Arab Educational Information Network

In most languages, in general, and in English, in particular, we do not speak each sound separately from the other sound; rather, we combine sounds into groups or syllables to form words which in turn form utterances. This research tries to shed the light on the notion of syllable and tries to infer the main difficulties that may face Iraqi students in this specific area. This research aims at investigating Iraqi EFL learner's performance in the area of English syllables at recognition and production levels, so as to know the difficulties faced by them in this area, and investigating Iraqi instructor's opinions in the same area in order to limit the difficulties faced by Iraqi student. To achieve the aims of the study, a hypothesis has been posed as follows: "Iraqi EFL college learners face difficulties in the area of English syllables". To verify a hypothesis, a sample of fifty students (test sample) are chosen randomly from the third year, department of English, University of Diyala. Another sample is consist of twenty instructor (questionnaire sample) from the college of education and the college of basic education, University of Diyala. Two instrument are used in this research, the first one is the test and the second is the scaled questionnaire. In the light of the above procedures, relevant conclusions are drawn and a number of recommendations and suggestions are put forward. (Published abstract)