SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING IN NIGERIA: PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH ALVEOLAR-FRICATIVE BY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN GOMBE STATE

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the production of English alveolar-fricative by undergraduate students in Gombe State. So, it describes the way alveolar-fricative are produced by English learners from speakers of different native languages. In the process, each participant will be given a questionnaire which contains items testing three manifestation of /s/ sound in terms of pronunciation. Therefore, the instrument to be used in data collection is closed ended questionnaire. Consequently, the study attempts to add to the field pronunciation of sounds in second language by investigating alveolar-fricative productions by English learners from different first language backgrounds. Thus, it may have pedagogical suggestions for teaching of pronunciation particularly that of alveolar-fricative so that teachers and authors of pronunciation manuals should take into account the target-like voicing assimilation processes as well as possible syllable simplification strategies manifesting in second language learners pronunciation of target language sounds and words.