Proper Noun Pronunciation Inaccuracies in English by Educated Arabic Speakers

| ABSTRACT Analysis of a corpus of errors in pronouncing Proper Nouns used in English collected from the spontaneous speech of a sample of Arab informants showed that Arabic speakers have the following problems: (i) mispronouncing English vowels in Google, Moodle, Uber, Nixon, London; (ii) replacing consonants absent in L1 (p v) by their equivalents (bebsi, jafa); (iii) geminating consonants in city and country names (Peking; Venezuela, Minnesota) ; (iv); inserting a vowel in consonant clusters in Proper Nouns and acronyms (Zelinsky, Logansk, SNAS, GMC, ) ; (v) breaking words into two sub-words (Kasper+sky, Sky+pe) ; (vi) pronouncing words the way they are spelled (Nazi, Nike, Huawei, Hyundai, Wednesday); and (vii) transferring Arabic stress rules to English words (McDonald, Mayflower). Pronunciation errors made by Arab students are attributed to transfer from the native language, i.e., Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or the local dialect, insufficient mastery of English pronunciation rules, phonics and phone-grapheme correspondences and lack of knowledge of the differences between English and Arabic phonology. To correct pronunciation problems, the study recommends that students watch pronunciation practice videos that focus on a single error or rule at a time; raising students’ awareness of English pronunciation rules, phonics, phoneme -grapheme correspondences and comparing English and Arabic vowels, consonants, syllable structure, pause, juncture and stress rules; providing direct pronunciation instruction, graded lessons and remedial exercises. Future research needs to investigate Arab students’ pronunciation problems in assimilation, elision, and others.

Unlike Arabic, English has falling intonation in statements, commands, wh-questions (information questions), confirmatory question tags and exclamations. Rising intonation is normally used with yes/no questions, and question tags that are real questions. In sentence types that have rising intonation in English, Arabic has falling intonation and vice versa.
Since Arabic and English are phonetically different, Arabic-speaking learners of English from Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, Iraq, Kurdistan, and the Sudan, face major difficulties with English pronunciation. Differences between English and Arabic in vowels, diphthongs, consonants, consonant clusters, and stress create mispronunciation by EFL native-speakers of Arabic (Al-Zayed, 2017).
A review of the literature has shown many studies that investigated the problems that EFL Arab students have in pronouncing English. At the vowel and diphthong level, Arab students, whether they are studying in their own country or abroad (in Malaysia, Cyprus, USA…etc), have difficulty with English front vowels /i/ -/I/-/Ԑ/ and /ae/. Arab students confuse vowel sounds in words such as 'well', ' At the consonant level, Arab students learning English have difficulty producing consonant sounds that do not exist in MSA or in their local dialect such as /t/ and /d/; /k/ and /g/; /z/ and /ð /; /s/ and /θ/; /b/ and /p/; / ʃ/ and / ʧ/; /dʒ/, /ʒ/, and /ŋ/. They tend to add or replace them with their counterparts (Thakur, 2020 Since English and Arabic differ in their syllable structure, Arab students have difficulty pronouncing English consonant clusters containing more than 2 consonants in initial, medial and final word positions. Arabic speakers tend to insert a vowel (vocalic epenthesis) to split the consonant cluster into two. For example, some Arabic speakers pronounce the world spring as (sipring or ispring), street as (street or istreet) and strength as (sitringith or istrength). Some inert the vowel sound /I/ when pluralizing words In pronouncing English words, Arab students transfer Arabic stress rules to English words. Arabic speakers learning English very often shift the stress pattern from its trochaic English stress pattern in isn't to /ɪ'zɪnt/ instead of /'ɪzɪnt/. Most students do not stress the right syllable in words like 'comfortable', 'vegetables', 'development'. They make mistakes in single and double stress in compounds as in 'Mayflower', 'dining room', 'gold watch', 'female teacher'. Differences in stress levels and stress placement in English and Arabic words cause distortion of such English words, which in turn would lead to nuisances and communication and listening comprehension problems (Ababneh, 2018;Kalaldeh, 2016;Yurtbasi, 2017; Al-Zayed, 2017; Al-Jarf, 1994a; Al-Jarf, 1994b; Al-Jarf, 1992).
Moreover, Arab students learning English have problems with English juncture. Some students pause in 'hot dog' but most rightfully pause in 'go on'. A good number of the students wrongly pause in 'gentleman' (Ababneh, 2018;Yurtbasi, 2017).
EFL Arab students also pronounce English sentences with faulty intonation. They transfer the Arabic intonation rules to English sentences (Ababneh, 2018).
Furthermore, the literature review has shown that most studies have focused on the errors that students make in pronouncing English vowels, diphthongs, consonants, and consonant clusters. Most of those studies have replicated the findings of each other. Few studies scantly anlayzed students' weaknesses in stressing English words, juncture, and intonation. There is lack of studies that analyze pronunciation problems in stressing English phrases and sentences, gemination, assimilation and elision in common words. Similarly, there is lack of studies that investigated pronunciation accuracies in Proper Nouns that are very common in the media, social media, and advertisements. Therefore, this study aims to: (i) analyze inaccuracies in pronouncing Proper Nouns used in English by native speakers of Arabic such as names of people, cities, countries, brand names, acronyms and others; (ii) classify Proper Noun pronunciation errors into vowel, diphthong, consonant, reduction and consonant sequences (consonant clusters, gemination), stress, pause and junction errors; (iii) identify the pronunciation error sources, and which pronunciation errors are interlingual and intraligual; and (iv) give some recommendations for improving Arabic native speakers' pronunciation of commonly used Proper Nouns.
Identifying inaccuracies in pronouncing Proper Nouns used in English is significant for instructors and languages and translation students as mispronunciations sometimes lead to unintelligibility of speech or misinterpretation of the oral message/information.
Aspects of Proper Noun pronunciation in English that are difficult for Arabic-speaking students are not usually included in language proficiency standards nor systematically addressed in English language instruction. In addition, some English as a second language (ESL/EFL) teachers working with adult learners do not have training in teaching pronunciation. As a result, EFL instructors may not be able to identify the types of and causes of students' pronunciation problems in English. They may not have the right strategies for teaching the details of English phonemes, consonants, stress, and intonation in English.
Lack of knowledge of appropriate instructional strategies in pronunciation classrooms is a serious problem. EFL instructors should be aware of the latest instructional approaches for teaching English pronunciation to EFL students of all levels. They should be able to integrate some of those approaches into their EFL classes.

Informants
The sample of informants consisted of 81 students, and instructors majoring in colleges of languages and translation, T.V. news anchors, educated Arabs with a college degree in medicine, engineering, computer science, and business. The informants were Saudi, Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian and Egyptian. They hold a Ph.D., M.A. and B.A. degree.

The Pronunciation Error Corpus
The pronunciation error corpus was collected from spontaneous daily speech of Arab adults who are studying or have studied English as a foreign language. The author collected the pronunciation errors from observations of the informants in natural conversational situations for a year, whether the informants were speaking in Arabic and code-switching (mixing Arabic discourse with English words) or they were fully speaking in English. The author used the diary methodology as a data collection tool. Only errors in pronouncing Proper Nouns used in English were collected. Pronunciation errors in common words were ignored. The set of Proper Nouns and how they are pronounced by each informant was recorded together with a transcription of their faulty pronunciation. No tests nor questionnaire surveys were used. The informants were not prompted or given any stimuli to produce English Proper Nouns.

Data Analysis
The phonological error data collected were coded and classified in terms of the following marked thematic categories: The pronunciation errors in the above words were classified into: Vowel, diphthong, consonant, consonant cluster, gemination, stress, intonation, pause and juncture errors. The informants' pronunciation was transcribed using the International Phonetic Alphabet. Results of the analysis are reported qualitatively.

Proper Noun Pronunciation Problems
Arabic speakers in the current study tended to mispronounce vowels in Proper Nouns such as: Many informants mispronounced consonants absent in L1 and substituted them with their voiced or voiceless counterparts. For example, /p/ is pronounced /b/ in Pepsi, Trump, Budapest, SPL, OPEC; /v/ is pronounced /f/ in Java, Vicks; and /ʧ/ is pronounced /ʃ/ in Cheddar, Balochistan, Charles, Charlie, Snapchat. In Karachi and Michigan, the /ʧ/ is replaced by two consonants /t + ʃ/.
Many subjects tended to geminate consonants in Proper Nouns, especially names of countries, cities, personal and brand names containing double consonants such as Morocco, Nutella, Holland, Marshmallow, Penicillin Elissa. They geminate the consonant /cc, ll, ss). They also geminate single consonants on Peking /kk/; Venezuela /ll/, Minnesota /tt/, Belarus /ll/, Toyota /tt/ probably because the main stress falls on the syllable containing those single consonants. Interestingly, they do not geminate the double /ll/ in Cadillac probably because they stress the initial syllable. Arabic speakers geminate such words because gemination in Arabic occurs whenever there are double consonants in word medial and final positions (within a word), whereas in English, gemination never occurs within a word. It only occurs across word boundary e.g., 'that time', 'big gun', 'unnatural', 'immoral', 'illegal', 'irregular', 'dissatisfied'; but not in 'essay, announce, comment, connect'.

In addition, EFL Arabic speakers insert a vowel in consonant clusters and acronyms. Since Arabic does not allow consonant clusters of 3 consonants. They tend to insert the vowel /i/ in Proper Nouns such as Scholitz, Netfilex/Neti flex, Linkidin, Zelinisky, Internet
Exiplorer, Billi Clinton, Luganisk, Donetisk, Cilorix. They also tend to insert a vowel to split the consonant clusters in acronyms and make them sound like words. Thus SNAS becomes /sina:s/, SPL becomes /subul/, SMSA becomes /samsa/, MBC /emi biy siy/, CNN /si: eni en/, GMC /dʒims/. The /p/ in SPL is pronounced /b/ and the resulting word sounds like the Arabic word /subul/ which means ways.
Interestingly many informants, including lecturers and T.A.s teaching EFL, split unfamiliar long words into 2 sub-words. They to break foreign words borrowed in English into two familiar words whether in English or Arabic. For example, they say Kaspersky /ka:spar + skaɪ /, Skype /skaɪ + pi:/, Swaroviski /swaro + viski/. They use the same strategy in splitting vegetable into vegetable /vedʒi +teibl/. This is because they do not know that such foreign words with the foreign suffix -sky cannot be broken down into 2 words. In the 3 examples, -sky is pronounced /ski/, and is unstressed and stress falls on the syllable before it.
Another faulty strategy is the many informants tend to pronounce Proper Nouns the way they are spelled. Since Arabic is a phonetic language, i.e., graphemes are pronounced the way they are spelled, Arabic speakers of English tend to pronounce Huawei as /hawa:wi/, Nike as /naɪk/, Levi /li:vi/, Adidas as /adida:s/, Hyundai as /hayundaaɪ/, Porsche as /po:rʃ/, Ikea as /i:kɪə/, Yorkshire as /yo:rkʃaɪər/, Nazi as /naazi/.
In addition, some informants pronounce silent vowels and consonants in some English Proper Nouns. They pronounce the /d/ in Wednesday, the /h/ in Holand (the former French president); and in Charlie Hebdo (the French magazine), probably because they do not know that the initial /h/ is silent in French words.
As for stress, some informants misplace the stress in some Proper Nouns. They tend to apply the Arabic stress rules to some English words as in 'McDonald, ham'burger, Swaro'vski, Kasper +'sky, Sky +'pe, Adi'das, Ca'mala Harris, 'Renault, 'Peugeot, Mer'cedes, Buda'pest as they exactly do with common words such as 'deve'lopment, com'fortable and vege'table.
Finally, pause and juncture constitute a problem in pronouncing Proper Nouns. Arabic speakers very often pause in compounds such as Seven-up, Linkedin, rather than joining the two parts of the compound together. In some cases, they insert a vowel to break the consonant cluster in compounds and to pause in between them as in Link(i)din, Bill(i)Clinton, Net(i)flex or Netf(i)lex.

Causes of Proper Noun Pronunciation Inaccuracies
The pronunciation error data have shown that in most cases, Arabic speakers transfer the Arabic phonological system to English words, i.e., pronunciation weaknesses are due to interference from the participants' native language, whether it is MSA or their local dialects. Since Arabic has three short vowels, three long vowels and two diphthongs, Arabic speakers tend the change the vowel quality, vowel length, and substitute certain vowels with others. They tend to pronounce English Proper Nouns the way they are spelled, because Arabic is phonetic and native speakers pronounce words the way they are spelled in Arabic. They insert a vowel in English consonant clusters to split a long sequence of consonants into a shorter one. They apply Arabic stress rules to English Proper Nouns.
Moreover, Proper Noun pronunciation errors are due to insufficient mastery of English pronunciation rules (vowels, consonants, diphthongs, gemination, consonant clusters and stress, pause, juncture and intonation), lack of auditory identification and discrimination skill, lack of awareness of the differences between the Arabic and English phonological systems with regards to those aspects and insufficient knowledge of English phonics and phoneme-grapheme correspondences. It seems that Arabic speakers did not receive sufficient practice in their English language courses especially, listening and speaking such as auditory identification and discrimination, practicing minimal pairs, comparing, and contrasting English and Arabic segmental and suprasegmental aspects.
Pronunciation errors in Proper Nouns such as Charlie Hebdo, Holand, Angelina Joli, Kamala Harris, Renault, Pigeut, Burberry, Nike, Levi, Adidas, Porsche, Ikea, Swarovski, Kaspersky, Skype. Huawei, Nazi, Scholtz, Zelinski, Michigan, uber, iPhone, Google, Moodle may be due to lack of sufficient exposure to the English language and unfamiliarity with foreign words borrowed in English and how those words are pronounced in the doner language such as French, German, Russian, Chinese, Italian and others, insufficient Proper Noun etymology. Most proper nouns in the data are not taught in English language courses in college. They are commonly encountered in the media such as T.V. news. The participants might not have heard native speakers of English pronounce those. When used in English, some foreign Proper Nouns retain their original pronunciation in the doner language. Thus, Hebdo is pronounced as /ebdəʊ /; Nazi /na:tsi/; Huawei /wah-wei/; Scholtz as /ʃʊlts/. Peking, Venezuela, Minnesota, Holland, Belarus, Elissa, Penicillin, marshmallow should be pronounced with a single /l/ or /t/ without any germination even if they are spelled with a double /l/ because gemination in English occurs across word boundary.
Furthermore, native speakers of Arabic who are learning or have learnt English may not have received pronunciation instruction or feedback on their English pronunciation from their instructors. They may not have received any instruction in phonics and phoneme-grapheme correspondences either.
Another strategy revealed by the error data is that the informants would segment unfamiliar words into segments that are familiar to them in L1 and/or L2 as in (Kasper +sky, Sky + pe, and Swaro + viski) without thinking that the resulting pronunciation might be funny or incomprehensible by native speakers or specialists using such terms.
Finally, it seems that informants in the current study are not keen on pronouncing English Proper Nouns correctly and doublechecking the pronunciation of unfamiliar words with native speakers, Google Translate or even an online dictionary on their mobile phones.

Discussion
The types of pronunciation errors that Arabic speakers in the current study make when pronouncing Proper Nouns used in English especially the vowels, consonants and vowel insertion in consonant clusters, stress and juncture are consistent with findings of prior studies such as Al- In addition, the causes of Proper Noun pronunciation errors reported in the present study are consistent with those given by prior researchers such as Abd Elwahab (2020); Yurtbasi (2017) and Keshavarz (2017).
Other factors that affect pronunciation weaknesses were mentioned by Al-Rubaat & Alshammari (2020) which include limited practice time, lack of authentic materials and tasks, the need for immersion classes, and effective teaching and learning strategies.

Recommendations
Ability to pronounce English words correctly and accurately, especially Proper Nouns, is significant for Arab learners majoring in languages and interpreting in order to be able to communicate effectively and because such Proper Nouns are very common on social media, media, and advertisements. To master pronunciation skills in English, the current study recommends raising EFL instructors' awareness of students' pronunciation weaknesses and how to design activities to remediate those weaknesses. Special pronunciation training workshops and seminars can be organized for instructors on social media such as Facebook, using online discussion forums, web-conferences, Periscope, and other platforms (Al-Jarf, 2021b; Al-Jarf, 2021e; Al-Jarf, 2014; Al-Jarf, 2006a; Al-Jarf, 2006b).
It is important that pronunciation instruction be part of the listening, speaking, reading, and vocabulary instruction. EFL instructors can enhance students' correct production of English sounds through explicit pronunciation instruction and training. EFL instructors can prepare and provide graded pronunciation lessons for 5-10 minutes that aim at raising students' awareness of English pronunciation rules, phonics, phoneme-grapheme correspondences and of the differences between English and Arabic vowels, consonants, allophones, geminates, consonant clusters, assimilation, elision, contraction, primary and secondary stress rules, intonation, pause, juncture, intonation and using various forms of pitch to give emotions to their utterances, taking shorter and longer pauses between meaningful thought chunks through junctures, and solidifying such suprasegmentals through constant exercises in dialogues. (Yakut, 2020; Al-Jarf, 2019, Al-Jarf, 2018; Yurtbasi, 2017Al-Jarf, 2008a; Al-Jarf, 2008b; Al-Jarf, 2005a; Al-Jarf, 2005b; Al-Jarf, 1992).
Listening and speaking instructors can prepare and use remedial activities that target specific pronunciation errors and weaknesses. For example, students can practice minimal pairs containing consonants such as /t/ and /d/ or /k/ and /g/, or vowels such as /i/ and /e/ (Thakur, 2020; Abdelaal, 2017).
The students can practice listening and speaking in a multimedia language lab. They can give oral presentation, engage in debates, and engage in task-based pronunciation activities that focus on one pronunciation subskill. The instructor provides feedback on students' pronunciation while conducting listening, speaking, reading and vocabulary activities (Al-Jarf, 2021a; Al-Jarf, 2021c; Al-Jarf, 2021d; Al-Jarf, 2007; Sakale, 2019).
Moreover, EFL instructors can integrate technology such as mobile Apps in listening, speaking and pronunciation instruction in EFL such as mobile audiobooks to enhance students' pronunciation (Al-Jarf, 2021f; Al-Jarf, 2020a; Al-Jarf, 2012a). YouTubes pronunciation videos that focus on one single pronunciation error or rule at a time; Audio Tracks Imitation YATI, Kahoot, the Vocaroo Voice Recording Service, Automatic Speech Recognition such as ASR EyeSpeak software, designing and implementing a corpus-based online pronunciation learning platform and student-created podcasts are very helpful in improving students' pronunciation skills (Xiao &  To increase students' exposure to native speakers' pronunciation, they can watch English T.V. news channels, movies, YouTube videos and TED Talks. Such viewing activities would increase students' background knowledge (world knowledge), familiarity with neologism (iPhone, Netflex, Java, LinkedIn) listening comprehension skills and pronunciation noticing skills (Al-Jarf, 2021g; Al-Jarf, 2020b; Al-Jarf, 2018; Al-Jarf, 2010).
Instead of conducting studies that replicate issues that were investigated by prior researchers and graduate students such as problems that EFL students have in pronouncing vowels, consonants and consonant clusters, future researchers need to focus on further aspects of English pronunciation with which EFL Arab students have difficulties such as intonation, assimilation and elision, stress in compounds and sentences, stress shift in words that end in certain suffixes ('photograph, pho'tography; de'velopment, develop'mental). Researchers may also investigate the effect of using a variety of remedial pronunciation exercises and instructional strategies such as online videos, mobile apps and podcasts on students' pronunciation skill improvement. The effect of using graded phonics, and grapheme-phoneme correspondences is still open for further investigation by future researchers.
Funding: This research received no external funding.

Conflicts of Interest:
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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