The Individual Differences of the Sounds of English Language among Learners in Irbid University Collage

Abstract

Reading English as a second language is considered as one of the most important skill of a language to communicate with others since English Language right now has dominated the whole world . The study aimed at investigating the reasons that affect the students' reading skill of elementary stage in English Language in Irbid University Collage, Jordan.This study specifically targeted to show examples of the individual differences among learners in Diploma’s level. Thus it aimed to make a little contribution to linguistic theory by investigating different sounds of English produced by Jordanian learners in the first year in the collage. The study is constructed on audio-cassettes recorded in Irbid University collage for forty-five female students. The data on the cassettes (about twenty-three foolscap pages of the transcribed dialogues), along with the native intuition and shared expectations of the writer, made the study possible. The study designated some of the individual differences among learners such as mispronouncing certain consonant and vowel phonemes, the syllable structure, stress timing, and connected speech. Finally, it showed some of the reasons, that affect language learning acquisition, which lead to individual differences such as age, socio-economic level, motivation, language environment, personality of the learners and the teacher, and attitude toward English language.

Keywords: individual differences, sounds of English Language, learning acquisition , education and language .