VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS PRONUNCIATION DIFFICULTIES AMONG ARAB STUDENTS

This research discusses vowels and diphthong pronunciation difficulties among Arab students. The differences between Malay and Arab vowels cause pronunciation difficulties among Arab students learning Malay. Three basic vowels only in Arab namely, /ي/, /و/ and /ا/ have created problem to Arab students in producing other vowels contain in the Malay vowel system. Data in this research was obtained from the interviews with ten Arab students who are currently enrolled as students in the National University of Malaysia and are compulsory sit and pass bahasa Melayu course. Arab students who were interviewed need to pronounce two types of lexical that is, just only one lexical and lexical with other lexical in a sentence. The sounds differences occur in the surface representation of the word from its underlying produced by the Arab students are explained by applying Transformational Generative (TG) theory. The findings show that Arab students are indeed having difficulties in vowels pronunciation. This could be seen from phonological processes involved namely, vowel lowering, raising and coalescence, as in /teŋoɁ/ → [tiŋoɁ], /huʤan/ → [hoʤan] dan /gǝrai/ → [giri]. Difficulties in producing vowels in Malay among Arab students perhaps are different or similar with other foreign students from other countries. The output obtained from this research might be useful to language teachers who involve in teaching and learning foreign students.