An Investigation of Common Stress Placement Errors in English Word Roots and their Suffixed Derivatives by Arabic-Speaking EFL Learners

Suffixation influences lexical stress in one of three ways. A suffix attached to a word root/stem may take the itself, or it cause move from where was uninflected stem another syllable, keep as is. Stress misassignment is very common speech Arabic-speaking English foreign language (EFL) learners. This study conducted investigate how EFL learners at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University (PSAU) Saudi Arabia assign roots/stems and their suffixed derivatives find out whether words presented greater challenge than stem; also aimed examine errors assignment were caused by first language(L1) interference. 112 students PSAU randomly chosen pronounce 80 well roots/stems. The pronunciations recorded, recordings analyzed researchers raters. concluded that do not present more significant stems, type syllable important number syllables, weight structure word, L1 influence be causes but only misassignment.