ABSTRACT
Chinese learners of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as a foreign language show many pronunciation complexities that significantly hinder their communication with Egyptian Arabic native speakers. One of these complexities is the pronunciation of Arabic coda clusters which the Chinese phonological system lacks. The MSA phonological system is characterized by a simple vowel system and a more complex consonantal system. Hence, it can be predicted that students who learn Arabic as a foreign language face major problems in pronouncing the Arabic consonants. In order to detect the most challenging MSA cluster types to the Chinese participants, a comparison between the scores of the different error types of each of the three cluster types is included. The highest percentages of the error pattern phonological processes that occurred are related to vowel epenthesis, followed by vowel insertion and then cluster substitution. The most difficult type of Arabic clusters to be pronounced by the Chinese learners is the clusters that violated the sonority.
