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摘 要：在以英语作为第二门外语的课堂上，语音教学困难重重。这一现象不仅因为中英文之间存在着语音差异性，而且陕西关中一代的学生讲话时带有浓重的地方口音。那么怎样在英语语音教学中去引导学生规避这样的消极因素，又如何降低学生母语的负迁移作用值得探究。本文将从中英文语音的差异和母语的迁移出发，结合教学实例去探究学生的三组问题发音。
关键词：英语语音教学；问题发音；语言的迁移
中图分类号：G633.41 文献标识码： A 文章编号：1992-7711（2015）16-055-01
We use language to communicate， but how can it expresses meaning？ Language is “a system of vocal sounds and combinations of such sounds to which meaning is attributed”. If there are some incorrect or improper sounds in the language， the misunderstanding must occur.
Here is a story about this kind of misunderstanding. One day， two friends met in the street. One asked： “Hi， where are you going？” the other answered： “I am going to hospital to die.” （In fact， he said： “I’m going to hospital today”）.
Obviously， this story suggests that incorrect or improper sounds in the language surely affect the meaning of the language. But how it occurred？ In Australian English，[ei]sounds quite like[ai]. Therefore， “day” sounds like “die”.The reason why this problem occurs should be the negative transfer of L1. Rod Ellis found that in the case of similarities between the L1 and L2 is functioned positively， while in the case of differences it functioned negatively.
For my students who are from the middle of Shaanxi Province， their pronunciations are influenced negatively or positively by their L1. Some problems will be discussed below.
ⅰ. Problematic sounds：[e]and [ ]
Students always get confused in pronouncing[e]and [ ] . So they can’t correctly read “bed” and “bad”. They always mix them up during the dictation. The reason why they are confused in these two sounds is negative transfer， because Chinese Mandarin doesn’t contain any similar sounds as [e]and [ ].
On the other hand， my students are live in the middle of Shaanxi Province. Their dialect also effects ways to pronounce [e]and [ ]. When they pronounce [e]， their alveolar ridges are opened a lot. While pronouncing [ ]， the alveolar ridges are little opened. It makes them feel no difference between[e]and [ ].
ⅱ. Problematic sounds： [v] and [w]
Students can’t pronounce [v] correctly. They always pronounce [w] instead. For instance， they may read“five” as [fa’w]. No matter letter v is in the beginning or end of a word， they would pronounce [v] as [w]. Even when [v] is in the middle of a word， such as “every”， they may read like [ewri]. But it is strange that they never pronounce “walk” [w lk] as [v lk]. Why don’t they mix [v] and [w] up？ For a couple of days’ observation， I’ve found the reason. In Chinese， there is a similar sound like [w]. For example：我wǒ，外wɑī.
Students feel more familiar with [w] when they pronounce English words. According to positive transfer， it is easy to explain why students can pronounce [w] correctly in every English word. On the contrary， there is no similar sound like [v] in Chinese. So student can’t read some words containing [v] properly.
ⅲ. Problematic sounds： [a’ ] ， [ ’]…
Students feel difficult to read “boy”， “lion”， and so on. They couldn’t pronounce [ ’]， [a’ ]， correctly and smoothly. These sounds have some things in common – they all contain at least two vowels in their syllables. However， students may feel easily to pronounce CV or CVC， such as to [tu：] or bit [bit].
It’s hard to read when there are two or three vowels in a syllable. Because in Chinese， most of the syllables are made by combining a Initial and a Final， for instance挖wā. Only a few syllable are ended with two Finals， as外wɑì.
To correct students’ problematic sounds which are as the results of negative transfer， Jeremy Harmer refers “the teacher’s job is to point out when something has gone wrong – and see if the student can correct herself or himself.” Moreover I’ve found some effective ways to deal with the problematic sounds.
Firstly， students have to know the ways to pronounce[e]and [ ]. George Yule suggests that [e]is a mid front short vowel， while [ ] is a low front short vowel. The difference is the height of tongue raising. The tongue must be raises higher when[e]is pronounced. This point would help students distinguish the ways to make the two sounds.
Secondly， some linguists have found that the sound “叶” in Guangzhong Dialect is much more similar with[e]. So before students pronounce [e]， let them think about the shape of mouth when the say“叶”，then using the shape of mouth to pronounce[e]must be better.
Finally， I prefer to use the Sign Language during teaching pronunciation. I use the “victory” sign to remind students of pronouncing [v]. And I usually put two fingers in front of the mouth pronouncing [ ]. When students see these signs， they may know how to correct their mistakes.
[Reference]
[1] Hu Zhuanglin. Linguistics. A Course Book. 北京大学出版社.2001
[2] Rod Ellis. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. 上海外语教育出版社. 1999
[3] George Yule. The Study of Language. 2000
[4] Jeremy Harmer. How to Teach English. 2000
[5] 李嘉、 惠宁编.英语语音问答.陕西人民出版社，1980.
关键词：英语语音教学；问题发音；语言的迁移
中图分类号：G633.41 文献标识码： A 文章编号：1992-7711（2015）16-055-01
We use language to communicate， but how can it expresses meaning？ Language is “a system of vocal sounds and combinations of such sounds to which meaning is attributed”. If there are some incorrect or improper sounds in the language， the misunderstanding must occur.
Here is a story about this kind of misunderstanding. One day， two friends met in the street. One asked： “Hi， where are you going？” the other answered： “I am going to hospital to die.” （In fact， he said： “I’m going to hospital today”）.
Obviously， this story suggests that incorrect or improper sounds in the language surely affect the meaning of the language. But how it occurred？ In Australian English，[ei]sounds quite like[ai]. Therefore， “day” sounds like “die”.The reason why this problem occurs should be the negative transfer of L1. Rod Ellis found that in the case of similarities between the L1 and L2 is functioned positively， while in the case of differences it functioned negatively.
For my students who are from the middle of Shaanxi Province， their pronunciations are influenced negatively or positively by their L1. Some problems will be discussed below.
ⅰ. Problematic sounds：[e]and [ ]
Students always get confused in pronouncing[e]and [ ] . So they can’t correctly read “bed” and “bad”. They always mix them up during the dictation. The reason why they are confused in these two sounds is negative transfer， because Chinese Mandarin doesn’t contain any similar sounds as [e]and [ ].
On the other hand， my students are live in the middle of Shaanxi Province. Their dialect also effects ways to pronounce [e]and [ ]. When they pronounce [e]， their alveolar ridges are opened a lot. While pronouncing [ ]， the alveolar ridges are little opened. It makes them feel no difference between[e]and [ ].
ⅱ. Problematic sounds： [v] and [w]
Students can’t pronounce [v] correctly. They always pronounce [w] instead. For instance， they may read“five” as [fa’w]. No matter letter v is in the beginning or end of a word， they would pronounce [v] as [w]. Even when [v] is in the middle of a word， such as “every”， they may read like [ewri]. But it is strange that they never pronounce “walk” [w lk] as [v lk]. Why don’t they mix [v] and [w] up？ For a couple of days’ observation， I’ve found the reason. In Chinese， there is a similar sound like [w]. For example：我wǒ，外wɑī.
Students feel more familiar with [w] when they pronounce English words. According to positive transfer， it is easy to explain why students can pronounce [w] correctly in every English word. On the contrary， there is no similar sound like [v] in Chinese. So student can’t read some words containing [v] properly.
ⅲ. Problematic sounds： [a’ ] ， [ ’]…
Students feel difficult to read “boy”， “lion”， and so on. They couldn’t pronounce [ ’]， [a’ ]， correctly and smoothly. These sounds have some things in common – they all contain at least two vowels in their syllables. However， students may feel easily to pronounce CV or CVC， such as to [tu：] or bit [bit].
It’s hard to read when there are two or three vowels in a syllable. Because in Chinese， most of the syllables are made by combining a Initial and a Final， for instance挖wā. Only a few syllable are ended with two Finals， as外wɑì.
To correct students’ problematic sounds which are as the results of negative transfer， Jeremy Harmer refers “the teacher’s job is to point out when something has gone wrong – and see if the student can correct herself or himself.” Moreover I’ve found some effective ways to deal with the problematic sounds.
Firstly， students have to know the ways to pronounce[e]and [ ]. George Yule suggests that [e]is a mid front short vowel， while [ ] is a low front short vowel. The difference is the height of tongue raising. The tongue must be raises higher when[e]is pronounced. This point would help students distinguish the ways to make the two sounds.
Secondly， some linguists have found that the sound “叶” in Guangzhong Dialect is much more similar with[e]. So before students pronounce [e]， let them think about the shape of mouth when the say“叶”，then using the shape of mouth to pronounce[e]must be better.
Finally， I prefer to use the Sign Language during teaching pronunciation. I use the “victory” sign to remind students of pronouncing [v]. And I usually put two fingers in front of the mouth pronouncing [ ]. When students see these signs， they may know how to correct their mistakes.
[Reference]
[1] Hu Zhuanglin. Linguistics. A Course Book. 北京大学出版社.2001
[2] Rod Ellis. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. 上海外语教育出版社. 1999
[3] George Yule. The Study of Language. 2000
[4] Jeremy Harmer. How to Teach English. 2000
[5] 李嘉、 惠宁编.英语语音问答.陕西人民出版社，1980.