AN ANALYSIS OF THE PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES OF SELECTED THREE-YEAR-OLD PUPILS' SPEECH

Abstract

Sound perception is pivotal to language acquisition and usage, and, it is the bedrock of the

accumulation of linguistic knowledge by every individual. However, misperception of sounds

and sound mispronunciation can be language-based, physiological or cognitive-oriented.

This study aimed to assess the renditions of selected three-year-old pupils from a clinical

phonological perspective. Twenty utterances of kindergarten pupils were recorded during

recess. These utterances were transcribed and analysed both perceptually and acoustically.

This study adapted a blend of the clinical phonological and clinical psycholinguistic

approaches for the analysis of the selected pupils' utterances. It has been found that even

though the linguistic manifestation of the pupils is characterised by phonemic/syllabic

substitution, reduction and omission, gender differences play a role in cognitive and

linguistic development of the pupils. Also, despite the differences in the cognitive abilities of

the pupils, they manifest language characteristics which is self-correcting over a given

period.