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.