PHONETIC an‎d PHONOLOGICAL PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED BY OMANI STUDENTS OF ENGLISH

Omani students of English encounter some Phonetic and Phonological problems reflected in the perception, identification and production of various English speech sounds. Most of these problems are related to the relatively complicated orthographic system of English taught to Omani students at earlier stages of English language learning and to the inconsistent relationship between spelling and pronunciation of English and the differences between the sound system of Arabic and English. They often result in some pronunciation challenges for Omani students of English( hence OSE) with respect to consonants, consonant clusters, vowels, diphthongs and words used in connected speech. Omani regional differences also pose a serious pronunciation difficulty represented by first language interference in the target language. This paper tries to account for the areas of difficulty and provide some suggestions and recommendations that could overcome the pronunciation problems in the oral performance of Omani students of English