An annotated bibliography Difficulties for EFL students to learn English pronunciation

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION SUMMARIES CONCLUSION 18 REFERENCES 21 INTRODUCTION Language, especially the spoken one, is a unique gift from nature that separates human beings from the rest of the animals Other than speaking a language fluently and naturally, foreign language learning has long become an issue of paramount importance that takes educational researchers much time and effort to solve its riddles It is widely accepted that acquiring correct pronunciation is one of the most crucial goals that deserve to be initially achieved by students as they learn any language This is because listeners would not understand or even misleadingly catch the meanings if speakers’ diction were not recognizable As English gradually becomes an international language and used as the main medium for international communication, a clear and natural English pronunciation is supposed to be the key aspect for others to judge a person’s English competence In a majority of schools, however, teaching and learning English often pay more attention to grammar and vocabulary for students to take exams; therefore, pronunciation, as well as skills related to spoken language, is not actually noticed As lots of students have been struggling to speak English better, on the other hand, training a more native-like voice is a tough challenge In most research on English pronunciation among EFL students, it is recognized that they are likely to pronounce English sounds by using vowels and consonants from their native language, thus prone to face difficulties in mastering English elocution By virtue of its importance, certain research studies have been conducted in different countries to cast new light on the field of learning English utterance In this paper, ten studies related to the problems encountered by EFL students as learning English pronunciation are summarized so that those who are involved in this theme can use them as one of the valuable sources of references The articles collected were carefully chosen among ones related to the topic and published by renowned journals in the past ten years The summaries in this annotated bibliography are alphabetically sorted by authors’ names and presented following APA style SUMMARIES Ababned, I (2018) English pronunciation errors made by Saudi students European Scientific Journal, 14(2), 244-261 This research aims at investigating the difficulties experienced by Saudi Arab students, which focuses mainly on identifying frequent pronunciation errors As in most countries in the world, English has been taught as the dominant second language and used in almost all aspects of the society in Arab Despite its being used popularly in Arab, English is still mispronounced by a majority of the learners Concerning the field of English pronunciation teaching and learning, a lot of contemporary researchers had found certain causes for this problem Most of them agreed that L1 interference is the most influential factor because the Arabic writing system is standard in orthography while it is not true for English Carried out at the University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, this study included 50 randomly-selected students for its sampling These students were divided into two groups based on their current majors Group comprised 25 students of English major whereas the others, whose major is Arabic, belonged to group In terms of methodology, the researcher employed a mixed-method approach and collected data via pronunciation sheets then analyzed them on his own teaching experience As there was a difference between the two participating groups concerning the skills that they had been taught and trained, the results of this study show significant insights It is indicated in this article that both groups suffered from the same errors: confusing one vowel or consonant for another, inserting an additional sound into a word, incorrectly pronouncing silent sounds, making abnormal pauses in certain words, placing the wrong word stress and misusing intonation patterns However, as Englishmajored students were trained with various skills, they were apt to make fewer pronunciation errors than their non-majored counterparts did Through the above analysis, it is suggested that Saudi Arab learners need a more efficacious teaching syllabus to minimize the number of pronunciation errors Besides, a native-like setup in English classrooms is also recommended Abugohar, M A., & Yunus, K (2018) Difficulties encountered by Arab students in pronouncing English correctly International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies, 6(4), 93-100 This paper describes the process of an examination into the obstacles facing Arab students in terms of pronouncing correct English Since English is a dominant international language for cross-communication, the Internet, overseas trading, academic research, and so on, it is the most widely taught foreign language in the world and turns out to be the compulsory school subjects in many countries Despite the efforts of the Saudi Ministry of Education to improve students’ English competence, it is likely that Arab learners still encounter a lot of challenges Several previous research in this field concluded that the main factors causing students’ inability to pronounce English sounds correctly are the L1 interference, the lack of teaching and learning environment, the inefficient teaching syllabus which focuses primarily on grammar and vocabulary This research took place at four secondary schools in Saudi Arabia with the voluntary participation of 100 male students Of the 100 respondents, there were purposively selected based on their previous exam scores to join the interview This study applied the quantitative methodology Two important tools, a paper-based questionnaire and a semi-structured interview, were thus employed Also, the questionnaire items and interview questions were consulted with academicians in the field to ensure the validity of testing instruments The questionnaire consists of 13 items measured by a five-point Likert Scale, and the data collected were then analyzed via SPSS software (version 24.0) After the careful analysis of the collected data from both sources, some noticeable insights were reported The main account of Arabs students’ frustration to speak correct English went to the differences between their mother tongue and English, which was also referred to as L1 influence Moreover, numbers of students agreed that they lacked the environment to practice spoken English and that teachers paid the least attention to correct pronunciation mistakes Besides, the semi-structured interview demonstrated that students had trouble pronouncing some syllabic sounds such as /ʒ/, /ŋ/, and produced unnatural supra-segmental features such as stress, connected speech, and intonation These findings gave significant contributions to enhancing students’ English proficiency where speaking ability is considered the most important skill This research, nevertheless, still contains certain limitations Firstly, all volunteers are male students, thus prevented the research team from learning the female group Furthermore, few pronunciation errors were identified, and the results can only be applied to high school students, not other groups of learners Despite the negative ability to speak English correctly and naturally, most participants showed that they realized the necessity of correct English pronunciation and had an optimistic attitude to surpass themselves Therefore, it is recommended that more efforts should be put in teaching and learning phonics from a very early stage, organizing remedial activities to practice pronunciation and creating a more motivating classroom atmosphere for students to try their best Ahmed, Z A D A (2017) Difficulties encountered by EFL students in learning pronunciation: A case study of Sudanese higher secondary schools International Journal of English Linguistics, 7(4), 75-82 This research aims to investigate how Sudanese EFL students struggle with spoken English, especially the way they mispronounce English words, then suggest appropriate solutions to alleviate this problem Along with the globalizing movement of today’s world, intercommunication has been in great demand in almost all aspects Thus, English, the second widely-spoken language in the world, is a mandatory subject in most schools and most countries Concerning Communicative Language Teaching, a fluent speaker of English is supposed to use not just the correct, natural wording and structure of the language but its pronunciation as well However, conventional approaches to teach English in schools of Sudan basically emphasize on vocabulary and grammar, which is the biggest cause that leads students to ignore the correct pronunciation Conducted at higher secondary schools in Shikan locality in Northern Kordofan State of Sudan, this research attracted 85 participants: 35 students (purposively selected) and 50 teachers (randomly selected) who were from different schools The researcher employed the quantitative method with the use of two instruments, questionnaires and recording tests As the data collecting process was carried out, 50 teachers from different schools were invited to complete a questionnaire that was designed to assess the problematic sounds made by students Meanwhile, 35 students were asked to read seven sentences containing the target sounds and were recorded To analyze the collected data, the researcher applied the descriptive-analytical approach and hypothesis discussion The findings reveal three significant insights First, most teachers agreed that stress and intonation are the biggest obstacles Second, mother language interference was accused to have negative impacts on acquiring English pronunciation The syllabus at that time, third, needed great changes to focus more on pronunciation teaching demand Through these results, it is suggested that a thorough innovation in learning and teaching English should be considered More qualified teachers and foreign teachers are also needed to increase students’ interest in learning the correct pronunciation Begum, A., & Hoque, M A (2016) English pronunciation problems of the tertiary level students in Bangladesh: A case study International Refereed Research Journal, 7(4), 50-61 This paper aims to analyze some typical problematic features concerning tertiary English learners’ pronunciation English has long become the second language in Bangladesh for centuries; however, spoken English with proper pronunciation is almost omitted by a majority of students at all levels Before this study, other researchers had found out several factors that had a massive influence on learners’ progress: L1 features interference, age, attitude, lack of motivation, etc In this research, a mixed-method approach has been applied with the participation of 35 students from different colleges and 10 English teachers Ten selected students were asked to make a presentation and observed by the researchers; some other students had to read a passage containing confused words so that their voice would be recorded; the rest of them were interviewed to discover their pronunciation problem as speaking English spontaneously The participating teachers were given a questionnaire designed upon the Likert Scale so that the researchers could see their opinions on pronunciation problems that English learners were neglectful The findings of this research reveal the three most frequent areas where errors usually found: vowel sounds, consonant sounds, and minimal pairs Most teachers joining in the research agreed on the elements affecting Bangladeshi students’ progress including the lack of motivation, qualified teachers, modern technology, exposure to the target language, and most importantly, the enormous L1 influence on English pronunciation Through this study, it is necessary that both teachers and students recognize the importance of a clear and correct English pronunciation as well as take it for granted that building a good accent should be put in the first place, then have constructive ideas to further teaching practices Regardless of several limitations concerning data collections, analysis, findings and suggestions, this research study is supposed to generate more encouragement for both teachers and learners to embark on enhancing English pronunciation among ESL/EFL students Ercan, H (2018) Pronunciation problems of Turkish EFL learners in Northern Cyprus International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET), 5(4), 877-893 The target of this research was to give an investigation into the problems occurring to Turkish EFL learners at public schools in Girne, Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in terms of pronunciation Several studies had been conducted at that time and accounted most obstacles that prevented high school students from achieving good pronunciation for various factors Some of them were the differences between phonological systems of the two languages (i.e Turkish and English), the confusion from the non-orthographically writing system of English, the lack of exposure to native speakers and native environment, inappropriate teaching methods and even L2 cognitive competence Moreover, the reading-based teaching preference also contributed to students’ failure to speak English accurately and fluently In this study, Ercan paid more attention to the analysis of most problematic sounds made by students, then indicating certain outside elements causing the failure The research was conducted to a random sample of EFL learners including 16 male and 14 female students whose ages ranged from 16 to 19 years old All of them have been learning English for about nine years but still speak English with great difficulties The researcher applied a mixed-method form into this study, using a questionnaire to get the participants’ background, a pronunciation test which concentrated on the segmental level and an interview with both students and teachers Collected data then was analyzed and assessed by two separate English-speaking supervisors (a male and a female) The items were rated as correct” and “incorrect” Thanks to the use of SPSS (ver 20) to perform inter-rater reliability using Pearson Correlation, frequency and descriptive analysis, it revealed an absolute relationship between the outcomes analyzed by the two judges According to that, the most problematic consonant sounds made by those students were /w/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/ and /ŋ/ As for vowels and diphthongs, /ʊ/, /ɪ/, /aʊ/, /əʊ/ were often in mistake for /u:/, /eɪ/, /əʊ/ and /oʊ/ respectively Such empirical findings were similar to these of most contemporary research, demonstrating that the L1 interference, lack of a native environment and the shortage of efficient teaching methods were the major causes Since there were still several limitations, further research can be conducted at different schools and with a larger sample It is also suggested that the potential researchers should try to create a more private and motivating environment for the participants to perform without any pressure Hago, O E., & Khan, W A (2015) The pronunciation problems faced by Saudi EFL learners at secondary schools Education and Linguistics Research, 1(2), 85-99 It is commonly known that the basic purpose of learning a language is using it to make crosscommunication feasible Of all the skills that English learners are supposed to crack, the ability to speak the target language fluently is known to be the most challenging one, and the primary factor sometimes preventing Arabs learners from fluency appears to be their mispronunciation To examine how pronunciation has an influence on speaking English, a lot of research has been conducted in Arabs to analyze students' pronunciation errors thoroughly Mentioned in Statement of the Problems, the biggest cause of poor pronunciation is to blame for the discrepancy between the two languages, Arabic and English The researchers employed the quantitative methodology for this study and used recording tapes as the main data source to describe, classify, examine and explain This research sampling involved two groups of participants One group was a 60-student group that was randomly selected to attract various levels of pronunciation All of the student respondents did not have any opportunity to live in another country or have any kind of international exposure 30 English teachers joined in the second group The student group was asked to read meaningful sentences while being recorded, and the teacher group was given a structured questionnaire to collect data from educators Other than tape recordings and questionnaires, the researchers also organized classroom observation, along with his own experience of teaching English in El-Ehsan Secondary school, to identify certain problematic sounds that are easily made by students After all careful analysis, the results of this study reveal certain significant insights The consonant sounds /p/, /ʒ/, /r/, /tʃ/, appear to respectively cause the most troubles for students in various positions The /p/ sound solely caused 85% of the respondents to fail to pronounce correctly because the Arabic sound system does not have that voiceless bilabial stop The research also discovered that Arabs speakers of English are somehow influenced by their mother tongue to embed a redundant vowel sound in the onset and the coda of a word Not only did this study investigated the difficulties in mastering English pronunciation, but it also paid meticulous attention to how one's native language has an impact on their ability to practice better spoken English 10 These important findings have paved the way for educators to put considerable effort into practicing efficacious teaching methodology to improve the English speaking ability among Arabs students 11 Jabali, O M., & Abuzaid, Y J (2017) Pronunciation errors committed by Palestinian students at An-Najah National University: An analytical approach Arab World English Journal (AWEJ), 8(2), 119-131 This study concentrates on identifying the most difficult consonants to Palestinian learners, then interpreting and classifying these problematic sounds into different natural classes Like EFL learners everywhere in the world, most Palestinian students have a strong desire to attain a native-like accent while speaking the language Due to the great interference of Arabic language and Palestinian dialect as the major reason, however, most EFL Palestinians still confront various pronunciation problems which hinder them from speaking English correctly The Literature review shows that those who speak different Arabic dialects are apt to face similar pronunciation errors, but it differs in the problematic levels The participants of this study are 20 randomly-selected students at An-Najah National University This sampling includes both male and female final-year students whose major is English Language and Literature By reviewing previous studies in this theme, the researchers formed their own hypotheses and used it as an instrument The other tool applied was a wordlist that was purposively designed to track the errors of a certain consonant sound in various positions The volunteers were required to read these words slowly and as carefully as possible, and their recording tapes then were meticulously analyzed and revised to get accurate outcomes Revealed after a thorough analysis, the findings of this study are indicative of the error patterns made by Palestinian learners The most problematic consonant to these participants was the /p/ sound as they mispronounced it as /b/ A similar pattern was true for /tʃ/ since it was realized as /ʃ/ Other consonants namely /dʒ/, /ɹ/ and /ŋ/ were also pronounced incorrectly because the respondents confused them with other consonants This is because those confusing sounds not exist in the phonological system of their mother tongue, and if they exist, they are not physically articulated in the same way Realizing the error patterns and its primary cause, the two researchers recommended that more practical teaching methods be applied to gradually correct these mistakes Teachers should be willing to help students constructively correct their errors, offer them more chances to practice in class, ask them to listen to native audios, etc to establish English sounds in 12 their brains Some knowledge of English articulatory phonetic, last but not least, is supposed to be useful in learning English pronunciation 13 Misfer, Z A., & Busabaa, N A (2019) Stress Placement and the difficulties encountered by female EFL students in Saudi Arabian context Arab World English Journal, Special Issue: The Dynamics of EFL in Saudi Arabia, 32- 43 The purpose of this research is to find out the problems facing Saudi Arabian EFL students with a concentration on stress patterns Further, it also aims at providing practical solutions to assist students in achieving better speaking performance English has become a prominent foreign language in Arab for so long that it has great impacts on almost all realms of society However, despite the main purpose of making crosscommunication feasible, most teaching and learning methods still take much notice of grammar and vocabulary Plenty of research in the field of linguistics indicates that a majority of Arab learners have struggled with spoken language; in most cases, mispronunciation is to blame for this inability To ensure the practicality of the data collected, a mixed-method approach was applied with the participation of 60 female students who were joining the phonology class, Semester 2, 2018-2019 Each participating student was asked to complete a ten-item questionnaire that was designed based on a five-point Likert Scale Then the responses were collected, analyzed and displayed in the Excel format In addition to the questionnaire, the researchers also made some observations inside the classroom while teaching these students to get valid judgment After the meticulous observation and analysis, this research came up with supportive results to the authors' hypothesis, which concluded that female Saudi Arabia students not possess the ability to produce correct English word stress The data collected from the questionnaire indicate several causes of students' stress misuse Most of the students were lack of practice outside the classrooms and showed no rules application even though they had been taught This was because of teachers' negligence in instructing and correcting students' errors Besides, foreign language classroom anxiety also hindered them from speaking confidently in front of the whole class Through these findings, the researchers suggested various solutions to this problem First, students should be exposed to adequate practice both inside and outside the classroom Second, teachers should pay more attention to teaching correct pronunciation, particularly on supra-segmental, and be willing to help them correct mistakes if need be The 14 classroom atmosphere, last but not least, should be motivated so that learners would not feel stressed and thus, be more confident to give their best performance Although conducted at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia, this research is supposed to be helpful for English language teachers and learners in lots of countries to improve the intelligibility of spoken English 15 Sahatsathatsana, S (2017) Pronunciation problems of Thai students learning English phonetics: A case study at Kalasin university Journal of Education, Mahasarakham University, 11(4), 67-84 This study manages to discover students’ opinions on problems in phonetics learning and find out causes leading to those problems Along with this research, many other researchers formerly claimed that teaching English in Thailand has been a failure because most students cannot use the language to express their ideas clearly and adequately regardless of more than ten years of learning English at school One of the greatest obstacles faced by students is speaking, especially the accurate pronunciation Several language features have been mentioned in this study including two distinctive classifications: segmental and suprasegmental features, which are believed to impact students’ English diction The researcher employed a mixed-method form to conduct this study via a questionnaire adapted from Yangklang (2006) and a semi-structured interview protocol applied from Hoque (2011) There were 12 students of English for International Communication (EIC) joining in this research, and of them were chosen on purpose to take part in the interview The results of this study show that students’ opinions on pronouncing English arise in both segmental (consonant/ consonant cluster articulation, linking sounds, intonation, final sounds) and suprasegmental (linking sounds, final -d/-ed, intonation) levels due to the apparent distinction between English and Thai sound system Furthermore, phonetic intelligence was also reported as an important factor that caused serious articulating problems while motivation, previous English pronunciation learning, and proper instructions also influenced English articulation significantly These findings, as a consequence, have paved the way for a better future in teaching and learning English pronunciation not just in Thailand but in other countries as well 16 Shak, P., Lee, C S., & Stephen, J (2016) Pronunciation problems: A case study on English pronunciation errors of low proficiency students International Journal of Language Education and Applied Linguistics (IJLEAL), 4, 25-35 This research focuses on enhancing English pronunciation among Malaysian EFL students where one of the first steps to take is to discover the potential obstacles facing students In general, native-like qualities achievement is not actually pursued, and Malaysian teachers sometimes not feel confident enough to teach English pronunciation or even find it challenging to integrate teaching pronunciation into other English skills The great influence of Malay language on second language acquisition, furthermore, is also a challenge that students have to overcome in order to pronounce English sounds correctly This study was conducted in the form of qualitative research, including 12 low oral proficiency respondents who had been selected purposively to take part in a reading aloud test Besides that, there was also a questionnaire designed to record background information of the samples The outcomes of this research show that the top three pronunciation errors made were fricatives, diphthongs and short vowels, not to mention ones with the -ed form in different words From this result, language teachers should be more aware of these prominent mistakes, then develop more effective pedagogical methods to correct learners’ pronunciation at the very first stages There are, nevertheless, still some limitations in the research One of them is the small sample size, thus it cannot represent the larger number of EFL students in Malaysia Further research on this theme can expand the sampling so that there will be clearer and more reliable insights Despite these limitations, this research study is still supposed to have a certain impact on developing teaching and learning English among ESL/EFL students in Malaysia 17 CONCLUSION It is recognized that English is now the second widely-used language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese, and taught as a foreign language in numerous countries Because of the primary purpose, to make inter-communication feasible, English learners are expected not only to know enough words and structures to make themselves understood but also to possess a correct and fluent way of speaking In other words, good pronunciation is an irreplaceable part that should not be skipped during any learning method Realizing this importance, the authors of the ten studies in this paper strived to unravel the underlying obstacles arising during the process of attaining a clear English diction Generally, these studies show a number of similarities as to the methodology and outcomes Most of the authors applied a descriptive-analytical approach, and the common instruments to be used were recording tapes and questionnaires which were designed to collect respondents' background or opinions on learning English pronunciation The sample size, however, varied significantly The smallest sampling included 12 students (Sahatsathatsana, 2017; Shak, Lee & Stephen, 2016) while the biggest one attracted up to 100 (Abugohar & Yunus, 2018) On the one hand, the participants in the study by Abugohar and Yunus (2018) were all males whereas the opposite pattern was true for the study of Misfer and Busabaa (2019) with the participation of only female students This was probably because of the cultural factor which requires males and females to study at separate schools Four studies conducted in Saudi Arabia show numerous similar findings related to the difficulties facing Arab EFL students Ababned (2018) basically focused on analyzing the technicallygenerated errors namely confusing one sound for another, inserting an additional sound into particular words, pronouncing silent sounds, making abnormal pauses within certain words, and applying the wrong word stress as well as wrong intonation patterns These findings were partly similar to those of the study by Hago and Khan (2015) In this study, it revealed that the most difficult sounds to Saudi Arabia natives were /p/, /ʒ/, /r/, /tʃ/, and that inserting abundant sounds was a common mistake Moreover, Hago and Khan (2015) also considered L1 interference as the biggest hindrance, which was correspondent to the conclusions of the rest two studies at the Saudi Arabia context Apart from considering L1 influence as the greatest challenge, these two 18 studies conceded some social factors that affected learners of English Abugohar and Yunus(2018), together with Misfer & Busabaa(2019), agreed that the inadequacy of practice outside the classrooms and teachers' negligence to correct mistakes also contributed to creating a sluggish habit towards learning correct English pronunciation Besides, it was stated in the study by Misfer and Busabaa (2019) that students still showed no rule applications although having been instructed in class in advance and that foreign language classroom anxiety usually made them feel stressed to speak in front of the whole class Ahmed (2017), Jabali and Abuzaid (2017) conducted their research in Sudan and Palestine respectively The analogy between these two studies and the four mentioned above was that all the participants speak Arabic as their first language Therefore, the outcomes indicated several points in common Other than the findings listed above, the study by Jabali and Abuzaid (2017) also paid much attention to the impacts of local dialects on the ability to pronounce correct English It was discussed that various dialects might cause different problems in practicing English pronunciation Furthermore, Ercan (2018) successfully found out major problematic sounds namely /w/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /ŋ/, /ʊ/, /ɪ/, /aʊ/ and /əʊ/, which was correspondent to those from other studies He also agreed with Sahatsathatsana (2017) on perceiving that the shortage of proper instructions and teaching methods was concurrently the huge barrier that hampered students from achieving clear pronunciation of English Sahatsathatsana (2017), additionally, did mention the phonetic intelligence and previous English pronunciation learning as the two requisite factors that assisted EFL students in speaking English better Moreover, the shortage of highly qualified teachers would result in the same problems was clearly stated (Shak, Lee & Stephen, 2016; Begum & Hoque, 2016) The authors recommended that teachers should train themselves and update their knowledge regularly so that they could meet the proficiency needed to teach pronunciation As can be seen, the investigations compiled in this essay were conducted in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Palestine), South Asia (Bangladesh), Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Thailand) and Northern Cyprus (Turkey) where Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was not effectively emphasized in the conventional teaching methods The authors endeavored to identify the most problematic sounds made by their participants, realize the wrong stress patterns, and 19 unveil several factors resulting from the surrounding elements They actually not show contradictory findings but each investigation acts as a supplement to the bigger answer as to why EFL learners find it tough to master English pronunciation The studies in this paper are advantageous to educators who want to learn more about the field of CLT They provide ample information for subsequent investigations to discuss such relating subjects as how to enhance students’ pronunciation in the EFL context or even how to modify current teaching curricula to concentrate more on spoken English With appropriate research instruments and careful data analysis, these studies by far give empirical suggestions so that educators and learners can follow to adjust the method of teaching and learning English Also, these articles are supposed to be worth-reading references for prospective researchers in the future 20 REFERENCES Ababned, I (2018) English pronunciation errors made by Saudi students European Scientific Journal, 14(2), 244-261 Abugohar, M A., & Yunus, K (2018) Difficulties encountered by Arab students in pronouncing English correctly International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies, 6(4), 93-100 Ahmed, Z A D A (2017) Difficulties encountered by EFL students in learning pronunciation: A case study of Sudanese higher secondary schools International Journal of English Linguistics, 7(4), 75-82 Begum, A., & Hoque, M A (2016) English pronunciation problems of the tertiary level students in Bangladesh: A case study International Refereed Research Journal, 7(4), 50-61 Ercan, H (2018) Pronunciation problems of Turkish EFL learners in Northern Cyprus International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET), 5(4), 877-893 Hago, O E., & Khan, W A (2015) The pronunciation problems faced by Saudi EFL learners at secondary schools Education and Linguistics Research, 1(2), 85-99 Jabali, O M., & Abuzaid, Y J (2017) Pronunciation errors committed by Palestinian students at An-Najah National University: An analytical approach Arab World English Journal (AWEJ), 8(2), 119-131 Misfer, Z A., & Busabaa, N A (2019) Stress Placement and the difficulties encountered by female EFL students in Saudi Arabian context Arab World English Journal, Special Issue: The Dynamics of EFL in Saudi Arabia, 32- 43 Sahatsathatsana, S (2017) Pronunciation problems of Thai students learning English phonetics: A case study at Kalasin university Journal of Education, Mahasarakham University, 11(4), 67-84 Shak, P., Lee, C S., & Stephen, J (2016) Pronunciation problems: A case study on English pronunciation errors of low proficiency students International Journal of Language Education and Applied Linguistics (IJLEAL), 4, 25-35 21 ... more encouragement for both teachers and learners to embark on enhancing English pronunciation among ESL /EFL students Ercan, H (2018) Pronunciation problems of Turkish EFL learners in Northern... advantageous to educators who want to learn more about the field of CLT They provide ample information for subsequent investigations to discuss such relating subjects as how to enhance students? ?? pronunciation. .. try to create a more private and motivating environment for the participants to perform without any pressure Hago, O E., & Khan, W A (2015) The pronunciation problems faced by Saudi EFL learners