Problematic English Phones For Chinese EFL Learners

With the turn of attention from written to spoken forms of English, phonetics and phonology is of great concern both in English language teaching classroom and in real communication. Chinese learners often pronounce English in terms of Chinese sound. This remains a hard nut to crack for L2 classroom teachers.This research takes CAH as the starting point, because it is commonly used in acquiring a second language sound. As to the differentiation and similarity between source language and target language, contrastive analysis proposes a formula: similarity/difference = ease/difficulty (CAH). The first effort is made to conduct a contrastive phonemic analysis between Chinese and English by using IPA notation to specify their identities, similarities and differences. The second purpose of this research is to characterize Chinese learners'acquisition of English phonemes and phones, specifically, learners'problems when acquiring a second language sounds. After such patterns presented, the third step is to attribute the problems and patterns. At last, endeavors are made to find out some implications on pronunciation teaching and learning. The research questions include: 1) What are the identities, similarities, and differences between Chinese and English phonemes? 2) What are the problems and characteristics when Chinese young learners acquire English sounds? 3) Why do Chinese learners show such characteristics and error patterns in the production of English sounds? 4) What possible solutions are there? 5) What implication do the research findings have for the EFL teaching and learning?One test in the COLSEC corpus and two interrelated experiments have been designed to answer the second and third research questions. A re-tagging and concordance of the substitution, addition, and deletion type of mispronunciation data in the COLSEC enables us to have a general picture of Chinese adult learners'mispronunciation pattern. With first consideration of substitution errors at the segmental level, the consonant phoneme of most distinct level of difficulty are /? ?/ (D > 15), while the phonemes of secondary difficulty are /v s w l/ (5 < D < 10), and then /s n r ? p ?/ (1 < D < 5). In addition type Chinese adults feel easy with /d t k d? ? f m t? z b ?/ (0 < D < 1) and /h j/ (D = 0). The addition errors all fall into the addition of -e/er/err/ei/r/ir after word-final and -medial consonants, with a few cases of addition of /n s t/ due to misuse of past-tense morphonemes and slips of tongue. The phonemes of the highest difficulty level in deletion errors are /t l n d k/(D > 10), while the phonemes of the medial difficulty are /m p ? b/ (1 < D < 10), and the phonemes with the lowest difficulty are /d? ? t? ? ?/ (0 < D < 1) and /f v s z ? ? r j w h/ (D = 0). As for substitution error for vowels, the phonemes of the highest difficult level for Chinese adult learners are /?, ?, ?, e, a?/ (D > 10), and the phonemes of modest difficult level are /e?, i?, ?/ (5 < D < 10) and /?, ?u, ??, u?, au, ??, u?, ??, ??, ?, ??/ (1 < D < 5). The phonemes that are comparatively easier for them are /??, ??, u?/ (D < 1). The retroflexion /r/ is the most prominent member in addition errors for vowel. There are no distinctive patterns for vowel deletion.In Experiment I, the subjects are asked to read word items with the target English consonants and vowels in word-initial and final positions. The accumulated patterns of teenagers'difficulties are noted. The unacceptable responses made by features and by phonemes are counted. Ten of the subjects with the most pronouncing difficulty are chosen for a second experiment. In Follow-up Experiment, more complex syllabic structures are taking into account. The ten subjects are required to read word items with 1) mere phonemes, 2) single consonant in word-initial, medial and final positions, 2) vowels in word-initial, medial and final positions, 4) consonant clusters in word-initial, medial and final positions, 5) vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables. After an undisturbed first reading, the subjects are asked to read the unclear sounds and words again, and if they failed at the second reading, the sounds and words read by the researcher and repeated by them. The recording data are transcribed by using IPA notations. By using SPSS, the frequency by each error type and by phoneme is counted. It should be noted that two native speakers help to judge whether the target sounds are native or not. The results for Experiment I and II were shown in the following formula. Chinese learners'problems with consonants: (Chinese learners tend to devoice word-final voiced consonants, by using a devoiced counterpart.)2) (Chinese learners tend to add a vowel after word-final consonants.)3) with an extra tongue retroflextion4) (Chinese learners tend to delete the word-final /f v l/.)5) Chinese learners tend to use an aspirated consonants.)6) (In an effort to pronouncing word-final 3-consonant clusters, Chinese learners tend to delete the first and/or final sounds.)7) (In an effort to pronouncing word-final 3-consonant clusters, Chinese learners tend to add a vowel between the three sounds and/or after the final sound.)8) (Chinese learners tend to pronounce final /ks?s/ as [kss].)9) (Chinese learners tend to pronounce final /ks?s/ as [ks?.], ended with a half lengthened10) (Chinese learners tend to pronounce /tw dw kw/ without protruding of lips.) 11) (Chinese learners tend to pronounce individual sounds /d/ and /j/ without a double articulation.)12) ) /D/ realized as [D^w] with unrounded lips; /(?)/ realized as [(?)^r] in unstressed syllables with an extra tongue retrofelxion13) /?/ realized as lowered ; /e/ realized as raised14) /?/ realized as fronted ]? A hypothesis imitating Chinese learners'procedure for pronouncing a difficult sound:15) Step 1:→[z^E] (if failed, then) Step 2: /(?)/→[r] (if failed to segment /Z_?/ and /i/, then Step 3; if successful, then Step 4) Step 3: /(?)/→[(?)i] Step 4: /(?)/→[(?)]The implication of this research and suggested solutions are made in the final part. It is strongly suggested that the phonetic knowledge should be taught systematically and with emphasis to learners at an early stage to avoid the formation of bad habits. The difference between Chinese and English sound system at phonemic level should be elaborated clearly and systematically to the students. At the phonological level the difference in Chinese and English phonological rules should be introduced, which will be helpful to reduce the errors such as the devoicing of final consonants.