The interference of gemination in the pronunciation of Ara-bic-speaking students learning French

Abstract

This experimental study aims to investigate the effect of the Arabic language on the pronunciation of Arabic-speaking students learning French. It contains acoustic measurements for the duration of graphically geminate consonants pronounced by native speakers of French and Jordanian learners. It also includes the results of perceptive tests carried out with speakers of Arabic who have no prior knowledge of French. The acoustic study shows that the target consonants produced by the learners were significantly longer than those produced by the French speakers. Perceptual tests show that most of the target words were made with geminate consonants by the learners. The learners pronounced the consonants, which should usually be pronounced as if they were single, in a geminate manner. The research concludes with practical proposals to help learners overcome the interference of gemination from Arabic into French.