connected speech worksheet pdf

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Connected speech 2

An advanced student of mine speaks both clearly and usually correctly, but can often sound over formal and at times stilted.

He has learnt his English "through the eye" and has trouble interpreting the utterances of native speakers who do not monitor their output. His delivery is an attempt at a precise version of every sound. With native speakers, articulatory precision is a stylistic device, a conscious choice if we want to emphasize a point, be insistent or threatening. In normal social interaction though, this is not usually the case and articulatory  imprecision is the more natural and functional option.

Aspects of connected speech

Intrusion and linking

Working on connected speech

• Integrating work on connected speech

Speech is a continuous stream of sounds, without clear-cut borderlines between them, and the different aspects of connected speech help to explain why written English is so different from spoken English.

So, what is it that native speakers do when stringing words together that causes so many problems for students?

When two vowel sounds meet, we tend to insert an extra sound which resembles either a / j /, / w / or / r / , to mark the transition sound between the two vowels, a device referred to as intrusion. For example:

• Intruding / r/ The media / r /are to blame. Law(r)and order.
• Intruding / j / I / j / agree. They / j /are here!
• Intruding / w/ I want to/ w /eat. Please do/ w /it.

Word boundaries involving a consonant and a vowel are also linked, as we tend to drag final consonants to initial vowels or vice versa. For example:

• Get on. ( geton )
• Not at all. ( notatall )
• It´s no joke. ( snow joke )

As I have mentioned, a native speaker's aim in connecting words is maximum ease and efficiency of tongue movement when getting our message across. In minimizing our efforts, we weaken our articulation. If articulation is weakened too much, the sound may disappear altogether, a process known as elision. It is the vowels from unstressed syllables which are the first to be elided in non-precise pronunciation.

• int(e)rest,
• diff(e)rent,
• chris(t)mas
• san(d)wich The same process can occur across word boundaries, for example,
• the firs(t) three
• you an(d) me
• we stopp(ed) for lunch
• you shouldn´t (h)ave
• tell (h)im.

If your learners have not worked on these forms before, you might wish to set some lesson time aside to work specifically on these features of connected speech. One way of introducing them to sound deletions could be to write a few short phrases on the board. For example:

• That´s an interesting idea.
• Are you coming out tonight?
• It´s the tallest building.
• You must tell him.

Try if possible to use language you have recently been working on in the classroom. Then ask the class to count the number of sounds in each word, and write the numbers which they give you on the board above the words, like this:

Now play a recording of the phrases, or read them yourself, and ask the learners to listen again and write down how many sounds they hear. Prompt them if necessary, asking if, for example, the "t" is really pronounced twice between "must" and "tell" , or only once.

• Drill the phrases then ask the students to practise these phrases themselves. You could also read out the phrases, once using the elided forms, then again in a more clipped, emphatic manner.
• Ask the learners which sounds more natural. Highlight that the features of connected speech not only make the phrase more natural sounding but that it is also easier to pronounce the words in this way.

Exercises like this help to show learners the differences between written and spoken English, and they highlight the importance of listening to words rather than relying on their written forms. Integrating work on connected speech

It is a good idea to try and integrate work on connected speech into everyday lessons. When studying grammar for example, don't focus solely on the form of the words, draw attention to the way they are pronounced in natural conversation.

• The Nile is the longest river in the world.
• The Vatican is the smallest country in the world.
• Ask the students to listen to the sounds while you repeat the phrases a few times and see if they can spot the disappearance of the " t " on the superlative adjective.
• Drill the phrases, chorally and individually. Students might like to write their own general knowledge quiz, using questions such as, "Which is the tallest building in the world?".
• As they read their questions, make sure they elide the final "t" (unless of course, the next word begins with a vowel). Such exercises provide practice of both grammatical form and pronunciation, and the repetition helps students to begin using these features of connected speech in a natural manner.

Anything which you have recently been working on in class can be used as a basis for pronunciation work. For example, a useful way of practising the intruding sounds / r /, / w / and / j / is when studying phrasal verbs.

Do / w / up lay / j / up Go / w / away Go / w / out

• Drill the verbs chorally and individually before providing a more personalized practice activity in which students ask each other questions using the verbs you are focusing on.

Phrasal verbs can also be used to show how we tend to link final consonants and initial vowels across word boundaries.

Get out ( getout ) Put on ( puton ) Come out ( cumout )

Students often find pronunciation work fun and stimulating, as well as valuable. However, they will need time and confidence in order to assimilate the features of connected speech and to make them their own. Research does suggest though, that by simply drawing students' attention to these forms, you are giving them considerable help towards making sense of the language they hear.  

Further reading

• Sound Foundations by Adrian Underhill
• Pronunciation by Dalton and Seidlholfer
• How to Teach Pronunciation by Gerald Kelly
• Teaching English Pronunciation by Joanne Kenworthy

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

See our publications, research and insight

Practice Sentences for Connected Speech in English - Adding a 'y' and adding a 'w' Sound

How would you add a 'y' sound into the following sentences.

The answers are at the bottom of the page

1. "I am away on holiday all the time"

2. "I accept any advice that people give me"

3. "We will agree on the date for the opening of the exhibition"

4. "We are all extremely excited about the event"

5. "The majority of people drink coffee early in the morning"

Click here to review the rules!

How would you add a 'w' sound into the following sentences?

The answers can be found at the bottom of the page

6. "You are going to get through this difficult time"

7.  "Wil will do a thorough analysis of the problem"

8.  "We hope that the prices are not going to increase.  They are already so expensive"

9. "I am going to go on to introduce the next topic"

10. "Although it is cold, we will still go outside"

All of the sentences below have at least 1 situation where it is possible to add a 'y' or 'w' sound.  How would you say these sentences?

11.  "He admires people who are hard-working"

12. "We are offering free access to all services"

13.   "The enterprise wants to expand to increase its revenue in Europe" 

14. "The open report is due at the end of the month"

15. "We offer daily access to every feature of the exclusive VIP area"

1. "I   y am away  y on holiday  y all the time"

2. "I  y accept any  y advice that people give me"

3. "We will agree  y on the date for th ee   y opening of th ee   y exhibition"

4. "We y are all extremely  y excited about th ee   y event"

5. "The majority y of people drink coffee y early y in the morning"

6. "You   w are going to get through this difficult time"

7.  "Wil will do   w a thorough  w analysis of the problem"

8.  "We hope that the prices are not going to  w increase.  They are already so  w expensive"

9. "I am going to go  w on to  w introduce the next topic"

10. "Although w it is cold, we will still go  w outside"

11.  "He y admires people who w are hard-working"

12. "We y are offering free  y access to w all services"

13.   "The  y enterprise wants to w expand to w increase its revenue w in Europe" 

14. "The  y open report is due w at th ee   y end of the month"

15. "We  y offer daily y access to w every feature of th ee   y exclusive VIP y area"

For more training take a look back at my pronunciation guide!

For more information, add me on Skype at

Live:fluencyspace, or email me at [email protected].

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Connected Speech

Purlandtraining.com – elementary english syllabus, free resources for teaching, connected speech.

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Connected Speech for Intermediate Learners

Related Papers

Ingrid Tuksam

Rajaa Aquil

Parsing connected speech has been a constant problem among learners of foreign languages. Cairene Arabic-speaking learners of English find parsing English connected speech significantly problematic. When they listen to spoken connected and running speech, they find locating and recognizing words very difficult. They cannot locate the boundaries between the words or segment the speech. This is in spite of the fact that the speech could constitute of frequent English words, which Cairene Arabic-speaking learners could know well but in citation forms. A number of phonological processes take place in connected running speech, such as contraction, consonant blending, vowel deletion, vowel epenthesis, among others. These phenomena occur based on the prosodic principles of the language, specifically syllable structure and stress. The present paper reports on a learning problem related to segmenting words from English connected speech. It reveals several pedagogical techniques that were applied to solve the problem, however, in vain. A contrastive analysis between Arabic and English is conducted and language transfer based on similarities between Arabic and English are found to be a potential force at play. The paper concludes with theoretical and applied solutions to the problem.

Sasha S Euler

Adelaide Silva

Ghinwa Alameen

G.M. A B U Taher

Phonology represents an important part of the English language; however, in the course of English language acquisition, it is rarely treated with proper attention. Connected speech is one of the aspects essential for successful communication, which comprises effective auditory perception and speech production. In this paper,I explored phonemic assimilation, which results in successive sounds at word boundaries influencing each other, as an element of connected speech, and studied how teaching it can be supported with mobile-assisted language learning. The research conducted revealed that elements of phonemic assimilation are found frequently in all styles of speech and thus, knowledge of it is necessary for developing proper listening and speaking skills. I advocate the use of the Internet as one of the best possible resources of listening and speaking materials for learning phonemic variations and show how various web tools and means of mobile can be used for preparing, presenting and storing educational materials. I believe this article makes a contribution to the corpus of research and instruction on connected speech as part of the standard British accent and will have an impact in raising general awareness of its significant role in the process of English language learning.

This paper discusses connected speech as a listening problem in foreign language pedagogy. The paper presents linguistic phonological changes that are characteristic of connected speech, which make understanding more difficult, especially for learners of foreign languages. A comparison is drawn between the phonological changes in connected speech of Colloquial Egyptian Arabic (CEA) and American English language (AE), specifically the changes that occur within words and at word boundaries. This is in order to demonstrate the similarities and differences in the phonological processes employed by each language. The paper concludes with an approach to teaching listening that capitalizes on the conducted contrastive analysis. It is an approach that dwells upon processes of listening. The proposed approach, The Listening Skill and Comprehension Approach, focuses on both comprehension and skill. It trains language learners not only to construct meaning, but also to crack the code. The approach includes pedagogical listening tasks that offer solutions to language learners' problems in listening, some of which could be related to language transfer.

Deida Perea Irigoyen

Johanna Szőke

Taking a quick look at English course books, be it general, business or academic, it can be noticed that the listening skill per se and listening strategies seem not be the real point of listening tasks because these activities just tend to support the main topic of the course book unit. One major problem learners tend to have is understanding native speakers, i.e. understanding authentic speech mostly because of its speed, the accents used, and the fact that they “often don't hear boundaries between words, they hear everything as one long word” (Wilson, 2008, p.11). Not being aware of the features of connected speech can explain this phenomenon, and the aim of my thesis is to prove that it can be remedied by helping learners gain awareness of the features of connected speech and by providing them with activities that focus on the production of these features specifically. This will be explored by looking at the methodology of teaching listening and pronunciation, and then by conducting a small-scale experiment with a group of high school students. The final outcomes suggest that direct instruction of connected speech reaches positive results: students’ listening skills with regards to understanding authentic speech improves. MA Thesis submitted to Karoli Gaspar University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, 2017

Anaphora: Journal of Language, Literary and Cultural Studies

Veronika Silalahi

This study is intended to investigate the difficulties encountered by the students of English department in transcribing words in connected speech where assimilation occurs. The assimilation investigated is limited to alveolars /t, d, n) to the neighbouring sound palatal /j, k,g/. Pronouncing words in connected speech is one of the problems that show up in learning EFL. The way words are spoken in isolation and in connected speech may differ significantly. Dealt with the difference, there are two questions to answer in this study. Question one is how students transcribe words in connected speech where assimilation occurs; question two is to describe what sound is assimilated to what sound. To answer the question of the study, descriptive qualitative design is applied. Data were collected from 50 students by giving 7 sentences to transcribe where assimilation occurs in a part of the sentences. Students were asked to transcribe the whole sentences and describe what sound has been assi...

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• A lesson on connected speech – Intermediate/B1 onwards

by Taylor Veigga | Feb 4, 2018

It’s been a long time since I last posted. I have been very busy, but I will try to post here more often. I feel happy and energised, and I’m convinced this will be a great year for us all.

When it comes to teaching English, I think features of connected speech tend to be overlooked. That is why I wanted to start this series of posts with a lesson focusing on a feature that might be hard or tricky to some learners. Elision is a natural feature that happens in many languages. For instance, according to Swan & Smith (2001), Spanish speakers tend to omit the first or the last consonants from clusters. In Brazilian Portuguese, it is common to elide the final /r/ in verbs in the infinitive, such as amar.  How do we help learners deal with elision then? Well, I think the first step is to show them it exists, and how it happens in English. As in many cases, awareness is key.

This lesson deals with elision in the context of relationships. I chose to work with the song New Rules  (by Dua Lipa, 2017) not only because it contains samples of elision, but also because this song empowers women to take control and not accept just anything when it comes to relationships with men. In that regard, the song is relevant both in terms of teaching material and practical advice.

Do let me know what you think about this post, the content and whether you decided to adapt these ideas. I find the video very interesting too, so if you have ideas about how to incorporate it, I’d love to know. Happy teaching!

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