FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR WRONG PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH WORDS BY STUDENTS AT UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA PAKISTAN

One of the many challenges which ESL/EFL learners face is the issue of incorrect pronunciation of English words. This issue is more serious in ESL contexts like Pakistan where learners get limited or no exposure to authentic language use. This paper attempts to explore the factors contributing to incorrect pronunciation of English words by ESL learners at undergraduate level in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. To this end, a questionnaire was distributed among 72 BS English students of three different colleges. The descriptive analysis of the data highlighted eight factors which appeared to cause incorrect pronunciation by students. These included learners’ weakness in phonetics and phonology, Teacher's wrong pronunciation, first language interference, words related to military discourse, poor oral fluency and inaccessibility to authentic language use. The study recommends learners should improve pronunciation of English words through listening to native speakers of English language, watch YouTube videos and English movies and should own and consult a standardized phonetic dictionary.


INTRODUCTION
The English language has four basic skills listening, speaking, reading and writing, amongst which pronunciation occupies an important place (Gilakjani, 2011;Ali et al., 2022). Most language learners desire to sound like native speakers of English (Derwing, 2003). Focusing too much on pronunciation, however, may hinder their oral fluency and accuracy (Hismanoglu, 2006). This may be the reason for many language learners facing problems in developing language pronunciation skills, as noted by Gilakjani (2011). Difficulties in pronunciation create hurdles in the communicative competence of second-language learners (Hinofotis & Bailey, 1981). Furthermore, students at the undergraduate level have pronunciation problems even after taking phonetics and phonology courses at the university level. It may be due to their usage of a non-standard variety of English pronunciation, which negatively affects their pronunciation, as observed by (Charity & Mallinson, 2011). Moreover, it also may be due to the fact that in most of the classes focus is on teaching the language rather than improving the required skills. Sometimes the factors that influence the pronunciation of English language learners are also not known to the learners and teachers. Therefore, the objective of this research paper is to help students by informing them regarding the factors that contribute to the wrong pronunciation of English as a target language.
Good pronunciation could be one of the important factors for the immigrant's success in English-speaking countries. It may also help users to understand and inform others more effectively and efficiently in the act of communication (Gilakjani, 2011;Jahan, 2011). Correct pronunciation skills bring positive effects on the process of communication with others. It is the responsibility of the teachers to train and encourage ESL learners to achieve good pronunciation skills Gul et al., 2022a).

The rationale for the study
Various studies (Lin, 2014;Aydin, 2016;Gul et al., 2022b) have been conducted on pronunciation problems. They identified various factors contributing to the variations in the pronunciation of English in ESL contexts. The findings of these studies revealed that students' first language performs a major function in the utterance of English speech sounds. A detailed study of the literature shows that most such studies conducted in Pakistan are limited in terms of research sites and samples. Similarly, it was observed that the focus of these studies on the subject matter (pronunciation) was quite limited and generalized. It means that these studies did not investigate enough factors responsible for the wrong pronunciation of English in a specific manner. Consequently, such studies stood behind in providing a detailed and in-depth understanding of the factors causing wrong pronunciation in English language learners. Many researchers argued that errors in target language pronunciation might be attributed to many other factors, for instance, a defective understanding of semantics (meaning), sentence structure (syntax), morphology (words structure), phonetics and phonology (Meng et al., 2007). Therefore, it may be useful to examine specific factors that lead to the wrong pronunciation of English.
There has been limited research in the area concerning English language teaching and learning in Pakistan (Islam et al., 2013;Samad et al., 2021). Likewise, meagre research in the field of phonetics and phonology, specifically in English pronunciation in the Pakistani context, it is a young and under-researched area. As stated by Mischler (2008), that phonology is studied less as compared to other areas of language. Moreover, these studies investigated general problems in pronunciation and did not pay attention to the specific factors that may contribute to the errors in pronunciation. The current research study is determined to fill this research gap which is to study wrong pronunciation factors in the Pakistani context.

Research Questions
1. What are the primary factors that contribute to the wrong pronunciation of the English language in undergraduate students of government colleges? 2. What are the possible solutions for these factors to eliminate errors in English pronunciation?

Significance of the Study
Since there is a scarcity of research in the area of phonetics and phonology (PP) in the Pakistani context, the study in hand is intended to provide useful recommendations for English language teachers in teaching phonetics and phonology. It might be especially useful for those intending to develop the pronunciation skills of undergraduate-level students. The study may also help the designers of a language material in Pakistan as well as in other parts of the world that have similar contexts. The study also draws the concentration of the students and teachers toward the importance of pronunciation skills. In addition, this study shall also develop a new arena for future research studies on the issues and problems with pronunciation skills. The study in hand investigated some of the main factors that negatively affected (ESL) learners' English pronunciation and attempted to find out the major reasons behind such factors. Finally, the study tries to find the desired techniques and methods that may support the students in enhancing their English language pronunciation.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Research studies have revealed different factors that may hinder gaining native-like pronunciation skills among (EFLs) and (ESLs) learners in various contexts (O'Connor, 1980;Gul et al., 2022c). Linguists have found some factors responsible for the wrong pronunciation of English. For instance, the mother tongue or first language interference, variations in the phonological system between the languages, i.e., learners L1 and target language, the lack of consistency in various sounds in English languages, spelling role in pronunciation etc. (Hassan, 2014).

First or Native Language Interference
A number of research studies are conducted in various contexts in order to unfold the influence of L1, i.e., the native language, on L2 acquisition or learning. For instance, Moosa (1979) and Swan and Smith (2001) cited in Hassan (2014) points out that bilabials i.e. /p/ and /b/ are distinguished by native speakers of English very easily but the same sounds make difficulties for L2 learners in various contexts. In the Arabic language, for example, there is no /p/ sound present in Phonology (Hassan, 2014). Owing to this, most of the Arabic and Sudanese speakers mispronounce the words and phrases where these sounds come at the starting positions. For example, Pakistan is pronounced as Bakistan in many Arab countries. Similarly, 'Pat' may be pronounced as 'Bat', 'pull', may be pronounced as 'bull', 'supper', as 'subber' etc. In particular, in contexts when they are asked to say these words, they pronounce /b/ instead of /p/. In addition, sometimes /p/ is replaced with /b/.
The same factor is also noted by Alkhuli (1983) that the students with Arab backgrounds learning English language mix up /p/ with /b/ due to the native language influence. Their tongues get stuck with their LI sounds. Therefore, they face errors in speech production until they attain prominent proficiency in L2 sounds. They require much practice in the production of the target language sounds. Brown (2000) states that L2 learners face problems in English language learning because their native language L1 greatly affects their target language (English in the case of this study) pronunciation, especially in their childhood; the same effects reflect in L1 transfer. Some learners remain blind to these errors/mistakes in pronunciation. Thus, L1 plays a vitally important role in errors in second language learning/acquisition. Learners' native language pronunciation must be taken into consideration while teaching them the target language sounds/phonemes. The instructors of the target language will be well equipped with knowledge of pronunciation skills of the target language.

The Phonological System
The phonological system is the system of phonemes in each and every language. It is also true about the phonological system of languages that there are variations among them. Therefore, many scholars have reported the differences between the phonological systems of LI and L2. These differences are the seminal factors responsible for the wrong or mispronunciation of target language words. Moosa (1979), cited in (Hassan, 2014), for instance, found that the Arab students of the English language, due to their mother tongue habits which is Arabic, build the phonological system, i.e., the phonemes combination, their sounds patterns, and the very features of the Arabic language. All these factors make them have difficulties in distinguishing between the two languages' phonological systems, i.e., the native language and the target language. In the context of this study, the native language is either Pashto or Urdu, which has a separate phonological system from English as a second language or the target language they are learning at the college level. Alkhuli (1983) stated that differences in the system of phonemes or phonologies in the two languages might be the most important factor among others for the mispronunciation of English language sounds. He further stated that such differentiations between the phonology of the two languages are barriers because they cause issues in the competence of pronunciation of L2, i.e., English. These barriers can be eliminated through regular practice and hard work for a long time.
In addition to this, there is no concept of silent letters in Pashto, Urdu, and Arabic, among other languages, as it happens in English a lot. When there are differences in the system of different sounds of LI and L2, mistakes and errors are to be made by the new learners due to the phenomenon of transference of their L1 sound system to the target language (Nunan, 2001). The English language has 44 phonemes, i.e., twentyfour consonants and twenty vowels. It implies that these 44 sounds of the English language are to be learned and used by new learners intending to acquire the English language. People from the distinct linguistic background would surely find it a bit hard to pronounce them all with correct proficiency.

Inconsistency of English Vowels
Generally, new learners face problems in pronouncing vowels because each vowel in English has many fold sounds. Because of this, it creates many hurdles for new students and directs them to mispronunciation (Cruttenden, 1994). In many languages, like Arabic, the system of vowels is quite simple. Students can utter Arabic words very easily. English vowels, in this sense, are very complex. Learners always confuse various variations in vowels, for instance /i/ for /e/ in /sit/, and /e/ for /i/ in /set/. Furthermore, the /r/ sound in Standard English is pronounced only when it comes before a vowel and after a vowel, otherwise not. However, in Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, Persian and many other languages the /r/-sound is distinctly pronounced in all positions, i.e., before or after a vowel. Therefore, English language learners pronounce /r/ sound in all positions, in words like, river, driver, for, fore, far etc.

Influence of Spelling on Pronunciation
Learners may face some issues in correctly pronouncing some written text due to the system of spellings in the English language. Yule (2001) asserts that sometimes the sounds in spoken English do not coincide with their representative letters of written English. Therefore, it is right to say that letters cannot be consistently used for the representation of sounds in a language, especially in the case of English. The English language possesses 24 consonants along with 20 vowels. In some languages, each letter represents a certain sound (e.g., an equal number of sounds to the letters) which helps in distinguishing between the orthography and the phonology. However, English is not one of these languages; therefore, learners may face difficulties in spelling while performing pronunciation.

METHODOLOGY
This quantitative study aims to find out the various factors that may cause the wrong pronunciation of English in undergraduate students. The respondents were selected from BS English in different government colleges. The questionnaire was designed in light of the aims and previously available literature. In order to increase the extent of reliability and enhancement of validity of the tool, piloting of the instrument was carried out before collecting data.

Research Sites and Sample
The sample of this study includes three English departments from three government colleges in KPK Pakistan. The sample for the questionnaire consists of 72 undergraduate students who were enrolled in the BS English program. They were learning linguistics as a major subject. Participants' age range was between 18 and 23.

Data Collection and Analysis Procedures
During the collection of the data, the moral, social and ethical aspects and considerations were strictly observed. In order to get the required percentages and frequencies, SPSS was used for the analysis of the data. Data were interpreted and discussed in light of the theoretical framework developed while doing the literature review.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Data from the Questionnaire is given in Table 1, showing students' views regarding the problems of English language pronunciation. As could be seen in the above table, more than 85% of the respondents agree or strongly agree that weakness in their pronunciation could be because of their weak phonological skills. As discussed in the literature review, it is also observed by other studies that students may have difficulties and weaknesses in phonetics and phonology. This may result in the wrong pronunciation of the English language by these learners. The aforementioned statistics demonstrate that this problem exists in students at the undergraduate level and considers it one of the major factors responsible for the wrong pronunciation of the learners. Akin to the study in hand, Shahzada (2012) found out that a lack of knowledge of phonetics and phonology causes mispronunciation of the target language. In other words, Kenworthy (1987) reported that phonetic ability is necessary for learning acceptable pronunciation.
The 2 nd statement shows that 6.25% of students strongly agree, 51.56 % agree, 10.13% are neutral, 21.87% disagree, and 10.04% of students strongly disagree with the statement that the school teachers' wrong pronunciation leads the students at the undergraduate level to produce incorrect English language sounds. Learners of a second language may be following their teachers in the pronunciation of the English language. This may affect the production of sounds in the English language. The marginal percentages of the students who agree to the problem of incompetency of the teachers in English sound claim another factor of wrong pronunciation of the students. A similar problem is also noted by Shahzada (2012) in the context of Pakistan. According to Prashant (2018), listening to the wrong sounds and tones spoken by teachers is one of the reasons for acquiring incorrect pronunciation of foreign languages by the children.
The 3 rd statement shows that 3.12% of students strongly agree, 46.8 % are agreed, 7.8% are neutral, 26.56% disagree, and 4.63% students strongly disagree to the point that the first language interference creates problems in the target language pronunciation of the students. Most of the other researchers, such as (Brown, 2000;Moosa, 1979;Swan and Smith, 2001;Richards, 1974), as mentioned in the review of literature, also found that first language interferes with the learning of the target language, which includes pronunciation as well.
In addition, 46.87% of students strongly agree, 34.37 % agree, 4.68% are neutral, 7.8% disagree, and 4.68% respondents strongly disagree with the 4 th statement that the vocabulary related to the military discourse is often pronounced incorrectly. The words such as colonel, lieutenant, rifle etc., may often be mispronounced, and they have difficulties pronouncing military vocabulary accurately.
The 5 th statement shows that 26.56% of students strongly agree, 42 % agree, 7.8% are neutral, 9.37% disagree, and 14% students strongly disagree with the statement that the cause of mispronunciation of English language is the borrowing of foreign words and phrases by the English language. English language learners at the undergraduate level seem to believe that the adaptation to a foreign language, the English language, could cause problems for them in acquiring the right articulation of those words and phrases.
Likewise, 25% of students strongly agree, 57.8 % agree, 10.9% are neutral, 3% disagree, and 3% respondents strongly disagree with the 6 th item, which explains that the weaknesses in oral fluency negatively affect the target language pronunciation of the students. There may be a direct link between oral fluency and the pronunciation of the target language. The weakness of one aspect of the language affects the other one.
Furthermore, 45.31% of students strongly agree, 40.62% agree, 1.56% are neutral, 6.25% disagree, and 6.25% of respondents at the undergraduate level strongly disagree with the 7 th statement that the reason for their wrong pronunciation is that they have no access to the listening of native speakers of English. In Pakistan, English is learned as a second language; however, the respondents may not have many opportunities available to communicate with native English speakers. This reduces the opportunities to be exposed to the authentic language and get the awareness of the correct English language sounds produced in the social and academic environment. It is also mentioned that the best way to learn a foreign language is by listening to the native speakers of that particular language. He further stated that the reason for acquiring incorrect pronunciation is that we do not listen to foreign language speakers (Prashant, 2018).
The 8 th statement shows that 17.18% of students strongly agree, 31.25% agree, 14.6% are neutral, 29.68% disagree, and 7.81% students strongly disagree with the opinion that mispronunciation of words is the cause of lavishly attentive to oral fluency when speaking in front of the audience.
The 9 th item shows that 9.37% of students strongly agree, 41.81% agree, 4.68% are neutral, 30.06% disagree, and 9.37% students strongly disagree with the statement that wrong pronunciation is the result of not speaking English in class in front of the students. Speaking regularly in front of the class fellows, teachers and audience, in general, could encourage them in the correct pronunciation of the words. Avoiding speaking inside the classroom due to shyness or an inferiority complex terribly affects the speaking skills of the students, which include pronunciation as well. Students often think of making mistakes while speaking among their classmates or due to inhibition, and they shun speaking English (Al Hosni, 2014).
Furthermore, 10.87% of students strongly agree, 36.26% agree, 15.62% are neutral, 26.25% disagree, and 11 % students strongly disagree with the 10th item, which describes the fact that weak pronunciation is the cause of not speaking English by the teachers throughout in the class. Most of the respondents were not agreed with the point that if teachers are not talking in English for the whole period, students can learn and correct their pronunciation of the English language from other multiple sources, such as talking to other students, listening to music, watching English movies and dictionary etc. This may not be the cause of mispronunciation by the students at the undergraduate level.
The 11 th statement shows that 18.75% of students strongly agree, 39% agree, 12.5% are neutral, 56.26% disagree, and 3.12 % students strongly disagree with the fact that Arabic phonological courses strengthen English pronunciation as both languages share some common phonological behaviors. It is investigated by Moosa (1979) that there is a sound controversy between first language and second language as Arab English learners produce incorrect pronunciation of the English language because they have formed the habit of Arabic language sound characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
As per the findings of the study, the researcher identified the following eight factors responsible for the mispronunciation of the students at the undergraduate level. These factors were weighed by both statistics and interviews to be the causes of wrong pronunciation. For example, these factors include weakness in phonetics and phonology, school teachers' wrong pronunciation, first language interference, words/terminologies related to military discourse, English borrowed words from other languages, poor oral fluency, students avoid speaking English inside the classroom as a classroom discourse and inaccessibility to listen to the native speakers of English. Based on this research work, "Factors Responsible for the Wrong Pronunciation of English Language learners at undergraduate Level," the study foregrounds the following techniques for the students at the undergraduate level and suggestions for consideration of the quarters concerned to improve the pronunciation and sounds of English language learners and for the future researcher. Students should train their ears to listen to the native speakers talk for at least ten minutes daily and give attention to the way they articulate English (Jabali & Abuzaid, 2017;Komariah, 2018). They need to watch YouTube videos and English movies and refer to the English dictionary for problematic words (Jabali & Abuzaid, 2017;Hassan, 2014;Shahzada, 2012). They should own a standardised English phonetic dictionary in hard or mobile, laptop application dictionary and regularly use it for word-related problems and practice. Some knowledge of phonetics and phonology and the distinction of speech sounds is needed. They should practice English sounds by using their own organs of speech. They should not generalise English language rules and make a hypothesis about it on the basis of limited experience.