O papel da fonologia frasal na compreensão oral no ensino da língua inglesa em abordagem lexical.

Abstract

Assuming that post-lexical processes significantly affect the English spoken language when in connected speech, and that this is one of the main reasons why students of English as a foreign language find listening comprehension so difficult to cope with, this study aims to find out the main processes concerning phrasal phonology that render spoken language so different from the written one. Drawing on these findings, it investigates the connection between listening comprehension and the teaching of pronunciation using a top-down approach, that is to say, starting from the whole picture, and based on the organization of the language in chunks in the fluidity of speech. This is an action-research, conducted with two groups of upper-intermediate students during one semester. It is based on the assumption that by raising students‟ awareness of post-lexical processes, with the support of the Lexical Approach which encourages teaching language in chunks, teachers can enable students to be better listeners. One of the groups did pronunciation awareness raising exercises whereas the other one only followed the coursebook. Students‟ listening abilities were tested using the Cambridge FCE Listening test, at the beginning and at the end of the experiment. At the end of the semester, the comparison of both groups‟ performance in the FCE listening test showed that the group who had been explicitly taught phrasal phonology developed their listening comprehension skills considerably, outperforming the other group. The results point to the importance of teaching pronunciation to develop listening comprehension.