A Case Study Of EFL Majors' English Pronunciation Learning: Problems And Analysis

With the increasing significance of English learning and teaching as a foreign language (EFL) in China nowadays, higher standards of pronunciation learning have been raised for English majors. However, compared with other subjects in English learning and teaching, pronunciation has not received its due emphasis and a deficiency in pronunciation learning for many Chinese students calls for careful evaluation and solutions.The present research study investigates English majors'English pronunciation learning through a specific case study in a Chinese University with the aim of finding out some typical problems in English pronunciation as well as possible factors that have influenced the learning of English pronunciation among the research subjects. Such a descriptive and analytical study is intended to present constructive suggestions for English pronunciation learning and teaching.Some typical pronunciation problems both at segmental and suprasegmental levels are found and classified into certain types through listening class observation and tape-recording of the speech activities of 30 sophomore students in the English Department, with the result of a variety of segmental problems and a comparatively higher frequency of suprasegmental problems. With reference to theories in Second Language Acquisition of Contrastive Analysis, Error Analysis, Interlanguage and mother tongue transfer, the features of the problems are analyzed and explained.Several important factors that have influenced the learning of English pronunciation among the research subjects based on individual interviews of 6 students include the students'motivation and attitude toward English pronunciation, mother tongue transfer and the strategies adopted in the process of pronunciation learning and correction of problems. With a careful consideration for the influence of such factors in English pronunciation learning among EFL majors, implications from theoretical, practical and pedagogical perspectives are presented.