An Investigation Into English Pronunciation Of The Middle School Students In Northern Shaanxi Area

Accurate English pronunciation not only can improve the listening, speaking,writing ability, but also can influence the effect of the communication through the targetlanguage, so the mastery of the correct English pronunciation is quite essential for theEnglish learners．However, because there are large differences between Chinese localdialects and English pronunciation on the aspect of phonetic systems, local dialects havean important influence on learning English，especially its negative transfer. NorthernShaanxi which has its own local dialects is not an exception．Based on Language Transfer Theory, Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis, and CriticalPeriod Hypothesis, it has made an investigation through the reading tes（t11subjects）andquestionnaire (50subjects) for Grade One and Grade Two students in No.1Middleschool in Yulin. The data results are analyzed by using SPSS17.0and Excel tables, andthe details are as the follows:First, the pronunciation situation of the local students:(1) correct sounds:/f/,/s/,//,/t/,/tr/,/ts/,/z/,/d/,/dr/,/dz/,/m/,/n/,//;(2) incorrect sounds on consonants:/θ/,/e/，/v/,//;(3) incorrect sounds on vowels:/ai/,/au/,/u/,/ei/,//,/e/,/i:/,/i/,/:/,//,/a:/,//,/u:/,/u/,/:/,//;(4) consonants like/p/,/b/,/t/,/d/,/k/,/g/,/h/and dark/l/orthe consonants clusters.Second, the negative transfer of the pronunciation for the local students:(1) thenegative transfer of Chinese Pinyin, the consonants/θ/,/e/，/v/,//,/p/,/b/,/t/,/d/,/k/,/g/,/h/and dark/l/always replaced by the Chinese Pinyin“s”“,z”“,w”“,r”“b”, “p”,“t”,“d”，“k”,“g”,“h”and“l”;(2) the negative transfer of northern Shaanxidialects: the vowels/ai/,/au/,/i/and//always respectively confused with the soundsChinese vowel“ai”or the vowel/e/，/u/,/ei/and/e/, the short and long vowels like/i:/-/i/,/a:/-//，/:/-//，/u:/-/u/，/:/-//always are added strong nasal sound due to thelocal dialects speaking habits.Based on the above analysis, we can draw a conclusion that:(1) as for the negativetransfer of Chinese Pinyin to the consonants/θ/,/e/,/v/,//,/p/,/b/,/t/,/d/,/k/,/g/,/h/and/l/or consonants clusters, the local English teachers and students should make anintensive training to the above consonants to overcome the negative transfer of ChinesePinyin;(2) as for the negative transfer of the northern Shaanxi dialects, confused thevowels/ai/-/e/or“ai”,/au/-/u/,/ei/-/i/,//-/e/, the local English teachers and studentsshould make an intensive training to the above vowels to overcome the negative transferof the northern Shaanxi dialects speaking habits;(3) as for the negative transfer ofnorthern Shaanxi dialects to the long and short vowels/i:/-/i/,/a:/-//，/:/-//,/u:/-/u/，thelocal English teachers and students should make an intensive training to the abovevowels to overcome the negative transfer of the northern Shaanxi dialects speaking habitswith nasal sounds.