A study of pronunciation problems among Tamil speaking English learners in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study analyzes some frequently occurring problems concerning pronunciation of Tamil speaking English Learners in Sri Lanka. Accordingly factors leading to these difficulties such as: interference of Tamil learner's age, psychological factors, insufficient knowledge in phonetics and phonology of English language and bad prior pronunciation instruction in the beginning etc. The objective of this research is to analyze these difficulties in a linguistic perspective and recommend practical suggestions to overcome these barriers.In this regard, Tamil speaking under graduates of Southeastern University of Sri Lanka has been taken as the sample. Observation being the main source of data collection along with discussions and interviews were scrutinized for the study.