PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED BY MOZAMBICAN EFL TEACHER TRAINEES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

English pronunciation poses significant challenges to many EFL Mozambican students, yet it remains a critical aspect of effective communication. For teacher trainees, in particular, it is essential to enhance their pronunciation skills during their academic training to ensure they are well-prepared for their teaching careers. This study examines the phonological challenges faced by Mozambican teacher trainees whose first language (L1) is Echuwabo. It aims to explore the influence of Echuwabo phonology on their English pronunciation and identify specific difficulties encountered. The research employs a mixed-methods approach for data collection and analysis. Data were gathered from 14 EFL teacher trainees through observations, semi-structured interviews, and audio recordings. The analysis was conducted with the assistance of MS Word and Excel to identify major themes and quantify the frequency of observed phonological issues. The results indicate that while previous EFL studies have widely noted the absence of the voiced (inter)dental fricative phoneme /ð/ in many languages, Echuwabo includes this phoneme, making it less problematic for learners compared to other sounds. Conversely, significant difficulties were observed with the voiceless (inter)dental fricative phoneme /θ/, which is not present in the Echuwabo language. This gap leads to frequent pronunciation errors among the trainees. The challenges identified were categorized into three phonological processes: elision, substitution, and insertion. The findings suggest that Echuwabo phonological structure impact English pronunciation of the participating Mozambican teacher trainees. However, other factors need to be further explored in order to explain some of the identified problems which had less to do with L1.