On the Influence and Coping Strategies of Dialect on English Phonetic Acquisition from the Perspective of Language Transfer A Case Study of Cantonese in Guangdong
On the Influence and Coping Strategies of Dialect on English Phonetic Acquisition from the Perspective of Language Transfer A Case Study of Cantonese in Guangdong
Abstract
The teaching in phonetics has always been one of the biggest problems in English teaching in China For learners in Guangdong due to the influence of Cantonese as their mother tongue students’ English pronunciation is not accurate which brings certain difficulties to their English learning This is also one of the reasons why middle school students lose interest and confidence in English learning Therefore it is necessary to find out the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation
To investigate the English pronunciation performance of Cantonese students a test was carried out Eightyseven middle school students from Guangzhou and Zhuhai participated in the pronunciation test The results showed that students could not distinguish similar monophthongs and consonants Besides they pronounced diphthongs incompletely and there was a problem of eliding the end of a syllable when reading phrases and sentences Generally speaking students in Guangdong have a good command of English intonation The main problem is the pronunciation of vowels and consonants which can lead to mispronunciation or elision
The main problems are that the pronunciation of vowels and consonants are not in place which may lead to pronunciation errors or incorrect elision The negative transfer of Cantonese to English pronunciation can be caused by several factors The first one is that the composition of Cantonese phonetic system and that of English is different which means that students cannot relate some phonemes to Cantonese Second students do not have enough knowledge of English phonemes Third students do not get the correct language input in the specific language environment
Keywords negative transfer phonetic acquisition Cantonese English pronunciation
迁移理视角方言英语语言教学影响策
——广东区粤语例
摘
语音教学直国开展英语教学问题广东区学生说受粤语影响学生英语发音够准确英语学带定困难时中学生英语学失兴趣失信心原找出粤语英语发音产生负迁移影响必
调查粤语学生英语发音力作者邀请87名广州珠海中学生进行语音测试研究结果表明学生法分辨部分相似单元音辅音发音双元音发音完整朗读短语句子时存吞音问题总体说粤语区学生英语语调基位问题元音辅音发音位容易造成发音错误者吞音
导致粤语英语发音产生负迁移作原种第粤语语音体系英语语音体系组成部分音素法形成第二学生没掌握英语音素相关知识第三学生没特定语言环境中正确语言输入
关键词：负迁移语音粤语英语发音
CONTENTS
Abstract Ⅰ
摘 Ⅱ
Introduction 1
1 Research Background 2
11 Statement of the Problem 2
12 Research Questions 3
13 Purposes and Limitations of the Study 3
2 Language Transfer Theory 5
3 Methodology 6
31 Material Tested 6
32 Subjects 6
33 Research Instruments and Procedures 6
4 Results and Discussions 8
41 Results 8
411 Failure to Distinguish Similar Monophthongs 8
412 Incomplete Pronunciation of Certain Diphthongs 9
413 Failure to Distinguish Certain Consonants 9
414 Elision of the End of a Syllable 10
42 Factors Leading to Negative Transfer of Cantonese 11
421 Internal Factors 11
422 External Factors 13
43 Coping Strategies of Cantonese on English Phonetic Acquisition 14
Conclusion 16
References 18
Appendix 19
Acknowledgments 20
Introduction
The theory of language transfer plays an important role in second language acquisition which is very useful to help learners master the target language It is common that dialect will have a negative transfer effect on language learning and affect the accuracy of pronunciation Nowadays in China the teaching of speaking and English pronunciation has always been one of the most serious problems in English teaching Many students speak English with neither fluency nor accuracy which will definitely bring great difficulties and obstacles to English teaching in China In Guangdong learners who are affected by Cantonese find it difficult to master the correct English pronunciation
By comparing and studying the phonetic differences between English and Cantonese learners can not only get to know the English intonation and pronunciation better but also gradually correct the mispronunciation affected by Cantonese dialects with teachers’ help Additionally this paper aims at reducing the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation learning and playing a positive role in English phonetics acquisition in the future on that basis Based on the theory of language transfer the paper compares the differences in pronunciation and intonation between English and Cantonese analyzes the factors leading to the negative transfer and proposes coping strategies as well
This paper is mainly written with data analysis method and induction method to carry out a phonetic test around for the paper and carries out retrieval and data collection of relevant literature It aims to help learners in Guangdong better avoid negative transfer and learn English better
The problems of Cantonese students in terms of English pronunciation are mainly manifested in the following aspects (1) They cannot distinguish between long vowels and short vowels (2) They tend to elide part of a diphthong (3) They fail to distinguish similar consonants and pronounce other phonemes instead (4) They habitually elide the end of a word when they read a sentence Based on these problems this paper analyses the English pronunciation of the students in grade eight in Guangzhou Avans educational institution and Zhuhai Doumen No2 middle school and the author analyzes the reasons for the negative transfer of English pronunciation caused by Cantonese
1 Research Background
11 Statement of the Problem
English belongs to IndoEuropean language while Cantonese belongs to SinoTibetan language Since Cantonese and English belong to two different language systems there are few similarities between them It is common that most learners in Guangdong speak English with a slight Cantonese accent due to the negative transfer of their mother tongue just as foreign learners learn Chinese This is the same case as mentioned in He’s paper (2017 pp 2122) which indicates that second language learners cannot speak the language as well as speakers of the source language Consequently it is necessary to find the right way to assist English learning so as to effectively reduce the negative impact of Cantonese on English pronunciation acquisition People who speak English use different intonations patterns to express ideas and emotions It is difficult for the learners whose mother tongue is Cantonese to use English intonation correctly
In recent years with the continuous improvement of English teaching level in middle schools most students have a better knowledge of English including pronunciation However in the actual teaching process there are still problems in learners’ English pronunciation which need much attention and guidance In fact after entering the university most students except English majors do not have English pronunciation courses It is worth noting that a certain number of college students have a tendency of fossilization in English phonetics acquisition that is the interlanguage of second language learners will stop developing to some extent before it is consistent with the target language so that learners cannot fully acquire the target language According to Liu (2013 p11) this is mainly because they have formed wrong pronunciation and bad pronunciation habits in middle school which prevents them from further improving their comprehensive English to a great extent
In terms of pronunciation of vowels some Cantonese learners confuse long vowels with short vowels They often pronounce English long vowels not long enough while others pronounce short vowels not short enough In addition some learners failed to pronounce the second vowel sound when they pronounce English diphthongs In terms of the pronunciation of consonants learners prefer to replace consonants in words with phonemes that are native to Cantonese They cannot tell the difference between English consonants and that of Cantonese Besides when reading a sentence some learners tend to elide the last syllable of the words Due to the influence of Cantonese pronunciation some students tend to lose confidence in learning English if they do not master the correct pronunciation They will be afraid of having English class let alone answering questions and reading aloud in English classes
12 Research Questions
Therefore in this study four problems are to be researched
(1) What is the situation of Cantonese students in English pronunciation
(2) What are the effects of negative transfer of Cantonese on English pronunciation
(3) Why do learners in Guangdong have problems in pronouncing English
(4) How can students reduce the negative transfer of Cantonese on English pronunciation
13 Purposes and Limitations of the Study
The aim of this paper is to find out the reasons why Cantonese has negative transfer effect on English pronunciation and propose coping strategies to reduce the negative transfer effect so as to improve students’ oral abilities After fully understanding and solving the basic problems of English pronunciation learners will have more confidence and interest in learning English In this case it can certainly help students memorize words and improve their English performance using pronunciation skills In addition this study is expected to provide references for English teachers to improve their phonetic teaching methods and attach importance to students’ phonetic teaching so as to help students to be competitive in English exams and daily communication
This study also has some limitations Firstly samples in this paper are not representative enough Only eighthgraders from two classes and a tutoring institution were selected for the study 87 students cannot represent all the students in Guangdong Students from Guangzhou and Zhuhai were selected for the test but they could not fully represent the English pronunciation level of Cantonese students in Guangdong Besides only 13 literature were selected for analysis in this study and other relevant literature cannot be fully classified and analyzed in this paper Moreover due to the special language environment in Guangdong the pronunciation of English is related to different accents and the education level of students However due to limited time the author only carried out a detailed study on the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation neglecting other relevant parts The doubtful points of this study can be used as the future research
2 Language Transfer Theory
According to Odlin (1989 p2) Transfer which is also called the crosslinguistic influence is the process of using knowledge of the first language in learning a second language The positive transfer of the mother tongue has a positive effect on learning target language while the negative transfer brings obstacles in the learning process
Yule (1985 p17) argues that transfer refers to the use of sounds expressions or structures from the first language when using a second language For example a Chinese speaker whose first language is Mandarin is more likely to say I first go in English because in Mandarin people are used to placing the adverb in front of the verb which is the opposite to that in English
If the first language has similar characteristics with the second language such as the same basic phonemes in pronunciation then learners can benefit from the positive transfer of the first language knowledge to second language For example Cantonese has the same consonants as English like b and p Hence students in Guangdong can easily distinguish big from pig when they learn the words
According to Wang (2000 p28) transferring an L1 feature that is really different form the L2 results in negative transfer and it may make the L2 expression difficult to understand In Cantonese syllablefinal plosives [p t k] are unreleased such as 劫 gip Therefore some of the Cantonese students tend to elide the consonant at the end of a syllable
Positive transfer promotes second language acquisition and produces correct and appropriate language Negative transfer obstructs second language acquisition resulting in language errors and learning difficulties
3 Methodology
31 Material Tested
To test the pronunciation performance of students in Guangdong a pronunciation test was designed The spoken test was based on a list of words short phrases and sentences (see in Appendix) to examine students’ pronunciation of vowels consonants and intonation
When performing the testing list students were asked to read the words phrases and sentences one by one at their normal speed Their performances were recorded and marked with True or False
32 Subjects
In this study there are two main subjects grade 8 students from Doumen No 2 Middle School in Zhuhai and middle school students from Avans educational institution in Guangzhou Here are functions of the two subjects
Students in these two areas play the most significant role in this research because the present situation and analysis of English pronunciation are based on them In total 87 students require testing 15 of them are in grade seven 62 of them are in grade eight and the rest 10 students are in grade nine Among them 43 students are from Guangzhou 41 students are from Zhuhai 2 students are from Foshan and only one is from Zhongshan
33 Research Instruments and Procedures
To test students’ existing pronunciation competence they were asked to read the list one by one on the condition that they did not know which features would be tested The author kept notes with T or F based on students’ performance
The list of pronunciation test was distributed to the students before the test and they were given a little time to make themselves familiar with the materials They were well acquainted with the content since unfamiliar words would not be seen on the list However since the reading speed cannot be unified some students were asked to read the words two times at a slower or quicker speed
Judgments were made at once when students read the list The materials are shown in appendix and the project specification table (Table One) is presented below Their results will be marked as T or F
Table 1 Items Specifications of Pronunciation
Categories
The Indicators
Rating Criteria
monophthong
food vs foot uː and ʊ
seat vs sit eat vs it iː and ɪ
short vs shot ɔː and ɒ
bird vs burger ɜː and ə
car vs cup ɑː and ʌ
bag vs bed æ and e
Can they distinguish the certain monophthong
diphthong
pace base eɪ
fry dry aɪ
loud out aʊ
low know əʊ
oil toy ɔɪ
where air eə
near ear ɪə
sure vs tour ʊə
How well do they pronounce the diphthong
consonants
pace vs base p and b
take vs dish t and d
class vs glass k and g
safe vs save f and v
police vs please s and z
think vs bother θ and ð
dish vs usually ʃ and ʒ
cheap vs exaggeration t and d
hats vs hands ts and dz
tree vs dry tr and dr
harm vs low h and l
pray vs matter r and m
green vs thing n and ŋ
yesterday vs wealth j and w
Can they distinguish the certain consonants
4 Results and Discussions
41 Results
Since the students in Guangdong have finished learning International Phonetic Alphabet in primary school the pronunciation habits of the eighthgrade students are basically fixed which can ensure that the study is carried out smoothly Table Two is the result of the test based on students’ reading words phrase and sentences The results showed that 76 of the students mispronounced words and could not distinguish one consonant to another clearly 32 of the students could not tell the difference clearly between long and short vowels
Table 2 Results of English Pronunciation Test
Items
Proportion of All Participants
Failure to Distinguish Similar Monophthongs
67
Incomplete Pronunciation of Certain Diphthongs
32
Failure to Distinguish Certain Consonants
76
The Elision of the End of the Syllable
39
According to the above data the common mistakes students had included substitution and incorrect elision shown in Table Three When reading some words affected by the transfer of mother tongue many students replaced the English phonemes with the Cantonese ones Besides some vowels and consonants at the end of the syllable were either exaggerated or elided due to the pronunciation of Cantonese
Table 3 Items Specification of Errors
Form of Errors
Proportion
Substitution
54
Incorrect Elision
46
The followings are the specific performance of negative transfer on English pronunciation by native Cantonese speakers
411 Failure to Distinguish Similar Monophthongs
As is shown in Table Four the highest error rate is the uː and ʊ The students could not tell the difference between the pronunciation of food and foot They read the two words almost without any difference Most students know the difference between long and short vowels but it is hard for them to make a difference when it comes to pronunciation
Table 4 Results of Monophthong Pronunciation
Monophthong
Percentage of Mispronunciations
uː and ʊ
29
iː and ɪ
11
ɔː and ɒ
7
ɜː and ə
4
ɑː and ʌ
3
æ and e
13
According the above data Cantonese learners tend to mix up phonemes such as iː and ɪ æ and e in the process of learning English long and short vowels
412 Incomplete Pronunciation of Certain Diphthongs
During the test most students had incomplete pronunciation and mispronounced the words with diphthongs They tended to ignore the last phoneme
Table 5 Results of Diphthong Pronunciation
Diphthong
Mispronunciation
Incorrect Elision
eɪ
1
aɪ
aʊ
1
2
əʊ
2
1
ɔɪ
2
4
eə
1
5
ɪə
1
2
ʊə
2
7
Taking the word tour for instance a few students pronounced it as tuː that is they only pronounced the first half of the diphthongs When they read the sentence There are some delicious fish on the dish they read the word there as they Besides students mispronounced the diphthong aʊ in the word down as ʌ The Cantonese learners were more likely to pronounce it as ʌ which was confused with the word done
413 Failure to Distinguish Certain Consonants
As is shown in the Table Six most students had difficulties in pronouncing the word with v z θ and r When they read the words they tended to use the phonemes that Cantonese had to replace those unfamiliar consonants in English
Table 6 Results of Consonant Pronunciation
Consonant
Proportion of Errors
p and b
t and d
k and g
f and v
15
s and z
11
θ and ð
19
ʃ and ʒ
7
t and d
2
ts and dz
7
tr and dr
h and l
1
r and m
9
n and ŋ
4
j and w
1
First in the test as many as 16 percent of the students mispronounced the word video as wɪdɪəʊ They replaced v with w Besides they couldn’t make a clear difference between save and safe
Second during the test about 10 percent of the students mispronounced bedroom as bedluːm especially when they read the sentence I had a bad cold and had to lie in bedroom yesterday Some of them could correct the pronunciation when it was a single word In addition 9 percent of them failed to tell the difference between fry and fly According to the above data they tended to replace r with l when reading words or sentences
Third students mispronounced the consonant θ 19 percent of them mispronounced the word thing as sɪŋ They replaced θ with f or s Some of them could not distinguish s and z As a result 11 of the students could not tell the difference between police and please in the phonetic test
414 Elision of the End of a Syllable
In addition to students’ incorrect pronunciation of diphthongs they also elided the last part of the last syllable of a word when reading sentences When reading individual words they could generally pay attention to the last phoneme of a word However when reading the sentences aloud most of them could not guarantee the integrity of the sentences Here are the results of the pronunciation of phrases and sentences (Table Seven)
Table 7 Results of the Pronunciation of Phrases and Sentences
Phrase and Sentences
Mispronunciation of Words
Incorrect Elision
credit card very worry
2
1
usually very shy not at all
4
3
next door stop nonsense
1
work out last week
10
take a good care of a matter of fact
2
There are some delicious fish on the dish
6
1
I had a bad cold and had to lie in bedroom yesterday
10
2
He collected many valuable stamps
2
7
My friend made an excuse to go downstairs
2
12
Both health and wealth are worthwhile things
19
A busy bee begins a busy day
According to the results shown above 39 percent of the students elided the end of a syllable when reading complete sentences When the end of a word is a plosive students tended to elide it When they read the sentence My friend made an excuse to go downstairs 12 percent of them elided d in the words friend and made Besides another common mistake that students had was the k of the phrase work out They elided k in the word work as well None of the students mispronounced the single word However when work is put into a phrase 10 percent of them omitted the plosive of k when pronouncing it
42 Factors Leading to the Negative Transfer of Cantonese
421 Internal Factors
According to the language transfer theory if there is no background knowledge of the target language the correct pronunciation cannot be mastered which will inevitably lead to negative transfer Zhang (2016 p4) points out that if learners do not analyze and summarize the differences between Cantonese and English they will not be able to find the key points that need close attention to and they will not be able to effectively enhance their English pronunciation At present in the process of practicing English pronunciation many students tend to overlook the correct place and position of articulation of English vowels and consonants that is the position of the tip of the tongue oral muscle control and so on Consequently many learners will take it for granted to use the pronunciation habits in their mother tongue forming negative transfer influence resulting in mispronunciation
First negative effect on English monophthongs English has long and short vowels while Cantonese monophthongs do not Ge (2019 pp1618) points out that to pronounce long vowels the oral muscles need to show a tight state On the contrary the mouth muscles should be relaxed for short vowels For those students from Guangdong who are easily influenced by their first language Cantonese the main cause for their mispronunciation is that they cannot control the tightness of oral muscles because Cantonese monophthongs are not distinguished by the length of the vowel
Second negative transfer on diphthongs Gimson (1980 pp3132) thinks that the English diphthongs need to be slid from one vowel to another when pronouncing Usually the first vowel is pronounced clear and strong The second is pronounced short There is no significant change in the process Since there is no diphthong corresponding to English in Cantonese students can only pronounce the English diphthongs according to the unit sounds in Cantonese resulting in incomplete pronunciation of English diphthongs This is consistent with what Zhai and Zhao (2015 pp1720) proposed in their paper In the process of learning English pronunciation there are usually situations like a phoneme that needs to be pronounced being elided which also reflects the negative transfer effect of dialects on English pronunciation acquisition
Third negative transfer on consonants In learning the second language the knowledge of Cantonese that learners master will lead to negative transfer on the second language due to the lack of knowledge of the target language resulting in errors on English phonetic acquisition Because some English consonants do not have their Cantonese counterpart students in Guangdong tend to replace these consonants with similar Cantonese ones For instance the consonant w in English is basically the same as that in Cantonese However there is no v in Cantonese Therefore when Cantonese students learn the English consonant v they cannot find the corresponding pronunciation position Consequently it is very likely for them to confuse the two consonants Besides since the consonant r does not exist in Cantonese some students find it hard to pronounce it and hence they replace it with the similar voiced consonant l such as the word livingroom ˈlɪvɪŋ luːm Additionally some students were confused by n and l in Cantonese which will obviously affect their pronunciation in English Therefore these students are more likely to pronounce the word night as lait and like as naik Odlin (1989 pp35) emphasizes that language transfer is a crosslanguage influence He says that It is a common phenomenon in second language acquisition that learners are more likely to use similar phonemes in the native language system instead of those in the second language Another case of negative transfer on consonants is that Cantonese does not have θ and ð so that some students tend to use s to replace θ and use d to replace ð For example Cantonese students are prone to pronounce the word together as təˈɡedər Moreover In English the vocal cords need to vibrate when pronouncing z However students in Guangdong do not have this kind of pronunciation habit The consonant z is a voiceless one in Cantonese That is the reason why so many Cantonese students will replace z with s in speaking English They tend to pronounce the word music as ˈmjusɪk
Lastly in terms of negative transfer resulting in the elision of the end of a syllable it is because in Cantonese plosives at the end of a syllable are unreleased Hence some students are prone to omit them when speaking English such as the word 雀 zoek It is common for them to ignore the last syllable of the word when they are pronouncing Kong (2016 pp911) says that Influenced by the negative transfer of L1 and L2 Guangdong students either avoid pronouncing plosives or use the glottal stop of their mother tongue instead of English plosives Another cause is that most of the words in Cantonese are monosyllabic the learners are not used to multiple syllable pronunciation in English
422 External Factors
Besides the internal factors there are external factors of negative transfer on English pronunciation such as language environment and the lack of emphasis of language courses which lead to negative transfer of Cantonese on English phonetic acquisition
All the students around speak Cantonese then learners will be easily affected by this which is not conducive to the creation of an Englishspeaking environment Besides most English teachers in Guangdong are not native English speakers Therefore the English accent that learners are exposed to is not necessarily accurate Therefore the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation acquisition is likely to increase in the inadequate language environment
Additionally schools and teachers have not fully realized the importance of English pronunciation at every stage of English teaching resulting in the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation that cannot be easily adjusted The lack of phonetic courses results in students not getting practical phonetic practice Besides Yang (2017 pp133134) points out that learners do not pay attention to imitation and practice in the process of learning English pronunciation which will lead to the dislocation of theoretical knowledge and practical ability When acquiring the English phonetic knowledge many learners are limited to their own reading and reciting text words and fail to follow and imitate the pronunciation of the native speakers and make a connection between mother language and foreign language Therefore they can neither solve the problem of lacking knowledge of English pronunciation nor get rid of the negative transfer of Cantonese on English phonetics acquisition
43 Coping Strategies of Cantonese on English Phonetic Acquisition
First in view of the common pronunciation mistakes of English learners whose native language is Cantonese mentioned above the most important thing is to increase the practice of similar phonemes that Cantonese learners may easily confuse Hence as Zhang (2017 pp149152) and her partners say both schools and teachers should pay attention to learning of English pronunciation In order to avoid the effects of negative transfer on learners’ English pronunciation it is suggested that teachers help students summarize the pronunciation characteristics of similar phonemes such as v and w r and l and compare them in aspects such as places of articulation the tightness of oral muscles the opening and closing degree of the oral cavity and so on As long as learners effectively eliminate the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation they can learn English pronunciation more easily and improve their pronunciation more effectively
Second it is advisable for students to learn pronunciation with illustration In fact a lot of learners do not observe places of articulation of each phoneme Hence they actually do not know the exact way of pronunciation of them To solve this problem teachers can illustrate diagrams of places of articulation of each vowel and consonant to students so that students can have the most intuitive understanding of the correct way of pronunciation of each phoneme Fan (2019 pp1516) argues that when learning a foreign language understanding the articulatory organs can help learners master the accurate pronunciation of this foreign language scientifically and objectively Take r as an example since there is no such phoneme in Cantonese teachers can help students better understand the difference between r and l by showing the pronunciation illustration and explain the correct articulation of r so as to reduce the effect of negative transfer of Cantonese on English pronunciation
Last but not least the most effective method is that students should imitate more of the pronunciation of native speakers They can practice by listening to English news English songs or watching English movies again and again Besides schools can organize various forms of phonetic and pronunciation learning activities such as English film and television dubbing and English speech contests and so on By doing so schools can provide more channels for students to be aware of their pronunciation problems so as to acquire the pronunciation of English be more accurate Additionally the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on the acquisition of English pronunciation will be reduced effectively
Conclusion
Based on the theory of language transfer this paper discusses the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English phonetic acquisition the factors that lead to the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation acquisition and the effective copying strategies to solve the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English phonetic acquisition
Since different pronunciations belong to two different language systems some of consonants and vowels in English and Cantonese are similar while others have their own unique pronunciation According to language transfer theory transferring an L1 feature that is really different from the L2 results in negative transfer and it may make the L2 expression difficult to understand Negative transfer obstructs second language acquisition resulting in language errors and learning difficulties Affected by their mother tongue learners in Guangdong are prone to transfer the pronunciation of Cantonese to English resulting in negative transfer The common mistakes that students in Guangdong have in terms of pronunciation include first they fail to distinguish between long and short vowels second they tend to elide part of certain diphthong third they fail to distinguish similar consonants and pronounce other phonemes instead fourth they habitually elide the end of a word when reading phrases and sentences In general the main problem is that students’ places of articulation of vowels and consonants are incorrect which may lead to pronunciation errors or incorrect elision
Both internal and external factors contribute to the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation Internal factors refer to the different composition of Cantonese phonetic system and that of English as well as the learners’ lack of knowledge of English phonemes That means that students cannot relate some phonemes to Cantonese The external factors refer to the language environment where the learners pay less attention to the development of English pronunciation curriculum and could not get the correct pronunciation input
In view of these two factors coping strategies can be proposed from the following two perspectives From the perspective of learners themselves they should imitate more of the pronunciation of native speakers At the same time learners should increase the practice of similar phonemes that Cantonese learners may easily confuse and summarize the pronunciation characteristics of similar phonemes with teachers’ help Only by overcoming the mental stereotype of mother tongue and face up to the negative transfer of Cantonese can they master the English pronunciation better
From the perspective of teachers and schools phonetics teaching should be attached importance to Teaching pronunciation with illustration diagrams of places of articulation of each vowel and consonant can help Cantonese students have the most intuitive understanding of the correct way of pronunciation of each phoneme In addition teachers should not only provide correct language input to improve English learning but also encourage Cantonese learners to listen imitate and practice more Last but not least various forms of pronunciation learning activities can also be organized to provide learners with environment for multilingual communication and create a good language environment such as English film and television dubbing and English speech contests and so on It is hoped that the proposed suggestions can effectively reduce the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on students’ English phonetic acquisition and have a positive impact
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Appendix Research Questions for Pronunciation
Part I Please read the following words aloud
1 food foot seat sit eat it short shot
2 car cup bag bed loud video pace base
3 save safe police please this these bother harm
4 cheap jeep hats hands low know peel small
5 where air year ear speak start fly fry
6 play blank class glass sure tour tree toy
7 dry pray brain cream green bird burger oil
8 shrink threat congratulation exaggeration celebrate
Part II Please read the following phrases aloud
1 credit card very worry
2 usually very shy not at all
3 next door stop nonsense
4 work out last week
5 take a good care of a matter of fact
Part III Please read the following sentences aloud
1 There are some delicious fish on the dish
2 I had a bad cold and had to lie in bedroom yesterday
3 He collected many valuable stamps
4 My friend made an excuse to go downstairs
5 Both health and wealth are worthwhile things
6 A busy bee begins a busy day
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On the Influence and Coping Strategies of Dialect on English Phonetic Acquisition from the Perspective of Language Transfer A Case Study of Cantonese in Guangdong
On the Influence and Coping Strategies of Dialect on English Phonetic Acquisition from the Perspective of Language Transfer A Case Study of Cantonese in Guangdong
Abstract
The teaching in phonetics has always been one of the biggest problems in English teaching in China For learners in Guangdong due to the influence of Cantonese as their mother tongue students’ English pronunciation is not accurate which brings certain difficulties to their English learning This is also one of the reasons why middle school students lose interest and confidence in English learning Therefore it is necessary to find out the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation
To investigate the English pronunciation performance of Cantonese students a test was carried out Eightyseven middle school students from Guangzhou and Zhuhai participated in the pronunciation test The results showed that students could not distinguish similar monophthongs and consonants Besides they pronounced diphthongs incompletely and there was a problem of eliding the end of a syllable when reading phrases and sentences Generally speaking students in Guangdong have a good command of English intonation The main problem is the pronunciation of vowels and consonants which can lead to mispronunciation or elision
The main problems are that the pronunciation of vowels and consonants are not in place which may lead to pronunciation errors or incorrect elision The negative transfer of Cantonese to English pronunciation can be caused by several factors The first one is that the composition of Cantonese phonetic system and that of English is different which means that students cannot relate some phonemes to Cantonese Second students do not have enough knowledge of English phonemes Third students do not get the correct language input in the specific language environment
Keywords negative transfer phonetic acquisition Cantonese English pronunciation
迁移理视角方言英语语言教学影响策
——广东区粤语例
摘
语音教学直国开展英语教学问题广东区学生说受粤语影响学生英语发音够准确英语学带定困难时中学生英语学失兴趣失信心原找出粤语英语发音产生负迁移影响必
调查粤语学生英语发音力作者邀请87名广州珠海中学生进行语音测试研究结果表明学生法分辨部分相似单元音辅音发音双元音发音完整朗读短语句子时存吞音问题总体说粤语区学生英语语调基位问题元音辅音发音位容易造成发音错误者吞音
导致粤语英语发音产生负迁移作原种第粤语语音体系英语语音体系组成部分音素法形成第二学生没掌握英语音素相关知识第三学生没特定语言环境中正确语言输入
关键词：负迁移语音粤语英语发音
CONTENTS
Abstract Ⅰ
摘 Ⅱ
Introduction 1
1 Research Background 2
11 Statement of the Problem 2
12 Research Questions 3
13 Purposes and Limitations of the Study 3
2 Language Transfer Theory 5
3 Methodology 6
31 Material Tested 6
32 Subjects 6
33 Research Instruments and Procedures 6
4 Results and Discussions 8
41 Results 8
411 Failure to Distinguish Similar Monophthongs 8
412 Incomplete Pronunciation of Certain Diphthongs 9
413 Failure to Distinguish Certain Consonants 9
414 Elision of the End of a Syllable 10
42 Factors Leading to Negative Transfer of Cantonese 11
421 Internal Factors 11
422 External Factors 13
43 Coping Strategies of Cantonese on English Phonetic Acquisition 14
Conclusion 16
References 18
Appendix 19
Acknowledgments 20
Introduction
The theory of language transfer plays an important role in second language acquisition which is very useful to help learners master the target language It is common that dialect will have a negative transfer effect on language learning and affect the accuracy of pronunciation Nowadays in China the teaching of speaking and English pronunciation has always been one of the most serious problems in English teaching Many students speak English with neither fluency nor accuracy which will definitely bring great difficulties and obstacles to English teaching in China In Guangdong learners who are affected by Cantonese find it difficult to master the correct English pronunciation
By comparing and studying the phonetic differences between English and Cantonese learners can not only get to know the English intonation and pronunciation better but also gradually correct the mispronunciation affected by Cantonese dialects with teachers’ help Additionally this paper aims at reducing the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation learning and playing a positive role in English phonetics acquisition in the future on that basis Based on the theory of language transfer the paper compares the differences in pronunciation and intonation between English and Cantonese analyzes the factors leading to the negative transfer and proposes coping strategies as well
This paper is mainly written with data analysis method and induction method to carry out a phonetic test around for the paper and carries out retrieval and data collection of relevant literature It aims to help learners in Guangdong better avoid negative transfer and learn English better
The problems of Cantonese students in terms of English pronunciation are mainly manifested in the following aspects (1) They cannot distinguish between long vowels and short vowels (2) They tend to elide part of a diphthong (3) They fail to distinguish similar consonants and pronounce other phonemes instead (4) They habitually elide the end of a word when they read a sentence Based on these problems this paper analyses the English pronunciation of the students in grade eight in Guangzhou Avans educational institution and Zhuhai Doumen No2 middle school and the author analyzes the reasons for the negative transfer of English pronunciation caused by Cantonese
1 Research Background
11 Statement of the Problem
English belongs to IndoEuropean language while Cantonese belongs to SinoTibetan language Since Cantonese and English belong to two different language systems there are few similarities between them It is common that most learners in Guangdong speak English with a slight Cantonese accent due to the negative transfer of their mother tongue just as foreign learners learn Chinese This is the same case as mentioned in He’s paper (2017 pp 2122) which indicates that second language learners cannot speak the language as well as speakers of the source language Consequently it is necessary to find the right way to assist English learning so as to effectively reduce the negative impact of Cantonese on English pronunciation acquisition People who speak English use different intonations patterns to express ideas and emotions It is difficult for the learners whose mother tongue is Cantonese to use English intonation correctly
In recent years with the continuous improvement of English teaching level in middle schools most students have a better knowledge of English including pronunciation However in the actual teaching process there are still problems in learners’ English pronunciation which need much attention and guidance In fact after entering the university most students except English majors do not have English pronunciation courses It is worth noting that a certain number of college students have a tendency of fossilization in English phonetics acquisition that is the interlanguage of second language learners will stop developing to some extent before it is consistent with the target language so that learners cannot fully acquire the target language According to Liu (2013 p11) this is mainly because they have formed wrong pronunciation and bad pronunciation habits in middle school which prevents them from further improving their comprehensive English to a great extent
In terms of pronunciation of vowels some Cantonese learners confuse long vowels with short vowels They often pronounce English long vowels not long enough while others pronounce short vowels not short enough In addition some learners failed to pronounce the second vowel sound when they pronounce English diphthongs In terms of the pronunciation of consonants learners prefer to replace consonants in words with phonemes that are native to Cantonese They cannot tell the difference between English consonants and that of Cantonese Besides when reading a sentence some learners tend to elide the last syllable of the words Due to the influence of Cantonese pronunciation some students tend to lose confidence in learning English if they do not master the correct pronunciation They will be afraid of having English class let alone answering questions and reading aloud in English classes
12 Research Questions
Therefore in this study four problems are to be researched
(1) What is the situation of Cantonese students in English pronunciation
(2) What are the effects of negative transfer of Cantonese on English pronunciation
(3) Why do learners in Guangdong have problems in pronouncing English
(4) How can students reduce the negative transfer of Cantonese on English pronunciation
13 Purposes and Limitations of the Study
The aim of this paper is to find out the reasons why Cantonese has negative transfer effect on English pronunciation and propose coping strategies to reduce the negative transfer effect so as to improve students’ oral abilities After fully understanding and solving the basic problems of English pronunciation learners will have more confidence and interest in learning English In this case it can certainly help students memorize words and improve their English performance using pronunciation skills In addition this study is expected to provide references for English teachers to improve their phonetic teaching methods and attach importance to students’ phonetic teaching so as to help students to be competitive in English exams and daily communication
This study also has some limitations Firstly samples in this paper are not representative enough Only eighthgraders from two classes and a tutoring institution were selected for the study 87 students cannot represent all the students in Guangdong Students from Guangzhou and Zhuhai were selected for the test but they could not fully represent the English pronunciation level of Cantonese students in Guangdong Besides only 13 literature were selected for analysis in this study and other relevant literature cannot be fully classified and analyzed in this paper Moreover due to the special language environment in Guangdong the pronunciation of English is related to different accents and the education level of students However due to limited time the author only carried out a detailed study on the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation neglecting other relevant parts The doubtful points of this study can be used as the future research
2 Language Transfer Theory
According to Odlin (1989 p2) Transfer which is also called the crosslinguistic influence is the process of using knowledge of the first language in learning a second language The positive transfer of the mother tongue has a positive effect on learning target language while the negative transfer brings obstacles in the learning process
Yule (1985 p17) argues that transfer refers to the use of sounds expressions or structures from the first language when using a second language For example a Chinese speaker whose first language is Mandarin is more likely to say I first go in English because in Mandarin people are used to placing the adverb in front of the verb which is the opposite to that in English
If the first language has similar characteristics with the second language such as the same basic phonemes in pronunciation then learners can benefit from the positive transfer of the first language knowledge to second language For example Cantonese has the same consonants as English like b and p Hence students in Guangdong can easily distinguish big from pig when they learn the words
According to Wang (2000 p28) transferring an L1 feature that is really different form the L2 results in negative transfer and it may make the L2 expression difficult to understand In Cantonese syllablefinal plosives [p t k] are unreleased such as 劫 gip Therefore some of the Cantonese students tend to elide the consonant at the end of a syllable
Positive transfer promotes second language acquisition and produces correct and appropriate language Negative transfer obstructs second language acquisition resulting in language errors and learning difficulties
3 Methodology
31 Material Tested
To test the pronunciation performance of students in Guangdong a pronunciation test was designed The spoken test was based on a list of words short phrases and sentences (see in Appendix) to examine students’ pronunciation of vowels consonants and intonation
When performing the testing list students were asked to read the words phrases and sentences one by one at their normal speed Their performances were recorded and marked with True or False
32 Subjects
In this study there are two main subjects grade 8 students from Doumen No 2 Middle School in Zhuhai and middle school students from Avans educational institution in Guangzhou Here are functions of the two subjects
Students in these two areas play the most significant role in this research because the present situation and analysis of English pronunciation are based on them In total 87 students require testing 15 of them are in grade seven 62 of them are in grade eight and the rest 10 students are in grade nine Among them 43 students are from Guangzhou 41 students are from Zhuhai 2 students are from Foshan and only one is from Zhongshan
33 Research Instruments and Procedures
To test students’ existing pronunciation competence they were asked to read the list one by one on the condition that they did not know which features would be tested The author kept notes with T or F based on students’ performance
The list of pronunciation test was distributed to the students before the test and they were given a little time to make themselves familiar with the materials They were well acquainted with the content since unfamiliar words would not be seen on the list However since the reading speed cannot be unified some students were asked to read the words two times at a slower or quicker speed
Judgments were made at once when students read the list The materials are shown in appendix and the project specification table (Table One) is presented below Their results will be marked as T or F
Table 1 Items Specifications of Pronunciation
Categories
The Indicators
Rating Criteria
monophthong
food vs foot uː and ʊ
seat vs sit eat vs it iː and ɪ
short vs shot ɔː and ɒ
bird vs burger ɜː and ə
car vs cup ɑː and ʌ
bag vs bed æ and e
Can they distinguish the certain monophthong
diphthong
pace base eɪ
fry dry aɪ
loud out aʊ
low know əʊ
oil toy ɔɪ
where air eə
near ear ɪə
sure vs tour ʊə
How well do they pronounce the diphthong
consonants
pace vs base p and b
take vs dish t and d
class vs glass k and g
safe vs save f and v
police vs please s and z
think vs bother θ and ð
dish vs usually ʃ and ʒ
cheap vs exaggeration t and d
hats vs hands ts and dz
tree vs dry tr and dr
harm vs low h and l
pray vs matter r and m
green vs thing n and ŋ
yesterday vs wealth j and w
Can they distinguish the certain consonants
4 Results and Discussions
41 Results
Since the students in Guangdong have finished learning International Phonetic Alphabet in primary school the pronunciation habits of the eighthgrade students are basically fixed which can ensure that the study is carried out smoothly Table Two is the result of the test based on students’ reading words phrase and sentences The results showed that 76 of the students mispronounced words and could not distinguish one consonant to another clearly 32 of the students could not tell the difference clearly between long and short vowels
Table 2 Results of English Pronunciation Test
Items
Proportion of All Participants
Failure to Distinguish Similar Monophthongs
67
Incomplete Pronunciation of Certain Diphthongs
32
Failure to Distinguish Certain Consonants
76
The Elision of the End of the Syllable
39
According to the above data the common mistakes students had included substitution and incorrect elision shown in Table Three When reading some words affected by the transfer of mother tongue many students replaced the English phonemes with the Cantonese ones Besides some vowels and consonants at the end of the syllable were either exaggerated or elided due to the pronunciation of Cantonese
Table 3 Items Specification of Errors
Form of Errors
Proportion
Substitution
54
Incorrect Elision
46
The followings are the specific performance of negative transfer on English pronunciation by native Cantonese speakers
411 Failure to Distinguish Similar Monophthongs
As is shown in Table Four the highest error rate is the uː and ʊ The students could not tell the difference between the pronunciation of food and foot They read the two words almost without any difference Most students know the difference between long and short vowels but it is hard for them to make a difference when it comes to pronunciation
Table 4 Results of Monophthong Pronunciation
Monophthong
Percentage of Mispronunciations
uː and ʊ
29
iː and ɪ
11
ɔː and ɒ
7
ɜː and ə
4
ɑː and ʌ
3
æ and e
13
According the above data Cantonese learners tend to mix up phonemes such as iː and ɪ æ and e in the process of learning English long and short vowels
412 Incomplete Pronunciation of Certain Diphthongs
During the test most students had incomplete pronunciation and mispronounced the words with diphthongs They tended to ignore the last phoneme
Table 5 Results of Diphthong Pronunciation
Diphthong
Mispronunciation
Incorrect Elision
eɪ
1
aɪ
aʊ
1
2
əʊ
2
1
ɔɪ
2
4
eə
1
5
ɪə
1
2
ʊə
2
7
Taking the word tour for instance a few students pronounced it as tuː that is they only pronounced the first half of the diphthongs When they read the sentence There are some delicious fish on the dish they read the word there as they Besides students mispronounced the diphthong aʊ in the word down as ʌ The Cantonese learners were more likely to pronounce it as ʌ which was confused with the word done
413 Failure to Distinguish Certain Consonants
As is shown in the Table Six most students had difficulties in pronouncing the word with v z θ and r When they read the words they tended to use the phonemes that Cantonese had to replace those unfamiliar consonants in English
Table 6 Results of Consonant Pronunciation
Consonant
Proportion of Errors
p and b
t and d
k and g
f and v
15
s and z
11
θ and ð
19
ʃ and ʒ
7
t and d
2
ts and dz
7
tr and dr
h and l
1
r and m
9
n and ŋ
4
j and w
1
First in the test as many as 16 percent of the students mispronounced the word video as wɪdɪəʊ They replaced v with w Besides they couldn’t make a clear difference between save and safe
Second during the test about 10 percent of the students mispronounced bedroom as bedluːm especially when they read the sentence I had a bad cold and had to lie in bedroom yesterday Some of them could correct the pronunciation when it was a single word In addition 9 percent of them failed to tell the difference between fry and fly According to the above data they tended to replace r with l when reading words or sentences
Third students mispronounced the consonant θ 19 percent of them mispronounced the word thing as sɪŋ They replaced θ with f or s Some of them could not distinguish s and z As a result 11 of the students could not tell the difference between police and please in the phonetic test
414 Elision of the End of a Syllable
In addition to students’ incorrect pronunciation of diphthongs they also elided the last part of the last syllable of a word when reading sentences When reading individual words they could generally pay attention to the last phoneme of a word However when reading the sentences aloud most of them could not guarantee the integrity of the sentences Here are the results of the pronunciation of phrases and sentences (Table Seven)
Table 7 Results of the Pronunciation of Phrases and Sentences
Phrase and Sentences
Mispronunciation of Words
Incorrect Elision
credit card very worry
2
1
usually very shy not at all
4
3
next door stop nonsense
1
work out last week
10
take a good care of a matter of fact
2
There are some delicious fish on the dish
6
1
I had a bad cold and had to lie in bedroom yesterday
10
2
He collected many valuable stamps
2
7
My friend made an excuse to go downstairs
2
12
Both health and wealth are worthwhile things
19
A busy bee begins a busy day
According to the results shown above 39 percent of the students elided the end of a syllable when reading complete sentences When the end of a word is a plosive students tended to elide it When they read the sentence My friend made an excuse to go downstairs 12 percent of them elided d in the words friend and made Besides another common mistake that students had was the k of the phrase work out They elided k in the word work as well None of the students mispronounced the single word However when work is put into a phrase 10 percent of them omitted the plosive of k when pronouncing it
42 Factors Leading to the Negative Transfer of Cantonese
421 Internal Factors
According to the language transfer theory if there is no background knowledge of the target language the correct pronunciation cannot be mastered which will inevitably lead to negative transfer Zhang (2016 p4) points out that if learners do not analyze and summarize the differences between Cantonese and English they will not be able to find the key points that need close attention to and they will not be able to effectively enhance their English pronunciation At present in the process of practicing English pronunciation many students tend to overlook the correct place and position of articulation of English vowels and consonants that is the position of the tip of the tongue oral muscle control and so on Consequently many learners will take it for granted to use the pronunciation habits in their mother tongue forming negative transfer influence resulting in mispronunciation
First negative effect on English monophthongs English has long and short vowels while Cantonese monophthongs do not Ge (2019 pp1618) points out that to pronounce long vowels the oral muscles need to show a tight state On the contrary the mouth muscles should be relaxed for short vowels For those students from Guangdong who are easily influenced by their first language Cantonese the main cause for their mispronunciation is that they cannot control the tightness of oral muscles because Cantonese monophthongs are not distinguished by the length of the vowel
Second negative transfer on diphthongs Gimson (1980 pp3132) thinks that the English diphthongs need to be slid from one vowel to another when pronouncing Usually the first vowel is pronounced clear and strong The second is pronounced short There is no significant change in the process Since there is no diphthong corresponding to English in Cantonese students can only pronounce the English diphthongs according to the unit sounds in Cantonese resulting in incomplete pronunciation of English diphthongs This is consistent with what Zhai and Zhao (2015 pp1720) proposed in their paper In the process of learning English pronunciation there are usually situations like a phoneme that needs to be pronounced being elided which also reflects the negative transfer effect of dialects on English pronunciation acquisition
Third negative transfer on consonants In learning the second language the knowledge of Cantonese that learners master will lead to negative transfer on the second language due to the lack of knowledge of the target language resulting in errors on English phonetic acquisition Because some English consonants do not have their Cantonese counterpart students in Guangdong tend to replace these consonants with similar Cantonese ones For instance the consonant w in English is basically the same as that in Cantonese However there is no v in Cantonese Therefore when Cantonese students learn the English consonant v they cannot find the corresponding pronunciation position Consequently it is very likely for them to confuse the two consonants Besides since the consonant r does not exist in Cantonese some students find it hard to pronounce it and hence they replace it with the similar voiced consonant l such as the word livingroom ˈlɪvɪŋ luːm Additionally some students were confused by n and l in Cantonese which will obviously affect their pronunciation in English Therefore these students are more likely to pronounce the word night as lait and like as naik Odlin (1989 pp35) emphasizes that language transfer is a crosslanguage influence He says that It is a common phenomenon in second language acquisition that learners are more likely to use similar phonemes in the native language system instead of those in the second language Another case of negative transfer on consonants is that Cantonese does not have θ and ð so that some students tend to use s to replace θ and use d to replace ð For example Cantonese students are prone to pronounce the word together as təˈɡedər Moreover In English the vocal cords need to vibrate when pronouncing z However students in Guangdong do not have this kind of pronunciation habit The consonant z is a voiceless one in Cantonese That is the reason why so many Cantonese students will replace z with s in speaking English They tend to pronounce the word music as ˈmjusɪk
Lastly in terms of negative transfer resulting in the elision of the end of a syllable it is because in Cantonese plosives at the end of a syllable are unreleased Hence some students are prone to omit them when speaking English such as the word 雀 zoek It is common for them to ignore the last syllable of the word when they are pronouncing Kong (2016 pp911) says that Influenced by the negative transfer of L1 and L2 Guangdong students either avoid pronouncing plosives or use the glottal stop of their mother tongue instead of English plosives Another cause is that most of the words in Cantonese are monosyllabic the learners are not used to multiple syllable pronunciation in English
422 External Factors
Besides the internal factors there are external factors of negative transfer on English pronunciation such as language environment and the lack of emphasis of language courses which lead to negative transfer of Cantonese on English phonetic acquisition
All the students around speak Cantonese then learners will be easily affected by this which is not conducive to the creation of an Englishspeaking environment Besides most English teachers in Guangdong are not native English speakers Therefore the English accent that learners are exposed to is not necessarily accurate Therefore the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation acquisition is likely to increase in the inadequate language environment
Additionally schools and teachers have not fully realized the importance of English pronunciation at every stage of English teaching resulting in the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation that cannot be easily adjusted The lack of phonetic courses results in students not getting practical phonetic practice Besides Yang (2017 pp133134) points out that learners do not pay attention to imitation and practice in the process of learning English pronunciation which will lead to the dislocation of theoretical knowledge and practical ability When acquiring the English phonetic knowledge many learners are limited to their own reading and reciting text words and fail to follow and imitate the pronunciation of the native speakers and make a connection between mother language and foreign language Therefore they can neither solve the problem of lacking knowledge of English pronunciation nor get rid of the negative transfer of Cantonese on English phonetics acquisition
43 Coping Strategies of Cantonese on English Phonetic Acquisition
First in view of the common pronunciation mistakes of English learners whose native language is Cantonese mentioned above the most important thing is to increase the practice of similar phonemes that Cantonese learners may easily confuse Hence as Zhang (2017 pp149152) and her partners say both schools and teachers should pay attention to learning of English pronunciation In order to avoid the effects of negative transfer on learners’ English pronunciation it is suggested that teachers help students summarize the pronunciation characteristics of similar phonemes such as v and w r and l and compare them in aspects such as places of articulation the tightness of oral muscles the opening and closing degree of the oral cavity and so on As long as learners effectively eliminate the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation they can learn English pronunciation more easily and improve their pronunciation more effectively
Second it is advisable for students to learn pronunciation with illustration In fact a lot of learners do not observe places of articulation of each phoneme Hence they actually do not know the exact way of pronunciation of them To solve this problem teachers can illustrate diagrams of places of articulation of each vowel and consonant to students so that students can have the most intuitive understanding of the correct way of pronunciation of each phoneme Fan (2019 pp1516) argues that when learning a foreign language understanding the articulatory organs can help learners master the accurate pronunciation of this foreign language scientifically and objectively Take r as an example since there is no such phoneme in Cantonese teachers can help students better understand the difference between r and l by showing the pronunciation illustration and explain the correct articulation of r so as to reduce the effect of negative transfer of Cantonese on English pronunciation
Last but not least the most effective method is that students should imitate more of the pronunciation of native speakers They can practice by listening to English news English songs or watching English movies again and again Besides schools can organize various forms of phonetic and pronunciation learning activities such as English film and television dubbing and English speech contests and so on By doing so schools can provide more channels for students to be aware of their pronunciation problems so as to acquire the pronunciation of English be more accurate Additionally the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on the acquisition of English pronunciation will be reduced effectively
Conclusion
Based on the theory of language transfer this paper discusses the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English phonetic acquisition the factors that lead to the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation acquisition and the effective copying strategies to solve the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English phonetic acquisition
Since different pronunciations belong to two different language systems some of consonants and vowels in English and Cantonese are similar while others have their own unique pronunciation According to language transfer theory transferring an L1 feature that is really different from the L2 results in negative transfer and it may make the L2 expression difficult to understand Negative transfer obstructs second language acquisition resulting in language errors and learning difficulties Affected by their mother tongue learners in Guangdong are prone to transfer the pronunciation of Cantonese to English resulting in negative transfer The common mistakes that students in Guangdong have in terms of pronunciation include first they fail to distinguish between long and short vowels second they tend to elide part of certain diphthong third they fail to distinguish similar consonants and pronounce other phonemes instead fourth they habitually elide the end of a word when reading phrases and sentences In general the main problem is that students’ places of articulation of vowels and consonants are incorrect which may lead to pronunciation errors or incorrect elision
Both internal and external factors contribute to the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on English pronunciation Internal factors refer to the different composition of Cantonese phonetic system and that of English as well as the learners’ lack of knowledge of English phonemes That means that students cannot relate some phonemes to Cantonese The external factors refer to the language environment where the learners pay less attention to the development of English pronunciation curriculum and could not get the correct pronunciation input
In view of these two factors coping strategies can be proposed from the following two perspectives From the perspective of learners themselves they should imitate more of the pronunciation of native speakers At the same time learners should increase the practice of similar phonemes that Cantonese learners may easily confuse and summarize the pronunciation characteristics of similar phonemes with teachers’ help Only by overcoming the mental stereotype of mother tongue and face up to the negative transfer of Cantonese can they master the English pronunciation better
From the perspective of teachers and schools phonetics teaching should be attached importance to Teaching pronunciation with illustration diagrams of places of articulation of each vowel and consonant can help Cantonese students have the most intuitive understanding of the correct way of pronunciation of each phoneme In addition teachers should not only provide correct language input to improve English learning but also encourage Cantonese learners to listen imitate and practice more Last but not least various forms of pronunciation learning activities can also be organized to provide learners with environment for multilingual communication and create a good language environment such as English film and television dubbing and English speech contests and so on It is hoped that the proposed suggestions can effectively reduce the negative transfer effect of Cantonese on students’ English phonetic acquisition and have a positive impact
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Appendix Research Questions for Pronunciation
Part I Please read the following words aloud
1 food foot seat sit eat it short shot
2 car cup bag bed loud video pace base
3 save safe police please this these bother harm
4 cheap jeep hats hands low know peel small
5 where air year ear speak start fly fry
6 play blank class glass sure tour tree toy
7 dry pray brain cream green bird burger oil
8 shrink threat congratulation exaggeration celebrate
Part II Please read the following phrases aloud
1 credit card very worry
2 usually very shy not at all
3 next door stop nonsense
4 work out last week
5 take a good care of a matter of fact
Part III Please read the following sentences aloud
1 There are some delicious fish on the dish
2 I had a bad cold and had to lie in bedroom yesterday
3 He collected many valuable stamps
4 My friend made an excuse to go downstairs
5 Both health and wealth are worthwhile things
6 A busy bee begins a busy day
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