Abstract
In our pronunciation courses, segmental level in English pronunciation plays a very important role in perception and teaching of English pronunciation. This research aims to investigate into the most salient pronunciation problems at segmental level by fresh college students from Mainland China through an experimental study, and it is found that the mismatches identified in the segmental level of English pronunciation are corresponded with the phonological features of the utterance of Chinese English. Moreover, in order to improve fresh college students’ pronunciation and achieve the pronunciation of Standard English, some pedagogical implications and suggestions about teaching strategies are provided in this study which aimed at the most salient mismatches discovered in the research findings. 
Highlights
Chinese and English significant distinction even present in their phonological patterns
Some features involving vowels and consonants known to be problematic for many ESL learners can be detected through this process, and common phonological features can be generalized in this approach by Mandarin speakers from Mainland China
This study aims at identifying the most problematic sounds with English segmental features by Mandarin speakers, and realizing the perception of teachers the most obvious pronunciation problems among Mandarin Chinese speakers
Summary
Chinese and English significant distinction even present in their phonological patterns. When a /t/ or /d/ sound glides to a /j/ sound in a smooth and quick way, the two sounds seem to happen simultaneously with segment boundary and they would be coalesced into a new sound /tʃ/ or /dʒ/ (Wang, 2005), the absence of consonant onset is adopted in Chinese syllables as well: e.g., /a/, /e/, and /ai/ are common utterances of Chinese phoneme. In additional, another feature of a Chinese syllable is, generally, its four tones: level (tone 1), rising (tone 2), falling-rising (tone 3), falling (tone 4). If phonemes /ti/ is labelled with the four different tones, four different meanings will present. /tī/ implies “kick”, /tí/ “question”, /tĭ/ “body” while /tì/ conveys the meaning of “substitute”
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