A Study of the Perceptual Identification of the English Diphthongs by the Advanced Iraqi Student Teachers: Problems and Possible Solutions

Abstract

The perceptual identification of sounds is one of the most
important areas in foreign-language learning. It often sets a precedent
for sound discrimination, which should be practiced thoroughly in the
earlier stages of learning English as a foreign language (EFL).
Nevertheless, teaching experience has shown that misidentifying the
sounds perceptually can be predicted in the performance of the Iraqi
student teachers (AIST) majoring in English. This is mostly applied to
the identification of vowels, in general, and that of diphthongs, in
particular.
The purpose of this paper is to find whether or not the AIST have
some difficulties identifying the English diphthongs perceptually
mostly because of the vowel system operating in their L1 which
prevents them have an accent-free L2 and the lack of the appropriate
exposure to a natively spoken L2, with the teacher as the only
available model. The paper comes up with some possible solutions
that can easily be adopted by the teachers of English in both earlier
and advanced stages.
The database for this study consists of the subjects' responses to
the oral stimuli provided by the researcher, and the samples are taken
from 12 students of the 5th year/ Dept. of English of the Teacher
Training Institute/ Nineveh.