BIDIALECTALISM AND ENGLISH WORD PRONUNCIATION: EVIDENCE FROM IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS

The present study investigated the effect of bidialectalism as a natural cultural phenomenon on Iranian EFL learners’ pronunciation ability. This study tried to determine the extent to which being a bidialectal learner affects the pronunciation ability of advanced learners. To answer this question, 40 Advanced language learners in Kish Institute of Science and Technology in Rasht and Tehran were randomly selected via administration of an OPT exam to 100 language learners in each city. Then, they were divided into two groups of 20 participants each. Participants in the Rasht group were bidialectal which means they knew a local dialect in addition to standard Persian. And the Tehran group was consisting of monodialectal participants who just knew standard Persian. An oral test of pronunciation was administered to both groups, the recorded voices of participants were assessed carefully .The data retrieved from the two groups was analyzed through calculating a t-test. The results indicated that the means of the two groups were significantly different.