THE EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS ON CONNECTED SPEECH TO THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENT’S PERCEPTION AND PRODUCTION AT SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES – THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Connected speech is such an essential aspect of phonology that has an extreme influence on successful communication. Therefore, the study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of aspects of connected speech training on English language freshmen’s perception and production at Thai Nguyen University. Forty first year freshmen in English language classes were the study participants. They were required to do pre-tests before starting research treatment to examine if the participants of experimental and control groups were at the same level of connected speech awareness or not. Then, participants of experimental group were instructed explicitly aspects of connected speech in 7 weeks while the participants of control group continued their regularly classes. After treatment, both groups were asked to do post-tests. The results in pre-tests and post-tests were compared to be able to answer the research questions. The study results elicited both groups had a higher result in recognition and production post-tests; however, the experimental group outperformed control group.