Abstract:
This paper discusses the competence of Tanzanian pre-service French teachers in connected speech. The study particularly aimed at measuring the extent to which they are capable of comprehending the message through the stream of words from French native speakers and producing a text naturally with liaison and enchaînement. The study was conducted at the University of Dar es Salaam covering 46% of 2014/2015 academic year B.A. Education finalists who were randomly selected. Data were collected through watching a video-clip, and oral discourse test (ODT). As for the analysis, interpretive content analysis was used with the aid of tables. The results show that the subjects scored excellently at 17% in both liaison and enchaînement but had more challenges in enchaînement than in liaison as the scores in the production of liaison ranged from 60% to 77% while that of enchaînement ranged from 53% to 73%. However, the comprehension of native speakers’ conversation was excellent at 33% implying that the subjects were better at understanding than producing the aspects of the French connected speech. The inability of the subjects to comprehend and produce precisely the said features was caused mainly by the influence of the learner’s Bantu L1 and L2 which are deprived of the liaison and enchaînement, lack of enough oral exercises, contact with native French users and poor learning environment. The study recommends that all the factors should be dealt with severely through communicative approach which is the best in the today’s modern teaching-learning process.
