Problems That Libyan Students Face in Spoken English - Literature review Example

Literature review Introduction The English language is one of the elements of culture that has globalized as indicated by Jia-Huey (2007). In majority of countries, the English language is used as a first or second language. Universally, the language has been used as the standard means of communication across varied cultures. It is the commonest language used in teaching in learning institutions, in working environments and the global language used in documentation (Jia-Huey, 2007). Despite its widespread use in majority of countries around the world, the English language has yet to catch up in some countries. In Libya, learning to read, speak and write in English has been a challenge. In a research study, I did on the problems that Libyan students face in spoken English, I found out that, the challenge lies in pronunciation of certain alphabetical letters. The Libyan students had a challenge of distinguishing P and B, and pronunciation of the past ed, when it is after letters such as looked, finished, and helped among others. Using interview research method, I analyzed the use of P, B and past ed. The findings were 35% of Libyan students pronounced Ps correctly, 65% of the Ps were wrong, 30% of past ed were right while 70% of past ed were wrong. Using valid and varied academic sources, I concluded the source of the problem with spoken English by Libyan students is due to the language background. This report is a literature review on the problems that Libyan students face in spoken English by assessing the sources of the problems and how they can be alleviated. The problems that Libyan students face in spoken English The report will review a journal article written by Mohammed S. Rakas and published by the Garyounis University. The article is titled ‘Some problematic issues facing Libyan Arab Learners of English.’ To cite the article; - Rakas, M.S. (2008). Some problematic issues facing Libyan Arab Learners of English. Garyounis University. The other journal article for review is written by Ghaleb Rabab’ah titled ‘Communication problems facing Arab learners of English’ published by King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. To cite the article; Rabab’ah, G. (2002). Communication problems facing Arab learners of English. Journal of Language and Learning, Volume 3, No.1 ISSN 1740-4983. There are numerous articles and studies done on the communication Bilingualism refers to the ability to learn and use two varied languages, although, the bilingual speaker does not have to be flawless in the given language but they have practical and relevant knowledge of another language other than their mother tongue as highlighted by Rasul (2006). Both Rakas and Rababah agree that the issues and problems Arab speakers communicating in English have are numerous but they can be addressed effectively and efficiently through proper training. Summaries Some problematic issues facing Libyan Arab Learners of English by Rakas Rakas’ article suggests that the inconsistent and the unreliable correlation between the English sounds and letters, that is, between the English phonetics and orthography as among reasons why Libyan Arab learners of English are unable to speak articulately and coherently in English (Rakas, 2008). The author highlights the principle phonetic hindrances facing the Libyan student at all educational stages, which are attributed to challenges relating to the English orthography learnt by the students in the early stages of learning English and challenges pertaining to the interference of the phonemic system of the Libyan Arabic variety. The article assesses the consonantal barriers, obstacles caused by complexities of discrimination and pronunciation of the English vowel qualities (Rakas, 2008). Communication problems facing Arab learners of English by Rababah The author focuses on the general problems of Arab learners of English, which she highlights to include inadequate formal English instruction offered by teachers who are Arabic native speakers. In addition, lack of opportunity of the Arabic students to learn and speak in English through natural contact in the target language, syntactic errors in verb and noun phrase by students that include verb formation errors, subject-verb agreement and errors in tenses (Rabab’ah, 2002). The author indicate that the problems in spoken English may stem from intonation and differences in pronunciation between the Arabic and English language, inadequate pertinent information on when to join the English learning curriculum, teaching methodology, and lack of motivation as mentioned in Rabab’ah (2002). The article suggests that the solutions to the problems are communicative competence by use of communication strategies, which are the learner’s efforts to bridge the communication gap between their linguistic abilities and proficiency in the target language and the target language interlocutors as defined by Tarone (1981). Literature Review Despite the fact that Rababah does not focus mainly on Libyan students but on Arab learners, the article is relevant since Libya, is an Arab speaking nation and therefore, most of the information carried in the article are relevant. The suggestions made by the author are that the problem of pronunciation and ineffective communication in English faced by the Arabic students are because of inability of the students to interact in first hand with native speakers of the target language cannot be overemphasized. Majority of the Libyan students that I encountered in my research mentioned that not only were the teachers teaching them English 90% Libyan native speakers, the students had little or no time to speak in English in the classroom. In addition, the teachers dominated the whole English session and utilized most of the time lecturing than offering the students an opportunity to practice what they had learnt in English. The inability for students to practice speaking and communicating in the target language, limits their ability to effectively and competently express their opinions and debate their points as supported by Myles (2002). In addition, they are not able to identify when and where they are wrong as noted by Rababah (2001). Among other problems faced by Libyan students in spoken English includes lexical approximation errors, syntactic inaccuracies, phonological errors, influence of mother tongue, phonetic obstacles, consonantal obstacles, vocalic obstacles and the inability to articulate and distinguish vowel qualities. This observation is supported by Rakas who practically analyzes the underlying challenge of correctly pronouncing letters and words as highlighted in my research. The author illustrates the point by indicating the lack of one-by-one correlation between the English letters and sounds (Rakas, 2008). For instance, the sound k can be characterized in the orthography by letter k in kite, c in cup, ck in attack and the vowel (i) which is pronounced by letter e in be, ee in freeze, eo in people, ea in leaf and ei in seize among others as highlighted in Rakas (2008). Accordingly, Libyan students are unable to articulate the sound system of English and are unable to attain the consonants articulation. In order to be able to pronounce and speak the target language of English, Libyan students phonologically interpret the target language using their mother tongue, which generates mistakes in use of correct words for objects and verbs and result in mispronunciation (Kremers, 2003). In most cases, the students are incapable to learn the phonetic features of English consonants and the varied states of voicing of words such as ‘pin’ and ‘bin’. According to Roach (1991), the most frequent pronunciation errors that occurs when a learner of English with influence of their mother tongue communicates or speaks, is the production of pure vowels where a diphthong should be articulated instead. This explains the inability of the Libyan students to competently pronounce the letter P and B in words and pronunciation of the past ed. Pronunciations errors for Libyan students in spoken English can be attributed to the fact that in Arabic language, a word is never begun with a vowel while an initial vowel is always lead by a glottal stop or hamzah as noted by Kremers (2003). Rakas offers a vital basis for teaching the English language and helping the students to learn how to voice and pronounce words. The author suggests that basic phonetic concepts pertaining to consonants classification is required during English learning to help students learn the phonetic features allocated to each consonant in relation of place of pronunciation, manner of articulation and voicing which accounts for particular processes including assimilation in connected vocalizations and vowel length in terms of voicing in words (Rakas, 2008). Moreover, helping students to ear train in order to understand the qualities of vowels and the independency of consonant and vowel sounds from the orthography as highlighted by Kremers (2003). From the article, it is apparent that for Libyan Students to overcome their pronunciation problem in spoken language, they need to correctly, distinguish and articulate the consonantal articulation aspects and features and accurately differentiate the vocalic auditory attributes of the phonetic symbols by learning to train their ears when listening as suggested by Kremers (2003). Nevertheless, the article is burdened with complex linguistic terminologies and concepts that an ordinary learner seeking to learn a target language cannot understand and thus, prove useless to them. The article lacks empirical methodology used to base the arguments and authenticate the facts focused on by the article. In Rababah’s journal article, the inability to speak coherently in English among Arab learners is associated with the increased use of Arabic language in teaching in schools and in major degree courses such as Islamic studies, Social studies, History, Education and Computer science (Rabab’ah, 2002). The remaining courses taught in English are not sufficient to help learners speak freely and competently in English. Therefore, to overcome related issues faced by majority of learners learning target language and Libyan students in speaking English, majority of courses and classroom instructions should be conducted in English to improve the learner’s experience in the target language and use of effective and skilled teachers with in-depth knowledge of the English language as discussed by Myles (2002). According to Rababah (2001), lack of regular exposure to target language is an impediment to fluently speaking in English and expressing oneself devoid of mother tongue influence and facilitating a competent flow of communication among students and other target language speakers. Among other problems faced by the Libyan Students in spoken English is the inability to grammatically convey a message, translate, circumlocution, decipher information, lexical estimation and mime to send and receive a message as supported by Rababah (2001). Rababah offers a simple but an effective solution to overcoming communication problems faced by Arab learners in using English. The author suggests use of strategic competencies as discussed in Rababah (2001) and communication strategies , which are beneficial because they result in learning and speaking English by drawing out unknown language items from the interlocutor and they are universally existent in native speeches and are helpful in sustaining communication flow in phrases such as ‘ what do you call it?.’ In addition, they help the learner to compensate their linguistic inadequacies. This occurs when the English learner solve their linguistic problems and thus, attain their communication objective (Rabab’ah, 2002). The article is although limited as it does not highlight empirical evidence used to validate the data collected and instead, it heavily relies on varied academic surveys and literature. Conclusion There are varied challenges that Libyan students face in spoken language. From the literature review, among such problems include pronunciation of sounds and words while using the target language, lexical approximation errors, syntactic inaccuracies, phonological errors, influence of mother tongue, phonetic obstacles, consonantal obstacles, vocalic obstacles and the inability to articulate and distinguish vowel qualities. The problems are caused by lack of one-by one- correlation between English sounds and letters, production of pure vowels where diphthong should be articulated, and the fact that in contrast to English language, Arabic words are never begun with vowels and initial vowels are always preceded by a hamzah or a glottal stop. Rababah cites the inability of learners to interact using the target language, differences in pronunciation between the Arabic and English language, teaching methodology and lack of target language environment causes the problems in spoken English. The solutions to the problems are use of communication strategies suggested by Rababah, putting more emphasis on the independency of consonant and vowel sounds and interdependency between segmental phonetics and intonation when teaching. Conclusively, Libyan students needs to correctly distinguish and pronounce the consonantal articulation features and differentiate vocalic auditory qualities determined by phonetic symbols. References Jia-Huey, H., (2007). Globalization of English: It’s Impact on English The Language Education in the Tertiary Education Sector in Taiwan. PhD Thesis. The University of Waikato. New Zealand. Kremers, J (2003). The Arabic noun phrase; a minimalist approach. Ph. D dissertation. LOT, the Netherlands. Myles, J. (2002). Second language writing and research: The writing process and error analysis in student texts. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 6(2): 1-19. Rabab’ah, G. (2002). Communication problems facing Arab learners of English. Journal of Language and Learning, 3(1), ISSN 1740-4983. Rababah, G. (2001). An investigation into the strategic competence of Arab Learners of English at Jordanian Universities. PhD Dissertation; University of Newcastle. Rakas, M.S. (2008). Some problematic issues facing Libyan Arab Learners of English. Benghazi, Libya: Garyounis University. Rasul, S., (2006). Language Hybridization in Pakistan as Socio-Cultural Phenomenon: an Analysis of Mixed Linguistic Patterns. PhD Thesis, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad Pakistan. Roach, P. (1991). English Phonetics and Phonology Cambridge University Press. Tarone, E. (1981). Some thoughts on the notions of communication strategy. TESOL Quarterly: 15: 285-95 Read More