Articulatory challenges in the perception and production of French vowels by Jordanian learners: A cross-linguistic phonetic analysis

Abstract

This study aims to identify and examine persistent articulatory challenges with French oral vowels among adult Jordanian learners of French who are native speakers of Jordanian Arabic. The authors explore problems with vowel pronunciation among 6 male and 6 female participants aged 20-22 years, with B1-B2 French proficiency, at Al-Hussein Bin Talal University in Jordan. The study employed quantitative and qualitative analyses to examine learners' phonetic recordings. The results suggest that the front rounded vowels (/y/, /ø/, /oe/) are the hardest to learn because they don't exist in Arabic and require labio-lingual articulation. The average success rate is only 27.7%. The back rounded vowels (/u/, /o/, /ɔ/, /ɑ/) and the front unrounded vowels (/i/, /e/, /ɛ/, /a/) are easier to learn (90% and 79%, respectively) since they are present or similar to those in Arabic. The persistent presence of errors, despite extensive training, indicates that students require explicit teaching, including perceptual training, visual feedback, and articulatory coordination exercises. The findings emphasise the significance of the L1 and corroborate the notions stated by Flege and Bohn (2021) and Best (1995).