Correlation between the Written and Verbal Performance of Pakistani Learners in the Area of English Pure Vowels

It is an established fact that speech is the true reflection of the internal sound system of a language. Speech is comprised of a number of segmental and suprasegmental features. Segmental features are the phonemic features whereas suprasegmental features include stress, intonation and so on. Observing English pronunciation from these two different angles, we will find out that both have their own problems to pose, especially for foreign learners of English. What makes English such a labyrinth for its foreign learners is its phonemic richness, especially its vowel sounds which include monophthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs. This study was conducted to find out correlation between the written and verbal performance of Pakistani learners in the area of English monophthongs or single vowels. The study sample(N=375) comprised Pakistani learners of English studying at Diploma Level in the National University of Modern Languages Islamabad, Pakistan. The data collection was achieved with the help of two tests: one for written performance and the other for verbal performance. Pearson Product Moment Formula was used to find the degree of correlation between thestudy variables (written and verbal performance). The analysis of the data showed strong relationship in the area of English monophthongs which shows that the written and verbal performance of the study sample match up quite closely in this area.