A Descriptive study between Iraqi EFL Learners and English Native Speakers in Pronouncing English Vowels: A Contrastive Study

Iraqi speakers of English face some phonetic and phonological difficulties that are related with the production of different speech sounds especially English vowel sounds. The difficulty in producing these sounds is related to several matters. Firstly, the complex orthographic system of English. Secondly is the inconsistent relationship between spelling and pronunciation. Third shows the differences between the two different sound systems (Arabic and English). The regional differences and the effect of the native language on the second language can be considered as two of the real problems in pronunciation.


Introduction
The most important part of learning English as a second language rests on pronunciation. Speaking is an important factor in learning English appropriately (Gussenhoven and Jacobs, 1998). This means that studying errors of English pronunciation is a valuable source to which provide information on student's errors.
to cause friction . Sethi and Dhamija (2006:14) show that in the production of vowels , there is no narrowing of a degree that would cause audible friction . According to Shandera and Burleigh (2011:31) , vowels are produced without any obstruction of airstream . While consonants are produced with three degrees of closure : complete closure , close approximation and open approximation ( Carr , 1993 : 32).
Phonologically speaking ,consonants occupy the onset and the coda positions in the syllable ; whereas , vowels occupy the nucleus position in the syllable . For example , the word (pear ) /peə/ begins with a consonant and this consonant represents the onset of the syllable , followed by the diphthong which occupies the nucleus of the syllable ( Casas , R.M, 2014:15) . According to Abercrombie (1967:39) a vowel is the center or the main part of the syllable whereas a consonant represents the marginal part .
Low , E (2015:24 )points out that consonants can be described by the following three main characteristics : This manner shows that the articulators come together in order to cut off the airstream . / p , b , t , d , k , g / are stops or plosives.

b-Fricative
It shows that the articulators come close to each other leaving a narrow space between them to allow air to pass between them and cause audible plosion (friction ) . English fricatives are / f ,v θ, ð , s , z, ʃ , ʒ / .

c-Affricate
The articulators come together in order to cut off the airstream , then they separate from each other . / tʃ / and / dʒ / are affricates .

d-Approximant
The articulators are brought near each other but there is a great opening between them to allow air to escape without friction . / r, w , j, l / are approximants.

e-Nasals
Nasals are sounds in which the velum is lowered and the air escapes through the nose . Nasal sounds are / m , n , ŋ / .

f-Lateral
A lateral sound is a sound which is produced when the air is cut off by the tongue so that it passes through the sides of the mouth . / l / is lateral .
3-Place of articulation means the place at which the sound is produced. There are several places for sound production ( Cruttenden , 2014 :29 Dental sound is a sound which is articulated by the tongue tip with the upper front teeth . / θ, ð / are dentals.

c-Alveolar
Alveolar sound is a sound which is produced with the tongue tip and blade touch the alveolar ridge . /s,z,t,d,n,l / are alveolar sounds.

d-Post-alveolar
The blade of the tongue articulates with the back part of the alveolar-ridge./ ʃ , ʒ , tʃ , dʒ / are post-alveolar sounds.

d-Retroflex
The tip of the tongue touches the alveolar-ridge . /r/ is a retroflex sound.

e-Palatal
The front of the tongue articulates with the soft palate . / j / is a palatal sound f-Velar It is a sound which is formed with the back of the tongue touching the soft palate /k , g , ŋ / are velar sounds.

g-Glottal
It is a sound which is produced at the glottis . Glottis is the opening between the vocal folds . / h / is a glottal sound. Katamba ( 1989 : 8 ) points out that vowels are more difficult to describe than consonants because there is no closure in the vocal tract during their production .

2.2.The Description of vowels
There are three important features for vowel description . These features are shown vowel. If the tongue is between half-high and half-low, the produced sound is a mid-vowel. Mid vowels are /e, ɔ, ʌ, ə, ɜ: /.

Frontness /backness
It refers to which part of the tongue is raised the highest. If the front part of the tongue is raised the highest, the resulted sound is a front vowel. If the back part of the tongue is raised the highest, the resulted sound is a back vowel. If the center of the tongue is raised the highest, the resulted sound is a central vowel. The lips can be spread , neutral , or rounded . Roach (2009:13)states three cases . Spread , where the lips are away from each other . This is clearly seen in the production of vowel /i: / . Neutral , where the lips are in the normal shape as in the production of / e, ʌ, ə / . Rounded , where the lips are pushed forward as in the production of /u: ʊ , , :ɔ , ɒ/. (2009:12) notes that cardinal vowels are standard reference system . In order to describe the vowels of any language and compare the vowel systems of different languages more accurately , the British phonetician Daniel Jones discovered 18 reference points or vowels called the cardinal vowels . Cardinal vowels show the extremes of vowel quantity that the vocal tract is able to produce .

Roach
It is so important to know that cardinal vowels are not sounds of a particular language , they are reference points or extremes by which we can describe all the vowels . They are of two different types : Primary and secondary (Shandera and 437 consistent unchanging quality from the beginning of its production to the end are called pure vowels (Giegerich, 1992: 17). Birjandi and Nodoushan (2005:62) shows that there are two main kinds of vowels on the basis of their length: long vowels and short vowels. The distinction between them depends on the duration of time that the speakers spend in articulating or producing them. In producing long vowels, the time is longer than the time spent in articulating short vowels. Length is represented by putting a colon (

2.4.2.Diphthongs
They are sounds that consist of a glide or movement from one single vowel to another single vowel . The first part of a diphthong is longer and stronger than the second part . English diphthongs include the following five diphthongs (Roach , 7-/ əʊ/, the starting point of this vowel is the same as /ə / as in ago /əgəʊ/. 8-/ aʊ / , this vowel begins with a vowel that is similar to /a: / as in heart /ha:t/. 2-/ aɪə / , the starting point is similar to / ɑ: / , goes on to move towards front close unrounded /ɪ / then to / ə / .

3.1.Selection of stimuli
The experiment was made in the form of a test consisting of BBC British English vowels (pure , diphthong and triphthong ) carried by 25 words . The words were written on paper so the speaker could see it before starting reading them .All the stimuli items were taken from Roach (2009:170-171) . These words were given to the students to read individually and the students were told that their pronunciation would be recorded to be used in the research study .The students were instructed to speak clearly and carefully in order to be understood . They were asked to pronounce each word twice to later select the best recording for the analysis technique . The subjects were first stage students of the academic year (2016-2017) of the department of English , college of Education , university of Missan . They were all Imari Iraqi speakers because the study is limited for Imari speakers . All the subjects took part in the speech recording session . They were free of any speech anomalies or any neurologic or muscular condition that would be expected to affect their ability to produce speech . The number of the subjects that took part in the experiment is 20 .

CD-Tape recording
All the individual recordings were made by using a high quality MP3 Stereo recorder (Sony MP3 IC Recorder ). The sony IC recorder has a Hi-speed USB direct pc link . It also has a large storage memory , i.e. 50 hours maximum recording time .After conducting all the required recording sessions , the pronunciation of the words by each speaker saved in a particular file .The recorded words would be analyzed in order to show the duration , frequency , and pitch of all English vowel sounds .

Praat
It is '' a computer program with which you can analyze , synthesize , manipulate speech , and create high-quality pictures for your articles and thesis '' Boersma and Weenink (2002:45) .It has two main pictures or windows .The first is '' praat objects '' . It is used for saving audio files and for recording sounds . The second window is the praat window which is used for drawings the waves .

3.5.Data analysis
The T-test is used to show whether there is any significant difference through the performance of all subjects for each word containing all English vowel sounds . It is also used to show whether there is any significant difference regarding the performance of all the subjects for each word containing English short vowels . And whether there is any significant difference regarding the performance of all the subjects for each word containing English diphthongs and triphthongs .
The level of significance is 0.05 for this research because according to t-test table , if there are twenty students performed in the test , 0.05 is the suitable level of significance to be used . The tabulated t-value at 0.05 with 21 degree of freedom is 1.96 (Walker , 1969:161) .The value which is 1.96 and over will be significant and values that are less than 1.96 will be non-significant .
The data were analyzed by( SPSS) Statistical Package for Social Sciences .
By using SPSS , the researcher works out to find the Mean , Standard deviation , and the t-value . According to the first word (mud) , eight students pronounced the word correctly / mʌd / . 12 students couldn't pronounce the word correctly as it is pronounced by the native speaker . Seven students pronounce the second word (cot ) correctly as it is pronounced by the native speaker / kɒt / . While thirteen students couldn't pronounce the word correctly.
Eight students pronounce the third word correctly ( wreck ) /rek/ while twelve students pronounce it in the wrong way . According to the word ( flash ) , seven students pronounce it in the right pronunciation /flaeʃ/ while thirteen students pronounce it incorrectly .Word number five (lift ) , seven students pronounce it correctly / lɪft / while thirteen students pronounce it in the wrong pronunciation . The words ( shook , ago , heard ) , six students pronounce them in the right way /ʃʊk / /əgəʊ/ and / hɜ:d / . Fourteen students couldn't pronounce them correctly . Through the pronunciation of the word (rude ) , twelve students couldn't pronounce it correctly while eight students pronounce it in the right way /ru:d/ .
One student pronounce this word correctly (quoit ) / kɔɪt / , whereas the others couldn't pronounce it correctly .According to the words (coat ) and (loud ) , seven students pronounce them in the right way / kəʊt/ and /laʊd/,while the others pronounce them incorrectly . The words ( feared , cared , and moored ) , four students pronounce them correctly /fɪəd / , / keəd / and / mʊəd / whereas sixteen students couldn't pronounce them correctly According to the first triphthong (layer ) , four students pronounce it correctly / leɪə/ while sixteen students pronounce it incorrectly . The word (liar ) , seven students pronounce it in the right way /laɪə / ,whereas thirteen students couldn't pronounce it correctly .The words (loyal , lower ,and tower ) , six students pronounce them in the right way / lɔɪəl / , / ləʊə/ ,and /taʊə / while fourteen students pronounce them incorrectly .   Through the analysis of data , it seems that the students face difficulty is pronouncing all the vowel sounds . The achievement is found to be statistically significant because the calculated t-value is higher than the tabulated t-value . The data presented here provide a strong confirmation with the first hypotheses because the students find difficulty in pronouncing all the English vowels. The data also provide a strong confirmation with the second hypothesis because the students find difficulty in pronouncing English diphthongs and triphthongs more than pure vowels because of the nonexistence of many diphthongs and triphthongs in Arabic language .
One main problem faced by Iraqi learners is that spelling contribute to some pronunciation errors . Arabic orthographic system is shallow . This means that each letter is in relationship with the sound .The sound is pronounced as it is written .
English has a deep orthography system in which the relationship between the letters and sounds is not a one to one relationship . Each letter in spelling has more than one pronunciation . For example , the letter ' o ' in some words like ( some , move , home , woman ) has different sounds in pronunciation / ʌ , u: , ə , ʊ, ɪ / . So , the English learners who don't have the mastery of pronunciation will face difficulty in pronouncing these vowel sounds . The letter (a) in ( water , same , fat ) as another example has more than one pronunciation / ɔ: , eɪ , ae / . If the learner has no knowledge about this inconsistency , this will lead to mispronunciation . So , most linguists connect the pronunciation problems of vowels with the complexity of the English vowels system and the inconsistency of its pronunciation .
There is another problem is that there is conflict between the sound systems of English and Arabic . Iraqi learners of English form habits of their mother tongue (Arabic ) so they build the phonological features of Arabic through the pronunciation of English words .This leads to mispronunciation .The non-existence of many diphthongs and triphthogs in Arabic language leads to difficulty in pronunciation .
Another problem is the different numbers of vowels in English and Arabic . This causes mispronunciation . English has 25 vowel sounds ( 7 short vowels , 5 long vowels , 8 diphthongs ,and 5 triphthongs) . Arabic has 6 pure vowels and 2 diphthongs .

Conclusion
Since the aim of the study is to encounter the problems faced by Iraqi learners of English in pronouncing English vowel sounds , the researcher comes to the conclusion that there are several matters affect the students in pronouncing English words . The first matter is that sound systems of English and Arabic are different in many ways . English vowel sounds are different from Arabic vowel sounds in number, in the way they are produced , and even many English vowels don't exist in Arabic sound system. The second matter is the mother tongue interference.

Complexity of vowel systems for the two languages ( English and
Arabic ) can be considered as the third matter . The forth matter is the spelling system and its effect on pronunciation .
In order to solve these problems , language laboratories could be of a great help in teaching language .Learners could listen to recordings of English native speakers and then to try to imitate them .