Teach English in Huangniupu Zhen - Baoji Shi

The main reason behind this article is to gain some knowledge and differences between English and Chinese languages as well as to clear out the major difficulties over pronunciation for Chinese learners with L1 background. Also how the Chinese language influences English pronunciation, what are the major barriers for speakers to listen and pronounce besides addressing these issues by breaking through the language features. Having a better understanding of where the difficulties come from, and being ready to address them will allow us to help student’s pronunciation improve much quicker. In China, despite people speak a variety of different languages and dialects; there are still some common accent features that sound equally familiar to a native English speaker. Here are some major differences between both languages that need to be addressed and how to improve pronunciation skill of a Chinese speaker; Chinese has a very different rhythm compared to English. It is a tone language, in which case a pitch can change the meaning of a word. Rising, falling, or steady tones indicate the meaning of a particular word or syllable. English, on the other hand, is an intonation language. There’s no individual tone for a specific word, however; how your tone and pitch used still might influence the meaning of the emotion expressed. Figuring out the difference between a question, a request, sarcasm, a joke, an emotional expression of a speaker often comes down to intonation in a day to day conversation in English communication and pronunciation. Giving students some examples of different contexts where we may express a sentence sincerely vs. sarcastically vs. as a question will get them used to hearing and saying the different tones. Fortunately, Chinese ESL students’ ears are finely tuned to tone, intonation in English will be straight-forward once students understand the way intonation effects what’s being communicated. Consonant blends are the combination of consonants that pronounced together without being separated by a vowel. They commonly are combined of two to three consonants that sounds together to make one sound. Sometimes, a consonant blend may contain a silent letter or a double letter. In Chinese, consonant blends don’t exist; therefore each consonant sound is attached to its own vowel sound. Consonant blend examples that are worth considering; bl–, cl–, fl–, gl–, pl–, sl-, br–, cr–, dr–, fr–, gr–,pr–, tr–, sc–, sk–, sm–, sn–, sp–, st–, sw–, tw– For example, if we are to teach how to pronounce a word “Blow” to a Chinese speaker we must explain the subject letter-by-letter (B-l-o-w) (blō) by pronouncing them slowly and emphasizing each consonant sound. If we pay more attention, the consonant ‘L’ might not be as clear as it is clustered and stressed rapidly right after a consonant ‘B’ sound. For a Chinese learner’s ear, this type of pronunciation might be received as “Buof”or “Bulow” with the letter “l” emphasized very softly as for the first time when they hear this sentence. Then we can increase the speed during the pronunciation drilling method as we put the words back together. We can then even compare the two different sounds between the sentences such as “Blow” and “Blue” in contrast letting students get more concrete results in effective pronunciation by drilling these similar consonant clusters with different meanings. Unfamiliar sounds for Chinese students are worth considering in teaching them for correct pronunciation. One of the most important and challenging sounds are “R” and “L”, R” and “V”, “Th”, “L” and “V” and “N” and “L” Because there is no exact equivalent to the “r” sound in Chinese, students will often replace it with the closest approximation that they have, which is the sound “l.” The difference in the positioning of the tongue between the “r” and the “l” sound with plenty of practice differentiating between the two will make them pronounce these letters correctly. “Th” is another sound that doesn’t exist in Chinese. The difference between the words breath, which has an unvoiced “th” and breathe, in which the “th” sound is voiced. So we should emphasize to them that they have to put their tongue between their teeth by showing them the difference between these two sounds slowly. Also having lists of words with voiceless and voiced “th,” and indicating the phonologic difference between these sounds will solve a huge amount of pronunciation issue with sound “Th”. “R” and “V” is another big confusion to address. For example; really becomes wewe, very becomes wawy, rice becomes lice, right becomes light and so on.. Double “ll” sounds are also very difficult for Chinese ESL students as they will habitually substitute an “n” sound for the “l” sound as they pronounce in English Foil becomes foin, fault becomes faunt , fall becomes fawn Finally nin English “ih” and “eh” vowel sounds are the 2 common vowel sounds Chinese students most often confused. The “ih” sound is mixed up with and “ee” sound, knit becomes neet, bit becomes beet, The “eh” sound is confused with an “ahe” sound, bed becomes bad and set becomes sat. Over this topic, I have come across the well-known mistakes in pronunciation done by Chines speakers with L1 background along with giving examples through how to overcome these pronunciation issues within the awareness, knowledge, and experience of being in China. In my honest opinion, either for Chinese learners of English or for English teachers who teach in China, this subject carries out a very crucial information on how to become aware and solve the pronunciation issues in China.