Effect of EFL Students' Knowledge of Connected Speech Aspects on Understanding Native Speakers

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of connected speech aspects in spoken English and the way they shape the native speech, there has been relatively little research on them in the field of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). This study, then, investigates the effect of connected speech aspects, namely assimilation, linking, elision, and weakening, on students’ comprehension when listening to the natives. Additionally, the study aims to examine the extent to which these aspects can effect EFL students’ comprehension of native speakers. English spontaneous speech, being different from the careful slow one, undergoes many sound changes under the influence of connected speech aspects. These phonological changes have increasingly become problematic when attempted to be perceived and recognized by English Algerian students leading them to encounter challenging difficulties in listening comprehension. In the practical part of this research, we have tackled this issue by conducting a listening test, which has been administered to ten 3rd year students (out of 210) at the Department of English, University of Mohammed Seddik Ben Yehya, Jijel. The test comprises three sections, all of which examine the students’ comprehension ability in relation to their perception and knowledge of connected speech aspects. The findings of the test reveal that almost all students have failed to attain full comprehension of the considered stretches native of speech due to their misperception and lack of knowledge concerning these aspects, confirming our hypothesis stating that insufficient knowledge of connected speech aspects leads EFL learners to miscomprehend the message embodied in naturally flowing speech