Connected Speech and the English pronunciation

Abstract

This research was carried out for the purpose of studying the connected speech and the effect it has on the English pronunciation. The researcher used a pre-experimental design to investigate the relation between the dependent and the independent variables. Furthermore, this research is distinguished by being quantitative since it contains statistical data were information was collected in order to examine the effect of connected speech with the English pronunciation. This investigation took place in Universidad Tecnica de Ambato where the sample population was 32 students of second semester of the major of Pedagogia de los Idiomas Nacionales y Extranjeros, of which 23 were women and 9 were men. The age of the participants ranged from 19 to 23 years old. The pronunciation of the students was evaluated with a test that was suitable for their level which was B1 level of English, created by the researcher about the types of stress. This test was applied to measure their pronunciation before and after the treatment. The results demonstrated that the connected speech features had an effective influence on the student’s pronunciation considering that the post-test scores showed an increase in pronunciation. The connected speech features aided to the improvement of English pronunciation regarding speech patterns and intonation and rhythm in connected speech. This discovery shows that the features of connected speech really affected in a positive way the students ability to pronounce words and sentences, as well as in stress patterns and intonation and rhythm, as it could be seen in the rubric.