The Role of Lwidakho on English Word Stress Perception and Production

Abstract

Lwidakho is a tonal language that lacks word stress; instead, the meaning of each syllable in a word is determined by the pitch at which it is pronounced. The language is different from English- a stress timed language- which relies on syllable stress to determine the meaning of words. It is against this background that the paper commented the extent to which Lwidakho influences the ability to perceive and produce English word stress. of form three secondary school Lwidakho speaking students, in Ikolomani Sub-County, Kenya, using Transfer theory, the paper examines the role of Lwidakho on English word stress perception and production. The paper used descriptive research design to identify and obtain information on how Lwidakho affects the learning of English word stress perception and production. Using simple random sampling, the paper sampled out 144 form three students out of 1440 students in day secondary schools. Eight (8) secondary schools were sampled out purposively out of the twenty (20) day secondary schools in Ikolomani Sub-County. Structured interviews were used to elicit data among the respondents. The paper considered the word as a unit of analysis and therefore, thirty (30) English content words were purposively sampled out for analysis. The results of the study reveal the non-existence of word stress in Lwidakho which is assumed to be the cause of errors in English word stress perception and production among Lwidakho speaking form three secondary school students. The study recommends the inclusion of English language activities and/or materials in the listening and speaking lessons among form three students in secondary schools in Kenya. This inclusion would help such students improve their skills in word stress perception and production.