The Development Of Proficiency In English Linking:A Study Of English Major Freshmen In China

Linking refers to the phenomenon that,in connected speech,two neighboring words are connected as one to facilitate pronunciation.It is a marker of English fluency and as important as other suprasegmental features like intonation and stress in meaning construction.Most existing phonetic studies focus on segmental features or suprasegmental features like stress and intonation but few of them probe into English linking,resulting in the inadequacy in this research filed.This study examines English major freshmen's proficiency in four kinds of English linking and seeks to make an inquiry about factors that might influence its development.Three research questions are proposed:1)What is the level of English major freshmen's proficiency in English linking at the beginning of the study?2)Is there any improvement of their proficiency in English linking after the research?3)What influence do different teaching methods have on the development of students'proficiency in English linking?Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are conducted in this research.Quantitative research mainly involves four English phonetic tests and a questionnaire.The first phonetic test is carried out to understand the level of their proficiency in English linking at the beginning of the study.The total four phonetic tests are used to analyze whether there is improvement of their proficiency in English linking after the research.To further explore the factors influencing development of proficiency in linking,six subjects are selected for case study.Through qualitative analysis of class observation,interview and reflective journal,this study aims to figure out what influence do teaching methods have on the development of students' proficiency in English linking?The results show that:1)the English major freshmen have poor proficiency in English linking,and they have never been exposed to phonetic knowledge or training of English linking.2)After the research,the proficiency in linking of all freshmen has developed to varying degree,indicating that the phonetic instruction in linking they received is beneficial.3)The statistics show that there is no significant difference in the development of proficiency in English linking between Class 1 and Class 2,which demonstrates both phonetic instruction methods play positive role in their development of proficiency in linking.It is found that the development of proficiency in English linking not only relies on necessary phonetic instruction,but also depends on learner autonomy.On the one hand,teachers should deliver systematic phonetic instruction of English linking such as introducing the concept,types and skills of linking,improving the quantity and the quality of phonetic input of linking,and creating more opportunities for students to practice and give effective feedback and error correction.On the other hand,students should motivate themselves to raise the awareness of linking,master the basic knowledge of linking and do plenty of practice through multiple ways.