Exploring Pronunciation Errors of primary pupils’ school in Misrata Libya

Abstract

This paper aimed to explore the pronunciation errors made by the pupils of primary schools in Misrata; and found out the reason that the pupils pronouncing the words in such a way. It also tried to help teachers and learners of English as a foreign language (FL) to overcoming the English pronunciation errors. In addition, the current paper is an attempt to raise the issue understanding the importance of error correction in the process of acquiring a second language (L2). To achieve these aims a group of fourth and fifth grade pupils were interviewed and asked to pronounce a number of English words, to explore their correct, and incorrect pronunciation. To find out the reasons of the participants‟ pronunciation errors, data was analyzed based on the phonemic transcription of the Cambridge English Pronunciation Dictionary. The results reveal that 27% of the errors are related to monophthongs. Whereas 34% of the errors are related to vowels. In addition, errors which are related to diphthongs make 39%. The pupils made these pronunciation errors due to the unfamiliarity with the words, lack of practicing English words or understanding the pronunciation rules, and their first language (L1) influence. Productive and interesting methods of teaching pronunciation in a natural context were suggested, that was by presenting the English alphabet letters side by side with their sounds (name and sound) through full words' graphemes.