Investigating EFL Pronunciation Errors Case Study: First year EFL Students at Chadli Bendjedid University

Abstract

This study aims at identifying, exploring, and analysing pronunciation errors made by first year English as a foreign language (EFL) students at chadli Bendjedid University. It attempts to find answers to the main research question which is “What are the factors / reasons that lead to pronunciation errors”. In order to answer the research questions and confirm the hypothesis that students’ errors can be due to some factors like the ignorance of pronunciation and phonetics rules, the French system interference, among others; an analytical study is embraced. The fieldwork is carried out using a mixed method (quantitative and qualitative), and to collect the data, three tools are involved: two questionnaires for both teachers and students, followed by a classroom observation, and an audio recording. The participants are 10 EFL teachers and 30 EFL students from Chadli Bndjedid University. The findings aligned with the research hypotheses and showed that the above mentioned factors affect students’ pronunciation. Based on these findings, some teaching and learning techniques were generated as pedagogical recommendations to facilitate the achievement of the teachers’ course objective, and to help students control the problems encountered in the classroom while learning English pronunciation.

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