PROBLEMS IN ASSIMILATION OF ENGLISH WORDS FOR UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL STUDENTS IN HAZARA UNIVERSITY
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Abstract
This study focused on the problems in assimilation of English words for those students who were undergraduates in Hazara University. The study analyzed how the students comprehended as well as produced the assimilated phonemes in English words. Fifty undergraduate students in Hazara University were selected for this research work by applying convenient-random sampling technique. The students were asked to comprehend the assimilation process in certain words in the selected clips from English movies. To measure the problems in assimilation for the students, the same speech was given to them to reproduce. It was found in the study that the undergraduate level students did not have any major issues in the comprehension of the assimilated sounds in English words as they identified the assimilated sounds from the available lexical items and the speech context itself. On the other hand, the same students (undergraduates) were not able to reproduce the same speech with the assimilated phonemes in those words the way native speakers did. The findings and results of the study show that the undergraduate level students had fewer issues regarding the comprehension of the assimilated speech by native speakers than the issues they had while reproducing the same speech in spoken form themselves. The students reproduced their speech devoid of assimilation of English sounds in those words. It was because of the slower and more careful speech of undergraduate students (as non-native speakers). The conclusion of the study is to give more attention to speaking skills in order to eliminate issues of assimilation in connected speech.
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