Analysis of the Meaning of Functional Load for English Pronunciation Teaching at a Cross-Cultural Bilingual University Taking Wenzhou-Kean University as an Example

Abstract

Wenzhou-Kean University (WKU) is a Sino-American collaborative university where Chinese students communicate in English with professors and peers having diverse English accents. Through such interactions, these students seem to naturally develop an awareness of pronunciation modification. Since pronunciation teaching is not yet emphasized at WKU, this study preliminarily examined if traditional factors affecting functional load (FL), for example, the number of minimal pairs, the difference between consonants and vowels, word frequency, and language context made sense for teaching phonemic contrasts at WKU. At the same time, students perceptions of interactions effect on pronunciation awareness were assessed. The researcher collected and analyzed attitudinal data from 114 WKU students with different English learning goals. It turned out that emphasizing teaching traditional high FL mistakes, consonant contrasts, and frequently used spoken words might not be necessary at WKU. Instead, through natural interactions in an English as an International Language (EIL) environment, students seemed to have identified important pronunciation mistakes among Chinese learners, tolerated those mistakes not hindering understanding, and practiced perceiving the meaning of accented words through language context.