The production of RP "r" by Iraqi secondary school teachers

Abstract EN

The present study deals with [r] sound in Standard English and Standard Arabic.

It aims at presenting an adequate phonetic description of [r] in the languages under study.

Moreover, it aims at studying and analysing the errors made by Iraqi secondary-school teachers of English while producing " r ", both at the word level and the text level.

So, a test has been conducted and given to forty-five Iraqi secondary-school teachers.

The errors have been studied in terms of the variable of age and treated in terms of percentages. It has been found that the subjects often make some errors when they produce " r " ; they pronounce " r " wherever it is found in spelling.

Moreover, they replace the frictionless continuant [l] variety of RP / r / by the Arabic flapped [ ].

This may be ascribed to the factor of "interference" from their mother tongue, i.

e.

Arabic.