Journal of Applied Languages and Linguistics

Research Article

 

TITLE:  Iraqi Third-Year Students' Command of English Intonation at Mosul University

Authors: Abbas Jawdat Rahim, Salah Yaseen Rasheed Al-Dulaimy

Prof. Dr. Abbas Jawdat Rahim

Institution: Al-Kitab University

Mailing address: Flat 32, Building 3 8, Avro City, Duhok, Kurdistan Region, IRAQ.

Email: drabbasjawdat@yahoo.com

Salah Yaseen Rasheed Al-Dulaimy

Institution: University of Mosul

Mailing address: College of Education for Humanities, University of Mosul, Mosul, IRAQ.

Email: salah_yaseen_rasheed@yahoo.com

Published online: 31 December 2018, pp. 121-135

Citation: Abbas, J.R. & Al-Dulaimy, S.Y.R. (2018). Iraqi Third-Year Students' Command of English Intonation at Mosul University. Journal of Applied languages and Linguistics, 2(2), pp. 121-135

 

Abstract

This research deals with one of the main suprasegmental aspects of speech, viz. intonation. It is concerned with investigating the pedagogical parts of this aspect as it is taught to Iraqi students of  English at Colleges of Education in Iraq. This study is triggered due to an evident lack of research devoted to teaching intonation at the Departments of English in Iraq, in addition to the fact that this aspect of language has been neglected to a large extent in classroom teaching while concentrating in an exaggerated way on teaching segmental aspects. The main objective that this study seeks to achieve is to assess Iraqi students’ command of English intonation at the Department of English (College of Education,  Mosul University) in relation to the five basic tones presented by Roach (2009). In order to achieve this objective, a test has been conducted on 48 third-year students of  English (College of Education for Humanities, Mosul University). The test consists of seven parts: two for repetition, two for identification, and three for production. One of the main conclusions is that  Iraqi students of English have a very basic knowledge of the English intonational system. Another conclusion is that it is the very similarities between the intonational systems of English and Arabic. An interesting conclusion is that Iraqi students face difficulty identifying the simple tones rather than the complex ones, while they find it more difficult to produce the complex tones than the simple ones.

 

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Keywords: intonation, Iraqi students of English, Mosul University, command