The Phonological Appraisal of Kanuri Speakers of English
Mai Idriss Alooma Polytechnic, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
The English language spoken in Nigeria can be identified with many faulty realizations, as a result of the diverse multilingual, sociolinguistic and phonological influences on the language. The aim of this paper is to determine the phonological collision between Kanuri language (as L1/MT) and English language (as L2/TL) that are noticeable in the area of phonology and some other social causes. The paper attempts a comparative analysis of English and Kanuri language’s phonetics symbols in order to identify the English phonemes that are absent and difficult to pronounce by the native Kanuri. A reading test or pronunciation drills were designed for randomly selected Kanuri speakers of English, so as to get the percentage of phonemes that constitute problems. However, it has been observed by this research that, a second language learner of English may not have native-like dexterity in English pronunciation. Thus, some recommendations were given to correct the leaner’s pronunciation errors to have near native speaker’s proficiency in spoken English.
KEYWORDS
Phonology, language acquisition, language learning, mother tongue (MT), target language (TL).