Perception Deception: Exploring the Gap between Self-Perception and Phonemic Perception among Arabic-speaking EFL Learners

This study explores the relationship between perceived and actual phonemic perception abilities among Arabic-speaking English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. It investigates whether learners’ perceptions align with their actual performance and whether they tend to underestimate or overestimate their phonemic abilities. Fifty-eight participants, native speakers of Qassimi Arabic, rated the perceived difficulty of English vowels and completed a vowel perception task. Results reveal a significant discrepancy between perceived and actual abilities, with most participants underestimating their phonemic perception skills. A weak positive correlation between perception and performance suggests that learners’ self-assessments may not reliably reflect their actual abilities. Findings provide further empirical evidence of the Dunning-Kruger effect (Dunning, 2011) and extend such evidence to include Arab EFL learners’ perceived phonemic abilities. Theoretical, epistemological, and pedagogical implications of the study are discussed, including a call for less reliance on learners’ self-perceptions in L2 research and instruction in favor of objective performance measures.