An Investigation of the Relationship between Linguistic Features of Spoken English and English Learning Experiences of Armenian Learners of English

Abstract

The present study investigates the relationship between the learning experiences of Armenian nonnative speakers of English and the target linguistic features of their spoken English. The number of the participants of the study was 34, of whom 10 were American native speakers of English, and 24 Armenian nonnative speakers of English. Two instruments have been used for data collection: 1) a structured interview to compile a corpus of native speaker and nonnative speaker speech samples and 2) a questionnaire to identify Armenian nonnative speakers’ English learning experiences in secondary, undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate schools, as well as private tutoring and self study efforts. The results of the investigation show that nonnative speakers used the target linguistic features less frequently than native speakers did. Correlation analysis has shown that such kinds of qualities of exposure as interaction with native speakers, listening and summarizing materials, doing debates and role plays and giving oral presentations significantly correlate with native like competence as separate independent variables. However, the results of the backward multiple regressions have identified that only native speaker interaction in private tutoring experience has significant predictability of native like competence of Armenian nonnative speakers of English.