Résumé:
The focal target behind conducting this research is to explore the listening comprehension
difficulties of third year students at the English Language Department of Mohammed Saddik
Ben Yahia-Jijel University of perceiving the native speakers’ connected speech involving
assimilation and elision aspects. Accordingly, the research in hand hypothesizes that if EFL
learners are well-informed and knowledgeable about assimilation and elision application in
connected speech, they will face less listening comprehension difficulties. The study is divided
into two foremost parts. The first part exposed theoretical issues associated with the listening
skill and listening comprehension difficulties. It also shed light on connected speech features
with special reference to assimilation and elision aspects. The second part, which is the
practical side of the study, dealt with the findings yielded from tow used research tools. A
questionnaire that was addressed to sixty students (60) out of three hundred and four (304) and
a listening test that was conducted with thirty students (30) from the same population. Thus,
the study confirms the research hypothesis and reveals that the lack of knowledge on the
application of assimilation and elision is problematic in the process of the listening
comprehension. Moreover, students’ non-sufficient practice, false estimated vocabulary, the
inability to distinguish words boundaries, writing the spoken form of words and tenses
contradiction are the main difficulties encountered by third year students while listening to the
native speakers’ speech. On the light of the results obtained, some pedagogical
recommendations and suggestions for future research are suggested ultimately
