A Research Proposal on Applying Chinese Phonetic System in Teaching Pronunciation of English Words to Older Chinese EFL Adult Learners

Abstract

Recent years have seen a rapid growth of older Chinese people going abroad, either visiting their relatives or taking on a long-term trip. These older adults find it is necessary to learn some English words to help them blend in local environment. However, a lot of them encounter challenges of memorizing the pronunciation of English words via using English phonetic alphabet, because many have little English learning experience. Their tongues had never been trained to pronounce English words in their childhood, and it is so difficult for them to remember a new pronunciation system and change their pronunciation habit. So they tend to memorize the pronunciation of words by referring its sound to their acquired pinyin system—a phonology system for Chinese characters. This inspires the author to think it may be, in a way, meaningful to exam the feasibility of applying such approach in teaching older Chinese adult beginners for specific purpose. Hence, the proposal of designing a controlled experiment to explore this teaching method. By offering a tentative research design, the paper provides predicative analysis and implications on studying the L1 play in L2 pronunciation acquisition in second language classroom.