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Common problems for learners of english in ChinaMost of the problems that english students in China encounter will be the same problems that most students will have, no matter what country they are from. I have found that pronunciation is one of the most difficult aspects for the Mandarin speaking chinese student who is learning english. The Merriam-Webster dictionaries describes pronunciation or ?to pronounce' as "to make the sound of a word or letter with your voice." Of course this task is rather easy for the average human, so we will look at the differences between the pronunciation of words in english and Mandarin. Stress, intonation and rhythm Stress, intonation, and rhythm play a big role in the way words are pronounced. The differences of Stress and intonation between these two languages can cause students to mispronounce words. english and Mandarin fall into two opposing rhythm categories, stress-timed and syllable-timed rhythm. Rhythm consists of different timing patterns among syllables. english will have a stress-timed rhythm, while Mandarin will have a syllable-timed rhythm. Stress-timed languages will have an uneven and changing number of unstressed syllables between the stressed syllables, which occur at regular intervals of time. With syllable-timed languages, each syllable is equally stressed and will take about the same amount of time to pronounce. In english, stress is used to express emotion, where as in Mandarin, stress is usually used to change the entire meaning of a word. The english language has more vowel sounds than chinese, which will result in the students having trouble pronouncing words with the letters R, L, and N. Reading and writing. Most chinese students will have trouble reading and writing the english language since the their language uses a logographic system instead of an alphabet. A logographic system uses symbols that represent words. Of course every student will have this problem, no matter what language they are learning. Reading and writing is a skill that can be developed through practice and repetition. Matching the written word or letter to the sound that it makes can be very beneficial to the students speaking skills. Although learning how to write as well as speak a new language at the same time will be a longer process, I believe that the student will have a better understanding of the language that they are trying to learn. The responsibility of the teacher is to assess the students to find the best way that they learn, and apply different methods to equally teach all the students in the class. Having an understanding of how your students learn and how they understand the things that are being spoken to them will come with experience. Teaching students how to properly pronounce words in english will take time and patients. Some students will learn better with repetition and practice, while others will learn better with games and other activities. Understanding how the english language is constructed is one of the most basic aspects of teaching english. Most of the problems students in China will encounter, while learning english, will be the same problems that most students will have, no matter what country they are from or what language they are learning. Having an open mind about how things are supposed to be done is important for a teacher and will benefit the students most.
