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Prounciation Problems in ChinaChinese students of English as a second language seem to have pronunciation problems with both some of the vowels and consonants. This would be because the chinese language does not have all of the sounds of the English language, such as the ?th? sound in both ?then? and ?thin?, just as English does not have all the sounds in the chinese language. ?For example /b/, /d/, and /g/ are voiced in English, but not chinese, /v/ is absent in chinese, as is /n/ and /z/? (Plump 2). Vowels As mentioned before, the English language has sounds that the chinese language does not and vice versa. The same vowels, in particular, are not existent in every language. ?Mandarin uses fewer vowel contrasts than English, therefore English vowel sounds are closer together in terms of articulation? (Plump 2). A few examples of vowels that students have a problem pronouncing are /i/, /e/, and /ae/. The reason is because ?/i/, /e/, and /ae/ do not distinguishably make any difference to the most of chinese students. Words like ?bit?, ?bet? and ?bat? will be pronounced in the same sound by them? (ITTT). Consonants chinese students of English often tend to get the /r/ and /l/ sound confused in pronunciation. ?There is /r/ in mandarin, which means students make mistakes on this sound even when they learn mandarin. In this case, they will say ?lat? instead of ?rat?. Therefore, without context, ?right? and ?light? will sound the same? (ITTT) . The reason behind this is that because they don?t have these sounds in their native languages, they have never heard them before, and thus as they are older and trying to learn English they are having difficulty hearing and understanding the correct sound that they are trying to imitate to speak English correctly. ?Most chinese learners of English have difficulty hearing the difference between the consonants "r" and "l" and will typically pronounce "right" and "rice," for example, as "light" and "lice."? (Foreign Teachers Guide to Living and working in china) Other consonants that English students in china have problems pronouncing is the ?th? in ?thanks? or ?they?. Often ?thanks? is pronounced as ?sanks? and ?they? is often pronounced as ?day? which causes confusion unless in a specified context. Solutions There are multiple solutions to improve pronunciation mistakes, but, as expected, it may not turn every student into a native speaker of English. While one can explain positions of the tongue and mouth in producing these foreign sounds, a student may not be able to produce the sound exactly like a native speaker of English. A full table of the 27 most common pronunciation mistakes and the solution as to how to fix them are on the next page provided by Ted Power: English Language Learning and Teaching. In general, the best beginning to correcting these errors is to be aware of them and do research of the common problems in pronunciation of English from the students? native language. After being aware we can use that knowledge added together with some research on linguistics and pronunciation, and we are one step further to being better teachers of pronunciation to English students from china. Ted Power: English Language Learning and Teaching FIX PROBLEM ENGLISH SOUND - COMMON ERROR - Voiced. Friction. Tongue between teeth. /ð/ "they" /d/ "day" Move tongue to a lower front position. /æ/ "man" /e/ "men" Keep tongue front & low and jaws apart. /æ/ "ran" /?/ "run" Keep tongue front & low and jaws apart. /æ/ "cat" /?:/ "cart" Keep mouth round and sound short. /?/ "not" /?:/ "nought" Keep mouth round and tongue back. /?/ "God" /?/ "good" Back of tongue high. Lips tightly rounded. Long. /u:/ "fool" /?/ "full" Tongue low central. Lips relaxed. /?/ "cup" Tongue more central. Lips relaxed. /?/ "cup" /æ/ "cap" Voiced. Vibration. Trap air with lips. /b/ "bill" /p/ "pill" Voiced. Friction with top teeth & bottom lip. /v/ "van" /f/ "fan" Voiced. Friction with top teeth & bottom lip. /v/ "vet" /w/ "wet" Spread lips more and keep tongue high. /i:/ "seat" /?/ "sit" Voiceless. Friction. Tongue between teeth. /?/ "thin" /s/ "sin" Quickly push air from throat out of mouth. /h/ "hot" "ch" in "loch" Voiced. Friction. Tongue between teeth. /ð/ "clothe" /z/ "close" /z/ Tip of tongue behind top teeth. /d/ "made" /t/ "mate" Voiced: tip of tongue behind top teeth. Friction. /z/ "rise" /s/ "rice" Voiceless. Friction. Front of tongue to palate. /?/ "push" Unvoiced: Tip to alveolar. Front to palate. /?/ "cherry" Voiced: Tip to alveolar. Front to palate. /?/ "wage" Voiced stop: back of tongue to back roof. /?/ + /g/ "thing" /?/ + /k/ "think" Tongue touches alveolar ridge. Nasal. /n/ "spoon" /?/ "spool" Contact. Brief "schwa" after release. /?/ "tall" (dark l) Tongue touches hard palate. /l/ "light" (clear) /r/ "right" Sides of tongue to back teeth. Tip points up. /r/ "right" /l/ "light" Voiceless. Friction. Tongue between teeth. /?/ "thin" /t/ "tin" Bibliography: Foreign Teachers Guide to Living and Working in china. ?Difficulties Faced By chinese EFL students?. http://middlekingdomlife.com/guide/teaching-english-chinese-students.htm ITTT Article URL: http://www.tesolcourse.com/tesol-course-articles/pronuniciation-problems/article-01-pp.php Plump, Alison M. ?Language Group Specific Fact Sheet: Mandarin chinese Speakers? International Charter School, Pawtucket. October 17, 2007. http://www.ric.edu/tesl/pdf/factsheet_mandarin.pdf Ted Power: English Language Learning and Teaching (http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/l1chinese.html)
