论汉语语音迁移对英语语音学习的影响On the Phonetic Transfer of Chinese in English Phonetics Learning

1、内 容 摘 要随着对外交流的日益扩大和对外经济的快速发展，英语在社会经济各个领域都得到了广泛的应用。英语口语的学习和使用越来越受到重视。语音作为语言的物质外壳，是掌握语言知识和获得语言技能的基础，所以学习英语口语很有必要从语音开始。同时，正确标准的英语发音、自然得体的语音语调不仅是衡量能否进行有效口语交际的重要尺度，也是作为语言的学习者所必须具备的素质之一。但是在英语语音学习中，由于受母语的影响和英语语音知识的缺乏，中国学习者会遇到各种各样的困难。这是因为汉语和英语属于两种不同的语系，在语音系统上虽有相似之处，但仍是差异性居多。在第二语言习得中，学习者在发音上很容易受母语的影响，从而导致一些常

2、见语音错误的发生。本文根据语言迁移理论，通过对比汉英两种语音系统的异同，讨论了英语语音习得中汉语发音对英语语音学习的影响。此外，本文针对如何减小语音负迁移的影响，促进英语语音学习提出了有效建议。关 键 词语音迁移；负迁移；发音；语音系统abstractwith the increasing of foreign exchange and foreign economic development, english has been widely used in the socio-economic areas. the studying and using of oral english att

3、racts more and more attention. phonetics is the basic foundation of using language knowledge and acquiring language skills, therefore learning phonetics is a starting step to learn the oral english. meanwhile, accurate pronunciation and intonation is not only the element to evaluate the effectivenes

4、s of oral communication but also the basic quality of a language learner. however, during the process of the english phonetics learning, many pronunciation difficulties have been encountered by chinese learners. this is because chinese and english belong to two different language families, they bear

5、 lots of differences in phonetic system as well as the similarities they share. meanwhile, learners pronunciation is easily influenced by their mother tongue during the second language acquisition process so that leading to some common pronunciation errors. in the view of the language transfer, this

6、 paper discusses the effect of the mother language on chinese learners english pronunciation and compares the differences between chinese and english sound system. besides, it provides some suggestions on how to eliminate the negative transfer so as to facilitate the english phonetics learning.key w

7、ords: phonetics transfer; negative transfer; pronunciation; phonetic systemacknowledgementsthis paper is designed and carried out altogether from the end of 2009 to the middle of 2010, with the help of many people. first and foremost, i would like to show my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, mrs.

8、zhou huixia, a respectable, responsible and resourceful teacher, who has provided me with valuable guidance in every stage of the writing of this thesis. without her enlightening instruction, impressive kindness and patience, i could not have completed my thesis. her keen and vigorous academic obser

9、vation enlightens me not only in this thesis but also in my future study. i shall extend my thanks to mr. jia for all his kindness and help. i would also like to thank all my teachers in zhengzhou institute of aeronautical industry management, who have helped me to develop the fundamental and essent

10、ial academic competence. my sincere appreciation also goes to my classmates, who have provided me with selfless help whenever i ask them for a hand. last but not least, id like to thank all my friends, especially my five lovely roommates, for their encouragement and support.contentsabstract (in chin

11、ese).iabstract (in english)iiacknowledgements.ivintroduction11. the phonetic transfer in language transfer21.1 the positive transfer of chinese phonetics41.2 the negative transfer of chinese phonetics42. contrastive analysis of chinese and english phonetic system52.1 vowels52.2 consonants62.3 rhythm

12、72.4 intonation103. implication for learning english phonetics113.1 common errors caused by negative transfer123.2 suggestions for eliminating the negative transfer143.2.1 rational imitation143.2.2 training on syllables153.2.3 training on rhythm15conclusion15works cited17von the phonetic transfer of

13、 chinese in english phonetics learningintroductionenglish is the most widely used language as a communicative medium in the world, and it shows its importance in every field such as politics, economy, culture, etc. now our country is opening to the world and contacts with other countries in every fi

14、eld and it is popular to communicate with foreigners. without acknowledgement of english, we could not bring in advanced technology, equipment, and foreign capital, let along communicating and competing with other countries. there is no doubt that english is spoken by a considerably greater number o

15、f non-native speakers than native speakers. with the “opening-up policy” adopted in china, there has been an increasing need for fluency in oral english, which has led to more and more english learners who are keen to improve their oral english. most english learners in china hope that they can comm

16、unicate effectively with native speakers of english. one question thus arises from this point: what do the learners need to ensure effective and successful communication? according to nunan (1999), one needs comprehensible pronunciation, adequate vocabulary, and mastery of syntax, which together add

17、 up to linguistic competence. what is more, one needs a range of other sociolinguistic and conversational skills that enable the speaker to know how to say what, to whom, and when; in other words “the ability to function in a truly communicative setting”. of these various elements, pronunciation is

18、considered to be the fundamental skill and the basis of oral communication for learners of english at all levels, without which there would be no spoken language and no oral communication.however, english pronunciation learning is an obstacle the non-native speakers would meet. bad english pronuncia

19、tion may confuse people even if the speaker uses advanced english grammar. the speaker can use simple words and simple grammar structures that make people understand him but he cannot use “simple pronunciation”. on the other hand, good english pronunciation will make people understand the speaker ea

20、sily and be willing to listen to him.furthermore, if one does not understand rhythm, stress, and intonation, wrong meanings will be expressed, and he or she will feel embarrassed during the communication. so, in order to facilitate successful communication, chinese learners begin to pay more attenti

21、on to english pronunciation learning.however, how to learn the native pronunciation is a question. one of the most difficult tasks associated with learning a foreign language is mastering the phonetic systems of the new language. this paper discusses the effect of the mother language on chinese lear

22、ners english pronunciation on the basis of language transfer and compares the differences between chinese and english phonetic system, and then provides some suggestions on how to overcome the influence of negative transfer.1. the phonetic transfer in language transferin the field of the second lang

23、uage acquisition, language transfer has long been a very important and controversial subject. transfer is a psychological term that is used to describe a situation where one learned event influences the learning of subsequent learning event. that is, a previously learned event can either facilitate

24、or inhibit the learning of a second event.language transfer refers to a situation where the learning of a skill in one language transfers to a second language. for example, before language learners learn a foreign language, they have been using their mother language to communicate with each other fo

25、r a long time, so they have been very familiar with the rules of mother language. when they learn a new language, they will transfer those rules into the second language unconsciously.because there are similarities and differences between two languages in their usages, rules and so on, so there are

26、two kinds of transfers forms positive transfer and negative transfer. according to the definition of positive transfer, it is helpful to understand and command another kind of language study, especially when both the first language and the second language have something in common in certain aspects.

27、 for all the foreign language learners, they study the second language on the base of their mother tongue. he or she has a certain social status, so the acquired language knowledge will inevitably have a great influence on their second language learning. the native language will become a reference w

28、hen facing the second language. oppositely, negative transfer, which is the interference of the first language in the second language learning, has the negative effect to another kind of study. it usually impedes language learning and leads to some errors. the more differences there are between thes

29、e two languages, the greater influence it will have. hereby, the paper would like to discuss the language transfer between chinese and english.most of the chinese learners learn english as one of their basic courses; it is inevitable that their learning will be influenced by their mother tongue. for

30、 chinese learners, language transfer widely exists in the process of learning and causes them to project the features of their own language onto the target language. as they cannot easily get rid of the interference of their mother tongue, they learn english passively and still keep the same languag

31、e habits and the chinese way of thinking while learning, resulting in some common errors or sometimes the existence of the so-called chinglish.many chinese learners cant help relating their phonetics knowledge of the mother tongue to that in english, trying to find some similarities of them in order

32、 to learn and master english phonetics in the process of learning, as some of the pronunciations of chinese phonetic symbols are surprisingly similar to their english counterparts. however, many of the english phonetics sounds fail to find their chinese counterparts. so when those learners who are l

33、ack of strict pronunciation imitation or training usually come across some blockings in english pronunciation they are very likely to find some similar phonetic sounds in their mother tongue as substitutes, henceforth, causing the pronunciation deviation and pronunciation errors. these are because o

34、f language transfer.as there are some similarities and differences in the phonetic system of these two languages, this paper will mainly discuss the influence of the chinese phonetic system on english pronunciation on the theory of language transfer.1.1 the positive transfer of chinese phoneticsin p

35、honetics, phoneme is the smallest unit of phonetics. the sound segments are grouped into consonants and vowels.the pronunciation of chinese and english are both made up of syllables. chinese phonetic alphabet (chinese pinyin) includes twenty-four chinese vowels (also called finals) and twenty-three

36、chinese consonants (also called initials), and the latter can be divided into simple finals and compound finals. as to the phonetic symbol of english, there are forty-eight phonemes, including twenty vowels and twenty-eight consonants. as for vowels, it comprises of monophthong and diphthong.since t

37、here are many similarities between the initials of chinese and the consonants of english in the place and way of their articulation, many chinese have no difficulty in pronounce p, b, t, d, k, g and f in english if they are able to pronounce the p, b, t, d, k, g and f of chinese. similarly, i:, u:,

38、a: and i, u, a are homologous. it means that learners can master the right pronunciation of english through similarities between chinese and english. under the circumstances, chinese phonetics promotes the learning of english phonetics. this is the positive transfer of chinese phonetics. 1.2 the neg

39、ative transfer of chinese phoneticsmost of foreign language learners like to learn foreign language with the help of mother tongue. in chinese, people like to learn english pronunciation with the help of chinese “pinyin”, because there are some similarities between them. but chinese and english belo

40、ng to different phonetic systems and they have different rules of pronunciation. that results in the negative transfer. at vowel, firstly, there are no long and short syllables in chinese, so learners can not distinguish them clearly. they will pronounce them by mistake. for example, they pronounce

41、“it” it to i:t. secondly, the learners can not tell double and single vowel apart. for example, they will pronounce the double vowel ai as chinese pinyin “ai”, that double vowel is pronounced as single vowel by mistake.at consonant, to most english learners, and are considered as the most difficult

42、parts in pronunciation. maybe the reason is that there is not any sound in chinese similar to the two consonants for them to compare with. finally, chinese learners pronounce them as s and j by mistake.at rhythm, english is a stress-timed language, stress is very important in english pronunciation.

43、while chinese learners are not sensitive to it, so chinese learners will read english sentences or make conversations without a stress, as a result of that they would find it difficult to understand the sentence structure and communicate with others.so, when chinese learners learn english pronunciat

44、ion, they should pay attention to the negative transfer of chinese phonetics.2. contrastive analysis of chinese and english phonetic system english and chinese belong to two language families with significant differences. english is a germanic language of the indo-european family, while chinese belo

45、ngs to the sino-tibetan language family. as chinese and english belong to two different language families, they bear lots of differences in phonetic system as well as the similarities they share. then it is inevitable that learners pronunciation is easily influenced by their mother tongue, leading t

46、o some common pronunciation errors. so it is meaningful to compare two different phonetic systems.2.1 vowelsa vowel is a speech sound in which the breath is let out without any stop or closing of the air passage or throat that can be heard. it is produced by comparatively open configuration of the v

47、ocal tract. unlike a non-vowel (consonant), a vowel can be sounded on its own. a single vowel sound forms the basis of a syllable, although two adjacent vowel sounds can be blended together into a single syllable diphthong.english has a very large number of distinct vowel sounds compared to most oth

48、er languages. english vowels are divided into single vowel and double vowel; chinese pinyin into the single-vowel finals and finals. chinese pinyin, only six single-finals; english twelve units, and are divided into before, during and after the vowel. in english, vowels are sounds in which there is

49、no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips in the pronunciation. different from chinese, english is fairly rich in vowels, having at least seven short vowels and seven long vowels. the vowel sounds themselves are described in terms of tongue height and front-to-back i

50、n the mouth. for example, one i, u, e, , modules can not be found in the music in chinese similar to the sound. in chinese i, u can be found in the approximate sound, but the former pronunciation of tongue even higher than the english, the latter is even more back.there are twenty vowels in english,

51、 among which twelve are single vowels and eight are double vowels. the english single vowels can be classified according to the height of the raised part of the tongue, the part of the tongue raised and the position of the lips, i.e. whether they are rounded or unrounded. chinese compound finals ei,

52、 ai, ao, ou and english double vowels ei, ai, au, u are mainly the weak vowel direction of sliding. however, chinese compound finals sliding faster, but did not reach the location of the weak vowel, to read the two-seamless; english double vowels sliding significantly, the two relatively independent

53、. it is worth noting that the pronunciation of the two sites on the lip and there are differences. the compound finals ei, ai, ao, ou open lip less than the double vowels ei, ai, au, u, but slightly tongue back.2.2 consonantsthere are also similarities and differences between chinese and english con

54、sonant phoneme. in english, twenty-eight consonants are made up of voiced consonants and voiceless consonants. and they also group into the plosive, the fricative, the affricate, the nasal, the lateral and the semi-vowel according to the points of articulation, the manners of articulation and the st

55、ate of the vocal cords.aspiration means exhalation, a puff of air. in english, the difference between the sounds of p, b, t, d, and k, g is usually that the latter in each pair is voiced, i.e. you can feel your larynx “buzzing” when you pronounce the letters, and the former not voiced, i.e. there is

56、 no “buzzing”. in chinese, the difference between these consonant pairs is that the first in each pair is aspirated, i.e. you exhale very little, and the second is unaspirated, i.e. you exhale noticeably.fricative consonants are produced with articulatory restriction sufficient to produced friction.

57、 a voiced fricative should cause your larynx to “buzz”, e.g. the sounds v and z in english, and an unvoiced fricative will not affect your larynx, e.g. english f and s. in mandarin chinese, the voiced fricatives are l and r, while the unvoiced fricatives are the “blowing” sounds f, h, s, and so on.2

58、.3 rhythmpeople who learn english pronunciation also should give their attention to rhythm, because rhythm plays a very important role in communication. as walker (1989) puts it, rhythm governs the impact of all language acts, and she compares rhythm of the language to “the tide of talk, the pulse of poetry and prose, and the conduit for communication”. before discussing the english rhythm, we may have to explain what rhythm is. in dauers accurate english (1993), the unit rhythm opens “when we speak naturally, word are part of phrases and l