Chinese Language Pronunciation In English

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences A language is a tool for people to communicate, so there must be some connections among different languages, include similarities and differences. If we can use their similarities properly and pay attention to differences, different languages can be interlinked. Therefore, the first language not only has a positive impact but also hurts second language acquisition. We call these effects ‘language transfer’. There are two kinds of language transfer, positive transfer, and negative transfer. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tiffany C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. If the first language has a good impact on second...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Most researchers agree that the learner’s first language influences the pronunciation of the target language and is a significant factor in accounting for foreign accents. So-called interference or interference from the first language is likely to cause errors in aspiration, stress, and intonation in the target language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Vesna A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Some Chinese students tend to have difficulty with English sounds because they are deeply influenced by similar Chinese sounds. However, they are very different from each other. A particular sound which does not exist in the native...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences During nine years of teaching English as a Second language, I have discovered how important phonetics is in learning the correct pronunciation of the English language, and in fact, in any language. Derwing and Munro (2005) emphasize, “It is essential to have an accurate understanding of the target language phonological system to enhance the quality of pronunciation". This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mark B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. A vast majority of language books are aimed at L2 learners from all over the world and don’t necessarily cater to the “localized” needs of a particular country. These books...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I came to China 4 years ago to teach English. I have not managed to learn Mandarin in that time frame but I did learn quite a bit about the differences in pronunciation between Mandarin and American English. The most common errors made by Chinese students generally come from the habit of translating to their native language. English and Mandarin share some similarities such as word order and sentence structure which also complicate the issue. In this essay, I will discuss teaching pronunciation, the problems that can occur when teaching pronunciations, and the issues that occur with Mandarin speakers learning English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Paris S. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Every learner of a foreign language may face pronunciation problems now and then. Languages that belong to one language group have more in common in phonics and are usually easier to learn to pronounce correctly. But such languages as English and Chinese are so different, that Chinese learners (and I bet English speaking learners of Chinese too) often have many difficulties in pronunciation. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Evgeniya S. I have been working in China as a teacher for more than six months now. When I arrived in this country, I hardly knew several words in Mandarin. I was hoping that won’t be a problem, as I had traveled a lot before, and my English knowledge had always...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As an aspirant teaching English to Chinese children, I chose ‘Pronunciation problems of Chinese people’ as the most attractive and the most useful topic for my summative task at this moment. As resources of this joyful and useful research on the internet, I have used three videos on Youtube made by the three experienced teachers of the English language. Only one of them works with children. And only one of them (accent coach from London, Luke Nicholson) gave a lot of live examples of the flaws in pronunciation that Chinese people, in general, make when speaking English, by showing the interviews with the Chinese actor Jackie Chan who sometimes manages to confuse his experienced interviewers. This post was...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences The following blog post is about an ITTT graduate who shares his story on how learning Chinese helped him to become a better English teacher in China. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joseph S. A common saying imparted to me by one of my professors goes like this: "What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks only one language? American." I have found this to be extremely true for the majority of cases, and, as a young student, it spurred me to want to learn as much of other languages as I possibly could. I grew up in a monolingual home, however, as a child, I spent much of...  [Read more]

William Noble Destinations Teaching Ideas I have been an online ESL teacher to Chinese students for over 13 years, mostly with primary students but also with secondary and adult students. I am also a father and have homeschooled my daughter over her primary years. Like many teachers, I’ve enjoyed teaching at this level of education as it lays the foundation in English. As it set the foundation, my teaching helped students to overcome common errors in production skills, speaking and writing. Teaching both my daughter and Chinese students at the primary level also helped me also to understand the different expectations between first language and second language students. Since English is very different from China, many Chinese...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences What’s the most difficult part of learning a new language? Is it writing? Perhaps it’s the reading or memorizing new vocabulary? Well for some it’s speaking the new language, specifically when it comes to pronunciation. Every language has its unique ways or pronouncing their vowels and constants as well as how they form their sentence structure. Especially this write up will focus on Japanese English as a Second Language (ESL) students and the difficulties they face while learning English and its pronunciation. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Zachary B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First, it helps to understand a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is one of the most widely spoken languages and it is taught in a lot of countries. Globalization, fast economic development makes many people study English. People learn English for different reasons: business, education, life abroad, traveling, personal interest. Chinese students are not an exception. With the growing economies of China, the need for learning English increased dramatically. What challenges do Chinese students face when learning English? What challenges does the teacher meet teaching Chinese students? What teaching approach can be found? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Darya M. Let’s talk about the most typical challenges when teaching Chinese learners and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching English in China has become very popular for ESL teachers and many are looking for job opportunities in China. Finding a teaching job in China isn’t too hard but working with Chinese students can be quite challenging. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate VIKTORIIA H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Chinese grammar is very different from English and many Chinese students try to copy the grammar rules of their native language and apply them to English. As a result, they form awkward sentences that are difficult to understand. They struggle to use gerunds and articles as these parts of speech do not exist in Mandarin....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Most teachers come to China to teach English with only a general idea about Chinese culture and language which they should have to deal with as soon as they arrive in China. The reason I chose this topic is that I am fluent in Chinese and have experienced Chinese culture in all its facets for over than seven years. But let’s not beat around the bush and get down to the nitty-gritty. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ruben M. Chinese people often seem to be shy or introverted, especially in front of foreigners or in the classroom. However, they are not always. Chinese society is built on 关系 Guanxi, which means “relationship(s)” and can be described as any kind of connection...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences It is generally agreed that education is one of the most important issues in every country these days and China is no exception. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ekaterina G. It’s a well-known fact that China is the most populated country in the world with a long and mysterious history, rich and varied culture. China recognizes 55 ethnic minority groups within the country in addition to the Han majority. Standard Mandarin is the only official language, though there are more than 200 hundred living languages spoken all over the country. While being China’s capital, political and cultural center, Beijing is also known as a melting pot where you can meet the representative of almost each...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas After China adopted the Open Door Policy, the English language not only gained popularity but also became indispensable in international communication and trade. It was introduced in public schools as an obligatory foreign language and English teaching centers started spreading across the country. Even though Chinese people approach learning English with a great dose of enthusiasm, it poses several challenges, both linguistic and cultural. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Weronika S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Chinese language (Mandarin) is an example of Sino-Tibetan language, whereas English belongs to the Indo-European...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Throughout the world, different countries have difficulty pronouncing other sounds from different languages. For many native English speakers learning Mandarin, pronouncing the “x”, “sh”, “q”, “ch”, and “z” sounds are not easy obstacles to overcome. Based on my own experience it takes plenty of repetition to master how to pronounce each of these sounds. Chinese students have a similar problem when trying to pronounce certain sounds in English. The three sounds that come to mind are “th”, “v” and the difference between “r” and “l”. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jonathan A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences In this blog post, I plan to examine why English may be such a challenging language for Chinese speakers to master, namely in comparison to their European peers. For the purpose of this examination, I will focus on four main aspects, from quite glaring differences to other aspects that some may not initially consider: written language, grammar, vocabulary, and language exposure. These points are drawn from my own experience of living and teaching English in China, from learning Chinese myself and from conversations with my students. I will be focusing on those who have not had experience in learning other languages before English, as I feel this constitutes the largest proportion of Chinese learners. This by no...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Learning a second language can be difficult, and this is especially true when the learners L1 and their target language are completely different in structure, sound, and tones. An English as a second language student who speaks French, German, or any other European language will have an easier task than one who speaks a language that is not of European origins. One such language is Mandarin Chinese. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ashley L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The areas that native Mandarin speakers most often run into difficulty are pronunciation, tones, tenses, and sentence structure. A Chinese speaker might...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas A multilingual class is a class where the learners speak a variety of first languages. A monolingual class is a class where all the learners speak the same first language. I have been working in international school setting for over 13 years. The classes are multilingual classes where students come from different cultures and English is the common language for them to communicate with their teachers and classmates. By contrast, English classes in local schools and universities in China are considered to be monolingual classes since the students use their first language, Chinese, to communicate. The teacher has to remind them to not use their mother tongue constantly during class...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The following essay is a summative task for my TEFL certification course. I have chosen the topic ”Problems for learners in a country of your choice” and the country of focus is China. In the essay, I would like to answer the question “How to help Chinese learners improve their conversation skills?” This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nastja S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The reason for choosing this topic and this title in particular is that while living in China I have come across many Chinese who are learning English tell me how they have been studying the language for a long time but still don’t feel confident...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Japan is a country with a long history, deep tradition, and vibrant culture. Within this culture sits the Japanese language. At first, being a spoken language and then adopting the Chinese Writing System, Japanese has grown and changed into what it is today. If you look at all languages, most Western languages originate from a set family, such as Romance Languages (which became today’s Spanish, French, Italian, etc). But Japanese (as most Asian languages) was formed from entirely different roots. These fundamental differences mean that the method of learning these languages has a lot to do with memorization and repetitive practice of the Chinese symbols and the words they represent. Which means it is...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Learning a foreign language in any part of the world is a demanding task which requires dedication and long-term commitment. It, however, can be particularly difficult for Chinese students. From a completely different alphabet to the lack of professional foreign expert training due to a high demand, Chinese students face a number of problems in learning the English language. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Dovydas Z. In recent years, increasing competition among Chinese students has transformed learning English from an optional to a required course. In spite of this, the traditional teaching methodology applied at local educational institutions has, for the most part, remained the same. Due to a large...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas I am a lifelong ESL student myself. Every day I am learning something new from the books, from the things around me, and my students. For the last few years, I've been teaching the English language here in China, which is why I chose this topic. China is a great country with beautiful sceneries and very hard-working, enthusiastic, and friendly people. Learning any language is not an easy job. It requires patience, practice, and of course, a desire. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Buned S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Chinese students are swift at...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas China is one of the leading countries in the world that has been in the search and quest to learn the English language. In recent years the demand to learn English has been on a rise. Every school tries to have a teacher who can teach the language to the learners. However, in this process of learning, many learners encounter a series of problems which make the language learning process not an easy task both for teachers and students. However, we are going to be looking at very common problems students learning English as a foreign language face in China. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Shey Violette B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over the decades, the English language has reached the status of a global language and is commonly known as the lingua franca around the world. It has become one of the most widely spoken language as a mother tongue, international communication as well as language taught in millions of schools around the globe. The use of the English language is widespread in many sectors in the global market as many organizations begin to adopt the language as an official language. In the economic world, the language plays a significant role in international trade/business between two of the most powerful global economic powerhouse mainly the United States of America and China. This post was written by our TEFL certification...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sheneil J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Chinese does not have either of the “th” sounds (like “that” and “this”). Most other languages do not have these sounds and they are problematic for most learners of English. The difficulty is the point of articulation- the tongue has to be between the teeth, not behind them. Many people say that English speakers look like they’re sticking their tongues out all the time because of the “th” sounds. It can be difficult to get learners to do this because it violates a cultural proscription against sticking out one’s tongue. Confusion...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In recent years, the most popular destination for EFL teachers all over the world has been China. China is the country welcoming many foreign teachers, native and non-native, and is probably the country with the most rapid development of the English teaching industry. Online teaching has become just as important as face to face teaching and has been a teacher for an online company for a long time, I have experienced a variety of students, levels, and groups. Therefore, in this essay, I will write about the most common problems Chinese students face and some ways of dealing with them. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Aleksandra Đ. If you are ever in China, you will notice that you will...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Nowadays, English is becoming popular due to advanced technology and more people receiving higher education. That Goods, capital, services, people and even knowledge travels around the world make a common and standard language necessary. English is an ideal one. However, when people do business, they still talk most. A standard or conceivable accent is the first step towards a successful deal. This passage aims at emphasizing the importance of pronunciation in teaching business English. Generally speaking, teaching pronunciation specifically is good for students learning and career development. It is also good for teachers to earn more popularity as well as the long-term trust of students. This post was...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Language has always played an important role in communication between people. Today, in the globalization, the importance of mastering a foreign language has become increasingly prominent. English is the most widely used language in the world. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Xiao W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In the 21st century, English is not unfamiliar to us Chinese. In our life, we can find English everywhere with little attention. Most Chinese learn dumb English. Few people can communicate with foreigners without barriers. Some Western netizens can't help wondering why English is so difficult for Chinese to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Nowadays, more people are learning English. There are many private English-teaching companies like New Oriental, Meten, Wallstreetenglish and more. We can also find many public schools in countries like China that teach English from people’s childhood. This essay tries to make the potential of English clearer. As a result, people who are absolute beginners of English or who are going to teach those beginners will have a map and a compass in mind to refer to about the motivation for language learning on their way to the future. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Carpenter L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As we know,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The Chinese language is a tonal language can make learning English a real challenge for my students. The one thing I have on my side though is the fact that they are brought up to be dedicated at anything they do and hardworking. Although it's been mentioned that pronunciation is not the most important aspect of TEFL, it is to The Chinese Government. It’s something we’ve been told we need to cover deeply along with reading and comprehension. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Paula S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As just mentioned the Chinese language is tonal, meaning words with different “tones” which are like...  [Read more]