Author(s)

Omar A. Alkhonini¹, Douglas J. Wulf²

¹Majmaah University, Al Majma’ah, KSA.
²Linguistics Program, Department of English, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.

This small-scale longitudinal study investigates a technique for assisting English learners to achieve more native-like pronunciation of onset consonant clusters. Study participants were ESL students with L1s that lack onset clusters (Arabic and Mandarin Chinese). In the study’s instruction phase, participants followed the venerable pedagogy of reciting an elocution drill, a 10-word sentence containing one occurrence each of the five three-consonant onsets of English, but containing none of the two-consonant onsets. This pedagogical technique conforms to the concept of language acquisition under Skill Acquisition Theory (SAT). Furthermore, Universal Grammar (UG) and the Markedness Hypothesis predict that by practicing only the more marked three-consonant onsets, two-consonant onsets might also be acquired despite not practicing them. Indeed, the results show statistically significant modification toward more native-like pronunciation of both three-consonant and two-consonant onsets from the pre-test to the immediate post-test and the delayed post-test, given 24 weeks later.

Second Language Acquisition, Learning Strategies, Skill Acquisition Theory, Markedness Theory, Universal Grammar, Language Pedagogy, English Onset Consonant Clusters, English as a Second Language

Alkhonini, O. and Wulf, D. (2018) “The Rain in Spain” Updated? An Elocution Drill for Efficiently Teaching English Consonant Clusters. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 8, 231-241. doi: 10.4236/ojml.2018.86020.