CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND KORO ASHE PLOSIVES IMPLICATION FOR ESL LEARNING

Abstract

The study examines the Contrastive Analysis of English and Koro Ashe plosives; Implication for ESL Learning. The paper aimed at contrasting the English and Koro Ashe plosives in order to asserting the areas of their divergence and convergence for improved pedagogy. The study was guided by two (2) research objectives and two (2) research questions. The research design employed in carrying out this investigation was descriptive survey. The population of this study consisted of Koro Ashe primary 4 ESL learners in Karu Local Government Areas Nasarawa State. The sampling technique used in the study was multistage random sampling in which 20 Koro Ashe primary 4 ESL learners were randomly selected for the study. The researcher used Test of phonology production (TPP) as an instrument to carry out this investigation. Contrastive Analysis (CA) theory was used to conduct the study. Simple frequency count and percentage were the methods employed to analyse the data for this research. The findings of the study showed that, the dental consonant sounds /θ/& /ð/, posed pronunciation difficulty to most Koro Ashe ESL learners due to the absence of the sounds in the phonemic inventory of Koro Ashe. The dental fricatives /θ/ was substitute for /t/ in the word ‘through’ /θru:/ to pronounce as /tru:/, while the consonant /ð/ in the word ‘then’ /ðen/ was pronounced [den]. The errors made by the subjects were stemmed from L1 interference to L2, the complex nature of English language spelling system and developmental errors arose from incomplete learning. It was recommended that oral aspect of this spoken English should be taught earlier to our children in nursery and primary schools, to minimize the pronunciation problem that affects the speech of adult L2 speakers of English.