AKWA IBOM STATE UNIVERSITY JOUNAL OF ARTS

This qualitative research analysed consonantal and vowel interferences and their implications in teaching English as a second language to Ibiono Ibom Local Government secondary school students, based on the hypothetical claim that when speakers or language learners attempt to learn a second language, the linguistic properties of their first language occasionally influence the production of utterances of the target language. Adopting Robert Lado’s Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis model as its theoretical lens, the study therefore examines how the Ibiono Ibom variety of Ibibio as a native language influences English sounds as produced by Ibiono Ibom secondary school students. Forty male and female native Ibibio SS2 students of Ibiono South Secondary School and Uduakobong Comprehensive High School, Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area were selected through simple random sampling method to participate in a reading test of forty item word list containing ten English sounds. Based on the findings made from the consonantal, monophthong and diphthong categories, three forms of phonological interference were discovered to include sound replacement, sound insertion and sound omission. There were consonantal interferences in disyllabic words as well as consonantal replacement irrespective of the content of the syllable or the position of the sound. Students also over generalised their knowledge of pronouncing the English singular present tense markers in verbs and the regular plural markers in nouns.

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