The association between phonological awareness and connected speech perception: an experimental study on young Chinese EFL learners from cue processing perspective
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Huichao Bi
Huichao Bi is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Institute of Education, Tsinghua University. She holds a PhD in education from the University of Liverpool and a master’s degree in child and adolescent psychology from the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her research interests encompass connected speech processing, developmental psychology, K-12 education and second language acquisition in early childhood.
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Rong Yan
Rong Yan is the Director of the M.A. Programme in Child Development & Family Education and a Senior Associate Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Department of Educational Studies, Academy of Future Education, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. His primary research areas are developmental and educational psychology, language acquisition, and bilingual education.
and
Samad Zare
Samad Zare is the Director of the Global Digital Citizenship Center and an assistant professor at the Academy of Future Education, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. His research interest covers second language teaching, socio-cultural studies, language and identity, cultural identities, and new media discourse.
Abstract
Connected speech, characterized by phonological variations such as contractions and elisions, poses unique challenges for second language learners, yet research on its perception in young EFL populations remains limited. This study examined English connected speech perception in 72 Chinese EFL children with varying phonological awareness (PA) levels through systematic manipulation of familiarity and salience of acoustic - phonetic and semantic cues. Results demonstrated concurrent activation of both cues, challenging the abstractionist model. Additionally, high PA levels correlated with superior perceptual accuracy and greater cue-weighting flexibility, albeit no significant difference was observed between high and low PA groups under conditions of low cue familiarity and salience. These findings suggest that PA is necessary but insufficient for connected speech perception. Instead, strategic cue weighting plays a vital role, highlighting that EFL instruction should develop young learners’ ability to flexibly utilize multiple cues.
Funding source: Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Award Identifier / Grant number: RDF-22-01-010
About the authors
Huichao Bi is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Institute of Education, Tsinghua University. She holds a PhD in education from the University of Liverpool and a master’s degree in child and adolescent psychology from the University of Edinburgh, UK. Her research interests encompass connected speech processing, developmental psychology, K-12 education and second language acquisition in early childhood.
Rong Yan is the Director of the M.A. Programme in Child Development & Family Education and a Senior Associate Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Department of Educational Studies, Academy of Future Education, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. His primary research areas are developmental and educational psychology, language acquisition, and bilingual education.
Samad Zare is the Director of the Global Digital Citizenship Center and an assistant professor at the Academy of Future Education, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. His research interest covers second language teaching, socio-cultural studies, language and identity, cultural identities, and new media discourse.
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Ethics approval: This study received ethical approval from the University Ethics Committee of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University [No. RE-UEC-0010000088620220412113606].
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Conflict of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: This work was supported by the Research Development Fund [RDF-22-01-010] of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
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Data availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.
Appendix I: Testing sentences
She’s going to buy some milk.
She has it out with Bob.
Let’s go to the zoo.
It’s no great shakes.
You can get what you want.
Let’s play it by ear.
He’s my flesh and blood.
I’m excited to see the new movie.
Please come here.
He’s a great artist.
She wants to eat some vegetables.
I’d like a cup of tea.
I’d like to have a go at this work.
I get wind of it from a friend.
It’s useless to cry over spilled milk.
Appendix II: List of cues
| Most salient semantic cues | Least salient semantic cues | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Least familiar acoustic-phonetic cues | Most familiar acoustic-phonetic cues | Least familiar acoustic-phonetic cues | Most familiar acoustic-phonetic cues |
| She’s | |||
| It out | |||
| Go to | Let’s | ||
| Great shakes | It’s | ||
| Get what | |||
| Play it | Let’s | ||
| And blood | He’s | ||
| I’m | |||
| Come here | |||
| Great artist | He’s | ||
| Eat some | |||
| I’d | |||
| I’d | |||
| Get wind | |||
| It’s | |||
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