English as a Foreign Language Speaking Skills development: Investigating Beginner Learners’ Vowel Sound Mispronunciation

Speech production is understood to encompass the cognitively demanding stages of conceptualization; lexicalization; morphological, phonological and phonetic encoding; and articulation. Still, central in speaking is the articulation of strings of sounds a hearer interprets to derive meaning. This process is even more challenging in the context of learning an additional language. In the context of Morocco, speaking in English presents challenges for EFL learners, detrimental among which is the mispronunciation of sounds hindering communication. This study investigates the mispronunciation of English vowel sounds by Moroccan beginner EFL learners. Data was collected through overt observation of three first-year high school classes (90 Students) during twenty one-hour lessons. Mispronounced words by the students, reflecting inaccurate vowel sounds, were recorded and analyzed. The findings reveal interference errors—mispronunciation of English vowel sounds that are not part of these learners’ first language phonetic inventory (Moroccan Arabic). There were also intra-language vowel sound errors. The errors manifested in either shortened or substituted long vowel sounds and reduced or substituted diphthongs. Given the importance of pronunciation instruction, these findings may have implications for EFL teaching and for improving speaking proficiency. The recommendations drawn from the present study’s findings include teaching the English language vocalic system as part of pronunciation instruction at the beginner level to EFL learners. Syllabus and coursebook design would, likewise, benefit from the findings in terms of sound pronunciation gradation and the inclusion of the IPA symbols, given the sound-spelling inconsistency in the English language.