Impact of '/r/' in the Accented English of Chinese Learners in Childhood

Abstract

With the development of globalization, the gap between urban and rural areas in terms of the level of economic development has increased, and accordingly, resources are tilting more and more towards the cities, and more and more people are finding that there is an imbalance between urban and rural development. In the context of English as a Second Language (ESL) acquisition in China, this research is aimed to explore the phonetic nuances of the /r/ sound in English pronunciation of Chinese children at the elementary level, specifically focusing on urban and rural distinctions because of its representativity in phonetic. This research uses graphs and charts for visual analysis to comparatively study the English pronunciation skills of children in the lower grades of urban and rural elementary school and analyze potential causes, finding out that Chinese English learners accent in childhood undergoes differences between urban and rural area.