چکیده:
The increasing use of technology in different parts of the world has inevitably led to the borrowing of a sizeable number of English words by many languages, including Farsi. This study was carried out with the aim of determining the extent to which a group of undergraduate Iranian EFL students studying at Sheikhbahaee University could accurately pronounce ten commonly-used technology-associated loan words with regard to two criteria: the placement of word stress and the pronunciation of words‟ sounds. To this end, 50 students were randomly drawn from among the foregoing university‟s students. Each student was given the chance to pronounce each of the ten loan words in and out of context. The students‟ oral performance was recorded and then was subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis . The quantitative analysis revealed that the errors‟ frequencies were relatively high with respect to most words and very high with regard to two words. The qualitative analysis, which was done utilizing the literature of contrastive phonetics and pronunciation systems of Farsi and English, helped partly explaining many of the students‟ errors and highlighting the need for the devotion of more pedagogical and research attention to the problems confronting Farsi-speakers in the area of the pronunciation of loan words.
خلاصه ماشینی:
A Study of the Iranian EFL Students' Errors in the Pronunciation of Ten High-frequency Technology-related English Loan Words Alireza Hojati Yazd University harries.
This study was carried out with the aim of determining the extent to which a group of undergraduate Iranian EFL students studying at Sheikhbahaee University could accurately pronounce ten commonly-used technology-associated loan words with regard to two criteria: the placement of word stress and the pronunciation of words‟ sounds.
Further, a number of researchers have focused specifically on the area of pronunciation and have reported that English loan words present non-native learners and students from different linguistic backgrounds with a number of pronunciation-related problems (Daulton, 2008; Oksefjel, 1999; Perfetti, Rieben Fayol, 1997; Viereck, Carstensen Bald, 1986).
Table1 Frequencies of errors made in the placement of word stress in out-of- context pronunciation of words Technology-associated Words Frequencies of Stress-placement Errors in Out-of-context Pronunciation of Words Computer 42 Internet 49 E-mail 36 Mobile Phone 26 Bluetooth 23 Google 50 Flash Drive 12 Twitter 22 SIM card 45 Power Point 27 The above table, as indicated earlier, illustrates the frequencies of errors made by the study‟s participants with respect to the proper placement of word stress.
Table 2 Frequencies of errors made in the pronunciation of sounds corresponding to the words in out-of-context pronunciation of words Technology-associated Words Frequencies of Sound-pronunciation Errors in Out-of-context Pronunciation of Words Computer 37 Internet 0 E-mail 41 Mobile Phone 0 Bluetooth 34 Google 46 Flash Drive 12 Twitter 10 SIM card 0 Power Point 11 As stated earlier, the above table lists the frequencies sound- pronunciation errors made by the study‟s participants in out-of-context settings.