Influences Of Negative Transfer On Gelao Junior Middle School Students’ English Phonetics Learning In The Context Of Multilingualism

Language transfer, a relatively new area of study in foreign languages acquisition, needs to be enriched and developed in its theory and practice. In some minority areas, people can speak both their minority mother tongue (L1) and Chinese dialect (L2), and the minority students who must learn English (L3) in schools will meet transfer difficulties both from languages as L1 and L2. It presents specific characteristics derived from the fact that in the context of multilingualism L3 learners are experienced learners and that bilinguals and multilingual s present a different type of linguistic competence as compared to that of monolinguals. So far, few efforts have been made, either at home or abroad, to conduct studies of language transfer and its influences on minority students’ L3 learning in the context of multilingualism.Gelao people have a comparatively small population among all the minority peoples in China. Inevitably, the English learning of Gelao school students is also influenced by the language transfer from both Gelao mother tongue and their Chinese dialect, especially in the acquisition of English phonetics. The paper is to explore languages phonetic transfer on English learning by focusing on segmental pattern (including pronunciation of consonants and vowels) and suprasegmental level (reflected on the syllable, stress, rhyme, intonation, liaison and sense group). It aims to figure out the differences and similarities among the phonetics of Gelao mother tongue (L1), Hongfeng dialect (L2) and English (L3) of junior middle school students from Gelao people in Hongfeng village, Pudi Town, Dafang county of Guizhou Province, and to try to put forward some methods for them to improve their learning of English phonetics.It is no doubt that there are both similarities and differences in the speech sound system among the Gelao mother tongue, Hongfeng dialect and English at the levels of segmental and suprasegmental aspects. However, without enough concrete evidence, we have no idea if the similarities and differences have caused more difficulties for Gelao junior middle school students here in the acquisition of English phonetics. Therefore, with the purpose of exploring and finding the facts, the thesis is conducted to answer the following questions:Question 1:Do the Gelao language and their local dialect really have transfer on Gelao junior middle school students’learning of English phonetics?Question 2:What are the specific transfers?Question 3:Are there any possible ways to solve these problems?In order to find the answers to these questions, the comparison among the features of speech sound systems of the three languages is conducted at the levels of segmental and suprasegmental aspects according to the data collected in the survey.With methodologically adopted speech test, document analysis, contrastive analysis and questionnaire survey, the paper concludes that the pronunciation and intonation of Gelao students’mother tongue and their local dialect have had a huge transfer on their English pronunciation not only at the segmental, especially the negative transfer of vacant phonemes and the incomplete correspondence of phonemes, but at the suprasegmental level, where rhythm, intonation, stress are the most difficult.From the research, the similarities are more than dissimilarities among the three languages, highlighting the dissimilarities is a best way to make themselves pronounce accurately. For the negative transfer of vacant phonemes, hearing sensitization and comparative imitating is introduced, and comparing drills of phonetics among the three languages are proposed for the incomplete correspondence of phoneme. Furthermore, communicative approach can be used in teaching to improve the ability at the suprasegmental level in the actual communication activities.With the discussions, the author hopes that the paper will enrich debate on language transfer and aid instruction in a growing interdisciplinary field. It would also offer some proposals in the hope that they might yield some useful insights into English learning in multilingual minority schools. With the efforts of overcoming the language transfer from L1 and L2 to L3, the process of oral English teaching development will go further and it will certainly be of great importance to Gelao English learners in junior middle schools influenced by language transfer.