An Empirical Study On The Importance Of English Phonological Competence Of College Students

Language is the tool for human communication,in particular,vocal language expresses information through sounds.So the accuracy of the sounds plays an important role.To this day,the interest in the research on phonological teaching and learning has gradually drawn people's attention.However,phonological competence often seems to be deemed as something that little attention is given to in English teaching.And on the students' side,they encounter more difficulties and generate more errors in English learning,particularly on the phonological aspect.Poor phonological competence hindered the development of students' other language skills,such as vocabulary,grammar and reading skills.The thesis intends to explore the problems from three aspects:1) the effect of the phnological competence on the corresponding language competence,vocabulary, grammar and reading;2) the existing problems on the current phonological teaching and learning;3) causes analyses and suggested countermeasures.To be a proof,two instruments were employed to explore the problems:1) tests for phonological competence(see Appendixâ… &â…¡),grammar competence(see Appendixâ…¢),vocabulary competence and reading competence(see Appendixâ…£), were performed in January 2008 to prove that phonological competence is an indispensable part to English language competence;2) a questionnaire(see Appendixâ…©&â…ª) was administered in January 2008 to the 129 freshmen of Xiamen Ocean Vocational & Technical College to study the students' English phonological learning experiences before college.With more and more researchers and teachers realizing the important role of English phonological competence,the situation has been changing for the better.