Navigating Unshared Sounds: English Speakers’ Acquisition of Arabic Emphatic and Pharyngeal Phonemes

Abstract

This study investigated English-speaking learners’ acquisition of Arabic emphatic and pharyngeal phonemes that are absent from English. Through a mixed-methods approach, data were collected from undergraduate students through perception tasks, production recordings, and written assignments. The results showed significant challenges with accurately producing and perceiving Arabic phonemes such as /ħ/, /ʕ/, and /sˤ/, which were frequently replaced with phonetically similar English phonemes. Phonemes like /tˤ/ and /ðˤ/ also proved problematic across perception and production tasks. However, participants were able to acquire the emphatic /dˤ/, suggesting a positive effect from integrating digital technology in teaching. While the average perception accuracy rate was 61.55%, production accuracy lagged at 40.17%, with a strong correlation between the two (0.978). High accuracy in writing tasks demonstrated phonological awareness of these unshared sounds, correlating with perception task results. These findings underscore the role of auditory discrimination in phonological acquisition and suggest that integrating perceptual training with digital tools could enhance learners’ articulation skills. As such, this study has pedagogical implications for language instructors.