An Experimental Study Of Chinese College Students, Acquisition Of Word Stress In English Derived Words

Word stress is an obvious feature in English, referring to a stronger airflow and more strength when articulating. It is important in that it may lead to the difference in word class. It may tell how a word is formed, distinguishing whether it is a compound or a phrase. Moreover, stress shifting usually causes a vowel change. Derived words in English usually have several syllables; thus they are helpful for analysis on stress shifting. Specifically, different derivational suffixes may not only bring change of stress but also change of vowel, thereby causing a problem for English learners in China. Therefore, this paper explores Chinese students’acquisition of word stress and vowel change through an experiment with 25 groups of words and their derived forms among students of different grades from English Department of YBU.The results of the experiment suggest that students know little about rules between suffixes and stress shifting. Specifically, students used adjectival suffixes such as ’ible’ and ’-al’ with higher accuracy than suffixes such as ’-ic’ and ’-ity’ which mean abstract actions. In terms of vowel change, there are mainly two types, i.e. qualitative change and quantitative change. Qualitative change mainly refers to the phenomenon in which a vowel originally in a stressed syllable becomes the schwa or even another one when it is in an unstressed syllable. Quantitative change refers to the phenomenon in which the vowel keeps the same but it has a higher intensity and a longer duration in a stressed syllable. Moreover, a vowel in a stressed syllable is of a lower tongue position because the tongue gives more strength. The data also suggest that the accuracy of stress usually corresponds with that of the vowel, students from higher grades usually have a higher accuracy, and words learned earlier are spoken with higher accuracy.Through analysis, the reasons for students’ errors can be concluded as an unqualified acquisition, negative influence from words learned earlier and the word stress is a marked feature in Chinese. Thus solutions should be made considering the above reasons.