| When learning English pronunciation in the environment of English as a foreign language,students at junior high school should aim at fluent and intelligible spoken English.Meanwhile,appropriate phonetic training can improve their performance in the four aspects of connected speech,including linking,elision,assimilation and rhythm.There are few studies on the deviations of sound change in connected speech of students at junior high school both at home and abroad.The existing studies focus on a certain phenomenon of sound change,or being empirical ones of a teaching method to improve the acquisition of sound change.Therefore,this paper conducts deviations analysis concerning junior high school students of East Shanghai High School.31 junior high school students’ recordings are selected to perform the acoustic deviations analysis in comparison to the recording of the native speaker.Praat and Excel,based on the method of Error Analysis and Contrastive Analysis,are introduced when investigates the subject’s performance concerning the four aspects of connected speech.Subsequently,the development of subject’s phonetic learning strategies is studied by employing a mixed study method with phonetic learning strategy questionnaires as well as interviews.The main research questions are as follows:(1)What are the differences between the acoustic data of the subjects and the data of the native speaker in terms of linking,elision,assimilation and rhythm?(2)What is the relationship between the problems concerning deviations and the employment of English pronunciation learning strategies?Through the analysis of the acoustic data of the subjects,it was found that the subjects employ citation form of a word in linking,do not have enough alteration of consonants in assimilation,make no gentle release of plosives as well as no vowel reduction or deletion in elision,and the rhythm is often in disorder.Their problems can be summarized into three points: insufficient change of sounds,misallocation of time,and unclear division of sense groups.In terms of phonetic learning strategies,the subjects used six types of learning strategies,but there is still much room for improvement in the complexity and flexibility of memory strategies as well as metacognitive strategies.Therefore,teachers should combine phonetic learning strategies with the teaching of sound change in the classroom in order to cultivate learners’ ability to learn pronunciation independently.Finally,the author suggests that teachers help students learn English pronunciation and acquire fluent and intelligible English speaking through the rhythm training,the eight-step echo training,the English songs dictation and the Praat visual training. |
