Difficult Sounds in Ibibio 2 ½ To 4 ½ Years Old Monolingual Children: Pedagogical and Clinical Implications

Abstract

Our study aimed at finding out the difficult sounds that the Ibibio 2 ½ to 4 ½ years old monolingual children find difficult
to acquire (50 subjects: 25 male and 25 female). We used imitation method of data collection and descriptive statistics for
analysis. They were tested in the following sounds: 10 phonetic vowels [ i ɨ e a ə ʌ ɔ o ʉ u] with [ɔ 1 o1] as the subvariations;
17 phonetic consonants [p b t d k kp m n ɲ ŋ ɾ f s R ɰ j w] with [b1 t1 d1 d2] as the sub-variations, bringing the
symbols to 21. The following vowel sounds [ʉ ] and [o1] and mid vowels were found to be difficult sounds for Ibibio children.
Among the consonants, [ʀ ], [d1], [ɰ ], [t1], [d2],[ɾ ], [b1]; tap, trill and back are the difficult sounds and sound classes. Our study
has both pedagogical and clinical implications.