Introduction.docx

Introduction.docx

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Introduction

1.Introduction1.1SignificanceoftheStudy

FortheEnglishmajors’comprehensivetraining，pronunciationplaysquiteanimportantrole

duringlearningaforeignlanguage（Chen，1996）.

AsGimson（1989）pointsout，foronepersontomasteralanguage，heorshemustacquire

thephonologicalknowledgeto100%grammarto50%-90%whilevocabularyto1%isenough.

Controlthepronunciationknowledgecanhelplearnerstoeffectivelyexpresstheirideasand

understandtheinformationsmoothly.Goodpronunciationcancountasashortcutto

rememberthespellingwords，Basedonalltheimportance，pronunciationshouldbepaid

enoughattentionto.Besides，itisacommonphenomenonisthatlearnerswhohaveagood

pronunciationseemstobemoreactiveandpositiveanswerquestionsinclassandafterclass.

Therefore，goodpronunciationcanhelplearnerstobuildconfidenceandmotivationin

learningaforeignlanguage.Moreover，pronunciationhasanimportantsocialvalue（

Gelvanovsky，2002），

becauseitisassociatedwithprestige.ManyresearchershavedonethestudiesonEnglish

accentsinordertofindoutwhatvaluesarerelatedwithReceivedPronunciation.Accordingto

Hudson（1980），thosevalueswerethesameasthevaluesusuallyperceivedasindispensable

forsocio-economicSuccess:

intelligence，professionalcompetence，persuasiveness，

diligence，socialprivilege，andthelike.Therefore，poorcommunicationderivedfrompoor

pronunciationCaninfluenceaperson’semployment，socialstandingaswellaslevelof

education.1.2StructureoftheThesis

Thisthesisconsistsoffivechapters.

Thefirstchapterisintroduction，itistoprovideresearchsignificance.Thesecondchapter

includingsomebasicterms，relatedtheoryandtherecentresearchonthisquestion.Thethird

chaptergiveAllkindsofproblemsofChinesestudentsinEnglishphonetics.Thefourthpartis

aboutsolutions，andsomeofmyadvice.Thelastpartofmainissubjectconclusion.2.

LiteratureReview2.1BasicConceptsinPronunciationLearning

2.1.1SegmentalandSuprasegmentalPhonology

Phonologyhastwobranchesofstudy:

segmentalphonologyandsuprasegmentalphonology.Thesetwotermswerecoinedby

AmericanstructuralistlinguistPikein1942.Inthepresentresearchsegmentaland

suprasegmentalphonologyareofgreatimportanceandnecessity，

forthesetwotermscarlbeemployedtoexplorethefeaturesofthesubjects’pronunciation

problems.Segmentalphonologystudydividedintodiscretesegments，suchasthephonemes.

Whenasoundisobvious，itisthroughacontinuoussound.Learninginthespeech，Thecat

flowisdividedintosmallsegments.Thewordisthefirstparagraphoftheobvious/k，The

second/t//?

/latitudeandparagraphs.Whenthespeechisdividedintoseveralparts，these

partswecanfindavarietyofwaysproduction（roach，2000）.Segmenterrorreferstothe

incorrectpronunciationofphoneticunitcanbedividedintosingleextractionintheformofa

seriesoflinearsoundinthecontextofthespeech，whichmeansthattheerrorofvowelsand

consonants.Odlin（2001）establishedwiththeconsiderationofthecomplexityofthe

misclassificationfoundinpronunciationacquisitionofrangeanalysisofanimportantsegment

errors.-basedmainlyincontrastofmothertongueandtargetlanguage，Odlintaxonomywill

segmenterrorisdividedintofourtypes:

phoneme，phoneticandallophonedistribution.

Phonemeerrorhasoccurredinthetwolanguagesphonemeinventoryaredifferent，leadto

confusioninthesecondlanguagelearnerspronunciation.Phoneticerrorreferstothecross

languageequivalentphoneme，ratherthanvoicelevel.Allophoneerroroccurredinthe

intermediarylanguageundertheconditionoftheidentityofthetwolanguagesofphonemes.

Specificsounds，phonemefromyourmothertongueisnotalwaysarecognizedthe

correspondingperformanceofthetargetlanguagephonemes.Andallophoneallocationerrors

havesomesimilarities，buttheymayfocusonthecombinationofsound.Thelocationofthe

soundorsyllableinawordcanaffectwhetherthesoundisveryeasytopronounce.Whena

voiceofdistributionofthedifferencesoftwolanguages，theerrortransfermay

occur.Supersoundsectioncharacteristicsreferstothephoneticfeaturesofunitextensionto

themultiplevoicewordsrelatedtostress，tone，rhythm，pitch，contactlength，and

loudnessetc.

Pressureinthepronunciationmodel，forexample，iscrucial.Atypicalcaseistherecordof

theword，whenthestressisplacedonthefirstsyllable，itisconsideredtobeanoun，and

onthesecondsyllable，itisusedasaverb.Anotherexampleisthetoneofvoicealsoshould

bepaidattentionto:

whenwesaythatisontherise，thisisseenasaproblemortocontinue

asasymbolforothers，andpitchdownseemsreferstoconfirmoragreement.Aswas

mentionedabove，suprasegmentalfeaturesincludestressandpitch，junctureand

intonation.Itistheseelementsofthesoundsystemthatgivealanguageitscharacteristic

qualitysothatalistenerCanidentifyalanguagealthoughhecannotdistinguishindividual

words.Thesuprasegmentalfeaturesconstitutethemajordifficultyforstudentsinacquiringa

goodpronunciation（Gimson，1989）.2.1.2StandardEnglishPronunciation

Ingeneral，thestandardEnglishpronunciationisusuallyreferstothestandardpronunciation

（RP）.

AccordingtoCruttenden（2001），theRPwasoriginallybasedonthevoiceofthe

characteristicsinthesoutheasternpartoftheupperclassesinEnglishandoralEnglishatthe

universityofOxfordandCambridgeinpublicschools.Itisusuallyconsideredaprestige

varietyandusewithBBCEnglishstandardpronunciation，thisismosttheBBCnewsreader.

TheRPhasalwaysbeenthetypeofpronunciationteachingtolearnersofEnglishasL2，the

mostcommonofwhicharedescribedinthebookoftheorganicphoneticcorresponding

Americanaccent（GA）isknownastheUnitedStates，isgenerallyusedtorepresentthe

characteristicsofstandardAmericanEnglishspeaking.TwooftheRP，however，seemtobe

morewidelyaccepted.Forquitealongtime，theRPisconsideredtobethestandardEnglish

pronunciationandwellknownandacceptedbytheemergenceofradioandtelevision.

Inthepast20years，however，certaintypesofareaofpronunciationisfirmlyestablished.

EveninsomepartsoftheRPandmanyofthewords，pronunciationchoiceispossible.

ConvenienttodistinguishthreemaintypesofRP:

generalRP，refinedtheRPandRP（Wells，

1982）.Thelasttwotypesneedsomeexplanation，refiningtheRPusuallywithhighsociety，

navalofficer，forexample，insomeregiments.Clear，now，UsingrefinedRPspeakersare

declining.RegionalRPreflectregionalratherthanakindofvariationandwillbesubjectto

participateinregional（Cruttenden，2001）.InfacttherearesomeregionalRPdebate.Some

scholarsbelievethattheconceptofregionalRPisambivalent.Anotherscholarsbelievethat

regionaldialectsofRPreflectsagreattolerancevariation.Sincetheemergencypronunciation

tendtobeunstable，inChina，weusuallychoosegeneralRPastheresearchmodel.Thisisa

kindofcommondisputeswhetherthereshouldbeastandardEnglishpronunciation.

Ontheonehand，manyresearchers，suchasmorley（1991）andModiano（1999），the

purposeoflearningasecondlanguageistocommunicatewithothers，asaresult，thereis

almostnopossibilitythisisastandardformofEnglish，becausethegooduseofEnglishin

differentplacesandsituations（Yang，2003）.However，ifyoumustchooseamodelfor

foreignlanguagelearning，theRPmustbethemostsuitableone.2.2ImportantFactors

AffectingChineseStudents’EnglishPronunciation

2.2.1MotherTongueTransfer

EnglishandChinesehavevoice.

Themostdifficultiswhodonothaveequivalentinthenativelanguageanddialect，orsome

ofthosesoundssimilartothenativelanguageanddialectphonemebutisactuallyvery

different.Therearemanystudentsnativelanguagetransfererrors，inbothsegmentaland

supersoundlevels.Atthesegmentallevel，forexample，quitea10tofsubjectspronounce

thephonemes[θ]and[e]into[s]and[z].Thestudentscannotpronouncethemcorrectly

becausetheydonotexistinChinese.Similarlyseveralstudentsreplacedthephoneme[r]with

thesimilarChinesePinyin/r/asanequivalent.Besides，manystudentsmadeaconfusionof[

v]and[w]because[v]doesnotexistinChinese.Thereforesomestudentswhocannot

pronounce[v]atallwouldreplaceitwith[w]whichcanbefoundanequivalentinChinese，

whileotherswhocanpronouncethemcorrectlymaysometimesmisusedonefortheother.

What’smorethediphthongs[?

u]and[au]werepronouncedinthesamewayasChinese

Pinyin/ou/and/αu/whichindeedhavesomesimilaritieswith[?

u]and[au]butinfactthey

aredifferent.Atthesuprasegmentallevel，mothertonguetransferevenhasagreater

influenceonthestudent’pronunciation.Firstofall，itisoftenobservedinmanysubject

wordvowelunduepressureinthesamewayinChina.However，inEnglish，aword

beginningwithaconsonantsoundshouldbesignificantlymorepressurethaninChina.

Sentencestress，manystudentscleareverywordsentenceisalmostequaltothetimeand

pressure，thisisthewaybythepronunciationofChinesecharacters.Mothertonguetransfer

problemsalsoexistintone.InChina，thetoneofasentenceisdependonthetonesofeach

wordinthissentence，asaresult，thetoneoffreedomcannotbechangedtoagreatextent.

Undertheinfluenceofspeakhabitsofthemothertongue，thestudentinthecurrentstudy

generalEng