The Interlanguage Influence of the Algerian Colloquial Arabic Accent on the Phonological Well-Formedness of EFL Students’ Performance

Abstract

The concern of reaching a native-like English accent and bypassing the reflections of the accented speech raises hand in hand with the developmental position the English language is gaining currently in the Algerian linguistic landscape as a global and fashionable language. The overriding purpose of the current research enterprise lies primarily in investigating and examining the range of phonological influences the Algerian dialectal Arabic exerts upon the performance of EFL learners. Accordingly, five research questions have been set up: (1) Does the Algerian Arabic accent apply phonological influences on the pronunciation of EFL earners? (2) What type of language transfer does the Algerian Arabic accent display predominantly in the phonological performance of EFL learners? (3) What are the phonotactic constraints the Algerian Arabic accent imposes on EFL learners’ phonological output? (4) What amount of advantageousness does the Algerian Arabic accent overture for EFL learners’ pronunciation? (5) Are learners aware of the potential influences their mother accent applies to their English pronunciation? In response to these questions and to achieve the pre-set targets of the study, two research instruments are adopted. A questionnaire is administered alongside a recording test directed to forty EFL intermediate learners. The sample is collected from the private school El-Ameed Institute in Mila. The central research findings disclose that the Algerian Arabic accent applies a considerable set of both positive and negative phonological effects on the pronunciation of EFL learners. Additional results are ddressed further. Eventually, the research work supplies an assortment of recommendations for pedagogy and future research with the aim of calling attention to the worth of being aware of the potential adverse/praiseworthy impacts the primary phonetic system addresses to the performance and progression of phonological skills.