Developing Speaking and Writing Skills of L1 Arabic EFL Learners through Teaching of IPA Phonetic Codes

Abstract

This exploratory study investigated the development of speaking and writing skills of L1 Arabic EFL learners based on their level of perception and understanding of phonetic transcriptions through visualisation of letter-to-symbol representations using the International Phonetic Alphabet (henceforth IPA). The participants were 169 University-level Preparatory Year Program (PYP) male Saudi EFL students. The study was carried out as a pedagogical approach to improve university first year students' pronunciation, correct speech and writing skills. The students selected attended 6, 50-minute Integrated Pronunciation Teaching (IPT) lessons which included IPA transcription codes using both audio and visual teaching methods in addition to one ICT aided lesson. Throughout those lessons, students were initially introduced to the IPA phonetic codes in gradual increase of difficulty and were encouraged to use the monolingual (English-English), Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDCE). Two written tests and one oral test were conducted using a number of carefully selected IPA transcription codes related questions and results were analysed and interpreted. Results obtained showed slight variations between higher and lower ability students in understanding the IPA transcription codes. As a whole, however, the results indicated that students reached a high level of understanding of letter-to-symbol representationsthe IPA system -and oral test results proved that phonological awareness can help Saudi students at tertiary level education improve their writing and speaking skills. Above all, learning the phonetic transcription codes helped them develop a sense of autonomy and competence when using monolingual dictionaries. The study concluded with a brief discussion of the ramifications of the study and the potential for further research.