SINDHI SPEAKERS HAVING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Abstract

This study investigates the pronunciation problems while speaking English, faced by the speakers who have Sindhi as their first language. Fifteen university students were selected as research participants. The research has been conducted through the use of qualitative methods. Audio recordings have been used as the research instruments, while the data has been descriptively analyzed. The findings revealed that the Sindhi speakers having English as a second language face numerous pronunciation problems, such as incorrectly articulating longer words compared to shorter ones. The findings also revealed that these speakers replace longer vowels with shorter ones, as well as doing the opposite in some cases, also demonstrating confusion between the consonants such as /s/ and /z/. Problems while shifting from one vowel to another, in order to pronounce Diphthongs, were also observed, while it was claimed by the speakers themselves that in their opinion their native tongue, as well as the incorrect pronunciation demonstrated by their teachers are the primary reasons for their incorrect articulation of the English words.