The Difficulties Facing University Students in Pronouncing English Vowel Sounds

Abstract

This study aims to investigate some difficulties encountered by Sudanese students of English language as a foreign language in pronouncing English vowel sounds. The researcher used two tools for data collection; a questionnaire administrated for a number of 50 university teachers and a test administrated for a number of 100 students from Sudan University of Science and Technology- College of Education-English Department. That is to investigate some difficulties which encountered by students in pronouncing vowel sounds and offer suitable solutions for those difficulties. The results of this study revealed that; there are some difficulties which encounter students in pronouncing English vowel sounds, because they have more than one way of pronunciation as well as the mother tongue interference, and the differences in the sounds system. The researcher recommends that special attention should be drawn to use the audio and audiovisual aids, especially languages laboratories, which the researcher thinks they will help in solving the difficulties encountered by students in pronouncing vowel sounds.