PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE

The present study investigates the effect of Arabic lexical stress predictability in producing English lexical stress by Yemeni EFL undergraduates and native Hadhrami Arabic (HA) speakers. The study involved the participation of 69 Yemeni EFL undergraduates with two varying levels of English proficiency. Additionally, 10 American native speakers were included to evaluate the correct production of English stress patterns by the Yemeni EFL undergraduates. The authors adopt the Metrical Theory and the Stress Typology Model to underpin the grounds of this study. Data from the study were collected through a production experiment using individual recording sessions for each participant reading 84 English real and nonce words. The differences between stressed and unstressed syllables were measured using phonetic cues ratios, vowel duration, intensity, and fundamental frequency (F0), analysed through PRAAT software. The findings suggest that the production of English lexical stress by Yemeni EFL undergraduates is influenced by HA. However, the predictability of the Arabic stress pattern does not always trigger errors in producing English lexical stress by Yemeni EFL undergraduates. Findings indicate that Yemeni EFL undergraduates are more attentive to vowel weight, especially when the ultimate syllable incorporates a tense vowel. It stands in contrast to the conventional approach of syllable structure, which places a more pronounced emphasis on instructing English vowels among Arab ELF learners as a result of Arabic dialectal variation.

• Albadar, A. (2018). The role of quantity sensitivity in the perception of English lexical stress by predictable stress language speakers: Arabic L2 learners of English. Academia. https://www.academia.edu/66943914/The_Role_of_Quantity_Sensitivity_in_the_Perception_of_English_Lexical_Stress_by_Predictable_stress_Language_Speakers_Arabic_L_2_Learners_of_English?uc-sb-sw=100650972

• Ali, H. S., & Abdalla, J. K. (2021). Pronunciation of English stress by Iraqi Arabic and Kurdish EFL learners. Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities, 28(12.1), 19-37. https://doi.org/10.25130/jtuh.28.12.1.2021.24

• Al-Khulaidi, M. (2017). Word stress in Yemeni English: A phonetic study. International Multidisciplinary Journal, 3, 14-24. https://doi.org/10.54392/ijll2145

• Almbark, R., Bouchhioua, N., & Hellmuth, S. (2014). Acquiring the phonetics and phonology of English word stress: Comparing learners from different L1 backgrounds. Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech, Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics (Vol. 5, pp. 19-35). Department of Education, Concordia University.

• Al-Tamimi, N. O. M., Abudllah, N. K. M., & Bin-Hady, W. R. A. (2020). Teaching speaking skill to EFL college students through task-based approach: Problems and improvement. British Journal of English Linguistics, 8(2), 113-130. https://doi.org/10.37745/bjel.2013

• Al-Thalab, H. S. A., Yap, N. T., Nimehchisalem, V., & Rafik-Galea, S. (2018). Perception of English lexical stress: Some insights for English pronunciation lessons for Iraqi ESL learners. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 8(2), 209-224.

• Altmann, H. (2006). The perception and production of second language stress: A cross-linguistic experimental study [Doctoral dissertation, University of Delaware]. https://www.ling.uni-stuttgart.de/institut/ifla/PDF_Upload/Heidi_Altmann/altmann-dissertation.pdf

• Altmann, H., & Kabak, B. (2015). English word stress in L2 and postcolonial varieties: Systematicity and variation. In U. Gut, R. Fuchs, & E. Wunder (Eds.), Universal or diverse paths to English phonology (pp. 185-208). De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110346084-010

• Anani, M. (1989). Incorrect stress placement in the case of Arab learners of English. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 27(1), 15-22. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.1989.27.1.15

• Aziz, Y. Y. (1980). Some problems of English word-stress for the Iraqi learner. English Language Teaching Journal, 34(2), 104-109. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/34.2.104

• Bamakhramah, M. A. (2010). Syllable structure in Arabic varieties with a focus on superheavy syllables (Publication No. 3390256) [Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/syllable-structure-arabic-varieties-with-focus-on/docview/305212489/se-2

• Cheng, B., & Zhang, Y. (2015). Syllable structure universals and native language interference in second language perception and production: Positional asymmetry and perceptual links to accentedness. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, Article 1801. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01801

• Chomsky, N., & Halle, M. (1968). The sound pattern of English. Harper & Row Publishers.

• Field, J. (2005). Intelligibility and the listener: The role of lexical stress. TESOL Quarterly, 39(3), 399‐423. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588487

• Flege, J. E., & Bohn, O.-S. (1989). An instrumental study of vowel reduction and stress placement in Spanish-accented English. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 11(1), 35-62. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263100007828

• Fry, D. B. (1959). Theoretical aspects of mechanical speech recognition. Journal of the British Institution of Radio Engineers, 19(4), 211-218. https://doi.org/10.1049/jbire.1959.0026

• Ghaith, S. (1993). The assignment of primary stress to words by some Arab speakers. System, 21(3), 381-390. https://doi.org/10.1016/0346-251X(93)90028-F

• Ghosh, M., & Levis, J. M. (2021). Vowel quality and direction of stress shift in a predictive model explaining the varying impact of misplaced word stress: Evidence from English. Frontiers in Communication, 6, Article 628780. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.628780

• Guo, X. (2022). Acoustic correlates of English lexical stress produced by Chinese dialect speakers compared to native English speakers. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 796252. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.796252

• Hayes, B. P. (1980). A metrical theory of stress rules [Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]. DSpace@MIT–MIT Libraries. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/16066

• Helal, S. (2014). Stress in English: Prosodic and rhythmic complexity for Arab learners. Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech: Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 5, 261-294.

• Jaiprasong, S., & Pongpairoj, N. (2020). L2 Production of English word stress by L1 Thai learners. LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network, 13(2), 142-157.

• Jenkins, J. (2002). A sociolinguistically based, empirically researched pronunciation syllabus for English as in international language. Applied linguistics, 23(1), 83-103. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/23.1.83

• Jeong, H., Thorén, B., & Othman, J. (2020). Effect of altering three phonetic features on intelligibility of English as a lingua franca: A Malaysian speaker and Swedish listeners. Asian Englishes, 22(1), 2-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2018.1536817

• Jung, Y. J., & Rhee, S. C. (2018). Acoustic analysis of English lexical stress produced by Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese-Chinese speakers. Phonetics and Speech Sciences, 10(1), 15-22. https://doi.org/10.13064/KSSS.2018.10.1.015

• Kallio, H., Suni, A., & Šimko, J. (2022). Fluency-related temporal features and syllable prominence as prosodic proficiency predictors for learners of English with different language backgrounds. Language and Speech, 65(3), 571-597. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309211040175

• Khazneh, I. (2015). Factors affecting the assignment of English word stress by Syrian EFL learners [Unpublished master’s thesis]. University of Aleppo.

• Koffi, E. (2021). Relevant acoustic phonetics of L2 English: Focus on intelligibility. CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003106418

• Ladefoged, P., & Johnson, K. (2015). A course in phonetics (6th ed.). Cengage Learning.

• Lai, Y. (2008). Acoustic realization and perception of English lexical stress by Mandarin learners (Publication No. 3316252) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Kansas]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/acoustic-realization-perception-english-lexical/docview/250346459/se-2

• Lee, G., Shin, D. J., & Garcia, M. T. M. (2019). Perception of lexical stress and sentence focus by Korean-speaking and Spanish-speaking L2 learners of English. Language Sciences, 72, 36-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2019.01.002

• Levis, J. (2018). Word stress and intelligibility. In Intelligibility, Oral Communication, and the Teaching of Pronunciation (Series of Cambridge Applied Linguistics, pp. 100-124). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108241564.010

• Lewis, C., & Deterding, D. (2021). Teaching suprasegmentals in English as a lingua franca contexts. In H. Mohebbi & C. Coombe (Eds.), Research questions in language education and applied linguistics (Series of Springer texts in education, pp. 167-169). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79143-8_31

• Liberman, M., & Prince, A. (1977). On stress and linguistic rhythm. Linguistic Inquiry, 8(2), 249-336.

• Lin, C. W. (2018). The perception and production of Arabic lexical stress by learners of Arabic: A usage-based account [Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan]. Deep Blue Repositories. https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/143979

• Liu, D. (2017). The acquisition of English word stress by Mandarin EFL learners. English Language Teaching, 10(12), 196-201. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v10n12p196

• Maghrabi, R. (2021). A phonological study of the influence of Arabic stress on the pronunciation of English words by Saudi ESL learners. Journal of Arts, Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, (73), 350.-365 https://doi.org/10.33193/JALHSS.73.2021.600

• Misfer, Z. A., & Busabaa, N. A. (2019). Stress placement and the difficulties encountered by female EFL students in Saudi Arabian context. Arab World English Journal, (Special Issue), 32-43. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/efl1.3

• Modesto, F., & Barbosa, P. A. (2019). Unravelling foreign accent prosody: Production and perception of lexical stress in English by Brazilian Portuguese speakers. Revista de Estudos da Linguagem, 27(1), 165-189. https://doi.org/10.17851/2237-2083.27.1.165-189

• Motair, A., & Abdulwahab, T. (2018). Communicative language teaching in Yemeni EFL Classroom from the teachers’ perspective. IASET, 7(5), 2319-3948.

• Nguyen, L. T., & Hung, B. P. (2021). Communicative pronunciation teaching: Insights from the Vietnamese tertiary EFL classroom. System, 101, Article 102573. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2021.102573

• Pennington, M. C., & Rogerson-Revell, P. (2019). English pronunciation teaching and research: Contemporary perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47677-7

• Rehman, I., Silpachai, A., Levis, J., Zhao, G., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2022). The English pronunciation of Arabic speakers: A data-driven approach to segmental error identification. Language Teaching Research, 26(6), 1055-1081. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168820931888

• Saha, S. N., & Mandal, S. K. D. (2018). Phonetic realization of English lexical stress by native (L1) Bengali speakers compared to native (L1) English speakers. Computer Speech & Language, 47, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csl. 2017.06.006

• Tuan, D. M. (2018). English lexical stress assignment by EFL learners: Insights from a Vietnamese context. European Journal of Education Studies, 4(11), 59-74.

• Younes, M. A. (1984). The stressing of final superheavy syllables by Saudi learners of English: Implications for the contrastive analysis hypothesis (ED271009). ERIC. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED271009

• Youssef, A., & Mazurkewich, I. (1998). The acquisition of English metrical parameters and syllable structure by adult native speakers of Egyptian Arabic (Cairene dialect). In S. Flynn, G. Martohardjono, & W. O’Neil (Eds.), The generative study of second language acquisition (pp. 303-332). Lawrence Erlbaum. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315806471

• Zhang, Y., Nissen, S. L., & Francis, A. L. (2008). Acoustic characteristics of English lexical stress produced by native Mandarin speakers. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123(6), 4498-4513. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2902165

• Zuraiq, W., & Sereno, J. A. (2021). Production of English lexical stress by Arabic speakers. In R. Wayland (Ed.), Second language speech learning: Theoretical and empirical progress (pp. 290-311). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108886901.012

• Albadar, A. (2018). The role of quantity sensitivity in the perception of English lexical stress by predictable stress language speakers: Arabic L2 learners of English. Academia. https://www.academia.edu/66943914/The_Role_of_Quantity_Sensitivity_in_the_Perception_of_English_Lexical_Stress_by_Predictable_stress_Language_Speakers_Arabic_L_2_Learners_of_English?uc-sb-sw=100650972

• Ali, H. S., & Abdalla, J. K. (2021). Pronunciation of English stress by Iraqi Arabic and Kurdish EFL learners. Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities, 28(12.1), 19-37. https://doi.org/10.25130/jtuh.28.12.1.2021.24

• Al-Khulaidi, M. (2017). Word stress in Yemeni English: A phonetic study. International Multidisciplinary Journal, 3, 14-24. https://doi.org/10.54392/ijll2145

• Almbark, R., Bouchhioua, N., & Hellmuth, S. (2014). Acquiring the phonetics and phonology of English word stress: Comparing learners from different L1 backgrounds. Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech, Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics (Vol. 5, pp. 19-35). Department of Education, Concordia University.

• Al-Tamimi, N. O. M., Abudllah, N. K. M., & Bin-Hady, W. R. A. (2020). Teaching speaking skill to EFL college students through task-based approach: Problems and improvement. British Journal of English Linguistics, 8(2), 113-130. https://doi.org/10.37745/bjel.2013

• Al-Thalab, H. S. A., Yap, N. T., Nimehchisalem, V., & Rafik-Galea, S. (2018). Perception of English lexical stress: Some insights for English pronunciation lessons for Iraqi ESL learners. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 8(2), 209-224.

• Altmann, H. (2006). The perception and production of second language stress: A cross-linguistic experimental study [Doctoral dissertation, University of Delaware]. https://www.ling.uni-stuttgart.de/institut/ifla/PDF_Upload/Heidi_Altmann/altmann-dissertation.pdf

• Altmann, H., & Kabak, B. (2015). English word stress in L2 and postcolonial varieties: Systematicity and variation. In U. Gut, R. Fuchs, & E. Wunder (Eds.), Universal or diverse paths to English phonology (pp. 185-208). De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110346084-010

• Anani, M. (1989). Incorrect stress placement in the case of Arab learners of English. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 27(1), 15-22. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.1989.27.1.15

• Aziz, Y. Y. (1980). Some problems of English word-stress for the Iraqi learner. English Language Teaching Journal, 34(2), 104-109. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/34.2.104

• Bamakhramah, M. A. (2010). Syllable structure in Arabic varieties with a focus on superheavy syllables (Publication No. 3390256) [Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/syllable-structure-arabic-varieties-with-focus-on/docview/305212489/se-2

• Cheng, B., & Zhang, Y. (2015). Syllable structure universals and native language interference in second language perception and production: Positional asymmetry and perceptual links to accentedness. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, Article 1801. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01801

• Chomsky, N., & Halle, M. (1968). The sound pattern of English. Harper & Row Publishers.

• Field, J. (2005). Intelligibility and the listener: The role of lexical stress. TESOL Quarterly, 39(3), 399‐423. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588487

• Flege, J. E., & Bohn, O.-S. (1989). An instrumental study of vowel reduction and stress placement in Spanish-accented English. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 11(1), 35-62. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263100007828

• Fry, D. B. (1959). Theoretical aspects of mechanical speech recognition. Journal of the British Institution of Radio Engineers, 19(4), 211-218. https://doi.org/10.1049/jbire.1959.0026

• Ghaith, S. (1993). The assignment of primary stress to words by some Arab speakers. System, 21(3), 381-390. https://doi.org/10.1016/0346-251X(93)90028-F

• Ghosh, M., & Levis, J. M. (2021). Vowel quality and direction of stress shift in a predictive model explaining the varying impact of misplaced word stress: Evidence from English. Frontiers in Communication, 6, Article 628780. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.628780

• Guo, X. (2022). Acoustic correlates of English lexical stress produced by Chinese dialect speakers compared to native English speakers. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 796252. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.796252

• Hayes, B. P. (1980). A metrical theory of stress rules [Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]. DSpace@MIT–MIT Libraries. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/16066

• Helal, S. (2014). Stress in English: Prosodic and rhythmic complexity for Arab learners. Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech: Concordia Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 5, 261-294.

• Jaiprasong, S., & Pongpairoj, N. (2020). L2 Production of English word stress by L1 Thai learners. LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network, 13(2), 142-157.

• Jenkins, J. (2002). A sociolinguistically based, empirically researched pronunciation syllabus for English as in international language. Applied linguistics, 23(1), 83-103. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/23.1.83

• Jeong, H., Thorén, B., & Othman, J. (2020). Effect of altering three phonetic features on intelligibility of English as a lingua franca: A Malaysian speaker and Swedish listeners. Asian Englishes, 22(1), 2-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2018.1536817

• Jung, Y. J., & Rhee, S. C. (2018). Acoustic analysis of English lexical stress produced by Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese-Chinese speakers. Phonetics and Speech Sciences, 10(1), 15-22. https://doi.org/10.13064/KSSS.2018.10.1.015

• Kallio, H., Suni, A., & Šimko, J. (2022). Fluency-related temporal features and syllable prominence as prosodic proficiency predictors for learners of English with different language backgrounds. Language and Speech, 65(3), 571-597. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309211040175

• Khazneh, I. (2015). Factors affecting the assignment of English word stress by Syrian EFL learners [Unpublished master’s thesis]. University of Aleppo.

• Koffi, E. (2021). Relevant acoustic phonetics of L2 English: Focus on intelligibility. CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003106418

• Ladefoged, P., & Johnson, K. (2015). A course in phonetics (6th ed.). Cengage Learning.

• Lai, Y. (2008). Acoustic realization and perception of English lexical stress by Mandarin learners (Publication No. 3316252) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Kansas]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/acoustic-realization-perception-english-lexical/docview/250346459/se-2

• Lee, G., Shin, D. J., & Garcia, M. T. M. (2019). Perception of lexical stress and sentence focus by Korean-speaking and Spanish-speaking L2 learners of English. Language Sciences, 72, 36-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2019.01.002

• Levis, J. (2018). Word stress and intelligibility. In Intelligibility, Oral Communication, and the Teaching of Pronunciation (Series of Cambridge Applied Linguistics, pp. 100-124). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108241564.010

• Lewis, C., & Deterding, D. (2021). Teaching suprasegmentals in English as a lingua franca contexts. In H. Mohebbi & C. Coombe (Eds.), Research questions in language education and applied linguistics (Series of Springer texts in education, pp. 167-169). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79143-8_31

• Liberman, M., & Prince, A. (1977). On stress and linguistic rhythm. Linguistic Inquiry, 8(2), 249-336.

• Lin, C. W. (2018). The perception and production of Arabic lexical stress by learners of Arabic: A usage-based account [Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan]. Deep Blue Repositories. https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/143979

• Liu, D. (2017). The acquisition of English word stress by Mandarin EFL learners. English Language Teaching, 10(12), 196-201. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v10n12p196

• Maghrabi, R. (2021). A phonological study of the influence of Arabic stress on the pronunciation of English words by Saudi ESL learners. Journal of Arts, Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, (73), 350.-365 https://doi.org/10.33193/JALHSS.73.2021.600

• Misfer, Z. A., & Busabaa, N. A. (2019). Stress placement and the difficulties encountered by female EFL students in Saudi Arabian context. Arab World English Journal, (Special Issue), 32-43. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/efl1.3

• Modesto, F., & Barbosa, P. A. (2019). Unravelling foreign accent prosody: Production and perception of lexical stress in English by Brazilian Portuguese speakers. Revista de Estudos da Linguagem, 27(1), 165-189. https://doi.org/10.17851/2237-2083.27.1.165-189

• Motair, A., & Abdulwahab, T. (2018). Communicative language teaching in Yemeni EFL Classroom from the teachers’ perspective. IASET, 7(5), 2319-3948.

• Nguyen, L. T., & Hung, B. P. (2021). Communicative pronunciation teaching: Insights from the Vietnamese tertiary EFL classroom. System, 101, Article 102573. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2021.102573

• Pennington, M. C., & Rogerson-Revell, P. (2019). English pronunciation teaching and research: Contemporary perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47677-7

• Rehman, I., Silpachai, A., Levis, J., Zhao, G., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2022). The English pronunciation of Arabic speakers: A data-driven approach to segmental error identification. Language Teaching Research, 26(6), 1055-1081. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168820931888

• Saha, S. N., & Mandal, S. K. D. (2018). Phonetic realization of English lexical stress by native (L1) Bengali speakers compared to native (L1) English speakers. Computer Speech & Language, 47, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csl. 2017.06.006

• Tuan, D. M. (2018). English lexical stress assignment by EFL learners: Insights from a Vietnamese context. European Journal of Education Studies, 4(11), 59-74.

• Younes, M. A. (1984). The stressing of final superheavy syllables by Saudi learners of English: Implications for the contrastive analysis hypothesis (ED271009). ERIC. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED271009

• Youssef, A., & Mazurkewich, I. (1998). The acquisition of English metrical parameters and syllable structure by adult native speakers of Egyptian Arabic (Cairene dialect). In S. Flynn, G. Martohardjono, & W. O’Neil (Eds.), The generative study of second language acquisition (pp. 303-332). Lawrence Erlbaum. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315806471

• Zhang, Y., Nissen, S. L., & Francis, A. L. (2008). Acoustic characteristics of English lexical stress produced by native Mandarin speakers. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123(6), 4498-4513. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2902165

• Zuraiq, W., & Sereno, J. A. (2021). Production of English lexical stress by Arabic speakers. In R. Wayland (Ed.), Second language speech learning: Theoretical and empirical progress (pp. 290-311). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108886901.012