A Tentative Study On Negative Transfer In English Phonetic Acquisition Of Students From Fuyang

In the acquiring of a new language,speech sound is of great significance.What speech sound includes is not only "sound" but also things other than sound such as"emotion" and "attitude",which means it includes the speaker's emotion,mood and attitude when uttering a particular expression.The creation of written works are based on spoken sounds,thus the importance of speech sound manifests itself in the acquiring of a second language.Only when one has a good mastery of speech sound,can his or her intended meaning as well as emotions and attitudes be effectively conveyed to listeners.However,the difference between native tongue and target language will negatively affect the acquisition of a second language,especially its speech sound,which is known as negative transfer.This phenomenon is especially severe in some dialect-speaking regions in China.People who are under the negative influence of dialect will speak with an accent,which will not only cause obscurity on the part of listeners,but also lead to restrictions on listening abilities on the part of themselves.Therefore,under such circumstances,it is essential that we conduct a detailed research on students in dialect-speaking regions and find possible solutions to such a problem.Base on Stephen Krashen's language transfer theory,this thesis adopted contrastive analysis and error analysis,drew on EXCEL and SPSS to analyze data collected from questionnaires,phonetic tests and interviews,in an attempt to research into the negative influences of Fuyang dialect on their acquiring English speech sound.The thesis attempts at answering the following three questions:1.What is the students' learning background of English speech sounds like in Fuyang area?2.What is students' pronunciation of English speech sounds like?3.Are there any solutions to the pronunciation problems?This thesis has taken 62 students from Fuyang Chengjiao Middle School as subjects,described and made a comparison between Fuyang dialect phonetic system and English phonetic system,and analyzed errors both from segmental level and supra-segmental level through conducting questionnaires,phonetic tests and interviews.The results show that the students are to a great extent exposed to Fuyang dialect-speaking atmosphere and thus to a certain extent negatively influenced by their native language on segmental level and supra-segmental level.This thesis aims at helping teachers improve their teaching methods and students improve their pronunciation,exploring teaching strategies suitable for high school students,and thus enhancing their interest and confidence in learning English.