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30 

 

 
ELT FORUM 10 (1) (2021) 

 

Journal of English Language Teaching 

 
http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt 

 
 

Major phonemic problems of Bangladeshi learners of English: Reasons behind 

and solutions 

 

A K M Mazharul Islam 

 
College of Languages and Translation, King Khalid University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 

  

 

Article Info 
________________  
Article History: 

Received in 16 Februari 

2021  
Approved in 28 March 

2021 

Published in 29 March 

2021 

________________  
Keywords: consonant 

and vowel sounds; 

sound production; 

phonemic problem of 

Bangladeshi learners; 

differences and 

difficulties 
____________________ 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract  
___________________________________________________________________ 
The issue of Bangladeshi EFL learners’ phonemic challenges, though not very 
battered, has been addressed by some researchers at different times. Even after 

having a prolonged history of learning and teaching and some research in the field, 

awkward pronunciations and misunderstandings are still prevailing everywhere, 
from the primary level to tertiary level and beyond. This study is undertaken to 

heighten the importance of delving deeper into the root causes of phonemic 
difficulties of the learners and to pinpoint the major problems. To add flesh to the 

theoretical skeleton of the topic a group of university students was interviewed 
along with a questionnaire to check their understanding of English phonology along 

with some other basic questions related to pronunciation. It can firmly be stated 

that teaching/learning pronunciation and hence starting from the segmental level 
has never been followed. Like any other country where English is in the status of a 

second language or foreign language, it is very natural to face difficulties to master 
the intricate phonemic features of the target language for the learners. Supposedly, 

it mostly results from the lack of knowledge of phonology and phonetics of the 
target language and due to the phonemic differences between the first language and 

the target language. In this study, the focus is kept mainly on the salient phonemic 

challenges faced by Bangladeshi learners of English. Bringing in the basic ideas of 
consonant and vowel sounds, the sound production mechanism is shown, and then 

the differences between the vowels and consonants of two languages are held out. 
Tracing out the key difficulties, some suggestions are provided. This writing is 

expected to be of considerable and comprehensive help for the instructors as well as 
for the interested learners and crucial addition to the literature of the topic.

 
 © 2021 Universitas Negeri Semarang 
Correspondent Address: p-ISSN 2252-6706 | e-ISSN 2721-4532 

B3 Building FBS Unnes  

Sekaran, Gunungpati, Semarang, 50229  

E-mail: amazharul@kku.edu.sa  

http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1333515478&1&&
http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1576658845&1&&


A K M Mazharul Islam/ ELT Forum 10 (1) (2021) 

31 

 

INTRODUCTION 

Language is a sublime gift to human beings since Language is the species-specific and species-uniform 

feature of the human being (Varshney, 2000). Vowels and consonants are the bricks of the great edifice of 

language within which dwell our thoughts and dreams, prayers and meditations, relation and 

communication. Proper understanding of vowel and consonant sounds is at the root of expertise in spoken 

skill. Bangladeshi learners of English usually face some difficulties as the language is not their mother 

tongue.  

Though Bangla and English are the offspring of the same language family, namely Indo-European, 

more particularly, English descends from the Germanic group, whereas Bangla belongs to the Indo-Aryan 

group and is derived from Sanskrit. With the passage of time, English and Bangla have developed in their 

own ways. Each with its own characteristics in sounds, in words and sentence structures, in stress and 

intonation today they are entirely different languages (Fergluson, Hai, & Ball, 1962). The study was 

triggered by few fundamental questions. Firstly, the question pursued is ‘what are the major segmental 

differences between the target language and mother tongue?’. Secondly, the question, ‘what difficulties do 

the learners face in learning the pronunciation of the target language?’ is handled. Thirdly, the factors 

causing those difficulties are tried to be traced. At the very end, answers to the question- ‘what are the 

probable solution to these problems?’ are looked for. This study is an addition in the stream of the topic 

and an effort to lay further emphasis for taking the issue with more seriousness and an appeal to the 

concerned stakeholders to address the problem institutionally, embracing it in the materials and making it 

an integral part of the pedagogy of the discipline.  

The history of institutional teaching-learning of English can be traced far back to the colonial 

period. The whole timespan of English learning and teaching in Bangladesh can be broadly categorized 

into three phases. The first period covers till 1947 up to independence from British rule. The second 

period, during the regime of newly created Pakistan, covers the postcolonial period ranging from 1947 to 

1971. The third phase is from the independence of Bangladesh till now, starting from 1971 onward (Islam 

& Hashim, 2019). Interesting enough, teaching pronunciation had never been taken into consideration.  

The credit for early elementary work on Bangla phonetics supposedly goes to Chatterji (Chatterji, 

1921) where he has elaborated the segmental and suprasegmental features of the language in considerable 

detail and minuteness. Ferguson et al. (Ferguson et al., 1962) have held out the basic differences between 

English and Bangla. They also have clearly shown the phonetic inventory of the two languages side by 

side at a very early time. These early works have not shed enough light to find out the causes of the 

difficulties of the learners. Haque (Haque, A., & A., 1990), Rahman (Rahman A. H., 1996) have 

mentioned few major issues of the learners like the learners’ using mother tongue accent for the target 

language without following sound pattern, accent and intonation. Failure to differentiate between long and 

short vowel is another notable flaw of the learners. Mujaffar (Mujaffar, 1999) has also observed the 

learners’ difficulties with /z/, /ʤ/, /f/, /v// /ᴣ/; /θ/ and / ð /; /t/ sounds. Banu (Banu, 2000) along 

with these problems has also discussed the issue of learners’ inability to handle the features of aspiration 

and stress. Barman (2011) in his work has shown the contrastive features of the two languages concerned. 

He has not included the causes of the difficulties. Monjur and Uddin (2015) have shown the effects of 

dialects on the learners’ output. They have pointed out that except for few regions the same tendency is 

observable among the learners. Tahreen (2015), Osmany (2017) have discussed the issue from the teacher’s 

perspective and thrown some light on the challenges of teaching pronunciation in Bangladesh.   
The comprehensibility and intelligibility of the spoken language is highly dependent on its 

pronunciation (Morley, 1991). Despite pronunciation being the most integral element of oral 
communication and communicative competence, this sub-skill of English has always been neglected in 
Bangladesh (Maniruzzaman, 2008; Osmany, 2017; Tahereen, 2015). Recent studies are conducted mainly 
from the teaching point of view to find out the challenges in teaching pronunciation. Early works on the 
topic dealt mainly with differences between two sets of phonemes.  A deeper understanding of the 
segmental features of the target language is very crucial. Awareness of the segmental differences between 
mother tongue and target language is at the root of mastering the proper pronunciation of the target 
language and hence, this study narrowed down the focus on the major phonemic differences and 
difficulties from the learners’ standpoint and comes up with some pedagogical implications in the end. 
Though various aspects of English language teaching have been covered by researchers at different times, 
enough research on the topic has not been done. In this respect, this study is expected to play an important 
role by providing the stakeholders an insight and pave the way to better learning/teaching.  

 

Sound Production Mechanism 

Before we explore the segmental difficulties let us have a glance at the sound production mechanism which 

is regarded indispensable to the study of phonetics. The production of any sound is not as simple as merely 



A K M Mazharul Islam/ ELT Forum 10 (1) (2021) 

32 

 

 

opening and closing the mouth. It is a rather complex process. Three stages are involved here - 

psychological, physiological and physical. In the psychological stage, when we try to produce any sound 

then a group of brain cells is excited, and a message is formed. Then in the physiological level, the message 

is carried to the diaphragm. In the third level, which is in the physical level, the message is passed to the 

diaphragm. The diaphragm gives a squeeze and a flow of air rushes out through the windpipe and is 

finally released either through the oral cavity or nasal cavity (Sethi & Dhamija, 1998). In the case of 

consonant sounds, the flow of the air is obstructed almost at a dozen places. But regarding vowel sounds, 

that flow of air is not hindered anywhere and directly let out in the air (Yule, 2008). The following figures 

would help us to understand the production of consonant and vowel sounds. To produce any sound, the 

diaphragm starts the physical process by throwing the airflow outward; The thrown air then passes by 

various articulators. The flow of the air is being played by a group of active and passive articulators for 

producing consonant sounds. If the airstream is directly emitted to the air without having any blockage or 

obstruction, then vowel sounds are produced. The following fundamental figure as presented in Islam 

(2017) is a placeworthy one. 

 

 
1- nasal cavity 
2- lips 
3- teeth 
4- aveolar ridge 
5- hard palate 
6- velum (soft (palate) 
7- uvula 
8- apex (tip) of tongue 
9- blade (front) of tongue 
10- dorsum (back) of tongue 
11- oral cavity 
12- pharynx 
13- epiglottis 
14- larynx 
15- vocal cords 
16- trachea 
17- esophagus 

 
Figure 1. The organs of speech 

 
Basic Sounds of English 

All the speech sounds created by human beings are broadly divided into two categories- vowels and 

consonants. A vowel is a hum or a tune which is produced with the thrown air stream of the lungs and the 

airflow is not hindered anywhere from the voice-box to lips and no audible friction is caused. In other 

words, vowels are sounds that are produced when the airflow from the lungs passes through the larynx 

without any obstruction anywhere (Sethi & Dhamija, 1998). So, we can say that vowels are sounds that 

are articulated without any obstruction, partial or complete, in the oral cavity. The vowels can be 

monophthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs regarding their quality. The monophthongs or the pure 

vowels can again be divided into long and short categories in respect of their length. Lip rounding and 

tongue advancement and height also add to the subtle features of vowels. Consonants, on the other hand, 

are the sounds in the production of which there is an obstruction or a constriction in the airstream. 

Consonants are divided into various types according to places and manners of articulation. The vibration 

of the vocal folds at the time of articulation divides all the consonants into voiced and voiceless types 

again. The number of speech sounds varies from language to language. In English, according to most 

accounts, there are 49 phonemes including the triphthongs. There are 12 vowels, 8 diphthongs, 5 

triphthongs and 22 consonants (Roach, 2000). It is very hard to ascertain the exact number of Bangla 

phonemes due to controversies among linguists working with Bangla phonology. According to Chatterji 

(1921) the number of the essential phonemes of standard colloquial Bangla it is 35. A recent account of the 

Bangla phonemes shows the number to be 62 (Hasan, 1995). They are 7 oral vowels, 7 nasal vowels, 18 

diphthongs and 30 consonants. 

 

METHODS 

The qualitative approach was mainly adopted for this study. Fifty student respondents were randomly 

chosen from two private universities of Bangladesh. They were all first year first-semester students of BA 



A K M Mazharul Islam/ ELT Forum 10 (1) (2021) 

33 

 

in English program, both male and female, age ranging from seventeen to twenty-two. They did not attend 

any course on pronunciation or phonetics in the department by that time or before at any other stage of 

their study. In a formal setting, the students were asked to read a script with a list of words including the 

vowel and consonant sounds of English. Particularly the words with sounds which were thought to be 

challenging had mostly been given. Their readings were recorded and analyzed. An analysis especially of 

their common mistakes was also made and presented in the discussion section.   

Recordings of structured/semi-structured interviews, class/presentation observation is a common 

practice in the study of phonetics, particularly in the study of segmental and suprasegmental features of 

any language. Like many other researchers, Haque and Begum (Hoque & Begum, 2016), Goswami 

(Goswami, 2020) maintain the same tool in their studies. The instrument type of the study is very common 

and widely used and hence, it is expected to satisfy the validity and reliability concerns. The reading script 

was developed with a special focus on the words with the sounds that are absent in the learners’ mother 

tongue. Regarding the consonants, words like ‘vine’, ‘think’, ‘zero’, ‘measure’, ‘war’ and ‘yes’ were given 

to check the pronunciation of the sounds /f/, /v/, /θ/, /z/, /ʒ/, /w/, /j/ respectively. Words with 

consonant sounds that are absent in the target language were also included. In respect of the vowel sounds, 

words were selected following the same principle with special importance on the words with /ə/, long 

vowels and diphthongs. Learners’ attempts are presented in the tables in the discussion section. The 

respondents were also asked some elementary questions related to English language learning in general 

and the importance of learning pronunciation. Permissions were duly taken to use the samples for research 

purposes, and they were also ascertained of the confidentiality of their identity. 

In the study, the knowledge of the segmental features of English language is briefly discussed. Then, 

the segmental differences of the target language and mother tongue are held out. After that, effort is taken 

to diagnose the phonemic difficulties of the learners. It is also tried to track down the reasons behind these 

difficulties. And finally, some pedagogical suggestions are offered for consideration.  

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 

Learners’ Difficulties with English Vowels 

Islam (2018) observes that a speaker’s articulators usually get set with the sounds of his/her mother 

tongue. When he tries to learn a language other than his mother tongue then he faces problems with those 

sounds that are not found in his tongue. Several problems may be traced regarding vowel sounds. One of 

the remarkable problems of BD learners of English is that his mother tongue vowels often intrude into the 

target language vowels. Another problem is the learners cannot handle long and short vowels. In Bangla 

long and short vowels do not make any difference in meaning usually. It is rather a phonetic feature than 

phonemic. In English they are very crucial. 

We have noted that the quality of a Bengali vowel is not conditioned by length. On the other hand, 

length distinguishes English vowel sounds, / i- i:, ɔ- ɔː, u- u: /. Bengali speakers do not usually 

make any distinctions between short and long vowels. For example, they pronounce /ful/ and 

/full/ in the same way (Haque, 1990, p. 101). 

Some of the vowels in English are not there in Bangla. Schwa ‘ə’ is a characteristic sound which 

becomes very tricky for the learners. Long vowels /ɑː/, /ɔː/ are also difficult to tackle. Another noticeable 

difficult area for the learners is diphthongs. Davenport (Davenport & H., 2010) mentions that the strong 

feature of English diphthongs is the glides from one vowel to the other. The common mistake that is made 

by the learners is that they only say the first part of the diphthong and ignore the second part and in 

consequence, they sound like a short vowel. In respect of diphthongs, similar to Tahreen’s (2015) findings, 

learners pronounce the diphthongs as monophthongs. Last part of the sound is missed. They pronounce 

/go/ for /ɡoʊ/, /mek/ for /meik/ and the like. Yet, the learners were not able to handle the triphthongs 

and were mostly not aware of them. They are found in the words like eI+ ә = eIә(player) ɑI + ә = ɑIә(fire) 

ɔІ + ә = ɔІə (loyal) әʊ + ә = әʊә (lower) aʊ + ә = aʊə (power). In the following chart we can show the 

difficulties in brief: 

Table 1. Attempts of the Bengali learners of the English Vowels 
Sounds in 

English 

Example in 

words 

Correct 

pronunciation 

Attempt of the learners and notes 

i:, i Feel, fill /fi:l/,/fIl /fi l/ both long and short becomes the 
same, they use their only vowel 

a: , ʌ , 3: bard, bud, bird /ba:d/, /b ʌd/, 
/ b3:d/ 

/bad/; in all cases they use only /a/ 
sound 



A K M Mazharul Islam/ ELT Forum 10 (1) (2021) 

34 

 

ə about /sbʌv/ / əbʌv/; learners use 3rd Bengali 
vowel 

o: saw /so:/ /so / learners use their own vowel 5 

u, u: full, fool /ful/, /fu:l/ /ful/ ; both cases only Bangla vowel 
no 7 is used 

eə, Iə, uə air, fear, poor /eə/, /fIə/, /puə/ The learners usually break the 
diphthongs in their own vowels and 

first made long; becomes very different 
from the right one 

 

Discussion on Difference Between English and Bangla Vowels 

To be aware of the difficulties of Bangladeshi learners of English we are to be familiar with the differences 

between Bangla and English vowels. There are some vowels of English which are not present in Bangla 

and the Vice-versa. In Bangla alphabet though the feature long and short is mentioned but it is not 

maintained in pronunciation. The intermingling between short and long vowels does not make any 

difference in meaning but this is not the case in English. The use of short vowels in place of long ones and 

the vice-versa may be a blunder. The meaning may be altogether different with the change of long and 

short vowels. Diphthongs of these two languages are also not the same. Whereas English has 8 diphthongs 

Bengali has 18 regular diphthongs (Ferguson et al., 1962). The Bangla diphthongs are far greater in 

number than English diphthongs. Another point of difference is that unlike English vowels Bangla vowels 

can be nasalized and can affect the meaning. The following table can be helpful: 
 

Table 2. Difference between Bangla and English vowel sounds. 
T: Present; X: not present 

Phonetic Symbol English Bangla Key Word 

i: T X Feel 
i X T chil (eagle) 

i T X Fill 

e T T Bed 
æ T T Cat 

a X T bhat (rice) 

a: T X Part 

ɒ  T T Hot 

o X T gol(round) 

ʊ T X Full 

u: T X Fool 

u X T chul (hair) 

ʌ T X But 

 ɜː  T X Third 

ə T X Above 

o:/ ɔ: T X Saw 

 

The following quadrant would help us to understand the comparative spots where from the vowels 

of two languages are produced. Some of the vowels conform in their positions but some are not identical.  

 

               
 

 

Quadrant 1. English vowel (Barman, 2011) 

Quadrant 2.  Bangla Vowel (Barman, 2011) 

Quadrant 3. relative positions of English and Bangla vowels from (Ferguson et al., 1962) 

Figure 2. Quadrans of the vowels   



A K M Mazharul Islam/ ELT Forum 10 (1) (2021) 

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Learners’ Difficulties with Consonants  

Some problems can be traced regarding consonant sounds. In this respect, a noteworthy thing is that the 

problem often arises due to the knowledge of L-l interference. The mistakes the learners make are listed 

below: 

• In place of ‘flower’, ‘fine’ ‘full’ they pronounce it ‘phlauar’ ‘phine’ and ‘phull’. Here we see labio-

dental sound /f/ becomes bilabial /p1'/ 

• ‘vast’ /va:st/, ‘van’ /vaen/ become /bhtsn/ and Must/. Labio-dental /v/ becomes bilabial 

plosives /w/ and /y/ are not properly pronounced. They are treated as vowels rather than 

consonants. In place of ‘water’ /wɔ:tə/ they say /ɔtʌr /. 

• Common speaker mostly pronounces the final /r/ of the syllable. 

• Interdental /θ/ often made alveolar thus / θInk/ becomes /think/. 

• Interchangeability between some pair sounds in different regions of the country- /s - ʃ /

 /f- pʰ /, // bʰ - v / /ʒ - dʒ/ 
 

 

Figure 3. (a) labio-dental (b) bilabial (Roach, 2000) 
 

Major difficulties are presented in the following table. 
 

Table 3. Bangladeshi learners’ attempt of English consonants 

 

Islam (2017) summarizes the problems nicely. He points out that sounds /p/, /t/, /k/ are different 

from Bangla counterparts /p/ (প), /t/ (ট), and /k/(ক) in respect of aspiration. He presents the differences 

and the difficulties hierarchically. 

 

 

Sounds in 

English 

Example in words Correct 

pronunciation 

Attempt of the learners and notes 

/f/ fine /fain/ it is pronounced as /phain/ using 
aspirated Bangla bilabial consonant 

/v/ van /væn/ It is pronounced as /bitten/ with 

bilabial /bh/ 

/ʒ/ pleasure /'pleʒə/ It becomes /plejar/ or /plezar/, here 
the /ʒ/ becomes plosive /z/ or affricate 

/j/ 

/w/ wash /'wɒʃ/ It becomes /ɔʌʃ/, bilabial English 

consonant /w/ is completely ignored 

/j/ yes /jes/ It becomes /ies/ ommitteng the palatal 
consonant /j/ 

/r/ barber /ba:b?/  It becomes /ba:rba:r/, final Id is mostly 

pronounced 

/z/ Zeep/zoo /zi:p/ /zu:/ It becomes / dʒip/, /dʒu/ 



A K M Mazharul Islam/ ELT Forum 10 (1) (2021) 

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Figure 4. Image of a table of difficult English consonants Islam (2017)  

 

Discussion on Findings Regarding Consonants 

There are many consonants in Bangla and English which click with each other, yet there are some which 

are not so. Some consonant sounds of English are missing in Bangla and some of the Bangla consonants, 

in the same way, are not found in English. Overlooking suprasegmental features of consonants, we can 

notice some major differences between the consonants of these two languages. There are six plosives in 

English. They are: /p/, /b/, /k/, /1/, /g/ and /d/. Whereas, in Bangla, there are twenty plosive sounds. 

The intermingling of bilabial and labio-dental consonants of English is a common vulnerable area for 

Bangladeshi learners. The sound /z/ is often replaced by Bangla /j/ sound. Affricates also become more 

and more plosives. The following table may be helpful to understand the major differences. 

 

Table 4. Different Bangla and English consonants 

T: Present; X: Not present 

 

  Sounds Place of articulation English Bangla Key Word 

/f/ Labio-dental T X fine 

/v/ Labio-dental T X vine 

/θ/ Inter dental T X think 

/z/ alveolar T X zero 

/ʒ/ Post alveolar T X measure 

/w/ bilabial T X war 

/j/ palatal T X yes 

/kh/ Velar X T ‘Khaua’- eat 

/gh/ Velar X T ‘Gham’ - sweat 

/ jh/ Alveo- palatal (plosive) X T ‘Jhanu’- expert 

/ʈ/ dental X T ‘Tala’ - lock 

/th/ dental X T ‘Thala’- plate 

/dh/ dental X T ‘Dhoni’- rich 

/ph / bilabial X T ‘Phol’- fruit 

/bh/ bilabial X T ‘Bhalo’- good 

 



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At this point we are looking for the causes behind the difficulties. We shall find a number of 

causes at work. When a learner wants to learn a different language other than his mother tongue 

then the main problem, he faces is his prior knowledge of L 1; it intrudes every now and then. The 

age factor is also there (Roach, 2000), (UKEssays, 2018). Osmany (Osmany, 2017) mentions in her 

findings that though pronunciation is held very important by the learners and the teachers, it had 

never been taught, trained and tested. Let us try to enumerate the major causes: 

• Knowledge of LI sound pattern interference 

• Interference of regional accent 

• Lack of awareness 

• Lack of exposure 

• Lack of knowledge of the sound pattern of sounds of English 

• Alphabatic English spelling 

• Lack of practice 

• Lack of motivation 

• Shortage of trained instructors 

 

Some suggestions can rightly be offered at this stage. Though teaching/learning of English 

has a long history in Bangladesh which even dates back to the starting of the British colonial time 

(Islam & Hashim, 2019), the teaching/learning pronunciation has never been considered. Of course, 

it is not very easy to master all the sounds of a language which is not one’s mother tongue. The first 

job is to become aware of the problems. Once the problems are diagnosed then they can be faced 

easily. To handle them we can try the following suggestions: 

• Making the learners aware of the differences 

• Making the learners aware of their difficulties 

• Making the learners aware of all the sounds along with their places and manners of 

articulation 

• Finding out major problematic sounds 

• Treating them one by one 

• Engaging in more communicative activities 

• Providing them with regular reinforcement 

• Providing them a native or near-native model 

• Providing them maximum positive exposure 

 

In this respect, Harmer (Harmer, 2003) offers some suggestions to help the learners out. It is 

not possible to learn the pronunciation exactly like the native speakers. Some learners deliberately 

do not want to sound like the natives. So, he fixes intelligibility to be the target of the nonnative 

speaker learners. He lays much importance on listening since a learner will not be able to give the 

right pronunciation unless he can listen properly. 

There are two ways of dealing with this: in the first place, we can show students how sounds 

are made through demonstration, diagrams, and explanation. But we can also draw the 

sounds to their attention every time they on a tape or in our own conversation. In this way, 

we gradually train the students’ ears. When they can hear correctly, they are on the way to 

being able to speak correctly (Harmer, 2003, p. 185) 

 

A guide or teacher is to determine when to teach pronunciation and he is to choose the best 

suitable class technique for his learners among the techniques like - whole lesson, discrete slot, 

integrated phase, and opportunistic teaching. And he also suggests the phonemic chart to be hung in 

the classroom near at hand. The learner can be instantly directed to the chart when some sounds are 

mispronounced or confused. Finally, he opines- “The key to successful pronunciation teaching, 

however, is not so much getting students to produce correct sounds or intonation tunes, but rather to 

have them listen and notice how English is spoken- either on audio or videotape or from the teachers 

themselves” (Harmer, 2003, p. 185). A syllabus designed Rahman (Rahman & Chowdhury, 2019) 

for teaching pronunciation to Bangladeshi learners can rightly be placed here. 

 

 

 



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Table 5. A model syllabus for teaching pronunciation to BD learners 

Id Syllabus Item Objective 
0 The human musical instrument Familiarize learners with 

the Human Vocal Sound 

making instrument 
1 Consonant sounds  

1.1 The fricatives (voiced and unvoiced) 

/s/,/r/,/f/,/v/,/z/,/3/ 

Address Problem 1 

1.2 English consonants which are replaced by similar 

sounds from the L1 or from English— to address 

Problem 2 

Address Problem 2 

1.3 Consonants /l/,/r/, one form only Problem 3 Address Problem 2 
2 Consonant clusters: non-deletion of the first 

consonant in word initial clusters and no vowel 

insertion at word initial position 

Address Problem 4 

3 Nuclear stress: to be taught through songs. May be 

left for the second stage after learners have mastered 

items 0 to 2. (Problem 7) 

Address Problem 7 

 

Intelligibility and understandability should be the focus rather than perfection in 

pronunciation is the opinion of Tahreen (2015). She also offers a list of suggestions to overcome the 

problem like integrated pronunciation teaching from the beginning, introducing IPA symbols, 

comparing the sounds with the Bangla counterparts, commutative activities, using dictionaries, 

smartphones and computers and so on.   

 

CONCLUSION 

Language is a rare blessing shown to humankind and vowels and consonants are the souls of any 

language. When English is not the mother tongue, learning the sounds of the language is surely not 

an easy job. Receiving proper guidance, a careful and enthusiastic learner may acquire them with 

the expected accuracy. Taking the offered suggestions into consideration, one can minimize the 

obstacles and can maximize his learning of the sounds to the desired extent if not exactly like the 

natives. Our effort has been to find out the major problems of Bangladeshi learners with the sounds 

of English and to look for some solutions. Suprasegmental features are beyond the limit of this study 

and hence there are obvious scopes of future broader research. Connecting the old works with the 

recent ones, this mixed kind of study has been undertaken to add to the scanty body of available 

literature and above all, to give a comprehensive view of the issue to the concerned stakeholders.  

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Chatterji, S. K. (1921). Bengali Phonetics. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2(1), 1-

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Davenport, M., & H., S. J. (2010). Introducing Phonetics and Phonology. UK: Routledge. 

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