THE INFLUENCE OF UZBEK MOTHER TONGUE INTERFERENCE ON ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

This study explores the influence of Uzbek mother tongue interference on English pronunciation among EFL learners. The research focuses on identifying common pronunciation errors caused by phonological differences between Uzbek and English. Data were collected from 30 undergraduate students through reading and word-list tasks, and their speech was analyzed using phonetic transcription. The findings reveal that dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, the front vowel /æ/, consonant clusters, and word stress patterns present significant challenges for learners. The results confirm the strong impact of negative transfer in second language pronunciation acquisition and emphasize the importance of contrastive phonological analysis in teaching English pronunciation.