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普通话语音系统对中国学生英语(1)(2)

2013-11-02 01:02 3.3 Intonation
The differences between English and Chinese not only lie in different pronunciation, but also in their own different rhythm patterns, such as using a tone or accent to distinguish the semantics as well as various tones to indicate different characteristics of speaker’s attitude and manner. English is generally regarded as a intonation language, while Chinese is a tone language.[7]
In English, intonation is used to distinguish different types of sentences while in Chinese, only words -- not sentences -- have tone values. The pinyin system is designed to show these tones. Chinese has its own tonal system with a different number of tones .In Mandarin, there are four tones (plus a neutral tone) They are [8]

 

 

 

The first tone has a high level, the second tone is rising, the third tone is falling-rising and the fourth tone is falling.
A good example showing the tonal system of Mandarin Chinese is the sentence “ mmB m„ mƒ m” ( 妈妈骂马吗？ Does mother chide the horse?). Here the first word “mmB”(mother) has a high level tone for the first vowel and a neutral tone on the second vowel. The second word “m„”(chide) has a falling tone. The third word “mƒ”(horse) is falling-rising tone and the last “m”(question mood marker) is in rising tone.
For spoken English, tone is another important element that means the rise and fall of pitch in order to convey a range of meanings, emotions or situations. Intonation refers to the total pattern of pitch changes, i.e., the rising and falling of the voice when a person is speaking, within an utterance.
English has a number of intonation patterns which add conventionalized meanings to the utterance: question, statement, surprise, disbelief, sarcasm, teasing. Different tone of the speech is not only used to express different attitudes, feelings, but to vary degrees which affect the sentence itself ambiguous, for example: give a yes , sure, doubt, a different tone, on a completely different meaning.

You're going. (Statement)
You're going? (Question)
An important feature of English intonation is the use of an intonational accent to mark the focus of a sentence. Normally this focus accent goes on the last major word of the sentence, but it can come earlier in order to emphasize one of the earlier words or to contrast it with something else.
As English can be spoken correctly and naturally with the five intonation patterns: falling, rising, rising-falling tone, falling-rising and the level, it is the English intonation that makes English sound real English. The native English speakers are very sensitive to tone. For them, the most important thing is not what you say but how you say that counts. Many Chinese students are not too sensitive to the tone, or they do not know where and when the raising tone is adopted, and the falling tone too. Therefore, when they read out an English passage, they may read every sentence in the fixed falling tone from the beginning to the end, which sounds particularly unnatural.
Intonation can be used to convey our feelings and attitudes. For instance, the same sentence can be said in different ways, which might be labeled "happy", "grateful", "angry", "bored", and so on. Usually, intonation units with high heads sound more lively, interesting than those with low heads. In speech, people often use intonation to focus on different purpose.
For example:
(1)  A：Jean，can you bring me the newspaper？
B：Sorry？（& ）
(2)   A：Jean，can you bring me the newspaper？
B：Sorry．（ ( ）
If Jean says “Sorry” in the rising tone，she means that “I didn't hear you．Could you say that again，please？” In dialogue (2)，Jean says“Sorry” in the falling tone，and she means that she refuses to help.
A few generalizations are often made here: the falling intonation is said to be more often associated with completeness and definiteness, and people often use the falling tone to indicate new information and rising tone (including falling-rising) to indicate "shared" of "given" information; the rising intonation is more often associated with incompleteness and uncertainty or questioning; The falling-rising is said to have feelings of hesitation, contrast, reservation or doubt. （转载自中国科教评价网www.nseac.com ）
In informal speech, for example, we may hear:
（1）    They're coming to(morrow, (aren't they?
（2）    They're coming to(morrow, &aren't they?
Here, The intonation used in question-tags can either have a rising tone or a falling tone: When it has a falling tone, as in (1), the speaker is comparatively certain that the information is correct, and simply asking for conformation, while the rising tone in (2) is said to indicate a lesser degree of certainty, so the speaker is asking for information.
4.Common errors
Owing to negative transfer causing by the differences between the Mandarin sound system and English sound system, it is inevitable that the Chinese EFL learners’ pronunciation is easily influenced by their mother tongue. And this will lead to some common pronunciation errors that decrease the effectiveness in the process of oral communication. Some of these common errors made by Chinese EFL learners are listed below:
(1) Errors caused by /i:/ &/ I/
/i:/ is a very common sound in many of the languages in the world. To pronounce the sound, the body of the tongue must be raised from its rest position and shifting it forward. And the /I/ sound is made by lowering the tongue slightly from the high-front position for /i:/. Besides, /i:/ is a much more tense sound than /I/. So these two sounds are differentiated by muscle tension in the root of the tongue.[9]
For many Chinese-speaking English learners, /i/ is a problem sound. It is always difficult for them to detect their difference in length and quality. To pronounce a correct /I/, you need to lower you tongue a little bit from the position for /i:/, and make it a lax sound instead of a tense sound like /i:/.
Very little difficulty should be encountered by the Chinese learners in the pronunciation of /i:/, as they can easily find its equivalent in Chinese sound system ,for example ,they usually pronounce it in the same way as the Chinese character “yŒ 异” ,which means difference in Chinese However, it is not always exactly true to pronounce it in this way ,especially when it is used to form an English word. For example, many student may shorten its pronunciation and mispronounced the English verb “eat”/i:t/as the demonstrative pronoun /It/, defying the fact that the pronunciation of /i:/ and / I/ are different in length. （转载自中国科教评价网www.nseac.com ）
The same errors also occur in the other pairs of vowels, such as /A/ --/e/, /C:/--/C/, /J:/--/J/, /[:/--/E/. The long vowels are shortened or the short vowels are usually pronounced longer .So as a result, “bad” will become “bed”, “guess” become “gas”, “odd” become “awed”, “pull” become “pool”, etc.
(2) Errors caused by /a:/&/Q/
Many Chinese EFL learners may get confused while pronouncing these two English sounds. Frequently, the long vowel /B:/ get shortened as the Chinese phonetic system doesn’t pay much attention to the length of the sounds. For example, the word “cup” sometimes may be pronounced the same as another word “carp”/ka:p/. Consequently, the native speakers usually get puzzled about what they have heard:
e.g.  --Where is the carp/ka:p/? It is swimming in the river.
--Where is the cup /kQp/? It is on the desk.
(3) Errors caused by /f/, /v/&/w/
/f/ and /v/ are labial-dental sounds. /f/ is voiceless and /v/ is voiced. They are fricative sounds that you may produce by forcing the breath stream between the upper teeth and lower lip. [10]  /f/ is not a problem sound for most of the Chinese as it can be pronounced similarly to the Chinese initial consonants( means shengmu in Chinese PinYin system) ,while /v/ may sometimes causes troubles as it only exists in some regional dialects in Chinese and is totally foreign to the Mandarin Chinese speakers. In most cases, it is easily replaced by another labial sound, such as /w/. For example, the word “vine /vain/ ”is mispronounced as “wine /wain/”. There is also a tendency to devoice the sound /v/, especially at the end of the words.
(4) Errors caused by /r/&/l/
/r/ is a difficult sound for many Chinese speakers. The important thing about the articulation of /r/ is that the tongue is slightly curled backwards with the tip raised. The /l/ phoneme is typically pronounced with potential airflow around the sides of the tongue. In pronunciation, you produce it by dropping the sides of the tongue and allowing air to escape around the sides. 中国大学排名
The difficulties mainly come in two ways. Some use the [r] sound in Mandarin Chinese sound system ,such as “rI”(日) ,as a substitute, which sounds more like a fricative than an approximant. The substitution of a flap-r, which sounds more like a /l/ than /r/, is also common among the learners. Some can’t distinguish the difference between the two English sounds /r/ and /l/, which is also one of the English speech sounds that often causes trouble for Chinese learners. When learners encountered difficulties in pronouncing the sound/r/, they will naturally turn to /l/, e.g. row /r[u/---low/l[u/  
For many Chinese students especially for those from dialect-region, sometimes they may fail to tell the sound /l/ from /n/.In fact ,it is rather difficult to correct their mispronunciation by explaining the articulation. And there is a good way to make the students distinguish /n/ and /l/ --- to hold one's nose between one's fingers and try to stop the flow of air out of one's nose: this can help a student just pronounce /n/ but not /l/, for /n/is a nasal sound.
(5) Errors caused by /s/, /z/, /W/ and /T/
Very little difficulties will the Chinese encounter while producing the English consonants /s/, as it can be pronounced similarly as the Chinese /s/.However ,problem usually comes when they are to distinguish the two sounds /s/ and /W/.
/s/ is a fricative sound that should be produced by forcing air between the tongue and the upper or lower front teeth. It is voiceless and is one of the most useful sounds in English because it has an important grammatical function in forming possessives (Mike's), third person singular, present tense verbs (says), and plurals (cakes), Although /z/, which is also a fricative sound, is not as frequent in English speech as /s/, it performs similar grammatical functions in marking possessive (Susan's), third person singular, present tense verbs (runs), and plurals (dogs). /z/ is voiced. Both /s/ and /z/ have been regarded as the most troublesome sounds in English, thought it is rarely a serious problem for the Chinese EFL learners once their grammatical roles are mastered.

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Errors also occur as most Chinese fail to perceive the English /W/--/T/ contrast. For example, “with”is usually mispronounced as /wiW/, different from the correct /wiT/.
5.Ways to eliminate the negative transfer
Good pronunciation should be one of the first things that you learn in English as it is regarded as an indicator of good knowledge of the language by most of the native speakers.  We can live without advanced vocabulary — we  can use simple words to say what you want to say. We can live without advanced grammar — we can use simple grammar structures instead. But there is no such thing as "simple pronunciation".So it is good pronunciation that makes our speech understandable.
Though the negative transfer is inevitable in the process of language learning, it more commonly exists in the early stage of learning and typically decreases as the learners develop familiarity with new language.[11] Then how to extricate the learners from the negative transfer?
(1)   For the teachers
For those teachers who are teaching English for Chinese EFL learners, one important thing they should do is trying to gain insight into the nature of language study and explore the reasons for those common errors made by the non-native speakers. Besides, teachers can make full use of the positive transfer from the mother tongue and minimize the influence of negative transfer.
The teacher sets a model (either the teacher's own model if he or she has a good pronunciation or a recording read by the native speakers) to the students to imitate. In this way, they got to know standard English pronunciation and intonation and then they could listen and follow the language for good English pronunciation.
Besides, the teacher can guide the students how to produce some troublesome sounds by comparing their characteristics with the sounds in the Mandarin sound system. Moreover, teachers can write down the students’ pronunciation mistakes and correcting them after detailed explanation. This will help students know where they mispronounced and then to correct them. （科教论文网 lw.NsEac.com编辑整理）
(2)   For the students
Experiences have shown us that teaching is the interaction of the teachers and the students, possible success and positive change can only be expected though the interaction. It is the most important for the students to reproduce the sounds themselves.[12]
Exploiting students to standard pronunciation and intonation by listening to authentic English materials is an important and effective way to better students’ pronunciation and intonation. If they could hear the sounds accurately and listen to them closely and carefully, they will undergo ear-training and constant listening to English native speakers or some equally good models, and then they could imitate the sounds heard effectively. The more they hear the differences between the various sounds of English language, the better they will articulate them And the soundest method in improving ones pronunciation is to practice as much as possible with proper guidance, especially when one wants to correct the mistakes in pronouncing some individual sound. It is better for a student to pronounce those sounds again and again, and if necessary, listen to the sound in his own speech and compare with that of others’ to correct his mistakes.
6.Conclusion
As can be seen from the above, Chinese and English sound system bear much differences in many aspects. To Chinese EFL learners，such theoretical knowledge is important and helpful. Accurate and beautiful pronunciation is also an important part of students’ linguistic competence. In a word, to eliminate the negative transfer of the Mandarin sound system to English pronunciation, what we should do is that on one hand, relevant theories are taught to guide students’ practice; on the other hand, the practice in turn consolidates their comprehension of that knowledge.
 
 
References
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（转载自http://www.ＮＳＥＡＣ.com中国科教评价网）

[2] Tang Xi. The Research on the Influence of Native Language to the Process of Interlanguage in SLA & Dealing Strategies [J]. Beijing:CELEA Journal Bimonthly Apr 2005,Vol 28 No 2,p101
[3] 李术华、白红梅.迁移与英语语音教学[J]. 鞍山师范学院学报，2004，6,1,p30
[4] 萧立明. 英汉比较研究与翻译[M]. 上海：上海外语教育出版社，2002,1,p50
[5] Lanlin Zhang. Language differences and communication: Contrastive analysis revisited [J]. the University of Western Ontario: WJGR, 2005,Vol. 12 (1),p118
[6] 同[5],p118
[7] 许高渝、王之光. 论二十世纪我国的英汉语音对比[J]. 浙江大学学报（人文社会科学版）.2002,9,5,p53
[8] 同[4],p21
[9]王桂珍.英语语音教程[M]. 北京：高等教育出版社，2000，7,p50
[10] 同[9],p23
[11] George Yule.语言研究[M]. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2000，8,p195
[12] He Liqin. Teaching English to EFL Students [J]. Journal of Qujing Normal College,1993, No.3,p29

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