A Contrastive Study of Syllable Structures of Ika and English and their Attending Phonological Processes
Keywords:
Contrastive Analysis, Syllable Structure, Phonological Processes, Ika, EnglishAbstract
Against the framework of Contrastive Analysis, this study examined the syllable structure of Ika and English highlighting the interference features observable in the speeches of Ika speakers of English as a second language (ESL). To achieve these objectives, the study explicated the syllable structures of English and Ika and carried out a contrastive description of both languages in order to determine the areas of similarities and differences between these languages. It was discovered that there are structural and articulatory similarities such as the presence of onset and nucleus in the syllable structure of both languages which facilitate the learning of English by the Ika people. Also, there are areas of differences. For instance, while the structure of the English syllable permits codas, that of the Ika does not, and this brings about interference in ESL. Forty Ika speakers of ESL were sampled. The data showed 80.7% of deletion errors and 75% of vowel insertion errors, bringing the average of syllable structure interference errors to 77.9%. In view of the above, it was recommended that curriculum designers and English Language teachers in Ika land should take note of the differences that exist between Ika and English in order to enhance effective teaching and learning of English among Ika learners.
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