The Acquisition of English Word Stress by Mandarin EFL Learners

Dan Liu

doi:10.5539/elt.v10n12p196

Abstract

Compared with the study of acquisition of syntax and morphology, there is a relative lack of research on the acquisition of phonology, the L2 acquisition of word stress in particular. This paper investigates the production of word stress by 70 Chinese college students in their reading aloud. Altogether 350 minutes’ recordings were collected and coded. The result shows that improper assignment of word stress most likely occurs in two-syllable words and three-syllable words and on the first syllable. The factors which account for these problems are learners’ insensitivity to syllabic structure of English words and lack of knowledge of rules on English word stress.

Highlights

Within second language acquisition and applied linguistics research, certain aspects such as syntax or morphology have received a lot of attention among researchers (Doughty & Long, 2003; Hawkins, 2001; White, 2003), while the study and teaching of pronunciation has been “marginalized” (Derwing & Munro, 2005)
Compared with the study of acquisition of syntax and morphology, there is a relative lack of research on the acquisition of phonology, the L2 acquisition of word stress in particular
The findings showed that Mandarin EFL learners mainly relied on lexical class to place stress on disyllabic non-words

Summary

Introduction

Within second language acquisition and applied linguistics research, certain aspects such as syntax or morphology have received a lot of attention among researchers (Doughty & Long, 2003; Hawkins, 2001; White, 2003), while the study and teaching of pronunciation has been “marginalized” (Derwing & Munro, 2005). The L2 acquisition of word stress is a major part that is understudied. Learning the pronunciation of a foreign language involves the segments, i.e. the sounds of the L2, and the acquisition of suprasegmentals, e.g. the placement of stress or the intonation. Incorrect placement of primary stress in L2 words may lead to the breakdown of communication. Relatively little research has been conducted to investigate the second language acquisition of suprasegmental elements (e.g. pitch accent, tone, stress, intonation) (Davis & Kelly, 1997; Guion et al, 2004; Guion, 2005)

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