AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE PHONETIC REALIZATION OF ENGLISH SOUNDS BY PAKISTANI SPEAKERS: ACOUSTIC AND PERCEPTUAL DIMENSIONS
Keywords:
English Phonetics, Pakistani Speakers, Acoustic, Perceptual, L1 Influence, Pronunciation TeachingAbstract
The study at hand examines the phonetic realization of English sounds by Pakistani speakers, which focuses on both acoustic and perceptual aspects. The study was inspired by the increasing importance of English in Pakistan and the phonological problems of Pakistani learners. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining instrumental acoustic analysis, and perceptual evaluations by proficient listeners. The study examined 80 undergraduate students studying in five (05) public universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa whose L1 is Pashto. Acoustic analysis (Praat voice onset time, vowel formants F1 and F2 and consonant accuracy) and perceptual testing (intelligibility of the listeners and recognition of errors) were used to collect data. The findings suggest an overall departure from the standard phonetics of the British English, particularly with the pronunciation of /th/ /d/ /v/ /w/ as well as the distinction between tense-lax pairs of vowels such as /i:/ and /I/. Voiceless stop VOTs tended to be shorter, which is a sign of L1 influence, but the formant values corroborated centralized production of the vowels. A prominent regional accent feature was the frequent replacement of dental fricatives (/θ/, /ð/) with alveolar stops (/t/, /d/). The assertion that accented but understandable English satisfies communicative effectiveness in multilingual contexts is supported by the fact that overall intelligibility remained high despite these variations. The results support the significance of intelligibility-based instruction over native-like imitation and validate the role of L1 transfer as anticipated by Flege's Speech Learning Model (1995). Pedagogically, the study suggests using teacher development modules that prioritise intelligibility as the main objective of teaching English phonetics in Pakistan, as well as acoustic feedback tools and explicit pronunciation training.
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