A Study Of Factors Related To Chinese Phonetic Transfer In Junior High School EFL Learning

As the teaching of English as a foreign language(EFL) in the junior high school is undergoing great progress recently, the significance of manipulating first language phonetic(and phonological) transfer has been recognized by increasingly more junior high school EFL teachers. So far, however, many teachers have problems in the understanding of the factors related to the students’ transfer of Chinese phonetic features in their learning of EFL speaking. Meanwhile, as EFL teaching research is experiencing a rapid growth presently, scholars in this field are paying increasingly more attention to the study of students’ phonetic transfer in EFL learning. Studies so far, however, have largely neglected the junior high school EFL learners and have failed to identify the factors contributing to the phonetic transfer in the students’ EFL speaking learning. As a result, they are unable to advance research-based effective strategies for manipulating Chinese phonetic transfer in junior high school EFL teaching. Oriented to the problems in the teachers’ understanding and the researchers’ identification of the factors pertinent to student’s Chinese phonetic transfer in their EFL learning, therefore, the present study attempts to make a comprehensive investigation of the related factors of junior high school students’ Chinese phonetic transfer in their EFL learning so as to contribute to the manipulation of Chinese phonetic transfer in EFL teaching.In order to fulfill its goals, this study is conducted in the light of the principle of dialectical openness in systemic thinking, on the basis of relevant theories of first language transfer based on behaviorist, mentalist and constructivist theories of language learning, through the application of an empirical method integrating a focused phonetic test for altogether 241 selected junior high school students with different backgrounds and a questionnaire survey of the 241 students, and through the use of such data collecting instruments as test and questionnaire and such statistic tools as Excel2013. Although it involves the identification of a number of aspects or common types of Chinese phonetic transfer, the study mainly focuses on the investigation of the various factors related to the students’ negative Chinese phonetic(and phonological) transfer in their learning of English long vowels and diphthongs, voiceless and voiced consonants, and consonant clusters. Results generated from data analysis reveal that several types of negative Chinese phonetic transfer occur in junior high school students’ learning of English long vowels and diphthongs, voiced consonants(especially plosives), and consonant clusters(and final consonants). The factors which contribute to negative Chinese phonetic transfer include certain socio-cultural, situational, psychological, cognitive, and linguistic factors. More specifically, students transfer the feature of average length and medium width of Chinese vowels to English long and gliding vowels, the feature of unaspirated voicelessness of Chinese plosives to English voiced plosives, the feature of consonant + vowel structure to English consonant clusters, largely due to the students’ socio-cultural, situational(naturalistic and educational) backgrounds(shortage of international social and cultural relations and conducive conditions in and out of class), their affective factors(inadequate motivation and attitude in EFL phonetics learning), their cognitive factors(improper cognitive styles or strategies for phonetics learning, lack of attention to English-Chinese phonetic differences), and their linguistic factors(missing of the critical period, shortage of knowledge of English-Chinese phonetic differences).This study may contribute to the teaching and learning of EFL phonetics and speaking in Chinese junior high schools both practically and academically. In terms of educational and learning practice, it may hopefully help to enhance teachers’ and students’ understanding of the certain aspects of Chinese phonetic transfer in EFL teaching and learning and the factors contributing to such transfer. In terms of pedagogical research, this study may hopefully help to extend and improve the investigation of the factors related to junior high school students’ Chinese phonetic transfer in their EFL learning.