Investigating the Problems of Persian EFL Learners on Acquisition of Consonant Cluster of English Syllables

Syllable structures in Persian is CV (CC), it means one consonant at the beginning and two optional consonant at the final and syllable structures in English is (CCC) V(CCC), so Persian EFL learners have difficulty withpronounce the initial and final consonant cluster, so learners’ syllabification of consonant cluster was tested viaa production test. The purpose of this study is to investigate the problems of Persian EFL learners on acquisition of consonant cluster of English syllables. The participants included 20 Persian EFL students who learning English as second/foreign language at Safire institute of Hamadan. The instrument used was the oral productiontest in order to test learners and a recorder to record their sound. The paired sample t-test and independentsample t-test was run to analyze and calculate data. The results show that all participants had difficulties with consonant cluster in English and more in onset cluster than coda cluster because of negative transfer from Persian to English

Keywords:

Persian EFL learners , Consonant cluster , English syllable