PROBLEMS FACED IN THE ARTICULATION OF ENGLISH VOWELS BY THE INTERMEDIATE LEVEL PASHTO SPEAKING STUDENTS OF PESHAWAR
Tariq Mahmood   and Ghazala Kausar 

ABSTRACT
Effective communication depends upon acceptable pronunciation both in first and foreign language. In the case of English as a foreign language, learners often face problems in pronunciation. These problems are often attributed to mother tongue interference. Similarities in the structures and even cultures of the native and target languages facilitate the learning of the second/foreign language, whereas differences lead to difficulties (Lado, 1957). The main difficulty in English pronunciation lies, according to O, Conner (1980), in building a new set of (sound) boxes corresponding to the sounds of English. Similarly, Jones (1972) emphasizes the activities of training the ear and performing certain actions with the vocal organs for better pronunciation. But there can be a number of other reasons like lack of exposure, motivation and faulty models of pronunciation. Pashto speakers are no exceptions. While learning the English language, they encounter a number of problems. The focus of the current study is problems of pronunciation faced in the articulation of English vowels. The population for the study is the intermediate level Pashto speaking students at Peshawar. 50 students are selected from ten colleges, selecting five from each college. Minimal pairs of words are given to the subjects containing all the twelve English pure vowels and their pronunciation is recorded. The recorded data is transcribed with the help of two university teachers having expertise in pronunciation and analysed with reference to IPA standard pronunciation.  Findings reveal that Pashto speaking students face problems in the articulation of vowels involving degrees of length like /iː/, /e/ and /I/ and lip rounding like /ɒ/ and /ɔ:/. These vowels are often confused and used interchangeably. They also find it difficult to deal with vowels in words containing /r/ in the spelling. The study concludes with suggestions for learners and teachers to overcome these problems. These include teacher training in phonology, focus on speaking skills, knowledge of organs of speech and most importantly, the amount of exposure and input, which according to Gass and Selinker (1994) is more instrumental to L2 pronunciation than similarity/dissimilarity in first and second languages. 

KEY WORDS: Vowel, Articulation, Pashto Speaking Students, Mother Tongue, Pronunciation.