Algerian students’ acquisition of accentual properties of mono bi-morphemic English words

Abstract EN

The present research paper reports on the manifold findings gleaned out of a diagnostic production test fundamentally tailored to furnish empirically-grounded answers for the research question underpinning the inception of the study proper: Does crosslinguistic influence get saliently outstripped by intra-linguistic variables in Algerian learners’ English accentual pattern mastery experience? We have, likewise, sought out to enrich this rather locally under-chartered research avenue and open the door for further local like-scoped enterprises.

To delimit the potential interference of some other variables, like inadequate amount of exposure and insufficient length of experience, we targeted students reading for a Master’s Degree in Applied Language Studies.This genre of participants was deemed the most suitable for our investigation for yet a second rationale: another tenet of the study relates to how phonetic training contributes to the maturity of learners’ accentual pattern aptitude.

The data demonstrate three key fairly interlocked factors that lie behind the materialisation of most errors: 1) the targeted learners have fallen below standards because of intralinguistic factors, 2) phonetic training has not had a remarkable influence on the learners’ stress structure command and 3) familiarity with the input does not perforce entail better performance if some key linguistic knowledge has not been previously properly internalised.

The paper also encompasses a description and classification of the errors made and pinpoints the interplay of segmental and suprasegmental accuracy and their interdependence ratios.