Pathological Study Of Speech Problems In Second Language Acquisition

In second language (L2) acquisition, mispronunciation, nonfluency and other productive or receptive linguistic phenomena are categorized as speech problems and to tackle these problems, scholars search every field from teaching methodology to learners'variables for possible solutions. Mutual ignorance in the fields of language pathology and linguistics makes the speech problems in second language acquisition a vacuum field in pathology. This research examines speech problems in L2 learners from the perspective of language pathology. Through observation, this research put up with the hypothesis that the mispronunciation, nonfluency and mistakes in grammar and vocabulary in second language learners'speech were in fact articulation disorder, stutter and aphasia. Through analysis of the questionnaire and the experiment of comparison between the examples collected from the experiment and symptoms of speech disorders together with the help of assessment of speech and language skills in English speaking countries, this research finds out that SLA speech problems and speech disorders are completely and partially paralled in the fields of articulation, stutter and aphasia. With the guidance of Speech Therapy, this paper draws the conclusion that the problems are in fact functional speech disorders (such as articulation disorder and stutter). However, since functional aphasia is rare, we can only regard the grammatical and lexical problems as aphasia even if they are not aphasia in themselves. Future research in the field of aphasia and collection of more examples of second language learners'deficiency will be helpful and necessary in solving the problem more efficiently. By drawing the analogy between speech problems in second language acquisition and speech disorders in native English speakers, this research makes further implications on English teaching in China which will be helpful in solving the problem of deaf-and-mute English. Keywords language pathology; second language acquisition; speech problem;...