Term

2009

Capstone

Restricted Access Thesis

Degree Name

MAESL

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not pronunciation training results in a decreased use of the following consonant cluster simplification strategies--articulatory feature change, consonant cluster reduction and substitution--when pronouncing words containing final three-segment consonant clusters. This case study involves three Arabic speaking siblings living in Kuwait who received six weeks of pronunciation training. The instructional method incorporated native English speaker modeling, choral repetition, and self-correction using the subjects' audio taped recordings of them reading the target words in word lists, sentences, and passages. The subjects' pre- and post-assessments, as well as their weekly pre- and post-training audio recordings, were analyzed. The results from this study show that pronunciation training yields more target-like pronunciation of final three-segment consonant clusters.

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