授权受权英语发音问题发音问题论文：中国学生的英语发音问题浅析

2021年1月11日发(作者：夏禹)

英语发音问题发音问题论文：中国学生的英语发音问题浅析
摘要：中国学生在学习 英语发音的过程中往往会产生问
题，这是因为学生所熟悉的汉语与英语属于两种不同的语
系，在 语音系统上存在很大差别，而第二语言学习过程中普
遍存在着语言迁移现象，于是学生在发音上容易受他 们的母
语，即汉语的影响，从而形成发音错误和偏差。根据语言迁
移理论，通过汉语和英语发音 的对比，分析常见的中国学生
英语发音错误，可以针对这些问题提出一些可行的解决方
法。
关键词：发音问题 语音系统 对比 不同点 语言迁移
introduction
accurate pronunciation and intonation are the
basic quality of a language user. however, there are
many problems in chinese students’ pronunciation of
english, resulting from the negative transfer of their
mother tongue—chinese. examples of errors made by
english learners in pronunciation are common,
displaying on both segmental and suprasegmental
levels.
the slight differences between chinese and english
in pronunciation which are not so obvious can easily


cause negative transfer. by contrasting the sound
systems of the two languages, learners will be clear
about the causes of the problems and learn some skills
to avoid or tackle these problems.
1. problems in pronouncing segmental phonemes
different languages have different phonemic
systems. still, there exist true linguistic universals
and near universals in all languages. an awareness of
the differences between the new and the native language
can help students realize which of their native
language speech habits can be transferred to the new
language and which can not.
problems for chinese students at segmental level
can mainly be divided into two kinds:
1.1 problems with sounds totally new to chinese
students
some english sounds do not exist in the chinese
sound system, which leaves a gap between the two
language sound systems. thus it imposes certain
limitations on the chinese students’ english
pronunciation learning. as a result, chinese learners


of english are always trying to find a similar sound
in chinese language to substitute for the english sound,
which causes deviation:
(1)many chinese learners ignore the difference
between /w/ and /v/. because in chinese the distinction
between [w] and [v] is not phonemic, i.e. sound
substitution of the two sounds cannot cause differences
in meaning. as a result, although the students may
clearly know the manner of articulation, they still
wouldn’t like to make effort to distinguish the two
sounds. for example, the phrase ‘very well’ is always
wrongly pronounced as /veri vel/ or /weri wel/.
(2)/θ/ and / / are sounds which fail to find their
chinese counterparts. students usually produce /s/ and
/z/ because alveolar causes less effort and is easier
to pronounce than dental. much practice is needed for
chinese students to get used to the special way of
pronouncing.
(3)vowel length does not cause differences in
chinese. different tones are used to distinguish sounds
of the same quality. for example, mā, má, mǎ, mà


represent four different words. in chinese, since there
are tones, the meanings of words can be told easily.
although students are told in english there is
difference between short vowel and long vowel, they
don’t thoroughly know the way of articulation. in
english the short vowels do not need much muscular
tension; the tongue should be held loosely. in chinese
there are no such lax and tense pairs, thus they become
difficult for chinese students. actually few chinese
students can clearly distinguish short vowels from long
vowels.

(4)there is no / / in
chinese; students are not used to open their mouth so
widely. they often pronounce / / wrongly as /e/ or /ai/.
for example, it’s hard to tell the difference between
bed and bad from their pronunciation.
(5)there is no phoneme / / in chinese. many students
pronounce it as /a/ in chinese without awareness of it.
chinese phoneme /a/ is an open, front and unrounded long
vowel with lips spread while english / / is a half-open,


central, and unrounded short vowel. for example, when
they say mother/m /, it often sounds like /ma/, and
likewise, love /l v/ sounds like /lav/.
1.2 problems with sounds confused by students as
some chinese sounds
english and chinese phone systems do not match
completely. some phonemes seem to be similar but far
from identical. yet the beginning learners inevitably
resort to chinese sounds which have some similarities
with english ones. it is difficult for them to utter
with the right shape of mouth or the right speech organ,
especially when the students take it for granted that
they are the same things.
(1)although both english and chinese have plosives,
their pronunciations are not exactly the same. most
students can’t hear the slight difference in the state
of the vocal cords. in english, plosives go in
contrastive pairs, with one voiced and the other
voiceless. but chinese plosive pairs are distinguished
from each other by aspiration, not by voicing. for
instance, in chinese both “b” and “p”are voiceless.


so are the other pairs such as “d” and “t”; “g”
and “k”; “zh”and“ch”, etc. the only difference
is that, in pronouncing the aspirated “p, t, k, ch”,
the air is puffed out strongly, whereas with the
unaspirated “b, d, g, zh” the air is let out with a
pop through the lips.
(2)in some areas of china, especially places where
local dialects are popular, /n/ and / / are not
distinguished. so students there pronounce branch
(/bra:nt /) as /bra: t /. thus it is quite possible that
chinese learners may not be able to hear the difference
between sin and sing. they should be told that /n/ is
produced by the tongue tip or blade and the alveolar
ridge while / / is produced by the back of the tongue
and the hard palate.
(3)in the south of china, many students aren’t
able to distinguish /n/ and /l/ when a vowel is
following them. for example, knife (/naif/) is always
pronounced as /laif/. /n/ and /l/ are both alveolar.
but when producing /n/, the air should go through the
nasal cavity while for lateral /l/ the airstream goes