. hit /hɪt/ 5 /ɪt/ 39 /i:t/ 6

2. miss /mɪt/ 6 /mi:t/ 44
3. live /lɪv/ 4 /li:v/ 46
4. bit /bɪt/ 10 /bi:t/ 40
5. shit /ʃɪt/ 19 /ʃi:t/ 31
6. ship /ʃɪp/ 19 /ʃi:p/ 31
7. kick /kɪk/ 12 /ki:k/ 38

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 8. spit /spɪt/ 22 /spi:t/ 28
9. pit /pit/ 13 /pi:t/ 37
10. mix /mɪs/ 7 /mi:s/ 43
11. kiss /kɪs/ 10 /ki:s/ 40
12. give /gɪv/11 /gi:v/ 39
13. heat /hi:t/ 3 /i:t/ 47
14. meet /mi:t/ 14 /mɪt/ 36
15. meat /mi:t/ 13 /mɪt/ 37
16. beat /bi:t/ 13 /bɪt/ 37
17. teeth /ti:Ɵ/ 8 /ti:f/ 2 /tɪf/ 40
18. bleed /bli:d/ 17 /blɪd/ 33
19. flee /fli:/ 15 /flɪ/ 35
20. neat /ni:t/ 13 /nɪt/ 37

TABLE 2: Students’ Glottal Fricative /h/ Pronunciation

Word Correct IPA Students’ Wrong

Pronunciation Pronunciation

1. hit / hɪt / 2 / ɪt / 48

2.heat /hi:t / 3 / i:t / 47

3.health / hɛlɵ / 1 / ɛlɵ / 15 / ɛlf/ 34

4.hire / haɪǝ / 2 / aɪǝ / 48

5.hell / hɛl / 2 / ɛl / 48

6.hill / hɪl / 3 / ɪl / 47

7.hi / haɪ / 1 / aɪ / 49

8.hello / hǝ’lǝƱ / 4 / ‘ɛlǝƱ / 46

9.hesitate / ‘hɛz.ɪ.teit / 1 / ɛz.ɪ.’teit / 49

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 10.he /’hi: / 1 /’i: / 49

11.hip / hɪp / 3 / ɪp / 47

12.him / hɪm / 1 / ɪm / 49

13.her /‘hɜ:(ɹ) / 1 /‘ɜ:(ɹ) / 49

14.hippo /‘hɪpǝƱ / 3 /‘ɪpǝƱ / 47

15.heap /‘hi:p / 3 /i:p / 47

16.heam /‘hi:m /5 /‘i:m / 45

17.harm /’ha:m / 4 /’a:m / 46

18.hear /hɪǝ(ɹ) / 6 /ɪǝ(ɹ) / 44

19.hole /hǝƱl/ 4 /ǝƱl/ 46

20.head /‘hɛd/ 5 /ɛd/ 45

4.1. 2. Data Presentation of Questionnaire

This part shows the results of the questionnaire submitted to the L3
students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara. The words selected are
transcribed by the research conductor in many ways and choices are made by
students. The results are displayed to serve as data in the analysis process.

 Results of the Questionnaire on the right pronunciation of the English

short vowel / ɪ/
1. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “hit”.
- A. / hɪt / 6
- B. / hi:t / 40
- C. / hɛt / 4
2. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “live”.
- A. / lɪv / 10
- B. / li:v / 37
- C. / lɛv / 3

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3. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “miss”.

- A. / mɪs / 6

- B. / mi:s / 38

- C. /mɛs/ 6

4. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “bit”.

- A. / bɪt / 11

- B. / bi:t / 35

- C. / bɛt / 4

5. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “nit”.

- A. / nɪt/ 9

- B. / ni:t / 40

- C. / nɛt / 1

6. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “pit”.

- A. / pɪt / 10

- B. / pi:t / 37

- C. / pɛt / 3

7. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “sit”.

- A. / sɪt / 19

- B. / si:t / 29

- C. / sɛt / 2

8. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “fit”.

- A. / fɪt / 29

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 - B. / fi:t / 18

- C. / fɛt / 3

9. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “little”.

- A. / lɪtl / 15

- B. / li:tl / 25

- C. / lɛtl / 5

10. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “lit”

- A. / lɪt / 17

- B. / li:t / 28

- C. / lɛt / 5

 Results of the Questionnaire on the right pronunciation of glottal

fricative / h/.
1. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “heart”.

- A. / hɑ:t / 5

- B. / i:rt /10

- C. / ɜ:rt / 35

2. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “heat”.

- A. / hi:t/ 15

- B. / i:t/ 26

- C. / ɛt / 9

3. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “hole”.

- A. / hǝƱl / 14

- B. / ǝƱl / 33

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 - C. / ɛƱl / 3

4. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “hip”.

- A. / hɪp / 16

- B. / ɪp / 32

- C. / i:p / 2

5. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “hello”.

- A. / hǝ‘lǝƱ / 14

- B. / ǝ ‘lǝƱ / 27

- C. / e ‘lǝƱ / 9

6. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “hi”.

- A. / haɪ / 19

- B. / aɪ/ 29

- C. / i: / 2

7. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “here”.

- A. / hɪǝ(ɹ) /13

- B. / ɪǝ(ɹ) / 34

- C. / ǝ(ɹ)/ 3

8. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “hear”.

- A. / hɪǝ(ɹ) /13

- B. / ɪǝ(ɹ) / 22

- C. / ǝ(ɹ)/ 15

9. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “head”.

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 - A. / ‘hɛd / 17

- B. / i:d / 3

- C. / ɛd / 30

10. Students’ choice on the right pronunciation of the word “hire”.

- A. / haɪǝ / 15

- B. / aɪǝ / 30

- C. / i:r / 5

4.1. 3. Statistics on the Data Presented

This parts of the work makes a summary on the data gathered.

Table 3: statistics on students’ oral production test: case of the English short
vowel /ɪ/.

Total number of Total number Total number of Total number of

words of right wrong
containing the Pronunciation pronunciation pronunciation
sound /ɪ/

20 1000 234 766

59
 Percentages 100% 23.4% 76.6%

Note: 50 students. 20*50= 1000

Table 4: statistics on students’ oral production test: case of the glottal

fricative /h/.

Total number of Total number Total number of Total number of

words of right wrong
containing the Pronunciation pronunciation pronunciation
sound /h/

20 1000 55 945

Percentages 100% 5.5% 94.5%

Table 5: statistics on students’ answers on the questionnaire based on words

containing the English short vowel /ɪ/.

Total number of Total number Total number of Total number of

words of right wrong
containing the Pronunciation pronunciation pronunciation
sound /ɪ/ to be selected selected selected

10 500 132 368

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 Percentages 100% 26.4% 73.6 %

Table 6: statistics on students’ answers on the questionnaire based on words

containing the glottal fricative /h/

Total number of Total number Total number of Total number of

words of right wrong
containing the Pronunciation pronunciation pronunciation
sound /h/ to be selected selected selected

10 500 141 359

Percentages 100% 28.2% 71.8%

4.2. DATA ANALYSIS

4.2.1 Analysis of the Oral Test
The oral test is based on two points or aspects. The first aspect is on the
pronunciation of English words containing the English short vowel sound /ɪ/. The
second aspect is about the pronunciation of the English words containing the
glottal fricative sound /h/. 20 words are selected from each aspect to carry out the
oral test. The results are presented in table 3 and 4, with the percentages of the L3
students of the English department of Alassane University who pronounce well
either words containing the English short vowel /ɪ/ or the glottal fricative /h/ and
those who do not.
The results show that 23.4% of 50 L3 students of the English department
of Alassane Ouattara University are able to give the right pronunciation of 20
English words containing the English short vowel /ɪ/ sound. That means that

61
76.6% of those students are unable to carry out this task of pronouncing rightly
those 20 words containing this English vowel sound. Coming to the English
words containing the glottal fricative /h/ sound, only 5.5% of those 50 L3
students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara University succeed in
this endeavor. 94.5% of them fail in this oral test. That means that almost all the
students who are selected to take this oral test on the glottal fricative /h/ sound do
not aspirate this sound when it is at the beginning of a word or either in the middle
of a word.

All these facts on the right or wrong pronunciation of these English words
containing the sound /ɪ/ and the sound /h/ depend on the background knowledge
of those students selected for this oral test. An important number of them do not
know how to make the difference between the English short vowel /ɪ/ sound and
the English long vowel / i: / sound. This is because in French, there is one sound
that takes into account these English sound and it is as long as the English long
vowel /i: / sound. This reality leads them to consider the letter (I) in those words
in the table as a long vowel /i: / sound as it is pronounced in French. As for the
glottal fricative /h / sound, it a sound that is rare in the students background
languages. Even though this sound exists in French, it is not common and many
people including the majority of those selected students do not know it. As such, it
falls true for the English words. That is among the L3 students of the English
department of Alassane Ouattara University who are selected to perform this oral
test, the majority do not know that the glottal fricative /h/ sound is aspirated.

4.2.1.1. Errors on Fricatives

Although the work is not centered on errors made on dental
fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, it is important to underline this aspect noticed during the oral
test. At this level, 42 of the L3 students fail to pronounce the dental fricative /θ/ in
the word “teeth” in the first table. Only 8 of the students succeed in pronouncing
the ‘th’ sound /θ/ in that word. 2 of them pronounce it / ti:f / and 40 of them
pronounce it /tɪf/. This falls true for the word “health”. Out of the 50 students

62
selected for the oral test, 49 of them pronounce the “th” at the end /f/. This proves
that those L3 students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara University
have some problem with the dental fricatives. The dental fricative sounds are
typical English sounds that do not exist the first language of those L3 students. As
a result of this fact, they are unable to produce them correctly as the English
people do.

4.2.1.2. Stress Placement Issues

Another aspect drawing attention in that oral test is stress
placement in some words. Stress placement comes up in this oral test as small
difficulty of L3 students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara
University. the results of the oral test in table 2 show that the majority of the
students do not know the right stress placement on the right syllable in following
words "hello" and “hesitate”. With only 2 words where those students do not
succeed in placing the stress on the right syllable, it is hard to confirm that those
students have serious problems with stress placement. But, it can be hypothesized.
Another oral test on words containing many syllables can ascertain this
hypothesis.

4.2.2. Analysis of the Questionnaire

Questionnaire is the second tool used to gather the data after the table 1
and 2. The results of the questionnaire are displayed following the idea of words
containing the English short vowel /ɪ/ and the glottal fricative /h/. 10 words are
selected for each part of the questionnaire and this time, students are asked to
choose the optimal option among three options suggested. That is the words are
transcribed in three ways and students must select the right transcription
according them.
The results on the English short vowel /ɪ/ sound reveals that 26.4% of the
students over the 50 L3 students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara
University know the right transcription of those 10 words and therefore the right
pronunciation. On the opposite, 73.6 % of them do not know the right

63
transcription of those words. A small conclusion can be drawn on this fact to say
that those students who fail in choosing the right transcription do not know the
right pronunciation of those words. The same errors made during the oral test
come again at the level of the questionnaire. Students take the letter “I” for the
long vowel /i:/ sound when they come across words containing this letter. As a
matter of logic, they read words in which the letter “I” appears spending time on it
as in words in which the long English vowel sound /i:/ appears.
Some of those students even confuse them. That confusion can be viewed
where students pronounce these words “teeth”, “meat”, “meet” and “bleed” at the
level of the oral test using the English short vowel sound /ɪ/ instead of the long
vowel sound /i:/. This proves that students who perform that way do not know that
the “ee” is read like the long vowel sound /i:/ and the “ea” is sometimes read like
long vowel /i:/ in words like “meat”, “beat”.

The results on the glottal fricative /h/ sound in words used in the
questionnaire come out with the results that 28.2% of the 50 L3 students selected
know the right transcription of the 10 words selected to build the questionnaire.
Those 10 words containing the glottal fricative /h/ are transcribed in three ways
and students must select the right transcription of each of those words. In the same
token, it comes out that out of the 50 L3 students selected for answering to this
questionnaire, 71.8% of them do not know the right transcription of those 10
words submitted to them.
Those students choose for the majority the transcription of the words not
containing the glottal fricative transcription. This entails that those students do not
know the right pronunciation of the selected 10 words in the questionnaire. The
reason that can be given to explain this fact is that an important number of those
students do not know that the glottal fricative /h/ sound is an aspirated sound. So,
they read words that begin with the letter “h” without aspirating this letter that
give the glottal fricative sound /h/. Another reason can be the fact that students do
not master their classes on phonetics. But, one thing is to master the classes on
phonetics. Another one is to be able to apply it in real communication situation.

64
To be able to apply it in real communication situation passes by some researches
made in dictionaries. Using dictionaries allow students to master the right
transcription and pronunciation of words. This is what the L3 students fail to do.
As a result, the majority of them are unable to transcribe or pronounce words in
the right way.
Next to the use of dictionaries to know the right transcription and
pronunciation, students do not use audio tapes (CD, TV channel) to reduce their
pronunciation challenges. They do not listen to podcasts in English and do not
follow TV programs in English to get used the words in terms of the way they are
pronounced. This solution on students’ difficulties about pronunciation is
suggested to them on the spot and all of the respondents find it more practical.
Besides, it is suggested to imitate native English speakers as solution to
pronunciation errors and students agree to do that.

All in all, the oral test and the questionnaire serve to gather the data. The data
gathered enable the research conductor to confirm the hypothesis put forwards
that the L3 students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara University
mispronounce the short English vowel /ɪ/ and the glottal fricative /h/. Apart from
the hypothesis put forwards by the research conductor, other mispronunciation
errors are found during the conduction of the oral test and the questionnaire. This
is about the pronunciation of the “th” and “ee” in English. The analysis does not
focus on the two different mispronunciation errors. It is rather a discovery made.
To ascertain this hypothesis, another study needs to be done using either the oral
test or the questionnaire or both the questionnaire and the oral test. By the way,
students need to learn more about pronunciation rules so as to be equipped with
those rules. This allows them to speak correctly the English language in terms of
phonetics and phonology.

65
PART III : RESULTS AND INTERPRETATIONS

66
CHAPTER V: RESULTS

This stage of the work is all about the outcome of the research gained after
the collection and analysis of data. This means that the data analyzed in the
previous session go under a thorough analysis that gives more details about facts
observed during the data collection procedure or during their analysis. Specific
explanation on the different findings is given in this section in order to allow
people or readers understand the issues and enrich the discussion section. Error
Analysis theory is the theory underpinning this study. That means that the
different explanations given in this section are supported by that theory. It gives a
standardized explanation that testifies the scientific basis of this study. The results
of the study therefore range from what is hypothesized to the unexpected ones.

The study is about mispronunciation of the English short vowel /ɪ/ and the
glottal fricative /h/. The study uses the L3 students of the English department of
Alassane Ouattara University as sample. The research analyses the issue of
English language pronunciation by L3 students of UAO and investigate their
environmental and mother tongue influence on vowels pronunciation. In terms of
research method, the study uses the descriptive qualitative method with the oral
test and the questionnaire as tool of data collection. The investigations are made at
Alassane Ouattara University during the period students have time. Data gathered
through the investigations are presented and analyzed in chapter 4.

Pronunciation is important in language learning and for communication in

society. This allows a fluid communication among individual which are either
from the same linguistic background or not. It is sets a standard on which native
speakers as well as non-native speaker should abide by to understand each other.
The problem is that learners of English as a Foreign Language come across
problems related to pronunciation. Due to many facts starting from their first
language to the English language itself, they mispronounce some sounds, words
and even some sentences in casual speech. This problem of pronunciation is what

67
the L3 students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara University come
across.

To fix this problem of pronunciation of those L3 students of the

English department of Alassane Ouattara University, 50 students of them at the
English Department are selected for an oral test. This test is about recording of
their readings of various English words containing the English short vowel
sound /ɪ/ and the glottal fricative sound /h/. A questionnaire is added to the oral
test. The 50 students selected for the oral test are kept for the questionnaire. After
these endeavors conducted on the students' language abilities to read these words,
it is found that the hypotheses put forwards are true. The L3 students of the
English department of Alassane Ouattara University face challenges in
pronouncing words containing the English short vowel /ɪ/ and the glottal
fricative /h/. The research shows that apart from the two levels of difficulty
expected in the study, those L3 students of the English department of Alassane
Ouattara University face other challenges that are related to the pronunciation of
words containing the English sound /Ɵ/. This entails that those students may not
be able to pronounce correctly the dental fricative / ð/.

5.1. Types of Pronunciation Errors

Errors are of various types and differ from each other depending on the
context where they occur. Error in general can be linked to several factors. Those
factors range from age, sex, emotion to tiredness to quote some of them. But,
errors in language learning differs a bit from the others types of errors made by
people in general. It differs from the other general errors made by people in other
domains like Computing, Medical, Mathematics and so many others in the sense
that errors in language learning depend either on the first language of the learners
or the target language itself or on the learners lack of interest in the target
language. Depending on the factor that causes the types of error, there is a
scientific explanation. There are several types of errors in language learning as
well. The case of the study is based on pronunciation errors. This works the same
way like a system for there are several other types of pronunciation errors. Some

68
of those errors discovered in this study are displayed in this section as results of
the study.

5.1.1. English Short Vowel /ɪ/ Pronunciation Difficulties

One thing that is common to all languages in the world is the division of
their alphabets letters into two general categories. Those two general categories of
the alphabets letters are the vowels and the consonants. The combination of both
the consonant and vowel letters following some principles and rules, depending
on the language in which there are used, gives some meaningful sounds or words.
Sometimes, the combination of two or three vowel letters gives some meaningful
sounds or phonemes. The same procedure produces the same results for consonant
letters. English as well as French have the same number of consonants and
vowels. The difference at this level between the two languages lies in the ways
those letters are read in terms of the general alphabet. That difference between
those languages (French and English) goes up to phonetics and phonology where
sounds are studied.

Sounds are the results of muscles concentrating. Sounds are divided into
two categories following the different categories of the general alphabet. That is
sounds are divided into consonant sounds and vowel sounds. Pronunciation of
those sounds sometimes causes some troubles to students in general or to non-
native students and to some the students of the English department of Alassane
Ouattara University in particular. Among the students of the English department
of Alassane Ouattara University, the L3 students are the ones who encounter this
problem and who are observed by the research conductor. Investigations on this
fact about them are made through the oral test and the questionnaire submitted to
them. It comes out that those students have problems when it comes to the
pronunciation of the English short vowel sound /ɪ/. The different investigations on
the pronunciation of this vowel sound come to the same conclusion that the ¾ of
those L3 students do not know the right way of pronouncing this vowel sound.
This is due to many fact. The first fact that explains this error from the L3

69
students the English department of Alassane Ouattara University concerns the first
language of those students.

The problem of those L3 students lies at the level of their first language or
mother tongue. As a recall, the first language or mother tongue is the first
language someone speaks at birth. The first language of the L3 students differs
from one individual to the other since those students are from different linguistic
backgrounds even though French language is considered as the first language of
all of them. The truth about this fact is 90% that those students have as first
language their local languages, which are Baoulé, Gouro, Bété, Dioula, Agni,
Attié to quote some of them. Be it in French or in those local languages of the L3
students, the short vowel sound /ɪ/ does not exist. This fact is what justifies those
students pronunciation problem of this sound. This reality testifies the assumption
put forwards by both the Contrastive analysis theory and the Error analysis theory.
According to those theories the first language of the second language learner
impact the learning process of the second language.

The impact of the first language or mother tongue on the learning process
of the second language can be felt at different levels of the language being
learned. This can be at the level of syntax such as the wrong disposition or
placement of the different part of speech in phrases and sentences by second
language learners. It can be felt at the level of morphology with the confusion
words building rules. This impact goes to grammar with the application of
grammar rules of the first language in the second language learning process. At
the level of phonetics and phonology this impact is felt by the non-mastery of
phonetics or phonology rules or the mispronunciation of some sounds in that
target language. This last impact is the one that tires the majority of the English
language learners.

The case of the pronunciation of the English short vowel sound /ɪ/ sounds
good to illustrate the impact of the first language on the second language. In fact,
in local languages of those students as well as in French the long vowel sound /i:/
occurs some words but it comes to English language where in addition to that /i:/

70
there is another sound alike, students read both of them like the /i:/ sound in their
local languages or first language. This is observable with the pronunciation of
some words that are “live”, “bit”, “ship”, “hit” and many other words used in the
oral test and the questionnaire and which some students read the short vowel
sound /ɪ/ in those words /i:/. Some other students among them who try to make the
distinction between the two sounds that is the English short vowel sound /ɪ/ and
the long vowel sound /i:/, misuse them when pronouncing these words: “bleed”,
“beat”, “keep”, “meet” and “eat” used in the oral test and the questionnaire
submitted to them. They read those words using the English short vowel /ɪ/.

The second fact justifying the impact of the first language or the mother of
those L3 students on their learning of the English language remains the
complexity of the English language in terms of sound, tone. English language has
some sounds that are particular and therefore differ from the sounds in other
languages. In addition to the sounds themselves, their pronunciation in words is a
difficult endeavor since sometimes the word is written differs from the way it is
pronounce in reality. This fact not only plays some tricks on the learners of the
English learners in general but also on the L3 students of the English department
of Alassane Ouattara University in particular. That reality is viewed through the
pronunciation of the words like “beat” and “break”. The first word is read using
the long vowel sound /i:/ while the second word is read using the diphthong /ei/
for the same letters “ea” in the two words “beat” and “break”. Such kinds of facts
are numerous in English and cause students to mispronounce some words.

The third fact explaining the mispronunciation of the English short vowel
sound /ɪ/ turns around the lack of interest and determination from the students for
the mastery of phonetic and phonological rules. Learning a language is a matter of
interest and determination. That means someone learns a language for a specific
purpose. Some people may learn a language for their own pleasure, some other
may learn a language for a job and others may learn a language because the
language is imposed on them like the way English, Spanish and German are
imposed on students at school. The same thing can be true for the majority of

71
those L3 students of the English department. Some of them are there because their
parents force them. Some others are there because they love the language in all its
aspects and they are the one who succeed at 95% in the different test on the
language. The others are there because it is said that with the English language,
jobs are limitless. Considering all those aspects, it is not astonishing to have those
mispronunciation problems.

Next to those explanations given about Students mispronunciation, another

major fact explains those students’ mispronunciation of some vowel or consonant
sounds. That fact is the environmental influence. The environment where the
students are, plays an important role in their learning process of the English
language. The L3 students of the English department of UAO live in a French
speaking country. In their different homes, French is the language they speak in
case they do not speak their local languages. At school, some of them try to speak
a bit English due to the shame they feel when speaking the English language. All
those facts embedded in the environment influence their speaking skills in general
and their pronunciation abilities in particular. In other words, students fail at the
level of the pronunciation of the English short vowel /ɪ/ and the glottal fricative /h/
because of the environment that does not allow them to practice the English
language anytime and anywhere.

The data gathered during the oral test and the questionnaire gives these
results. Although the data are summarized in chapter 4 with the percentages of the
students who mispronounce the collection of words used to carry out the oral test
and the questionnaire, it is worth to bring a clear cut idea of what the study finds
as results about the mispronunciation of the English short vowel /ɪ/. The results of
this investigation is presented form graph so as to draw the attention of any
potential reader of the work about the crucialness of the situation that needs to be
resolved through some measure. The graph presenting the results shows the
results with the oral test, the results of the questionnaire and result of the
combination of both the oral test and the questionnaire.

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 Figure E:Results of the investigation on the mis-
pronunciation of the English short vowel /ɪ/
9

0
Results of the oral test Results of the questionnaire General Results

Students' right pronunciation Students' wrong pronunciation

The results of both the oral test and the questionnaire on the
mispronunciation of the English vowel sound /ɪ/ show that the number of students
who mispronounce this vowel sound (26.4% for the questionnaire and 23.4% for
the oral test) is superior to the number of students who pronounce it in the right
way (76.6% for the oral test and 73.6% for the questionnaire). Coming to the
general results, the same reality falls true with 24.9% of the students selected for
the study who pronounce it well and 75.1% of them who mispronounce that

73
English short vowel sound. Observing those statistics, it can be concluded that the
L3 students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara University have
problem with the pronunciation of that English sound /ɪ/.

The analysis on the English short vowel / ɪ/ sound fails at one level. That is
the items used for checking the students’ ability to pronounce that vowel sound
are some isolated words. Those words are not included or embedded in some
sentences to check the way those students would read them. This aspect is to be
taken into account in future researches because some sounds change when they
are in a casual or rapid speech. After the analysis of the English short vowel /ɪ/
sound, the analysis goes on with that of the glottal fricative /h/ sound. This time,
the analysis not about a vowel sound but it deals with a consonant sound.

5.1.2. Glottal Fricative /h/ Pronunciation Issues

The glottal fricative /h/ sound comes out to be one of the pronunciation
problems of the L3 students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara
University. This sound is a consonant sound and differs from the English short
vowel sound /ɪ/ studied in this work. The results are first hypothesized.
Investigations through the oral test and the questionnaire are made to confirm that
hypothesis. During the investigation process, students perform on some words
beginning with the sound /h/. The notice throughout this investigation is that the
majority of those L3 students ignore the existence of this sound /h/, either at the
beginning of the words selected for the oral test and the questionnaire or in the
middle of some of those words depending on the position the letter “h” in those
words.

The glottal fricative sound /h/ remains a sound in the first language of the
L3 students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara University. Even
though this sound does not exist in some of the local languages of those students,
it is a reality in French language which is considered to be the official first
language of all those student. After investigation on this fact, results come out to
confirm the hypothesis put forward that the L3 students of Alassane Ouattara
University have problem with the pronunciation of the glottal fricative sound /h/.

74
Several explanation can be given to that issue of mispronunciation of that
consonant sound. According to the assumptions of Errors Analysis, errors in the
process of second language learning depend either on the influence of the first
language or depend on the second language itself.

The lack of interest in all the aspect of the language from the students fits
as explanation of this pronunciation error of the L3 students of the English
department of UAO. The other explanations given to the mispronunciation of the
English short vowel /ɪ/ ,such as the sound / ɪ/ does not exist in the first language of
the students and the complexity of the English language, do not work for the
glottal fricative /h/ sound since the sound exist in French as well as in English. In
addition to that, the environmental influence can be viewed as an explanation
since the words in French, which contains the glottal fricative sound /h/ are rare in
everyday conversation and therefore it is English that must be spoken to get used
to that consonant sound instead of French spoken by those students every time.
The results on that consonant sound are presented in a graph the same way it is
done for the English short vowel sound / ɪ/. They allow future researches or
potential readers to have a sound idea of what those students suffer from.

Figure F: Results of the investigations on mis-

pronunciation of the Glottal Fricative /ɪ/ sound
10

0
Results of the Oral Test Results of the Questionnaire General Results

Students' right pronunciation Students' wrong pronunciation

75
 These results confirm the hypothesis put forward at the beginning of the
study by the research conductor. That hypothesis stipulates that the L3 students of
the English department of Alassane Ouattara University do not know the right
way of pronouncing the glottal fricative /h/ sound. The general results 16.85% of
the 50 students selected for the study know the right way of pronouncing that
sound and 83.15% do not know the right way of pronouncing that sound. For the
specific results, the number of students who mispronounce that sound is 94.5%
for the oral test and 71.8% for the questionnaire. The number of students who
pronounce that consonant sound well is 5.5%¨for the oral test and 83.15% for the
questionnaire. The limits of this investigation is that the words selected to serve as
object of evaluation are not place into sentence to be read as in casual speech.

5.1.3 Dental Fricative /θ/ Pronunciation

Dental fricative pronunciation errors are observed during the study on the
L3 students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara University. That error
is related to the right pronunciation of the dental fricatives /θ/.This sounds is a
challenge for the L3 students of the English department due to the way it is
articulated in the mouth. Students struggle to differentiate and produce this sound
in words like “teeth” and “health” used both in the questionnaire and oral test.
This struggle from the L3 students of the English department of UAO lead to
potential misunderstandings or miscommunication. This challenge from the
students can fall true for the dental fricative / ð/.

Both dental fricative /θ/ and / ð/ sounds are some typical English sounds.
The pronunciation of those of those sound is then a challenge for second language
learners who have French or local languages as first language. As the aim of the
study is not to dig into this mispronunciation fact, no specific oral test and
questionnaire are designed for confirmation or disconfirmation of this hypothesis
raised by the mispronunciation of the words “teeth” and “health”. Other
researchers can dig into this question in order to check the trueness about this
hypothesis put forward in this study. Coming to the potential explanations, as the
hypothesis is not yet confirmed, that can be given to this pronunciation error from

76
the L3 students two reasons can be quoted. One reason is linked to the non-
existence of those sounds in students’ mother tongue or first language, which
affect their way of pronouncing those sounds. The other reason is due to the
complex nature of those sounds in terms of place of articulation and manner of
articulation.

Beside the pronunciation errors discovered in this study, supra-segmental

errors are unveiled during the oral test and the questionnaire on the pronunciation
of the English short vowel sound /ɪ/ and the glottal fricative sound /h/. Supra-
segmental errors are inscribed in the domain of phonology as well. There are
several element embedded in supra-segmental phonology. The one that draws
attentions in work is stress in words.

5.1.4. Stress Placement Errors

Stress is another expected result come across in this analysis on the
mispronunciation of the English short vowel /ɪ/ and the glottal fricative /h/ by the
L3 students of Alassane Ouattara University. In fact, during the oral test on the
English short vowel sound /ɪ/ and the glottal fricative sound /h/, some of the
50students selected for the study misplace the stress in some words in table 2. An
example is placement of the stress in the word “hello”, which they pronounce
putting the stress on the first syllable /‘ɛlǝƱ/ (46 students) instead of putting it on
the second one / hǝ’lǝƱ/. The same issue is true for the pronunciation of the word
“hesitate” where students (49) pronounce it / ɛz.ɪ.’teit / instead of / ‘hɛz.ɪ.teit / (1)
student.

English is a stress-timed language that requires the placement of stress on

specific syllables within words. The right placement of that stress in words
impacts meaning and intelligibility. That means that the right placement of the
stress in words enables the flow of communication. But, it is discovered that stress
placement in words two syllables is one of the significant challenges faced by the
L3 students of the English department of Alassane Ouattara University. The data
on the oral test in table 2 specifically with the words “hello” and “hesitate”

77
testifies that the majority of those students face some challenges in placing stress
on the correct or right syllable in those words.

Another fact is noticed talking about stress placement in words. That fact
is the about the placement of stress in mono-syllabic words. In fact, when it comes
to the placement of stress in words that contain one syllable, all of them succeed
in doing it. This is so because in such kind of words, there is no need to think
twice before putting the stress on the syllable. This stipulates that the problem of
stress placement lies at the level of words of two or more syllable since the
findings in the table 2 on the oral test show that students struggle with the
identification and application of the stress on the right syllables. This
misplacement of stress in words results in unnatural rhythm and misinterpretation
of words if they are used in casual or rapid speech. It is necessary for those L3
students to know and understand the rules and patterns of stress placement to
favor oral communication among themselves and with other people from other
linguistic backgrounds. This necessity to master phonetic and phonological sound
is desired since some of those students are potential teachers of English. They are
compelled to deliver English classes in the long run. For that reason, if nothing is
done, wrong input in terms of phonetics and phonology is dish of the secondary
school students.

5.2. Solution to Mispronunciation Problem

The analysis on mispronunciation of the English short vowel sound /ɪ/ and
the glottal fricative /h/ by the L3 students of the English department of Alassane
Ouattara University comes out with several pronunciation issues. Those issues are
due either to the first language of those learners or to the second language itself
(English) or to the lack of interest and determination from those students who
some of them are at the department by constraint. In the view of all those issues,
some solutions need to be provided to save those students and the future
generations.

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 5.2.1. Audio Listening
One way to remediate to those issues related to pronunciation remains
listening to some audios. Listening to some audios not only lets students get used
to the accent and stress placement of words but also allows them to know the right
pronunciation of many words that are either common or unusual. This enables
them to sound native-like. This endeavor or activity should be done on a regular
basis to have the expected results. All those pieces of advice are given sometimes
by some of the teachers. Unfortunately, those students do not practice them to
avoid such kinds of errors. Teachers at university already play a sound role in this
token with the subject of listening held since L1 to M2. Students should follow
this example to have good knowledge about pronunciation of words.

5.2.2. Research on Phonetic and Phonological Rules

Students have to go deeper in researches on phonetic and phonological
rules. Although teachers deliver classes on phonetic and phonological rules is
necessary for the students to go behind what is taught to have more knowledge
about those rules. Students can go over Yutube, google scholar and any other web
site that can provide them with information about phonetic and phonological
rules. One thing is to have those information. Another one is to learn them by
heart and be able to apply them in real communication situations. For that reason,
students have to revise those rules every time and practice them with their friends
in order to master them.

5.2.3. Online Native Correspondents

The Ivorian government should give the ability to the department of
languages in general and of English to have partnerships with European or
American countries that speak the languages Ivorian students are studying. This
can give the opportunity to those students to have online native correspondents
with whom they have talks. This can develop students’ ability to listen and to
speak the language they learn in a correct way. Another possible alternative is to
allow mobility of students among states or Universities in Europe or America
which accept to partner with Ivorian universities. By doing so, second language

79
learner students at university are given the opportunity to be in direct contact with
native speakers of the language they learn. This can help them get used to the
English sounds and therefore avoid pronunciation errors. Government, teachers,
students and even parents have to play a sound role each in order to have good
teachers of second language learners in ivory coast.

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CHAPTER VI: INTERPRETATIONS

6.1. Pronunciation Issues and their Implication

This chapter is concentrated on the unveiling of the possible multifaceted
discussions of the findings of the study. It going to put light on their relevance in
relation to previous research works. In the second language learning process,
learners face many difficulties or barriers. This can happen at any level of the
language depending on the situation of the learning experience or the learner
himself. In fact, pronunciation problems are disorders involving inadequate joint
diction or certain phonemes. Learners generally used to pronouncing sounds in
their mother tongue. As a result, they have difficulty controlling muscles and
sound-producing parts such as the lips, teeth, and tongue to correctly pronounce
English. In this respect, Licence three students of English department in Alassane
Ouattara University pronunciation challenges are still a real issue.

They face a great number of pronunciation challenges which can be

classified or categorized as follow: Pronunciation of glottal and dental Fricatives,
Aspired sounds, Silent letter recognition, Stress placement, vowels confusion,
‘ED’ pronunciation and Linking and Assimilation in words’ production. The
findings of this study unveil a remarkable variety of pronunciation difficulties
encountered by these students. Thus, the first difficulty among others is the issue
of dental fricatives, which include sounds like "th" as in "thing" or "this." The
correct articulation of these sounds requires the placement of the tongue between
the teeth, a skill that some students may find challenging to master.

Another aspect of sound production challenges is related to aspired sounds,

which involve the release of a burst of air during pronunciation. All the
consonants are equally important. More attention is paid for the aspiration of
word-initial /p/, /t/ and /k/ (cf. Harmer 2015 P.279). For example, pronouncing
the initial "p" in words like "pan" or the initial “k” like in “kind” requires the
ability to generate this aspirated sound accurately, which poses difficulties for
some students. Stress is regarded as a critical component of learning English
pronunciation.

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 Stress placement within words is also identified as a significant area of
difficulty for Licence three students. English words have specific patterns of
stress, and incorrect stress placement can alter the meaning and intelligibility of
words and sentences. Students may encounter challenges in determining the
appropriate stress placement, resulting in communication difficulties and potential
misunderstandings. The study covered the multiple case of students’ miss-
stressing words like “courageous”, “correct (verb)”, “profession”. Another area of
difficulty is that of “ED” endings of words. The pronunciation of the "ED"
endings of words poses a crucial difficulty for Year three students. The English
language has three possible pronunciations for the "ED" ending, depending on the
preceding sound in the word (e.g., “stopped, cooked," "finished," and "pounded").
Mastering the appropriate pronunciation of "ED" endings requires an
understanding of these rules and practice, which can present challenges for
students.

The study's findings also show that Licence three students face
challenges related to linking and assimilation in word production. English is
known for its connected speech, where words within a sentence often blend
together and undergo phonetic changes. Students may struggle with accurately
linking words and assimilating sounds, leading to less fluent and natural-sounding
speech. The presence of this wide range of pronunciation difficulties suggests that
pronunciation acquisition involves numerous intricate skills that develop over
time. These challenges require targeted instruction, practice, and exposure to
facilitate accurate and fluent pronunciation. Another important element is linking
words. The “linking” might also be problematic for many non-native speakers. In
fact, in English the words are pronounced without pause or hesitation between
them. The final consonants are “linked” with the beginning of the following word.
So, most non-native speakers of English cannot distinguish between weak and
strong forms.

Weak forms are for example function words (articles, prepositions,

pronouns, conjunctions and auxiliaries) which are unstressed and reduced in

82
connected speech. Because of that, weak forms are generally more frequent than
the strong forms (cf. Marks and Bowen 2012 P.23). Using the weak form instead
of the strong form and vice versa can cause incomprehension. For example:

“I wanted to tell you that Amena is a good friend”

Weak form: /ðət/ =conjunction

Strong form: /ðæt/ =demonstrative pronoun

Those listed above are only examples of problems that non-natives may
encounter. Depending on the mother tongue that is spoken, the difficulties will be
different. For example, Baoulé speakers make different mistakes than Senoufo
students. Therefore, it is important as a teacher to understand the difficulties that
students have in order to be able to concentrate oneself on certain aspects.

6.2. The English Short Vowel/I/ and Glottal Fricative /h/

Pronunciation Difficulties.
Among those difficulties encounter by learners, vowels confusion seem
to be the most visible and crucial. It is based on the specification of sound
production. Vowel confusion is a pronunciation challenge highlighted in the
findings. With at least 44 sounds, English is perceived as a language with a
complex vowel system with numerous vowel sounds that can vary depending on
factors such as environmental dialects, sociolinguistics background, regional
accents and dialects. Vowel confusion can occur when different vowel sounds are
misunderstood by learners. The vowel length is considered as a characteristic of
each vowel sound. Furthermore, the quality of all the pure vowels and diphthongs
should reflect as much as possible those of the chosen native speakers’ variety of
English.

In this logic, we can consider the example of difficulties to distinguish

long vowel sounds (i) from short vowel (I). Indeed, the results reveal that many
students still confuse the /iː/ and /ɪ/ sounds in words like “eat (i)” and “sit (I)”.

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That is, the word "sit" is pronounced with a short "I" sound /sɪt/, which is a closed
vowel sound made with a relaxed tongue position. It rhymes with words like "fib,
gift, and hit". Whereas, "eat" is pronounced with a long "i" sound /iːt/, which is a
tense vowel sound made with a higher tongue position and a longer duration. A
perfect illustration of that is the use of “beat and bit” just because if someone is
says, "I bit him," instead of saying "I beat him," the hearer will be confused about
the meaning of the message. It may then indicate a confusion between the two
words in the sense that, the confusion arises between the short "I" and the long "i".

The recognition of silent letters represents another pronunciation challenge

observed in the study. English words often contain silent letters that are not
pronounced but affect the overall pronunciation of the word. The word “night,
eight, honor” for example start with a silent “h”. However, most students are not
able to identify this silent letter. They then pronounce a sound that should not be
there as they utter this word. In effect, students struggle with identifying and
pronouncing silent letters, which can lead to mispronunciations and affect the
clarity and accuracy of their speech.

6.3. Drawbacks on Oral Communication of L3 students.

Drawbacks or limitations of oral communication are known as the
misunderstanding of the communications. Oral communications cannot be
completely recalled due to the limits of human memory. That is, many students
express lack of vocabulary or passive vocabulary in their conversation. They
sometimes say, I have significant problems with vocabulary. I have vocabulary,
but it is not that much. Sometimes I feel at a loss for words. Such a limitation of
words makes difficult the communication. Another important drawback is the no
mastering of grammar points. In fact, L3 students, in their use of langue wrongly
use some grammar points like the case of “ed” at the end of verbs. The bad use of
that langue function make confuse the listener. The very last ones are problem of
phonetics and phonology. The misunderstanding of these elements by students
make oral communication very difficult to be caught or to be understood by the

84
listeners. Just because they rightly or wrongly pronounce words like “that, there,
they, their, this, and these”.

6.4. Drawbacks on the community and Potential non-mastery of

phonetics and phonology
L3 students have serious problems in their oral communication. As it is
already mentioned above, they lack of efficiency may lead them to many
problems in the future. Because with such a level, they won’t be capable to well
train their students in the future and those students will also do the same their
students. Consequently, such a practice will obviously destroy the development of
the community in the coming days. To be short, bad students will severely impact
the community.

English pronunciation errors could be inter-language errors. However, not

all errors are due to the effect of mother tongue. Obviously, different EFL learners
around the world have some pronunciation mistakes regardless of what effect
their mother tongue imposes on EFL learning, generally, and pronunciation,
specifically. Similar to them is the state of licence 3 students in Alassane
Ouattarra University who have different pronunciation errors (Burleigh, 2005, p.
76).The following section sheds light on the most intra-lingual difficulties. The
first one the aspect of Phonology. Phonology is a term with various definitions all
of which agree on its being the study of patterns of sounds. Different linguists
promoted; though different, but still similar in the concept, definitions of
phonology.
Some linguists like Kenstowicz (2014) states that it is a study of the
pattern concerned with both selection and use of sounds in the language. As for
Yule phonology is a description of the system and pattern of speech sounds in a
language. Then, in the process of potential non-mastery of phonetic and
phonology, errors analysis, phonological errors are that most licence3 students
face as they are engaged in the learning experience. The analyzed data show that a
lot of year three students are ignorant of the phonological aspect of the language.
One could witness, it is difficult for them to come across pronunciation of words

85
that contain silent letters. For example, many of the students pronounced the word
“Debt” like /debt / or deb/ some even produce the sound /deθ/ instead of simply
uttering / det/. Another reality is that almost all the students present difficulties to
recognize weak or zero realization vowel sounds like in the word “comfortable”
pronounced as /ˈkʌmfɔːteibəl / instead of/ˈkʌmftəbəl/.
In addition, data show that only a few of the students of the English
department succeeded in assimilating the expression “That person”. A restricted
number were able to inner insert the sound ‘p’ in between in the two word as the
pronunciation goes along. Same issue with “You all” and “Go on”. Not even half
of the student interviewed was able to link the two words with a ‘w’ sound as
should normally perceive any eventual listener. This clearly shows that students
have not internalized yet some phonological understanding like elision and
assimilation in the speech. Another element is Phonetics. Phonetics is believed to
study sounds. Mahon (2002, p. 27) mentioned that it provides objective ways of
describing and analyzing the range of sounds humans use in their languages. To
set it forth, phonetics is classified as acoustic. It is a branch of linguistics that
studies the production of speech. Most learners are not efficient to pronounce
words clearly. As their second language, their mother tongue has a huge effect on
their L2.

6.4.1. Phonetic errors.

Many factors can lead learners to phonetic errors. Among these the most
vivid and crucial is Mother Tongue as their L1. In fact, mother tongue
interference causes an undeniable impact on L2 learning. Differences between L1
and L2 could lead to committing errors either unconsciously or involuntarily.
However, not all errors could be interpreted as being caused by L1. Rod Ellis
(1997) and Hojati (2012) signal that mistakes could either reflect differentiate
between two types of transfer of L1 to L2. One of which is the positive transfer in
which L1 and L2 shared similarities are acquired smoothly. In other words, L1
will have a positive role in acquiring that language aspect if it is similar to that
equivalent aspect in L2. The second type is called negative transfer on
interference in which the differences between L1 and L2 are apt to cause

86
difficulties in the process of learning L2. Another factor can be the lack of
information about the different types of phonetic. Accordingly, there are three
main types of phonetics. They are:
- Articulatory Phonetics: studies the production of sounds.
- Auditory Phonetics: studies the perception of sound and receiving them.
Pronunciation Errors Committed by Learners.
-Acoustic Phonetics: studies the waves of sounds. It uses spectrographs to study
sounds and
differentiate between them. Linguists know sounds through frequency of waves.
According to articulatory phonetics sounds are classified as consonants, vowels,
and semi-
Vowels or semi-consonants.
* Consonants
In describing consonants, there are three main points according to
which consonants are classified. They are: the state of the glottis, place of
articulation and Manner of articulation. Glottis is the space between the vocal
cords. It is the end of the pipe. The vocal cords are flexible flesh that closes and
opens. When they are open, the air passes through them. The state of glottis is
either: opening or vibrating.
When the glottis vibrates, it produces voiced sounds; when it is open, it
produces voiceless sounds. Voiced sounds are the sounds produced when the
vocal cords are vibrating while voiceless sounds are sounds produced when the
glottis is open. Different sounds are produced from different places. There are
eight places for producing English sounds which are bilabial,
Interdental, alveolar, alveo-palatal, palatal, velar, and glottis.
* Vowels
A vowel is a voiced sound in producing of which the air comes out in a
continuous stream through the pharynx and the mouth; there is no obstruction or
narrowing which could cause audible friction. There are short and long vowels.
Also, English has diphthongs. Diphthongs are a combination of a pure vowel and
a glide, e.g., /au/, /ea/.

87
 * Difficulty with Vowels
Researchers connect pronunciation problems with the complexity of the vowels
sound system.
Also, such inconsistency of pronunciation proved confusing for EFL more
precisely those of licence 3 Students in Alassane Ouattara’s University. An
example of that is having one
Vowel sound presenting different letters as spelt with "a" (attend), "ar"
(particular). That is remarkable.
* Phoneme is known as the smallest meaning distinguishing abstract unit.
It is a kind of (Kwnaroqiaa, 1979, p. 52). That means a sound has a
communicative value as it results in different meanings. Such meaning
differentiating sounds are all sounds and differ in one which differentiates one
word from another such as (can, man, and fan), (Shut, cut, and but). Actually, it is
essential for the correct pronunciation of a phoneme is believed to play a role in
pronunciation Errors Committed by EFL Learners.

* Grapheme: Since a morpheme is an abstract unit, a concrete

representation of it is required. That is what differentiates grapheme from
morpheme. A grapheme is the used symbol to identify a phoneme. Plainly, it is
the written symbol of a phoneme. An example, the word light is in a grapheme
level while a phonemic level. Mahon (2002, p. 55) and Alqunayeer (2016, p. 105)
explain that it is better to use a form that looks like one of the actual realizations.

*Allophones: They are different realizations of the same phone. In other

words, they change the sound quality and they usually do not affect meaning.
They are known by complementary distribution. That is to say, each allophone
occurs in those environments where the other allophones of the same phoneme
cannot occur. For example, the allophones conditions that do not allow for the
other allophones to occur. The sound /z/ will be after voiced sounds as in fans,
cars, pens, skills, kids. While /s/ is realized after the voiceless sounds like in the
words, books, shrimps and parts.

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* Diagraph : there are many words in English in which a word consists of two
letters constituting only one in which a pair of letters come together to make one
sound, for example, sh, th, ee and ai in the words [Short thumb, flee, chain]
respectively. Here, it clearly appear that learners who are not accustom with the
language and are not informed about the great number of phonetic components
will probably get trouble while pronouncing words. Words like sheep, cheap,
restaurant, chocolate, vegetable, and signature are most of the time mispronounce
by EFL learners.

6.4.2. Segmental errors

Most consonants are important to ensure good comprehensibility. The
fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ are considered as “non-core sounds” because they do not
seem to lead to misunderstandings if mispronounced. To the distinction between
long and short vowel sounds is given importance as well. The analyzed results just
above display a great number of year three students making many errors when it
comes to the pronunciation of these sounds. Unfortunately, year three students
replace Dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ by sounds like / f, v, t, d/ in their speaking.
This means that students still ignore the uttering of these sounds. The category of
this kind of error is the segmental one. This type of error is made by most student
whether by substituting a sound by another or completely omitting a sound.

The analysis of the data also explained that a great number of student
makes confusion with vowels sounds. Because of the possibility for English
vowel to be pronounced many different way, most of year three students would
confuse sound like the /I / with /ai and i:/ in words like “type, tee, tire’’ and other.
Some other would pronounce / /ɛ: or iə/ in place of /e/ and vice versa. In this
framework, the error of aspiration has been found among year three students.
Some succeed in pronouncing with the aspiration when the word is
orthographically started with the letter ‘h’ but when it starts differently it becomes
difficult for them.

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 Indeed, many would pronounce words like “walk”, “kind” or “brain”
without any aspiration: removing the intense English sound nature to words.
Similarly, the uttering of “Ed” sound faces the same issue of substitution and
omission at a segmental level as it is already said somewhere above. In effect,
students constantly omit to pronounce the “ed” at the end of word like “looked”
and “stopped” which can certainly cause confusion to the listener ears for it is
nearly impossible to discern whether the speaker is talking in the present time or
rather past time.

To overcome such a problem, students are oblige to go deeper the rules that
underline the pronunciation of sounds as suggested by linguists, linguistics
documents and dictionaries. According to the Cambridge Pronouncing Dictionary,
“The pronunciation of the sound "ed" in English can vary depending on the
context and the preceding consonant or vowel sound. It is important to note that
"ed" is most commonly found at the end of regular verbs in the past tense and as a
marker for the past participle form. The three possible pronunciations of "ed" are:

1. /t/ sound: When "ed" follows an unvoiced sound, such as /p/, /k/, /s/, /f/, /ʃ/, or
/tʃ/, it is pronounced as /t/. For example:

- "looked" is pronounced as /lƱƘt/

- "worked" is pronounced as /wɜrkt/

- "asked" is pronounced as /æskt/

2. /d/ sound: When "ed" follows a voiced sound, such as /b/, /g/, /v/, /z/, /ʒ/,
/dʒ/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, /r/, or any vowel sound, it is pronounced as /d/. For example:

- "played" is pronounced as /pleɪd/

- "arrived" is pronounced as /əˈraɪvd/

- "liked" is pronounced as /laɪkt/

3. /ɪd/ sound: When "ed" follows the sounds /t/ or /d/, it is pronounced as /ɪd/. For
example: - "waited" is pronounced as /weɪtɪd/

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 - "decided" is pronounced as /dɪˈsaɪdɪd/”

With the mastering and betterness of these basic rules, the student can be perfectly
ready to be save from any mispronunciation as far as “ed” challenge is concerned.

6.4.3. Supra segmental errors.

The results of the data collection revealed that EFL students of the
English department commit error at the supra segmental realm. Supra segmental
Errors deals with pronunciation error that are beyond the simple phonetic
segment. It takes into account rhythm, stress, unstressed syllables, and intonation
patterns. In this work, the interpretation of student stress placement on English
words falls into the supra-segmental category. In reality, almost all students
encountered difficulty in stressing the right syllable in many English words like
“correct (verb)”, “Professor”, “correct (adj)”, “perfect”. This type of error is
particularly important in the sense that the stress placement shows that the learner
knows the meaning of the word. To be clear, a word stressed different can create
distinction in meaning. Stressing on syllable can change word classes like in “to
correct” as a verb and “correct” as an adjective. However, the outcome is that
many students still fight with similar stress problems. Significantly, the
explanation provide by on stress placement are certainly helpful. In this
perspective, some linguists as (Ababneh I, Kharma and Hajjaj (1997, pp. 24-25)
made simpler the English word stress patterns in the following way:

(i) All one-syllable words, spoken in isolation, are stressed

(ii) A two-syllable word has one stressed syllable, on the first as in ‘study, or
on the second as in be’lieve.
(iii) Prepositions, like verbs, often have stress on the second syllable, e.g.
a’bove.
(iv) If a word has a diphthong or a tense vowel, the stress often falls on it, e.g.
ho’rizon.
(v) If there is no tense vowel or diphthong, stress often falls on the third short
vowel from the end or the second from the end if followed by two
consonants e.g. ‘cinema, hori’zontal.

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 (vi) In words of three or more syllables there is usually one stressed syllable,
but occasionally there may be two, e.g. ex’cessively or ‘over’estimate.

These above principles of syllable are useful for learners when it comes to master
stress placement. They guide the overall construction of meaning through stress.
In addition, students should always check them in the dictionary or resort to the
way a native speaker usually uses them because of the irregularity of stress
pattern.

6.5. Revision on phonetics and phonology principles and rules.

In this section, it is important to discriminate between phonetics and
phonology. By definition, phonetics is ‘the scientific study of speech, the
discovery of how speech sounds are produced, how they are used in spoken
language, how we can record speech sounds with written symbols, and how we
hear and recognize different sounds’. While phonology is ‘The study of the sound
systems of languages. The most basic activity in phonology is phonemic analysis,
in which the objective is to establish what the phonemes are and arrive at the
phonemic inventory of the language” Roach (1992 p. 81). As for him, phonetics
is the study of the allophonic manifestation, how the sounds of speech are actually
made. And phonology is “the study of phonemes and their relations in sound
systems” Widdowson (1996 p.42). It is also important to mention the following
areas: physiological phonetics, articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, auditory
phonetics and perceptual phonetics. If phonetics deals with the physical reality of
speech sounds then phonology is concerned with how we interpret and
systematize sounds Kelly (2000 p.9).

Another important is that of the allophones. They are different realisations

of a single phoneme (different ways in which the same phoneme can be
pronounced). One single phoneme can be realised differently in different
environments. Allophones are non-contrastive variants of phonemes. A set of
sounds that make up a phoneme are known as its allophones. The phoneme in
English can be realised (pronounced) in different ways in different environments.
The stops /p, t, k, n, m, g/ can be labialised.

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 */p/ in ‘port’[pwɔ:t], ‘pool’[pwu:ɫ], pot [pwɒt].

*/m/ in ‘mourn’[mwɔ:n], moon [mwu:n ].

*/t/ in ‘toys’[twↄɪs], took [twu:k].

*/n/ in ‘norm’[nwɔ:m], noon [nwu:n ], noise [nwↄɪs].

/ð/ Voiced dental fricative : all function words beginning with th

e.g. there, this, then, the, though, thy, they, although, though, their, these, them,
themselves, those, this, that, nonetheless, worthy, heather, either, neither. And
ending with “the” like in seethe, breathe, lathe, clothe, clothing, tithe, writhe,
bathe. Also, breathing, leather, father, mother, northern, southern, gather, either,
neither, soothe, bother, brother, clothing, breathing, rhythm, farther, father,
feather, further, northern, gather, gathering, weather, leather. /θ/ and /ð/ like in
breath (n) breathe (v) mouth (n) mouth (v) bath (n) bathe (v) cloth (n) clothe (v)
worth (n/adj) worthy (adj), are crucial functions which seem to be very to
decipher by three year students. And also the letter /t/ in words like in thames
/temz/ thyme /taɪm/ Thomas /ˈtɒməs/ ; think about this. /θɪŋk/ and /ðɪs/ ; that and
thought. /ðæt/ and /θɔːt

6.6. Feedback on Students’ Errors.

Most categories of students’ pronunciation problems have been confirmed
with the use of the oral test and the questionnaire. According to the study, the
students’ French background is the core reason explanation to students’
pronunciation problems during their daily practice. The complexity of the mother
tongues and the English sound systems also justify the suffering of many Licence
three students in term of pronunciation. The English sound system is a crucial
challenge for learners due to its abundance of phonetic contrasts and subtle
variations. The students encounter difficulties in differentiating between similar
sounds, such as /θ/ and /ð/ (as in "think" and "this"), /ɪ/ and /iː/ (as in "sit" and
"eat"), or /æ/ and /ɑː/ (as in "cat" and "car") . Such a difficulty leads students to
mispronunciations and communication breakdowns. Another important

93
factor is Students' French background. It plays a crucial role in their pronunciation
struggles.

The French language, is known with its unique phonetic rules and distinct
pronunciation patterns, differs significantly from local languages and English
language in terms of sound production and pronunciation norms. The study
identifies this contrast as a key factor influencing the students' pronunciation
problems. Because of their familiarity with their mother tongues and French
phonetics, students sometimes transfer certain pronunciation habits and rules from
their native language to English. This cross-linguistic interference often leads to
mispronunciations and distortions as they apply French phonetic patterns and
rules to English words. In short, learners tend to copy exactly in their use of
English language their mother tongues’ and French norms. For example, French
does not include certain English sounds, such as the voiced and voiceless
consonants sound like in (m and d).

The last factor is that many students, in their use of English language tend to
omit, replace and confuse consonant sounds like /θ/ into /f/, /t/ and /v/ sounds.
Others struggle between which vowel to pronounce among / I/ and /i:/ or /ai/ in
words like “tip” and “type”. To avoid or diminish those difficulties, it will be
very important to provide learners with explicit feedback, increasing learner’s
motivation, self-confident and creating a supportive learning environment.

6.7. Confirmation of the Errors Analysis Theory’s Assumptions

(Students’ L1 Impact their L2 Learning Process).
The focus of Error Analysis theory is to explain the errors made by
second or foreign language learners. As such, explanation of errors falls as a
crucial step in Error Analysis research. It is important because it allows teachers,
researchers and linguists to know the sources of those errors and to give the
reason why those errors occur. According to F. Sanal (2007), researchers in error
analysis should know the causes of each type of error in order to find effective
solutions to those errors. R. Ellis and G. Barkhuizen (2005, p.62) define what
explaining errors means in these terms: ‘explaining errors involves determining

94
their sources in order to account for why they were made’. For Dilshoda A. &
Nafisa R., (2022) utter that “Where L1 and L2 rules are in conflict, errors are
expected to be committed by foreign learners”.

Actually, the coexistence of at least two languages though two

pronunciation systems make the acquisition more complex and challenging for
EFL learners. The almost all Ivoirian students first learn their mother tongue
Senoufo, agni, dida and others as their L1 and then come that of French (L2)
which is the official language of the country. What is clear is that those languages
have different realities in term of pronunciation. To be specific, sound like /ə/,
/Ʊ/, /ð/ are very specific to English and do not exist in our mother tongues nor in
French. In such an Interlingua situation, students will have serious problem to
better their pronunciation.

In other words, the pronunciation features in our mother tongues and

French may probably influence the pronunciation of some English words during
daily conversation. Moreover, such a way can lead us to what is called
fossilization. It is one of errors confirmation. So, fossilized pronunciation is a
complex phenomenon which takes into account a variety of factors such as
insufficient input, lack of practice, and negative self-beliefs.

6.8. Lack of research from L3 Students.

The result of this study reveal that year three students lack information in
their way of learning. That is, they do not make any concrete information to check
their pronunciation. So, in the concern to enhance their pronunciation here are
some pieces of advice and strategies for them. The first one is to have internal
conversation with yourself, use the dictionary to check the pronunciation of
words, listen to some English songs, watch videos, imitate your teachers and
others people while they speak and then use audio tapes (CD, TV channel).

6.9. Help of Dictionaries

Dictionaries will provide you phonetic guidance, as they serve as a
practical resource for language learners striving to achieve accuracy and fluency

95
in their English communication. When you students daily consult phonetically
annotated dictionaries, you can overcome linguistic barriers and effectively rectify
their language mistakes. For example, a dictionary with phonetics can help
students to learn the correct pronunciation of words that are often mispronounced,
such as "colonel, recipe, and chocolate”. Thus, becoming very close to
dictionaries, it will empower students to engage in more confident and accurate
conversations, leading to improved overall language proficiency. For that,
Students should make of dictionaries their everyday companions.

6.10. Use of Videos and audio Materials

These tools seem to be the best means of improving speaking
proficiency. Just because this approach has shown promising results involves the
incorporation of visual aids (videos) and audio materials into the curriculum, with
the aim of rectifying common pronunciation errors. It is a strategy that has
garnered significant attention from teachers and experts in the field who
participated in this research work. Almost all of them have recognized its potential
to enhance students' acquisition of pronunciation skills. Therefore, it makes
students discriminate between a great number of pronunciation and accent. It also
gives them the opportunity to be close to native speakers. What is clear is that
students must be engage in active listening and imitation. The results show that
many Licence three (3) students of English department struggle with
pronunciation. Teachers suggest this approach to improve pronunciation during
conversations. The core solution to overcome this is to imitate native speakers,
listen to recordings, and engage in role-playing activities.

96
CONCLUSION

97
 It comes out that mispronunciation issues are due to the fact that students
do not devote time to improve their pronunciation skill. In fact, most of the
students do not learn English phonetics purposely, they learn the speaking ability
just to validate instead of improving it. They cannot get a complete learning of
English language. Even per day students can spend all day without practicing
pronunciation in English. In learning English, pronunciation is seen as the
fundamental element. Students of licence 3 encounter pronunciation issues for
they are unfamiliar with some English sounds. Indeed, in Africa where there are
many languages with different intonations, it is difficult to achieve a good
pronunciation because some of English vowels or sounds do not exist in their
languages. Students are too exposed to their L1 which is the mother tongue. From
this result it is clear that the unfamiliarity with a foreign language and L1 can lead
learners to face pronunciation difficulties.

The result of this study also shows that the learning context and students
lack of interest impact the pronunciation. English language is not learned in
proper condition. The timing devoted to phonetics and phonology learning is not
sufficient for improving students at school. The result is guided by an oral test
follow by a questionnaire. L3 students are 380 so 50 of those students are taken to
lead this study. This work is focused on 50students. The research shows that most
of students interviewed have difficulties in pronouncing shorts vowels and the
glottal fricative /h/.

It is clear that second language skills are not always easy to acquire. The
most difficult skills to master are the pronunciation one. In English, an accurate
and intelligible speaking ability is a great advantage for learners. A. Riadi (2013,
p. 3) portrays pronunciation as a “central factor for people success in making
themselves understood”. However, factors link to students inabilities are
discussed by many researchers with different views. S. Khasinah (2014) shows
that the sound system differences between L2 learners and English, environmental
background impact pronunciation. English is guided by some rules that if a
student oversteps it, he cannot have an efficient pronunciation ability.

98
 A. Ambalegin et al., (2018) sustained that students’ unfamiliarity with
English language is one the main cause of their mispronunciation. In fact, some of
vowels are new to them. English language is a kind of language that require the
knowledge of its different sound make communication successful and
understandable. Someone’s unfamiliarity with a sound in any language can impact
its pronunciation skills. In the present study, it is found that lack of motivation and
the learning context hinder students’ pronunciation skills. English language
learners do not put much interest in improving their speaking skills and learning
condition is not favorable.

Students mispronunciation issues are depicted by researchers who seek to

understand obstacles impacting L2 learners speaking abilities. The reveals show
that students’ English is influenced by their mother tongue. Before the expansion
of English, there are some languages spoken. These languages have their own
system that do not necessitate pronunciation learning and even some sounds do
not exist in those students L1. L3 students are much exposed to their mother
tongue. In fact, apart from school, they do not get occasion to improve English
speaking skills. In this study, it comes out that some of L3 students at English
Department of University Alassane Ouattara short vowels /ɪ/ and glottal
fricative /h/ are influenced by students’ negative attitude with English and the
learning context.

The findings reveal that learners learning environment and attitude toward
English language can negatively impact their pronunciation skills. Acquiring an
efficient pronunciation, students need much personal effort. It is difficult to have a
pronunciation if any practice has not been undertaken by students to remediate
their articulation skills. It is also clear that a negative feelings toward a L2 can
have the impression of linguistic difficulties. Motivation is evoked as one of the
cause that affects students speaking. Studies come up that when students are not
determined, they cannot achieve an effective pronunciation. Motivation and
determination enable students to communicate efficiently with others and make
themselves understood.

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 Mispronunciation is one of the source of misunderstanding in
conversation. Licence 3 students most of the time pronounce /dɪ’tз:mɪn/ as
“dɪ’tзmaɪne”. Often, the short /ɪ/ is pronounced like the long one. With these
words ‘bit’ and ‘beat’ it is extremely difficult for L3 students to state a difference
between both sounds. With 50, a few of those students succeed in pronouncing /ɪ/.
Students are careless because from licence 1 till licence 3, phonetics and
phonology rules are taught. They do not make any effort to acquire these
elementary things in their English learning process. In a word like ‘examine’ and
‘examiner’ students wrongly pronounce /ɪɡ’zæ֋aɪne/ or ‘/ɡ’zæ֋aɪnɚ/.

Students negative behavior toward language learning acquisition affect

their articulation is the sense that they do not put much interest in improving their
pronunciation skills. In fact, the glottal phoneme is not well articulated. For
‘honest’, the ‘h’ is produced by letting the air pass through the mouth while
expiring. But in speaking ‘h’ is omitted by L3 students. In addition, words like
‘hear’ and ‘ear’ are pronounced the same way where normally in the words ‘hear’
‘h’ is expired and in ‘ear’ there is not expiration. In their learning process,
students make a substitution and omit sounds that have to be pronounced. Indeed,
in speaking students replace ‘ɪ’ by the diphthong ‘aɪ’ and in the case of omit to
pronounce ‘h’ which is perceivable in some utterances. The ‘h’ is omitted when
they take the floor. L3 students’ omission is due to the fact that they do not care
about the proper sound but it is the message that they find important. This fact
causes a poor performance in students speaking process.

Mispronunciations are susceptible to bring confusion and some difficulties

in communication. To remediate the articulation issues, L3 students need to well
understand rules that govern vowels and the glottal fricative’s pronunciation. In
fact, students need to be familiar with speaking rules that can help them to
identify and correct mispronounced words. Moreover, to be efficient and fluent
they can practice regularly. Students can set aside time each day to practice
English sounds they find difficult. In so doing, they can ensure a progress.

100
 L3 students can use pronunciation resources such as website, online
courses that provide an excellent instructions and feedback. For improving
pronunciation, feedback from a native English speaker or a teacher can be much
important because it can be worth in identifying and correcting errors. Then, some
daily practice like listening to English music, watching movies in English and
reading book contribute to a better understanding of English short vowels and the
pronunciation of glottal fricative.

The present work throws light on short vowels and the glottal fricative
mispronunciation: Case Study of L3 students of UAO. In this research students’
sources of mispronunciations are clearly stated. It is important to undertake a kind
of study because a poor pronunciation is frustrating and does not guarantee a
successful professional career. T. Derwing et al., (2005) stress that in the world
where the means of communication is English language, speaking it intelligibly is
a crucial. And concerning causes influencing students pronunciation abilities
researchers reveal the mother tongue of students as the first source of their
mispronunciation. This is justified for sounds do not exist in students L1.

The study figures out that the lack of motivations and carelessness hinder
language acquisition skills. In fact, students’ behavior or attitude toward a
language is capable to stop the language skills acquisition process as stated by S.
Khasinah (2014). It is noted that the learning condition and age issues affect
learners’ pronunciation skills. Certain researchers sustain that when students reach
a certain age, it is difficult to acquire a second land language. For the
environmental cause, the conditions are not favorable to acquire a perfect
pronunciation. Student do not receive adequate opportunities to practice
pronunciation due to the lack structured practice in their learning environment and
they do not have to native speakers.

The study on mispronunciation of English short vowels and the glottal

fricative leads to understand that not all of L3 students mispronounce English
shorts vowels and the glottal phoneme. For data collection, the researcher asks
them to read a set words in English. As a result, the majority of students among

101
the 50 are influenced but few of them succeed because there a sound that do not
exist in his L1. So, it can be said that the mother can have an impact on students’
pronunciation skills.

This work proves that pronunciation can be effective if learners have the
will to learn. The investigation shows that most of students complain for the time
devote to phonetics and phonology. In fact, during the interview, the research
seeks to understand students’ mispronunciation sources, their pronunciation
learning time is not satisfactory and the insistence is not on improving their skills.
Despite the fact that some students complain for the timing, other students have a
perfect speaking abilities. When they take the floor, it is as if they do not learn in
the same condition. Students who instead of difficulties encounter in their learning
process have an effective and intelligible pronunciation is explained by the fact
that these students love English, it leads them to adopt a positive attitude with
English. They only care about the marks

The researcher limits his study on mispronunciation of English short

vowels /ɪ/ and the glottal fricative showing the errors make by L3 students at
English Department of Alassane Ouattara University. This work is limited for it
does not focus on all L3 students of the department but only 50. The words
selected are not in sentences to cause casual speech and see the way students will
pronounce those words.

Finding are benefit for it can give a description about error occurrence and
their causes in students’ pronunciation of Short Vowels and the glottal fricative
/h/. It is able to develop students ‘understanding of pronunciation. For researchers
this result can help them in finding references for further studies.

Many researches have been undertaken by linguists in pronunciation

issues. Therefore, this study aims at describing and analyzing errors made by
students. Some of these researchers like N. Latifah (2017) and N. Senam (2017)
put stress on the mother tongue as main source of second language learners.
Whereas A. Riadi (2013) and S. Khasinah (2014) throw light on age, attitudes

102
adopt with L2 and the learning context on which the present study insists. As
newness, this research brings insight with some speaking improvement
propositions that to increase their pronunciation skill. What makes this study
particular is the fact that, the research chooses students in their divergence without
focusing on a specific ethnic group to determine factors hindering students
speaking skills.

There are some aspects that have not been developed in this research. This study
shows limitations of findings. There are some aspects that have not been
developed in this study. For the next research work, new researcher can focus on
the age factors, grammatical errors. Others can analyze those vowel and
consonants sounds in casual or rapid speeches. This can lead to some other
researches.

103
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104
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Al-KHRESH Mohammad. Hamad, 2016, “A Review Study of Error Analysis Theory”,

International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, Canada,

Volume 2, p. 49-59.

ALSHERI Saleh, 2003, “The acquisition of English pronunciation by Arabic-speaking

Learners: A contrastive analysis”, , TESOL Quarterly, United State, Volume 37

Issue 3, p. 523-544.

COHEN Jacob 2007, Things I Have Learned (So Far), American Psychologist, United

States Volume 62 Issue1, p. 130-138.

CORDER Stephen Pi, 1967, “The significance of learners' errors”, International Review of

Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, Germany, Volume 5, Issue 4, p. 161-

170.

108
DILSHODA, Sultanova., & NAFISA, Sultanova, 2022, “The Influence of Language on

Thought and Behavior”, Journal of Language and Social Psychology, United

State, Volume 41 Issue 1, p. 4-17.

DULAY Heidi. C., & BURT Marina, 1974, “Errors and strategies in Child Second

Language Acquisition”, TESOL Quarterly, 8(2), p. 129-136

ELKHAIR Mohamed, 2014, “Pronunciation Difficulties experienced by Egyptian EFL

Learners”, Arab World English Journal, Malaysia, Volume 5, Issue 2, p. 125-140.

ELLEN Ricard, 1986, “Beyond Fossilization: A Course in Strategies and Techniques in

Pronunciation for Advanced Adults Learners”, TESL Canada Journal, Canada, p.

243- 253.

ERDOGAN Mehmet 2016, “Error analysis of English articles by Turkish EFL learners.”

International Journal of English Language Teaching, United Kingdom, Volume

4, Issue 4, p. 1-12

GILAKJANI Pourhosein, 2016, “What Factors Influence the English Pronunciation of EFL

Learners?” Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods

HOMEIDAN Mohamed 1984, “Pronunciation Problems of Arabic Students Learning

English”, the Modern Language Journal, 68(3), p. 289-297.

JAMES, Christian, 2005, “Contrastive Analysis and the Language Learner”, Linguistics,

Language Teaching and Language Learning, Basel, p.1-20.

109
JOHNSON Beverly and ONWUEGBUZIE, 2010, “Mixed methods research: A paradigm

Whose time has come”, Educational Researcher, United States, Volume 39, Issue

1, p. 14-26.

KHANSIR Samer, 2012 “Pronunciation Difficulties faced by Arabic-speaking Learners of

English: A study of Jordanian University Students.” Journal of Language

Teaching and Research, Jordania, Volume 3, Issue 2, p. 270-277.

KRISTINA Rau & RARASKTĖJA Vaidotas, 2006, “Pronunciation Problems of Arabic

Students Learning English: A Comparative Study.” International Journal of

Applied Linguistics, Australia, Volume 16, Issue 2, p. 219-236.

MAIR Christian, 2005, “Recent Advances in Contrastive Linguistics and Language

Typology: The Spin-off for Language Teachers”, Linguistics, Language Teaching

and Language Learning, Basel, p. 21-39.

TARONE Elaine, 2007, “Fossilization in Second Language Learning”, Theoretical Issues

and Research Methods, United States, p. 215-234).

III – MEMOIRE AND THESES

N’GORAN Kouadio Joel Stanislas,2023, Remediating Pronunciation Challenges

Encountered by B.A Students at the English Department of Alassane Ouattara

University, unpublished.

110
ANOH Agré Yomin, 2022 “Mispronunciation of English Dental Fricatives by Efl

Learners: Case Study of L3 Students from English Department of Alassane

Ouattara University”, Bouake, Université Alassane Ouattara, unpublished

MOMPOHO Ouloukpasse Hugues, 2022 “English Pronunciation Accuracy by Alassane

Ouattara University Sophomores: A Case Study of Word-stress, a Suprasegmental

Feature”, Bouake, Université Alassane Ouattara Unpublished

IV – DICTIONARIES

JONES Daniel, 1997, English Pronouncing Dictionary edited and revised by ROACH

Peter, And Hartman, 18 th ed, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

RICHARD, Platt, and Weber, 1985, Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistic

WELLS John Christopher, 2000, Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 2 nd edition,

London, Longman.

V – WEBLIOGRAPHY

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/common-verbs/verb-
forms-pronunciation-ed-endings, January 19th 2024

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/plus/. January 25th 2024

https://www.mosalingua.com/en/bad-pronunciation-habits/ February 3rd 2024.

111
APPENDIX

112
  Questionnaire on Students’ Pronunciation of the English shot vowel /ɪ/

*Circle the appropriate option according to you.

1. The right pronunciation of the word “hit” is :
- A. / hɪt /
- B. / hi:t /
- C. / hɛt /
2. The right pronunciation of the word “live” is :
- A. / lɪv /
- B. / li:v /
- C. / lɛv /

3. The right pronunciation of the word “miss” is:

- A. / mɪs /

- B. / mi:s /

- C. /mɛs/

4. The right pronunciation of the word “bit” is:

- A. / bɪt /

- B. / bi:t /

- C. / bɛt /

5. The right pronunciation of the word “nit” is:

- A. / nɪt/

- B. / ni:t /

- C. / nɛt /

6. The right pronunciation of the word “pit” is:

- A. / pɪt /

113
 - B. / pi:t /

- C. / pɛt /

7. The right pronunciation of the word “sit”:

- A. / sɪt /

- B. / si:t /

- C. / sɛt /

8. The right pronunciation of the word “fit” is:

- A. / fɪt /

- B. / fi:t /

- C. / fɛt /

9. The right pronunciation of the word “little” is:

- A. / lɪtl /

- B. / li:tl /

- C. / lɛtl /

10. The right pronunciation of the word “lit” is:

- A. / lɪt /

- B. / li:t /

- C. / lɛt /

 Questionnaire on the right pronunciation of glottal fricative / h/.

* Circle the appropriate option according to you.

1. The right pronunciation of the word “heart” is:

114
 - A. / hɑ:t /

- B. / i:rt /

- C. / ɜ:rt /

2. The right pronunciation of the word “heat” is:

- A. / hi:t/

- B. / i:t/

- C. / ɛt /

3. The right pronunciation of the word “hole” is:

- A. / hǝƱl /

- B. / ǝƱl /

- C. / ɛƱl /

4. The right pronunciation of the word “hip” is:

- A. / hɪp /

- B. / ɪp /

- C. / i:p /

5. The right pronunciation of the word “hello” is:

- A. / hǝ‘lǝƱ /

- B. / ǝ ‘lǝƱ /

- C. / e ‘lǝƱ /

6. The right pronunciation of the word “hi” is:

- A. / haɪ /

- B. / aɪ/

115
 - C. / i: /

7. The right pronunciation of the word “here” is:

- A. / hɪǝ(ɹ) /

- B. / ɪǝ(ɹ) /

- C. / ǝ(ɹ)/

8. The right pronunciation of the word “hear” is:

- A. / hɪǝ(ɹ) /

- B. / ɪǝ(ɹ) /

- C. / ǝ(ɹ)/

9. The right pronunciation of the word “head” is:

- A. / ‘hɛd /

- B. / i:d /

- C. / ɛd /

10. The right pronunciation of the word “hire” is:

- A. / haɪǝ /

- B. / aɪǝ /

- C. / i:r /

 Oral Test on the Pronunciation of the English short vowel /ɪ/ sound.
 Read these words aloud

116
Words

1. hit
2. miss
3. live
4. bit
5. shit
6. ship
7. kick
8. spit
9. pit
10. mix
11. kiss
12. give
13. heat
14. meet
15. meat
16. beat
17. teeth
18. bleed
19. flee
20. neat

117
Word

1. hit
2.heat

3.health

4.hire

5.hell

6.hill

7.hi

8.hello

9.hesitate

10.he

11.hip

12.him

13.her

14.hippo

15.heap

16.heam

17.harm

18.hear

19.hole

20.head

 Oral test on the Pronunciation of the glottal fricative /h/ sound

 Read these words aloud

118
ABSTRACT
The study on the mispronunciation of English short vowel /ɪ/ and the
glottal fricative /h/ by Licence 3 students explains students’ pronunciation
difficulties along with their causes in order to set some strategies to help them
acquire an effective pronunciation habits. The study uses mix method to collect
data on major errors that L3 students of the English department at UAO make.
This study is guided by the Error Analysis theory developed by Stephen Pit
Corder (1960). The work shows that license 3 students struggle with
pronunciation of the English short vowels mainly /ɪ/ and the glottal fricative /h/ at
the level of intonation and stress patterns. This is due to their careless and the
attitude students adopt while learning pronunciations abilities. Teachers must
provide an adequate tools and teach in an appropriate learning environment to
help student have fluency in pronunciation.
Keywords: Analysis, Error, Fricative, Glottal, Habits, Mispronunciation,
Pronunciation, Theory.
RÉSUMÉ
L’étude sur la mauvaise prononciation de la courte voyelle Anglaise /ɪ/ et
de la fricative glottique /h/ par les étudiants de L3 explique les difficultés de ceux-
ci en prononciation ainsi que les raisons afin de les aider à acquérir une
prononciation correcte. L’étude utilise la méthode mixte pour avoir les données
sur les principales difficultés des étudiants de L3 anglais de l’UAO et est guidée
par la théorie d’analyse des erreurs de Stephen Pit Corder (1960). Elle montre que
certains étudiants de L3 rencontrent des difficultés liées à la prononciation de la
voyelle courte /ɪ/ et la fricative glottale /h/ au niveau de l’intonation et de
l’accentuation des syllabes. Cela est dû à la négligence et l’attitude adoptée par
ces étudiants pendant l’apprentissage des habilités de prononciation. Les
enseignants doivent des outils adaptés et enseigner dans un cadre approprié pour
une prononciation correcte.
Keywords: Analyse, Erreurs, Fricative, Glottique, Habitude, Mauvaise
prononciation, Prononciation, Théorie.