A Case Study of Linking in English and Chinese

For second language learners, understanding native speakers can be difficult because they talk fluently and unconsciously with natural language skills. In English, native speakers link words together according to certain rules, two or more words may sound like one. This research prepares some English and Chinese sentences for students with different language backgrounds to read, the recorded pronunciations are analyzed to find out the factors that affect word linking, such as mother language, speaking situation, dialect, familiarity with the language, and the frequency of using it, etc.