Embedded Vowels: Remedying the Problems Arising out of Embedded Vowels in the English Writings of Arab Learners

Abstract

L1 habits often tend to interfere with the process of learning a second language. The vowel habits of Arab learners of English are one such interference. Arabic orthography is such that certain vowels indicated by diacritics are often omitted, since an experienced reader of Arabic knows, by habit, the exact vowel sound in each phonetic environment. As a result of their non-dependence on the writings of vowels explicitly, Arab learners tend to ignore writing the vowel letters in their English writings, too. Research scholars name this interference ‘vowel blindness’. This paper is a report on an investigation of the presence of this feature in a group of 20 learners of English, registered for the Foundation Program in King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. However, this report aims to show that, this vowel blindness could only be a ‘temporary blindness’, and that remedial measures significantly helped these learners overcome this interference.