Investigating the Effect of Formal Training of Phonetic Rules on Intermediate Iranian EFL Learners’ Observing Assimilation

Abstract

This study is intended to investigate the effect of formal training of assimilation rules on Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To achieve this goal, first the assimilation rules were fully described and formalized based on Mehmet Yavas (2011). The students selected as subjects in this study were forty male and female students studying at Islamic Azad University of Ilam. To fulfill the aim of this study, two testing implements were applied. The Michigan test of English language proficiency was administered to distinguish the students’ level of proficiency. Their proficiency level was at the intermediate level. Their ages ranged between 20 to 35 years. The students were assigned randomly into two groups, experimental and control ones. During the experiment, the participants in the experimental group received explicit assimilation rules instruction, while for the control, there was no instruction. This instruction includes formal training of phonetic rules such as voice assimilation, flapping of intervocalic T in American accent, dentalization, bilibialization, nasalization, palatalization, labio-dentalization, etc to the experimental subjects in very simple terms. The second test was a pronunciation test which was taken at the end of the teaching period. At the end of the study, the analysis of the obtained data was carried out using SPSS by an expert in that field. The obtained results indicated that there was a significant difference between the performance of control and experimental groups in observing the assimilation rules. The experimental group participants were found to have a better performance than the control group.