Awareness of Pronunciation Among Sudanese EFL Students at Tertiary Level The Case of (SUST) Students

Abstract

It has been noticed that students at university level have clear weakness in the pronunciation of English. Phonological competence is a key factor to consider in the debates accounting for aspects of this weakness. It is the available sort of phonologial awareness that enables adult learners to compensate for the loss in the natural abilities required in pronunciation. Therefore, the present study tries to investigate the actual levels of phonological awareness of pronouncing English as a foreign language.

To achieve this goal, a combination of the descriptive and experimental approach to problem was followed. For this purpose, two different subject groups were chosen from the students of Sudan University of Science and Technology (SUST). A questionnaire and a pronunciation test were used to collect data on the nature of phonological awareness that dominates learners. Statistical analysis was employed to extract, compare and contrast results. This made it clear that learners have variable levels of phonological awareness that have resulted in different degrees of accuracy.

Actually, it was found that university students who received phonological information were able to compensate for the loss in their natural abilities. This was clearly noticed in terms of facing less pronunciation difficulties, knowing more pronunciation sources and therefore were able to produce more accurate utterances in the foreign language.