Stressless heavy syllables affect main stress perception of Saudi learners of English

This study inspects whether stressless heavy syllables in English words affect main (primary) stress perception of Adult Saudi learners of English. With the use of 48 two-, three-, and four-syllable nonce words that correspond to the phonotactics of English and have only one heavy syllable and one stressed light syllable in each word, 10 participants listen to a recording of a native English speaker producing these words and match each word they hear to one of multiple written forms that match the heard word and differ only in having each syllable written in capitals and bolds at a time. The results show that stressless heavy syllables in English words affect main stress perception of Saudi learners of English when stress falls on light syllables in reality.