The Learning of English Consonants: a case study of Èfîk Children in Calabar South between the ages of 2-5years

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Learning a second language is adopting a language that is not one's first language. Second language learner's of English exhibits variations bfrom the Phonological, syntactic or lexico-semantic rule of English language. This paper examines the learning of English Consonant by Èfik children in Calabar South, Nigeria within the ages of 2-5years. The Objectives of the study are to find out the several segmental processes in the children's language. A population of 30 children is selected from the study comprising 15 makes and females, respectively. The population was randomly selected to cut across different social and educational backgrounds. Usage based theory by Tomasello (2003) is adopted as the theoretical framework. The data are quantitatively analysed using tables and statistical presentations. Findings show that stop consonants are easily pronounced first before other consonant sounds. Several Phonological processes were observed.  It is suggested that further research be carried out in the area of acquisition of prosodies.

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