A Discussion about Shaanxi Students’ Problematic Sounds in English

摘 要：在以英語作為第二門外語的課堂上，語音教學困難重重。這一現(xiàn)象不僅因為中英文之間存在著語音差異性，而且陜西關(guān)中一代的學生講話時帶有濃重的地方口音。那么怎樣在英語語音教學中去引導學生規(guī)避這樣的消極因素，又如何降低學生母語的負遷移作用值得探究。本文將從中英文語音的差異和母語的遷移出發(fā)，結(jié)合教學實例去探究學生的三組問題發(fā)音。

關(guān)鍵詞：英語語音教學；問題發(fā)音；語言的遷移

中圖分類號：G633.41 文獻標識碼： A 文章編號：1992-7711（2015）16-055-01

We use language to communicate， but how can it expresses meaning？ Language is “a system of vocal sounds and combinations of such sounds to which meaning is attributed”. If there are some incorrect or improper sounds in the language， the misunderstanding must occur.

Here is a story about this kind of misunderstanding. One day， two friends met in the street. One asked： “Hi， where are you going？” the other answered： “I am going to hospital to die.” （In fact， he said： “I’m going to hospital today”）.

Obviously， this story suggests that incorrect or improper sounds in the language surely affect the meaning of the language. But how it occurred？ In Australian English，[ei]sounds quite like[ai]. Therefore， “day” sounds like “die”.The reason why this problem occurs should be the negative transfer of L1. Rod Ellis found that in the case of similarities between the L1 and L2 is functioned positively， while in the case of differences it functioned negatively.

For my students who are from the middle of Shaanxi Province， their pronunciations are influenced negatively or positively by their L1. Some problems will be discussed below.

ⅰ. Problematic sounds：[e]and [ ]

Students always get confused in pronouncing[e]and [ ] . So they can’t correctly read “bed” and “bad”. They always mix them up during the dictation. The reason why they are confused in these two sounds is negative transfer， because Chinese Mandarin doesn’t contain any similar sounds as [e]and [ ].

On the other hand， my students are live in the middle of Shaanxi Province. Their dialect also effects ways to pronounce [e]and [ ]. When they pronounce [e]， their alveolar ridges are opened a lot. While pronouncing [ ]， the alveolar ridges are little opened. It makes them feel no difference between[e]and [ ].

ⅱ. Problematic sounds： [v] and [w]

Students can’t pronounce [v] correctly. They always pronounce [w] instead. For instance， they may read“five” as [fa'w]. No matter letter v is in the beginning or end of a word， they would pronounce [v] as [w]. Even when [v] is in the middle of a word， such as “every”， they may read like [ewri]. But it is strange that they never pronounce “walk” [w lk] as [v lk]. Why don’t they mix [v] and [w] up？

For a couple of days’ observation， I’ve found the reason. In Chinese， there is a similar sound like [w]. For example：我wǒ，外wɑī.

Students feel more familiar with [w] when they pronounce English words. According to positive transfer， it is easy to explain why students can pronounce [w] correctly in every English word. On the contrary， there is no similar sound like [v] in Chinese. So student can't read some words containing [v] properly.

ⅲ. Problematic sounds： [a' ] ， [ ']…

Students feel difficult to read “boy”， “l(fā)ion”， and so on. They couldn’t pronounce [ ']， [a' ]， correctly and smoothly. These sounds have some things in common – they all contain at least two vowels in their syllables. However， students may feel easily to pronounce CV or CVC， such as to [tu：] or bit [bit].

It's hard to read when there are two or three vowels in a syllable. Because in Chinese， most of the syllables are made by combining a Initial and a Final， for instance挖wā. Only a few syllable are ended with two Finals， as外wɑì.

To correct students’ problematic sounds which are as the results of negative transfer， Jeremy Harmer refers “the teacher’s job is to point out when something has gone wrong – and see if the student can correct herself or himself.” Moreover I’ve found some effective ways to deal with the problematic sounds.

Firstly， students have to know the ways to pronounce[e]and [ ]. George Yule suggests that [e]is a mid front short vowel， while [ ] is a low front short vowel. The difference is the height of tongue raising. The tongue must be raises higher when[e]is pronounced. This point would help students distinguish the ways to make the two sounds.

Secondly， some linguists have found that the sound “葉” in Guangzhong Dialect is much more similar with[e]. So before students pronounce [e]， let them think about the shape of mouth when the say“葉”，then using the shape of mouth to pronounce[e]must be better.

Finally， I prefer to use the Sign Language during teaching pronunciation. I use the “victory” sign to remind students of pronouncing [v]. And I usually put two fingers in front of the mouth pronouncing [ ]. When students see these signs， they may know how to correct their mistakes.

[Reference]

[1] Hu Zhuanglin. Linguistics. A Course Book. 北京大學出版社.2001

[2] Rod Ellis. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. 上海外語教育出版社. 1999

[3] George Yule. The Study of Language. 2000

[4] Jeremy Harmer. How to Teach English. 2000

[5] 李嘉、 惠寧編.英語語音問答.陜西人民出版社，1980.