THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION OF SENIOR ENGLISH TEACHERS IN PUBLIC SECTOR SCHOOLS OF DISTRICT DIR LOWER: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF MAJOR ERRORS IN THE ARTICULATION OF ENGLISH CONSONANTS AND UNDERLYING FACTORS

Abstract

This study explores the segmental errors in the pronunciation of English consonants made by senior English teachers in high and higher secondary schools in district Dir Lower, Khybar Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. The study uses a qualitative approach and both questionnaire and interviews have been used as data collection tools. Error analysis and contrastive analysis provide the theoretical foundations for this study. It was found that the respondents (senior English teachers in public sector schools) made a variety of pronunciation errors in the articulation of English consonants. The major types of errors were: the substitution of one English phoneme with another, either from the English language or the participants’ L1, and articulation of a phoneme on the basis of the presence of its corresponding letter in the spelling. The study also shows that these errors can be attributed to L1 transfer, the opaque nature of English orthography and the unfamiliarity of the study participants of the English phonology, etc.