childhood and adulthood efl learners’ fluency variations regarding stress and thought groups

Phonetics is “the scientific study of speech and the discovery of how speech sounds are produced and used in spoken language” (roach, 1992, p. 81). reflecting on the significance of stress and thought groups, gilbert (1994) argued that because english speakers store vocabulary with stress patterns, so a stress or thought group mistake can throw a conversation off track, especially if the speaker’s control of sounds is uncertain. therefore, the more stress mistakes made by speakers, the more attempts listeners need to make to understand the speakers. accordingly, this study aimed to investigate fluency variations among iranian efl children and adults in terms of uttering stress and recognizing thought groups in their speech. to this end, the stress and thought groups in spoken context uttered by children and adults learners were recorded in their classrooms. the participants of this study were sixty male and female intermediate english language learners. to ensure their homogeneity, oxford placement test was used to select a convenience sample of thirty children (aged 6-10) and thirty adults (aged 18-22) from four english language institutes in tehran, iran. eight conversations were used to measure learners’ fluency in terms of stress and thought groups. stress was assessed in individual words and compound words in conversation, whereas thought groups were evaluated in sentences and paragraphs in conversations. all the conversations were recorded, and the collected data were analyzed by means of praat software. the results showed statistically significant differences between children and adults regarding stress and thought groups. while children performed better in pronouncing correct stress, adults outperformed children in terms of thought groups. the findings also yielded exciting results as children created specific rhythms instead of thought groups. finally, the study concluded with some important pedagogical implications for incorporating phonetics instruction for both children's and adults’ fluency improvement.

Childhood and Adulthood EFL Learners’ Fluency Variations Regarding Stress and Thought Groups

Phonetics is “the scientific study of speech and the discovery of how speech sounds are produced and used in spoken language” (Roach, 1992, p. 81). Reflecting on the significance of stress and thought groups, Gilbert (1994) argued that because English speakers store vocabulary with stress patterns, so a stress or thought group mistake can throw a conversation off track, especially if the speaker’s control of sounds is uncertain. Therefore, the more stress mistakes made by speakers, the more attempts listeners need to make to understand the speakers. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate fluency variations among Iranian EFL children and adults in terms of uttering stress and recognizing thought groups in their speech. To this end, the stress and thought groups in spoken context uttered by children and adults learners were recorded in their classrooms. The participants of this study were sixty male and female intermediate English language learners. To ensure their homogeneity, Oxford Placement Test was used to select a convenience sample of thirty children (aged 6-10) and thirty adults (aged 18-22) from four English language institutes in Tehran, Iran. Eight conversations were used to measure learners’ fluency in terms of stress and thought groups. Stress was assessed in individual words and compound words in conversation, whereas thought groups were evaluated in sentences and paragraphs in conversations. All the conversations were recorded, and the collected data were analyzed by means of Praat Software. The results showed statistically significant differences between children and adults regarding stress and thought groups. While children performed better in pronouncing correct stress, adults outperformed children in terms of thought groups. The findings also yielded exciting results as children created specific rhythms instead of thought groups. Finally, the study concluded with some important pedagogical implications for incorporating phonetics instruction for both children's and adults’ fluency improvement.