


































Education, Language and Sociology Research 

ISSN 2690-3644 (Print) ISSN 2690-3652 (Online) 

Vol. 3, No. 4, 2022 

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Original Paper 

Investigating the Effect of Mother Tongue on the Iraqi 

Undergraduates’ Use of English Segmentals and Syllables 

Prof. Dr. Mohammed Jasim Betti1 & Zeena Naeem Hmedi2 

1 Department of English, College of Education for Humanities, University of Thi-Qar, Nasiriya, Iraq 

2 Ministry of Education, General Directorate of Education, Thi-Qar, Iraq 

* Mohammed Jasim Betti, Department of English, College of Education for Humanities, Thi-Qar 

University, Nasiriya, Iraq 

 

Received: August 7, 2022     Accepted: August 31, 2022    Online Published: September 27, 2022 

doi:10.22158/elsr.v3n4p1           URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/elsr.v3n4p1 

 

Abstract 

This study investigates the effect of mother tongue on the Iraqi undergraduates’ use of English 

segmentals and Syllables. English segmentals and Syllables are two basic topics that are studied under 

the domains of phonetics and phonology. Those Iraqi undergraduates consist of Iraqi EFL learners (the 

two terms are used interchangeably in this study). English segmentals and Syllables involve consonants, 

vowels, diphthongs, consonant clusters and vowel clusters. The problem of the study is that EFL Iraqi 

students have no capacity to recognize English consonants and syllables. However, the following 

questions are focused upon in this study: 

1) What are the English consonants and vowels which are not recognized by Iraqi undergraduates under 

the effect of their mother tongue? 

2) What are the types of consonant and vowel clusters which are not recognized by Iraqi undergraduates 

under the effect of their mother tongue? 

The aims of the study include investigating the effect of learners’ mother tongue on their recognition of 

English segmentals and syllables, knowing whether Iraqi learners at the university level face difficulties 

in the recognition of consonants and vowels, ensuring whether EFL Iraqi students have difficulties in the 

recognition of consonant clusters and vowel clusters, and determining whether the difficulties faced by 

Iraqi EFL learners are caused by the learners’ mother tongue. 

It is hypothesized that Iraqi EFL undergraduates do not recognize some English consonants, English 

vowels, diphthongs, some types of consonant clusters and vowel clusters. In addition, it is hypothesized 

that the incorrect answers of Iraqi learners’ recognition of consonants, simple vowels, diphthongs, 

consonant clusters and vowel clusters are more than the correct ones. 



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To achieve its aims and verify its hypotheses, the study adopts a quantitative method of investigation. The 

study chooses a sample for the present study, designs the test containing items concerned with 

consonants, vowels, and consonant clusters and vowel clusters. It includes only a recognition question. 

After applying the test on 100 undergraduate students of fourth stage/Department of English/College of 

Education for Humanities/University of Thi-Qar, the study arrives at some conclusions, some of which 

include that most Iraqi EFL learners find difficulty in recognizing some consonants, they appeared to be 

efficient in recognizing some simple vowels and diphthongs, they have the capacity to distinguish only 

some consonants but they are unable to recognize other consonant clusters and they appeared to be also 

inefficient in recognizing all vowel clusters. 

 

1. Introduction 

1.1 Problem of the Study 

After a long period of English language learning and studying, university Iraqi EFL students cannot 

accurately manipulate to recognize consonants and vowels and syllables and their structures. It is 

worthy to mention that Iraqi undergraduate students have no capacity to recognize English consonants 

and syllables due to their lack the ability to perceive such phonetic and phonological units. However, 

the following questions are focused upon in this study:  

1). What are the English consonants and vowels which are not recognized under the effect of the 

undergrdutes’ mother tongue? 

2). What are the types of consonant clusters which are not recognized under the effect of the mother 

tongue? 

3). What are the types of vowel clusters which are not recognized under the effect of the learners’ 

mother tongue? 

1.2 Aims of the Study  

This study aims at: 

1). Investigating the effect of the learners’mother tongue on their use of English segmentals and 

syllables. 

2). Knowing whether Iraqi learners at the university level face difficulties in the recognition of 

consonants and vowels. 

3). Ensuring whether EFL Iraqi students have difficulties in the recognition of consonant clusters and 

vowel clusters. 

4). Determining whether the difficulties faced by Iraqi EFL learners are caused by the learners’mother 

tongue. 

1.3 Hypotheses of the Study 

It is hypothesized that: 

1) Iraqi undergraduates do not recognize some English consonants correctly. 

2) Iraqi university learners do not recognize some English vowels correctly. 



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3) Some diphthongs are not recognized by the sample of the study. 

4) Iraqi EFL undergraduates face difficulty in recognizing some types of consonant clusters. 

5) Vowel clusters are not correctly recognized by the sample of the study. 

6) The correct answers of the undergraduates' recognition of consonants are more than the correct ones of 

vowels. 

1.4 Procedure of the Study 

The following procedure is followed in the research: 

1). Presenting a theoretical background regarding consonants, vowels and syllables and their structures 

as well as some related terms. 

2). Selecting the sample for the present study. 

3). Designing the test, questions concerning consonants, vowels, consonant clusters and vowel clusters as 

recognition. 

4). Describing and analyzing the data under investigation. 

5). Arriving at some conclusions and recommendations. 

1.5 Value of the Study 

The present study is predicted to be important for Iraqi EFL undergraduates. Moreover, it can be counted 

as a device for those who are partially or wholly, concerned with the study of speaking as one of the 

essential skills of English language. Moreover, this work may be considered as a background knowledge 

for learners to devise the essential methods and strategies that can help them overcome the difficulties 

that may face in the concerned area. 

1.6 Limits of the Study 

The method adopted in this study is a quantitative research type that is utilized in analyzing the data 

collected. As for the sample, it includes (100) EFL Iraqi students who study at the department of English, 

College of Education for Humanities, University of Thi-Qar. However, the current study includes the 

recognition of English consonants and vowels, and syllables. 

1.7 Definitions of Related Terms 

The following concepts will be frequently employed in the thesis: 

I. Mother Tongue 

Mother tongue is remarkable for the speed with which it takes place. It generally occurs for all children 

providing strong support for the idea that there is an innate predisposition in the human infant to acquire 

language (Yule, 2010, p. 170). Besides, Bussmann (1999, p. 629) claims that the term mother tongue 

refers to an umbrella term for: 

(a) the natural acquisition of one’s first language, 

(b) the natural acquisition of a second or multiple languages, 

(c) second language acquisition in a formal learning environment, 

(d) the relearning of one’s first language in therapy (language disorder). 

1) Segmentals: 



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Crystal (2011, p. 426) states that segment refers to any discrete unit that can be identified, either 

physically or auditorily, in the stream of speech. In this respect, Bussmann (1999, p. 1038) defines a 

segment as a result of linguistic analysis that attempts to isolate minimal linguistic units, such as phones, 

morphs, syllables, from a language or speech continuum. 

2) Iraqi EFL Learners  

According to Mariño (2019, p. 34), a non-native speaker is someone who uses and knows a second 

(foreign) language at any time. Since non-native speakers are distinguished from native speakers, the 

concept of the non-native speaker should be based on distinctiveness rather than weaknesses. That is, 

they should be regarded as bilinguals rather than as incompetent natives. It has been established that 

individuals who speak two languages frequently have different proficiencies that demonstrate the 

complexity of their own cognitive processes, and that the ways they use resources for actual life 

advantages and interaction reveal the various abilities they can have if speaking a second language. 

Moreover, Richard and Schmidt (2010, p. 397) illustrated that non-native speaker indicates a language 

user for whom a language is not their first language. The language use of non-native speakers has been a 

focus of attention to determine such things as the effects of non-native accents on intelligibility, attitudes 

towards NNS accents, and the role of NNS accents as a marker of the speaker’s identity. 

3) Test 

According to Bachman (1999, p. 20), a language test is a systematic method and a means of checking the 

students’ answers through the elicitation of certain behaviour to make inferences about certain 

characteristics of an individual. Additionally, Richards and Schmidt (2010, p. 591) affirm that the term 

test means any procedure for measuring ability, knowledge, or performance. 

 

2. The Segmentals and Syllables in English with Reference to Arabic 

2.1 Consonants 

2.1.1 Definitions of Consonants 

Phonetics is a field of linguistic study which studies the articulation, perception and anatomy of speech 

sounds. Thus, it is either concerned with the description of all existing sounds or it describes the sounds 

of a specific language, English, Arabic, etc. (Betti, 2002a, p. 1).  

Phonetically speaking, consonants are sounds made by a closure or narrowing in the vocal tract so that 

the airflow is either completely blocked, or so restricted that audible friction is produced. A consonant is 

a speech sound where the air-stream coming from the lungs is either completely blocked (stops), partially 

blocked (nasals), or where the opening is so narrow that the air causes audible friction (fricative). With 

some nasals, the air-stream is blocked in the mouth but is allowed to escape through the nose (Richards & 

Schmidt, 2010, p. 56). From a phonological point of view, they are units which function at the margins of 

syllables, either singly or in clusters (Crystal, 2011, p. 103). 

A consonant is a speech sound made by partial or complete closure of part of the vocal tract, which 

obstructs air flow and causes audible friction in varying amounts (Harris & Hodges, 1995, p. 42). On this 



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ground, Thorum (2013, p. 287) considers that a consonant is produced when the vocal tract is either 

blocked or so restricted that there is audible friction ([k], [s], etc.). 

Additionally, Nicolosi et al. (2004, p. 81) point out that a consonant is a conventional speech sound made 

with the vocal folds vibrating or not vibrating by certain successive constructions of articulatory muscles 

which modify, interrupt, or obstruct the expired air stream so that its pressure is raised. 

2.1.2 Classification of English Consonants 

Consonants, as stated by many writers such Dang and Ruiter (2005, p. 165) and Brinton and Brinton 

(2010, p. 36) can be described in terms of three factors, namely, voicing, place of articulation and manner 

of articulation. 

2.1.2.1 Voicing 

Carr (2008, p. 190) defines voicing as the vibration of the vocal cords. Fully voiced sounds are produced 

with vibration of the vocal cords during the articulation of the sound, as in the [v] in heavy. In English, 

there are nine voiceless consonants and fifteen voiced consonants. The voiceless consonants, word-initial 

stops are fully voiced if the vocal cords vibrate prior to the release of the stop closure. Many phonologists 

point out that the voiced/voiceless dichotomy alone is insufficient to distinguish between the full ranges 

of laryngeal contrasts in human languages. One needs, at least, to distinguish between the following: 

(a) fully voiced stops, in which the vocal cords are vibrating prior to the release of the stop closure, as in 

the French word bain (‘bath’): [bε ˜]; 

(b) voiceless unaspirated stops, as in the French word pain (‘bread’): [pε˜]; 

(c) voiceless aspirated stops, as in the English word pad: [phæd]. 

It has been pointed out that, although English spelling conventions represent words such as bed with the 

<b> grapheme, the sound in question is not, in fact, a fully voiced stop, but an unaspirated voiceless stop, 

unlike the stop at the beginning of the French word “bain”. The contrast among French stops is thus a 

contrast between fully voiced and voiceless unaspirated stops, while the contrast in most varieties of 

English is between voiceless aspirated and voiceless unaspirated stops (Carr, 2008, p. 189). 

2.1.2.2 Places of Articulation 

Ladefoged and Disner (2012, pp. 119-122) illustrate that place of articulation means when one produces 

a sound, sometimes his/her tongue touches her/his lips and sometimes only the lips come together and 

make sound, sometime his/her tongue touches his/her soft palate or back part alveolar tongue, etc. So, 

this touching of places in the vocal tract of speech organs is called place of articulation. Of course, not all 

consonants are made by touching, i.e., glottal /h/ is made in the glottis. The following is a list of the 

different places of articulation: 

a) Bilabials 

Bilabials are the consonants which are produced by two lips. When we produce this sound, we can only 

use both lips. So, the lips help to produce bilabial sounds. The English sounds [p], [b], and [m] are the 

bilabial sounds. Examples: [p] spin, [b] bed, [m] man (Rogers, 2000, p. 39). 

b) Labio-dentals 



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Labio-dentals are the consonants which are articulated by using both the lower lip and the upper front 

teeth. In bilabial sounds, we use both of our lips but in labio-dental, we use only our lower lip with the 

upper front teeth to produce sounds. The English sounds [f] and [v] are the labio-dental sounds (Carr, 

2013, p. 19). Examples: fan [f], van [v]. 

c) Dentals 

Dentals are the cosonants produced by inserting the tongue with the upper set of teeth. The English 

sounds [θ] and [ð] are the dental sounds. Example: [θ] thing, [ð] this (Catford, 1994, p. 90). 

d) Alveolars 

Alveolars are the consonants articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge that 

is located behind the upper teeth. English and Arabic alveolar sounds are /d/, /t/, /s/, /z/, /l/, /n/, /r/. 

Examples: stop [t], debt [d], run [n], suit [s], zoo [z], loop[l] (Clark and Yallop, 1995, p. 39). 

e) Palato-alveolars 

Palato-alveolars are produced by placing the tongue blade close to the hard palate behind the alveolar 

ridge. The tongue tip may feel as if it is just barely behind the alveolar ridge. Simply said that, when one 

touches the palate between his/her palate and alveolar ridge, he/she is producing palato- alveolar sounds. 

The English sounds [ʃ] and [ʒ] are palato-alveolar sounds. Example: sheep [ʃ] and occasion [ʒ] (Clark & 

Yallop, 1995, p. 39). 

f) Retroflex 

In the production of the retroflex sounds, we have to curly with tongue up. In the English, [ɻʷ] is the only 

retroflex sound. Example: red, ride, run, rope (Davenport & Hannahs, 2005, p. 57). 

g) Palatal 

The back part of the tongue goes and touches palate and produces palatal sounds. In the English, [j] is the 

only palatal sound. Example: yet, yes (Davenport & Hannahs, 2005, p. 57). 

h) Velars 

The back part of our tongue goes up and touch the soft palate is velar. The English sounds [k], [g], [ŋ] are 

velar sounds. Example: “king [k], get [g], ring [ŋ]” (Rogers, 2000, p. 42). 

i) Glottal 

Glottal is the deepest place of articulation. In pharynx, we have glottis or epiglottis, this sound is 

produced in the glottis. The English, [h] is the only glottal sound. Example: “happy, hot, hit, hang, hug” 

(Ladefoged & Disner, 2012, p. 122). 

2.1.2.3 Manners of Articulation 

Katamba (1989, pp. 6-7) describes manner of articulation as the nature and extent of the obstruction 

involved because sounds made at the same place of articulation—and which are both voiced or voiceless 

may differ depending on the manner in which the airstream is modified. That is, it deals with the way in 

which the air escapes the mouth. The following is a list of some of the manner of articulation explained 

below: 

a) Plosives 



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In the production of plosives, the air stops in the mouth causing a complete closure, and then released 

with force causing a slight plosion (explosion). Plosive sounds are /p, b, t, d, k, g/. There are four phases 

in its production which are Closing phase, Compression phase, Release phase and Post-release phase 

(Roach, 2009, p. 26). 

b) Fricatives 

In the production of fricatives, the articulators narrowing the air passage and let the air escapes gradually 

with frication, causing a ‘hissing-like’ sound, such as /f, v, θ, ð, ʃ, ʒ, s, z, h/ (Katz & Assmann, 2019, p. 

21). 

c) Affricates 

Affricates are rather complex sounds, because they begin as plosive (the air stops in the mouth), and end 

as fricative (the air leaves gradually with friction) (Ashby, 2011, p. 12). Affricative sounds are /tʃ, dʒ/.  

Nasals 

Nasals are produced when the soft palate (velum) is lowered closing the way to the oral cavity where 

airflow escapes through the (nose) nasal cavity. The nasal sounds in English are /m, n, ŋ/. 

d) Lateral Approximant 

In the production of the lateral, the air leaves the mouth through the sides of the mouth because the center 

of the tongue is in complete contact with the roof of the mouth (alveolar ridge). Lateral Approximant is /l/. 

Lateral approximant can be light and dark /l/. 

e) Approximants 

Approximants occur where the articulators approach each other but not in close, direct contact, the 

approach is incomplete (approximant approach). Approximants are /r, w, j/ (Katamba, 1989, p. 7). 

2.1.3 A Comparison between English and Arabic Consonants 

Alsha’laan (2020, p. 2) states that the English consonant sounds differ from the Arabic ones regarding 

places of articulation. Some of the English consonants do not exist in Arabic and vice versa. However, 

both languages share the common palatal /j/. Arabic speakers find it difficult to pronounce /v/ sound and 

use /f/ instead. They also substitute /t/ and /d/ for /θ/ and /ð/. Arab speakers cannot pronounce the flap /s/ 

but stress the written /tt/. In English, /t/ is an aspirated alveolar but is considered non-aspirated 

denti-alveolar in Arabic. As for /r/, it is always pronounced in Arabic but sometimes deleted in British 

English. Moreover, /ʡ/ exists in Arabic as a consonant but it exists as an alternative pronunciation to /t/ in 

intervocalic positions in English.  

Iraqi Arabic is one variety of Arabic that is used by the Iraqi people: educated and non-educated to 

communicate with each other. It is like other varieties which have their own phonetic and phonological 

systems with a number of consonants and vowels (Jasim & Sharhan, 2013, p. 5; and Betti & Igaab, 2019, 

p. 230).  

Generally, there is a difference in the number of phonemes in Iraqi Arabic phonology which re cited by 

phonologists. Within Iraqi Arabic phonology, there are 39 phonemes: 8 monophthongal vowels and 31 

consonants. There are 3 short vowels /i, u, a/, 5 long vowels /i:, ee, a:, o:, u:/, 12 voiceless consonants and 



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19 voiced ones. They are /p, b, f, Ɵ, D, S, ş, T, ţ, č, x, ǵ, h, H, t, k, g, q, ?, j, d, 9, m, n, l, r, w, y/. The 

voiceless bilabial plosive /p/ is deleted in the phonemic inventory of Nasiriya Iraqi Arabic since it has not 

been used by the Nasiriya Iraqi people (Abdul-Sattar, 2015, p. 10; and Betti & Igaab, 2019, p. 230).  

In Modern Standard Arabic, there are 36 phonemes, out of which twenty-eight are consonants, six are 

vowels (three short and three long): /a/, /i/, /u/, /a:/, /i:/, /u:/, and two are diphthongs: /aj/ and /aw/. English 

has twenty vowel phonemes, of which eight are diphthongs. 

The following table describes the Arabic consonants: 

 

Table 1. Arabic Consonants (Adopted from Sabir & Alsaeed, 2014, p. 185) 

S.No. Phonetic symbol Arabic  

letter 

Three-term label Example 

1 B ب Voiced bilabial plosive ḥʊb(love) 

2 T ت Voiceless denti-alveolar 

plosive 

tәŧabIq(match) 

3 D د Voiced denti-alveolar plosive daxIl(inner) 

4 K ك Voiceless velar plosive kita:b(book) 

5 ʒ ج Voiced palate-alveolar 

affricate 

ʒuς(hunger) 

6 Q ق Voiceless uvular plosive qәmәr(moon) 

7 L ل Voiced alveolar lateral la: (no) 

8 M م Voiced bilabial nasal mәŧәr (rain) 

9 N ن Voiced alveolar nasal nu:r (light) 

10 F ف Voiceless labio-dental 

fricative 

fәn (art) 

11 Θ ث Voiceless inter-dental 

fricative 

θәlaθәh (three) 

12 Ð ذ Voiced inter-dental fricative ðәki(intelligent) 

13 S س Voiceless alveolar fricative su:q (market) 

14 Ṣ ص Voiceless velarised alveolar 

fricative 

ṣәḥḥәh(health) 

15 Z ز Voiced alveolar fricative ruz (rice) 

16 ʃ ش Voiceless palate-alveolar 

fricative 

ʃәms (sun) 

17 X خ Semi-Voiced uvular fricative xәsarәh (lose) 

18 ɣ غ Voiced uvular fricative ɣuba:r (dust) 



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19 ḥ ح Voiceless pharyngeal 

fricative 

ḥima:r (donkey) 

20 H ه Voiceless glottal fricative hawa:ʡ (air) 

21 R ر Voiced alveolar trill rәb (lord) 

22 Σ ع Voiced pharyngeal 

frictionless continuant 

ςәql (mind) 

23 J ي Voiced palatal semi-vowel jәd(hand) 

24 W و Voiced labio-velar 

semi-vowel 

wahid (one) 

25 Ŧ ط Voiceless velarised denti 

alveolar plosive 

ŧi:n (soil) 

26 Đ ض Voiced velarised denti- alveolar 

plosive 

đәςi:f (weak) 

 Voiced velarised alveolar ظ ∂ 27

fricative 

∂әrf (envelope) 

28 ʡ أ Voiceless epiglottal plosive faʡr (rat) 

 

Below is the description of these consonants: 

a) Bilabials 

Bilabials are articulated with the upper and lower lips approaching or touching each other. English /p/, /b/, 

and /m/ are bilabial stops but in Arabic /p/ sound is not available, For example: /p/-pit /pɪt/ in English /b/- 

bit/bɪt/ in English, بالغ /balɪɣ/ in Arabic. It is going to be a negative transfer to the similar Arabic 

consonant /b/. This occurs before the interference between English and Arabic consonants. /m/ in “me” 

and مدرسة /mәdrasa/ (school) (Chouchane, 2016, p. 89). 

b) Labiodentals 

Labiodentals are articulated with the lower lip touching the upper set of teeth. English /f/ and /v/ are 

bilabial fricatives, For example: /f/ occurs in both English and Arabic -fan in English,فئة /fIʡa/”class” but 

in Arabic/v/- van is not found in Arabic. Also, negative transfer occurs to the nearest Arabic sound /f/ 

(Sabir &Alsaeed, 2014, p. 34). 

c) Dentals 

Dentals are articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue inserted between the upper and lower set of the 

teeth. English /θ/ and /ð/ are dental fricatives. There are actually a couple of different ways of forming 

these sounds; the tip of the tongue can approach the back of the upper teeth, but not press against them so 

hard that the airflow is completely blocked. The blade of the tongue can touch the bottom of the upper 

teeth, with the tongue tip protruding between the teeth—still leaving enough space for a turbulent 



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airstream to escape. This kind of /θ/ and /ð/ is often called inter-dental in Arabic. Examples: /mɪθl/ (Hago 

& Khan, 2015, p. 56). 

d) Alveolars 

Alveolars are articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge, the ridge 

immediately behind the upper teeth. The English stops /t/, /d/, and /n/ are formed by completely blocking 

the airflow at this place of articulation. In Arabic /t/, /d/ are called denti-alveolar e.g., /t/ - ظɪttɪ ṣal/ “call”, 

/d/- /tәqәddʊm/ “advance” (Rogerson-Revell, 2011, p. 55). 

/s/ and /z/ occur under in fricatives/s/ /sәrir/ “bed”, /z/ /mauzәh/ “banana”, /n/ (alveolar nasal) /n/ 

  /naςIm/ “Soft” /r/(alveolar trill) /r/نا

/rәml/ “Sand” and /l/ (alveolar lateral) /l/ ال/la:/ “no” (ibid). 

e) Velarised alveolar 

/Ṣ/  صarticulated with the blade of the tongue approaches closely the alveolar ridge, it approaches the 

upper front teeth in Arabic (Ibn-Jinni, 1944, pp. 52-53). Example in Arabic is/rәqṣ/ “Dance”. 

f) Velarised denti-alveolar 

/Ŧ/, /∂/ and /đ/, these sounds are pronounced in very different manner, non-native speakers are not 

pronounced perfectly and clearly (ibid). 

g) Palato-alveolars 

/ʃ/ and /dʒ/ are articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge and the body of the 

tongue raised toward the palate (Bite, 2013, p. 32). 

h) Palatals 

Palatals are articulated with the body of the tongue approaching or touching the hard palate. English /j/ is 

a palatal approximant—the tongue body approaches the hard palate, but closely enough to create 

turbulence in the airstream. Example: /j/ /ḥәyat/یاة “Life” (Bite, 2013, p. 33). 

i) Labio-velars 

Labio-velars are articulated with both the lips and the soft palate example: و/ w/ in أ/ ʡswәd /”Black”. 

Velar: articulated with the body of the tongue touches the soft palate, or velum. In English /k/, /ɡ/, and /ŋ/ 

are stops. Examples for velar consonants/ k /- /kItab/ “book”, and / g / does not occur in Arabic (Bite, 

2013, p. 33). 

j) Uvulars 

Uvulars are articulated with the back of the tongue and uvula e.g., /q/ qitŧәh/ “cat”, /ɣ/ /ɣәbi/ “idiot” and 

/x/ inأ/ ʡx/ “brother”. Pharyngeal:/ḥ/ and /ς/ articulated with the back of the tongue and pharynx, for 

example: /ḥ/ /mʊ ḥәrrIk/ “engine” and /ς/ / ςnzә/”goat” (Zarka, 2013, p. 67). 

k) Glottal 

The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds. In /h/sound, this opening is narrow enough to create 

some turbulence in the airstream flowing past the vocal folds. For this reason, /h/ is often classified as a 

glottal fricative. Example for glottal /h/, / mauzәh/ “banana” (ibid). 

 



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2.1.3.1 Phonetic Differences 

The English voiceless plosives have aspirated allophones when the plosives occur initially in accented 

syllables. Thus /p/, /t/ and /k/ are heavily aspirated in words like “pencil” /pensl/, “potato” /pǝ’teɪtǝʊ/ and 

“account” /ǝ’kaʊnt/ respectively. The voiceless plosives that occur in Arabic are unaspirated in whatever 

phonetic environments they occur. Native speakers of Arabic are therefore likely to use the unaspirated 

variety of /p/, /t/ and /k/ in their English speech in whatever phonetic environments they occur. This is 

likely to affect the intelligibility of their English only when they speak to native speakers of English who 

tend to hear an unaspirated voiceless plosive as a voiced plosive. Within the Arabic- speaking world, this 

allophonic substitution does not create any problems of unintelligibility. The major allophones of /t/ and 

/d/ in English are alveolar plosives (Al-Ani, 1970, p. 122). 

On the other hand, the major allophones of /t/, and/d/, and in Arabic are denti-alveolar plosives. 

Therefore, it is very common to hear Yemeni learners of English saying [ti:n] instead of [di:n] and [dɪn] 

instead of [tɪn], replacing the alveolar plosives by the more familiar denti- alveolar plosives. This again 

does not cause any problems of unintelligibility within the Arab world because they do make a 

distinction between the English [t] and [Ɵ] and [d] and [ð] since [t], [d], [Ɵ] and [ð] are four distinct 

phonemes in Arabic (Wahba, 1998, p. 65). 

The English phoneme /ʤ/ has the allophone [ʤ], the voiced palato-alveolar affricate. The Arabic 

phoneme, on the other hand, has one major allophone which is a voiced palatal affricate. Arabic speakers 

of English who pronounce the Arabic latter as an affricate are likely to use the palatal affricate in their 

English speech. This again, except to the ears of a trained phonetician, does not cause any problem of 

unintelligibility (AlYaqoobi, et al., 2016, p. 33). 

There are however, a vast majority of Arabic speakers who pronounce the Arabic letter /dƷ/ as a voiced 

plosive. The affricate (either palatal or palato alveolar) just does not occur in their speech at all. These 

people face a major problem because they systematically substitute [ʤ] in English words by [g], 

resulting in a lot of confusion and sometimes total unintelligibility. Thus, they say [g˄mp] for jump, [gɒn] 

for John, [frɪg] for fridge, [bæg] for badge. Minimal pair distinctions like “bag”, “badge”, “egg”, “edge” 

just do not occur in their speech at all (Heltai, 1988, p. 78). 

Arabic speakers who have no [g] at all in their Arabic dialects are confronted with a serious problem. 

Since they have a voiced palatal affricate and not a voiced velar plosive in their Arabic speech. The sound 

[ŋ] does not occur at all in the speech. Most of these replace the English [g] by their voiced palatal 

affricate and so the orthographic ‘n’ which occurs before the affricate, is automatically pronounced as [n]. 

It is not uncommon to hear “finger” pronounced [fɪnʤә] and “hunger” pronounced [h˄nʤә]. These 

people do face serious problems of unintelligibility as far as their English speech is concerned (ibid). 

The English phoneme /r/ has a wide variety of allophones in native varieties of British English. It is 

pronounced variously as [r] (a voiced post-alveolar frictionless continuant in word-initial position), [r] (a 

voiced post-alveolar fricative in word-medial position preceded by /b/, /d/ and /g/), [r] and [ʔ] (a voiced 

alveolar tap in the intervocalic position and when /r/ is preceded by /Ɵ/). On the other hand, the phoneme 



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/r/ in Arabic has just two allophones [ʔ] and [r], a tap and trill, both articulated as alveolar sounds. The 

tendency on the part of native speakers of Arabic when they speak English is to use the tap variety [ʔ] 

wherever /r/ occurs in an English word (Al-Ani, 1970, p. 78). 

2.1.3.2 Phonological Differences 

In English, [p] and [b] belong to two different phonemes because the two sounds contrast with each other 

in innumerable minimal pairs like /pin/-/bin/, /pull/-/bull/, etc. On the other hand, in Arabic, the two 

sounds are in complementary distribution. [p] occurs only word-medially when the following sound is 

voiceless. /sabt/ = [sapt] (Saturday), /ʔabkar/ = [ʔapka] (proper noun) and /habs/ = [haps] (prison) can be 

cited as examples. The voiced plosive [b] occurs in all of the phonetic environments like word-initial (as 

in /bɪnt/ (girl) which is [pɪnt]), inter-vocalically (as in /kabi:r/ (big) which is [kabi:r]), word-medially but 

in non-intervocalic position (as in /ʕamba/ (papaya) which is [ʕamba]) and word-finally (as in /kɪta:b/ 

which is [kɪta:b]). Native speakers of Arabic learning English as a foreign language have therefore the 

tendency to substitute [b] for [p] in their English speech when [p] occurs initially, medially (both 

intervocalic and non-intervocalic) and finally. It is not at all uncommon to hear “pill” pronounced [bɪl], 

“supper” pronounced [sᴜbәr], “compose” pronounced [kәmbo:z] and “cap” pronounced [kæb] in 

English speech of native speakers of Arabic. This is a serious sound substitution because this phonemic 

substitution is bound to make the English speech of native speakers of Arabic totally unintelligible (Umm 

Muhammad, 1993, p. 17). 

The voiceless palato-alveolar sound [ʧ] occurs in English and it is a separate phoneme since it contrasts 

with [t], [ʃ] and [ʤ]. In fact, the series “chin”, “tin”, “shin” and “gin” establish the phonemic status of all 

the four sounds listed above. In classical Arabic, the voiceless affricate sound /ʧ/ just does not exist, even 

as allophones, but the sound does form a part of some dialects like Nasiriya Iraqi Arabic, /ʧint/ (I was) 

(Betti, 2007, p. 399). The natural tendency on the part of native speakers of Arabic learning English as a 

foreign language is to substitute the [ʧ] sound by [ʃ], the fricative articulated in the same place and which 

does form part of the sound system of Arabic. Thus chin is [ʃɪn] in Arabic English, /cheat/ is [ʃi:t] and / 

catch/ is [kæʃ]. The three examples listed above (chin—shin, cheat—sheet and catch—cash) are minimal 

pairs establishing the contrast between [ʧ] and [ʃ]. 

Such minimal pair distinction is obliterated in Arabic English because of the total or partial absence of 

the affricate [ʧ] from the sound system of Arabic. This, like the [p], [b] substitution discussed above, is an 

example of a serious sound-substitution which ought to be remedied if Arabic English has to be 

intelligible (ibid). 

In English the voiced alveolar nasal [n] and the voiced velar nasal [ŋ] belong to two separate phonemes 

because of the existence of minimal pairs like “sin and sing”, “win and wing”, etc. In Arabic, on the other 

hand, the two sounds are allophones of the same phoneme, [ŋ] occurring only before 

[k] and [q], and [n] occurring elsewhere. So, native speakers of Arabic learning English have no problem 

whatever in pronouncing words like “bank”, “uncle”, “hunger” and “finger” because these words fit 

neatly into their native Arabic phonological system. But they do have a problem while pronouncing 



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words like “sing” and “singing”. They pronounce these words with a [ŋg]. But this pronunciation does 

not lead to unintelligibility. So a teacher of English need not bother too much about this substitution 

(Alsiraih, 2013, p. 33). 

The voiced labio-dental fricative [v], occurring in English as a phoneme is distinct from its voiceless 

counterpart [f]. These are minimal pairs like fat and vat, establishing the phonemic status of [f] and [v]. In 

Arabic, both classical and colloquial, the voiced fricative [v] just does not occur. Many native speakers of 

Arabic, therefore, have the tendency to use [f] in place of [v] in whatever position in a word [v] occurs. 

Thus, one hears [fa:st] in place of [va:st], [li:f] in place of [li:v], [‘i:fǝn] in place of [‘i:vǝn], etc. This, 

needless to say, is a serious sound-substitution since it occurs as a result of interference. The sounds [s] 

and [z] occur in both Arabic and English and in both the languages the minimal pairs like “sip—zip” 

(English) and [mɪsma:r] (nail) and [mɪzma:r] (flute) (Arabic) (Alotaibi & Mohammed, 2010, p. 39). 

The voiced palato-alveolar fricative [Ʒ] has phonemic status in English, though its frequency of 

occurrence is limited and is also restricted to the word-medial and final positions. Because of its total 

absence from the phonological system of Arabic, Arabic speakers of English tend to replace it by [ʃ], its 

voiceless counterpart. Thus, one may hear words like “occasion”, “measure”, “leisure” and “pleasure” 

with [ʃ] in them. This substitution does not affect the intelligibility of Arabic English and therefore need 

not cause serious concern to teachers of English to native speakers of Arabic. The phoneme /r/ is a source 

of difficulty to many Arab learners of English. In Arabic, the phoneme /r/ has just two allophones, the tap 

[r] and the trill [r]. In English, on the other hand, the trilled [r] does not occur at all and the tap [r] occurs 

in English intervocalically and after [Ɵ]. The other three allophones of /r/ ([r], the voiced palato-alveolar 

frictionless continuant, [r], the voiced post-alveolar fricative and [r], the voiceless post- alveolar fricative) 

just do not occur in Arabic therefore, Arabic speakers of English use the tap variety [r] wherever /r/ 

occurs in English. Further, in English, /r/ is pronounced only when orthographic r or rr is followed by a 

vowel (ibid). The production of English consonants is almost confined to the oral cavity of the vocal tract, 

except for the glottal fricative /h/, and the glottal stop /ʔ/ (for those of speakers of English who use it). By 

contrast, the Arabic consonants occupy the whole dimension of the vocal tract. Seven Arabic consonants 

are produced in the back (laryngeal, pharyngeal and uvular) regions of the vocal tract: /ʔ, h, ʕ, ћ, ʁ, χ, q/ 

(Al-Jallad, 2019, p. 44). 

Arabic has a number of emphatic consonants, which have multiple articulation; the secondary one is 

raising the back of the tongue towards the velum, in addition to their primary point of articulation. These 

are /Ṣ/, /Ŧ/, /∂/ ظ, and the alveolar lateral fricative /Đ/ ض. English has eight stop consonants, two of which 

are affricates. They are organized in four homorganic pairs (with the same place of articulation). In each 

pair, one is a voiced consonant and one is voiceless: /b, p, /t, d, /g, k/ and /ʤ, ʧ/. Arabic has eight stop 

consonants, only three of them are homorganic: /b/, /d, t, tˠ/, /ʤ/, /k/, /q/, and /ʔ/ (Al-Jallad, 2019, p. 41). 

 

 

 



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2.2 Vowels 

2.2.1 Definition of Vowels 

Crystal (2011, p. 517) mentions that vowels are sounds produced without a complete closure in the 

mouth or a degree of narrowing which would make audible friction; the air escapes evenly over the centre 

of the tongue. In the production of vowels, the air escapes solely through the mouth. These vowels are 

said to be oral; if some air is simultaneously released through the nose, those vowels are nasal, e.g., dean 

/di:n/. Additionally, in a phonetic classification of vowels, reference would generally be made to two 

variables, the first of which is easily describable, the second much less so: 

(a) the position of the lips—whether rounded, spread, or neutral; 

(b) the part of the tongue raised, and the height to which it moves, (ibid). 

Besides, Roach (2009, p. 78) states that vowels are the class of sounds which make no obstruction to the 

flow of air. They always occur at the centre of a syllable, and it is rare to find any sound other than a 

vowel which is able to stand alone as a whole syllable. In terms of phonetics, each vowel involves a 

number of features that distinguish it from other vowels. These have the shape of the lips, which may be 

rounded, as /u:/, neutral, as in, /ә/ or spread, as in, /i:/. 

2.2.2 Description of Vowels 

Skendera and Burleigh (2011, p. 32) maintain that tongue and lip movements result in varying shapes of 

the mouth, which can be described in terms of the following four criteria: 

(1) Part of the Tongue Raised or Lowered (Tip, Central, Back) 

Vowels can be changed by moving the tongue up or down, or moving the lower jaw up or down. Usually, 

we use some combinations of the two sorts of movement, but when drawing side-of-the-head diagrams, it 

is usually found simpler to illustrate tongue shapes for vowels as if tongue height were altered by tongue 

movement alone, without any accompanying jaw movement (Roach, 2009, p. 11). 

(2) Closeness/openness (High, Low, Mid) 

Closeness/openness refers to the distance between the tongue and the palate. If the tongue is high, as in 

the last sound of the word “bee”, it is close to the palate, and we therefore speak of a close vowel. If the 

tongue is low, as in the third sound of the word “starling”, the gap between it and the palate is more open, 

and we speak of an open vowel. Between these extremes, there are three intermediate levels: If the tongue 

is in a mid-high position, i.e., a bit lower their high, the resultant sound is a mid-close vowel, or half-close 

vowel. If it is mid-low, i.e., a bit higher than low, we hear a mid-open vowel, 0r half-open vowel. A 

vowel that is made with a tongue height somewhere between mid-high and mid-low is simply called a 

mid- vowel (Skendera & Burleigh, 2011, p. 32). 

(3) Frontness/backness 

Frontness/ backness refers to the part of the tongue that is raised to the highest. If it is the front of the 

tongue as in the last sound in “bee”, we speak of a front vowel. If the back of the tongue is raised to its 

highest as in the middle sound in “goose”, the resultant sound is a back vowel. Between these extremes, 



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we recognize one intermediate position: If the centre of the tongue is raised highest, as in the second 

sound of the word “bird”, we speak of a central vowel. 

(4) The shape of the lips 

The lips can be either spread, neutral, or round. English does not utilize this contrast very much. As in 

most other languages, the spreading of the lips usually correlates with frontness, and lip-rounding with 

backness. This means that there are no two vowel phonemes in English that differ only in the shape of the 

lips (Skendera & Burleigh, 2011, p. 32). 

2.2.3 Position of Vowels Regarding Cardinal Vowels 

The cardinal vowels are often said to be vowel qualities produced at certain very peripheral points in the 

vowel space, such as cardinal vowel. In this regard, Richards and Schmidt (2010, pp. 66-67) elaborate 

that cardinal vowel system refers to any of the vowels in the cardinal vowel system. The cardinal vowel 

system was invented by Daniel Jones as a means of describing the vowels of any language. The cardinal 

vowels themselves do not belong of any particular language, but are possible vowels to be used as 

reference points. 

2.2.4 Nature of Vowels 

In so far as whether vowels are made without glide from one vowel to another, Skendera and Burleigh 

(2011, p. 36) categorize vowels into three main types which are pure vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs: 

2.2.4.1 Pure Vowels 

These are vowels which are made without any glide from one vowel to another. There are (12) pure 

vowel. They are also called monophthongs. They can either be short or long. 

2.2.4.2 Short Vowels 

Roach (2009, p. 16) adds that short vowel is only relatively short. Vowels can have quite different lengths 

in different contexts. Each vowel is described in relation to the cardinal vowels. The symbols for these 

short vowels are: /e, ә, ә:, ɒ, ˄/ which are not presented in Arabic. Additionally, Skendera and Burleigh 

(2011, p. 36) maintain that the quality of the English long and short vowels remains relatively constant 

while they are being pronounced, i.e., the speech organs do not usually change their position during 

articulation. These vowels are therefore called pure or plain vowels, or monophthongs 

2.2.4.3 Long Vowels 

These are the vowels which tend to be longer than the short vowels in similar contexts. These vowels 

tend to be long, the symbols consist of one vowel symbol plus a length mark made of two dots: Thus they 

are: 

/i:, ɛ:, a:, o:, u:/. The five long vowels are different from the seven short vowels not only in length but also 

in quality. If one compares some similar pairs of long and short vowels, for example /i/ with /i:/, or /u/ 

with u:, or /æ/ with /a:/, it can be seen distinct differences in quality as well as in length. For this reason, 

all the long vowels have symbols which are different from those of short vowels (Roach, 2009, p. 16). 

 

 



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2.2.4.4 Diphthongs 

Carr (2008, p. 43) views a diphthong as a vowel sound in which there is a transition or glide from one 

vowel to another within a single syllable nucleus, as in the English word [baɪ] (buy). Transitions from 

one vowel to another across syllable boundaries are not diphthongs; English [si:ɪŋ] (seeing) has a 

transition from [i:] to [ɪ], but this is not a diphthong, since the transition does not take place within a 

single nucleus. According to Roach (2009, p. 17), diphthongs are divided into three groups with two 

types of diphthongs: 

 Centering diphthongs end in /ә/; these are /ɪә/ as in “beard” /bɪәd/, /eә/ as in “aired” / eәd/ 

and /ʊә/ as in “tour” /tʊә/. 

 Closing diphthongs are of two groups; the first group is ending in /ɪ/; these are /eɪ/ as in 

“pain” /peɪn/ , /aɪ / as in “time” /taɪm/ and /ᴐɪ/ as in “voice”/vᴐɪs/, while the other one is ending in /ʊ /; 

these are /әʊ / as in “home”/ hәʊm/ and /au / as in “house” /haʊs/. 

2.2.4.5 Triphthongs 

The sounds which consist of a movement or glide from a diphthong to /ә/ are called triphthongs. In terms 

of length, diphthongs are similar to the long vowels described above (Roach, 2009, p. 17). Additionally, 

triphthongs refer to a type of vowel where there are two noticeable changes in quality during a /to syllable, 

as in a common pronunciation of English fire and tower /faɪv/ and /taᴜә/. Besides, Crystal (2011, p. 496) 

mentions five closing diphthongs with /ә/ added on the end; which are: 

1) /eɪә/ as in “player” /pleɪә/ 

2) /aɪә/ as in “fire” /faɪә/ 

3) /ᴐɪә / as in “royal” /rᴐɪәl/ 

4) /әuә/ as in “lower” /lәuә/ 

5) /auә/ as in “power” /pauә/ 

2.2.5 Length of Vowels 

Depending on length of vowels, there are short vowels, long vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs which 

are arranged in length as such. Triphthongs include a diphthong plus a vowel, diphthongs include a glide 

from one vowel into another while simple vowels, i.e., short or long, do not include any glide from one 

vowel into another (Jaegar, 2006, p. 22). 

2.2.6 Classification of Arabic Vowels 

There are three vowels in Iraqi Arabic called (ḥarakāt) literally means “movements”. They can be both 

short and long. The three long vowels are considered as letters in their full right and feature. While their 

corresponding short vowels known as diacritic signs, are symbols written either above or below a 

particular consonant. There is also a concept of “vowel quality” which can be interpreted as the different 

ranges of sounds each vowel can produce in conjunction with other letters. Similar to the way “d” can 

sound very differently depending on the word it’s in, like in “deep” (dēp) or “dam” (dăm) (Al-Ani, 1970). 

 

 



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2.2.6.1 Short Vowels 

Frangieh (2011, p. 12) divides short vowels in Arabic into four short vowel signs are: subdivided into 

fatha, kasra, damma and sukuun. Fatha, designating a short /æ/, is always written above the preceding 

consonant phoneme. Kasra, designating a short /ɪ/, appears as a small diagonal line placed below a 

consonant. Damma, designating a short /ʊ/, appears above the preceding consonant and sukuun is written 

above the word (AlJomely, 2018, p. 68). 

2.2.7 Differences between English and Arabic Vowels 

It was stated that all vowels are voiced and produced with no obstruction or constriction in the mouth. 

According to Ibn Jinni, who called the vowels huruf madd wa?istitalah ( vowels) are rendered as the 

sounds of lengthening and prolongation and may be short (harakat) or long (huruf madd). This idea of 

prolongation points to the fact that Arabic vowels, being produced without constriction in the mouth, 

may further be lengthened, i.e., held, as long as the breath allows, and, a glottal stop begins wherever the 

vowels end. Long vowels are also called the sounds of softness (Ibn Jinni). 

Fagihi (2012, p. 56) maintains that when the point of articulation (maxraj-ul-harf) widens (i.e., the vocal 

tract is not restricted) so as to keep the sound (i.e., the vowel) constantly enunciated and continued until it 

can no longer be prolonged, it will end by the articulation of the glottal stop (hamza). It will necessarily 

come to an end at this point of the sounds (huruf) which are produced with open stricture at the places of 

articulation are three; /a, i, u/. However, a is more open (?awsa) and softer (?alyan) than the others and for 

this reason it is auditorily different from both /i/ and /u/, and vice versa. 

In Arabic, a long vowel can be heard with further prolongation in three cases; if it is followed by a glottal 

stop (hamza), if it followed by a geminate (harf mushaddad), and if it is paused upon for the purpose of 

recollection. On the other hand, long vowels are given alphabetical names, whereas the corresponding 

short vowels are actually given names that suggest phonetic distinctive features, they are called case 

markers (Prochazka, 1988, p. 67). 

In Abdul-Rauf (1977, p. 67), it is mentioned that as in English the full sound of consonant is achieved by 

the application of the vowel, but there are only three vowels in Arabic. One has the value of “a” in “bat”, 

or “u” in “but” another has the value of “i” in “fit”, and the third has the value of “u” in “put”, they are all 

short. These vowels are not represented by characters following the consonants; but are represented by 

signs written above or below the consonants. 

One of the basic distinctions in Arabic sounds is that between short and long vowels that it may make the 

difference between: singular and plural; as in colloquial: جمل /ʤamal/, جمال /ʤɪmaal/, in formal: 

musa:firun (s.) musa:firu:n (pl.) “traveler.” Vowels also indicate object and absence of object; as in 

katabu “they wrote” and katabu: h “they wrote it.” Finaly, they indicate one meaning and another as in; 

gamal “camel” and gama:l “beauty.” (Hanna & Greis, 1972, p. 89). 

Whereas the English vowels have their full place and independent existence in the English alphabet and 

constitute integral parts of the English words, the short vowels in Arabic are merely oral. Vowels in 

English and Arabic have similarities and differences. They are different in number; English has more 

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vowels than Arabic. They also differ in distribution; English words can begin with vowels, whereas 

Arabic words can only begin with consonants. Both languages have some common vowels, but at the 

same time, there are some vowels that are restricted to each one of them. Contrary to English which has a 

larger vowel system containing about nine simple vowels and seven longer vowels, Arabic has only three 

short and three long vowels (Kara, 1976, p. 89). 

2.3 The English Syllable 

2.3.1 Definitions 

Phonology studies the sound system of a specific language and a branch of which is phonemics which 

studies the phonemes of a specific language. It studies both the segmentals and the suprasegmentals 

(Betti, 2002b, p. 1). It studies the syllable. The term syllable is “a unit of pronunciation usually larger 

than a single sound and smaller than a word”. A word can be uttered ‘syllable at a time’, like: 

ne-ver-the-less, and a best dictionary will denote where those syllabic parts exist in writing, so giving 

information of how a “word” can be hyphenated. The concept of syllable, in brief, is so fact to 

native-speakers, and is usually used in everyday interaction (Crystal, 2011, p. 467). 

A syllable is “a fundamental but elusive unit in phonology”. The syllable is a phonetic unit, which is 

higher than the phoneme (sometimes equal to it) and which centers on a vowel. There are two exceptions 

to this: minimum syllables and syllables which depend on syllabic consonants. Minimum syllables my 

consist of only one consonant /m/, /ʃ/, etc. Syllables which depend on syllabic consonants also do not 

include vowels but include only /j/, /w/ and /r/ (Betti, 2002c, pp. 31-32). 

Any word has a string of several number of “syllables” or one syllable, and even speakers with no 

knowledge of phonetics or of linguistics usually find it easy expecting the number of syllables a word 

includes. For instance, people all agree that “girl and salt” have one syllable, that “butter and behind” 

involve two, that “linguistics and kangaroo” consist of three, that “education and development” have 

four, etc. (Trask, 1999, p. 200). 

2.3.2 Types 

Carr (2008, p. 171) maintains that the syllable can be subdivided into the onset “any consonants 

preceding the nucleus” and rhyme “the nucleus and any consonants following the nucleus”. The rhyme, 

in its turn, is subdivided into a nucleus and a coda “any consonants following the nucleus”. In this respect, 

Carr (2008, p. 114) illustrates that nucleus refers to mostly vowels or one of the following syllabic 

consonants /r/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/. So, in the word “but” (/bʌt/), the onset has /b/ and the cluster /ʌt/ 

constitutes the rhyme that contains the nucleus /ʌ/ and the coda consonant /t/. 

Carr (2008, p. 171) suggests that syllables that consist of no coda consonants are called as open syllables, 

like, bee (/bi:/). Besides, syllables that involve one or more coda consonants are named closed syllables, 

like, but. Additionally, syllables that lack an onset consonant are named empty onset syllables, like, word 

eye (/ai/). Empty onsets are denoted to be included in the process of resyllabification, whereby a 

consonant that might otherwise take a coda position comes to occupy a following onset position, as in the 

sequence green eye, syllabified as /gri:nai/ (where a full stop stands as a syllable boundary) (ibid). 

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For Davenport and Hannahs (2005, p. 65), the internal structure of the syllable is illustrated as follows: 

1) Onset (O) refers to any consonants preceding the nucleus, such as, be, start. 

2) Rhyme is made up of nucleus and coda. 

3) Nucleus (N) is the vowel or peak of the syllable, such as, lift, pat, cut. 

4) Coda (CO) refers to any consonants following the nucleus, such as, mind, text. 

So, in the English syllable ‘crank’, [kræŋk], the onset (O) is the sequence of consonants [kr]. The nucleus 

(N) is the vowel [æ] and the coda (Co) is the sequence [ŋk], the latter two constituents comprising the 

rhyme (R) [ænk). 

Concerning syllable structure, it is observed the following points: 

1) The grouping together of nucleus and coda to form the rhyme is not an arbitrary combination. They 

must share the same syllabic rhyme (nucleus + coda), whereas the nature of the onset is irrelevant; so 

‘gold’ rhymes with ‘strolled’ and with ‘old’. 

2) Only the nucleus is always obligatory: both the onset and the coda are optional, as in English ‘ape’ (no 

onset). ‘flea’ (no coda) or ‘eye’ (neither onset nor coda). 

3) It is not always the case that the nucleus must be a vowel: many languages allow liquids and nasals as 

syllabic nucleus, as in the second syllables in the English words ‘spittle’ and ‘mutton’ (Davenport & 

Hannahs, 2005, p. 67). 

2.3.3 Consonant Clusters in English 

While phonetically, consonants are sounds made by a closure or narrowing in the vocal tract so that the 

airflow is either completely blocked, or so restricted that audible friction is produced, phonologically, 

they are units which function at the margins of syllables, either singly or in clusters (Crystal, 2011, p. 

103). Ashby and Maidment (2005, p. 147) define consonant clusters as a sequence of consonants within 

the onset, or within the coda. Besides, Crystal (2011, p. 81) describes consonant clusters as any sequence 

of adjacent consonants occurring initially or finally in a syllable, such as /br-/ in bread and /-st/ in best. 

Brinton (2000, p. 55), in his turn, clarifies that consonant clusters are the possible sequences or 

combinations of sounds in a language which may begin or end a syllable. However, consonant clusters 

can be initial, medial or final that are explained as follows: 

2.3.3.1 Initial Consonant Clusters 

Initial consonant clusters consist of two or three consonants which are as follows: 

1) Initial Two-Consonant Clusters 

O’Connor and Trim (1973, p. 64) and O’Connor (1980, p. 64) illustrate that these are of two main kinds: 

A) /s/ followed by one of /p, t, k, f, m, n, l, w, j/, e.g. in “spy, stay, sky, sphere, small, snow, sleep, swear, 

suit”. 

B) One of /p, t, k, b, d, g, f, θ, J, v, m, n, h/ followed by one of /l, r, w, j/. Not all of these sequences are 

found (e.g., /pw, dl/ do not occur). The full list is: 

/p/ followed by /l,r,j/ play, pray, pure 

/t/ /l,r,w, j/ try, twice, tune 



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/k/ /l,r,w,j/ climb, cry, quite, cure 

/b/ /l,r,j/ blow, bread, beauty 

/d/ /r, w, j/ dress, dwell (rare), duty 

/g/ /l, r/ glass, green 

/f/ /r, w, j/ fly, from, few 

/θ/ /r,w/ throw, thwart (rare) 

/ʃ/ /r/ shriek 

/v/ /j/ view 

/m/ /j/ music/n/ /j/ new 

/h/ /j/ huge (ibid) 

2) Initial Three-Consonant Clusters 

The three-consonant cluster must be one of the following: /spl, spr, str, skr, skw, skj, stj, spj, /, such as, 

“spleen, spring, street, screen, squash” respectively, that is, the first element is always /s/, the second 

element is always one of the three fortis plosives, /p, t, k/, and the third (or last) element is again always 

one of the four frictionless continuants, /l, r, j, w/ (Skandera & Burleigh, 2011, p. 68). 

2.3.3.2 Medial Consonant Clusters 

Kreidler (2004, p. 96) points out that between two vowels in a word there may be from zero to four 

consonants. The number of possible consonants is greater than in word-initial or word-final position, and 

the number of types of clusters is also larger, as in: problem /prɒblǝm/ and subside /sǝbsaɪd/: 

(0) Zero (no consonant at all). In this case the first vowel must be a ‘free’ vowel since it ends a syllable, as 

in, poet, giant, etc. 

(1) Any one consonant. Most consonants occur between a stressed vowel and an unstressed vowel and 

also between an unstressed vowel and a stressed vowel. For examples: 

/p/ ‘copy re’pel  /b/ ‘rabid de’bate 

/t/ ‘metal re’tain /d/ ‘medal a’dore 

(c) There may be two consonants which can be divided them into two groups. 

(d) clusters of the types which also occur word-initially; when they occur between a stressed vowel and 

an unstressed one, the first consonant is ambisyllabic; when they occur between an unstressed vowel and 

a stressed one, the whole cluster is in the same syllable as the stressed vowel, such as, ‘whisper, ‘master, 

de’spair, etc. 

(e) clusters which do not occur word-initially; the syllable division is between the two consonants, no 

matter which is stressed, as in, ‘cap.tain, ‘tip.sy, etc. (Kreidler, 2004, p. 99). 

(f) Three consonants, which can be divided into groups: 

(g) clusters which also occur initially; the first consonant must be /s/, as in, mistress, resplendent, 

distress. 

(h) clusters which do not occur initially, and which can be subdivided: 

(i) clusters in which the syllable division is after the first consonant (C.CC): bel.fry, coun.try. 



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(ii) clusters in which syllable division is after the second consonant (CC.C): ant.’er, emp.ty. 

(iii) clusters in which the second consonant, always /s/, may be , like, capˆstan, inˆstant. 

Four consonants; the second consonant is always /s/, such as, instrument, obstruct. 

2.3.3.3 Final Consonant Clusters 

They can be two, three, or four, five, six or seven consonants as explained below: 

1) Final Two-Consonant Clusters 

Dang and Ruiter (2005, p. 182) state that final two-consonant clusters can be as follows: 

a) They may begin with a stop such as, hits, cups, wept, great care, pigtail, etc. 

b) They may begin with a fricative or stops such as, left, gasp, must, hidden, written, etc. 

c) They may begin with nasal such as, chance, wand, can’t, sense, punch, etc. 

d) They may begin with a liquid such as, milk, pork, shelf, else, etc. 

2) Final Three-Consonant Clusters 

Roach (2009, p. 59) claims that there are two types of final three-consonant cluster; the first is pre-final 

plus final plus post-final, i.e., banks, bonds, twelfth, helped. While the second type states how more than 

one post-final consonant can exist in a final cluster: final plus post-final 1 plus post-final Post final 2 is 

again one of these phonemes /s, z, t, d, θ/, i.e. fifths, next, lapsed, etc.  

3) Final Four-Consonant Clusters 

Most four-final consonant clusters contain a pre-final plus a final which is followed by post-final1 and 

post-final2. Additionally, there are a small set of four-final consonant clusters which can be analyzed as 

consisting of a final consonant with no pre-final but three post-final consonants, for instance, texts, sixths, 

prompts, twelfths, etc. (ibid: pp. 59-60): 

4) Final Five-Consonant Clusters 

Most five-final consonant clusters contain a pre-final plus a final which is followed by post-final 1, 

post-final 2 and post-final 3. Additionally, there are a small set of five-final consonant clusters which can 

be analyzed as consisting of a final consonant with no pre-final but four post-final consonants. /prɒmpt 

sta:t/, /bent skru:/. 

5) Final Six-Consonant Clusters 

Six-final consonant clusters have a pre-final plus a final which is followed by post-final1, post-final2, 

post-final3 and post-final4. Additionally, there are a small set of six-final consonant clusters which can 

be analyzed as consisting of a final consonant with no pre-final but five post-final consonants, such as, 

next spring /nekst sprɪŋ/, twelfth street /twelfθ stri:t/ (O’Connor & Trim, 1973, p. 77). 

6) Final Seven-Consonant Clusters 

Seven-final consonant clusters involve a pre-final plus a final which is followed by post-final 1, 

post-final 2, post-final 3, post-final 4 and post-final 5. For examples, text’s stupid /teksts stju:pɪd/, tempts 

strangers /tempts streɪnʤәz/.  

 

 



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2.3.4 Vowels Clusters in English 

Betti (2002, pp. 40-42) states that many vowel clusters can be distinguished in both English and Arabic 

languages. Concerning English vowel clusters, they can be illustrated as follows: 

1) Short vowel + short vowel 

a. /i/+/o/ beyond /biond/ 

b. /u/+/i/ ruin /ruin/ 

c. /i/ +/a/ react /riakt/ 

2) Long vowel + short vowel 

a. /i:/ + /i/ being /bi:ɪŋ/ 

b. /u:/ + /i/ doing /dʊ:ɪŋ/ 

c./o:/ +/i/ drawing /dro:ɪŋ/ 

d./i:/ + /e/ the end /ði:end/. 

3) Long vowel + long vowel 

a. /ʊ:/ + /a:/ you aren’t /ju: a:nt/ 

4) A diphthong + a short vowel: 

a. Triphthongs: player /pleiә/ 

b. /au/ + /i/ allowing = /әlauiŋ/; 

c./əu/ + /i/ — going /gәʊɪŋ / 

d./eɪ/ + /o/ — chaos /keɪos/  

e./aɪ/ +/o/ biography /baɪɒgrәfɪ/ 

5) Diphthong + diphthong 

a./əu/ + /au/ go out /gәu aut/ 

b./eɪ/ + /ai/ — grey-eyed /greɪ aɪd/ 

c./aɪ/ + /əu/ my own /maɪ әʊn/ 

6) Long vowel + triphthong 

/u:/ + /au/ — two hours = /tu: aʊә/ 

7) Diphthong + diphthong + diphthong + short vowel 

a. /eɪ/ + /aɪ/ + /əʊ/ + /i/ May I owe it to you? /meɪ aɪ әʊ ɪt tu: ju/ 

2.3.5 Consonant and Vowel Clusters in Arabic 

In Arabic, most linguists (e.g., Hassan, 1990, p. 176; Swid & Sair, 2008, pp. 72-74) agree that final word 

syllables are of three types: 

1) Sh such as ba in kataba (to write). 

2) hs, such as, til in yuqatil . 

3) Either shhs (long closed) when there is a stop on the final part of the syllable such as lin in dalin (lost) 

or shss (long, double—closed) when there is a stop on the geminated sound in a word such as bb in sabb 

(young man). This latter case is also found when there is a stop on two consonants from different organs 

of speech, such as qarr in almustaqarr (settlement) where /q/ is uvular; whereas /r/ is alveolar. It seems 



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clear that final word syllable in Arabic is part of the original structure of the word itself, i.e., it is not a 

separate morpheme referring to polarity or whatsoever as is the case in English (Hassan, 1990, p. 173). 

It has been reported that not all the initial and final (Brown, 1977, p. 89) two-element clusters present 

problems to the Arab learners (Malick, 1957, p. 23). This is basically attributed to the fact that some of 

the two- element clusters have counterparts in the standard and colloquial speech of the learners. 

Although theoretically the clusters that do not occur in Arabic should constitute a problem, in practice 

this is not always true (Malick, 1957, p. 23). This could, perhaps, be attributed to the phonetic nature of 

the components of these clusters in that they allow a fairly good degree of co-articulation which 

consequently facilitates the production of the clusters. Moreover, medial clusters like the ones occurring 

in the following words: April, attract, afraid, agree, ugly and especially, do not pose serious difficulty 

because English tolerates more than one way of syllabifying them. 

The real trouble stems from two-element clusters that not only because they do not exist in Arabic but 

also because their structural position and their phonetic nature restrict the articulatory maneuvering. On 

the face of it, all the three and four-element clusters are to be regarded as trouble-makers since they 

would not, perhaps, easily satisfy the conditions that exclude some of the two-element clusters from 

being difficult (Malick, 1957, p. 23). But if the same, or at least a similar, technique of splitting the 

two-element clusters is used with clusters greater in size then the possibility of the existence of a unified 

underlying procedure to counter the splitting would be quite plausible, in which case their status as 

greater trouble-makers might be excluded (Odisho, 1975, p. 66). 

In all the above words, one epenthetic vowel is added causing not only the appearance of an additional 

syllable but also a radical change in the syllable arrangement of the words. The only exception is the 

word which contains two unabutting clusters where two alternative mispronunciations are expected. In 

this type of word the possibility of adding two epenthetic vowels and increasing the syllable by two is not 

excluded. In any case the most striking feature is that the epenthetic vowel shows a strong inclination 

towards occupying the same place regardless of the size of the c-luster. It is usually placed alter the 

second element of the cluster counted in the reversed order i.e. right to left. A very similar tendency 

seems to function with clusters occurring initially. That is, the problem with consonant cluster can be 

viewed in the following points: 

4) The placement of the vowel before the first element of the two- element clusters, such as, helped 

*/helpɪt/. 

5) Before the second element of the three- element clusters, which is absolutely valid for all the 

syllable-initial clusters of English, like, street */sɪtri:t/. 

Thus, the problems indicate sameness in the placement of the vowel with the medial clusters. Worded 

differently, there is one underlying rule which governs the assigning of the place of the vowel in both the 

initial and the medial clusters: the vowel is placed after the second element of the cluster from the right. 



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In Modern Standard Arabic, there are 36 phonemes, out of which twenty-eight are consonants, six are 

vowels (three short and three long): /a/, /i/, /u/, /a:, /i:/, /u:/, and two are diphthongs: /aj/ and /aw/. English 

has twenty vowel phonemes, of which eight are diphthongs (ALJOMAELY, 2018, p. 68). 

The short vowels in Arabic are further subdivided into fatha, kasra and damma. Fatha, designating a short 

/æ/, is always written above the preceding consonant phoneme. Kasra, designating a short /ɪ/, appears as 

a small diagonal line placed below a consonant. Damma, designating a short /ʊ/, appears above the 

preceding consonant (ALJOMAELY, 2018, p. 68). 

 

3. Methodology 

3.1 Population and Sample of the Study 

The population of the study is represented by Iraqi University students who are at the Department of 

English during the academic year 2021-2022. The sample of this study that is randomly selected consists 

of (100) male and female students from the 4th year College students, Department of English, College of 

Education for Humanities, University of Thi-Qar. 

This is a quantitative descriptive study. The informants of this study are Iraqi non-native speakers of 

English with similar EFL backgrounds. Their average age is twenty two. To avoid the difference in 

experience which may have an impact on the results of the study, teachers and repeaters are excluded. 

Choosing fourth year students other than others can be ascribed to some reasons. First, conversation and 

linguistics are taught to them during the fourth stage of their learning. Second, fourth year students can be 

considered as the top of expected performance of the Department of English learners as well as they are 

counted as student-teachers and advanced language users. 

A quantitative method is employed in the current study in terms of data collection and analysis. A 

quantitative study is concerned with measuring and analyzing variables to reach specific results. This 

method involves using and analyzing numeral data by using certain statistical (and/ or) procedures to 

reach some answers to the concerned questions. 

The recognition of segmentals and syllables instrument includes thirty three items. Each item is in form 

with four options and the students are required to recognize the correct choice.  

3.2 Validity and Reliability 

In order to satisfy both these ends, the test has been submitted to a jury of experts in order to approve of 

the construction, its content validity in measuring what it intends to measure. 

The jury offered some suggestions which have been taken into account. Therefore, particular items have 

been tempered with, others replaced. All of those experts have judged the test being valid to measure 

what it was designed for measuring it, it is an appropriate and practical test, and can perform the purpose 

behind the study. 

If 75% of the jury members agree on a certain modification, this modification will be executed. This does 

not happen. So, there is no modification on the two sides of the test. 

 



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3.3 The Pilot Study 

Prior to putting the actual administration of the main test into effect, a pilot test is applied on April 2022 

to students at the University of Thi-Qar are administered to ten randomly selected learners from the 

population of fourth- year learners who are excluded from the subjects of the main test administration. 

The reasons behind the pilot test are: to arrive at the time required for answering the test, to check the 

clarity of the items and directions to the subjects in order to know whether some of the items/questions 

are in need of modification, and finally, to analyze the items to determine their effectiveness, i.e., item 

difficulty and item discrimination power (Gay, 2010, p. 101). The results of the pilot test indicate that the 

time required to answer all items is two hour and to some instruction required about the questions. The 

outcomes of the pilot administration are incorporated into the final version of the test. Likewise, the test 

was repeated two times. 

3.4 Material Selection 

The items that are included in the test are taken from five book sources. 

These are: 

 Al-Ani (1972), Arabic Phonology. 

 Betti (2003), English Phonetics and Phonology. 

 Roach (2009), A Little Encyclopaedia of Phonetics. 

 Roach (2009), English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course. 

Skandera and Burleigh (2011) A Manual of English Phonetics and Phonology. 

Choosing the items and the questions about these items approved by the jury members of the study who 

have provided some of the much appreciated modifications that have helped the researcher in 

formulating and conducting the final version of the test. 

3.5 Test Description 

The test of this study, which consists of one question established to check the Iraqi EFL learners’ 

recognition of the segmentals and syllables, states: “Listen to the following words carefully and tick the 

suitable answer”. In it, the informants listen to a group of words and sentences, produced by a native 

speaker and they are supposed to tick only one of the four options provided for them. This question 

comprises of thirty-three items as are stated below: The items of the recognition test are used to show 

whether the informants can recognize /p/ , /v/ , /ŋ/ , /g/ , /ʒ/ , / tʃ/ , /˄/ , /ә/ , /ә:/ , /e/ , /ɒ/,/әʊ/ , /eɪ/ , /ɪә/ , /eә 

/ , /ʊә / , /aɪ/, /au/, /oɪ/ , initial two consonant cluster, initial three consonant cluster, two final consonant 

cluster, three final consonant cluster, four final consonant cluster, five final consonant cluster, six final 

consonant cluster, seven final consonant cluster, /eɪә/, (short vowel + short vowel), (long vowel + short 

vowels), (long vowel + long vowel), (diphthong + diphthong), (long vowel + triphthong) respectively 

(see appendix 3). 

3.6 Final Administration 

The final version of the test was carried out in classroom on 12 of June 2022 on 100 students who are 

randomly selected from the 4th year students at the English department, College of for Human Sciences, 

http://www.uoanbar.edu.iq/HumanitarianEducationCollege/catalog/English%20Phonetics%20and%20Phonology_Peter%20Roach.pdf


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University of Thi-Qar. The students have been given only one hours to answer the questions of the test 

and those subjects have been given the instructions of each question. Students were asked to answer on 

the same paper of the test to avoid wasting efforts and to save time. They have been told not to write their 

names on the papers to avoid any possible embarrassment. Some of the students answers are presented in 

the appendices. The researcher marked the test by using a scoring scheme that is stated in the following 

section. 

3.7 Mathematical Tool 

The mathematical tool used includes simple calculations and percentages. 

 

4. Analysis and Discussion of the Recognition of English Segmentals and Syllables 

4.1 Recognition of Consonants 

In the following table, the Iraqi EFL Learners’ correct and incorrect recognition of English consonants 

are introduced: 

 

Table 2. The Iraqi EFL Learners’ Recognition of English Consonants 

No. of Item Correct Answers % Incorrect Answers % 

1 44 44 56 46 

2 18 18 82 82 

3 33 33 67 67 

4 29 29 71 71 

5 34 34 66 66 

6 7 7 93 93 

Total 165 27.5 435 72.5 

 

With reference to the preceding table, the total number of correct answers is (165), (27.5%) while the 

total number of the incorrect ones is (435), (72.5%). It is important to mention that the correct answers of 

item (1), which is C and constitutes (44) occurrences, which represents the highest correct answers (in 

this chapter, the bold type in the choices refers to the correct choice). 

1) The word “pen” is pronounced as: 

a. /bɪn/     b. /ben/      c. /pen/      d. /pәn/ 

Regarding the total of incorrect answers, Iraqi EFL students amount to (435) where the incorrect answers 

of item (2) reach (82) which is the highest incorrect answer: 

2) The word “veer” is pronounced as: 

a) /vi:r/ b. /fi:r / c. /vɪə/              d. /fɪә/  



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It has been noticed that most Iraqi EFL learners in this study fail to identify all the suitable answers since 

its consonants, could not be distinguished due to the difference between their mother tongue and the 

target language, i.e., because of the distinction between the consonants available in the mother tongue 

and that of the EFL that is concerned. The difficulty is encountered in the recognition of /p, v, ŋ, g, ʒ, ʧ/ 

consonants respectively which do not exist in Arabic. That is interference occurs. This can be illustrated 

from an interlingual view as Arab learners in general and Iraqi EFL ones in particular are believed to use 

their phonemes more effectively than the English ones. Thus, the first hypothesis of the present study is 

verified: Iraqi undergraduates do not recognize some English consonants correctly. These consonants are 

/p, v, ŋ, g, ʒ, ʧ/ which do not exist in Arabic, the learners’ mother tongue. 

4.2 Recognition of Simple Vowels 

In the following table, the Iraqi EFL Learners’ correct and incorrect responses of the recognition of 

simple vowels are mentioned: 

 

Table 3. The Iraqi EFL Learners’ Recognition of Simple Vowels 

No. of 

Item 

Correct 

Answers 

% Incorrect 

Answers 

% 

7 13 13 87 87 

8 54 54 46 46 

9 16 16 84 84 

10 16 16 84 84 

11 44 44 56 56 

Total 143 28.6% 357 71.4% 

 

Based on Table 3 above, the total of correct answers of items is (143) whereas that of the incorrect ones is 

(387). For more illustration, item (8) which constitutes (54). It is regarded the highest number of correct 

responses: 

The word “open” is pronounced as: 

a. /әʊpen/ b. /əʊpən/ c. /әʊpan/

 d. /әʊpɪn 

As for the total of incorrect answers, Iraqi EFL students record (357) where item (7): 

7-The word “but” is pronounced as: 

a. /but/ b. /bit/ c. /b˄t/ d. /bәt/ 



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On this basis, the second hypothesis of the study is partially rejected in that Iraqi university learners do 

not recognize all English simple vowels correctly because these vowels do not exist in Arabic, the 

learners’ mother tongue. These include /˄, әː ɒ, e/. 

4.3 Recognition of Diphthongs 

Table 4 below shows that the total number of correct occurrences is (413) and that of the incorrect ones is 

(387): 

 

Table 4. The Iraqi EFL Learners’ Recognition of Diphthongs 

No. of Item Correct Answers % Incorrect Answers % 

12 39 39 61 61 

13 60 60 40 40 

14 28 28 72 72 

15 44 44 56 56 

16 46 46 54 54 

17 63 63 37 37 

18 67 67 33 33 

19 66 66 34 34 

Total 413 51.62 387 48.38 

 

As shown above, it is worth mentioning that English diphthongs, such as, /aʊ, iә, eә, ʊә / and also the 

other phonemes (like ei, ai, au, oi) are not well recognized by Iraqi EFL university learners. Thus, EFL 

Iraqi learners are mostly incapable of selecting or identifying the accurate answers which express the 

difficulty in acquiring the phonological system in the FL that has been attributed to the factors such as 

age of FL perceptual learning, quality and quantity of FL input, and interference from the mother tongue 

phonological system. 

In other words, the Iraqi EFL university learners do not begin to connect the sounds of the given language 

to phonemes or phoneme combinations. It is good to depend on useful references, like Roach (2009), for 

the purpose of practising and developing these sounds. Iraqi EFL learners encounter varying degrees of 

difficulty in the recognition of English vowels. Thus, they have less difficulty in the recognition of 

diphthong. This reflects that the third hypothesis of this study is accepted: some diphthongs are not 

recognized by the sample of the study. These diphthongs includes /әʊ, iә, eә, ʊә/. However, the degree of 

difficulty shown by Iraqi EFL students tends to decrease with the increase in FL experience. 

 



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4.4 Recognition of Consonant Clusters 

As seen in Table 5 below, it is shown that the correct responses are more than the incorrect ones (431 vs 

369 occurrences): 

 

Table 5. The Iraqi EFL Learners’ Recognition of Consonant Clusters 

No. of Item Correct Answers % Incorrect Answers % 

20 73 73 27 27 

21 55 55 45 45 

22 55 55 45 45 

23 59 59 41 41 

24 59 59 41 41 

25 54 54 46 46 

26 43 43 57 57 

27 33 33 67 67 

Total 431 53.87 369 46.13 

 

In general, this means that the Iraqi EFL learners are able to recognize some consonant clusters: 

20-The two-initial consonant cluster in the word “drive” is pronounced as: 

a. /dɪraɪv/  b. /deraɪv/  c. /draɪv/  d. /dɪrɪv/ 

Item (20) records the highest number among other items which has (73). On the other hand, item (27) 

represents the highest number of incorrect ones, (67) occurrences: 

27-The seven-final consonant cluster in the words “the text’s stupid” is pronounced asː 

a. /ðә tekɪsts stuːpɪd/   b. /ðә teksɪts stuːpɪd/ c. /ðә tekstɪs stuːpɪd/ d. /ðә teksts stjuːpɪd/ 

This represents the highest number of incorrect ones, (67) occurrences. Thus, the Iraqi EFL learners 

mostly get acceptable scores to determine the appropriate responses of the concerned consonant clusters. 

They get good scores in items (20, 21, 23, 24, 25), i.e., two and three initial consonant clusters, and two,  

three, four and five final consonant clusters, respectively. This is because fourth year students of the 

department of English have enough competence to recognize consonant sequences. As opposed, they do 

not master to recognize accurate answers for items (26) and (27): six and seven final consonant clusters. 

This is because of their usage of putting an epenthetic vowel which causes a basic change in the syllable 

arrangement of the words stated in the test. 

On this basis, Iraqi EFL university students have capacity to distinguish among two initial consonant 

cluster, three initial consonant cluster, two final consonant cluster, three final consonant cluster, four 



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final consonant cluster and five final consonant cluster, but they are unable to identify six and seven final 

consonant clusters. This leads to the confirmation of the fourth hypothesis of the study: Iraqi EFL 

undergraduates face difficulty in recognizing some types of consonant clusters. These clusters include 

namely, six and seven final consonant clusters. 

4.5 Recognition of Vowel Clusters 

In Table 6 below, it is shown that the Iraqi EFL learners’ responses of the incorrect responses of vowel 

clusters are more than the correct ones (357, vs. 243): 

 

Table 6. The Iraqi EFL Learners’ Recognition of Vowel Clusters 

No. of Item Correct Answers % Incorrect Answers % 

28 42 42 58 58 

29 29 29 71 71 

30 43 43 57 66 

31 44 44 56 56 

32 36 36 64 64 

33 49 49 51 51 

Total 243 40.5 357 59.5 

 

In addition, the Iraqi EFL learners do not have a good competence to recognize the English vowel 

clusters. The correct answers to recognize vowel sequences represent 40.5% only compared to the 

incorrect ones (59.5%) only. This means that the informants’ recognition ability of vowel sequences is 

rather weak. item (33) reaches 49 occurrences: 

33-The words “two hours” are pronounced asː 

a.\tuː haurz\ b.\tuː әʊәz\ c.\tuːauәz\

 d.\tuːuәz\  

Of the incorrect responses, item (29) reaches (71) occurences. 

29-The word “react” is pronounced asː 

a.\ riːkt\ b.\riakt\ c.\riekt\ d.\rekt\ 

With reference to the previous results, the Iraqi EFL learners appear to be inefficient in recognizing all 

vowel clusters and, thus, they are also confused in distinguishing all vowel clusters, triphthongs, short 

vowel + short vowel, long vowel + short vowel, long vowel + long vowel and diphthong + diphthong, 

long vowel + triphthongs. This is because of the unavailability of vowel clusters in Arabic, their mother 

tongue, and because of the ineffective and poor strategies manipulated in teaching vowel system, in 

general, and its clusters, in particular. This is intensified by not assigning a sufficient period of time for 



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teaching them. On this basis, the fifth hypothesis of the study is verified: vowel clusters are not correctly 

recognized by the sample of the study. This is because the Iraqi EFL university students are incompetent 

in recognizing vowel clusters within English words. For instance, students fail to identify the vowels 

within the words. 

4.6 Comparison between Recognition of Consonants and Vowels 

Table 7 shows that the Iraqi EFL learners’ recognition of vowels are better than of consonants: 

 

Table 7. Iraqi EFL Learners’ Recognition of Correct Answers of Consonants and Vowels 

No. of items Recognition of Consonants No. of items Recognition of Vowels 

1 44 7 13 

2 18 8 54 

3 33 9 16 

4 29 10 16 

5 34 11 44 

6 7 12 39 

20 73 13 60 

21 55 14 28 

22 55 15 44 

23 59 16 46 

24 59 17 63 

25 54 18 76 

26 43 19 66 

27 33 28 42 

  29 29 

  30 43 

  31 44 

  32 36 

  33 49 

Total 596 Total 799 

Percentages 42.5% Percentages 42.05% 

 

As clear in Table 7 above, the percent of Iraqi EFL learners’ correct answers of consonants (42.5%) is 

more than that of vowels (42.05%). Therefore, the sixth hypothesis of the study is refuted, since the 

correct answers of vowels are more than the correct ones of consonants, but both of them are below than 

the average. 



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5. Conclusions and Recommendations  

5.1 Conclusions 

As a result of the theoretical and practical sides of the study, the following conclusions are arrived at: 

1) Iraqi EFL university learners do not recognize some English consonants correctly. The results show 

that most Iraqi EFL learners in this study find difficulty in producing the consonants /p, v, ŋ, g, ʒ, ʧ/, with 

varying degrees. This is because Iraqi EFL learners are believed to use their phonemes more effectively 

than the English ones. 

2) Iraqi EFL university learners do not recognize any English vowel correctly. The results reveal that 

Iraqi EFL university students have no capacity to distinguish all the English simple vowels. This is in 

harmony with what AlJomaely (2018) states: “Certain English vowels are likely to cause uneasiness 

when Arabic learners of English articulate and perceive them, especially if they are not found in Modern 

Standard Arabic; this is the case of the vowels [ɔ], [ʌ] and [e], for example. Central vowels do not exist in 

the vowel system of Arabic. As a result, the phoneme /ʌ/ is often replaced by /æ/ or /u/”. 

3) The Iraqi EFL university learners’ inability to recognize any English vowel correctly is attributed to 

those vowels being not exising in Arabic, the learners’ mother tongue. These include /˄, әː ɒ, e/. 

4) The results reveal that the Iraqi EFL learners appeared to be efficient in recognizing some diphthongs 

which are /aɪ/, /eɪ/. /aʊ/. /oʊ/ and /oɪ/. 

5) Four diphthongs are not recognized by the sample of the study since they acquire the phonological 

system of their MT rather than that of EFL and interference from the mother tongue phonological system 

definitely occurs. These diphthongs include /ou, iә, eә, uә/. 

6) The results reveal that Iraqi EFL university students have the capacity to distinguish only two initial, 

three initial consonant clusters, two, three, four and five final consonant clusters. 

7) Iraqi EFL university learners face difficulty in recognizing some types of final consonant clusters 

which include six and seven final consonant clusters because of their putting an epenthetic vowel which 

causes a basic change in the syllable arrangement of the words stated in the test. This is related to Arabic 

which has no long consonant sequences. 

8) Vowel clusters are not correctly recognized by Iraqi EFL learners. The results reveal that the Iraqi EFL 

learners appeared to be inefficient in recognizing them and, thus, they are also confused in distinguishing 

all vowel clusters, including /eɪә/, short vowel + short vowel, long vowel+short vowel, long vowel + long 

vowel and diphthong + diphthong. 

9) Vowel clusters are not correctly recognized by Iraqi EFL because of the unavailability of vowel 

clusters in Arabic, their mother tongue, and because of the ineffective and poor strategies manipulated in 

teaching vowel system, in general, and its clusters, in particular, along with assigning limited periods of 

time for teaching them in the second year of teaching in the department of English, Colleges of Education. 

Diphthongs may also sometimes be mispronounced. They may be substituted by other phonemes largely 

as a consequence of mother tongue interference (AlJomaely, 2018, p. 69). The incorrect answers of Iraqi 

EFL learners’ recognition and production of consonants are more than the correct ones. 



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10) The consonants, which Iraqi EFL learners do not master, are /p, v, ŋ, g, ʒ, ʧ/. 

11) The incorrect answers of Iraqi EFL learners’ recognition of simple vowels are more than the correct 

ones. This is because of the great difference between the phonological system of their mother tongue and 

that of the target language. 

12) The incorrect answers of diphthongs are more than the correct ones in recognizing diphthongs that 

are achieved by the sample of the study. 

13) The incorrect answers of the consonant clusters are more than the correct ones in recognizing 

consonant clusters that are achieved by the sample of the study. 

14) The incorrect answers of the vowel clusters are more than the correct ones in the recognition of vowel 

clusters that is performed by the sample of the study. 

15) The capacity of EFL Iraqi learners in recognizing vowel sounds is more than their capacity in 

recognizing the consonant ones. 

16) Iraqi EFL learners’ recognition of vowels is better than of consonants. 

17) As it is clear from the previous conclusions, the mother tongue affects the Iraqi EFL university 

learners’ recognition of consonants, consonant clusters, simple vowels, diphthongs and vowel clusters. 

18) The differences among English and Arabic segmentals and the phonological structures of English 

and Arabic syllables make a kind of negative transfer in that learners try to approximate the sounds and 

sounds sequences which are unavailable in their mother tongue by transferring the nearest sounds. This 

makes an interference to the Iraqi EFL learning process. The main conclusion of the study is in harmony 

with Betti and al-Jubouri (2015, p. 149): The teaching of pronunciation is an important aspect of EFL 

methodology. Pronunciation drills are an integral part of effective EL teaching. These drills help students 

overcome problems that arise from the interference of the mother tongue (Betti & al-Jubouri, 2015, p. 

149). 

5.2 Recommendations 

As a result of the theoretical and practical sides of the study, the following recommendations are made: 

1) For University instructors, it is useful for them to focus and pay some attention to their students’ use of 

English segmentals and syllables. Therefore, they may rely on the communicative ways of teaching and 

enhancing their students’ use of English segmentals and syllables through teaching them the concepts of 

consonants, vowels, consonant clusters and vowel clusters. 

2) Instructors should focus on the sounds and sound sequences which do not exist in the learners’ mother 

tongue. 

3) In the class, teachers have to make use of social media, where English is pronounced by native 

speakers. In these media, students can find helpful native speakers, on these media, with whom they can 

communicate directly and learn how to deal with the English segmentals and syllables. 

4) It is necessary for EFL learners to understand the phonological system via the curriculum. The 

important thing in teaching and presenting English segmentals and syllables is knowing the differences 



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and similarities between MT and EFL which should be highlighted to the learners including segmentals 

and syllables. 

5) Practice is important since it helps learners to enhance their ability in distinguishing (and producing) 

English segmentals and syllables. 

6) Real world contexts have to be accompanied with the proposed textbook in TEFL in Iraq in order to 

make the role of the segmentals clearer to the learners, conversation courses ought to be added to the 

second and fourth year at the departments of English in Colleges of Education in Iraq to enrich the 

learners’ speaking and listening skills and the teacher ought to use the laboratory to make the learners 

practise consonants and vowels (Betti & Ulaiwi, 2018, p. 88). 

7) Iraqi EFL learners should review the phonetic and phonological references in order to master English 

phonetic and phonological system. 

 

Acknowledgements 

Special thanks are to the jury members for their commenting on an earlier copy of the test, and I also 

thank our students (the subjects of this study) for their cooperation and responding to the test. 

 

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Appendix 1. Symbols for English phonemes (Roach, 2012) 

I   as in ‘pit’ pit            i: as in ‘key’ ki: 

e   as in ‘pet’ pet           a: as in ‘car’ ka: 

a   as in ‘pat’ pat           o: as in ‘core’ ko:                

Λ  as in ‘putt’ pΛt          u: as in ‘coo’ ku: 

o   as in ‘pot’ pot           ∂: as in ‘cur’ k∂:                

u   as in ‘put’ put                

∂   as in ‘about’, ∂baut              

ei  as in ‘bay’ bei 

oi  as in ‘boy’ boi 

i∂  as in ‘peer’ pi∂ 

e∂  as in ‘pear’ pe∂ 

u∂  as in poor p u∂ 

au  as in ‘cow’ kau 

ou  as in ‘go’ gou 

https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350934177
https://doi.org/10.13189/lls.2014.020702
http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol36/
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P   as in ‘pea’ pi: 

t   as in ‘toe’ tou 

k   as in ‘cap’ kap 

f   as in ‘fat’ fat 

Ɵ  as in ‘thing’ 0iŋ 

s   as in ‘sip’ sip 

ʃ   as in ‘ship’ ʃip 

h   as in ‘hat’ hat 

m  as in ‘map’ map 

n   as in ‘nap’ nap 

ŋ   as in ‘hang’ haŋ 

tʃ  as in ‘chin’ tʃin 

b  as in ‘bee’ bi: 

d  as in ‘doe’ dou 

g  as in ‘gap’ gap 

v  as in ‘vat’ vat 

ð  as in ‘this’ ðis 

z  as in ‘zip’ zip 

З  as in ‘measure’ me З∂ 

1  as in ‘led’ led 

r  as in ‘red’ red 

j  as in ‘yet’ jet 

w  as in ‘wet’ wet 

dЗ  as in ‘gin’ dƷ in 

 

Appendix 2. Symbols for Arabic Phonemes (Betti, 2007) 

/f/ /fi:l/ elephant 

/Ѳ/ /Ѳa9lb/ “fox” 

/ð/ /ðabha/ “he threw it” 

/D/ /DabuT/ “an officer” 

/s/ /suug/ “market” 

/S/ /Sabur/ “patience” 

/z/ /zraar/ “button” 

/t3/ /t3aali/ “bank of the river” 

/∫/ /∫maalak/ “What is wrong with you” 



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/x/ /xubuz/ “bread” 

/G/ /Graab/ “crow” 

/h/ /hnaa/ “here” 

/H/ /Hariim/ “women” 

/ b / /baab/ “door” 

/t/ /timman/ “rice” 

/T/ /TamaTa/ “tomatoes” 

/d/ /tdanna/ “be nearby” 

/D/ /Daal/ “staying” 

/k/ /ka9ak/ “cake” 

/q/ /qadiim/ “old” 

/?/ /?ams/ “yesterday” 

/d3/ /d3amaal/ “beauty” 

/g/ /ga9ad/ “he set down” 

/m/ /minhuu/ “Who is it?” 

/n/ /nibaH/ “barked” 

/l/ /limna/ “gather us” 

/w/ /wajjaana/ “with us” 

/j/ /jamta/ “when” 

/9/ /9aali/ “high” 

/r/ /ramul/ “sand” 

/p/ /parda / “curtain” 

/i/ /mi9da/ “stomach” 

/ii/ /biina/ “in us” 

/a/ /saliim/ “healthy” 

/aa/ /salim/ “safe” 

/oo/ /tilifoon/ “telephone” 

/u/ /ummii/ “my mother” 

/uu/ /9uud/ “stick” 

 

 



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Appendix 3. The Test 

Q1/ Listen to the following words carefully and tick the suitable answer: 

1) The word “pen” is pronounced as:  

a. /bɪn/   b. /ben/   c. /pen/  d. /pan/  

2) The word “veer” is pronounced as:  

a. /vi:r/   b. /fi:r /   c. /vɪə/  d. /fɪә/ 

3) The word “sing” is pronounced as:  

a. /sɪŋ/    b. /sæng/    c. /sɑːng/   d. /sɪng/  

4. The word “glass” is pronounced as:  

a. /kla:s/   b. /gla:s/     c. /glæs/    d. /klæs/    

5. The word “pleasure” is pronounced as:  

a. /pleʒә/    b. /pleʃә/    c. /pleʤә/   d. /plaʒә/ 

6. The word “charge” is pronounced as:  

a. /ʃærʤ/    b. /ʤaːʤ/    c. /ʧɑːʤ/  d. /kɑːʤ/ 

7. The word “but” is pronounced as:  

a. /but/    b. /bit/    c. /b˄t/  d. /bәt/ 

8. The word “open” is pronounced as:  

a. /әʊpen/    b. /əʊpən/    c. /әʊpan/    d. /әʊpɪn/     

9. The word “search” is pronounced as; 

a. /sertʃ/    b. /səːtʃ/  /seɪrtʃ    d. /siːrtʃ/ 

10. The word “set” is pronounced as:  

a. /si:t/    b. /set/    c. /sɪt/     d. /sat/ 

11. The word “not” is pronounced as:  

a. /nɒt/    b. /n˄t/    c. /nʊt/  d. /næt/ 

12. The word “go” is pronounced as:  

a. /gɔː/   b. /gʊə/   c. /gʊ ː/  d. /gɑ ː/   

13. The word “name” is pronounced as:  

a. /nɪm/   b. /ni:m/   c. /neɪm/  d. /nem/ 

14. The word “hear” is pronounce 

d as:  

a. /hɪə/    b. /hɪr/    c. /hir/   d. /heә/ 

15. The word “air” is pronounced as:  

a. /eə/   b. /ɪә/      c. /ᴜә/    d. /i:ә/   

16. The word “tour” is pronounced as:  

a. /teә/    b. /tʊə/    c. /ta:r/   d. /tʊ:/ 

17. The word “mine” is pronounced as:  

a. /mi:n/     b. /men/     c. /maɪn/     d. /meɪn/   



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18. The word “house” is pronounced as:  

a. /haʊs/   b. /hᴐ:s/   c. /hәʊs/  d. /hʊs/ 

19. The word “noise” is pronounced as:  

a. /nɔɪz/   b. /nᴐ:z/   c. /nez/  d. /nʊz/ 

20. The two-initial consonant cluster in the word “drive” is pronounced as:  

a. /dɪraɪv/  b. /deraɪv/  c. /draɪv/  d. /dɪrɪv/ 

21. The three-initial consonant cluster in the word “street” is pronounced as:  

a. /stri:t/    b. /sɪtri:t/    c. /stɪri:t/    d. /sri:t/     

22. The two-final consonant cluster in the word “books” is pronounced as:  

a. /bo:ks/     b. /bʊks/     c. /bʊkɪs/     d. /bʊkes/   

23. The three-final consonant cluster in the word “midst” is pronounced as:  

a. /mɪdɪst/     b. /mɪdst/     c. /mɪdi:st/     d. /mɪdsɪt/   

24. The four-final consonant cluster in the word “sixths” is pronounced as:  

a. /sɪksθs/     b. /sɪkɪsθs/    c. /sɪkɪsθɪs/   d. /sɪkɪsɪθɪs/ 

 25. The five-final consonant clester in the words “milk’s free” is pronounced as ː 

a.mɪlkɪsfri    b.mɪlksfri     c. mɪlksɪfri   d.mɪlksfɪri 

26.The six-final cluster in the words “next spring” is pronounced asː  

a. nekst sprɪŋ b. neksɪt sprɪŋ c.nekst sɪprɪŋ d. nekst spɪrɪŋ 

27.The seven-final consonant cluster in the words “the text’s stupid” is pronounced asː 

a. ðә tekɪsts stuːpɪd b. ðә teksɪts stuːpɪd c. ðә tekstɪs stuːpɪd d. ðə teksts stjuːpɪd  

28.The word “player” is pronounced asː  

a. \plaɪә\ b.\pleɪə\ c.\pliːr\ d.\plaɪr\ 

29. The word “react” is pronounced asː  

a.\riːkt\  b.\riakt\ c.\riekt\ d.\rekt\ 

30.The word “being” is pronounced as ː 

a. \biːiŋ \ b.\ beɪŋ \ c.\biːŋ \  d.\beŋ\ 

31. The words “you aren’t” are pronounced as ː 

a.\juːaːnt\    b.\jɔːaːnt\    c.\juːnt\  d.\jaːnt\ 

32. The words “my own” are pronounced asː  

a.\miː oun\    b.\mai oun\   c.\mei oun\   d.\mai uːn\ 

33.The words “two hours” are pronounced as ː 

a.\tuː haurz\ b.\tuː әʊәz\ c.\tuːauəz\ d.\tuːuәz\ 


