Difficulties of Persian Learners of English in Pronouncing Some English Consonant Clusters

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate some difficulties that Persian EFL learners may have in producing some
English consonant clusters orally. Since consonant clusters in a language comply with its underlying phonological
rules, or more specifically underlying syllabic structure, it seems to be quite relevant to deal with the syllabic
structural rules of first and second languages.
It could be hypothesized that learners when facing such structural unfamiliarities resort to their native language
phonological rules. By taking contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH) into account, we could get a clearer vision
partly towards the difficulties to reject or confirm the hypothesis.