Article published In:
Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 38:1 (2025) ► pp.26–55

On Arab EFL learners’ production of words with “-ate”

ORCID logo | Isra University, Jordan
Arab EFL learners encounter difficulty stressing English words, particularly those with -ate, e.g. ‘ˈpercolate’, ‘ˈgerminate’, ‘ˈimpregnate’. They often stress the rightmost syllable. However, earlier studies included a limited sample of such items. The present study further explores and verifies these preliminary findings. It aims at revealing any coherent pattern in learners’ word stress strategies and tracing stress strategies associated with the stimuli’s word class or length. Furthermore, it investigates the effect of specific instruction on the production of the stimuli. To estimate the impact of training in stress placement on subjects’ accurate stress production, the subjects were enrolled in a nine-hour stress-training course that extended over three weeks. Ninety infrequent words ending in -ate were used in pretest and posttest pronunciation tasks with 102 third- and fourth-year Jordanian English majors. They had problems accurately producing the stimuli and tended to place stress on the ultimate syllables. Stress was often assigned to the right syllable as the subjects were prolonging the last vowel, i.e. the -ate syllable, and accentuating it in most stimuli. No significant association existed between the subjects’ performance and word length or word classes of the stimuli. The posttest scores far exceeded the pretests, proving explicit instruction’s benefits.
Keywords: Arabic stress, English stress, Arab EFL learners, stress production, stressing suffixed words
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The importance of stress
    • 1.2English word stress
      • 1.2.1Accentuation of words with ‑ate
    • 1.3Arabic stress
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1L1 Transfer effects on L2 stress
    • 2.2Impact of stress training
  • 3.The study
    • 3.1Aims
    • 3.2Subjects
    • 3.3Materials
    • 3.4Procedure
      • 3.4.1Data collection
      • 3.4.2Training in stress placement
      • 3.4.3Data analysis
    • 3.5Results
    • 3.6Discussion
      • 3.6.1General aspects
      • 3.6.2Factors influencing Arab learners’ behaviour
      • 3.6.3Efficacy of training in stress placement
  • 4.Conclusion and pedagogical implications
  • 5.Limitations of the study
  • References
Published online: 22 March 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.23021.alz
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