A Descriptive Analysis of Pronunciation Errors Made by Costa Rican Spanish L1 Learners of English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

This paper seeks to widen current knowledge on pronunciation instruction by exploring segmental pronunciation errors and their numerical prevalence. Specifically, the main goal of this corpus-aided investigation is twofold: (a) to identify the pronunciation errors in vowel and consonant production and (b) to recognize the pronunciation errors associated with the morphemes {-ed} and {-s} and the nature of such errors. To this end, forty intermediate third-year students of the Bachelor’s degrees in English and English Teaching at a public Costa Rican university used Flip (a video-based tool) to record themselves completing three individual speaking tasks: two oral readings and a short impromptu speech—all of which rendered 65 video recordings. Main analyses and ensuing descriptive statistics with IBM SPSS Statistics revealed that learners made the most errors when pronouncing vowels /i, æ, ɪ/ and consonants /z, s, ð/. As for grammatical morphemes, while mispronunciation of {-s} (possessive, third-person singular, and plural) was the most prevalent error, omission was the predominant error when pronouncing {-ed}. Implications for instructors and other stakeholders include the need to (a) study the phonological system of Costa Rican Spanish in foundational courses, (b) invest more 
time in the study of troublesome vowels and problematic realizations of {-s} and {-ed}, (c) prioritize troublesome consonants, and (d) reflect on the effectiveness of instructional and feedback practices.