Contrastive Study between Pronunciation Chinese L1 and English L2 from the Perspective of Interference Based on Observations in Genuine Teaching Contexts

Feng Li

doi:10.5539/elt.v9n10p90

Abstract

<p>Much research has been conducted on factors that impact on second language (L2) speech production in light of the age of L2 acquisition, the length of residence in the L2 environment, motivation, the amount of first language (L1) usage, etc. Very little of this research has taken the perspective of interference between L1 and L2, especially with respect to Asian languages. This article tries to locate the differences in pronunciation between Chinese L1 and English L2 by contrastive analysis through observing genuine teaching and learning contexts, in hope of facilitating English pronunciation pedagogy in China.</p>

Highlights

Chinese and English fall into two entirely distinct language families
Contrastive Analysis and Findings based on Observations
Even though certain English sounds of vowels can be found in Chinese, due to slight and subtle differences among them, some Chinese L1 students find it hard to distinguish between them in speech, such as vowels between /ɛ/ and /æ/ in “bet” and “bat”, “bed” and “bad”, “lend” and “land”, “dead” and “dad”, “merry” and “marry”, etc., especially when they appear in the same discourse, or even in the same sentence, which will absolutely produce an effect of tongue twisters

Summary

Introduction

Chinese and English fall into two entirely distinct language families. The former is ideographic while the latter is phonographic. In Chinese, almost each character corresponds to a single syllable (Kelly, 2000), which may have an onset of consonant(s) initially in the syllable and a nucleus containing a vowel or two vowels or, in few cases, a vowel plus a final nasal consonant(s). The absence of consonant onset is permitted in Chinese syllables as well: e.g., /a/, /e/, and /ai/ are common pronunciations of Chinese characters. Apart from that, another important characteristic of a Chinese syllable is, generally, its four tones: level (tone 1), rising (tone 2), falling-rising (tone 3), falling (tone 4). In the case of the same phonemes /ti/, if it is labelled with the four different tones, four different meanings will arise. /tī/means “kick”, /tí/ “question”, /tĭ/ “body” while /tì/ carries the meaning of “substitute”

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