Arabic foreign language

Acquisition of new phonological categories

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the acquisition of Arabic pharyngealized [t^ʕ], [d^ʕ], [s^ʕ], [ð^ʕ], pharyngeal [ħ], [ʕ], and uvular [q] sounds by Italian L1 learners. These sounds are widely acknowledged as challenging to learn (Mion, 2018; Shehata, 2018; Al Tubuly, 2018), both in terms of production and perception. 64 university students from 13 Italian universities, exhibiting varying proficiency levels, participated in an online experiment conducted through the Gorilla Experiment Builder platform. The experiment encompassed a word reading task alongside two perceptual tasks: identification and AX discrimination. The findings indicate improved performance with increased learner competence, revealing differing levels of difficulty among the sounds in both production and perception.