Phonological Problems Encountered by EFL University Students in Perception of Natural-Speech English A Case Study of the Students of the Faculty of Education -Hantoub, University of Gezira, Sudan (2017-2020)

Abstract

Natural speech in any language is made up of many components like lexical, grammatical and phonological, but the phonological component remains the most significant. That is because language is basically a group of sounds which man began to use for verbal communication ever since there was no any knowledge about writing in the world. The study aimed at investigating the phonological problems encountered by EFL university students in their attempt to perceive natural-speech English. The study also aimed to rank these problems according to the level of difficulty they cause for students in their perception of natural speech, and to suggest certain techniques that can help in solving them. The study adopted the descriptive analytical method. The sample comprised (40) students chosen randomly and (10) teachers selected purposively from the Department of English, Faculty of Education -Hantoub, University of Gezira. Two tools of data collection were used : a diagnostic listening test for the sample of students, and a questionnaire for the sample of teachers. The resultant data were displayed in tables and then analyzed manually through percentage. The most important findings reached by the study were that most EFL university students (64.7%) have phonological problems trying to perceive naturalspeech English, that speech rhythm and prosodic stress are the most difficult phonological features for the students causing (77.5%) of them not to succeed in perceiving natural-speech English, that the least difficult feature which is weak forms causes problems for (53.8%) of the students, and that effective perceptual techniques for solving the problem of the study according to (96.7%) of the respondents to the questionnaire include listening comprehension, dictation, note-taking, listening to English radio stations and TV channels, and more teacher's use of English during classes. In the light of these findings, the study recommends that EFL university departments should allocate courses for listening comprehension which focus on phonological features of natural-speech English, that teachers should increase their use of English during lectures to give their students more practice in listening, and that students should devote some of their time to listening to English auditory mass media. The study suggests that other researchers may investigate the role of phonetic mimicry as well as the role of dictation and note-taking in developing listening skills in EFL university students.