The Teaching of Pronunciation to Chinese Learners of English1.doc

the teaching of pronunciation to chinese learners of englishthe teaching of pronunciation to chinese learners of english摘要： 英语语音是学习英语的第一步，也是整个英语学习的基础，语音学好了，对于以后学习语法，记忆单词，发展口语，提高听力，都有极大帮助。总之，学好英语语音对学好英语起着非常重要的作用。关键词：发音；教学策略；语音体系。abstract: english language pronunciation is the first step in learning english languages, and also the entire english language learning based on pronunciation, good pronunciation can learn the grammar, memory words, develop the oral english and improve listening. in short, english language pronunciation is very important for learning english.key words: pronunciation； teaching strategies ；phonology.contentsabstract.1key words.1 i.introduction.1 ii.literature review .2 2.1 the importance of pronunciation.22.2 the importance of phonetic study.3iii.the different pronunciation between english and chinese.3iv.aspects of pronunciation.5v.pronunciation strategies.55.1 focusing on a sound.6 5.2 perception practice.75.3 production practice.75.4 practising stress.75.5 practising intonation.8vi. conclusion.9references.10i. introduction pronunciation, quite possible, is the most important of the language skills; pronunciation is the basis of language teaching. at universities in china, especially in those backward and remote provinces, quite a few students are poor in english due to some restricting factors such as poverty, poor teaching and learning environment. as a result, they cant actually speak english; they do not know how to speak an english sentence, even how to pronounce an english sound or word. when they are doing listening practice, they make mistakes simply because their pronunciation is wrong. although they learned the pronunciation of the english sounds in middle school, they forget them soon because of the lack of persistent practice to turn explicit phonetic knowledge into implicit knowledge. (rod eillis1985, 1994; bialystok. e.). poor pronunciation usually leads to difference and ill performance in learning english. the habit of the native language is difficult to break, and no wonder many chinese students find learning english pronunciation a tough job. but does that mean that there is no way for chinese students to acquire better english pronunciation and the teacher can do nothing? of course the answer is no. so what can be done? according to kenworthy(1992), the first sensible step would be to make the learners aware of the role of english pronunciation.ii. literature reviewin the teaching of english as a foreign language, discussion on pronunciation are not so much around how to teach pronunciation as around the value of teaching pronunciation. there are many people who claim that students don t need to learn pronunciation because pronunciation will take care of itself as the students develop overall language ability.2.1 the importance of pronunciationcorrect pronunciation of the individual english sounds is important in communication. if one of our chinese english students makes a classroom presentation using standard english, including correct word choice, sentence structure and syntax, but we are unable to understand his or her pronunciation, then his or her english can only be described as “perfectly incomprehensible” no matter how pedagogically correct. if a cow makes a clucking sound, would it be safe to conclude that it is a chicken, none-the-less? if a word is not pronounced correctly, is it the same word conveying the correct meaning? probably not, as is evidenced by the various tones in mandarin. much research has been done to test a hypothesis proposed by linguists called the critical period hypothesis. this hypothesis states that if human does not learn a foreign language before a certain age (perhaps around puberty), then due to changes such as maturation of the brain, it becomes impossible to learn the foreign language like a native speaker. no definite answer to this hypothesis has been found and it is still debated by researchers, but there is some evidence that this hypothesis is true for acquiring the grammar or the vocabulary of a foreign language. even though nobody knows for certain what exactly happens to our brains as we mature, almost everyone agrees that almost all people who learn a foreign language after puberty will always have an accent. that is, native speakers will be able to identify that the person is not a native speaker of that language. due to biological and physiological differences, individual students have different phonetic ability. some students are more sensitive to and better at imitating sounds than other students. although a few students can acquire native-like pronunciation, it is unrealistic for the majority of students to do so.2.2 the importance of phonetic studyfirst, phonetics is the sentence of speech sounds. it deals with the sound system of a language. a language consists of three important elements, namely, speech sounds, vocabulary and grammar. speech sound is the material form on which word and grammar real for existence. divorced from speech sound, word and grammar are nonexistent. so the first step in studying any spoken language is to determine the phonemes (the basic sounds).english phonetics covers the articulation classification and combination of the english speech sounds. it also deals with the laws of their changes, the rules of stresses and the intonation in english speech. therefore, to study english phonetics is also the first step in mastering the theoretical knowledge of the english language.second, as a means of communication by word of mouth, language is used in oral speech and in reading aloud. therefore, in order to make oneself easily understood while expressing ones own or other peoples thoughts in any language, one must be able to pronounce in that language quite correctly.one must have a good pronunciation in order to be able to understand other people easily when they speak or read aloud. this is proved by the well-known fact that the better we pronounce a foreign language, the easier we understand it when we hear it. third, a teacher of a foreign language, a teacher of speech in particular, must also be able to teach the correct pronunciation of that language. a teacher of speech untrained in phonetics is as useless as a doctor untrained in anatomy. facts show that teachers must repeat the sounds many times. without any knowledge of pronunciation and intonation, the teaching result will not always be satisfactory. therefore, one of the principal aims of the students who will be teachers of a foreign language is to master both the pronunciation of the language they are going to teach and the method of teaching this pronunciation. to achieve the aim, they must have a clear idea of what a good pronunciation is, what are the difficulties in acquiring it, and how these difficulties can be overcome.to have a good pronunciation means (1) to pronounce correctly all the speech sounds of the language and all the combinations in their proper order not only in isolated words, but also in sentences; (2) to pronounce sentences fluently at the speed required by the situation, with correct stresses, linking of sounds, rhythm, pauses and intonation. iii. the different pronunciation between english and chinese the voice model presented by the teacher and other students, which provides the basis for decoding sound in a listening text, is often affected by l1 phonological interference in vowels, consonants, consonant clusters, rhythm and stress. chang (2001) outlines the extent of the phonological challenges chinese learners of english face. there are fewer vowels and vowel contrasts in chinese than in english and it is therefore harder for chinese speakers to distinguish among english vowels. chinese articulation of english diphthongs is often too short with not enough distinction between the component vowels. the consonants /b/,/d/ and /g/ are voiced in english but largely unvoiced in chinese- a feature which tends to be carried over to these sounds in chinese use of english. the sounds /n/, /v/, are absent from most chinese dialects and /h/, /z/, /dz/, /ts/, /s/ are often regarded as approximates of similar chinese consonants. /l/ and /r/ may be difficult to distinguish and end consonants in general cause a significant problem (ibid.). chinese, having few reduced syllables, disposes chinese users of english to lose the word stress features of spoken language- a feature of english which is key to recognizing word boundaries in extended listening text (field,2003). pitch change in chinese tends to be segmental and affect the meaning of a given word in contrast to english where it may convey meaning over the extent of an utterance. thus, learners exposed to changes in tone will not be aware of the significance of what they hear.the way in which an adult person can master the pronunciation of a foreign language is quite different from that in which he has acquired the pronunciation of his mother tongue. correct pronunciation habits in ones native language are acquired unconsciously, in ones early childhood. when a baby starts to talk, he does it by hearing the sounds his mother makes and imitating them. normal babies are wonderful imitators. they can learn any language perfectly. but an adult has great difficulty in mastering the pronunciation of a foreign language, because as he grows older, the habits in his native language get more and more fixed as a result of the constant practice in everyday life. these habits are so strong that they are very difficult to give up. therefore, when adult people learn a foreign language, they are quite unable to give a correct imitation of the foreign speech sounds and intonations that differ from their own. they tend to use the closest speech sounds and intonations of their mother tongue instead of the foreign ones. for example, there are no such sounds as in chinese. many chinese learners use the chinese (s) instead of and use the chinese (z) or (d) instead of . chinese students are used to the consonant sounds in “基,欺,希” and those in “知,痴,诗”, and its very difficult for them to pronounce the english consonants ，t . the english consonant h is a glottal fricative. it is produced with a strong air stream passing through the open glottis. but most of the chinese learners substitute the chinese (h), a velar fricative, for the english sound h. from this we can see that it is quite impossible for an adult to master the correct pronunciation of a foreign language by mere imitation. a correct pronunciation can only be obtained by studying the phonetic system of a language and doing constant and special exercises in order to acquire the necessary pronunciation habits.iv. aspects of english pronunciationafter we have compared chinese pronunciation with english pronunciation, we can discern that chinese learners have many problems in studying english pronunciation, in order to help chinese students get a dear idea of english pronunciation we will give some aspects of pronunciation: when talking about pronunciation, many people automatically think of sounds and phonetic symbols and rules. actually pronunciation is an umbrella term covering many aspects besides sounds and phonetic symbols, such as stress, intonation, and rhythm. of course, these aspects are not isolated from each other. rather, they are interrelated. for example, the word stress influences how the letters are pronounced. and the sentence stress again will make it necessary to pronounce words differently from when they are read individually. similarly, intonation and rhythm also cause variation in the sounds of words.one common problem in english learning is that many students take great pains to improve the english sounds they produce while neglecting stress and intonation. this type of learning is not effective because sometimes stress and intonation matter more than the individual sounds do. experiments have demonstrated that often when a native speaker mishears something, it is because the foreigner has put the stress on the wrong place, not because he or she has mispronounced the sounds of the word, for example “written” is pronounced as ritein .language learning needs a lot of practice and this is especially true with pronunciation. as far as pronunciation is concerned, students benefit from both mechanical practice and meaningful practice. mechanical practice is necessary for the development of many skills. for example, we learn typing not from knowing the keyboard, but by mechanically hitting the individual keys until it becomes automatic without thinking. in sports, movements that you have done often are relatively simple to repeat, while using muscles that you have never used can be difficult. meaningful practice is more desirable. everything can be learned more effectively if it is meaningful.v. pronunciation strategiespronunciation is difficult to teach without some drills on sounds. the trick to working with drills is not to work on individual sounds for more than a few minute a time because they become boring and demotivating. it is important to combine drilling pronunciation exercises with more meaningful exercises whatever aspect of pronunciation is the focus for the lesson. 5.1 focusing on a sound when teaching pronunciation, very often we need to focus on individual sounds, especially those sounds that are difficult to learn. for example, most chinese students find it difficult to learn the english sounds and . imagine that you want to focus on a sound which your students are having difficulty with. which of the following steps are necessary? in what order would you teach and practise the sound?( ) get the students to repeat the sound in chorus.( ) explain how to make the sound.( ) contrast it with other sound.( ) write words on the blackboard.( ) get individual students to repeat the sound.( ) say the sound in a word.( ) say the sound alone.( ) say the sound in meaningful contexts.obviously there is no fixed answer to the questions above. many people would put “explain how to make the sound” as the first step, but we suggest it be done at a later stage because if the students can produce the sound correctly after the teachers modelling, it is not necessary to explain “how”. when students have difficult producing the sound, explanation will do. some people might put “contrast it with other sounds” as an early step, but this may cause unnecessary confusion. we suggest the step be done at a later stage when the students have obtained a certain degree of mastery of the sound. we consider “write words on the board” unnecessary because words written on the board will distract students attention from the teachers modelling. in addition, some students automatically try to produce sounds from the words they see and neglect whatever the teacher says. 5.2 perception practiceperception practice is aimed at developing the students ability to identify and distinguish between different sounds. correct perception of sounds is vital for listening comprehension. 5.3 production practiceproduction practice is aimed at developing students ability to produce sounds. producing distinct and understandable sounds is very important for effective communication. production practice of pronunciation varies from mechanical imitation to production in meaning context. there are types of production practice activities. first,listen and repeat. the students repeat what the teacher says. this activity can practise individual sounds, individual words, groups of words, and sentence. second,fill in the blanks. the students fill in blanks in sentence with words, which contain certain sounds. third, make up sentences. the students are given a group of words containing the same sound or similar sounds. they should make up sentences using as many of the given words as possible. the sentences do not have to be realistically meaningful and logical. fourth,use tongue twisters. tongue twisters are often used in pronunciation practice because they are fun and motivating. also the relaxing atmosphere helps students to overcome inhibition. students should be given time to practise on their own for a few minutes before they are asked to perform in the front of the whole class.5.4 practising stressthere are two kinds of stress that are important in achieving good pronunciation. the first is word-level stress. it is very important to stress the proper syllable in multi-syllabic words. if the wrong syllable is stressed, listeners often will not understand what word is being pronounced. unfortunately, the rules for predicting which syllable in a word should be stressed are extremely complicated in english, so the best strategy is to emphasize the importance of learning the stress as part of learning a word. the second kind of stress is phrase-level stress. each phrase has one syllable, which receives greater or more prominent stress than the others. some phrases may have only one stressed syllable, while other phrases may have 5-6 (or possibly more) stressed syllables. the rules for predicting the stress of a phrase are less complex than predicting word-level stress. the most important thing in practising stress is making the students be aware of where to stress the word or phrase. first,use gestures. the teacher can indicate the stress by