A Research On The Relationship Between Phonetic Accuracy And Language Skills Of Senior High School Students

Learning phonetics is the first step of learning a language.Accurate phonetics helps speakers express precisely and efficiently while inaccurate phonetics sets a hindrance to communication.Language skills as listening,speaking,reading,writing are what language students are pursuing for.Obviously,both phonetics and language skills are indispensable components in learning a language.Accordingly,taking students in Grade 2 in senior high school as subjects,this paper intends to survey the relationship between phonetic accuracy and respective English language skills and comprehensive ability.After combing literature in this field,this paper employs three tests to complete the research------a phonetic test,a speaking test and a comprehensive test.Phonetic test provides the research with students' phonetic level;speaking test denotes students' speaking level;comprehensive test shows students' mastery of individual language skills.By analyzing the data collected from these tests through software SPSS 19.0,the research leads to the findings that phonetic accuracy is positively correlated with students' language skills and their comprehensive English ability.The relevancy of phonetic accuracy to language skills can be ranked as: comprehensive English ability > listening skill > speaking skill > reading skill > writing skill.Moreover,an interview with students is carried out so as to acquire their attitude toward phonetic learning.The result implies that students' attitude toward phonetics affects their phonetic level to a great extent.The more attention is paid to phonetics,the more phonetic drills tend to be done willingly,which in return boosts students' phonetic accuracy and English learning tremendously.Finally,in order to improve students' phonetic level,the paper begins to analyze students' phonetic problems appearing on their phonetic test.The analytical results suggest that students' average accuracy rate of each phonetic ingredient is ranked as follows: stress > intonation > consonant > vowel > linking and weakening >assimilation and elision.These phonetic problems consist either in the negativeinfluence of students' mother tongue or in their poor command of systematic phonetic knowledge.In this case,practical strategies,ranging from raising consciousness to some specific teaching methods,are proposed.In summary,the whole study may give some implications or guidelines to both English teachers and students.