Teach English in Kangning Zhen - Luliang Shi

All languages have their peculiarities when it comes to pronunciation. However, while the way of articulation common for one language is easy to adapt to that of a different language (let’s say any two related Western European languages), others can be quite tricky to adjust (Russian->English, Chinese->English, etc.), thus making it hard or sometimes even impossible for some foreign language learners to utter particular foreign words properly. Some Chinese even blame provinces they come from sometimes for being unable to produce the word right, saying they simply CAN NOT, even referring to different types of oral cavity. A great excuse to refer to when actually it is only the lack of enough practice, time and effort invested in mastering it! No doubt differences in articulation, accents, stresses and/or even tones present in various languages might greatly impact the way a person belonging to a specific nation produces sounds of new/foreign language. However, with proper and timely problem detection, as well as working on it, we could improve a teaching and learning quality. In this essay, I am going to focus solely on problematic of Chinese English speakers’ pronunciation that I have witnessed so far. Let us say an ESL teacher teaches the word correctly, with students following the proper pronunciation and all, but at the following lesson they show up with distorted pronunciation of the same word. It may come from: A) a parent’s (who is trying to help the kid with learning) unfamiliarity with the language, or B) it might be taught so by local teachers or heard like that (owing to 50 students in one classroom and those sitting at the back rows simply cannot hear the teacher) at public institutions students attend(ed) for years. As they spend(t) more time at those institutions than at English training centers, they acquire or choose the pronunciation taught over there over what you drilled them on during your one or two hours of classes per week. Sometimes adult students even start to correct or argue with an experienced English teacher over the right pronunciation and it really takes days to prove them wrong, after they have checked all kinds of online dictionaries and made a thorough research on the issue. Ban of Chinese government to access western media, which would greatly facilitate the process of studying a foreign language by hearing “authentic” language and watching educational videos available online, does not make it easier for parents and students to pick up the right pronunciation as well. Another very simply explanation is phonics. Chinese simply do not have some of those two sounds put together, like “xt” from next, or ‘rt” - from short for example, thus mostly they ignore or can’t speak out those without much training, even when their command in English is of advanced level. There are two ways of “distorting” words and both can be quite confusing to the listener: A) most of the times those words sound VERY correct when taken separately (as shown in an example below), however, once linked to the sentence, the listener gets completely different idea from what the speaker originally implied. For instance: “I looked done”, instead of “I looked down”; B) sounds are mispronounced to the extent where it has no resemblance to any English word at all. Below is the example showing some VERY common word-mistakes of Chinese English speakers: AU mispronounced as: down->done / around->errand / EI mispronounced as: they->the[ðiː] / rain->[ri:n] / name->[næ:m] or [ni:m] / game->[gæm] / came->cam / change->[ʧænʤ] / say->see AI mispronounced as: my->[mɑː] / I->[ɑː] / like->luck OU mispronounced as: show->shoe XT/TS mispronounced as: next->nest / let’s->less M/N ending mixing: welcome->[wɛlkən] / can->cam / sun->some L at the end mispronounced as: doll->door / ball->bore or bowl / shell->share / fill or Feel->fear / hill or Heel-> here or hear / tool->tour Sound omission - outside->[aʊˈsaɪd] / short ->shot / homework ->home walk / Chinese ->[ʧaɪˈiːz] Adding extra R at the end - Delicious -> [dɪˈlɪʃərs ] / because ->[bɪˈkɔːrz] / they -> their “Eating” the last sound - five ->[faɪ] / nine ->[naɪ] / name ->[neɪ] / from ->[fro] Putting the stress on a wrong syllable: watermelon -> water me‘lon Splitting the word: cre‘ate(d) Not splitting two words: is the ->isthe [iðː]/ better Understanding ->[bætʌndəˈstændɪŋ] Others…mispronounced as: here-hair / Sheet-sh[ɪ]t (sorry) / vegetables-veggie tables. I believe right pronunciation should be input, reinforced and worked on right at the beginning when the word was presented to a student or whoever is concerned, or a mispronunciation detected without referring to any excuses, unless of course it is a serious matter of logopathy/pathology. Otherwise, we will experience much bigger problem later on when trying to correct it once it has been fixed in mind for long and the tongue and mouth are used to be positioned or twisted in a certain way in order to produce a specific word, especially when adults are concerned. While there might be various good ways to solve the issue, such as word drilling (word “down” we could split for students in a following sequence and let them say it repeatedly: (un)-(aun)-(da)-(dau)-(daun) till their tongue gets used to uttering this unusual for them sound properly), or through rhymes and songs, I would strongly recommend the learning and usage of transcript along with the alphabet, just like they learn Pinyin when learning Chinese characters. In conclusion, I would suggest both teachers and any foreign language learners NOT TO SETTLE for those mistakes but point them out in a nice manner and correct them as soon as possible. Thus, the trend of making same common mistakes of commonly used words will be eradicated sooner with following generations not repeating the same mistakes over and over again.