Phonological Competence and Performance of Second Language Learners: Production of ed-ending Verbs by English Students in Public Tertiary Institutions in Gombe State

The study aims to investigate the production of English verbs ending in -ed by English students in tertiary institutions. Thus, it describes regular past tense verbs are produced by English learners from different native languages. In the process, each participant will be individually audio-recorded reading a passage with regular past tense verbs and will be given a questionnaire which contains items testing three manifestations of ‘ed’ morpheme in terms of pronunciation. Thus, the instruments to be used in data collection are closed-ended questionnaires and sound recordings of participant reading of prepared passages. The participants will be individually audio recorded using a digital audio-recorder. The participants may have demonstrated English pronunciation knowledge when responding to the questionnaire but missed the pronunciation while reading. This may be attributed to the difference between language learners’ competence and performance. Consequently, the study attempts to add to the field by investigating regular past tense verb productions by English learners from different first language backgrounds. Thus, it may have pedagogical suggestions for teaching pronunciation particularly that of verbs ending with –ed so teachers and authors of pronunciation manuals should take into account the target-like voicing assimilation processes as well as possible syllable simplification strategies manifesting in second language learners’ production of the target language.