An Empirical Study Of Chinese EFL Learners' Errors In English Intonation

The thesis is an empirical study of intonation errors made by a group of Chinese EFL learners from Shanghai Normal University.More specifically,the author attempts to identify and classify the errors relating to Chinese EFL learners' use of intonation.With this aim in mind,the author chooses Well's(2006)three Ts theory as the theoretical framework for intonation analysis in the study,that is,tonality(the division of speech into intonation phrases),tonicity(intonation signaling of information focus)and tone.By comparing the participants' performance with English native speaker's,two types of error emerge,i.e.interference and developmental.Contrasts between English and Chinese regarding tonality,tonicity and tone can serve the purpose of explaining some of the interference errors.At the same time,some developmental errors are detected in the learners' use of intonation.First,a study of intonation errors on Chinese EFL learners was carried out.In order to collect data,60 sophomore undergraduate students majoring in English from Shanghai Normal University are invited as the participants.They are asked to read and make records of the appointed reading material.Then 26 participants are chosen randomly and their errors of using English intonation have been identified with the help of phonetic software Praat.The results showed that Chinese EFL learners produce a significantly higher number of intonation phrases than that of the native speaker with regard to tonality.In the respect of tonicity,Chinese EFL learners tend to place the nucleus on the last word of an intonation phrase,regardless of the word position,word category and information status the word carries.Their tone problems can be summarized as inflexible choices of tone usage,with falling tone the most frequently used one.Besides,some of Chinese EFL learners tend to give every syllable a tone whether the syllable is tonic or not within an IP.The thesis also refers to some reasons behind the learners' low performance and the author suggests some pedagogical remedies to deal with the errors detected.The author puts forward that English teachers are supposed to impart knowledge of English intonation to Chinese students in an effective way.The thesis is composed of five chapters.The first chapter involves the introduction of the background,the purpose,the significance and the layout of the thesis.The second chapter is literature review,with researches in intonation,error analysis and relevant theories involved both at home and abroad.The third chapter deals with research methodology.The forth chapter is the discussion and analysis part.And the last chapter draws a conclusion about the study and points out limitations of this empirical study.It is hoped that the present study could offer some useful information in intonation studies for Chinese EFL learners,help them improve their English accuracy and fluency and eventually improve the quality of English phonetic education in China.