A Middle East Pronunciation Assessment Framework for higher education

Despite its importance, pronunciation remains a marginalised skill in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, often due to limited instructor training, assessment guidelines, and teaching material availability. This study offers an empirical examination of EFL teacher assessment practices and attitudes in the Middle East nations of Iraq, Oman, and Iran, through a mixed-methods exploratory design. The first research phase involved the collection of quantitative and qualitative data from 66 EFL teachers through a 20-item online survey. Quantitative data gathered via closed-response questions was analysed descriptively and compared with open-ended survey responses, before potential relationships between respondent country of practice and attitudes/experiences were examined with Pearson’s chi-squared and Cramer’s V tests. Survey findings were then triangulated with semi-structured interview data in the second research phase involving a subset of 13 participants. Results indicate that effective pronunciation assessment is often hindered in Middle East contexts by the lack of standardised practices, limited curriculum focus, and practical constraints on time and resources, while instructors from the three countries displayed statistically significant differences in assessment frequency. Despite these challenges, respondents described a growing focus on intelligibility and effective communication in pronunciation instruction, including through the use of technology-assisted teaching and testing, rather than the more traditional concern with encouraging learners to sound like Inner Circle speakers. Based on these findings, the study proposes a regionally grounded pronunciation assessment framework that connects intelligibility with L1-specific sound contrasts, locally accepted accent norms, and structured feedback practices within multilingual higher education settings

Curriculum · Exploratory research · Pronunciation · Qualitative property · Respondent · World Englishes · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Phonetics and Phonology Research