Abstract:
The debate between the effectiveness of explicit and implicit teaching
has taken a center stage in the second language acquisition literature
over a long period of time. Most of such debates center on grammar
teaching and very few discuss suprasegmental features especially,
syllable structure. All languages have some sort of syllabicity; however,
the phonetic characteristics of syllables differ across languages. The
difference can be seen in the types of sounds that can cluster together
around a single syllabic nucleus. The current work examines the effects
of explicit instruction on the acquisition of English syllable structure
among native Hausa speakers. The work investigates the efficiency of
interventions through explicit teaching on the English syllable structure
in a classroom setting. English syllables have some structures that are
absent in Hausa and these structures pose some difficulties for Hausa
speakers who learn English. This work explores the structures and
adopts explicit instruction as an intervention to remedy the difficulties
through explicit teaching. The investigation was done on participants
who are Ghanaian Hausa speakers learning English. Generally, the work
adds to the literature on the efficacy of explicit teaching, and specifically
on the teaching of English syllable structure among Hausa speakers.
Finally, the work investigates some of the constraints that learners and
teachers are faced with in Teaching English as a Second Language
(TESL) and offers suggestions for improving the teaching of English
pronunciation to Hausa learners. The study discovers that in disyllabic
word, there is preference of trochaic syllable over iambic syllable,
acquisition of onsets is easier than acquisition of codas and finally,
explicit teaching is very effective in classroom.
