The Discrimination and Perception of English Monophthongs among Libyan University EFL Students at Sabratha University

Abstract

Achieving intelligible pronunciation remains one of the most persistent challenges for learners of English as a Foreign Language, particularly when the vowel inventory of the learner's first language differs significantly from that of the target language. This diagnostic study investigates the perception and Discrimination of the twelve monophthongs of Received Pronunciation (RP) among 40 undergraduate EFL students at Sabratha University, Libya, whose native language, Arabic, operates with a considerably smaller three-vowel system. the study examined the extent to which students can discriminate English monophthongs, and their accuracy in identifying these vowels in controlled, isolated phonetic contexts, and also the persistent confusion and substitution patterns that characterise their interlanguage vowel system through using a purpose-built, two-part diagnostic instrument, an auditory forced-choice discrimination task and a controlled phonetic-symbol-to-word reading and production task. Results show that students discriminated and produced the long, tense vowels /iː/ and /uː/ with high accuracy, but performed close to chance level in perception, and with high error rates in production, on most short, lax, and central vowels, particularly /ʌ/, /ɒ/, /ə/, /ɔː/ and /ɜː/. The findings support the integration of explicit, perceptually grounded phonetic training, including High-Variability Phonetic Training and visual acoustic feedback, into Libyan university EFL curricula.