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

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 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 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 mother 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 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 learners from guangxi; difficulties; solutions论广西学生英语语音学习的难点及对策摘要语音是自然语言的基础。学习外语必须先掌握其语音，英语语音是英语学习的必经之路，而且不正确的发音将严重影响学生的听力能力和口语水平的提高，挫伤学习积极性和语言自信心。良好的语音有利于英语学习，提高英语学习者的整体水平。广西英语学生在英语语音学习方面面临着比较大的困难，首先受到母语与方言的影响，另外，学生在中学阶段形成的英语发音习惯根深蒂固，其中不正确的发音习惯较难改变，加上受到母语与方言的影响，根本区别不出什么是正确和不正确的发音。母语的干扰或母语语音的负迁移成为正确掌握语音的主要障碍。本文从母语迁移的角度对广西学生的语音特点和英语语音发音的难点进行分析，指出了广西学生在元音、辅音、连续、音调等方面存在的具体困难，并提出通过加强听和模仿对发音难点进行针对性的强化练习。关键词：英语语音；母语迁移；广西英语学习者；难点；对策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 foreign 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 consonants6 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 difficulties 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 exploring 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 new 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 the 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 that 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 phonetics, 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 abilities 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 occidental 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 other 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 labeled 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 “language with intonation”. (3) phonemic structure. english also differs from chinese greatly in phonemic structures. the phonemes, which are restricted 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 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 place 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 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 how 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 their 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 words 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 weakening, 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 chinese 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, they 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 original 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 refers 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 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 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 the 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: 我喜欢英语english: i like english. (positive transfer)example 2:chinese: 他很像他父亲english:*he very like 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 learner, 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 from 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 term 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 meaning 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 linguistics, 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 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, 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 in 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 types 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 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 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 target 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 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 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 rectify. 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 pronunciation 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 students 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 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 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 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 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 understanding.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 a