The most common pronunciation difficulties in EFL students of Ecuadorian high schools and factors that affect oral production of the target language

Abstract

Abstract:The most common pronunciation difficulties in EFL students of Ecuadorian High Schools and factors that affect oral production of the target language aims at identifying common pronunciation errors in students of Ecuadorian high schools. To carry out this research, there were chosen 283 students from basic and senior high schools education, and 5 English teachers, from four high-schools in Loja, both private and public. The instruments were chosen: checklist and observation sheet, for data collection. The results revealed that the most common pronunciation difficulties were: in vowel phonemes; in consonants and consonant clusters: among others. In intonation patterns like: rise and fall of intonation in Yes-No and Wh-questions. Furthermore, it was revealed that incorrect stress placement was linked with vowel reduction, and it resulted in incorrect pronunciation. It was also identified that EFL teachers did not demonstrate interest to teach some important aspects of pronunciation, such as aspiration, correct articulation, vowel reduction etc. and they did not apply the teaching /learning strategies aimed at helping students during EFL class.