The Negative Transfer of Shaanxi Dialects on Students’ English Pronunciation

Zhang+Rong

【Abstract】All dialects have more or less influence on speakers English pronunciation. This kind of influence is mainly negative transfer. Its necessary to find some of the problems and try to solve them， which will benefit speakers in improving their pronunciations. In this following thesis， problems that mainly occur in Shaanxi dialects when some of the students in Grade Two of Wei Cheng Senior School are asked to pronounce some of the phonetics， which really shows some critical problems and this research is aimed to find appropriate solutions to solving the problems.

【Key words】dialects； phonetics； pronunciation； problems； negative transfer； solutions

I. Introduction

Negative transfer is a psychological term which refers to the interference of the previous knowledge with new learning. In this thesis， the negative transfer of our Chinese – our first language to our second language –English has been demonstrated by means of doing an experiment. In order to find some of the influence of Chinese especially Shaanxi dialects on English pronunciation and solve them as well as improve the students pronunciation， some research is done and the problems are recorded. Hope to arouse the attention from non-native speakers and avoid the negative transfer from dialects.

The author chose seven groups of words， including 1） do， to； 2） know， low； 3） forbid， sake； 4） envy， view； 5） sympathy， those；6） name， and； 7） library， fill.

The reason for choosing these words is that the students have some problems in pronouncing some of them and other words， here just show some examples to illustrate the problems.

II. Research & Analysis

The school is a medium-sized one in the centre of the city of Xian Yang， where the majority of students live in their homes， not in the dormitories at school. That is to say， almost 90% of students are from urban areas and a few of them have local dialects， in such counties as Xunyi county， Chunhua county and Qianxian county and Liquan county. Four of the students who have local dialects from the class the author teaches and four from other classes.

The first group of words： do， too. Three in eight pronounced [??] instead of [u：]， because they always pronounce 土豆（tǒu dòu） rather than（tǔ dòu）， 祖母（zǒu mǔ）rather than （zǔ mǔ）， the other five are perfect in pronouncing the words.

The second group of words： know， low. Two students from Qianxian county and Liquan county pronounced [ l??] twice， because they mix up [l] and [n]. They pronounced [nán qiú] rather than [Lán qiú]， ； noodles [lu：dlz] instead of [nu：dlz]； [lǎo zi] ， not [nǎo zi]， etc. because their parents， relatives and classmates even teachers around them all speak like that.

The third group of words： forbid， sake. All the eight students pronounced [i] and [ei] in the same way. They cannot recognize the distinction between the two completely different vowels. Besides， they pronounced the two sounds using a kind of vowel between [i] and [ei].They ignore the extent to which mouths should open when pronouncing English words； meanwhile， they have no idea what is monophthong and what is a diphthong， not to mention use correct phonetics .

The fourth group of words： envy， view. Three out of eight pronounced [‘ enw?] and[wju：] instead of [‘env?] and [vju：]， because they do not know this [v] is a fricative and they should use upper teeth to touch the lower lip and cause them to have a motion of rubbing， then they can pronounce the fricative sound correctly. After my explaining， the students know how to pronounce the kind of words， which made me feel a sense of achievement. But I also find if they are asked to read a long sentence containing some words， in which there are [v] and [w]， they will feel confused about the correct sounds if they read quickly， so I told them to read slowly if they meet such phonetics and they will not have mistakes.

The fifth group of words： sympathy， those. All the students， not only the ones chosen， but also in daily teaching， almost 99 percent of students pronounce [ s ] and [z] when they meet the two dentals [θ] and [?] . They always pronounce “think” and “sink” in a completely same way， never knowing the dentals are formed with the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth. So after explanation， the students can pronounce them correctly.

The sixth group of words： name， and. In fact， two words are put in a sentence Whats your name and how old are you？ The students are asked to read the sentence and the pronunciation of the three words name， and ， old are focused. The students always add [u] to such words as name， rhyme， fame， same and so on. Also， they add [?] to such words as and， made， wood， good， stand， kind and so on. So， the words can present the problems students have in pronouncing them. They are not accustomed to the consonant ends of the English words， and they always add what they think is appropriate vowels to the end of the words containing consonants.

The seventh group of words： library， fill. All the students selected pronounced the consonant[l] in the word library correctly as it is followed by a vowel. However， in the word fill， the students pronounced [l] as [?u]， they dont know how to pronounce the lateral sound， not to mention roll their tongues. Its difficult for students to pronounce it in a right way because they havent mastered the skill of pronouncing the lateral sound. If they are taught where to put their tongues and teethe in a correct way， they can overcome the difficulties.

Actually， in daily teaching， the most serious mistake the students make in pronouncing English words is the stressed syllable. For example， they always pronounce the word “refer” as [ˊrif ?] instead of [riˊf ?：]， leading to false forms of past tense “refered” rather than “referred”. Another example， they always pronounce the word “control” as [ˊk?ntr?ul] instead of [k ?nˊtr?ul]. Not only these two words， but also many words are pronounced in this way. As a result， students often find they have difficulty listening to others.

III. Solutions to Problems Caused by the Negative Transfer

Having researched on the negative transfer of Shaanxi dialects to English sounds， some problems are found. What effective measures can be taken to improve the students pronunciation？ Some solutions are as follows：

First， stress the importance of phonetics and consolidate the foundation of phonetics knowledge. Its necessary for the English teachers to teach students the systematic knowledge of phonetics and syllable from primary schools， which not only helps students to form a good habit of remembering English vocabulary， but also is beneficial to their listening and speaking skills. Second， teachers should encourage the students to compare the English phonetics with Chinese Pinyin and find some difference between the two. Meanwhile， the teachers themselves should pay attention to their own pronunciation. Besides， the teachers cannot laugh at the students strange pronunciation， nor do allow other students to laugh at the students who may come from rural areas with obvious local dialects. Instead， the teachers should encourage and help them to analyze the problems they have and try to find effective solutions to avoiding the negative effect from local dialects. Third， offer various activities such as telling stories and jokes， singing English songs to make students have opportunities to practice speaking English and form a good habit of pronouncing. In addition， the atmosphere is also important for students to dare open their mouths to speak. All these will arouse the students interest in speaking English and motivate their desire to improve their pronunciation.

IV. Conclusion

The skills of listening and speaking are playing a more and more important role in modern society， and English phonetics is the basis of oral communication， so English phonetics teaching or education is vital to grasping and improving the skills. Not only college students should have major class in phonetics but middle school students even the primary school students should have a good command of systematic knowledge of phonetics and syllable and stress， which helps the students correct their false pronunciations and bad habits of speaking English to lay a foundation to their future study， work and communication， at the same time promoting the other subjects in English. In this thesis， some problems that the students have in pronouncing specially selected words have been found and analyzed why this happened from an angle of point of view that is caused by the negative transfer of Shaanxi dialects to English pronunciation. In the meanwhile， some effective measures to be taken to correct false pronunciations and practical solutions to improving the students knowledge of phonetics have been put forward.

References：

[1]The Transfer of Shaanxi Dialects to Acquisition of English Phonetics- Zhang Lu，Tian Li，ENGLISH ON CAMPUS，2015（11）.

[2]How to Solve The Problems Students Encounter In Learning Phonetics –Hou Jiecheng，QUN WEN TIAN DI，2011（7）.

[3]Sounding southern：phonetic features and dialect perceptions–Rachael Allbritten，M.S，Thesis of Doctor of Philosophy，Apr.9， 2011.

[4]Contrastive study of focus phonetic realization between Jinan dialect and Taiyuan dialect-Duan Wenjun，Jia Yuan，Nan Kai University，2015.

[5]The study of language – George Yule，Cambridge Press 1985， 1996.