Negative Pronunciation Transfer From Jiujiang Dialect To English Language Learning And Pronunciation Teaching

In China, English learning begins with the study of elementary school. In Jiujiang region, this kind of learning always concentrates on the aspects of English vocabulary and grammar learning. Pronunciation learning did not get the extensive attention in both teaching and learning process. So after the students enter into university. Their oral English is not as good as their written English. Their pronunciation in English often affected by their local accent. And this kind of influence is mostly appeared in negative form. Because of this, their pronunciation level is hard to improve. This thesis aims at discussing the negative pronunciation transfer from Jiujiang dialect to English. Through the findings of the problem, in order that we can give some beneficial suggestions to Jiujiang English pronunciation teaching and students’pronunciation learning.Language transfer can be divided into two types:positive transfer and negative transfer. In this paper, negative transfer will be the main research aspect of language transfer. The author attempts to survey the pronunciation learning situation in Jiujiang region and find the problems that the students made in their learning process, then put forward some effective ways to solve the problems. It is hoped that we can reach the following three goals:1. Trying to find in which aspects that pronunciation negative transfer occurs from Jiujiang dialect to English.2. Proposing the strategies to solve the problems which are caused by the negative transfer.3. Through the language test, the effectivity of the strategies will be proved and will offer some beneficial help to English teaching and learning.At the very beginning of this thesis, the related theories about second language acquisition and negative language transfer are summed up. Then the author gives phonetic knowledge test and sample reading test to the subjects of this research. Afterwards, the result of the test will be analyzed, and according to the result, some suggestions can be proposed.All the40subjects of this research selected are from first-year students of Jiujiang University, all of them are Jiujiang native residents. The subjects are to be tested from the pronunciation knowledge test and sample test reading in order that we can know the mastery of English Phonetic knowledge and the pronunciation level of the Jiujiang students. Their scores and voice will be recorded and analyzed after the test.To achieve the goal of the test, the following questions are going to put forward firstly: 1. How’s the mastery of phonetic knowledge going about Jiujiang students?2. Which aspects does the negative pronunciation transfer happen in?3. What kind of strategies should be proposed in order to avoid even eliminate the negative transfer?4. How to use the strategies that put forward in the thesis correctly and efficiently in the teaching process of the pronunciation class.By means of the test, the answers of the above research questions will be concluded by the thesis in the following:1. Jiujiang students do not master English phonetic knowledge well. They always get puzzled in the related concepts of phonetic.2. The negative pronunciation transfer often occurs in the aspects of phonemes, liaison, stress, syllable and intonation etc.3. The reason for the negative pronunciation transfer is that the students are growing up in Jiujiang dialect accent surroundings, and use this dialect constantly. So no matter in teachers’English teaching process, or the students’learning process, the creation of English native pronunciation surroundings seems to be much important. In that case, students can improve their pronunciation level from the aspects as listening, reading, imitating and so on. Then use the way of comparing and contrasting to find the differences between their own pronunciation and Received Pronunciation.Some strategies are put forward in this thesis which have been proved correctly and effectively. Then we believe that the whole level of English teaching and learning in Jiujiang will be promoted and improved efficiently.