A Contrastive Study of English and Arabic Supra-Segmental Phonemes

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Introduction
Speech intonation and stress, called supra-segmental phonemes.Using the concept of fluency in speaking, is tested orally to evaluate the learners' strength and weakness in this area.This usually takes the form of a class discussion; speakers' intonations can also be notated on paper and reviewed for stress in speech parts and intonations (that is, falling and rising pitch).Transcriptions can be supplemented with symbols, arrows, numbers, or contours, to indicate the relationship between how sounds are spoken and how they arranged into words.Reviewing phonemic transcriptions allows; for aspiration and analysis of an allophone's complementary distribution.

Research Problem
University students face many phonological difficulties when they begin learning a new language; this is particularly true in the areas of English supra-segmental phonemes, that is stress and intonation placement.As generally acknowledged, the wider range of differences among languages, is the cause of confusions and difficulties.Subtle differences in speakers' pitch can communicate complex information regarding emotions and attitude, such as, uncertain excitement, or disappoint.As well as the sounds that occur in speech, pitch refers to the usual melodic of the speaker, associated with strain, etc. Learners pay little attention to the spoken 'tone languages ', rising and falling intonations in interrogatives, declarations, requests, commands, and choices.Learners 'rarely use dictionaries to practice extra exercises.They have few chances for oral practice in overcrowded classes, and little time to exercise during lectures.Speaking skill has recently been introduced as a metric for their English exams, and shy learners don't like to talk in front of their colleagues during practicing.

Research Objectives
In relation to language learning, the present research aims at finding solutions to: (1) Support beginning learners to communicate.
(2) Helping beginning learners to use English fluently, following real-life forms.

Literature
"Supra-segmental phonemes" refers to the way of how you say something, and not what is say it.Brown, G.K and Kenworthy,J.(1980)mentioned, high and low pith in intonation questions.The term encompasses phenomena such as intonation, stress, and syllabic structure.As many experts in this field, mentioned by Ehsan's (2010)Phonological Problems Affecting the Teaching/Learning Process of ELT, thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the PH.D degree.Schmitt(2000) notes that pronunciation is the biggest thing that people notice when someone speaks.Roach, P. J. (1982), on the distinction between stress timed and syllable timed and (1993) English phonetics and phonology and on The function of a particular sound range will obviously differ from one language to another; thus in this study we concern ourselves not only with the positive properties of L1 and L2 sounds, but on their diverse and complicated points.L1 is a person's native or first language; a child usually approves its systems at an early stage, because the language surrounds him from his birth.Many studies are concerned with the inner representations of a language in the mind of a learner, and in how those representations change over time.Learners depend on their mother tongue, when trying to make sense of the language being learned; to help them create a new system for understanding.This is recognized as a process through which all learners go through to learn a foreign language, and not a mistake.It is also defined as Language shift which is the main cause of errors, and the role of language teachers is to prevent these errors from happening.Linguists note that a large number of learners' errors and language learning difficulties arise through comparing first with second language.In supra-segmental phoneme differences, a wrong sentence stress leads to a different meaning, for example: in compound words stressed initially for specific meaning' Blue-Nile.For every Blue -Nile: or general meaning, strong stress sign is given to both 'Blue -'Nile.These contrastive areas help teachers to adopt the methods that lead to the best results.by using dictionaries and the international phonetic alphabet (IPA).It is difficult to guess the exact syllable to be emphasized, or the appropriate intonation levels of pitch.The orthographic method of English is not a reliable representation of the spoken language.It is more effective to teach consonants and vowels within related intonation and rhythm units, than to teach the consonants and vowels in detail without context.

Methods of Data Collection
The data collection method for this study, is audiovisual recording.An -oral pre-speaking test is administered to 50 participants.The same group is then exposed to a certain supra-segmental phonemes' practice under controlled conditions; for the sake of examining its effects on it.Post-test the group at the end of period, using the same pretest.The results of the two tests are shown in the tables below: Comparing the same group performance before and after the treatment.We find a highly statistically significant difference in the means.The pre-test mean of 27.78 rises to 72.78, while the lowest class value shows an even more significant improvement, rising from 5 to 60.The highest class value rises from 64 to 100 .This result shows that beginning learners have lower grades in the pre-test, (27.78%) than in the post-test assessment (72.78%).Learners' grades before the treatment indicate that they have difficulty with supra-segmental phonemes.The immediate point that has taken away from the below table, regarding the research goals is, the gap between the highest and lowest scores has narrowed, showing that even though some students will benefit more than others from drilling and repetition, even the lowest performing students have moved up into a more acceptable range of achievement.There is significant improvement in learners' knowledge after drilling and practice.The scores are improved in post-test in contrast to pre-test.Thus, drilling and practice reflect usefulness in solving that problem.As an art of the intervention, extra speaking time was added to deal with problematic areas; an extracurricular, English Club was instituted to give learners more opportunity to practice the spoken language, along with classroom projects that allowed for observation of learners' performance and progress.Participants who paid attention took advantage of the extra practice programs passed the post-test and improved their grades.The final test outcomes achieved the aim of supporting beginners solving supra-segmental problems.

Problem Areas of Stress in Spoken English
Stress as a phonological correlate of a combination of loudness, pitch and vowel length, so, in each word at least one syllable must be stressed and must be the most prominent in a syllable.In English, stress works together with intonation, to make certain parts in a message clearer and more distinct.Single -syllable words have primary stress if they're pronounced in isolation .Example/'big/, /'hot/, /sit/ and as in the English oh, on, to, big, ice, be, tough, you, or cute.Unlike in L1, the English language employs, in most multisyllabic words, a syllable is pronounced longer than the others; this is called a prominent syllable.Prominence is formed through four chief elements: pitch, loudness, length, and quality.In the English word computer, for example,/k∂m'pju:t∂/, the syllable -pu is the most prominent.The stressed syllable has a small sign on its transcription in the dictionary.Stress is very important in emphasizing the meaning that the speaker wishes to convey; this is particularly true of tone, or pitch.In practical terms, there are three degrees of stress level: primary, secondary, and weak.

Primary Stress on the First Syllable
A listener recognizes a spoken word not only by its pronunciation, but also by its stress.If the pronunciation of a word is correct and its stress is wrong, then the word may not be understood.Stress is given to a word by accentuating certain syllables.Normally, one part of a word is articulated more strongly than the other parts.L2 students have much difficulty in this area, particularly with certain vowels.Examples include the linking /r/ as in here are (/hiǝrǝ/).In the case of Arabic-speaking learners of English, in both L1 and L2 the phoneme /p/ is aspirated; for instance, in the English peak [ The stress is also different in English words according to their parts of speech.For example, the word desert has initial stress /ˈdezət/ as a noun, but a different stress mark /diˈzə:t/ as a verb meaning."Thus, to identify the relationship between pronunciation and different parts of speech.This tends to be the most difficult aspect of English for students, and requires a great deal of drilling and practice to master.Understanding how words and phrases are stressed in English can help learners to speak more easily and listen more accurately.Teachers have to draw much attention to this part.The stress mark shows the division of a syllable and how can it be formed.A spoken word is recognized not only by its pronunciation, but also by its stress pattern.Sometimes written "as one word, like, blackboard /'blӕkbɔ:d/,blackdog /'blӕkdɔg/, or written with the word separated by a hyphen, 'gear-change' or by a space as two words, like black Board.Each compound word has two stresses on both parts of the word example: Whitehouse/'wait'hauz/ for the American president home whereas general meaning /wait'hauz/ with only one stress on the second part ,for every white -house.Then the use of stress in compound words, has relation with meaning.

Stressed Words' Rules
Four types of words are stressed in a sentence or a phrase.
(1) Most content words are: adjectives, nouns, verbs and adverbs Charles Jones taught English ( Charles, English and Jones are nouns, but 'taught' is a verb).Shirley reads aloud every day.' Aloud' is defined as adj.Aunt Janet always makes long-distance calls.'Always' 'known as an adverb: Jason always plays basketball.
(3)Demonstrative pronouns What is that?That's Jessica ball.Why are these here?We wanted those.
(4)Pronouns: (possessive) (Mine, yours, his and hers) in sentences: This book is mine and that is yours.It is hers and those red flowers are his.We brought our car yesterday.

Un-stressed Stressed Words
(1) Articles, such as:(a, an, the ) as: a dog, an apple and the chair.
(2) Prepositions such as: to, from, with, in, on, though, for, over, under.Etc.They don't have stress.
(3) Un-stressed Pronouns That are used as Subject, object or as a third person singular, etc.
(I, you, we, they or third person: s/he, it).(My, your, his, her, our, their).My bag , your classmate, her scarf, his sister, our college, their club.(Your, my, their, our, her, his) called possessive pronouns.These are examples for pronouns unstressed objects(Me, you, her, him, us, them), e.g.They visited me.I helped him.We advised her.They joined you.
Our teacher punished us.She brought them.

The Demonstrative-adjectives
Un-stressed adj.(This, that, these , those ) when followed by a noun.This move is interes.She owned that car.We studied these sections.Those flowers are beautiful.

4.6Some Forms without Stress: Examples
(There are and there is, examples)There is a rat in that drawer.There is one book on the shelf.There are chalks in that bag.There is a heavy rain today.There are many new cars in the park.He is a writer.We are friends.They were in the village.I am outside.She wasn't at office These examples for the use of (to) without being stressed.
We hope to pass the exam.He loves to drive quickly.She enjoys to watch T.V.You like to get up early.

4.7Supporting Verbs and Model Auxiliaries are also Unstressed
I am studying for exams.She is walking in the garden.He was working with his father.Why do you come late?When does she have her test?We have been working all day.

Model auxiliaries
Such as: can, must, have to, should, would, could, etc.
These areas occur without having stress.Fatimah can drive.She has to search for a job.Students should study hard.Ali would like to go swimming.Children mustn't respect elder people.Uncle doesn't have money.

Relative Pronouns
(Who, whose, when, where, what and how) take place in the middle of a sentence, without any stress: That shopkeeper didn't tell the truth.Can you explain how to find solution?Please tell me where is the mistake?

Conjunctions
Such as, and, but, or, so, not, if, as, because, whether, since, until, though, although : These are unstressed areas.COVID 19 needs to drink liquids, such as milk, water and juice.I'll be here until you return back.It was so late, when Mona calls.She doesn't know whether her son will be back early.

Unstressed Syllables
Most vowels in these syllables are produced by the schwa /ə/ as in condition or available.For instance of reduction makes towards stressed syllables, it is spoken quicker and shorter, making the vowel reduced.A word ending in: 'ic, ion, ial' receives a primary stress as, domestic, opinion , religious, political, artificial.A word of four syllable or more for example: probability, economy, politics.The stress placement in Arabic is determined by the number, and order of consonants.In addition to the quality of the vowel.As a matter of fact, FL students usually make a lot of mistakes in placing the right stress in the right place; partly because stress distribution on the native language differ from that in the foreign language.

5.Intonation
Speakers of any language can make different meanings by using similar words in the equivalent order.That is, by using them in different ways, for example: One can change a statement into a question, simply by raising our tone at the end of a sentence: teacher Natalia went to Russia.(Falling)Teacher Natalia, went to Russia (rising).That change in our speech over words which tells us something about the speaker's attitude or adds something to the meaning of the word is called 'intonation'.That guides a listeners 'attention to certain parts of speech and helps them understand the exact meaning.Intonation expresses many things such as: love, anger, fear, happiness, surprise, laughter or a sense of urgency.Intonation is an important area in English speech.It helps to carry grammatical information, it also helps to direct the speaker's attitude to the listener.When one talks of the pitch either, low or mid and high that will depend on the individual's voice.Mid is the usual pitch of the voice, then high will be above it and low under it.Tone marks therefore, often have to be replaced within a word for example.

5.1Intonation Statements
/p,t,k/ are produced with much energy: ( (4) Final / b,d,g/ +ed examples: Bagged /baegd/ add /aedid/ banged /baeŋd/ a.For statements which express certainty, the learners have to use the fall intonation mark at the end or (2,3, 1).The Nile is the longest river in Africa (↓) Khartoum and Riyadh are both 'capital cities (↓) See you later good bye (↓)Those patterns, will be added to the name of the person that are talking to: She's my sister (↓) They're from Khartoum (↓)It's beautiful (↓) We love it (↓).b.Two phrases sentences: If you return back, bring your book(↓) After reading that book, make a cup summary(↓) Before you drive, check the wheels (↓)

5.2Questions
(1) Information-Questions are questions begin with where, who, what etc.For questions which require informed answers, the speaker uses the fall (↓) Who helps that group?(↓) How are you exercising/three?What have you done with your problem?(↓) (2) For understanding answer, and want a repetition, you use the Rise.Then start with information questions: Where did you go?What did you buy?How do you do ?Which is yours?
(3) Questions which require yes / no answers have the Rise (↑)Do you know the answer?(↑) Are you ready to start exam?(↑)Have you finished?(↑) (4) For tag-questions, if learners are sure that the hearer will agree with them, to use the falling intonation(↓) on both parts of the sentence for example Medina is very beautiful isn't it?(↓) Smoking isn't good for you isn't it?(↓)But if students expect the hearer is agree with them, then they use the rise intonation (↑), leading up the mark and fall(↓) on the question.That was good wasn't it?It didn't take long, did it?
(5) If the tag -question is a genuine enquiry, it needs rise as, in yes / no Questions.
You enjoyed that↓, did you?↑It isn't far↓ Questions which present alternatives take a Rise intonation on the first and subsequent alternatives, and a fall at last.Are you, coming↑ or going?↓ Would you like lemon, too↑ or coffee?↓

Commands
Are with a fall, though?It is quite normal to stress the verb.Open your desk ↓ Shut your windows ↓ It is possible to turn a polite request into a command with a correct intonation: Will you shut the window, please?↓ Will you please stop English speakers often vary their intonation, these basic patterns, because they want to convey extra information.

Tag Questions and Interrogations with Question Words
Where did he go, to the club?↑ Why are you shouting, to make me feel scared?↑ When are you leaving ↓, Jane? ↑ Who is the teacher, Miss Oleg? ↑ The answers to these questions have pauses As: Yes ↓, to the club↑ No↓, I can't help it ↑ Yes ↓, Jane ↑ No ↓, Miss Brown↑ Indicating Annoyance↓: Where did you find it?↓ Who is that person?↓Why do you do that?↓ When is she travelling?↓Interrogations without question words ↑: Were they angry?↑ Did you hate it?↑ Are you lucky?↑Will she come ?↑ Do you want it?↑ Was she out?↑Another area of intonation is the pitch of voice with which a sound is pronounced and described as tones, patterns or contour.
It conveys different meanings such as threat, disgust, lack of interest, enthusiasm, surprise, puzzlement.Therefore, to produce correct tones, that affect intelligibility and modification, involve the dropping of some of the stresses.
('Marry, 'fifty, 'younger, 'chocolate 'wanted, peanut) each word has stress on the first part when mentioned in isolation, but there are usually fewer stress when occur as one sentence stress.But the grammatical ones are unstressed, such as: shut the door, or read a book.There are main types of tones which are worth mentioning.

Falling Pitch has a Line Goes Down () used to Clarify Completion, at the End of an Information Question, a Statement or Sentence
Rising intonation has a line gone (up) used with tag questions: Is she here?↑The raise fall intonation can be represented by choice question.Many linguists explain that, we are able within limits to vary the speed of the vibration in the vocal cords and are able to change the pitch of the voice produced in the larynx.To simplify that, pitches are levels of speech sounds or the lowness or loudness of voice.

Conclusion
Contrastive Phonological Analysis (L 1 and L 2 ) Arabic vowels are extended or reduced according to their position.When the word is unstressed, it is reduced.That is to say, the vowel phonemes of (L 1, L 2 ) are different.As well as, the vowel phonemes difference and their divergence in numbers.On the other side, there are no glides included in Arabic vowel phonemes.Additional to the point of the six Arabic phonemes, there are only two diphthongs.Contrastive analysis (CA) is one of the oldest methods used in linguistic research.It was improved on the source that the language is conducted, behavior and manner.It is acquired through association and stimulation, which lead to habit formation.Getting a new habit results from shifting.Teachers require to compare both (L 1 and L 2 ) to see the links and differences between them.With the intention to predict which area of the new language.Therefore, teachers have to follow the groups and pair work, listen carefully to their students' speech, and pay more attention to their areas of weakness.

Arabic Supra -Segmental Features
1.The Arabic word stress is possible and common, whereas English stress depends on which part the stress will fall on.That is to say the first, second or last.These different areas of word and sentence stress, in both languages cause problems for L 1 students in learning an L 2 .In English, it is done by saying the syllable longer or stronger or louder and hold the vowel shorter.Then pronounce the marked area very clearly.To change the meaning according to (verb, noun, adjective, adverb, or unstressed areas.But the Arabic placement of stress, is controlled by the number and the order of consonant and the vowel's quality.Word stress in Arabic is very different than that of English.As a result, these areas of contrast lead FL learners to shift using their mothertongue habits.

Stress and Intonation in Arabic
The Arabic language patterns of pitch might be compared with many flights of steps whereas English patterns are smoother".The variation in pitch level of words is called 'tones'.They are related to syllables.In English, the rise and fall or fall of pitch on the various syllables of an utterance is called intonation.The meaning differs according to the different words.For example: 'Jack' likes fish (only Jack and no one else).
Jack ' likes' fish.(Likes, not hates).Jack likes 'fish'.(Onlyfish, and not hen).The variation in pitch levels of words is called 'tones' which are related to syllables.In English, the rise and fall or fall of pitch on the range of syllables of an utterance are called intonation.The meaning remains different according to the different words.The degree of teachers' effort comes into view on the need students' motivation, encouragement as well as extra drills in the problematic positions.A teacher who knows what the real problem is, motivates learners.S/he can provide and prepare for teaching them.Use of suitable drilling exercises for the exact position.A comparison between the Greek and Latin with Sanskrit, discovered systematic similarities between these languages.Research mainly concentrates on phonological research and phonological evolution.It states that a language has divergence and convergence between L 1 and L 2 .In relation to this study, the following examples: In the case of divergence in Arabic ‫,‪>for‬ﺳﺎﻋﺔ<‬ (clock, hour, watch) whereas in the case of convergence, you for < ‫ﺍﻧﺘﻦ‬ , ‫ﺃﻧﺘﻤﺎ‬ , ‫ﺁﻧﺖ‬ , ‫‪>.To‬ﺃﻧﺖ‬ show other contrastive areas between (L 1 and L 2 ).Many researchers, found that Arabic phonemes are allophonic.They are not even written in the script.Many Arabic speakers tend, therefore, to confuse short vowel phonemes, the lengthen of front and back vowels additional to stress and intonation.Although it is too important when reading 'Koran'.They shortened speech forms to avoid elision(The disappearance of sounds, which means leaving out a letter or a sound in connected speech, speaking/writing), L's go).Students found difficulties in learning different phonemes, then replace it from their mother -tongue.The complicated set of courses and the lack of some Primary, Intermediate teachers' qualification are parts of ELT phonemic problems.

Stress Analysis
(1) Arab learners have supra segmental problems in the areas of stress and intonation.They face a great confusion in choosing the right syllable to be stressed.Arabic is a stress-systematic language, and word stress is anticipated or free and regular.FL Beginner learners have difficulties to understand the irregular nature of English word stress.
(2) Unlike Arabic, the idea that placing the stress mark doesn't occur, and can alter meaning is another difficulty.In the word,' presents' is a noun /'preznt/ and a verb in /pri'zǝnt/.That means the part of speech, meaning and pronunciation is controlled by stress mark.
(3) In using the accurate stress mark, FL students made a lot of mistakes partly because of the stress distribution in (L1) differs from that in (L2).

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Comparison of Students' Pre-and Post-Test Results

Table 2 .
Examples of English Words with Primary Stresses

Table 3 .
Examples of English Words with Stress on Second Syllable (ness),e.g., yellow /ˈjelǝu/, yellowness /ˈjelǝunǝs/ (ment),e.g., punish /ˈp˄ni∫ /, punishment /ˈp˄ni∫mǝnt/ These examples demonstrate how using the IPA can clarify the correct pronunciation of words with sounds that do not occur in the Arabic language.In addition to stress mark and syllable division, English language teachers find the IPA useful to clarify stresses for beginners and to separate between words.4.1.3Word-ClassPairsIfyoupresent/'pri'znt/ your topic, I will give you a present/'preznt/.(Averbthathas a secondary stress, while a noun has a primary one at the first part).His colleague is used a record/ 'rekɔ:d / N, to record /ri'kɔ:d/ his speech.(V)4.2Levels of Stress (spaces between words here)Understanding how words and phrases are stressed in English can help learners to speak more fluently and listen more accurately.And that needs clear examples.There are mainly three levels or degrees of stress, primary, secondary and weak.Pitch related to the vibration of vocal cords or the pitch movement, according to the speaker's high/low pitch level.We don't often say a word in isolation, especially in the areas of 'yes/no or please', etc. Because, words in a sentence are related to what has gone before and what will follow.The stress sign and IPA aren't used in the examples below.Teachers are not allow learners to use these types in their projects or assignments.Many books and references, use capital letters to show the stressed part of a word.Like the following examples: They're confusing.How was the ship?It was huge.The ship was Huge! Was it a bad storm.It was terrible.It was TERRible!How was the sunset?It was awesome.It was AWEsome!You're exactly right!That is costly!

Table 4 .
Stress on nouns and verbs Examples It is the simplest and greatest normally occurring in English speech sound.It has a sign as: /ə/.It is the syllable of the International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA).Other vowels that are used as unstressed vowels: /i/ as in citizen and /er/ in another.Additionally, stress in English words doesn't follow a fixed form, for example: A word ending in 'ate' such as: illustrate /iləs'treit/, anticipate and hesitate.A word ending in: 'ic, ion, ial' has a primary stress, from the end of the word as chemical, opinion , domestic, political, religious, artificial.A word ending in 'ate' has a primary stress on the third syllable, from the end of the word such as: illustrate /iləs'treit/, anticipate and hesitate.