EFL Female Teachers and Students’ Perceptions of the Effect of Wearing Niqab on Their Speech Intelligibility

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the EFL female teachers and students’ perceptions of the effect of wearing niqab on their speech intelligibility. It also intends at exploring alternative strategies to compensate their speech intelligibility. The study employs the qualitative approach to collect and analyze the data.  The data were collected using an open-ended questionnaire distributed among EFL female teachers and students who were chosen by a snowball purposive sample. The findings reveal that wearing niqab has a wide self-reported effect on speech intelligibility. The participants also indicate on the importance of the facial cues or expressions to identify speech. Additionally, the participants suggest some compensatory strategies among which are raising the voice, using microphone, and using visual aids. Based on the findings, the study offers some implications and recommendations for EFL teaching institutions. It also suggests some future studies for interested researchers.