The association between phonological awareness and connected speech perception: an experimental study on young Chinese EFL learners from cue processing perspective

Connected speech, characterized by phonological variations such as contractions and elisions, poses unique challenges for second language learners, yet research on its perception in young EFL populations remains limited. This study examined English connected speech perception in 72 Chinese EFL children with varying phonological awareness (PA) levels through systematic manipulation of familiarity and salience of acoustic - phonetic and semantic cues. Results demonstrated concurrent activation of both cues, challenging the abstractionist model. Additionally, high PA levels correlated with superior perceptual accuracy and greater cue-weighting flexibility, albeit no significant difference was observed between high and low PA groups under conditions of low cue familiarity and salience. These findings suggest that PA is necessary but insufficient for connected speech perception. Instead, strategic cue weighting plays a vital role, highlighting that EFL instruction should develop young learners' ability to flexibly utilize multiple cues.