THE IMPACT OF PHONETIC TRAINING COURSE ON PRONUNCIATION PERFORMANCE OF KURDISH EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this experimental study is to examine the impact of a phonetic training course on Kurdish EFL student’s pronunciation performance. To accomplish the effectiveness of phonetic training, 100 Kurdish EFL students from the first grade of English department /Salahaddin University (SU) participated in this study. The participants were assigned arbitrarily into two groups, experimental and control. A Key English Test (KET) was administered to them to determine their pronunciation proficiency level. After the pre-test, the experimental group (n=50) received successive phonetic training sessions for sixteen weeks, While the control group (n=50) took their regular class. These phonetic sessions were given three hours a week. Both groups were given a post-test at the end of the course. For analyzing the obtained data, the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used. The quantitative data were analyzed via calculating the weighted mean, its standard deviation, and percentile of weight. The results indicated that using phonetic training improved Kurdish EFL students’ English pronunciation, and the experimental group participants were found to have a better performance than the control group.