A Study About Phonetic Realization Of English Linking By Non-English Major Freshmen In China

Phonetics is an indispensable part of English learning,and the fluency and accuracy of English pronunciation contribute a lot to EFL learners in speaking,listening,reading,writing,and interest in learning.Linking,as a marker of English fluency,has been sidelined in phonetics studies,compared to suprasegmental features such as stress,intonation and rhythm,which leaves considerable space to investigate.The English linking proficiency test,covering four types of linking: consonant-toconsonant linking,consonant-to-vowel linking,vowel-to-vowel linking and R-linking,is well designed in the present study.Non-English major freshmen are selected as the study subjects with the aim of examining the linking acquisition.The following research questions are proposed:1)What is the level of non-English major freshmen’ proficiency in English linking?2)What is the relationship between non-English major freshmen’ linking proficiency and their listening comprehension?The present study investigates their linking proficiency of four types through the English linking proficiency test,with a combination of quantitative and qualitative research,under the help of two experts’ ear recognition and the phonetic software Praat.The correlation research analysis is conducted by EXCEL and SPSS 26.0.Subsequently,the unstructured interview is employed with 14 of the 40 subjects to probe into the reasons behind the quantitative findings.The results show that:1)Non-English major freshmen present unqualified proficiency in English linking.The mean percentage of linking frequency in C-C is the highest while that of V-V is the lowest.C-V and R-linking rank in between.The interview indicates that they are deficient in the input and output of English linking.2)There is a significant positive correlation between non-English major freshmen’linking proficiency and their listening comprehension.The present study enriches the empirical research on linking acquisition and is expected to provide some guiding implications for English instruction that should pay more attention to speaking and listening rather than exam-oriented education.In addition,teachers should impart the rules of linking and cultivate students’ interest in linking acquisition.Students can know what they are inferior in through speech analysis software and further conduct targeted phonetic training to strengthen spoken English.