Perception of English Fricatives (/v/, /3/) by Undergraduate Kuwaiti Arabic Learners

Abstract

In this paper, we test the phonetic and lexical phonological perceptions of students in Kuwait who speak the Kuwaiti Arabic (KA) dialect as their native language and are studying English at the undergraduate level. The main objective was to test students' perception of English labial [v] and post-alveolar [] fricatives because these fricatives do not exist in the consonant phonemic inventory of KA and may pose difficulty for Kuwaiti adults learning English. Identification and discrimination tests on phonological and phonetic levels were conducted with 104 female native speakers of KA who were enrolled in undergraduate English courses in the College of Basic Education in Kuwait. They had KA as their L1. The results show that they could perceive English [v] better on all word positions but their perception of English [] was slightly weaker and not similar on all word positions. The results are analysed using a framework of second language acquisition, and predictions are made about potential difficulties for Kuwaiti students learning English fricatives [v] and [].