The ability of the third-year iraqi undergraduates to recognize stress position on affixed words

Abstract EN

This research aims at tackling the problem of stress position on some of the English words which are formed by adding affixes to them .

The process of affixation is a creative one and the number of affixed words are so many in the English language .

The research describes the problem within a theoretical and experimental frame work .

It exposes stress position not only from a phonological point of view but rather from a morphological one .

In this research there is an attempt to reduce the problem and present a solution.

Some conclusions are achieved depending on the experiment presented .

This study has three hypotheses : Firstly that the Iraqi undergraduates at the third year at the Department of English / College of Education / University of Thi-Qar face difficulty in recognizing that there are factors other than syllable type (i.e.

vowel quality and length) that affect stress position , secondly that students at the first , and second years do not make progress of phonological knowledge as is supposed when they move to the third year after they have studied phonetics and stress placement , and thirdly that the curriculum of phonetics and phonology at the college of Education / Department of English does not help students to progress and widen their knowledge concerning the new studies and researches which can be manipulated in the curriculum .

To check the three hypotheses , a recognition test is designed .

The test aims at finding out whether those students are able to recognize stress position in affixed words in English and the point of progress they have made when they are in the third year.

The results of the present study confirmed the three hypotheses .

The students in the third year study are unable to recognize stress position on affixed words.