Exploring ESL Learners’ Anxiety towards Silent Letters in Pronunciation: A Case Study of Undergraduates of University of Sialkot, Pakistan

Learning a second language gives learners aesthetic pleasure, but at the same time, learners face various problems in the Teaching/ learning process, especially when pronouncing silent letters. This research mainly focused on the problems and anxiety ESL learners face in acquiring English as a Second Language at the undergraduate level. All participants are from the English Department of the University of Sialkot, Pakistan and have been exposed to learning English as a second language for two to four years. A sample of 14 English language undergraduates was selected by simple random sampling. Data is collected through notes in which the students were given the silent letters used to occur in English words and were asked to read aloud. Direct observational testing was the focus of data collection. After that, a semi-structured interview developed by Hassan in 2014 that included six items was conducted. As this study was qualitative, the researcher applied the qualitative method to analyze the data for this purpose. Findings show that mother tongue, age, practice, lack of exposure to the second language and lack of motivation are the major factors that cause anxiety among ESL learners at the university of Sialkot. The present study's findings could be fruitful for English language learners in terms of implementing novel methods to cope with pronunciation issues in a Second Language.