An Analysis Of English Vowels Acquired By Shanghai Dialect Speakers

Speech is one of the most direct forms of language and pronunciation acquisition is also a crucial part of the second language acquisition.During the second language acquisition process,learners will more or less be affected by their mother tongue,and there is no exception in pronunciation.The mother tongue of most Chinese EFL learners is not standard Mandarin but local dialects commonly used in their daily life.Therefore,it is of great significance to study the influence of Chinese EFL learners' dialects on their English phonetic acquisition.This study focuses on the acquisition of the Standard English vowel pronunciation of Shanghai dialect speakers.With the help of the theoretical basis of the transfer theory in L2 acquisition and phonetic acquisition theory,this study makes use of the comparative analysis,error analysis,the audio editing software Adobe Audition and voice analysis software Praat as well as other research methods to analyze the problems of English vowels made by Shanghai dialect speakers,and summarize the types and causes of negative transfer caused by Shanghai dialect.By comparing and analyzing 15 phonetic materials of Shanghai dialect speakers with the Revieved Pronunciation(RP)of English,we found that there is a negative transfer of English vowels pronounced by Shanghai dialect speakers with respect to tongue position,vowel duration,the degree of lip posture,and production between monophthongs and diphthongs.The main reasons for the negative transfer are the lack of identical vowel phonemes in Shanghai dialect.In the meantime,there are many vowel phonemes similar to but not identical to the English vowel phonemes,causing errors and confusions.In response to these phenomena and reasons,this article puts forward some effective suggestions for English teachers and learners in Shanghai.Learners need to have correct understanding of the English vowel system and establish a sense of phonetic learning,while improving their listening ability,doing imitation exercises and teamwork to make common progress.Teachers need to constantly improve their phonetic ability,using graphical representations to teach and conducting visual teaching.In addition,teachers should also pay particular attention to language differences,do comparative teaching,and use a variety of teaching and effective evaluation methods to create a relaxing and active learning atmosphere.