| The inevitability of English language learning has nowadays become a reality throughout the world,and the teaching of phonetics and pronunciation has also become a priority for researchers and educationalists.One of the aspects of L2 English phonology which poses a challenge for L2 learners is learning “connected speech”.Although connected speech is essential for listening comprehension and successful communication,it is rarely treated with proper attention and a few studies have been conducted on how best to teach it in the field of second and foreign language learning.Thus,the present study fills this gap by examining the effect of explicit instruction on connected speech features on improving overall speech comprehension and production of high school students.And the research aims at answering the following three questions:(1)What problems do students have with connected speech when they speak English?(2)To what extent does instructing“connected speech” through TBLT improve high school students’ ability to produce“connected speech” at the end of the treatment?(3)What is the students’ perception towards an explicit instruction on connected speech features in enhancing their speaking abilities?To achieve such an aim,a quasi-experiment has been designed where two groups,an experimental and a control group have been set up.The experimental group received a 12-week explicit instruction in connected speech features based on TBLT,while the control group followed the regular instruction.Two tests were conducted before and after the treatment,whereas the questionnaire and interview were only conducted to the experimental group at the end of the treatment.The participants’ scores on the pre-test and post-test were compared via the paired samples t tests and independent samples t-tests.Before the treatment,more than 50% instances of assimilation,linking,elision have been falsely or improperly pronounced by participants.These phenomena embody the influence of mother tongue on the target language and students’ lack of awareness of “connected speech”.However,after the treatment,they made great improvement but still found it difficult to distinguish “the place of assimilation”,and“incomplete plosion” etc.The quantitative findings confirmed that the experimental group’s mean scores on the post-tests were significantly higher than those of the control group.It was thus concluded that teaching connected speech features to high school students could positively affect their speech comprehension and production.In addition,the questionnaire findings demonstrated that a majority of the experimental group had positive perceptions towards the connected speech instruction.Positive results were also observed in the outcomes of the interviews,showing significantly enhanced learning attitudes to English speaking.These findings merit discussion in the field.Finally,the findings of the study hold many pedagogical implications for EFL learners,language teachers,material developers,and those interested in researching “connected speech”. |
