An Experimentalstudy Of English Vowels Teaching Based On Positive Transfer In Junior High School

English education in primary schools has increasingly been popularized in China since2000s, but Englishteaching in junior high schools still focus on the phonetics which plays an important role throughout theprocess of English learning. As the basis of four skills on listening, speaking, reading and writing, the standardpronunciation can help students improve their oral communication effectively. However, to master thepronunciation of English vowels is not simple for Chinese students because of the position of the tongue andthe relative opening of the lips. In terms of teaching English pronunciation, the traditional method based ondescribing height and part of the tongue and lip-rounding to students can not work as expected.The impact on foreign language learning from mother tongue has always been essential issues in thesecond language acquisition. As for the English language learning, students are more or less influenced byChinese-style thought. So the effects of language transfer, which generated from second language acquisition,should be attached great importance to. When talk about the language transfer, most people will naturally thinkof the negative transfer for the reason of the knowledge structure of mother tongue, ignoring the positivetransfer in the process of language learning. In the light of the Language Transfer Theory and the InterlanguageTheory, the author hopes that the following problems can be answered through the experiment:1. What are the problems of English vowels’pronunciation from junior high students?2. With the application of transfer theory, will the acquisition of some English vowels’ pronunciation befacilitated through the use of Chinese vowel allophones?The experiment lasted for about4months, from September to December in2012. Two intact classes werechosen as participants from No.18Junior High School of Jiaozuo. In experimental class (class A), a newmethod of phonetic teaching (only for English vowels’pronunciation) was supplied by using the Chinese vowelallophones. Traditional phonetic teaching was applied to control class (class B). With the aid of recordingsoftware Cool Edit and speech analyzing software Praat, the data was well gathered and analyzed, and theresult of the experiment obviously show that the experimental class is superior to the control class in terms of the accuracy of English vowels’ pronunciation. It also indicates that mother tongue has produced a positiveeffect on the English phonetic studying.This study not only contributes to the understanding of the important role of first language transfer insecond language acquisition, but also aims to proof that effective phonetic training can enhance learners’abilityof phonetic studying and raise their speech perception.