The Difficulties and Solutions of Pronunciation among English Learners from Guangxi Province

1、the difficulties and solutions of pronunciation among english learners from guangxi provinceabstractpronunciations are fundamental for the natural language. learning it is also the first difficult step to learn a foreign language. a learner must master the pronunciations of a foreign language before

2、 exploring into it. incorrect pronunciation would severely affect their listening and oral abilities and initiative and confidence in learning english language stricken. however, there are many difficulties and problems among students from guangxi province. the habits of the students formed in their

3、 middle school are deeply rooted, some unregulated articulating habits difficult to rectify. in addition, the combined influence of mother language and dialect diverts them from correct articulation. thus, the interference of mother language or the negative transfer of phonetic system of their mothe

4、r language becomes the major hindrance for a right command in pronunciations. in english learning, we will analyze the difficulty for guangxi students to learn english pronunciations from three aspects: articulating of phonemes, liaison and intonation. we will find out the course on the negative of

5、phonetic transfer on the mother language. in the end, we will give some suggestions on the teaching methods of english pronunciation, such as how to correct the specific phonetic, the hearing trainings and the imitating trainings.keywords: english pronunciation; mother tongue transfer; english learn

6、ers from guangxi; difficulties; solutions論廣西學(xué)生英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音學(xué)習(xí)的難點(diǎn)及對(duì)策摘要語(yǔ)音是自然語(yǔ)言的基礎(chǔ)。學(xué)習(xí)外語(yǔ)必須先掌握其語(yǔ)音，英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音是英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)的必經(jīng)之路，而且不正確的發(fā)音將嚴(yán)重影響學(xué)生的聽力能力和口語(yǔ)水平的提高，挫傷學(xué)習(xí)積極性和語(yǔ)言自信心。良好的語(yǔ)音有利于英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)，提高英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者的整體水平。廣西英語(yǔ)學(xué)生在英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音學(xué)習(xí)方面面臨著比較大的困難，首先受到母語(yǔ)與方言的影響，另外，學(xué)生在中學(xué)階段形成的英語(yǔ)發(fā)音習(xí)慣根深蒂固，其中不正確的發(fā)音習(xí)慣較難改變，加上受到母語(yǔ)與方言的影響，根本區(qū)別不出什么是正確和不正確的發(fā)音。母語(yǔ)的干擾或母語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音的負(fù)遷移成為正確掌握語(yǔ)音的

7、主要障礙。本文從母語(yǔ)遷移的角度對(duì)廣西學(xué)生的語(yǔ)音特點(diǎn)和英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音發(fā)音的難點(diǎn)進(jìn)行分析，指出了廣西學(xué)生在元音、輔音、連續(xù)、音調(diào)等方面存在的具體困難，并提出通過加強(qiáng)聽和模仿對(duì)發(fā)音難點(diǎn)進(jìn)行針對(duì)性的強(qiáng)化練習(xí)。關(guān)鍵詞：英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音；母語(yǔ)遷移；廣西英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者；難點(diǎn)；對(duì)策contents1. introduction12. literature review.1 2.1 phonemic and phonological distinction between english and chinese.1 2.2 the transfer of mother tongue and its influence on fo

8、reign language learning.3 2.3 the study of transfer.3 2.3.1 concept of transfer3 2.3.2 types of transfer43. problems in learning english pronunciation4 3.1 pronunciation difficulties of students from guangxi province.5 3.2 difficulties and problems in phoneme production.5 3.2.1 vowels6 3.2.2 consona

9、nts6 3.3 difficulties and problems in liaison.6 3.4 difficulties and problems in english intonation74. the suggestions on teaching and learning of english pronunciation.8 4.1 teaching and learning through listening.8 4.2 teaching and learning through imitation95. conclusion9bibliographythe difficult

10、ies and solutions of pronunciation among english learners from guangxi province1 introductionlanguage is the basic means for the communication of thoughts, while pronunciations are fundamental for natural language. because a learner must master the pronunciations of a foreign language before explori

11、ng into it. pronunciation, which is closely related to the study of vocabulary, listening and so on, is the necessary road to english study. to correctly commanding english phonetic symbols, a learner can not only precisely grasp the articulation of a word and judge its meaning, but also memorize ne

12、w words flexibly. he shanfen(1992) argues that “correct intonations and articulation of phonetic symbols on the whole” refers to, () properly articulating all the phonemes of the language and all the combinations of the phonetic symbols in a word or sentence; () fluently reading aloud in line with t

13、he situation of communication, with correct stress, liaison, rhythm, pause and intonation. the general phonetic level of students of english major has been improved to a certain extent as compared to the past achievements, though some common problems still exist, which are mainly due to the fact tha

14、t college students do not lay much emphasis on phonetic course. many students believe that english pronunciations are merely required in middle school, while in universities, firstly should be given to further expanding vocabulary and promoting reading ability instead of repeating the study of phone

15、tics, phonetic symbols, pause and liaison and so on. nevertheless, few can intone and articulate the pronunciations in keeping with the demand of the outline. in brief, students are still newcomers to phonetics, therefore they could not be casual about it, otherwise their listening and oral abilitie

16、s would be seriously affected and their enthusiasm and confidence in learning english language would be discouraged.2 literature review2.1 phonemic and phonological distinction between english and chinesewan zhihong(2004) argues that chinese belongs to the oriental phylum, whereas english is the occ

17、idental one, and that the two languages share many similarities as well as large divergences both phonemically and phonologically; their phonetic systems are distinct from each other mainly by the following three aspects: (1) phoneme. the phonemes in the two languages do not correspond with each oth

18、er absolutely. the vowels and consonants in english differentiate from the tones (shengmu) and the finals (yunmu) in chinese to a certain extent even if they seem to be similar counterparts in pronunciation. (2)the ways of distinguishing meanings. chinese distinguish the meaning by tones, thus label

19、ed as “tonal language”; while english distinguished the meaning by the intonations of a sentence rather than by the tone of a word. so it is named “l(fā)anguage with intonation”. (3) phonemic structure. english also differs from chinese greatly in phonemic structures. the phonemes, which are restricted

20、to some degree in the latter, are able to be combined freely in the former. take spelling rules of consonants for example. in english, f and h can be spelled together with i:, which is not allowed in chinese. besides, all the consonants in english can come at the end of a syllable, while in chinese

21、only n and ng are permitted so. these differences cause the great difficulties for the chinese students acquisition of english pronunciations and intonations. another difficulty for them is that the two languages differ in rhythms as well. each possesses its own characteristics on applying tone or p

22、lace of stress to distinguish words meaning, and on the conveying a speakers tone or attitude by means of various intonations.intonation refers to the regulation and cadence of tones when speaking. intonation functions mainly in english as different intonations may communicate different attitudes or

23、 emotions of a speaker, and impacts the sentence itself semantically to various extents. for example, yes expresses certainty, doubt and so on, depending upon the intonation endorsed. native english speakers are quite sensitive to intonations, since “whats important is not what you have said, but ho

24、w you said it.” a great many chinese students, however, abuse with intonations, without knowing when to use the rising tone and when the falling. therefore, some read a whole text with a falling tone, whereas others lift their pitches on the original ones when reading with the rising tone and thus t

25、heir recitals sound rather uncomfortable to hear.there is no such idea as is stressed in sentence in chinese. in the flow of utterances, the connection between syllables and between words is different. there are obvious intervals between syllables in chinese; while in english, the syllables and word

26、s within an utterance are interlinked end to end, with no obvious boundaries. a native english speaker only stresses the relevant words when stressing, or conveying some central information. the remaining words will thus be read in passing, manifested as such phenomena of infection as the vowel weak

27、ening, phoneme losing, assimilation, liaison and rhythm etc. nonetheless, the intonation in chinese is unable to fluctuate as in english because it is restricted by the tone of a word, which would not be altered no matter how the intonation changes in a sentence. students who are accustomed to chine

28、se dialects usually have a poor master in the stresses in english, because they fail to master the rules of liaison in this language. consequently, their recitals are hard to understand, unable to control the stresses of many words. although some students can pronounce a single phoneme precisely, th

29、ey have a poor sense of rhythm, having no idea how to divide chunks (or thought groups), or having no concept of stresses in sentence, believing that it sufficient to read every word clearly. therefore, they do not know when to pause, and their recitals are bland and intermittent, lack of the origin

30、al rhythm in english. 2.2 the transfer of mother tongue and its influence on foreign language learningchen ling (2001) holds that the influence of mother tongue on foreign language learning is mainly illustrated on the course of “transfer” between external and internal languages. external language r

31、efers to the language which a person utters in his daily talks, which can be accepted by the hearing of his listener; while internal language means the language which a person utilizes when thinking with his brain instead of speaking it out. both languages serve as materials, basis, as well as tools

32、 for thinking activities. a person is used to applying his mother tongue or native dialect as his internal language at the beginning of learning a foreign language. nevertheless, he may be forced to use the external language that is understandable for both interlocutors in real communications. as a

33、result, problems arise in that external language is different from internal language, which can only be resolved by the mutual “transfer” between the two. the similarities between his mother tongue and the target language will advance his learning the latter, producing “positive transfer”; whereas t

34、he differences will block it, producing “negative transfer”. the greater the differences, the greater the difficulty is, and correspondingly the easier the producing of “negative transfer”.example 1:chinese: 我喜歡英語(yǔ)english: i like english. (positive transfer)example 2:chinese: 他很像他父親english:*he very l

35、ike his father. (negative transfer)discrepancy comparison: he is very much like his father.we see from the above two cases that the structure, word order, part of speech and morphology. the first sentence are completely identical both in english and chinese, which is beneficial for an english learne

36、r, thus producing “positive transfer”; whereas those in the second sentence diverge greatly in the two languages, which is disadvantageous for the learner, thus producing “negative transfer” (chen ling, 2001).behaviorism psychology argues that the mistakes made in foreign language learning result fr

37、om the learners negative transfer of mother tongue. in single linguistic sense, “negative transfer” is chiefly caused by the divergences in syntactic structure, the way of thinking, cultures, and customs between internal and external languages.2.3 the study of transfer2.3.1 concept of transferthe te

38、rm transfer was originally derived from the latin word transferre, and was used as a technological term which means to bear, to print, to impress, or to copy (as a drawing or engraved design) from one surface to another. (webster third new world, international dictionary, 1986:2427). while its meani

39、ng developed, transfer could also be used to mean to carry-over or generalization of learned responses from one type of situation to another, especially the application in one field of study or effort of knowledge, skill, power, or ability acquired in another (ibid). it was later on applied in lingu

40、istics, for example, language transfer, linguistic transfer. in language, transfer is defined by behaviorist psychologists to refer to the process of antithetic, uncontrolled, and subconscious use of past-learned behavior in the attempt to produce new responses. of course past-learned knowledge can

41、play two definitely different roles in the learning of new ones, and accordingly, transfer falls into two types, named positive transfer and negative transfer. as the name suggests, positive transfer occurs when the learners previous knowledge, skill or ability facilitates his learning of new ones,

42、while negative transfer refers to the impediment of the acquired knowledge, skill, or ability exerts upon the new learning. despite the fact that it is misunderstood by many that the term transfer equals negative transfer exclusively, the overall meaning of it shows that transfer is a neutral word i

43、n origin. as we have seen, the term interference and transfer are closely associated with behaviorist theories of second language learning. however, it is now widely accepted that the influence of the learners native language can not be adequately accounted for in terms of habit formation. 2.3.2 typ

44、es of transfer reports revealed that in terms of the communicative effect, transfer were of two categories, positive and negative (chen ling, 2001). those transfers agreement from the learners native language that do not lead to misunderstanding in the target language are positive. the discussion in

45、 this dissertation is based on this division. transfer can also be viewed as falling into two other types: pragmatic linguistic transfer and sociolinguistic transfer. by the former we mean the language learners habitually apply the language patterns and grammatical rules of their native tongue. for

46、instance, many japanese learners of english will use questions to show their disagreement in the target language because this is the way they use it in their native tongue, but literally it is not allowed in english. and by the latter we mean that the learners acquisition and application of the targ

47、et language repeatedly reveal the influence of their native cultures.3 problems in english pronunciation studythe problems existing in english pronunciation study are underlined by many aspects, the first of which is those of mother language and dialect. mans distinction and study of pronunciations

48、are empirical. his acquisition of mother language is principally achieved through imitating the articulations and talks of the surrounding throngs from very young, and through long-term linguistic practice. people master the whole articulating experience of their mother language and dialect and fix

49、such experience. thus, as they grow older, their ability of distinction deteriorates, and they frequently transfer such experience to their english study. moreover, the habits the college students formed in their middle school are deeply rooted, some unregulated articulating habits difficult to rect

50、ify. in addition, the combined influence of mother language and dialect misleads them from correct articulation, thus, the interference of mother language or the negative transfer of phonetic system of their mother language become the major hindrance for a right command in pronunciations. 3.1 pronun

51、ciation difficulties of students from guangxi provincelv wanying (1999) holds that, influenced by the mother tongue, students from the zhuang ethnic minority group have the universal problem of distinguishing between the retroflex sounds (juan she yin) and the blade-alveolars (ping she yin). the stu

52、dents from nanning and baise areas also easily blur such tones as q with x, b with p, k with g, and d with t, and some students from baise are even bewildered with r, y, l. therefore, they pronounce “wenrou” as “wenyou”，and substitute the phoneme r in english for l. the difficulty the students from

53、zhuang ethnic group feel is not so difficult prominently as they do for the tones, except for these few ones such as u, un, i, iu, and ui etc, which they cannot pronounce very clearly. as the survey which lv wanying proposed above shows that students level of putonghua is intimately related to that

54、of english pronouncing. that is to say, if students from dialectal areas can speak fluent putonghua, they will have a good command in english pronunciation as well. so as the mother tongues of students from zhuang ethnic group are mostly zhuang language, or guilin and liuzhou dialects which deviate

55、largely from putonghua, the majority of them speak putonghua with thick and tang dialects, thus placing these students in a disadvantageous position in their english pronunciation study (lv wanying, 1999).deng tao (1998) argues that the difficulties guangxi students have in their pronunciation study

56、 are universally centered on the vowels, consonants, infections, stress, rhythm, fluency, liaison and intonation. in the meanwhile, he points out that the indiscrimination of british english and american english in english teaching brings about many difficulties for students learning and understandi

57、ng.3.2 difficulties and problems in phoneme productionphonemes are the minimal unit and basis of pronunciations, functioning as distinguishing meanings. accurate articulation of phonemes is the primary step to understand your communicator and be understood by your communicator. many guangxi students have troubles in the articulation of pronunciations, influenced by their regional dialects.3.2.1 vowelsfundamentally, students are able to master the 20 vowels, while their common difficulty lies in long and short vowels, since there are