Strategies Adopted by Libyan Students in the Production of English Onset clusters: An Acoustic Study

Abstract

This acoustic study investigates how Libyan second-semester university students at the Department of English, University of Tripoli, produce English word-initial three-consonant clusters. The study seeks to explore vowel epenthesis as one of the strategies adopted by those students to facilitate the production of these consonant clusters which do not exist in their mother tongue. The study also aims to investigate the site where the epenthetic vowel is inserted and its acoustic characteristics, such as duration and quality. Twenty Libyan second-semester students were recorded while reading nine sentences with the clusters /spl/, /spr/, /spj/, /str/, /skj/, /skr/, /skl/, /skw/ and /stj/ in word-initial position. Results of the acoustic analysis showed significant variability in participants' performance, with vowel epenthesis as the most preferred strategy to simplify the production of problematic clusters. In addition, the findings revealed that Tripolitanian Libyan Arabic shows features of both VC and CV dialects. As for the duration and quality of the epenthetic vowel, the results showed that epenthetic vowels are shorter than neighbouring vowels, and their quality is that of the short high-front unrounded vowel [ɪ]. These results highlight the importance of recognising phonological differences between first and second language and they could improve our understanding of phonological adaptation in second languages and the role it plays in improving learners’ proficiency level and communication skills.