International Journal of English Linguistics; Vol. 8, No. 3; 2018 ISSN 1923-869X E-ISSN 1923-8703 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 101 Awareness of L2 American English Word Stress: Implications for Teaching Speakers of Indo-Aryan Languages Abdul Malik Abbasi 1 , Masood Akhter Memon 2 , Mansoor Ahmed Channa 3 & Stephen John 4 1 Chairperson Department of Allied Subjects, Sindh Madressatul Islam University Karachi, Pakistan 2 English Cadet College Petaro, Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan 3 Department of Basic Sciences, Quaid-e-Awam University, Nawab Shah Sindh, Pakistan 4 Chairperson Department of Education, Sindh Madressatul Islam University Karachi, Pakistan Correspondence: Abdul Malik Abbasi, Chairperson Department of Allied Subjects, Sindh Madressatul Islam University Karachi, Pakistan. E-mail: amabbasi@smiu.edu.pk Received: December 3, 2017 Accepted: December 27, 2017 Online Published: February 4, 2018 doi:10.5539/ijel.v8n3p101 URL: http://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v8n3p101 Abstract This study aims to investigate the word stress placement in English and Sindhi words in learners from Indo-Aryan language and American English backgrounds. Since correct placement of word stress is key for L2 English intelligibility, and it is known that native language background affects English language learners’ word stress perception and production. The study explores English language learners’ intuition through behavioral data from the native speakers of Sindhi and American native speakers to compare their awareness of word stress in L1 and L2. It further investigates learner’s stress patterns by measuring their reports of word stress location in their Sindhi and in their L2 English. There were twenty native speakers (10 from Sindh, Pakistan-10 from Illinois State, America) who were recruited from the location in their countries. Results of three experiments show that Sindhi native speakers have less awareness of stress location in their native language than native English controls, and this effect carries into their L2 English. Teachers of Sindhi-speaking students should be prepared to provide explicit training on word stress. Keywords: Sindhi, English, lexical, stress, perception 1. Introduction In English, word stress is contrastive, meaning that two words may differ by stress location alone i.e., the verb ‘record’ with the noun ‘Record’. Moreover, pronunciation of English word-level stress is highly salient because reduction and co-articulation systematically distinguish stressed from unstressed syllables. In other words, English word stress modifies the meaning of English words, whereas, Sindhi word stress does not change the meaning of Sindhi words, though lexical stress is used for emphasis purpose on the words. The study investigated the intuition of both native speakers i.e., Sindhi and American as to where and how they assign primary stress on word level in their L1 and L2. American native speakers have only been judged for their L1 that is English language whereas, Sindhi native speakers were experimented for L1 and L2. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Word Stress in English The placement of word stress is of particular importance for English language learners (ELLs) because research suggests that prosodic features such as word stress affects the intelligibility of L2 English speakers (Munro & Derwing, 1999), and native listeners ‘recall […] significantly more content and evaluate […] the speaker significantly more favorably’ when primary stress is correctly placed vs. incorrectly placed or missing (Hahn, 2004). Similarly, prosodic accuracy contributes to the overall impression of fluency as measured by intelligibility ratings (Derwing & Rossiter, 2003). Not only is word stress important for overall intelligibility, it is especially important for comprehending English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Longer words with Latin substrate are much more common in EAP than in everyday English. There are 39 different patterns of syllable stress in words on the widely-used Academic Word List created by Coxhead (2000), according to Murphy and Kandil (2004). Some of these patterns are rare, but mastery of the 14 most common of these patterns is required for